A New Design

We all have romantic notions about relaxing in our gardens. What do we do?
We sit down with a cup of tea or a glass of wine and within minutes we are critiquing the garden design, deadheading flowers or pulling weeds. I want to break that cycle & put in a patio with a fire pit and really relax in my garden.
I know about plants. I know about perennials, shrubs and veggies. I know which flowers are for cutting & which flowers hummingbirds & butterflies love. But, what do I really know about garden design? I’m not a designer.
I know what I like & don’t like. I have looked at photos & have visited a lot of gardens.
I do have basic ideas about the new area in my back yard.
1. I want a patio area with lounging-type chairs & a fire pit. I have a covered deck for sunny days but it’s kind of small & it feels cut off from the garden.
2. I want to take apart the 4 raised beds that have grown my vegetables for the past 5 years. The area has gotten more shade from the ‘Negronne’ Fig & ‘Brooks’ Prune trees to be very productive.
3. I want to remake the paths with a hard surface. The garden border needs an edge.
I want a little more definition to the area.
4. I need to re-grade the whole area to let winter rainwater drain more rapidly.
I don’t think that’s too much for an early summer project.
With all these ideas, I decided to contact a real garden designer. I had met Trish Jensen at the Silverton Garden Club where we both are members. Trish has 18 years of garden design experience. She also was raised in a garden nursery environment. Her Dad, Bob, was a grower for many years in the Silverton area.
Trish came over & listened to all of my wish list. She walked the garden, took notes and measured the area. About a week later, she came back with a sketch. Since I don’t need help with the plant selection, Trish said the drawing was pretty easy.
Her ideas are just what I had in mind but better!
She drew a wider, more centered stair leading to the new pathway from the wooden deck. She suggested the new patio area be closer to the ‘Brooks’ Prune and added a new garden bed to screen the wooden fence. She widened the herb bed next to the house to incorporate the few summer vegetables I like to plant.
Trish suggested ¼ minus gravel as a material for the garden paths and pavers or stone for the patio. Rocks that I have dug up from the garden can be used to help define the pathway border. Trish also thought about up lights for nighttime interest. The fig tree, the ‘Oshiobeni’ Japanese maple & the Vine Maple can have lights installed underneath for a final touch.
Tune in soon to hear how the project is shaping up. Here is the contact info for Trish... Trish Jensen, “The Home Gardener”, 503-873-3828.

Judy

Spring

For me it is both the best and worst time of year. The best part of spring, well that seems obvious. What isn’t growing? Blooms are popping out everywhere; leaves are breaking their dormancy on rare and unusual trees that I had forgotten I had even planted! The worst part of spring for me is the weeds. They too seem to revel in this, the busiest season of all. After years of pulling and spraying and cursing; I finally started using pre-emergence (preen, miracle grow, and organically, corn gluten). After two years of a faithful spreading in spring and fall I can finally say that the weeds are under control. Good mulching in the late winter and early spring has also helped to stem these ubiquitous little creatures. As my personal and business life becomes more and more hectic and complicated I am thankful that I chose to use these products as now I can actually walk thru my gardens and find the peace that I have always thought a garden should bring to each individual. So if you are finding yourself taxed by the seemingly merciless growth of weeds, I would encourage you to begin the process of using pre-emergence. I invite you to go to an independent garden center close to you and talk with the staff there about these products. They really can save time and money and a lot of frustration. They have saved my sanity (at least some of my it) and have allowed me to enjoy my gardens more in this wonderful season we call spring. Happy Gardening and we will see you on Garden time!
Best, William

Opportunity calling

This is a great time of Spring. I love to see the new plants coming up, leaves on the trees coming out & seeing what made it & what did not. It's part of gardening. Seeing old friends arrive back after the winter & missing the ones who will not be returning. As I heard one day at a plant sale, this is called opportunity. I now have an opportunity to try some new plants & a new design in my back yard.
I'm taking out 2 of my 4 raised veggie beds. The bed with the asparagus is definitely gone. I'm bummed that my asparagus didn't make it. This would have been the 3RD year. The year to harvest. I think the bed, eventhough raised, collected water from a higher bed. I'll have to re-think an asparagus patch. This whole area does get alot of winter water. My yard is the lowest on a sloping street. I'm going to stop fighting the lay of the land.
I am going to put in a mini patio with a fire pit & containers.
I will re-position the remaining vegetable beds & landscape around them.
I will also take out a sickly looking miniature rose bush & a sickly looking Nandina (Heavenly bamboo).
I am getting my ideas down on paper. I will be shopping around for plant ideas while visiting Garden Time sponsors & other nurseries we discover.
I hope to keep you filled in on my progress. I also think I will keep on track because you will be looking over my shoulder. Let me know if you're working on new garden projects.
Take care.
Judy

Judy's Spring Day

Yeah! A dry & sunny day.
I’m getting a bit picky on the kind of day I will play in my garden.
I won’t go out if it’s a steady down pour anymore.
Today was a perfect garden weather day.
I had a To-Do list of just 5 tasks. I’m trying to work smarter in the garden & not over do at one kind of job.
Task 1 – I finally trimmed back a few winter damaged branches on the Silver Dollar Eucalyptus. It’s about 10 ft tall & helping to shade some Rhodies in the back yard.
While I had all the trimming tools out, I did shape the crown a little. It looks much better & I even brought in some stems for a flower arrangement.
Task 2 – I am still in the process of deadheading perennials. I cut back the old flowering stems of Asters, Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium) & Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’.
These plants are just emerging so I didn’t damage any new foliage.
I had taken care of the earlier emerging perennials weeks ago so I’m still ahead of the game.
Task 3 – I am a bit late on stringing up my 4 Clematis that form a wall of foliage & flowers at my back deck.
They are Tall! 2 plants were already 3 ft. high.
I use fishing line strung from an eyehook at the top of the eave to a tent stake pushed in at the base of the Clematis.
The vine then travels up the line & flowers in June & July. I have a beautiful green screen all Summer.
Task 4 – Weeding, the Zen of my garden tasks. I know that sounds kind of strange, but that’s what it feels like.
I have a weedy patch to work on & my mind concentrates on that process. I don’t think of anything else but weeding. I used to get anxious about the weed issue. I’ve relaxed my stance on weeds, sometimes too much, but I do get to them before too long.
I work smarter by bending correctly & taking more breaks. And that leads to...
Task 5 – I took a walk around my garden. This wasn’t really a ‘task’,
I needed a break from weeding. I checked plants out, what was coming up and what was finished blooming. I saw the new little figs forming on the ‘Desert King’ Fig. I also saw the huge flower buds on my orange Oriental Poppy and I picked lettuce for dinner. I did made a few mental notes for the next ‘Task’ List.
Enjoy your task list too.
Judy

Welcome Eugene…

We made our first trip to Eugene this week. It was a blast to see all the great garden centers in the Eugene/Springfield area. We started our day at Northwest Garden Nursery. Ernie and Marietta were wonderful hosts and we spent too much time there because there was so much to see. We look forward to returning later in the year to see how their display gardens will change. Next we stopped by Gray’s Garden Center, where we chatted with Donna about birding. The hi-light of that stop was the trained jays. They dive for peanuts in the hands of the nursery staff. Very cool! Next stop, Bloomers Nursery. The hard part of shooting here was the increasingly cold rain! Bloomers is a great family business and we had most of them with us for the shoot in their wholesale fields. Still a fun (and wet) time AND we got to play on the caboose! Our afternoon found us at a brand new nursery, Oregon’s Constant Gardener. Scott is an old friend from Portland and he returned to Eugene to open the store with Ryan. They are focusing on hydroponics, but will move into being a full service nursery in the near future. We got to see their new growing room. They will soon have planters all around the store growing all sorts of flowers and veggies. The best part, they will be donating the excess food to the Lane County Food Bank. Our final stop for the day was Gossler Farm Nursery in Springfield. Roger Gossler and his family have been in the nursery industry for many years and grow a wide selection of plants! We got to tour some of the nursery (we lost William for a short time!) and did a story on magnolias. It was a long day, but a fun one! We found everyone excited about the show and we will see them all again real soon, we just hope for warmer, dryer weather next time!

Jeff
Garden Time
Producer

Welcome back…

Welcome back…

We finally return for the new season of Garden Time. Who said it was easier the second time around? William and Judy are up to speed but I seem to be having trouble remembering all the stuff I need to do each week. All week I have been a step behind! Monday was normal. It is our ‘shoot’ day, the day we videotape the stories for the show. This is the most fun I have during the week. I laugh so hard when William blurts something out and then Judy joins in! (And none of it will ever see the ‘air’.) After Monday I got buried fast! Adding KEVU in Eugene this year was cool, but it did add another element to the routine. Each station has its own deadline and that means multiple trips to the post office. Then this week it was promos, Happy Spot specials, events calendar, streaming video, tips of the week for the KPTV crew; every time I turned around it was something else I had forgotten about. Oh well, that being said, I wouldn’t want to do anything else!
As for this first show back, it is always easier when you have a good crew behind you. For me that includes William and Judy, the great sponsors for the show (there wouldn’t be a show without them!) and of course my family, Therese, Sarah and Hannah, who put up with my stress and constant worrying. I know it is all worth it when I get comments from the viewers. Gardening can be fun, and so can building a gardening show.

Welcome back!
Jeff

Returning home

Can spring really be just around the corner? I have recently returned from a month of seminars and meetings all over the country. I decided to take a walk around my yard upon my return, expecting to see nothing but the remains of plants from last year. Much to my pleasant surprise many plants were already showing growth. My day lilies were pushing up growth thru the midst of the detritus from last year. My large stand of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ looked like a child had piled marbles right on the crown; the green, round, new growth already pushing upward. Many of the fruit trees in my orchard have already started budding as well. I do not know how it is that each year I still am delighted and amazed by nature. You would think that one of these years I would walk around and NOT be surprised by my gardens. It’s not as though I don’t know what is going to happen! Yet, I am still amazed as I was 25 years ago. Perhaps that is why I love gardening. Not only does it assist with the balance of the planet; helping create a sustainable environment, but also it helps me. Renewing my strength and encouraging me to get ready for the veritable cornucopia of gardening delights that will thrill and sustain me for the next year. What ever the reasons you choose to garden are. It seems that it is time to once again don the muck boots, get out the felco’s and compost and begin the process of celebrating the beautiful outdoors. I know I am ready, are you? Happy Gardening and I can’t wait to see you all again on the first show of Garden time, March 17th. Best, William