I truly enjoy discovering signs of new growth on all of my plants each spring. You may even call it obsessive. But after another nasty winter, it is confirmation that we’ve survived yet again and all will “be OK”. I approach it like detective work and get all fired up to find even a single leaf sprouting underneath dead foliage (which of course explains all of the photos you’ve seen here over the past month or so).

Well, I’m ready to move on to the next phase in my spring ventures outdoors. Foliage growth has exploded over the past week or so and blooms have quietly emerged as well. I like to think of this phase as “initial interplay amongst the plants and rocks.” Yes, I need to work on that phase name and come up with something a bit more catchy but this will have to work for now.

While I love my trees, my shrubs, my bulbs and my perennials on their own, it is how they mix and match with each other that really inspires. That interplay changes from season to season and even from week to week and I can’t get enough of it. So without further ado, I give you the photos I’ve taken over the past few days that show the first mingling of my plant friends:

Sedum ‘Red Carpet’ and Spirea ‘Little Elf’. The contrast in foliage shape and color works and I could care less if either ever blooms:

Heuchera ‘Black Out’ in front of Summer Snowflake bulbs. Once the blooms are finished on the bulbs and the foliage starts to decline, the Heuchera foliage will hide the ugliness:

Arborvitae and Viburnum ‘Shoshoni’. I love the contrast in foliage shape and how the color on the tips of the Arborvitae stands out upon closer inspection:

I am lucky (won’t hear that from me very much when it comes to the landscape conditions) to have unearthed a ton of unique rocks over the past few years. They are stellar counterparts to all of the plants because of their different texture. Here are some of those rocks and the emerging plants:

A sugar rush can be defined as :

The elevated energy level people have when they eat a lot of sugary products which is similar to the crazy, energetic behavior people get when they are taking illegal drugs.

Thank you Wiki Answers for that description. I had the pleasure of dealing with two of these type junkies this past weekend:

As with all photos, you don’t see the effort that went into setting up the shot. Trust me when I say it was like trying to herd cattle on ice skates.

But let me back track a bit.

We started the annual egg dying on Friday night and the kids were way into it:

Don’t ask. I had good intentions and as usual, it all went wrong. I have also passed on this lack of artistry to my son. Here’s his best egg:

At least he knows to lower the expectations so you don’t expect any more from him.

Sunday morning arrived and the kids found all the hidden Easter eggs and found their hidden baskets:    

And for one day, we let them have free reign over all of their candy. Truth is, they were sugar junkies starting on Friday and it never let up all the way through Sunday night. We’re still reeling from their insane energy and mood swings but we’re happy to have made it through another year.

We had warm weather and some sunshine on Sunday, and because that is as common as a good Jennifer Aniston movie (which we all need to discuss at a later date), I had to get outside and see what was going down. Here’s what I discovered:

All in all, a great weekend and I look forward to the new week and secretly disposing of all the candy without the kids even knowing it.

John  

Is there anything better than seeing a box like this appear on your front porch:

It’s that time of year for the spring deliveries here in zone 6 New Jersey where it is friggin cold today. But enough about me and my anger, I’ll show you what was inside this delicious box of wonderfulness.

Truth is, I am cutting down dramatically on my plant orders this year in an effort to save some cash and to not end up with plants stored throughout the yard and garage (you smell the BS too?).

Anyway, here is what was inside the box and what I hope they will look like in the not so distant future (you can link to the origin of the “after” photos by clicking on them):

Now to find a locale for each. Let the games begin!

John

I’m feeling like a bad dad today.

I had a few days off from work earlier this week and spent a good part of the time playing baseball outside with my son. We pretend to play against each other in the World Series and of course, he usually wins (I shouldn’t let him get too cocky though).

It is great father/son bonding time and I’m sure we’ll look back on these days fondly in the distant future … unless he can see right through me.

You see, I’m kind of a fraud. Our baseball diamond is on the driveway and a lot of the field is covered by my garden beds. I’m sure you know where I’m going already. To say I get distracted while we play is an understatement. Especially this time of year when plants are growing at a rapid pace.

Here’s a flavor of what went on so you can see bad parenting at it’s finest:

I throw a pitch and he hits it into one of the beds. I run after it in order to prevent him from getting a double and just for a second, I inspect the creeping phlox to see if there are any buds yet:              

Now I’m up at bat and I purposely throw the ball over his head so I have some time to see if there is any new growth on the Northern Sea Oats grasses:

As he starts to take a large lead, I call a “meeting” with one of my coaches so we can plan our next strategy. Truth is, the invisible coach and I are really looking at the awesome new foliage emerging on the Astilbe plants:  

I think he may be on to my true intentions so I ask him to get us some water in the house because the game is really heating up. Once out of sight, I drool at the rapid growth on the ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass:

Time for me to bear down as a pitcher. Time to concentrate and be serious. I stare in to the pretend catcher and my son is amused by my intensity. He’d laugh his butt off at me if he knew I was trying to determine where to transplant my Sambucus ‘Black Beauty’ which I hope survived the winter in a container outdoors:  

The score is tied in the ninth inning and I can feel my son’s confidence waning. Any good dad would help his son out. After he hits one deep into left field, I pretend to bobble the ball to let him hit a home run. As he rounds third base, I gasp for air not because I gave up the lead, but because I might have my first daffodil bloom of the year:    

After giving up the lead, I act frustrated and my son attempts to console me. What he really needs to do is remind me that once the purple sandcherry fully leafs out, it will truly hide all of the utilities:

When the game officially ends, I put my arm around him and give him a nice big bear hug. As we hug, I get a better view of the crabapple tree fully leafed out:

We head inside for celebratory ice cream and like the good sport I am, I volunteer to clean up all the equipment. And maybe ogle how green and lush the viburnum foliage is this time of year:    

Are you sickened by my insincerity? Will you ever come back here to read another post?

John  

I have no ability to design a room, how to furnish it or even how to determine what the focal point will be. But home boy likes color. Together, my wife and I do not take this design element lightly and that is exactly why it is a month later and we still haven’t picked out the color. Not for lack of effort however – we’ve looked at all of the color cards:  

Purchased numerous samples:

Analyzed the resulting samples once they were on the wall:

And still, we haven’t made a decision. But that’s OK. We have to get it right.

I am passionate about color and that really comes from the garden design experience. I know the power of complementary colors:

The appeal of companion colors:

Using contrasting textures:

• When it comes to color, I think the same practices apply and it isn’t all that different. Complementary vs. companion vs. lighting vs. mood. It really applies the same to both design types.
• When designing with color indoors, I find the choices to be overwhelming. Just walk into a paint store and you’re ready to give up as there are hundreds of options with just the slightest differences between color choices. When gardening, the color palette is a bit more limiting as the growing conditions will limit what colors are available. For example, it is difficult to find purple flowers that will work in shade. 
• When designing outdoors, plants evolve week to week and year to year and that has to be taken in to account. Take a look at the Joe Pye Weed below, as the blooms mature, the color changes and that has to be taken into account when creating the design:              

One of the benefits, or maybe the only benefit, of having relatively poor gardening conditions in my yard is that it makes it a lot easier with plant selection. When I am looking to add a new plant to my landscape I know there are three conditions that must be met:

1. Plant must prefer moist soil and/or can handle wet conditions
2. Plant must be deer and rabbit resistant
3. Plant must handle full sun 

I can push the limit on some of these and do just that because I refuse to give up on some of the plants that fall outside of the criteria above. Some times it works, other times it fails miserably.

Here in the Northeast US, native plant sale time is upon us and I love nothing more than mapping out my strategy as I read through the different native plant catalogs. My personal favorite is the native plant sale held each year at the Bowman’s Hill Wildlife Preserve in New Hope, PA. I have scored quite a lot from this sale over the years and I am starting to get all giddy as it approaches yet again.

I’ve already thoroughly reviewed their online plant listing and thought I’d share with you what is on my wish list this year. While the listing is long, it is easy for me to narrow down my potential choices knowing that I have very specific criteria I need to abide by.                              

On to the plants:

First, there are the plants I already own and want to add more to my collection. These have all performed well to date so we’re safe with these. They include:

And as always, there are the plants that I’ve never attempted before or admittedly, never even heard of before. I’ve narrowed the list down and here are some of the potential candidates:  

I would love any feedback any of you may have on any of these natives. While you’re doing that, I’ve got some more “googling” to do.

Thanks for stopping by
John

One of the MANY promises I made to myself this winter was to be more “experimental” this gardening season. Take some chances, be a little fearless and make sure to document the results through “before” and “after” photos.

Well, today was the day I put my big boy underwear on, grabbed my pruner and started the experimental … um … experiment.

Before I get into things, I have to first share an article/blog post I read this past weekend that was a huge inspiration for what I accomplished today. Noted author, Nancy Ondra, wrote an incredibly in depth piece on cut-back shrubs which you can read here. It is filled with amazing photos and detailed “how-to’s”.             

So, today’s victim subject was Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’:

I have three of these and decided to prune one severely:

Before

After

Selectively pruned another:

Before

After

And left one as is:

It felt good to get outside and in the dirt and to have the pruners in hand once again. And it felt invigorating to play around with varying pruning techniques. I will be watching each of these shrubs intently over the next few months and will be sure to share the results along the way.

I may have sacrificed these in the name of experimentation:

But ultimately, I am after the beautiful foliage color these offered when they were a bit younger:

Let the fun begin!
John