by plantswomandesign | Oct 2, 2013 | gardening, plants
Tropicalissimo in the Pacific Northwest. It is hard to imagine my garden without my huge wonderful tropical plants. I did not grow these lovlies when I first started gardening. I would not have even attempted. Then I went to Hawaii. On the garden island of Kauai I fell totally in love with the lush big bold textures of leaves, bright colors and glorious earthy scents of a tropical garden. I went from an dabbler into a dunker and just had to have anything big and glorious. I have killed many things that were ‘marginally’ hardy in my garden. I once tried an imperial dahlia known to grow large in my area but never flower (it was as advertised). The princess flower overwintered successfully one year and not so successfully the next year or the year after with a new plant. While these were great to experiment with the foliage wasn’t enough for me, I had to go bigger. Next I put in a Tetrapanax p. ‘rex’, it has lovely huge leaves that were spiky and toothy. I still have it but have to chop the baby shoots off every year so it doesn’t devour the rest of the garden. The hardy banana beside it comes back each year stronger with more stems coming up from the ground (Musa Basjoo).
hardy banana Musa Basjoo
Near by there is a whip of a magnolia tree that at first struggled to produce even 3 leaves. After 5 years I saw it’s first bloom and the leaves are now enormous. The flower only lasted for about a week but I would go out every day to see it and smell it.
magnolia
magnolia flower worth waiting for
I have several hardy Gingers. Here is one as seen from the entrance to my pond area with it’s hornbeam hedge. Sometimes it’s fun to come out of a formal area into wild, lush foliage. This Ginger (Hedychium coccineum ‘Tara’) is reliably hardy in my garden. It spreads each year and does bloom in the late summer. Last year our weather was so bad that I only got a few blooms in September. This year the heat has really brought the blooms. I also dedicated a sprinkler head to it so it gets plenty of water in the summer.
Hedychium coccineum ‘Tara’
It is unusual (I think? maybe not) to build a greenhouse to house one plant. I purchased this red Banana several years ago now. Most people said don’t worry you can just buy another and throw it away but I was determined to try and keep it. With much persuasion I convinced my family to create a little greenhouse under the decking by my bedroom. That year I brought in my red banana, ensete ‘maurelli’ several echevarias, burgmansia, and Queens’ tears . I already had many orchids so now they also have a place to grown with higher light and humidity. The first year it survived, the second year it pushed to the top of the greenhouse
ensete ‘maurelli’
Each year I struggle with algae in my pond. The combination of warm water and fish waste creates the perfect situation for algae bloom. I’ve put floating plants, lilies and other plants in the pond to combat the algae but the fish really like them (and by “like them” I mean in the ‘I’m a vegetarian’ way). They eat the roots off of most everything I put in there and nibble the leaves off emerging plants. This year I decided to try to throw some common water hyacinth in the pot fountain. I thought maybe it would keep the major source of algae down. It succeeded beyond anything I imagined makes the whole pond area look magically lush and tropical. The wires you see are my Koi pond animal deterrent system. This keeps heron, river otters, raccoons and the occasional dog from getting in the koi pond.
common water hyacinth
This canna from Plant Delights nursery in North Carolina has been in the ground next to the pathway for 4 years. The first year I thought it was dead after winter but it struggled back. It has increased in height each year but not that much in width likely due to the pathway in front of it or lack of water in that area beneath the edge of the deck but it doesn’t seem to mind. The pods on this canna are so cool too. I love to bring them in in the fall and dry them out.
canna
The tropical look extends into the vines too. I have the hardy Kiwi, actinidia, down in the main garden where it can vine everywhere and it has fruit each year!! Up in the tropical area of my garden I have a passion vine that likes to throw itself around. It vines between the fence, a palm tree, and a manzanita. While the manzanita is outside the hedge it still wants its tropical neighbor to climb on it each year. I mulch the roots in the fall, it looks dead in the winter through early spring, then suddenly it is sprawling around. By the time August and September come it is blooming with its other worldly flowers. Fabulous!
Let me know what you think about tropical plants in a non-tropical place. What do you grow in your area that is not quite the norm?
by plantswomandesign | Sep 22, 2013 | garden food, gardening
As you may already know, if you are following the blog, I have a great harvest of Walla Walla Sweet Onions. I planted 50 sets and I’m sure there are at least 50 nice size onions. I have been experimenting with what to do with them beside eat or cook with them so I stored some of them and they are doing fine. To store them I wrapped them carefully (they bruise easy) in shredded paper and stacked them carefully in a wire basket. Tucked away on a shelf in the garage they are doing just fine. While researching storage suggestions for onions one website suggested putting them in pantyhose and tying knots between them to keep them separate. When using them simply cut the knots to get an onion. Ok… I’m having a generational gap I think. I don’t have panty hose… Oh maybe one pair in the back of my closet to wear with my short black evening dress but in my line of work I don’t exactly have them just lying around. And, if memory serves, the last time I bought them they were very hard to find and not cheap (around $10 a pair). I think the shredded paper is a better solution for me with no surplus pantyhose.
Today I made onion marmalade. I started with a recipe I had for French Onion Marmalade and adapted it to be a little more me. I’ll show you the process as we go.
Onion Marmalade
1 KG (just over 2 lbs) of red or yellow onions, peeled cut in half and sliced thinly (yes I have a scale to weigh them)
100 ml olive oil (just about 1/2 cup I add it as needed)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 rosemary springs (wrap and tie in cheesecloth)
150g soft brown sugar (3/4 cup)
75 ml dry white wine (1/3 cup)
75 ml red wine vinegar (1/3 cup I used champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar)
25 ml balsamic vinegar (good size splash I used white balsamic vinegar)
Directions
1. In a heavy fry pan (I use non stick), heat up some olive oil and add the finely sliced onions – toss around to make sure they all have a coating of oil.
2. Cook over gentle heat until they start to color.
3. Add the salt, pepper, bay leaves and rosemary springs and cook for another 20- 30 minutes. until herbs have wilted.
4. add the sugar, wine and vinegars.
5. bring back to boil and keep stirring all the time. Lower the heat and simmer for about 20-30 more minutes until the liquid is all dissolved and the onions are soft and sticky. Watch carefully as this mixture may burn easily.
6. Pick out the rosemary and bay leaves (this is why I put the rosemary in cheesecloth but I’ve left some in and it was ok too) and spoon the marmalade into clean dry & sterilized jar and seal straight away. Ready to eat after 2 weeks but better if kept for at least 1-2 months. I store in refrigerator but could be processed for longer shelf life.
7. Makes one 300ml jar – but can be easily increased.
The changes I made make it a little brighter in color. As you can see it takes a lot of onions to make just one jar. I used the small jars so I can use just what I need and give away some.
Onion Marmalade is so fabulous on burgers, steaks, ham sandwiches grilled or cold, even put over cream cheese and served with baguette slices or crackers.
I still have beets, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, lettuce, arugula, leeks, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini to get creative with and the rhubarb is still producing. I will probably make some more Rhubarb Ginger Jam this year. Next week I’ll post about my apples. I planted cordon apples left over from a garden show several years ago. You will be amazed when you see them. Please, share with me any interesting way you are using vegetables from your garden!
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by plantswomandesign | Sep 4, 2013 | gardening, plants
Oh no!. Here comes fall. My containers although still lovely are causing more and more maintenance. Deadheading, fertilizing, cutting back, etc. I’m ready for a change. I LOVE fall color, BUT not the traditional. When at the nursery I walk by the mum’s and asters, leave the pansies alone too. I don’t try to get something that will ‘survive’ into the winter but plan on changing out the containers for winter too. I get something that is all about the fall in terms of color but still has form and interest in foliage color and texture. I sometimes get plants that are not hardy in my area (zone 7, sometimes zone 8). These are often on sale at 50% off because they will not survive without a greenhouse. They will however survive until a really hard frost which we sometimes don’t get until November. The prices are about the same as annuals so why not.? I do have a greenhouse so I will try to overwinter them if I love them but space is often limited (by the size of my red banana). Just like shopping at the end of season sale at the local hardware store you can find great plant bargains.
These containers sit on the deck and they are very rustic. I love the neutral color that lends itself to any color palette in the plantings. They are in full sun and sometimes wind, with a forgetful water person that results in a dry soil.
This one has kalanchoe beharensis (Velvet elephant ear), Dicilptera suberecta, Kalanchoe orgyalis,(copper spoons), salvia discolor and a small callistemon pityoides ‘Corvallis’. (San Marcos Growers in California and Xera Plants in Portland).
This is the grouping with the medium sized container growing: Adenanthos Xcumminhamii, Hakea microcarpa, Kalanchoe beharensis ‘Fang’, Leonitis methifolia ‘Savannah Sunset’, and salvia discolor
The small cement basin has a single dasylirion wheeleri, and Sempervivum arachnoides var. pittonii both from Xera Plants and hardy in zone 7.
Seems like succulents are becoming more and more popular. I really like the colors and textures in these lovely little plants. They are fun by themselves and mixed with other plants. They are happy with little care (perfect for busy summers), and bloom too.
Fall wedding are a fun even to plan for. This total redo of a landscape for a fall wedding included containers for accent pieces.
The modern shape on one group of containers (light weight) was a great neutral foil for the foliage and flowers we did there. New sun loving coleus in red and green bring out the dark red of Canna black knight and Burgundy Rudbeckia. Accent of bright green heuchera lime rickey, and metallic sheen on the begonia ‘Silver Splendor’ pulls the pot color in.
The base on this container has a good blend of red/brick and gold. Orange Coleus, burnt orange coreopsis ‘Sienna Sunset’, Begonia ‘Bonfire Orange’, Crocosmia ‘fairy twilight’, and a burgundy rudbeckia all pull together to say yummy warm fall. the begonia and coleus are not hardy but the others are.
More of the metallic gray containers this time planted simply with Astelia 'Silver Shadow' The metallic looking leaves have both silver and bronze in the coloration. This brings out the bronze in the light fixture which also adds in the silver from the container. It is an arrangement that will help keep dogs out of this area. Rock mulch and a silver/blue ceramic bird bath top (from owners) blends the area together.
I suggest you go out and explore the nurseries now. There are some great things to add to containers now. Let me know what combinations you find. Just because it is fall doesn’t mean the garden has to stop.
by plantswomandesign | Aug 18, 2013 | gardening
Finally a saturday with nothing to do but garden. It has been a long time. I’ve been traveling and visiting family. While I wasn’t looking the vegie garden was planning to take over the world. The beans are up to the top of the poles and heading back down. I picked a big basket of Italian beans (romano). The pole french fillets are not quite ready and the bush french fillets are finished. I had about 15 carrots that came up. (I used the old seeds from 2011)
They were really beautiful. I tried a new recipe for firecracker carrots. They are pickled spicy carrots that sit in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. Here is the how to:
Firecracker carrots.
1/2 lb of baby carrots or cleaned, peeled and cut carrots.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp onion powder
2 whole dried red peppers
1 tsp dried chili flakes
Place small bite sized carrots in spring lid jar
Put all the other ingredients into a non reactive pan, bring to a boil and boil for 4 minutes.
pour boiling liquid over carrots and seal. Store in refrigerator for at least a week. The longer it sits the hotter they get!.
I planted new rows of lettuce, spinach, and arugula today. I have some arugula up and ready from the 2nd planting. Now on to the third round. We have had a great year with lots of great sun, warm days and nights, and very little rain.
I also planted walla walla sweet onion. They were fantastic this year… Now what to do with 50 walla walla sweets. I will probably make onion marmalade or onion jam. This is a wonderful condiment that is great with bread, cream cheese, other cheeses, and grilled burgers.
These onions are so sweet some people eat them like an apple. They need to be dried for a couple of days in the sun so the dirt falls off and roots dry up. (called curing). These onions bruise easily so they must be handled carefully. The best way to keep them is to use panty hose and add onions separated by knots. Cutting out the onions as you need them. They only last about 6 weeks so enjoy them while you can. Last year I left my onions in the ground but they became hotter and hotter as they sat there. Not edible by the time I got ready to eat them. They were not walla wallas but I don’t want to take a chance.
Of course I’m a landscape designer so there are some design elements in the vegetable garden also. These are the steps up a steep bank to where the vegetable garden is.
The border to the raspberries is made out of recycled metal. It was put in with long rebar stakes so I could add a lot of soil and create the bed. I use metal wire for supports in the raspberries, and in the beds after planting to keep animals from digging in the new plants
Replanted lettuce, spinach, and arugula.
by plantswomandesign | Aug 16, 2013 | gardening, plants, pond
August is such a beautiful month in my garden. I have a hard time with cutting back. Everything is so lush and over the top. The colors mix with abandon, everything striving to take center stage. Misty mornings give way to hot sunny days. I live near a bay on the Puget Sound and when I wake in the early morning it is usually clear. The mists come down from the north and swallow everything in dense fog, leaving water droplets on all the plants and giving them the only water they will see for that day. I thought you all might like some pictures from one of these early morning trips around the garden.
Heathers and miscanthus along the driveway edge.
Love the brilliant pop of purple in the heather along with the hot orange of Crocosmia walbreyes
Agapanthus blue magic with crocosmia Emily Mckenzie and penisetum orientalis.
Hydrangea paniculata, Cersis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’, and Cotinus ‘Grace’. There is a little orange glass bird bath tucked in the center.
Summer pond with geranium rozanne, knatia macedonia, and clematis integrifolia.
Persicaria ‘golden arrow’, hedychium densiflorum (from Far Reaches Farms), Red Banana (Ensete ventricosum’Maurelii’), with my rusty girl in tropical garden.
Even just variegated foliage (Canna, small bamboo, and annuals) make a lush summer statement.
I’m going out to cut a path around my gunnera and through the peony tree to get to the lower portion of the garden. I will remember and take a mental picture today. This winter I will bring it back to my mind and see again the massive leaves, beautiful flowers and sweet scents of summer.
by plantswomandesign | Jul 19, 2013 | gardening
It’s never too late to learn something new. In the Pacific Northwest our biggest vegetable garden challenge is tomatoes. With our cool summers, short growing period and summer rain a perfectly home ripened tomato is the holy grail of vegetable gardeners.
I have tried so many different methods to get that one tomato per year. Every year there is a new product out that will ‘do the trick’. Water walls one year were expensive and the plant grew up out of them I apparently didn’t remove them in time and had to cut them off. The tops were then very heavy without the support of the wall and they had to be staked in a very strange way to keep them upright. The two tomatoes from that year were happy with all the fuss they caused. Last year I tried red plastic around the tomato cage. The result was a moldy stunted plant because the plastic kept the moisture from the rain around the plant. I finally took them off after a month threw the plants away and started over. I got 0 tomatoes from the first planting and 10 cherry tomatoes, 4 ripe tomatoes, and about 50 green tomatoes from the second planting. I’m usually so disappointed with green tomatoes that I’m not creative at all. I put them in the window where they slowly rot from the stem end.
So….this year I was prepared. I decided to put my tomato plants in the greenhouse and keep them there all season. I’m sure because of that great strategy we have had the driest warmest June and July on record for many years, you’re welcome Seattle! And now I have tomatoes growing and ripening in the greenhouse, every day I get a few more. It has been so warm in there I must water every day which is sad because I’m not at the greenhouse everyday.
I read about pruning tomatoes this year in the Gardener’s World Magazine from England. I have never pruned tomatoes before so it was an education. My tomatoes are usually sprawling, branching monsters. Monty (tv host in the UK) says to prune them like trees. They will spend all their energy making branches and leaves and not setting and ripening fruit. He recommends pruning off side shoots that are below the first set of blossoms. This should be done as soon as the plant is big enough to see blossoms. Later on as the fruit begins to set the leaves should be pruned out of the center of the plant so lots of light can get to the fruit to ripen it up .The photos below are of the greenhouse tomato pruning so you can see.
This month my plants in the ground look great too. I have pruned them and they are lovely and green. I fertilized them last week and pruned them 2 weeks ago. Obviously they are not as far along as the ones in the green house but they are setting fruit.
I’m interested to know what types of methods my gardening friends have tried to grow tomatoes. What has worked, what has not? What do you fertilize with and how often? Do you prune?
I’ll keep you all posted on the progress of the ones in the ground. I’m hoping ( yes again) to get a good crop out of the tomato plants I’ve planted. I did a siberian tomato the year I got 4. This year a purple tomato is planted.
by plantswomandesign | Jul 5, 2013 | garden travel, gardening, Traveling Plantswoman
While photographing window boxes I also came across some great small courtyard gardens, Boston has such great old buildings. There are shared spaces between the houses (squares) that have huge old trees and places to gather. Often grass and benches, sometimes with shrubs to provide privacy. These are all the garden that some of these houses have access to. Several of the bigger houses had courtyards in front of them and many were wonderful serene small garden spaces.
This garden has a lovely sitting area for the times when, even though there can’t be much sun with the tall buildings on either side, it is warm enough to sit outside. The days were hot while I was there and evenings were lovely and warm with no coat needed.
Most of these fabulous gardens were fenced off from the street with ornate black iron fences. This area of Boston, just beyond Boston Commons, is one of the oldest in the city. Originally an area where statesman and writers lived it is now home to a variety of families along with some long time wealthier residents.
The details in this garden are lovely in their simplicity. The use of repeated white and green in the flowers and leaves along with the specimen arisaema and other unusual plants give it a calm quiet respite. It has a sophistication in planting that is in keeping with the house while not being busy. I will have to say I saw so many lovely hostas without any holes in them I’m thinking they don’t have slugs or snails there.
There are a few splashes of pinky red that stand out. The tri-colored beech- fagus sylvatica ‘Argenteo Marginata’. with Athyrium niponicum pictum, Japanese painted fern was stunning in the soft rain soaked air. A soft fuzzy light was filtering through the clouds and rain to make the pictures soft and fuzzy also.
Even very small spaces can entice a gardener to dig in the dirt.
The streets are narrow in this area also with very little parking and permits required for residents. There was the feeling of hushed quiet just a few steps from the bustle of downtown. This is one of the famed cobblestone streets.
I spent a great deal of time walking in Boston. It is a great way to see the city, meet people, and get a sense of the surrounding gardens and neighborhoods you walk through. Do you think you could live in a large city like this? Would you have to have enough space to garden?
by plantswomandesign | Jun 21, 2013 | gardening
Hello gardening friends! Thanks for tagging along with us as we tackled our fear of gardening this week. Today we are setting aside for a good old fashioned question and answer time. I am here to answer your gardening questions. It can be anything! I want to hear from you!!! So, let’s get started, what questions do you have?
by plantswomandesign | Jun 20, 2013 | gardening
Happy Thursday! True confessions here. Do you want to know what scares a garden designer? Vegetable gardening. Yes, those little green (and other colors) edibles. I know many landscape architects that don’t have a garden. True story! They draw landscapes and live in a condo without even a container planted at the front door. I know a botanist that works on restoration of state lands and wants to put landscape fabric, bark and gravel over all exposed ground so it doesn’t grown weeds. I know (intimately) a garden designer that is learning to plant ROWS of plants with different cultural requirements, with no thought of color palette.
Although I have grown everything imaginable and transplanted , pruned, stooled, espalliered, divided, and conquered most things in my garden, I have feared vegetables. Having now planted vegetables for many years I’m now ever expanding on my varieties. I started out with just lettuce, beans, and peas. Easy to grow, requiring the same conditions. Sometimes the peas would have to be planted twice (inoculant might help- who knew?) or I would plant too many beans and they would overwhelm everything (why don’t they stop growing when they reach the top of the pole? Can you prune them? Do they come in semi-dwarf? To be honest I’ve asked these questions at the nursery and it’s one of the few times the answers were not there, they even look at me strangely.) The lettuce would taste bitter in July. (it is a spring crop for a reason). I would usually find out about it after I had given my surplus to a neighbor. Little by little I have learned more and more about these scary plants. I usually do plant in a color scheme now (black tomatos, black beans, black peppers one year) just to feel like I’m managing it better. But I learn something new every year.
So, how do we get over our fear of growing food? I like to get the gardening magazine ‘Gardener’s world’ from the UK. The gardeners in that book grow vegetables I’ve never heard of. They are shown actually digging in the soil, talking about the soil, and have muddy knees and dirty fingers. They are in the horticultural profession and are garden designers and they have a vegetable garden. Amazing.
One of the best things about my job is getting to garden with my clients. In gardening nobody knows everything. Some of my clients are great vegetable gardeners and they help me. They tell me not to bother with red plastic tents over my tomatoes, just plant them out in a sunny area with good air circulation after most of the spring rains (in June sometimes) have ceased. Sometimes you will have a good crop sometimes you won’t. Just talking about gardening is fun and sharing experiences makes everyone a better gardener.
Heres a couple of pictures of stylish vegetable gardens and my little plot. Join us tomorrow for a Q&A session!
