Serenity in the Garden

The French have long understood that vegetable gardens can be places of beauty. They located their traditional  potagers , or kitchen gardens, outside their kitchen windows and included vertical structures, flowers, and artistic plant groupings designed for aesthetic appeal.  Flowers look beautiful and attract the all important pollinators to your garden. Read the wonderful article I have linked here for learning how to include beautiful flowers and more in your veggie garden.  Infographic - go here for more

'Angel Wings' Variegated Solomon's Seal  I was talking to someone in my town who had shade in their yard and deer  problems..and I suggested Variegated Solomon's Seal ( Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’)  to them... It was the 2013 Perennial Plant of the Year is  Award. It is deer resistant and loves shade. This woodland gem  grows 18 to 24 inches tall. It is a great companion plant to hostas, brunnera, dicentra, ferns, and astilbes.  The sweet fragrance of its small, bell-shaped white flowers will enhance your walk along a pathway on a spring morning. You can use its variegated foliage in spring floral arrangements. And it offers yellow fall foliage color. photo by George Weigel It will spread by rhizomes to form colonies.  Increase by dividing clumps every two to three years. photo by Rush Creek growers I grow this in my yard and every year it spreads and looks so wonderful.  Click here for a list of a...

I am sharing excerpts from my new garden design book, Gardentopia : The screen here (a deer fence) acts to 'hide' where the walk is leading. One of my landscapes - Jan Johnsen If you want a small outdoor space to appear larger or more interesting, you can use an ancient Japanese design technique known as miegakure , or 'hide and reveal'.  This technique involves partially screening a view or section of a garden with a strategically placed shrub or wall to create the illusion of distance. This walk at the public garden, Chanticleer , in Pennsylvania leads you on by hiding what is at the end. Photo- Jan Johnsen By providing a half-hidden vista, you encourage people to go farther into a space. This is effective because people cannot help but want to see what is around a corner or a blocked view. This popular garden design technique is used for making smaller yards appear larger than they are.  People will invariably walk forward to see what ...

photo courtesy of  Purdue Plant & Pest Diagnostic Lab The Smoke Bush rules in June and July!  I planted a red-purple leaved variety of Smoke Bush ( Cotinus coggygria ) in my small front yard years ago and it has been a constant eye catcher from the beginning.  It makes the front of my house extra-ordinary in early summer. 'Royal Purple' Cotinus As a result, I use the oval purple foliage of Cotinus in many of my landscapes - it makes a great backdrop and is also a sturdy specimen shrub...and it is DEER RESISTANT. The Cotinus species is a rounded, bushy shrub that is happy and hardy wherever you plant it.  Known as Smoke Bush due to the 'smoke-like' appearance of its delicate flower clusters in summer,  it can even be used in a planter.    Both the varieties of smoke bush - green with flowers and the red leaved variety  - are in this planter The burgundy leaves of the 'Royal Purple' S...

Here's a tip:  white flowers are a STAND OUT! Who would think that simple white flowers would be so remarkable? Amidst green foliage and gray skies white petalled flowers sparkle and shine to such a degree that you have to smile ...and I am not the first to discover white's compelling brilliance. Vita Sackville West, the English garden writer(who became famous for her White Garden in her estate, Sissinghurst),  said it best, "White flowers are anathema to all but the oldest and most sophisticated of gardeners." This is a very sly way of saying that if you like white flowers you are are so cultured and discriminating. ...so there you go! I must be very classy because I fancy white pansies,white gardenias, white euphorbia, white lilies and white roses. Euphorbia Diamond Frost ( deer resistant) courtesy: Proven Winners (BTW, the above quote was the impetus for the name  'White Flower Farm' ...which is an outstanding mail or...

I am teaching a landscape design class today at the New York Botanical Garden.  It is called Learning from Before & After  I share photos and use them to teach landscape Design Principles - it is a great visual way to learn. I give out handouts and even have a quiz.... Come join us! starts at 10 am. Here is one example that I use -  Modifying a Deck - How to make an outdoor space a little more Serene  When this family asked me to make their backyard more serene and usable they never imagined I would tell them to alter their architect-designed deck! But when I arrived and saw their property I quickly realized that the 'grand staircase' that led from their deck was more 'show' than anything else. It was perfect as a 'Gone with the Wind' stairway, allowing Vivien Leigh to descend in her long hoop skirt, but it did not fit a modern 21st century family.  My suggestion? Remove the staircase entirely and build one on the side of the ...

It’s a sunny spring morning, the air is crisp and the sky is blue. I am   reveling in the lovely green setting of my backyard garden and am entranced by the water drops glistening atop the blades of grass. The season of dew watching is upon us! Dew appears when the days are warm, nights are cool and the air is moist. The earth cools overnight, chilling the air and then - like magic - drops of water appear out of nowhere and settle on whatever is near the ground. These drops of 'dew' do not last long. By late morning the dew evaporates and our momentary watery celebration of spring is over. John Milton, the English Renaissance poet, shared the delight of a dewy spring morning in these verses: “Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun, When first on this delightful land he spreads His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit and flower, Glistening with dew..." Spring flowers are lovely when '...

This is tip #134 from my brand new book, Gardentopia - so happy to share with you. 134. “MELLOW YELLOW” SPIREA Spirea is considered a common shrub, but ‘Mellow Yellow’ spirea (Spiraea  thunbergii ‘Ogon’) challenges that assumption. It is an early blooming,  deciduous shrub that grows 3 to 5 feet tall and wide.  Small, white  blossoms appear in profusion in March through April before the leaves  emerge, but it is the willowy, twiggy branches and leaves that make it  notable. The wispy, fine- textured foliage starts out yellow, softens  to a yellow- green in summer, and turns a lovely combination of reds,  oranges, and yellows in the fall, making it a late- season star as well. Gardentopia - Design Basics for Creating beautiful Outdoor Spaces Hardy to −30° F, it is easily pruned after flowering in spring. ‘Mellow Yellow’ spirea is a versatile, low-maintenance shrub that brightens up any plant bed. It likes sun, a...

Spring has sprung! I am happy to announce the publication of my new book Gardentopia- Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces . Publishers Weekly just released its wonderful review which I am sharing with you. I took the liberty of adding a few photos from my book: Readers with even the slightest interest in beautifying an outdoor space-large or small-should find something of value in this expansive guide from landscape designer Johnsen (The Spirit of Stone: 101 Practical & Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden).  She emphasizes the importance of deciding upon a goal for a garden and visualizing its final appearance before beginning work on it, declaring that the sum of any such project is greater than its parts. Johnsen takes care to dissect these parts, revealing creative possibilities (accompanied by practical guidance) for each nook and cranny.  For example, to recover the lost art of "garden strolling," the desi...

Red Obelisk European Beech Red Obelisk European Beech  is a 2015 Cary Award winner and for good reason: it is a narrow, columnar tree with wavy, lustrous, burgundy-black foliage all spring and summer.  And it is a great deep red exclamation point for your garden. !   !   !   !    Ideal for tight planting areas, it can grow 40 ft. high and no more than 10 ft. wide after several decades.  Tolerant of urban pollution so it is good for city landscapes.  Red Obelisk European Beech Tree It is a pest-free cultivar, shows good tolerance to road salt, compacted soils and a little light shade (which reduces the intensity of foliage color). In fall its foliage turns coppery-bronze, holding for weeks, eventually dropping to display a distinct winter-branching outline against the sky. Plant it  for a strong vertical accent.  Or use several trees to form a hedge. Young Red Obelisk trees Red Obelis...

Chris Hansen 'Chick Charms' Sedum in his garden SunSparkler™ Sedums If you have a hot, dry garden and want almost 2 months of vibrant color then try Chris Hansen's collection of   brilliantly colored, quick-spreading, ultra-tough and long-lived sedum cultivars  - SunSparklers™.  Zones 4-9. SunSparkler™ sedums stand up to cold as well as heat,  and once established,  do not mind poor soil fertility or long periods of drought. They are great for containers that you often forget to water ( me...). And there is no better plant for sunny banks, slopes, and rocky garden spots. These perennials  may reach 6 to 8 inches high and spread 18 inches wide within a single season.  Butterflies adore the flowers and deer may avoid nibbling the leaves ( it depends).    Sedum 'Cherry Tart' 'Cherry Tart' has cherry-red, 6" high foliage and 3 season interest.   Deep pink blooms appear in...