It’s FAC time in The Art Garden!Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair.You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you?Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
As the weather turns cold, most of us will be spending more time indoors reading about plants and gardens than doing any actual gardening. My favorite garden reading right now is Gardens Illustrated magazine, from Great Britain. As an experienced gardener it's easy for me to discard the gardening/plant information that's not appropriate for my region, yet glean plenty of new ideas worth trying. Mostly, I appreciate the magazine's focus on British and, especially, European design. The ideas seem fresh and different, yet readily adaptable to our plants and climate.
What is your favorite gardening magazine, and why? Do you depend on different magazines for different aspects of gardening, such as design, plant profiles, and gardening how-to?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
A horticultural anomaly! The warm, dry fall that we've experienced here in the Denver area has many plants hanging onto their foliage longer, or coloring up a bit later - or even differently - than the norm. This photo of bergenia in full bloom was taken just a a few days ago. Typically, bergenia is an early spring bloomer. I wrote about it here back in April. Have you noticed anything weird or different in your garden lately (other than the seasonal ghouls and goblins, of course)?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden!Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair.You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you?Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Breaking news! The hawthorn pictured above is not just a pretty face. In an article in today's DenverPost the National Center for Atmospheric Research lists hawthorn among the best deciduous trees for combating air pollution. Ash, apple, birch, hackberry, maple, pear and peach also made the cut. I'm happy to report that most of the other trees on the list (save the water hungry birch) are well represented in my neighborhood. The on-line article is pretty limited in scope, but encouraging news, nonetheless.
Do you have any of these trees in your landscape? In your neighborhood? Would their pollution fighting qualities influence your decision to plant them?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden!Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair.You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you?Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
It's brainstorming time! Please let me know what you would like to chat about during our Friday Afternoon Garden Club sessions. What are your favorite topics---plants, design, gardening how-to, seasonal observations, or ??? Also, are there landscape design or gardening topics that you are interested in that I could address in a lengthier blog post?Thanks for your input!
lichens growing on a walnut tree in northeastern Nebraska
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Do you like lichen? Lichens are organisms that tend to be overlooked, but they can add beautiful color and texture to the landscape. This site offers a great introduction to the world of lichens. In my garden I have a few boulders with small amounts of flat, silvery-gray lichen, but nothing as showy as the growths above. Do you have lichens in your garden? What surfaces are they growing on? What do they look like?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
I've got grapes! Do you? What's your favorite way to use them? Has anyone ever made wine with their own grapes (I think mine are Concord, but I'm not positive)? I'd love to hear about your experience!
goldenrod, switch grass, and junipers in the Sand Hills of Nebraska
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden!Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair.You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you?Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
I just returned from a quick trip to Nebraska. I loved seeing the native stands of goldenrod, Solidago canadensis, in bloom and the soft colors of the many grasses. What are the outstanding native plants blooming in your region right now?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic: water gardens
Good news / bad news in the water garden. The good news is that Kyoto, my favorite koi, totally recovered from his ailments of last winter (read about that here and here). He's happy tearing around the pond with his pal, Lucky:
Kyoto and Lucky at play
And participating in the evening feeding frenzy:
Kyoto, center, fights for his share of the food
So that's great news!
The bad news is that our water clarity has been terrible this year. For whatever reason (suggestions, anyone?) our usual crop of water hyacinths and water lettuce, which we depend on to shade the water and also filter it, did not grow at all this summer. The result was murky, pea green water (caused by suspended algae) that made fish viewing almost impossible. Grrrr!
How have your water gardens fared this year? Did you try any new plants? What are your favorites? Tell us about your fish, too...
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Friends near and far are reporting thefts of herbs, veggies, fruits and flowers from their community gardens. Even those with "private" street-side gardens have had produce swiped - at it's peak, of course. Why? Have you had this problem? Have you found a solution?Please share your ideas here!
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Earlier this weekmy friends and cohorts ofthe Garden Designers Roundtable discussed "inviting nature into the garden". What things have you done in your landscape to encourage visits from birds, butterflies, and other wildlife?Please share your stories with us here!
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Are you a forager?There are a number of native plants that have edible, ripening berries at this time of year including chokecherry, currant and buffaloberry. (Although edible is a relative term---most of these fruits need a big infusion of sugar to make them palatable to modern Americans.) One of my favorites, pictured above, is western sand cherry. The ripe fruits are about 1/2" in diameter and are lustrous black in color. These native shrubs, and the dwarf cultivar 'Pawnee Buttes', are widely used in xeric landscape plantings, so you may not have to look far to find them.
What do you forage for (Pssssst--no need to share your secret gathering spot!), and how do you prepare it?
For a good article on what NOT to eat, read this article on toxic weeds from Horticulture magazine.
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Weeds love August! What weeds are you dealing with in your garden these days? Perennial bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) is my biggest, ongoing challenge, but this time of year I have plenty of annual purslane (Portulaca oleracea) and ridgeseed spruge (Euphorbia glyptosperma) to get after, too. My ornamental plantings are fairly dense, and my soil is mulched, so pulling the weeds by hand is usually the best method for me. I'll attack that purslane (above) with my trusty hori-hori knife.
What is your peskiest weed problem? How do you manage it? Have you ever completely eradicated a weed from your garden successfully? What was your technique?
English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), Russian sage (Perouvskia artiplicifolia) and fernbush (Chamaebatiara millefolium)
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Honeybee heaven! This collection of plants, now in full bloom, is covered with honeybees and other pollinators. What's the bee magnet in your garden right now?
These fernbush flowers have a delightful, light fragrance. Slightly sweet, with pine and sage overtones.
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Got pollen?
Gotta have pollen, of course, for fruit and seed production (AKA sexual reproduction). Today's assignment---look at the flowers in your garden. Can you identify the pollen? What color is it? What kinds of pollinators (bees, butterflies, birds, etc) do you see?
Extra point bonus question: has pollen ever been used as a pigment (my inquiring mind wants to know!)?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
I just realizedthat for the first time in months I don't have a single woody plant in bloom!In fact, I had to run across the street to get this photo of my neighbor's American linden (Tilia americana). I love the scent of these flowers! Do you have shrubs or trees that are flowering right now?Tell us about them...
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
It's a vacation weekend, yea! Where are you spending your holiday? Have you ever vacationed in Colorado? Where?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
The heat is on, and it's time to get serious about wise water use. What do you think saves more water: using drought tolerant plants or managing your irrigation system more efficiently? Which practice is more sustainable? Does your municipality allow the use of rain barrels or gray water? What are your favorite tips for conserving water in the landscape?
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party.
Today’s topic:
Today I'm being even lazier than my usual Friday afternoon self; I'm in Telluride, Colorado, enjoying the annual Bluegrass Festival. Last night I listened to Alison Krauss while gazing at the Milky Way --- at an elevation of over 8,400 feet!
'll be back next week with photos from my high country adventure. In the meantime, happy gardening!
Early summer means garden tour time! (Saturday, June 12th, I'll be attending The Enchanted Gardens Tour of Northwest Denver.) I've gone on many, many garden tours over the years and would like to share some tips on getting the most out of a garden tour:
The obvious:
1. Hat, sunscreen, and sunglasses. Sun exposure time can really sneak up on you, best to be prepared.
2. Water. Some sites provide cold drinks, others do not, and it's easy to get dehydrated.
3. Food. Time flies when you're having fun, so why waste it trying to track down some place to eat? Carry a light snack instead.
The practical:
1. Bring a good street map of the tour area. Tour maps are notoriously light on information and rarely to scale. A real map allows you to organize the tour sequence in a way that works best for you.
2. Park and walk. Often times several gardens are within a few blocks of each other - really no need to drive from site to site. Plus, you never know what you may discover along the way.
3. Better yet, ride your bike!
Extras that enhance your experience:
1. Bring a camera. I find that a camera makes me slow down and look at the details, even in a garden that doesn't capture my interest initially. Select a theme or two for your photographs for that day: flower portraits, container plantings, hardscape details (fences, arbors, retaining walls, etc), lifestyle/decorating ideas, etc., etc.It's always best to ask permission before taking photos --- especially of private spaces.
2. Plan to take a few notes. Plant names, plant combinations, a particular hardscape material (where to buy it!), color combinations, or the name of the designer/contractor will quickly fade from memory!
3. Garden tours can be a fun activity with a like-minded friend, spouse, or older (10+?) child, but large groups or very young children can make it difficultto stay focused on absorbing and learning from everything you see. (Know what your priorities are going into the activity.)
It’s FAC time in The Art Garden! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair. You didn’t really want to work this afternoon anyway, did you? Leave a comment to join the garden party. Today’s topic:
Silvery-gray, woollyplantslike the silver sage, above, are some of my garden favorites. The neutral foliage color works well with both warm and cool flower hues, and can be a great visual unifier when used repeatedly throughout the landscape.This kind of foliage also offers winter interest; not truly evergreen, but certainly ever-present. What are some of your favorite gray leaved perennials?
