Here’s another video of the garden area of my pond to help cool you on hot days. It took months to dig the pond, but I wanted to learn first-hand about all the pond building issues before I had anyone else install ponds for my landscape design clients. The pond has given me years of relaxing meditation and creates music of its own. The song is from my first album many years ago. I wrote “Come on Out Now” with Peter Yellowstone in London. Steve Voice did the vocals. It seemed an appropriate lyric for the video of pond meditation and music.
For nature and garden lovers: here’s a little meditation moment courtesy of my little pond and my really rusty flute-playing. I dusted off the poor, neglected instrument after a decade of disuse and was surprised I could still get a note out of it. The fish seemed to like it.
I just had to add this little video. For those of you who do home videos — especially with pets or children — you know that having a co-star means things don’t always go the way you expect. So here is one try that didn’t quite fit into the image I wanted for my welcome page of this blog. This is just one way a pet blog video can go funny:
Burpee is now offering herbs and vegetables 'To Go' as plants. Photo by Jane Gates
At the Spring Trials 2010, Burpee announced a whole new line of products that will make growing vegetables a lot easier.
Known for their wide variety of high quality flower and vegetable seeds, Burpee has just introduced their new line of potted vegetables. Offering some of the more interesting varieties of fruits and vegetables, like heirloom tomatoes that grow in limited spaces, decorative pink-flowered strawberry plants and unusual varieties of parsley, Burpee is offering gardeners a chance to skip the seed growing process and get a jump on the growing season by planting healthy, potted plants already started and ready to grow on in the garden.
There are some other companies that do provide vegetables and fruits to buy already started in pots. But this is new for Burpee. And with the wide range of quality seeds for which Burpee is known, chances are the potted plants they are now offering for the vegetable garden will open up the choice of new and tempting edibles — already started — for the home gardener. This new product introduction, Burpee vegetable plants, will add a new dimension to the ease of designing and growing vegetables into the garden.
The newly introduced line is called Burpee’s “Home Gardens To Go”. It is likely to not only expand vegetable gardening choices for the home gardener, but make growing vegetables more available for professional landscaping. It will allow garden designers and landscapers access to buying these new edible plants for full landscape installations. Until now, finding material for planting vegetable gardens has been complicated for many professionals in the landscape industry, so too often edible gardens have been left out of the design. The new product introduction of Burpee’s vegetable plants should make edibles in the garden more popular than ever before.
Look what’s new in gardening eco-friendly gardening. One of the good things that is coming out of the recession is a deeper awareness of ecological products and the development of new green products. As a result two new types of biodegradable pots are being introduced into the retail market this year. These plant containers make it easy to recycle. You can do it right in your own garden.
New styled pots with long vents are made of barley and are firm and solid. When you buy your plants in these ecologically friendly pots you can plant the whole plant in your garden – pot and all. These new easy-to-recycle plant containers are not flimsy like peat pots yet will dissolve into the soil leaving behind nothing but addend nourishment for the plant.
Oat pots are also new on the scene. These pots look like smooth green plastic yet are made from oat fibers. These pots cannot be planted directly in the ground, but will nevertheless break down completely when tossed into the compost pile. No need to seek out some outside source to recycle these plant containers.
Buying your plants in these new eco-friendly pots will help cut down on the air pollution created in the production of all the plastic and vinyl pots that have been used in the past. And instead of adding more refuse to our trash heaps, you can simply melt your pots back into the soil as a form of nutrition instead. So look for these new, easy-to-recycle plant containers when shopping this year and next. We should be seeing more and more of these eco-friendly pots in the future.
There are few plants that offer the bold vertical growth and wide range of colorful foliage for the garden as the New Zealand Flax. The Phormium is a perfect plant to add year round color in gardens that don’t dip much below the low 20’s F. With its long, strap leaves, this plant can be used as a sentry to welcome you through an entryway, as a backdrop for shorter, rounder plants, as a companion to a boulder, a water garden, a statue or as a focal point all alone. Not only does the New Zealand Flax make a statement in the garden, you can find Phormium plants in a range of wonderful colors that will paint your garden even in the dreariest season. This plant can handle water so long as the drainage is good and it is also drought tolerant. The plain green and red varieties handle hot sun better than the colorful leaves. In hot, chaparral or desert locations, give Phormiums some shade. In areas where the sun is not so strong they can handle full sun. Here is a partial list of some of the wonderfully colored varieties of New Zealand Flax you can grow in your landscape.
Reds and maroons: P. (Phormium) ‘Dazzler’, P.’Dusky Chief’, P. ‘Firebird’, P.’Guardsman’, P.’Monrovia Red’, P.’Rubrum’, P.’Tom Thumb’, P. ‘Amazing red’
Peaches: P.’Flamingo, P. ‘Jester’, P.’Sunset’, P.’Apricot queen’
Pinks: P.’Pink Stripe’, P.’Sundowner’
Yellows: P.’Yellow Wave’, P.’Golden Sword
Blacks: P.’Dark Delight’, P.’Chocolate’, P.’Bronze baby’, P. ‘Platt’s Black’
Green: Phormium tenax, P. cookianum, P. ‘Sea Jade’ (with bold dark maroon center stripe)
White/Cream: P. ‘Variegata’, P. ‘Tricolor’
Mixed colors: P. ‘Mauri maiden’, P. ‘Mauri queen’, P. ‘Mauri chief’, P ‘Mauri Sunset’
And this is just a sampling of all the wonderful varieties of New Zealand Flax or Phormium plants that can add color to your garden.
If you can, rush out to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve soon. Fields of bright orange are visible for miles away as the poppies paint the hills. Swatches of blue from millions of blooming purple-blue Lupins intersect the orange and contrast with huge spreads of glowing yellow from masses of tiny yellow Goldfields. If the day-glow colors aren’t enough to amaze you, you can go picking through miles of trails at the reserve discovering the glittering seed heads of Silver Puffs, the red-purple of Owl Clover or find yourself scurrying after a patterned lizard to check out its designs.
The Poppy Reserve is located in Lancaster (northern Los Angeles County), just southeast of the Grapevine, 15 miles west of Lancaster center, and about 40 miles north of the Santa Clarita/Valencia area. You can find more information at http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=627.
Plan on brilliant color and blustering winds. The winds are typical of the high desert at this time of year. Wearing a hat is a good idea. Keeping it on your head may be a challenge. But it’s worth the effort to check out the wildflowers peaking at the California Poppy Reserve right now!
Most ornamental grasses will become less attractive over time if they are not given a regular clean-up. They are best cut back in the autumn or winter depending on where you live. In climates where the ground freezes hard, they will naturally die back so cutting them back to the ground in the early spring will almost be a done deal before you grab the shears. In warmer climates like the Southeast or California, winter months are ideal, although timing is not critical.
Evergreen decorative grasses can be cut back in early spring to make way for new, lush growth. Or you can just run your fingers through the clump and pull away any loose or dead leaves and stems. Deciduous grasses should be cut back low to the ground before too much new green growth appears. This is best done while the plants are dormant. You don’t have to cut back ornamental grasses in the garden, but they will look much cleaner, neater and move more gracefully in the breeze if you do.
Here’s a little more about cutting back ornamental grasses in the garden:
Crocosmia is a colorful early-blooming bulb that gophers do not bother
Here’s a little video showing you some of the smaller, early spring bulbs blooming in the garden. These bulbs were planted in the autumn to bloom in late winter or early spring. The ones shown here are Iphion, Oxalis, and Narcissus (Daffodils). There are hundreds more you can plant depending on the color, height and habit of growth you want.
Design with bulbs in masses to make a bold statement, spot them between other plants for color and texture, or naturalize the smaller varieties in lawns where they can create an informal look. Although bulbs tend to bloom for a relatively short time, you can find so many different varieties that you can keep them blooming throughout the growing season. As these early bulbs come into flower, you can start planting bulbs to bloom later in the growing season.
In areas where moles and gophers are a problem, plant your bulbs in wire baskets for protection. If squirrels tend to dig up your bulbs, lay some metal hardware cloth or chicken wire over the top as a flat piece until the new growth starts to grow through the holes. You can then lift the protection off. Most squirrels and other diggers (including cats) will be discouraged by the wire.
Bulbs give some of the showiest displays of flower in the plant kingdom. They are easy to plant and grow. If clumps become over-crowded, simply pull some of them up with a fork and plant the divisions elsewhere.
Celebrity landscape designer Jon Goldstein chats to client and actor Joh Voight at Rolling Greens. Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Kelley Lublin Photography
Garden Design Magazine launched their new Hollywood magazine in the glitzy surroundings of Rolling Greens. If you haven’t visited this fun location then you haven’t seen some of the classiest decor you can find for gardening indoors and out as well as interior design, home decor, books and more.
The opulent surroundings painted the perfect setting for celebrating the new magazine. Top garden designers, photographers, garden authors and specialists rubbed shoulders with celebrities like Oscar winning actor Jon Voight (also dad of Angelina Jolie), award-winning producer R.J. Cuttler, actor Bryan Cranston, and the people who make ‘Garden Design Magazine’ the esteemed landscape magazine it is.
Garden designer expert and media goddess Shirley Bovshow was on hand to document the event and you will be able to join her at this event on her up-coming, online airing of ‘The Garden World Report‘.
I was there with my tiny, unassuming Flip video camera and you can come with me on my little, informal video tour of Rolling Greens and the launch of ‘Garden Design Hollywood’ magazine:
