This is the Rationale for Crape Murder.....

We started pruning the Crape Myrtles at the Big House early this morning.  Since these photos reflect a full six-hour day, it might give non-Southerners a better understanding of why most landscaping companies go the "crape murder" route shown in an earlier post.  When we were about two-thirds through today's process, the man who lives across the street pulled up in his car and said, "Dude, there is NO WAY I would be doing that!  It terrifies me just to watch the process!"

The truth is that pruning the crape myrtles makes no real difference in the number or quality of bloom;  you'll often see ancient crape myrtles when driving past old farmsteads around the South, blooming their hearts out in mid-summer, while nothing remains of the house except the firecplace and foundation.  In this particular case, the trees at the driveway entrance have simply outgrown their space, and are no longer in scale to the surrounding landscape.  The choice is to keep them in bounds through pruning, or replace them, which would be such a shame since they've just reached that point of having the truly magnificent exfoliating bark.

An appropriate caption for this one might be, "Really?  You have fifteen of these to do?  Really?" as the other Tim began tree number two today.

To put the size of these trees (Latin name, "Big honkin' Crape Myrtles") in perspective, Chuck (in red) is about 6 feet two inches tall.   The pile of branches is part of what was taken off the first tree.

A particular difficulty with pruning Crape Myrtles is that their branches aren't especially strong, and are more brittle in the winter temperatures.  Nick, the slightest of our group, gets the special job of climbing to the top of the extension ladder to do the finishing cleanup with pruners.  Nick has vowed to become fatter before next year's assignments, so he can be at the base of the ladder. 

Two almost done in this photo, only thirteen to go........(they really are the same height, just a bad camera angle....) 

This Week in the Garden - Pruning, Seeding, and Cottonseed Mealing

I can't believe it's been a full week since I've logged on here...guess I have some catching up to do!  I'm also a little embarassed that I said I would publish a list of "this week in the garden" every week and it's been two weeks since my one and only post!  I'm sticking with my story that it's just because the snow threw us all for a bit of a loop.  "Shoveling snow and breaking up ice for days on end" is not a regular part of my Atlanta gardening calendar. (Be gentle, dear Yankees.....Atlanta only owns 11 snow plows).

For starters, we're continuing with that same list of pruning that I listed on January 6.  We're about half way through the garden at the Big House with that winter pruning, and three of us will spend a full day doing nothing else tomorrow.  I'm usually somewhat flexible with cutting back all of the grasses (I love their look in the winter sun), but this snow and ice has turned them all into big messes, so "off with their heads" tomorrow!

In addition to the pruning, I'll be doing the annual cottonseed meal dance in the next couple of weeks.  This is a distinctly Southern thing, I think, that makes a HUGE difference in azaleas; I don't remember ever having a surplus of cottonseed meal growing up in New Hampshire. We use about 2 cups of cottonseed meal per bush for azaleas, radican gardenias, and boxwood.  Sprinkle it on the soil over the roots, scratch it in with your foot, on to the next one.  Cottonseed meal is one of those things to buy at an old-timey grain and feed store.  In the fancy garden centers, it's $15 for a one pound box; in the feed and grain stores, about $12 for 50 pounds!

This Week in the Garden

One of the practices I've developed over the years is the continual use of a "garden calendar" that I've developed over time, which includes the plants in the gardens at the Big House, as well as those in the Stepchild Garden.  Whenever I purchase or install a new plant, I take the time to Google its recommended maintenance schedule for this particular zone, and add those notes into the schedule.  This information is merged with thoughts from local gardeners, experts about particular plant species, etc.  I've found that it's the only way I'm able to keep up with some things that need doing, and over the past few years, it has made a marked difference in the success I've had with particular plants.

As a result, I'm going to start posting "This Week in the Garden" on a weekly basis.  If you're in this same zone (7B to 8, depending upon who you ask), feel free to take any of these things for your own calendar.  If not, take what's helpful, and use it to help yourself develop your own schedule.  The other added bonus is that this list prompts me to visit some out of the way spots in the garden that I don't always pay enough attention to, catching bugs and such before they become a problem.

January Pruning:  Abelia, Bottlebrush Buckeye, Vitex, Clethra, Confederate Rose, arborescens Hydrangeas, Hypericum, Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Gardenia, Osmanthus, Pyracantha*,  Agarista, Arborvitae, Boxwoods, Evergreen Hollies, Crape Myrtles, Figs can be pruned hard in January
Fertilize:  Pansies every two weeks (temps must be below 60 degrees F) with pansy fertilizer, Liquid 10-10-10 on bulbs once two inches of foliage is visible
Miscellaneous: Spray Dormant Oil on Branches of Fruit Trees to Suffocate Dormant Insects

Now, before you get all worked up about this (as only gardeners can), please remember that this is what I do, and it may not be applicable to your particular garden.  A couple of notes, as well....if the pyracantha looks really good and is still covered with berries, I won't prune it until February.Similarly, most of these things listed are fine getting pruned in January or February; with the number of plants I need to prune by hand, and the number of daylight hours in the winter, I need to start now or I'd never get done!

Prune-a-Palooza

It seems like we've done nothing but prune at the Big House and in the Stepchild Garden for the past few weeks.  Even with weather being colder and wetter than normal, we're finally seeing some signs of spring, and it's time to cut back in anticipation of that growth spurt.  The Medusa-like growth on the Eleagnus has been pulled back into a somewhat contained form (if that's possible), the roses have been cut back and glued, and it feels like I've taken 35 truckloads of Sasanqua camellia trimmings to the green waste site.

February is also the annual time of "Crape Murder" in the South, when we gardeners look on in horror as so many landscape crews come out with the chain saws and "straighten up" the Crape Myrtles. Perhaps the only thing more funky looking in my mind are the hollies cut into lollipops in the supermarket parking lots!

At the Big House, the two ends of the circular front drive are marked with ENORMOUS Crape Myrtles, and in front of the house itself there is a cluster of exquisite "Natchez" Crapes, with that beautiful bark and white flowers in summer.  Since it's a pretty formal setting in front of the house, we do clean them up somewhat each year, and try to add a little balance to the overall scheme of things.

Once upon a time we used pruning shears and loppers.  Then it progressed to hand saws.  Now even the tallest ladders don't work!  Oh, well, it gives the neighbors something to talk about......."Can you believe what they're doing in that garden now?......"

One of My Favorite Containers for Summer

I spent the day pruning like a crazy person, all the while using the "alternate" pair of pruners. As a result, I have a blister the size of a ping pong ball on the ball of my hand! The kicker is that tomorrow was planned as the day to prune in my own "step child" of a garden.....looks like I might have to cruise the nurseries instead......

Here are two photos of one of the summer containers at the Big House. It's very simple, but I think really shows off the Lion's Head Maple well. I surrounded the base with Bonfire Begonias, and then there is a little Creeping Jenny just starting to drip out of the pot, as well. I'll post another photo once the begonias are blooming, because they're pretty spectacular. They take a little more sun, a little more heat, and a little bit drier soil than most begonias, I've found.

They're Not Invasive! They're Exuberant!

I was walking through my own garden this morning with a cup of coffee, just sort of roaming (as much as one can "roam" on a half acre). It was too wet to work in someone else's garden today, since the skies were opening every fifteen minutes. As I looked around, I realized that I have accumulated lots of those dreaded plants that every garden snob hates; I like to call them "exuberant," instead of invasive.

The Akebia is already half way up the poles of the pergola, and the scent was awesome. It's one of those things that garden snobs say, "You grow that???" To add insult to injury, I have porcelain vine (AKA crazy weed) growing up the other pole (that's it in the picture above). I have never found anything else with such beautiful berries.

I seem to now have six forsythia bushes growing in different spots. Is there anything as happy in the gray of winter? I planted two, and don't truly know where the others came from, but they aren't bothering anyone, certainly not me.

Then there is the Mahonia, with those awesome butter yellow blossoms in January, followed by the berries than look like hanging clumps of blue grapes until the birds get them. The Eleagnus ("Ugly Agnes") really needs a good haircut, since she's looking more like Medusa, with those gangly shoots that appear out of nowhere, and reach out to grab small children. (I haven't seen the little boy from next door recently......)

The huge clumps of Yellow Cannas (I would love to say they're a "cultivar," but they're just yellow) seem to swell more each year. Another plant that gets zero attention from me, and blooms its heart out in summer.

I tell people I'm going to thin out some of the yarrow this year, since the clumps now run together in various shades and colors, but I'm really not....one can never have too much yarrow.

I was excited to see all of the new sprouts of Verbena Bonarensis, which I like to think of as "punctuation marks" around the perennial bed. This is a plant that everyone should have in their garden somewhere. Just buy one, since you'll have ten next year!

If Alice's Cleome and the Verbena B. ever cross-pollinate, I'll have no choice but to move!

A Bit of Spring Cleaning

After a weekend of cold drizzly rain (which we desperately needed), it was a treat to be in the garden today in the warm sun. It got into the high 60's, and was the perfect day to do some "spring cleaning" in the vegetable garden and the big perennial beds. Can you believe we're only a month from planting summer annuals?

The blueberries are positively covered with blooms, which are pretty in the walled garden, since everything else there is either still dormant or just starting to grow for spring.

I managed to pull out some of the winter cabbages, which had started to bolt with this warm weather, and are developing that funky odor that occurs when they start their decline. Time to move the last of the "Antique Shades" pansies from the nursery area to the displays at the front of the house, since it still needs to look good for another month before the spring things arrive. They are the perfect color for the brick of the house, but a challenging cultivar that needs lots of babying.

Took the broom to the creeping fig that covers the wall in the garden; it starts to look pretty ratty at this time of year, so the broom makes quick work of brushing away the dead leaves, exposing the new growth; it was exciting to have to tiptoe through the spears of asparagus that have just started popping up in the past couple of days! One of the luxuries of being the gardener is standing in the garden, in the silence, in the sun, eating the first stalk of the season's asparagus......

I was raking away the last of the autumn leaves from the vegetable beds (we leave a light covering there for the winter), and discovered the tiny little shoots of sweetpeas around the base of the tuteurs....I can't wait to see them start racing up the slats in the next couple of weeks!

Across the gravel walkway, the peonies are showing their heads (one in a particularly hot spot is about six inches high already), so I got to put out their cages for another spring show. Peonies always make me smile, thinking of my grandmother calling them "Pee-OH-nies" with the New York accent that still came through, even 70 years after leaving her childhood home.

I finished my day giving a haircut to the "Sunny Yellow" Knockout Roses that arrived a few weeks ago, grooming them to go into containers at the pool in a few weeks. There is something magical about spring, when you can literally watch things grow right in front of your eyes!

Leave the dreaded leaf blowers and power mowers in the garage for just another week! Sit back and enjoy the simplicity of the spring garden.....and look for those first spears of asparagus!

PS....The sakurafubuki is getting closer!

One of Those Magical Mornings

This was one of those days I thought would be "rained out" in the garden, but it turned out to be pretty productive. The rain held off long enough to get in some of the last winter pruning, we got a bunch of pansies transplanted from the nursery beds up to the front of the house for their spring show, and got a lot of things cleaned up that are starting to flush out for spring.

Everywhere one looks, the plants are "at the starting gate," with tiny flushes of green showing around their bases. Many of those special winter bloomers are blazing with color against the grey and brown landscape, and what seems like hundreds of birds are at the feeders.

Between the heavy downpours this morning, Chuck was roaming around with his camera. Here are a few shots to bring a little bit of warmth to this rainy weekend.

To Hedge or Not? Sort of like Vanilla & Chocolate

We were having a conversation yesterday about the merits of lorapetalum in its natural form, just growing all over the place, with those great fuschia blossoms (and now in whites, reds, and some other shades). This is the look I have in my own garden, mostly because I have it planted as "exclamation points" around the garden, and it would look a little too fussy if it were sheared.

(I have a picture elsewhere on this blog of "Little Rose Dawn," with its particularly loose form, billowing fuschia blooms all over the place.

All that said, there is definitely beauty in lorapetalum that is kept sheared. I first saw this at Smith Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw, GA, where Dr. Bob Gilbert kept his lorapetalum sheared into a beautiful, formal hedge around a parking area. Part of why this is surprising is that Dr. Bob is definitely not a sheared hedge kinda guy. If anything, he is just the opposite, aiming for plants that grow undisturbed to their full natural size and form.

In my weekday garden, there are many lorapetalum hedges, in different sizes and cultivars. As much as my gardener side says, "Let it be!" I can't deny how much I like the crisp clean look of the hedge with its distinctive burgundy foliage. This garden is decidedly more formal than my own, and it's really the perfect look.

I think I'm going to stop apologizing to the natural-style gardeners about how severely sheared the lorapetalum is, and just enjoy its beauty in both forms....vanilla AND chocolate!

Some Early Spring Cleaning

Today was really the perfect day to be in the garden! It was a little foggy this morning, but by mid day the sun was shining and everything seemed to be melting before our eyes! After these last couple of frigid weeks, it was such a pleasure to be outside doing some tidying, getting ready for the first of the blooms to come out again!

This was one of the first days in what seems like an eternity when it was necessary to step around the multitude of bulbs that are starting to show their leaves. Hundreds of daffodils have broken ground, and I'm anxious to see what the new one, "Patrel," looks like when it comes up. It is specifically bred for southern gardens (to zone 9). The Leucojem leaves are coming up with a vengeance; they're a favorite bulb of mine, and put on a really long show of little white and green bell shaped flowers.

Some of the more delicate plants we've put into containers for this winter are having a really hard time with the unusually cold winter we've been having. I'm afraid the variegated gardenia looks more toasted than variegated at this point. Oh, well, live and learn!...perhaps that's why the tag says "zone 8".

The Erthfood we spread last fall seems to be doing its magic with the bulbs,as well. We planted a lot of tulips in November, but it seems as though there are lots of mystery tulips bursting through the soil everywhere else, too! It's not exactly rocket science...add some food and some water (from the new well), and things respond!

We also checked off lots of items from the January pruning list. I generally use Walter Reeves' list from the AJC that was published a few years ago, but is still easily available on line. For the most part, we follow that list, but for a few things like butterfly bush, we're holding off a while.

In the meantime, I think I feel the beginnings of a suntan coming on!

Some Early Winter Pruning

It was the perfect day to get out in the garden and do some winter cleaning and pruning. This is the time of year when the "bones" of the garden can be seen most easily, so I like to prune those trees and shrubs that can tolerate it during the winter.

One of my friends talks about having "prune-a-phobia," and jokes that she's always sure she'll make a wrong cut, and ruin the plant for life. Today's projects would have been perfect for her, since they were both tough as nails plants.

We started with the Yellow Anise Tree (Illicium parvifolium), which had really grown out of control in the past year. It's native to the Southeast, so can take a lot of abuse, and always looks good. We have it as a casual hedge in an area under the tree canopy, where we want privacy at neighbors' eye level. Since it had started to get really leggy and wasn't doing it's intended job as well anymore, this was the perfect opportunity to get out there and prune in a way to encourage side branching and bushier growth in the spring. It is such a treat to have something that consistently looks elegant and dark glossy green, even while getting attention just once or twice a year! The fact that it has a great fragrance and interesting bloom is just icing on the cake!

Since the next area over in the garden is a group of Cherry Laurels (Prunus caroliniana), this was the perfect opportunity for some clean up, as well. The plant snobs are usually not fans of homely Cherry Laurel, and it can sometimes be invasive, but it's very sturdy for the somewhat shady, poorly drained space where we have it. Over the past couple of years, it has become my project for a "pleached hedge." It looks pretty cool, like a hedge on stilts! Since we have a privacy fence behind them, the row of naked trunks look really great in the winter light; in the summer the trunks are somewhat hidden by the panicle hydrangeas that grow in front of them, so it's almost something to look forward to in winter. If you've never tried "pleaching," it's a fun project for the gardener who wants to do something different! (This photo is from a nursery that sells pleached Cherry Laurel, not my garden, but the look is similar --- though I only have seven trees in the hedge).