I’m hoping March will be the start of the new year for me. So far this calendar year, I’ve tried to keep up with a challenging schedule as I met deadlines, gave talks, and finished writing my book. As of this week, the draft of my book, 50 Ways to Garden with Confidence, is officially complete. As it goes through the edit stages, I’m looking ahead to where I can direct my established momentum.  I have two books in mind and will slowly begin a bit on each. In the meantime, I’m taking my blog in a new direction, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

When garden blogging began, most people started blogging about their garden. But in the 5 years I’ve been blogging, I’ve written very little about my garden. I’ve written about Helen’s Haven some, but not as much I should have.

This was mostly because it has a complicated design that I’ve never taken the time to adequately describe. Nor have I tried to explain why I did what I did. My garden was never about what is pretty for pretty’s sake; it has a purpose. Pretty is part of that purpose, but my garden is also a sustainable, water-wise, organic, wildlife habitat.

Now I want to share my thinking on the building of Helen’s Haven. My goal for my blog this year is to write about my garden and the passion that went into each of the various garden beds. Over the 14 years I’ve gardened at Helen’s Haven, the garden’s structure and purpose have changed drastically in some ways. But in other ways, the change was just a natural progression as I got bored with a landscape, or made an important shift to water-wise design, or wanted to add more natives to the gardens.

When I give tours of my garden, I usually start at the mailbox and traverse the lawn to the various beds. I don’t believe I will use that order for writing about the gardens, though. Most likely, I’ll start in order of importance. Yes, I have a favorite child—I like some beds better than others.

Recently I was asked by Rebecca Pledger, JC Raulston Arboretum Graduate Student and president of the North Carolina State University Pi Alpha Xi (PAX) Horticultural Honor Society, to speak at their initiation banquet, where she wrote, “I would love for you to be our guest speaker at our initiation banquet. I have heard you speak many times and I love your enthusiasm and your words of wisdom.”

I’ve met Rebecca at Arboretum Friends’ meetings. Often I’ve watched her, in a casual ponytail, with a fantastic future ahead of her and I wonder what I might have done differently if I knew then what I know now. I’m a bit envious of Rebecca for knowing what she wants.

So when she asked me to speak to the group about how I got into horticulture and to share some wisdom with the other graduate students, I immediately felt like a fraud. But I knew what I would share—the humble beginning of my horticulture career. It only took me 30 years to get here. It all started with a gladiolus.

The next post will be the speech I gave to the new initiates.  This speech tells the tale of how I became the hort head I am today.

Then the documentation of building Helen’s Have will begin — the good, the bad, the what was I thinking?  My goal is to complete this in 2012. It’s a goal, anyway.  Since the speech addresses how I got into horticulture, I feetl it was the natural beginning as to how I came to build Helen’s Haven.

Helen  Yoest is a writer and speaker through her business Gardening with Confidence ®.

Follow Helen on Facebook

Helen’s writing

Helen’s book, 50 Ways to Garden with Confidence, is due out this fall.

In zone 7b Raleigh, NC, where  I live, we don’t often have the benefit of a snow laying softly on the ground – protecting, insulating, and dazzling us with a photo op at every turn.  We must make due with other ways to entertain ourselves.  Our photo ops are in the form of flowers, scent, and texture.

I wish I could give you a nickel for every time an opportunity was missed.  Not by me, or course, but by others who ante up for spring, summer and sometimes fall gardening, but fall short during winter.  A couple of decades ago, I’ve decided to make it my personal mission to garden specifically for the winter.

So come along with me while I give you a little tour of a garden I call Helen’s Haven.

Paperbush – Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Winter Gold’.

Let’s begin out the back door with Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Winter Gold’.  This beauty is located just off by covered porch so when her flowers open, the scent whiffs, reminding me to sit and enjoy.  With my extremities wrapped and hands holding a hot cup of coco, I seize the moment.

The flower heads begin to form in fall when the leaves are still on the tree.  She takes her sweet ole time opening though, but that’s OK.  I like the way the flower heads hang there in anticipation of opening.  Slowly, starting in February, the flower heads will begin to open with that sweet scent ready to swoon me till spring.

It’s a good thing I ignored my own policy to have a zone wrapped around any plant I buy, protecting my pocket book and dignity, because Edgeworthia is believed to be hardy in zones 8b – 10b . I beg to differ, but I don’t feel the need to knock on any doors.  As long as you know I grow it in my zone 7b garden.

Poet’s Laurel  – Danae racemosa

It’s too comfy to get up from my chair and besides, the coco is still melting my marshmallows and I want to be sitting when it’s time to slurp them down.  This works out fine since I don’t need to travel far to continue with the tour because the Poet’s Laurel

(Danae racemosa) is reciting my name. Also viewed from the back porch is this low slung, long legged evergreen beauty, grown for her foliage.  In the winter, Poet’s Laurel also has big, reddish-orange, pea-sized berries to add a pop of color adding warmth in the cool color of shade.

Well, I never made it off the back porch, but tomorrow is another day.  And tomorrow’s light will be a wee bit longer than today, giving me hope that spring is just around the corner.

First published in the Christian Science Monitor.

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.

Based on the discussion from my last post, I did add the surface rock.  This is only a stutter start.  I added just enough to make sure I liked the look.  I do.  I love it actually.  In the next week or so, I’ll add the rest. And more good news, David Spain with Moss and Stone Gardens does have a few pieces of the big rock for the garden. Thanks David!

Now for my next problem, plants.  Oh the choices and I only have a tiny spot!  Last night, after all were asleep, I slowly turned the pages the Bluestone Perennials catalog drinking in the descriptions like Dianthus Raspberry Surprise…Fragrant raspberry double-frilled flowers beg to be picked. Feel free to do so, as picking flowers just makes room for more! OK I will. To see my other choices, head on over to my fb DISCUSSION page.

It’s nice having you along with me on this journey into creating a Rock Garden.  Thanks!

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.

Naturally, I considered plants before anything else; after all, I wanted to have a rock garden because of the uniqueness of the garden display with small alpines and other really cute small statute plants.   But, for a rock garden to really, well,  rock, the bits under the ground had to be addressed.

After I took out the old plants, mostly herbs and butterfly host plants, I began by back filling with rocks and stones I found throughout my 1/2 acre property.  The idea was to add more volume to the space and give it a nice couture.  Plus the rock in the substrate would keep things nice and dry.  This is important in our area since we receive 44 inches of rain a year.

I then added some substrate including topsoil, pine soil conditioner, and pea gravel.  This was racked in and smoothed. After the shape was right, I added the large top stones too look like they were out cropping from the land. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have enough to look natural. The problem is, I don’t have definite source for these stone; but I may. David Spain with Moss and Stone Gardens said he might be able to help me out. Note to self, call David Spain.  

All this happened in early November and the plan was to wait until January to add the top dressing of gravel and then plant what plants I had on hand.  But mainly I would wait and add plants as I decided which ones to add, and only after the basic design was complete.

Of course this didn’t happen. I didn’t do too bad though, only adding a tiny bit – just a few plants – to include: Tulip clusiana ‘Tinka”, T. clusiana chrysantha ‘Lady Jane, and T. bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’. I also added a dwarf Ginkgo biloba ‘Pagoda’ that had been growing nicely in a container until it was knocked upside it’s pot with a soccer ball. And I added a dwarf  blue juniper, Picea pungens ‘Glauca Nana’, I picked up from Garden Writers Association meeting in Portland, Oregon. I’ve held this plant in a pot since the 2008 meeting, waiting for just the right spot.  Oh yes, there was also a small Sciadopitys verticillata (Umbrella Pine) I picked up on a girlfriend  garden trip to Tennessee.

But then January came and went and nothing got done.  I needed to put a fire under me…finally,  I went and got the surface rock.

Now I’m at the point to finish the basic hardscape by adding the remainder surface large rocks, assuming I can get a few more, and adding the surface pea gravel. Here’s my problem. I’m not 100% certain I want to add the surface pea gravel. I don’t even know why I’m questioning this. I’ve wanted to add this rock even when the rock garden was an herb garden. Currently, this rock is sitting in the back of my van – the weight of which is causing my mileage to slip. I need to move it, but feel paralyzed about adding it to the rock garden area. What’s stopping me, you ask? I know the area will eventually be filled with plants and not much of the rock will show, but I fear in the interim, the space will too heavy. I can’t seem to get past this.

Please tell me what you think? In the meantime, I will make a decision, but I’m curious what you would do?

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.

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.

My 2011 Garden Gonnas

Here at Helen’s Haven, we take every chance to have new beginnings. In the world of gardening, everyday offers a chance to change; most, sadly, are not necessarily planned.

Instead of New Year’s resolutions, I have listed my  ”I’m gonna’s”.  Resolution is such a strong word, don’t you think? …like, I resolve to plant more vegetables. Shiver.  After all, I’m talking about my garden, not world peace.  So, how about this instead?  I’m gonna plant more vegetables? Much better, right?

Here are my 2011 I’m gonnas:

10.  I’m gonna kick the soccer ball with my son more on the field I created from him in the back garden.  

9.  I’m gonna not plant every bleeding plant that is given to me and even say no some offers to trial.

8.  I’m gonna create more wildlife attracting plants.

7.  I’m gonna cook more with what I grow.

6.  I’m gonna post more about the garden travel I do.

5.  I’m gonna get rid of my hybrid tea roses…sorry guys, you are just too high maintenance.

4.  I’m gonna picnic more with my kids on the green, green grass of home.

3.  I’m gonna climb the Southern Magnolia tree with my kids.

2.  I’m gonna make more bonfires with the kids and eat S’mores.

1.  I’m gonna not care what you think of my garden.  She is beautiful to me.

Hmmm, I see a pattern.  Looks like I’m gonna spend more time in the garden with my kids enjoying the fruits of my labor, not laboring.  I have built Helen’s Haven™, now it’s time to fully enjoy her and appreciate all that she can provided for my family.

This was not planned, but clearly, I am at the stage in my life to be able to enjoy my garden more with my family.  No, this post will not win me any award, nor did I offer any suggestions for world peace.  I did, however, just describe my personal peace on my little patch of earth.  Happy 2011 to all!

A look back on how I did in 2010:

10. I’m gonna stop waking up in the morning and going straight to the window to see if the boxwood hedge in the back connected during the night. The Best and Hardest Thing to Give Your Garden is Time This took me about 6 months, but I finally did it.  (Meghan, aren’t your proud of me?)  Mind you, they kinda filled in, so I didn’t need to look as often.;~\

9. I’m gonna deadhead like I should.  I did do this, but then got a bit carried away pulling stuff out instead of just maintaining it.

8. I’m gonna grow more plants from seed.  I did this with veggies and found it to be over-rated.  On the other hand, now that I have a proper Rock Garden, I may have to do this just to grow what I want to grow.

7. I’m gonna sow poppy and larkspur seeds again, even though I know I will fail.  I did.  The poppies didn’t come up and I didn’t like the look of the larkspur in my garden.  What I found was, I love larkspur – in other people’s gardens…just saying.

6. I’m gonna reduce even more lawn. Lawn Reform Coalition I did, a couple of times and places, actually, and will probably do a bit more in 2011.

5. I’m gonna add more native plantings to the garden. North Carolina Native Plant Society I did and got my garden, Helen’s Haven™certified by this great organization.

4. I’m gonna take a series of monthly images at predetermined stops in the garden so I can slide show the beds annual pattern with monthly performance.  I did and didn’t think the effort was worth it, only kinda, sorta nice. Mind you, I am just learning to do these videos and see a lot of room for improvement.

3. I’m gonna stop worrying about where my garden gnomes go. Six Places Your Garden Gnomes May Go This didn’t happen.  I tried, but failed.  I’ll try again in 2011, but I already know it will be very difficult.

2. I’m gonna read plant labels and then I’m gonna factor 25% to whatever number they print. What do You Want to Know About a Plant? This served me well.  I think it has become a new habit…the true test of success in goal setting.

1. I’m gonna kick zonal denial in the butt.  Only plants with a zone wrapped around my zone 7b garden will be allowed in Helen’s Haven…unless it’s for the south side and I can’t help myself.  This was a good one too.  As I write this, the weather is dangerously close to someone else’s zone…I sleep better at night.

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.

Helen is co-founder and contributor to:

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.

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.

Helen is co-founder and contributor to:

Beautiful Wildlife Garden
You can follow Beautiful Wildlife Garden on Twitter @Wildlife Garden and facebook at Wildlife Garden.

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.

I’ve decided to become a rock gardener

As an on again, off again, card carrying, uncaring member of the North American Rock Garden Society, also known as NARGS, I’ve learned if someone has to ask what NARGS stands for, this is a sign they have not been enlightened.   When a member is asked what NARGS stands for, there is no reason to say what it means. I find, there is usually no interest in telling either.   Oh, one might answer, but he’ll quickly walk away to find another of his own kind.

This is a serious group of gardeners. Not evangelical like many other types of gardeners, but intense and committed to the tininess of tiny, grouped in a bunch of rocks with hopes their stratification looks natural.

Then it happened.  It just happened, as my friend Bobby J. Ward wrote in the comment section of my facebook page, where I announced I was becoming a rock gardener, “Glad you finally heard the calling!” Yes, I heard my calling. Now, this may sound a bit smug, but it wasn’t meant too.  It is well known, rock gardeners are snobs.  Bobby is in good company too; Elizabeth Lawrence wrote in her book, A Rock Garden in the South, “All rock gardeners are snobs….Some snobbery is to be expected, for all are agreed that the cultivation of rock plants is the highest form of the art of gardening.”

My calling officially came when Tim Alderton, fellow NARGS member, Research Technician at the JC Raulston Arboretum, and friend, spoke to my girlfriend garden club, The Bloomsbury Garden Club.  His talk was entitled, Colorado Cousins about his journey with the NARGS annual meeting this past summer in Colorado.

Even though I didn’t realize it at the time, he dumbed down his talk to my friends, but that was OK, for it was over most of our heads.

Other friends wrote me to say they were not surprised I was becoming a rock gardener. Really, is it any wonder?  Elizabeth Lawrence further writes, “All gardeners become rock gardeners if they garden long enough.”  This is not to say I will no longer garden for wildlife, for I will.  But, for now, I shall carve out one area and give rock gardening a go.

Officially, I have a rock garden, or thought I did.  This space actually has three names, rock/herb/host garden.  I used rocks in the bed calling it a rock garden with some herbs to qualify it as an herb garden and many of those herbs were host plants for butterflies so I called it the host garden. I obviously had commitment issues. Now those herbs and host plants reside in other parts of the garden. Clearly, I didn’t know the true spirit of a rock garden or I would have never considered the presence of mere rocks as a garden.

I still have a lot to learn; but what I am learning is that I have had my calling.  A before and after period in gardening-life pursuits.

These photos are not of my garden in Raleigh.  They are of my inspiration garden, taken during the NARGS Piedmont chapter field trip and picnic this past spring.

I have my work cut out for me as I contour the land and create a substrate suitable for the kinds of plants I want to grow.

I already have some great local rock to use, but I’m not sure I have enough of it. My rock came from a client on a property he no longer owns.

I have another lead from a friend who might have similar rock, but I not sure he is willing to part with his rock. You see, he is a moss gardener and moss gardeners are much akin to rock gardeners. But, the friend, I’ll call him David (Spain),  knows of my new found enlightenment and may feel sympathetic enough to help me out. After all, those enlightened become part of an important group of like minded gardeners.

I’ll post about my new rock garden as I progress; if I start to sound a wee bit snobby, know that I’m succeeding.
Helen  Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.

Recently, I led a private garden tour for Friends of Sarah P. Duke Gardens.  Three gardens were open, The Paisley Garden, Rose Cottage, and Helen’s Haven.  What was also fun, was riding in really a awesome 1972 Biodiesel bus.

THE PAISLEY GARDEN

ROSE COTTAGE

HELEN’S HAVEN ™

Bill LeFevre, Director Sarah P. Duke Gardens

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.

Helen is co-founder and contributor to:

Beautiful Wildlife Garden
You can follow Beautiful Wildlife Garden on Twitter @Wildlife Garden and facebook at Wildlife Garden.

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.