Just taking a break from our planning theme today to talk briefly about women's heart health.
The statistics are pretty clear: One in three women will die of heart disease. One in thirty will die of breast cancer, and yet breast cancer seems to be all we hear about.
Take care of your heart first, ladies, then don't forget to schedule your mammograms. Healthy breasts mean nothing if your heart is failing. Exercise, eat right, watch your weight.
Best thing about gardening? It's exercise that doesn't feel like exercise! Plus, fresh veggies!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Hardscaping and Building Walls
The next step in planning your garden design is to plan the hardscaping. What is hardscaping? It's everything in your garden that doesn't grow. Plantings are not included in this step, just walls and paths and trellises and fences, and anything else that's hard or at least semi-fixed. (Don't include planting containers in this step. We'll get to those later).
You need to plan the hardscaping now for two reason:
1. Unlike plants, it won't grow or change with the seasons, and is often permanently fixed in place. It is therefore less flexible than the plants that will be growing around it and needs to be carefully planned.
2. The hardscaping defines the boundaries of your garden rooms and determines where the plantings will be located.
I want my east side garden feel like one room, distinct from the rest of the garden, but still open to it. The western 'wall' of this room is going to be the side of the house itself, although there will be shrubs and other plantings growing along it which will eventually soften the wall. The eastern wall will be a shrubbery hedge, so no hard fence needs to be installed there. The northern and southern walls are going to be defined by 'doors' that lead in and out of the room and are themselves defined by gate posts. I will not be including actual doors, because I don't want the area to feel closed off. Instead at each end of the garden I'm going to plant two fencepost, each about 4' tall and 4' apart. They will be topped with decorative finials which I haven't found, yet, but I will be shopping on-line and in my local stores until I find something I like.
In defining the entry to the side yard, the gate posts will also provide structure to the garden room. Other options besides fenceposts would have been arbors or actual gates. I don't want to mess around with hanging gates gates and I don't want the expense of hiring someone to do it or me. When it comes to arbors, because of how long and narrow the space is going to be, I didn't want to visually close it off as much as arbor would have done.
Once the posts are in place I will add my second bit of hardscaping: horseshoe game pits. One of the reasons I want to renovate my side garden is because, as it is now, it serves mainly as a featureless passageway between the front and back gardens. I want it to be more than that. I want it to be a destination. Adding a game or activity is one way to get people to stop and linger. Since the space is about 40' x 16' (and will seem even narrower after the plantings are done) there were very few active, outdoor games that I could design it for. The two that came to mind were archery and horseshoes, and since archery is illegal inside the city limits, horseshoes was the winner. I will be talking more about the design of the pits when I install them in the spring.
The next bit of hardscaping I'm going to put in are trellises along the wall of my house. The way my house is constructed, there are very few windows on the east side, only three to be exact, so there are sections of the wall that are large expanses of windowless red. I'm going to put trellises in to break that expanse up a bit. The trellises won't expand the entire length of the wall or else I'll just be exchanging one kind of monotonous expanse for another. Nor will they be as tall as the wall. Instead they will bring the wall down to human height. Again, I will talk more about these in the spring.
The last bit of hardscaping I'm going to add are edgings along the planting beds, and I've decided to go with straight lines of cedar or pressure treated lumber sunk a few inches into the ground. I've tried other kinds of edging, and I've never really been happy with any of them. I've tried rocks, which have the advantage of being available free at my parents farm, but the uneven edge makes edging the beds difficult and time consuming. I don't like a lot of the other edgings available on the market because they are either a. too expensive, or b. not very pretty. The boards will also go well with my rustic style and will compliment the wooden posts, plus I find that wood, especially once it has weathered to grey, adds structure to the garden without drawing attention away from the plants.
Another option, of course, would be to use no kind of artificial edging at all and to keep the lawn from invading the planting beds by simply cutting it back from time to time, but that's more work, and I really do like my planting beds clearly delineated.
There are other bits of hardscaping that I could have added, such as paved paths, but I decided that with the horseshoes game, keeping the path grass might be better, at least easier on the equipment. There are also other 'hard' pieces that I will be adding later, such as containers, birdbaths, and something to store my garden hose. These, though, are too portable to be considered at this point, and the placing of them will be determined at a later time.
Now, take some time to consider your own design. How are you going to define the 'walls' of your garden room? Are you going to use plants or will you be building a fence? Will there be a path? Will it be paved? Is there a place for an arbor or a trellis? How will you edge your planting beds? Is there a piece of garden art that you want to particularly showcase? Look at some magazines and pictures on line to get ideas. Give it some thought and when you have made your decisions, be sure to write them down or draw them up so you don't forget come spring.
You need to plan the hardscaping now for two reason:
1. Unlike plants, it won't grow or change with the seasons, and is often permanently fixed in place. It is therefore less flexible than the plants that will be growing around it and needs to be carefully planned.
2. The hardscaping defines the boundaries of your garden rooms and determines where the plantings will be located.
I want my east side garden feel like one room, distinct from the rest of the garden, but still open to it. The western 'wall' of this room is going to be the side of the house itself, although there will be shrubs and other plantings growing along it which will eventually soften the wall. The eastern wall will be a shrubbery hedge, so no hard fence needs to be installed there. The northern and southern walls are going to be defined by 'doors' that lead in and out of the room and are themselves defined by gate posts. I will not be including actual doors, because I don't want the area to feel closed off. Instead at each end of the garden I'm going to plant two fencepost, each about 4' tall and 4' apart. They will be topped with decorative finials which I haven't found, yet, but I will be shopping on-line and in my local stores until I find something I like.
In defining the entry to the side yard, the gate posts will also provide structure to the garden room. Other options besides fenceposts would have been arbors or actual gates. I don't want to mess around with hanging gates gates and I don't want the expense of hiring someone to do it or me. When it comes to arbors, because of how long and narrow the space is going to be, I didn't want to visually close it off as much as arbor would have done.
Once the posts are in place I will add my second bit of hardscaping: horseshoe game pits. One of the reasons I want to renovate my side garden is because, as it is now, it serves mainly as a featureless passageway between the front and back gardens. I want it to be more than that. I want it to be a destination. Adding a game or activity is one way to get people to stop and linger. Since the space is about 40' x 16' (and will seem even narrower after the plantings are done) there were very few active, outdoor games that I could design it for. The two that came to mind were archery and horseshoes, and since archery is illegal inside the city limits, horseshoes was the winner. I will be talking more about the design of the pits when I install them in the spring.
The next bit of hardscaping I'm going to put in are trellises along the wall of my house. The way my house is constructed, there are very few windows on the east side, only three to be exact, so there are sections of the wall that are large expanses of windowless red. I'm going to put trellises in to break that expanse up a bit. The trellises won't expand the entire length of the wall or else I'll just be exchanging one kind of monotonous expanse for another. Nor will they be as tall as the wall. Instead they will bring the wall down to human height. Again, I will talk more about these in the spring.
The last bit of hardscaping I'm going to add are edgings along the planting beds, and I've decided to go with straight lines of cedar or pressure treated lumber sunk a few inches into the ground. I've tried other kinds of edging, and I've never really been happy with any of them. I've tried rocks, which have the advantage of being available free at my parents farm, but the uneven edge makes edging the beds difficult and time consuming. I don't like a lot of the other edgings available on the market because they are either a. too expensive, or b. not very pretty. The boards will also go well with my rustic style and will compliment the wooden posts, plus I find that wood, especially once it has weathered to grey, adds structure to the garden without drawing attention away from the plants.
Another option, of course, would be to use no kind of artificial edging at all and to keep the lawn from invading the planting beds by simply cutting it back from time to time, but that's more work, and I really do like my planting beds clearly delineated.
There are other bits of hardscaping that I could have added, such as paved paths, but I decided that with the horseshoes game, keeping the path grass might be better, at least easier on the equipment. There are also other 'hard' pieces that I will be adding later, such as containers, birdbaths, and something to store my garden hose. These, though, are too portable to be considered at this point, and the placing of them will be determined at a later time.
Now, take some time to consider your own design. How are you going to define the 'walls' of your garden room? Are you going to use plants or will you be building a fence? Will there be a path? Will it be paved? Is there a place for an arbor or a trellis? How will you edge your planting beds? Is there a piece of garden art that you want to particularly showcase? Look at some magazines and pictures on line to get ideas. Give it some thought and when you have made your decisions, be sure to write them down or draw them up so you don't forget come spring.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Garden Style
So, now that we've chosen which part of our garden to renovate, or re-design, the next thing we have to do is decide on a style. There are three considerations to take into account at this point, personal taste, architecture, and community.
First, what is your personal taste? Maybe you don't know, in which case you need to start looking around and finding one. A good place to start is magazines. Personally, I've been subscribing to various magazines for years, and I've been ripping them apart for years, as well. I save what I find useful and informative and I recycle what I don't. When it comes to gardening magazines, I not only save informative articles, I cut out inspiring pictures as well. Then, when it's time to plan a new design, I pull those picture out and sort through them, saving out the ones that apply or have ideas I'd like to incorporate. It's a great time saver and a way to utilize other people's expertise for the price of a magazine subscription and a pair of scissors.
I currently have a stack of garden pictures more than 2 inches thick, and while many different styles are represented there, a quick survey tells me that the greatest percentage of them have a 'country garden' style that is relaxed and informal with prolific, and varied, plantings. My favorites have rustic, but not kitschy, hardscaping and decorative elements. And appartently I like everything to look natural and a bit old. I like a garden that looks like it might have grown up around an old farmhouse. Which leads me to the second consideration when choosing style, your house's architecture.
Your house has a style, every house does, and the second consideration after your own personal taste is the style dictated by your home's architecture. If your house's architecture and your garden's style don't match, or at least compliment each other, the visual impact of your design will always be a jarring one. For example, if you live in a very formal, urban home, an over-grown, country garden filled with whimsical knick-knacks will never look right. My house has a standard, 1990's, suburban split-level design, and it's clad in barn-red siding. Put those two together and an informal, country designed garden should match very well.
If you haven't ever put any thought into it, take some time when deciding on your design style. Look at some magazines, go to your local bookstore or library, there are many, many beautiful books out there which will help you identify, in short order, exactly what you like. Take some notes, rip out some pages and put them together. Soon, you will figure out what you like.
When your style is decided, it's time to look at our last consideration. Look around your neighborhood and community. What kind of design have most of your neighbors chosen? If most of your neighbors have very formal gardens, you may think a very informal one may make your house stand out, but you have to make sure you aren't like the proverbial sore thumb. Individuality is good, but boat-rocking is not appreciated. You don't want to look weird and you don't want to impact any of your neighbors who may be trying to sell their houses. You want to blend, but not match.
If your style clashes greatly with what is going on in your neighborhood and you really aren't a fan of the predominant style, you do have options. One solution may be to design your front garden to match the neighbors and do your back the way you like it, especially if you surround the back with a fence or hedge so that it is not visible from the street or your neighbors back yards.
Style inside your home is a very private thing, on the outside, though, it's very public. Make sure you have chosen one that you can live with, and that makes you happy, but one that will also please your neighbors, and make you look good, as well.
First, what is your personal taste? Maybe you don't know, in which case you need to start looking around and finding one. A good place to start is magazines. Personally, I've been subscribing to various magazines for years, and I've been ripping them apart for years, as well. I save what I find useful and informative and I recycle what I don't. When it comes to gardening magazines, I not only save informative articles, I cut out inspiring pictures as well. Then, when it's time to plan a new design, I pull those picture out and sort through them, saving out the ones that apply or have ideas I'd like to incorporate. It's a great time saver and a way to utilize other people's expertise for the price of a magazine subscription and a pair of scissors.
I currently have a stack of garden pictures more than 2 inches thick, and while many different styles are represented there, a quick survey tells me that the greatest percentage of them have a 'country garden' style that is relaxed and informal with prolific, and varied, plantings. My favorites have rustic, but not kitschy, hardscaping and decorative elements. And appartently I like everything to look natural and a bit old. I like a garden that looks like it might have grown up around an old farmhouse. Which leads me to the second consideration when choosing style, your house's architecture.
Your house has a style, every house does, and the second consideration after your own personal taste is the style dictated by your home's architecture. If your house's architecture and your garden's style don't match, or at least compliment each other, the visual impact of your design will always be a jarring one. For example, if you live in a very formal, urban home, an over-grown, country garden filled with whimsical knick-knacks will never look right. My house has a standard, 1990's, suburban split-level design, and it's clad in barn-red siding. Put those two together and an informal, country designed garden should match very well.
If you haven't ever put any thought into it, take some time when deciding on your design style. Look at some magazines, go to your local bookstore or library, there are many, many beautiful books out there which will help you identify, in short order, exactly what you like. Take some notes, rip out some pages and put them together. Soon, you will figure out what you like.
When your style is decided, it's time to look at our last consideration. Look around your neighborhood and community. What kind of design have most of your neighbors chosen? If most of your neighbors have very formal gardens, you may think a very informal one may make your house stand out, but you have to make sure you aren't like the proverbial sore thumb. Individuality is good, but boat-rocking is not appreciated. You don't want to look weird and you don't want to impact any of your neighbors who may be trying to sell their houses. You want to blend, but not match.
If your style clashes greatly with what is going on in your neighborhood and you really aren't a fan of the predominant style, you do have options. One solution may be to design your front garden to match the neighbors and do your back the way you like it, especially if you surround the back with a fence or hedge so that it is not visible from the street or your neighbors back yards.
Style inside your home is a very private thing, on the outside, though, it's very public. Make sure you have chosen one that you can live with, and that makes you happy, but one that will also please your neighbors, and make you look good, as well.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Decisions, decisions...
Have you got your list? I've got mine. And it's not a short one. When it comes to things I'd like to change in my garden, I'm never at a loss. I love to tweak and refine. In my opinion, anything can be improved, but, luckily, some areas need more improvement than others. So here are just the top four areas of my garden I'd like to renovate this year:
1. The east side yard.
2. The site of my former veggie garden.
3. My back deck.
4. The area around my house's front door.
Does your list look similar to mine? Is it longer? Shorter? Maybe there's only one item on your list. If so, lucky you. You don't have any decisions to make. The rest of us, though, do.
Personally, I know I can only do one major project a year. I can throw in a couple of minor projects that only take a day or two, but if I try to do more than one major project at a time, I know they'll both get bogged down and I will end up not finishing either of them. There's just too much regular maintenance work - weeding, deadheading, dividing - to be done, and so many demands from the rest of my life that I simply don't have the time or energy or money to put into more than one major renovation at a time.
Even if you are able to get more than one project done in a growing season, it's still smart to prioritize and focus on one at a time, at least at the planning stage. It can be complicated and confusing enough without adding to it by trying to do too much at once.
So need to pick which item on your list is the highest priority to you.
For me, it's my side yard. It's a priority because for years now, it's been getting on my nerves. There's nothing wrong with it, per se. Previous owners actually did a fine job landscaping it. They planted some nice shrubs, hostas, and a honeysuckle vine on a trellis. They put down rock mulch and landscaping fabric to keep down the weeds. It's a perfectly serviceable, if somewhat uninspired design. I could probably leave it as is for several more years and it would look just fine, but it's the 'just fine'-ness of it that drives me crazy. Most visitors approach my house from the east, so the front and side yards are the first thing they see, and if what they see is boring and uninspired what does that say about me? Maybe nothing to the rest of the world, but to me it matters.
So boring-ness bumps my east side yard to the head of the list.
What keeps it there is that I have an idea of what I want to do with it, and that I don't think it will cost too much. Looking at my other projects, renovating the deck will take money. The pond I'm going to put where my veggie garden used to be will as well, and it will require a bunch more research. Redoing the landscaping around my front door will require money as well, but also, I like the garden I have there already a lot more than I like what's growing on the side. So, the side yard wins.
Now tell me what wins on your list? Which item can you most easily afford? Which will fall within the amount of time that you can devote? Which will have the greatest impact on your landscape? Which will just make you feel the best?
Make your choice carefully, and tomorrow we will talk about choosing a style.
1. The east side yard.
2. The site of my former veggie garden.
3. My back deck.
4. The area around my house's front door.
Does your list look similar to mine? Is it longer? Shorter? Maybe there's only one item on your list. If so, lucky you. You don't have any decisions to make. The rest of us, though, do.
Personally, I know I can only do one major project a year. I can throw in a couple of minor projects that only take a day or two, but if I try to do more than one major project at a time, I know they'll both get bogged down and I will end up not finishing either of them. There's just too much regular maintenance work - weeding, deadheading, dividing - to be done, and so many demands from the rest of my life that I simply don't have the time or energy or money to put into more than one major renovation at a time.
Even if you are able to get more than one project done in a growing season, it's still smart to prioritize and focus on one at a time, at least at the planning stage. It can be complicated and confusing enough without adding to it by trying to do too much at once.
So need to pick which item on your list is the highest priority to you.
For me, it's my side yard. It's a priority because for years now, it's been getting on my nerves. There's nothing wrong with it, per se. Previous owners actually did a fine job landscaping it. They planted some nice shrubs, hostas, and a honeysuckle vine on a trellis. They put down rock mulch and landscaping fabric to keep down the weeds. It's a perfectly serviceable, if somewhat uninspired design. I could probably leave it as is for several more years and it would look just fine, but it's the 'just fine'-ness of it that drives me crazy. Most visitors approach my house from the east, so the front and side yards are the first thing they see, and if what they see is boring and uninspired what does that say about me? Maybe nothing to the rest of the world, but to me it matters.
So boring-ness bumps my east side yard to the head of the list.
What keeps it there is that I have an idea of what I want to do with it, and that I don't think it will cost too much. Looking at my other projects, renovating the deck will take money. The pond I'm going to put where my veggie garden used to be will as well, and it will require a bunch more research. Redoing the landscaping around my front door will require money as well, but also, I like the garden I have there already a lot more than I like what's growing on the side. So, the side yard wins.
Now tell me what wins on your list? Which item can you most easily afford? Which will fall within the amount of time that you can devote? Which will have the greatest impact on your landscape? Which will just make you feel the best?
Make your choice carefully, and tomorrow we will talk about choosing a style.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
When dreaming turns into planning...
It's almost a month since I talked about dreaming, because that's what January is for.
Now, though, it's February, and spring is only two months away. It's time to start planning. So, what should you plan?
Unless your garden is new, I'm sure you've got standard things you do every year. There might be window boxes you always plant with red geraniums. There might be a patch of annuals you put around your mailbox. There might be a vegetable garden that you grow the same five veggies in year after year. Maybe you have well established beds of perennials that only require weeding and dividing to look beautiful.
And that's great.
Those routines are what keep us sane as spring arrives with its flurry of activity following the long winter break. Routines are what get our hands dirty and our spirits raised when all we really want is to get out in the sun and the fresh air again. They allow us to take our time and smell the roses (or pansies) and listen to bird song. If they make you happy, don't change them. If your routine plantings look good, leave them as they are. Of course, you still need to do a bit of planning, but planning for the routine doesn't take very long. Make your shopping list of seeds and transplants, and check for your local nurseries. Place your catalog and internet orders. Do it now. There, you've started gardening for 2011.
Now what do you do? Well, in February, with two months left until spring, it's time for something else. It's time to plan for changes. Take a moment and look back on last year. If you kept a journal or took pictures, look at those. What didn't look good in your garden? What didn't fill you with pleasure and pride? What made your soul wither a little every time you walked past it? Too dramatic? Okay, then. What did you simply wish was different?
Go ahead, make a list. Bring it back here tomorrow and I'll bring mine, and together we'll take our next step in planning our beautiful gardens.
Now, though, it's February, and spring is only two months away. It's time to start planning. So, what should you plan?
Unless your garden is new, I'm sure you've got standard things you do every year. There might be window boxes you always plant with red geraniums. There might be a patch of annuals you put around your mailbox. There might be a vegetable garden that you grow the same five veggies in year after year. Maybe you have well established beds of perennials that only require weeding and dividing to look beautiful.
And that's great.
Those routines are what keep us sane as spring arrives with its flurry of activity following the long winter break. Routines are what get our hands dirty and our spirits raised when all we really want is to get out in the sun and the fresh air again. They allow us to take our time and smell the roses (or pansies) and listen to bird song. If they make you happy, don't change them. If your routine plantings look good, leave them as they are. Of course, you still need to do a bit of planning, but planning for the routine doesn't take very long. Make your shopping list of seeds and transplants, and check for your local nurseries. Place your catalog and internet orders. Do it now. There, you've started gardening for 2011.
Now what do you do? Well, in February, with two months left until spring, it's time for something else. It's time to plan for changes. Take a moment and look back on last year. If you kept a journal or took pictures, look at those. What didn't look good in your garden? What didn't fill you with pleasure and pride? What made your soul wither a little every time you walked past it? Too dramatic? Okay, then. What did you simply wish was different?
Go ahead, make a list. Bring it back here tomorrow and I'll bring mine, and together we'll take our next step in planning our beautiful gardens.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
January is for Dreamers
It’s January in Minnesota. Of course, it’s January everywhere, but in Minnesota, for the gardener at least, January can be a black hole from which it seems nothing green will ever grow. Exaggeration? Maybe. But the ground froze in my garden six weeks ago and probably won’t thaw for another three months, at least (and then it probably won’t be ready to work until it dries sufficiently another two weeks to a month after that). There’s a couple of feet of snow on the ground and more to come over the next couple of days/months. The temperatures aren’t below zero today, but they were yesterday and will be again. So what’s a gardener to do when faced with half a year of no digging, no planting, no weeding, and no walking among the green things?
Well, there’s indoor gardening to do, of course. Houseplants continue to need care, after all, but it’s too early (here) to start seeds for transplanting. There’s tool care, and winter garden decorating, and the monitoring of ice and snow on trees and shrubs, as well. But these are mundane chores. There is a task for January that’s so much better: The depths of winter, when there isn’t even the promise of spring in the air, is the perfect time to dream.
There is no time for it in May when we are buried in seeds and divisions and dandelions, but now I have before me my Inspiration Folder. It contains page after page of the culled wealth of fifteen years of home and garden magazine subscriptions. (Magazines in my house get cut up and torn apart and the gems stored snugly in file-folders just waiting for their chance to be put to good use).
In January, I open the folder and just peruse, reminding myself of my desire for worn wooden benches and vine-covered pergolas, for trees and shrubs and cozy cottage garden beds filled to over-flowing with cheerful blooms. I gather books and seed catalogues, bookmark websites and blogs, and I let my imagination fly. I sketch plans and make lists and censor nothing. The time for reason and common sense comes later, when I look at my budget of both money and time and decide which of these fantastic dreams to implement this year.
So let the winds howl and the snow fly. I’ve got a glass of hot chocolate, my sketch pad and journal, and a cat sleeping on my feet. In January, I dream.
Well, there’s indoor gardening to do, of course. Houseplants continue to need care, after all, but it’s too early (here) to start seeds for transplanting. There’s tool care, and winter garden decorating, and the monitoring of ice and snow on trees and shrubs, as well. But these are mundane chores. There is a task for January that’s so much better: The depths of winter, when there isn’t even the promise of spring in the air, is the perfect time to dream.
There is no time for it in May when we are buried in seeds and divisions and dandelions, but now I have before me my Inspiration Folder. It contains page after page of the culled wealth of fifteen years of home and garden magazine subscriptions. (Magazines in my house get cut up and torn apart and the gems stored snugly in file-folders just waiting for their chance to be put to good use).
In January, I open the folder and just peruse, reminding myself of my desire for worn wooden benches and vine-covered pergolas, for trees and shrubs and cozy cottage garden beds filled to over-flowing with cheerful blooms. I gather books and seed catalogues, bookmark websites and blogs, and I let my imagination fly. I sketch plans and make lists and censor nothing. The time for reason and common sense comes later, when I look at my budget of both money and time and decide which of these fantastic dreams to implement this year.
So let the winds howl and the snow fly. I’ve got a glass of hot chocolate, my sketch pad and journal, and a cat sleeping on my feet. In January, I dream.
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