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Enter a chance to win Proven Winners plants – No limits!

February 23, 2011 By 55 Comments

On March 3rd, I will be celebrating a birthday. A big one, too. A speed limit, actually. There will be signs all over the nation reminding me of how old I am. Two numbers, sitting side by side, on signs, to signify my age.

To celebrate, I’ve hooked up with my friends over at Proven Winners for a give away .  My new age might limit my speed, but there is NO LIMIT on your  chance to win $100.00 worth of Spring Annuals – from, you got it, Proven Winners – the #1 Plant Brand!

All you need to do is:

VISIT PROVEN WINNERS
Visit Proven Winners website to see your selection. Yep, you gotta go to know what you want. When you are there, take your time, there’s a lot to see. Then, come back and leave me a comment telling me which Proven Winners annuals got your juices flowing.

It’s that easy. Just a few clicks, a chance to gush, and then leave me a comment.

But, if you want to increase your chances to win, here is more you can do:

TWITTER
Follow @Proven_Winners on twitter (1 entry)
TWEET about this giveaway. Tweet – Enter a chance to win @Proven_Winners plants from @HelenYoest; ends March 6, 2011  (1 entry per tweet)

FACEBOOK
Like Proven Winners on Facebook (1 entry)
~Like my post on Facebook (1 entry)
~Share my post on your Facebook page (1 entry)
~Blog about this giveaway and let me know where I can find your post (2 entries)

The contest closes at midnight, March 6, 2011.  The winner will be chosen on Monday, March 7, 2011.  The winner’s name will be posted here.  The winner  will be notified by email to coordinate delivery.  Proven Winners will help you with your annual selection; keeping within your color choice.   Contest is open to US residents only.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

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Mashing the gardening do-over button

February 22, 2011 By 2 Comments

On lazy winter evenings, when I’m nodding off with a favorite gardening magazine or book, I have a reoccurring dream. In my dream, I’m walking down the garden path and I find a manifold sitting on a pedestal with three do-over buttons. In my dream, I get a chance to make three things in my gardening life right. Each button is labeled, but I know them by heart: Botanical Latin, Journal, and Read More.

The dream is always the same and I wake up right before I mash the first button.

Botanical Latin If I could mash the first do-over button for my gardening life, I would start by taking botanical Latin more seriously.

Early on, I can remember friends trying to roll their tongue around incomprehensible words like Stachyurus praecox ‘Issai’ or Asclepias tuberosa. When friends talked like that, especially those not schooled in horticultural, I thought they sounded uppity. I pretended that I didn’t care, because after all, I just wanted a pretty garden; I really didn’t care what the plants were called.

But then I reached a point in my gardening life where gardening became important to me. I mean really important – important beyond my own backyard. I wanted to communicate with other gardeners and the only real way to do so was with botanical Latin.

I did actually try to learn some plant names back then – quietly, in the car where no one would think I was being uppity. Truth be told, I was (and I still am) terrible at it. All these years later, I can admit it, I even had problems with words like Rudbeckia. So you can only imagine what something like Asclepias sounded like. Even today, I forget to pronounce the d and i in Rudbeckia, spurting out Ru-beck-a instead. But it’s OK. No one really cares. At least I’m trying. It’s analogous to the French liking the fact you are at least trying to speak their language. If anyone acts uppity about my pronunciation, I forgive them. ;~\

As it turned out, the gardening world tossed me a do-over bone by changing so many of the names as they re-classified. My first thought was, “Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t bother learning them the first go around – humph!” I needed some defense for being so lazy. Getting past my smugness, I took this as my opportunity to – do-over – all on my own. I now actually find myself at a loss when people ask me about a plant’s common name, “What? The common name?; I don’t know; I really don’t know.”

Today, learning how to say botanical Latin is easy. There are some recordings available to hear specific botanical Latin words pronounced and websites that basically lay it out in a fashion that could be found in a book called Botanical Latin for Dummies; although I haven’t actually seen a book with that title — it would be welcomed, I’m sure.

My gardening life gave me a chance to mash the botanical Latin do-over button, so I took it. It was one of the best gardening decision I’ve ever made. Won’t you join me in acting like we know what we are doing by trying to roll Trachelospermum asiaticum around a bit?

Oh yes, there are other two mash-able do-over buttons – Journal and Read More. I’ll update you on those next time. My tongue is tied right now; you understand, right?

First published at the Christian Science Monitor Christian Science Monitor.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

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‘February Gold’ adds winter light

February 4, 2011 By 5 Comments

The joy of moving into an older, established home, comes with it the potential of an, older, established garden, as well.  But not always.  It’s best to wait and see what the garden reveals over the first year to learn what you have (and don’t have) in the garden.

This was the approach I took when we moved into our 25 year old, established home in the fall of 1997.  I didn’t want to completely redo the garden until I better understood the lay of the land and until I knew what I might already have.  But I did want to create a garden memory for my one-year old daughter, Bud.  Together we took a single ‘February Gold’ daffodil bulb and planted it about 5 inches deep with the pointed end up.  She didn’t know or understand at the time, that this bulb would greet her with a bloom on a future date in February, during a time when she would need it most.

The gardening task of planting a single bulb with a one-year child took about 3 minutes – about the amount of time to steadily hold the attention for a child this young.  The amount of time it took didn’t matter;  what mattered what was that we made the time to make it happen. It was all that would be needed to reap the awards, that coming spring.  Planting bulbs is easy. It’s remembering to plant in the fall where we often fail. So, if you forgot to plant your bulbs in the fall, mark your calendars now to order bulbs in late summer when the selection is good. Once you have them, you will be ready for planting after your area’s  first frost.

COLLECTING CONFIDENCE

Over the years, each fall, dozens and dozens of daffodils are planted in our garden.  Brent and Becky’s Bulbs have been on speed dial for some time as a reliable supplier for our garden’s bulb needs.  We try new varieties each year, as well as, add more great performers, such as the ‘February Gold’. We are also on first name basis with the folks over at Old House Gardens, including their cat, Charlie. Their catalog has also been used for reading bedtime stories, as they include interesting tidbits about the history of bulbs.

So gain your confidence this fall, and plant bulbs so you can enjoy in the spring…right when you will need it most.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.

Filed Under: Garden Design, Garden Profiles - Plants and People, Gardening With Confidence Tagged With: ,

Beautiful wildlife flying monkeys

February 2, 2011 By 1 Comment

“Lily, we aren’t in Oz anymore.” This conversation came hard one day as I explained to Lily why our neighbors might not be too keen on the idea of attracting beautiful wildlife flying monkeys to the neighborhood.

When we lived in Oz, flying monkeys were as common as a horse of a different color.  On summer evenings, flying monkeys could be observed flying the skies; sometimes with determination in their wings, but more often than not, just frolicking about doing nose dives, relays, and various other antics.  On evenings with a full moon, their silhouettes were particularly impressive.

Beautiful flying monkeys are very loyal wildlife.  Once established in your wildlife habitat,    if conditions are right, they will stay year round.  It’s also possible to train flying monkeys  to feed out of your hands.  This takes some time to gain their confidence, but it’s very doable.   The best approach I’ve found, is to wear a monkey disguise while putting out lettuce, aged fruit, or other veggies from the fridge.  Each day, put the food a little closer to your home, so they eventually get use to your up-close presence.

By doing this for about about a month, I was able to have the flying monkeys feed from my hands.  When we were in Oz, the flying monkeys were so tamed, my kids were able to dress the flying monkeys in costumes.  They seemed to have a preference to a military style look with a bit of red.

When fellow wildlife gardener from Mr. McGregor’s Daugher visited, she was able to get close to the flying monkeys in just a week’s time.

When another friend, Layanee DeMerchant of Ledge and Gardens visited, she was so inspired by the flying monkeys, she was motivated to get her hands on anything monkey and sent me these coffee mugs.

Because of their fierce loyalty, if you are upset over someone and ask a flying monkey to intervene, they will.  So be careful what you wish for.  This can give your flying monkeys a bad rap.  Need to remind you of the incident with Dorothy and her ruby slippers?

HABITAT

Mostly nocturnal, flying monkeys travel in packs.  When attracting flying monkeys, you are more likely to have 20 flying monkeys than the occasional one stopping by.  Preferring the tops of trees, flying monkeys have also adapted to open land, forests, and suburban neighborhoods.

FOOD

Flying monkeys are omnivores, preferring aroids such as Dracunculus vulgaris, also known as a Voodoo lily or stink lily and the insects they attract, pollinators such as flies, wasps, and beetles.  During the winter months when Voodoo lilies aren’t available, they will feed on dried grasses and hibernating insects.

NEST

Flying monkeys are cavity dwellers; however, they have adapted well due to their declining natural habitats and will also will make a nest from sticks and twigs.

COLLECTING CONFIDENCE

One summer back in Oz, during mating season, a male flying monkey came into the house through an open window.  If he wasn’t as scared as the rest of us, the fright of seeing a monkey flying throughout the house could have left a negative mark on our adventures of attracting beautiful wildlife flying monkeys.  As such, it is recommended to keep your windows and doors closed during the late spring when they breed.

Zwats are natural predators to flying monkeys.  So if you find you have a problem with too many flying monkeys and can’t find a service to help you relocate them, attracting Zwats to your wildlife habitat will help keep the beautiful flying monkey population in check.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.

Filed Under: Garden Wildlife, Gardening With Confidence Tagged With: ,

Farming mealworms

January 28, 2011 By 3 Comments

Mealworm farm

For many years, we’ve kept mealworms at the ready for the bluebirds.  Purchased from a bird store and stored in the fridge, they could always be found next to the yogurt.  It wasn’t until we rescued a green anole, during a summer vacation, that we considered growing our own mealworms – for him, but then later for the bluebirds.

For full disclosure, I use the term we loosely; in this case the we is my husband, with me as the little mouse in his pocket. He’s the one who is into this.

My husband’s motivation was for Salvo, our green anole. His success motivated me to make more mealworms for the bluebirds. And if you’re wondering, it isn’t gross at all.

Mealworms are the larvae of the darkling beetle, Tenebrio molitor. They appear to be nocturnal, preferring a dark environment. The lifecycle of Tenebrio molitor is an egg, larva, pupa, and beetle stage. Mealworms are favored by bluebirds and other insect-eating birds. Bluebirds will actually eat any stage in the darkling beetle lifecycle; but only adults if they aren’t too hard.

Farming our own mealworms became a natural extension of our backyard wildlife care, freed the fridge space, and saved us a lot of money.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED to start your own mealworm farm:

Mealworm farm's start with adult beetles

Two containers. Any handy container, 8 – 10 inches deep, with smooth sides, will work; they won’t crawl out. We use five-gallon buckets because we already had them on hand.

Enough bedding material (which is also the food source) to add 2 – 3 inches in each container. We use oatmeal.

Decent size potato (or apples will work too) for moisture. Replace when moldy.

~ 20 meal worms to start the farm. If you can start your farm with adult beetles, you will cut at least 6 weeks time for mealworm production.

HOW-TO

Fill the bottom 2 – 3 inches of one container with oatmeal.

Cut a potato in half (long ways) and add to the container fresh cut side down. This will be their water source.

Place in a dark area and keep at room temperature or warmer. We keep ours in a utility area.

We understand that adult beetles eat their own eggs. So we separate the adults from the eggs. Giving the adults enough time to lay eggs, at about 2 weeks after the beetles appear, we transfer the beetles to another similar container, where they can lay more eggs without eating the ones they just laid.  The second container can wait to be filled when these adults are ready to be transferred.  It will take about 3 months to get a good production of mealworms started. This time is made up as 6 weeks from the time the mealworms are added to the bucket until mealworms pupate and about another 6 weeks (or more depending on the temperatures) to become adults.

We check on them from time to time adding fresh potato and apple, and transferring the adults. For our farm production level, it is relatively low maintenance. With our initial 20 mealworms we are able to maintain enough population for our needs, or I should say, for Salvo and the bluebird’s needs.

There is more in-depth how-to grow your own mealworms available.Before we began, we researched how-tos on-line. Using available information, we then fine tuned, through trial and error, the how-to for our specific circumstances. For example, our research recommended keeping the growing site humid. In our area of Raleigh, we are naturally humid, so we didn’t worry too much about adding humidity. However, if you live in a drier climate, you should add a wet sponge to increase the humidity.

For our home use, we find the farming of mealworms easy to do and a no biggy in the add-on of chores and responsibilities. Salvo and the bluebirds seem to appreciate our efforts.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.

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Naming the gardens of Helen’s Haven

January 24, 2011 By 15 Comments

One day I hope my kids start their own garden, but you never know.  It might be such that they’ve had enough.  But I don’t think so.  As I listen to their daily conversation, much of it is centered around the gardens of their home.  Maybe not directly, but clearly, the gardens are part of their lives.

As one child speaks to another, with one asking where the soccer ball may be, the answers come easy, “Check the Red Bed, I thought I saw it there.”  With another chiming in with, “No that was yesterday, I saw it in the Herb Garden this morning.”  I guess they forgot I changed the name of the Herb Garden to the Rock Garden.  But I can forgive them.  No doubt, it will always remain the Herb Garden to them;  that’s OK with me.

After naming the garden Helen’s Haven™, I named the individual gardens within Helen’s Haven at the same time.  It was done as a way to identify the gardens.  I learned this from Nancy Goodwin of Montrose.  She named her gardens to make it easy to direct staff and volunteers.  Although I had no need to do this, I still thought it was clever and decided to do it too.  It has proven to be useful.  We can use the garden name to refer to something.  For example, when referencing a garden area, we can say the Woodland Too Garden as a point of reference and we all know what that means.  We say this instead of, “In the back, up by the Chestnut tree.”  Hmm, maybe that isn’t the best example since that sounds kind of nice, but hopefully, you get the idea.

The garden’s naming started at the street on the south side.  From there, I made a large loop around our half acre lot, with detours as needed to stop by each bed.  This was a good practice in that it also suggested the best way to route visitors.  Today, when I give the nickel tour of the gardens, I start at the street on the south side.

The garden tour starts with the Red Bed. Depending on the person or persons I’m giving the tour too, will determine if we go into the Red Bed.  I always want too, but some people are more into gardens than others, literally.   Believe it or not, some gardeners are happy to admire from the sidelines.  I happen to like to go inside a garden, when I can.

From the Red Bed, we go to the Mailbox Garden.  I like showing the sign on the mailbox that reads, “A Waterwise Garden, Watered with Harvested Rain.”  I think it say a lot about my gardening practices – Waterwise, sustainable, and smart!

The Rose garden is next, but since I will be replacing the majority of the roses, it will soon get a new name.  What goes in there will probably dictate the garden’s name, but I don’t know what that will be yet.

Then we come to the Sidewalk, La Petite Potager, Northern Border gardens before ducking under the Cross Vine that needs pruning.  It always needs pruning.  The vine likes to drip and I like it when she does.  Each pass through the arbor is met with the loving touch of Bignonia capreolata.

Once in the back, there are a couple of directions to go.  When the garden has been open for large tours, over say a two day period, I often sit on the back patio to watch visitors as they enter the gardens.

I recommend people go from the Rock Garden, to the Back Porch One Garden and straight onto the Mixed Border.  That’s where I will be sitting.  The back patio parallels with the Mixed Border.  We have a wonderful view of the gardens and the wildlife who visit.

In doing so, though, I recommend back tracking a bit to go up the steps between the weeping cherry allée.  This allows for a nice visit to the Children’s Garden, Woodland Garden One, the Crinum Garden, and Woodland Garden Too.  While you are up at the top of the gardens, the back of the Mixed Border presents herself nicely.

I often watch as visitors redo that loop.  I figure they couldn’t have all lost an earring, so I assume they want to enjoy the experience again.  You exit the back gardens down the rain garden path on the South Side border.

If you visit in the fall, you will most like go home with seeds of some sort.  I love to share a bit of my garden with those who visit.

I hope you will visit my garden one day.  If it’s light outside, you are welcome to come.  If you see me on the back porch, please come on in and join me by sitting a spell.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.

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A walk in the winter garden

January 21, 2011 By 4 Comments

Here’s a tip from a southerner who embraces  winter – garden for the season – it makes the time till spring fly!

We are so fortunate to be able to garden year round in the Raleigh area. I’m sharing the story below from  the current issue of Triangle Gardener magazine.  This gives just a taste of what we can grow in our area with particular interest in providing cover and food for the wildlife.

Winter Wonders – plants for wildlife

Flowers, berries, evergreens and grasses will fill the winter garden with wildlife and give you reason to walk around.

One of the best parts about living in the Triangle are winters worthy of gardening.  In winter, it is more about admiring the garden and the wildlife it brings, than worrying about weeds.  While your winter flowering trees and shrubs are in bloom, the weeds sleep.

Designing a wildlife friendly garden by adding water, food, cover and a place to raise their young, will help entice your wildlife to stay in the garden year ‘round.

Particularly in the winter, providing plants for a wide range of food sources and cover, will keep your wildlife coming back to feed and feel safe.

FOOD

There are many sources of food for wildlife in winter, including seed, nectar, pollen, berries and nuts.

With a wide variety of cultivars to choose from, the winter flowering, evergreen shrub, Camellia japonica, provide nectar on a day warm enough to move a bee, as do Mahonia and wintersweet (Chimonanthus).  So do flowering apricot trees (Prunus Mume), and perennials such as Hellebores, adding gorgeous flowers to your winter landscape.

With just a few varieties, your winter garden can be filled with blooming flowers all season long.

Many birds will be happy to find Ilex verticillata ‘Winter Red’ holly growing in your garden.  It’s not uncommon to have a a flock of cedar waxwings dine on these and other species of holly berries, as well as, Eastern dogwood, junipers and fruits, such as cherries.  Robins, bluebirds, and thrushes will also find protein rich winter berries the perfect meal.

Crab apple (Malus spp.) can be quite showy in the winter landscape and also provide food for many birds.

COVER

When wildlife feed, having cover near by provides protection, creating a safe haven for your wildlife.

Dense, low growing ground covers such as a creeping yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Prostrata’) provides winter shelter for many birds.

Tall protective grasses like Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ and Muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris), left uncut, add interest in the winter garden, as well as, cover for many wildlife.  Native switch grass, Panicum virgatum ‘Shenandoah’, can grow 4 foot tall with a nice blond winter color.

DOUBLE DUTY

Often times, plants will do double duty providing both food and cover. Viburnum tinus, Spring Bouquet ‘Compactum’, offers berries for birds and quick cover, when needed.

It’s worth noting, most double flowers are actually of little use to bees and other insects as many of these new cultivars are bred with the pollen bearing anthers replaced by extra petals. Others are just too ornate for the bees to get to the nectar.  A good example of this is the Camellia japonica cultivar ‘Governor Mouton’.  Indeed, a beautiful flower and worthy of growing in the winter wildlife garden.  But while this Camellia may not have nectar readily available, the ‘Governor Mouton’ will still provided cover for the wildlife and be gorgeous to boot.

Although not all winter plants provide food for wildlife, every evergreen tree and shrub does provide cover.  Choose plants that provide food and cover for your wintertime enjoyment and also enjoy the wildlife they bring.

COME ON OUT TO SEE ME!

Join Helen Yoest at the JC Raulston Arboretum for the Winter Lecture and Tour,  February 13, 2011.  Helen’s talk on Winter Wonders for the garden that also attract wildlife, begins at 1:00 AM followed by a winter garden tour.

The Arboretum is located at 4415 Beryl Road in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information call the JC Raulston Arboretum at (919) 515-3132 or visit their website at:  JC Raulston Arboretum

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.

Filed Under: Garden Wildlife, Gardening With Confidence Tagged With: , ,

Amaryllis re-bloom in the garden

January 14, 2011 By 7 Comments

Outside, my shadow lies on the ground, long and low, leading the way, as I brace the winter’s cold,  bringing in groceries for tonight’s dinner.  I can see the shadow of the amaryllis bulb, precariously sitting on top of the bag, as if it may fall to the sidewalk if I loose my balance.

Inside, I set the grocery bag on the kitchen counter with my myopic mind set on showing the kids the amaryllis bulb I bought just for them – to plant and nurture, helping us all wait for spring.

This time of year, amaryllis are deeply discounted since most folks buy these bulbs for the holidays.  I buy them now to enjoy through the winter; spring can be slow in coming.  A bodacious flower, amaryllis makes the wait more bearable.  But it’s more than that and I suspect too many gardeners aren’t aware. Amaryllis live on in the garden.

Amaryllis transition nicely from your winter display indoors to the garden for years of enjoyment outdoors.

Lucky for us, our zone 7 gardens suits this transition just fine.

Here’s what we do:

  • Keep the amaryllis alive inside until after the treat of the last frost date in spring. For Raleigh, that 90 percentile magical date is April 15.
  • Choose a location in the garden that receives full sun with afternoon shade for a little relief from our notably, hot afternoon summer sun.
  • The soil should be well-drained and fertile with some phosphorus added. Bone meal or phosphorus fertilizer work fine.
  • Remove the bulb from the pot and carefully, spread the roots.
  • Plant the bulb just below the neck of the plant.
  • Cover with 2 – 3 inches of mulch to aid in conserving water.
  • Water in well.

Keep mulched through the winter to enjoy your amaryllis for years to come.

COLLECTING CONFIDENCE

Most likely, your amaryllis will not bloom again this year. Still, there will be nice strappy leaves to enjoy. Lightly fertilize monthly through August.

Next year in the late spring, your amaryllis should bloom again.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.

Filed Under: Garden Profiles - Plants and People, Garden Projects for Kids, Gardening With Confidence Tagged With: , ,

Come January, we began to garden with confidence

January 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

On New Year’s day 1998, the first we shared in our “new home,” Bud and I decided to see if we could make sense of our future garden.  At 15 months, Bud was really more of a sounding board for me than a brain storming partner, but it didn’t matter. On a clear blue sky day, we walked and talk about our garden’s hopes and dreams.  She was happy with this chatter, because, after all, I’m mom and my voice soothes her. I could be softly reading the Gettysburg Address and she could be soothed.

We began by suggesting what we might want and need and where it could go. “A rose garden here in this nice sunny spot,” we chatted along on what would eventually become garden paths, and “the butterfly garden there where the land naturally slopes towards the sun. A play set with swings and a slide could go right here; it would within easy viewing distance from anywhere in the garden.” We agreed our play set would have a tea house come fort, just incase we ever had any boy siblings.  We decided we would dub our future play set, the Tea House.

We wanted herbs for cooking, open areas for running and kicking balls, flowers to smell and pick, fruit to eat, food and water for the birds and the bees, and trees to perch in so we could wile away the hours. Sound nice? We thought so.  With some forethought and planning, we knew we could build our garden to include all we shared on that January day.

Years of reading stacks of gardening magazines and books borrowed from a friend or the library, defined my gardening style.  It doesn’t take long to find a pattern in the dog-earred pages of magazines to see what appealed to my sensibilities. Making color choices for the new garden beds was going to be easy; I tend to gravitate towards hot colors – orange, red, fuchsia, and purple.

Having spent 3 years in London, my taste ran English linear.  I like the unnatural lines of straight, crisp-edged borders. I like curvilinear lines too, but for my garden at home, the lines would be straight. At least they would be in the back garden, where we visualized most of the ball kicking to occur.

We wanted a garden to provided for us in four full seasons. Given our climate and the wonderful variety of plantings available, we knew we could make this a reality.

We would visit garden centers each month to see what is blooming when and learn about a plant’s particular feature during each season. During a January visit and caressing the smooth, mottled bark of a Crape Myrtle, we decided this was just as exciting as the flowers in the summer. Picking plants during each of the seasons ensures you didn’t miss any interesting plant opportunities, even in the winter lull; especially in the winter lull.

Visiting public gardens will also give us ideas and inspiration. Each season, the gardens change, flowers wax and wane, textures tease, and foliage turns.  Each season gives you a reason to learn how we can add more to our home landscape.

With a good sense of what we wanted, the rest of January was spent sketching out ideas.  During the dark days, of that January, a lot of paper floated through the air before it landed in the recycle bin.

Even finishing the sketches though, we never really finished. The sketches became guides for putting in our garden. As time allowed and need arose, we slowly gardened with confidence.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.
Sponsored by the North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association

Filed Under: Garden Design, Gardening With Confidence Tagged With: , , , ,

Brugmansia engaged as garden art

January 10, 2011 By 6 Comments

January can be cold and bleak.  Even during these types of days, the kids still like to play outside.  I try to set the example by being outside with them, when I can.

Often the winter lacks color to engage children, but that shouldn’t stop you from adding your own color.    A recent project I did with my children to add color to our garden, Helen’s Haven, was to paint last year’s growth of the Brugmansia.

Brugmansia, a.k.a. Brugs or Angle Trumpet, named for the shape of the flower, are big and bold sub-tropical plants from Central and South America. Brugs are perennial in warmer climates to Zone 8, but they over winter fine in our zone 7b garden. Clearly, Brugs are a perennial that breaks my zone acceptance criteria mentioned in five garden essentials to gardening with confidence; this is a plant worthy of flexing your zonal denial muscles.

A “southern garden” plant if ever there was one, Brugs reliably return each year. However, the last 2 years, they were late to bloom in Helen’s Haven, with their bloom time delayed (for reasons I can only speculate) coming dangerously close to the first frost and not having a chance to bloom at all.  You see,  once frost comes, Brugs are toast. But they can still be interesting all year long.

Brugs can be cut back to ground level after frost and covered with a heavy layer of mulch or the sticks can be left for architectural interest.  I’m in the camp that leaves them up since I take advantage of these sticks by adding color to the garden.

The image on the left shows the Brugmansia in its natural, blond form.  The image below shows No. 3 engaged in creating garden art with a Brugmansia.

The image above shows the finished project while in the garden.

With a left over can of spray paint from a previous project, in less than a 15 minutes, last year’s growth can go from blond to bling, creating garden art from a Brugmansia.

COLLECTING CONFIDENCE

This truly is a quick and fun project to do with kids.  In very little time, we created art.  After we were done with our project, No. 3 (my youngest child; my 9 year son), was kicking his football through the field goal.  He didn’t seem to notice it much while outside, but when this little guy came in for lunch, he looks out the window while washing up and sees his handy work.  ”Mom, come quick,” I hear.  Fearing something was wrong, I ran into the kitchen.  He says, “You can see what we did from here, isn’t it great.  Wait till Lily sees this?”

We will be enjoying the colorful art in the garden until the spring when the new growth of the Burgmansia starts to emerge. Or we can leave it to mix with the current year’s growth.

Brugs aren’t the only plant we can do this to. Look in the garden to see other semi-woody stems that will be replaced with new growth next year such as those from Lantana. Next time I’m out and about where paint is sold, I plan to pick up a can of fuchsia spray paint since I’m hearing the stems of a ‘Miss Huff’ Lantana calling my name.

Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™

Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.

AND

Helen is the founder, publisher and editor of:
Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

You can follow Tarheel Gardener.com on Twitter @TarheelGardenin and on facebook at Tarheel Gardening.com.


Filed Under: Garden Art, Garden of Helen Yoest - Helen's Haven, Garden Projects for Kids, Gardening With Confidence Tagged With:
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