Gardening With Confidence™

Here is a little spotlight of Helen’s Haven™ on My Carolina Today NBC – 17 show. We talk about creating a wildlife habitat in the backyard. I hope the National Wildlife Federation will forgive me for saying to wrong address to their great organization. It is NWF.org

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

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

Please visit my other blogs:

Beautiful Wildlife Garden

AND

Tarheel Gardening – your online resource for North Carolina gardening enthusiasts.

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Welcome to Gardening With Confidence™ on WebTalkRadio.net.

MY GUEST THIS WEEK

My guest today is Debra Lee Baldwin, author of  Designing with Succulents , Succulent Container Gardens. Both of these wonderful books are bestsellers.

Debra will be talking about her book, Succulent Container Gardens and how we can add these beauties to our gardens.

Succulent Container Gardens

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

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Like Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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Gardening With Confidence™ WebTalkRadio withe my guest Sue Reed

Author of Energy-Wise Landscape Design is my guest sharing tips and information about conserving energy in the landscape. From placement of trees to the use of mulch, cooling the property in the summertime while allowing warm in the winter.

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

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Fan Page.

Each week, Helen host’s a garden talk WebTalkRadio.net show called Gardening With Confidence™.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

St. Paul, Minn. (March 2010) – You’re officially invited to the first ever Twitter Garden Party! On March 31st from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Central, a panel of experts from around the country will be available to answer your gardening questions. We’ll be tweeting what’s new and what works when it comes to going green in your yard. We’ll cover everything from starting a basic herb garden to creating spectacular color containers. Join in the conversation!

The event, sponsored by the Endless Summer Collection, will feature great prizes and great advice. To be eligible to win, simply RSVP at http://greenandcleanmom.org/twitter-garden-party/, and take part in the Twitter Party using the hashtag #GardenParty. Prizes include: A $100 gift card to your local garden center, Endless Summer hydrangeas, Mud garden gloves and more.

Our experts:
Justin W. Hancock @GardeningJustin – Senior Garden Editor for BHG.com, the Better Homes and Gardens Web Site. A Certified Professional Horticulturist, Justin is a die-hard gardener who loves plants. Justin is also co-owner of Loki’s Garden Center in Des xMoines, IA.

Steve Bender @grumpy_gardener – Senior Writer for Southern Living, award winning author of “Passalong Plants” and “Callaway Gardens — Legacy Of A Dream”, and editor of the best-selling “Southern Living Garden Book.” Steve gardens in Hoover, AL.

Debra Prinzing @dkprinzing
Debra is a Los Angeles-based garden and design writer. She is the author of five books, including “Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways,” and “The Abundant Garden.” Debra’s articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Garden Design, Metropolitan Home, Sunset, Better Homes & Gardens, Pacific Horticulture, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, Cottage Living, and Fine Gardening magazines, among others.

Helen Yoest @HelenYoest
Helen is a garden coach and writer based in Raleigh, NC. She’s written for many garden and style magazines including Better Homes and Gardens, Nature’s Garden, Fine Gardening, and Carolina Gardening.

Michelle Gervais @Michelle_at_FG
Michelle is an associate editor at Fine Gardening magazine. She gardens with her husband and 4-year-old daughter in New Milford, CT and is obsessed with container gardening, plants of any kind, and garden design.

Our host:
Sommer Poquette @greenmom
Sommer is a mom who’s trying her very best to be some shade of green every single day. Like most moms, she wears many hats – mother of two young children, wife, educator, green entrepreneur, humanitarian, enthusiastic social media fanatic and blogger. She started Green & Clean Mom as a way to reach out to other moms and to learn about ways to be more Eco-savvy.

For more information on the Twitter Garden Party visit: http://greenandcleanmom.org/twitter-garden-party/

Endless Summer Hydrangeas are the official plant of Mother’s Day. This spring, purchase any Endless Summer hydrangea as a Mother’s Day gift and you could be sending Mom on a trip to the spa! Two lucky winners in the Endless Summer® Spa-Tacular Sweepstakes will receive a $500 Luxury Spa Day package, 15 will win a $100 Spa treatment gift certificate. Each plant even comes with it’s own Mother’s Day gift tag! Whether mom is an avid gardener or just wants to have a great looking outdoor space, a plant from the Endless Summer Collection is a gift she’ll enjoy for years to come.

All three members of the Endless Summer Collection are easy to grow. The bountiful blooms and compact growth habit of Twist-n-Shout, The Original and Blushing Bride make each variety an ideal plant for decorative containers, elegant as stand-alone shrubs, combined as a group or with other garden plants.

Endless Summer Mother’s Day Spa-tacular Sweepstakes entry forms are available at participating garden centers. For more information or to see official rules, log on to www.endlesssummerblooms.com.

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A fence can be the perfect accent to a garden.  Make your Fence Your Folly in the April 2010 issue of Carolina Gardener Magazine just may inspire you.

Make Your Fence Your Folly

INTRODUCTION

Fences can convey feelings. Seeing fences along a country road conjures up comfort from a space that is open and yet so well contained.

At home, the materials for fence selection should complement your house style.  A painted picket fence adds charm to a clapboard home painted the same color.  A wrought iron fence adds an air of formality to your formal style.  Similarly, Craftsman style homes should have a similar style fence or the two will not relate to each other.

Warm and welcoming, fences surrounding the property tie the home and garden together making the area from the front door to the fence an extension of the ground floor. The fence, acting as a barrier between your home and the hustle and bustle of daily life, provides you with privacy and protection; but fences can be so much more.  A fence can also serve as your folly.

FRONT OF FENCE FOLLY

A classic use of a fence is at the edge of the curb or sidewalk.  First check with your city or country for restrictions on fence height and sighting.

Whether you have an existing fence or plan to install a fence in the future, consider planting a garden as well.  A fence is the perfect folly to any garden.  An opportunity not to be missed.  Fences become accents in garden designs; a backdrop for garden beds.

Setting the fence back from the curb or street allows for an area to be planted.  Adding a gate allows the visitor an opportunity to pause and admire the garden as they open the garden gate for their passage through.

PLANING AND PLANTING

Consider the depth of your front-of-fence garden.  It could be narrow; a mere six inches, with just a fluff of greenery such as Liriope to soften the edge or the bed could be 3 – 4 feet deep for a full scale garden.  The bed shouldn’t be too deep since garden maintenance will need to be reached from just one side.

Adding plants for year round interest needs to be considered.  After all, your folly will be a focal point as well.  Layering with trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, grasses, bulbs and vines; a mix of herbaceous and evergreen plantings, gives the design enough variety to maintain interest year round.

Here are some examples of fences planted to add year round color, form, and texture.  Each design is a traffic stopper and a delight for anyone walking by.

WHITE PICKET FENCE WRAPS THIS SOUTHERN HOME

The fence surrounding this southern house provides the perfect accent for the home and garden.  Planted with Verbena, ornamental grass, iris, veronica, sage, climbing rose, daylilies and ginger; the garden waxes and wanes throughout the year.

SIMPLE POST AND BOARD DESIGN

Les Parks garden, in Norfolk, Virginia, is a good example of how a small accent fence can make a big statement in a garden design.  The fence wraps around the corner lot of the Parks’ home with the gardens flowing seamlessly in front of and behind the fence. This small, yet vital definition, makes the garden pop.  Les has planted his garden with ‘Fenway Park’ Boston ivy, Chocolate mimosa, daylilies, dwarf Hinoki cypress, Degroot’s spire arborvitae, Rose Glow Barberry, Sunshine abelia, black and blue salvia, Jerusalem sage, green spire euonymus, cut-leaf sumac, Pizazz loropetalum, and amsonia.

NATURAL FENCE ON SIDE PROPERTY NEXT TO SIDEWALK

Those passing by this side yard will enjoy a fence planting created with trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals.  Each season has interest as the plantings change.  Planted with Crape Myrtle, gingers, daylilies, Helianthus, vinca, mondo grass, and azalea.

AN INSIDE FENCE PLANTING SURROUNDING A POOL

Denny and Georgina Werner’s fence planting in Raleigh, NC, surrounds a pool.  A seasonal garden, the Werner’s focused on plantings to give color, form and texture during the summer months.  Planted with a banana relative, Esete maurellii, Black Magic elephant ears, cosmos, zinnia, snapdragons, tickseed and verbena.

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

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Fan Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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Gardening with confidence can be achieved with one simple mantra: Right plant for the right place. Seems simple enough. Yet, not following this mantra is often times why gardening goals are not met. Here’s my take on right plant, right place. Understanding these five essential elements will help you garden with confidence.

Zone
There is a lot of talk about zonal denial, micro-climates, and changes in our zones due to global warming. If you are a risk taker and know your garden well, then by all means push the limits with your gardening zone. In my garden, Helen’s Haven, Zone 7b in Raleigh, North Carolina, I no longer take these risks. I’m perfectly happy in the zone I own. I know plenty of folks that plant zone 8 and even zone 9 plants in our zone 7b gardens and are thrilled with their success, even if it may be short lived. I use to, but don’t anymore. I find it is even risky planting plants on the zone’s edge. Ideally, I like to wrap a zone around a plant, putting me into choosing plants for zone 7a, but not always. This year, I will be replacing a Clematis armandii, zoned for our 7b gardens. But, alas, we had a particularly hard winter.

Soil
We need to accept the soil we’re dealt or be prepared to amend. I have yet to garden in perfect soil, and still, I find gardening success. I’m a heavy amend-er and believe in the power of mulch. In our area of the Piedmont region of North Carolina, there is clay and sand. In the heart of Raleigh, where I am, it is all clay. As you move outside of Raleigh, you’ll find sandy soil. So when I read a plant label that recommends planting in well drained soils, I know they are not talking to me. But planting these plants in my garden is a risk I’m willing to take. Why? Because here I have some control; I can amend my soil. I have amended all my garden beds, one planting hole at a time. Adding composted leaf mulch or other organic matter to the hole and blending it with the clay with some added insurance of a permanent clay buster such as PermiTil, I can make my sticky clay soil friable. In any garden soil type, you cannot go wrong adding more organic matter. Then top dress the garden beds with a lush, thick layer of mulch each year to moderate the soil temperature, suppress weeds, retain water and generally tiding up the garden. By doing so, you’ll have a happy garden.

Sun
Full sun, part sun, part shade, dappled shade, full shade, afternoon sun, morning sun, winter sun, more sun. Know your sun. If the plant tag says full sun (6 hours or more a day) then that means it needs full sun. Anything less, and the plant will not perform at its best. However, having said that, you can use the sun requirements to “tame” plants as well. As an example, I like Akebia quinata commonly know as five-leaf Chocolate vine. This is an invasive vine. However, I grow this sun lover in the shade where it is well behaved. Remember this: The north side will have the least sun, the south side the most. The eastern side will have cool light, the western side hot. Of course all this depends on what’s above and if it is deciduous. There is nothing mysterious about this. Take the time to identify areas in your garden and track each hour. To see the effects of the suns angle, track around March 21, June 21, September 21 and December 21. The results may surprise you. Also good to repeat every few years as your plants (and your neighbor’s plants) mature.

Water
The last thing I want to do is deny myself is a plant based on watering needs. But I’m also prudent. I garden water wisely. By that I mean, I have my gardens grouped into three watering zones: Oasis, Transitional, and Xeric. I’m also fortunate in that I have most sun types covered in each of my watering zones. When I garden shop, the plants watering needs are a high priority for me. But because my garden is designed in zones, it narrows down where I will plant it in the garden. This also makes my garden purchases easy. I won’t waste money on a thirsty plant requiring shade if the only area in my Oasis zone is sun. Also, it allows me to have a mental map of my garden with me at all times. do not want to spend any more time than I have to on watering. The thought of dragging a hose around, past 10 drought tolerant plants to reach one thirsty plant is not part of my makeup. I’m way smarter than that.

Critters
We all have our critter challenges. For some it’s deer, others moles, voles, and armadillos. For me its rabbits. Bunnies are my nemesis! I have voles and moles too and once when a new development was going in two miles away, I saw evidence of displaced deer. Then I actually saw the critter. A sight common to many, but not to me. That deer was so out of character in my garden, it might as well have been a kangaroo. I’ve given up worrying about critters. If I don’t have a chance at winning, I’m not going to play. I do what and where I can, but I will not be a slave to sprays. I don’t have the time or the where-with-all that requires an exact spray schedule. I get no pleasure from it either. These critter repellent sprays work fine, but need to be kept up. When I look back at what I had to give up, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I first thought. I can only have a few Hosta, because the voles love them. I have voles. But I also love Hellebores, so I grow Hellebores – the voles don’t bother them. The bunnies will have to go elsewhere to Echinacea because I will no longer provide these favorites of mine as a favorite for them. As for the Rudbeckia, I’m trying them in a tall pot this year. I may try to put some Echinacea in a pot as well.
So you see, understanding these five essential elements will give you what you need to Garden with Confidence. Follow the mantra of the right plant for the right place, do what you can and except what you can’t and you’re good to go!

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

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Fan Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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Bottle Trees are a great addition to the garden.  I’m currently in the process of creating a second one in Helen’s Haven™.  The new tree is made of fish bottles.  To date, I have 4.  Just four.  They are suddenly hard to come by.  No doubt, I would easily find them if I was looking.  If you see any, please let me know….

One fish, two fish, three fish, four.

Five fish, six fish, seven fish, more!!!

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

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Fan Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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GARDENING WITH CONFIDENCE™

THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN

Mid-Atlantic Region

Zone 7b

INTRO

January is a good time to look back on your gardening year and to plan ahead.

Now is a good time to walk around your garden, shoot some photos and make a wish list of your garden’s hopes and dreams.

It is always a good idea to photograph your garden each month as a photo journal of what is blooming when. But also, looking at your garden through the lens is telling. What you see and what others see are often time two different things. We all have our priorities. What you may pass by everyday because you got use to looking at it will show up and be noticed in print.

It’s no different when seeing oneself in a photograph. Most of us don’t like what we see, we start picking it apart. Do you like what you see in your garden photographs? So while it is a good idea to walk around your garden to jot down ideas and what needs to be done, it is a better idea to evaluate what you see from photographs.

Take a good look around. January is a good time to look back on your gardening year. Are there things you would like to change? Make a list, keep it handy, and add to it as necessary and check off the tasks once completed – its a good feeling.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR

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

On New Year’s day, we have an opportunity to plan some resolutions and then hope for the best.  As someone profound once said, “if you don’t have any goals, how do you know when you got there”, or some such talk.  So I have goals for the garden…drumroll, please. Here are my I’m gonna’s:

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

9. I’m gonna deadhead like I should.

8. I’m gonna grow more plants from seed.

7. I’m gonna sow poppy and larkspur seeds again, even though I know I will fail.

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All I wanted to know was if it was favored by bunnies…

As a garden communicator, when I write about a plant, I like to present as much information as possible,\’a0 at the same time making it readable.  Also, most times, I have had a good experience with a particular plant, bringing me joy and I want to share this experience and hopefully encourage the reader to plant one in hopes they experience\’a0 similar joy. I don’t like to write about a plant I don’t have a personal experience with.

What I want to know about a plant may be different than what you want to know.  The variables per reader are vast.  Most gardeners will want to know about the plant’s USDA hardiness, sun requirements, soil type and the like. There are those plagued with deer who want to know if it’s deer resistance, with nearly every communicator qualifying the answer with, “But as you know, deer will eat anything if hungry enough.”

I need to know the plants water needs.  I have a waterwise garden design, so I need to know if the plant of my desire will go into my oasis, transitional, or xeric zone.  From there, I can decide if I have room, or if I really want it, I’ll make room by trading up. I find it frustrating when I see a plant I want and have to go to several sources to get all the info about a plant that I need.

When I’m gathering gardening info, I’ll gather even more info than I need personally, in the event I really like the plant and want to put it in a clients garden or if I want to write about it.  For example, I am plagued with bunnies.  I need to know if a plant is resistant to bunnies.  I don’t have deer.  However, I will want to know this information to file away for a client’s need or for a writing assignment.

The magazines (me included) are currently writing about the 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year,Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ ornamental grass.  A timely endeavor.  I like it.  It looks good in the photos and I want it.  But with having made too many plant purchase mistakes to mention, and finding that zonal denial only benefits the nursery or garden center, I’m getting to where I need to be gaining more knowledge and killing less. If a plant is listed as a bunnies favorite, I’ll stay clear of it.  No use building a buffet line for those marauding, munching, members of the cute critter club.

Here is what I want to know about a plant.\’a0 The list started out organized and ended up random as I continued to think of things I wanted to know:

Hardiness range My garden, Helen’s Haven, is in Zone 7b.  I have to really, really like it if it’s at the end of it’s zone.  Preferable, I like to have another zone wrapped around it.  I no longer buy zone 8 plants; those days will be here soon enough if you listen to the global warming conversations, but for now, I’m sticking to my zone.

Water requirement I will accept most conditions, dry, moist or wet.  I don’t have all the waterwise zones covered, but I do have most of them including, sunny oasis, sunny transition, sunny xeric, shady transitional, shady xeric and a tiny bit of shady oasis.  I need a plant’s watering need so I know where to plant it.

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