Category Archives: The Urban Gardener

Nov 7 2011

The Urban Gardener: Good-bye Garden, Hello Winter

While I was out photographing some of the plants for these last posts in my Urban Gardener feature here on my blog, I looked across the yard and couldn’t resist this photo of one of our garden statues.  It appears to be a mother and child, but could very well be a a young androgynous couple. Either way, they have an interesting story.

J and I lived in an apartment from 2003 to 2006 before we bought the house.  One day, he found this small two foot statue out by the dumpster.  Nothing was wrong with them (that we knew of or could see), so they became a floor decoration in our living room until we moved.

In the new back yard, they took up residence in one of the flower beds and have been moved around a bit and even sat on the retaining wall to block the dogs from jumping up on it to get at the neighbor’s dog. We never bring them in during the winter.  They’ve weathered well and seem to enjoy it among the hosta.

I took this photo because they still cling to each other in love or devotion as the seasons pass.  Notice the hosta chopped down behind them. Certainly a symbol that love will surpass everything that changes around them.  Or something like that.

I love my garden and the Fall and Winter can be a bit depressing as I have to see it fade and change.  It’s the first thing I look forward to when the leaves start growing again.  Rebirth.  Renew.  Rejuvenate.

And the couple in the backyard embracing each other to keep warm in the winter, or a loving hug to see the ground grow green again announcing Spring is here.

See you next year!

 

Nov 6 2011

The Urban Gardener: Pampas Grass

The pampas grass with zebra stripes is one of the very first plants we invested in when we bought the house five years ago. We bought three bunches and planted them along the front of the deck to block the open side.  The grass grew well over six feet tall and probably at least four feet wide.  We eventually dug up two of the bunches about a year ago and transplanted them to other parts of the yard.  We even split one of them in two.

This year there was still one large bunch by the deck until we tore the deck down.  We dug it up a few months ago and transplanted it to another part of the yard.

The grass is very large and pretty and makes a nice tall foundation to the beds and gives the back yard height. As you can see from the picture, by Fall it shoots out fuzzy plums at the top, a definite sign that summer is over.

We don’t usually cut the grass back in the winter.  We let it die off and the tall brown grass looks like wheat and makes a nice whispery sound when the wind blows through it.  It’s a pain to have to cut back and dispose of come early Spring though.  The grass blades are sharp and will cut your hands if you handle it without gloves.

We like ornamental grasses that come back every year and need little attention.  We have a different smaller kind planted on each side of the front porch.

Well, only one more post before the Urban Gardening season comes to a close here on my blog.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.

 

Nov 4 2011

The Urban Gardener: Cockscomb

From The Flower Expert:

Cockscomb flowers are also known as Wool Flowers or Brain Celosia, suggestive of a highly colored brain. The flowers belong to the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Cockscomb bloom with a compacted crested head 2-5 inches across, on leafy stems that are 12-28 inches long. The flower’s name is suggestive of a rooster’s comb. Cockscomb Flower blooms from late summer through late fall. The Celosia plant is an annual dicotyledon.

The cockscomb we have were given to me by an Aunt in the summer of 2010.  They came up really late this year and we’ve practically forgotten about them.  Notice the description above says they are an annual, but ours came back and some in a bed outside my work came back also.

They are quite an unusual plant and do remind me of a brain or of a rooster.  But they are very pretty right now.  Just lost in the back flower bed.  But I notice they’ve also spread quite a bit, so last weekend I dug up a few of them and moved them to a more prominent spot just to see if they will come back again next year as well.

I hope they do because they are so colorful this time of year when everything else is yellowing away. You also have to catch these in the nurseries early in the year, despite the fact that they really don’t take off until late summer.

Nov 3 2011

The Urban Gardener: The Fernleaf Buckthorn

Five years ago when we first moved into the house there were large overgrown evergreen bushes in the front yard.  After the first year, we had them cut down and we added our first flowerbeds to accent the front of the house.  We started by purchasing 4 substantial bushes as a foundation.  Two of these were the fernleaf buckthorn which can grow as tall as eight feet.  Probably two or three feet tall at the time, I’d say those bushes are now going on four feet.  They are slow growers and don’t branch out much.

Last year, we bought two more and planted them next to the deck.  These were quite small, maybe a foot tall each, and got lost next to the huge Pampas grass so this Spring we moved them to the kidney shaped bed and each of them took off.  The one pictured is now maybe three feet tall.  They remind me of an ostrich with their feathery leaves.  They grow tall like a topiary and we’ve really enjoyed them in the front and back yards now that we have a total of four.  I always look forward to them turning green each spring when winter is finally over.

Notice all the greenery in the picture around the Buckthorn that’s been shaved back.  We do that to prevent rotting.  It’s much easier to clean that stuff up now than it is come early Spring.

Nov 2 2011

The Urban Gardener: Where’s My Walking Stick?

It’s called Harry Lauder’s walking stick.  It’s a decorative tree that we bought in 2010 when we built the kidney shaped bed in the middle of the yard.  We saw this unusual tree at the Botanical Gardens that year while we were on vacation and when we found them for sale at a local nursery, we decided to buy one as the focal point of the new bed.

While he has grown quite a bit, mainly that one single branch sticking straight up in the air like Harry has his hand raised, he’s still only about 4 feet tall and was hidden most of the summer thanks to all the other plants and flowers growing around him.  Now that we cut most of them back for winter, Harry has taken center stage again.

He even survived a Japanese beetle attack earlier this year!

Oct 31 2011

The Urban Gardener : Cleaning Up The Dead

Pineapple Sage after a few cuttings on Saturday.

This past Saturday was spent out in the yard cutting back lots of the plants that have turned yellow and wilted, mostly the hosta and iris.  We also clipped bunches of the herbs we had planted and hung them in the basement to dry – mainly the lemon basil. The beds are looking pretty barren now and we prep for winter. This week I’ll be sharing my final posts for the season which wraps up my Urban Gardener feature here on my blog.  I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have. This year’s growing season was our best yet as far as our plants and flowers go. I’m already anxious for next year.

We thought the herbs would die off, but a neighbor told us that her lemon basil and sage come back every year.  So, it will be interesting to see if ours make it through winter and come back next year.

The Sedums are dark red now.

I know I do plan on planting more of the pineapple sage next year because its red flower is still a nice single pop of color in the garden right now.  It and the Sedums are about the only color left and the sage is such a bright vibrant red.  It will look great in the back flower bed this time next year.

As for those Sedums, they are all dark red now.  They are one of my favorite plants because of their longevity. They look like a nice green cabbage when they first come up in the Spring. Their flower comes in early and just looks like green cauliflower through most of summer.

If you check out this post from September 13th, you’ll see they were still pink and white back then, but now as you can see in the picture, they are a dark wine color.  This is a great flowering plant if you want something in the bed that is easy to take care of and comes back every year with little attention needed.

The mums back when they'd seen better days....

Remember the mums I bought and planted in the pots on the porch?  I was so disappointed with them.  They turned brown and did not grow and fill in at all.  I think maybe it was the pesky squirrels that kept digging in the pots, or at least that’s who I’m going to blame.  But everywhere I look around the neighborhood, every house and every business has mums planted in the ground and they look great – orange, red, and yellow everywhere you look.  So, I planted the mums in the ground just to see if they will come back next year.  Lots of people say they will, but I’m not so sure they will in this area.  I guess we’ll see what happens next year.

Lastly, we brought in the fern and mother-in-law’s tongue (Snake Plant) and also dug up the elephant ear bulbs.  As I mentioned in another post, the banana trees have also been brought in.  Instead of bagging up all the leaves from the plants we cut bag, we used the lawn mower to chop them up and mulch the yard.

Hanging on...

This last picture is of two annuals I bought earlier in the year.  One is a hanging basket.  They are still blooming despite the cold weather, but will probably go soon. We moved them to the patio for a last splash of color. The one on the left really dried up and I thought we’d probably lost it back in June or July but I guess it was just hiding.

All around us now the leaves are falling, the flower beds are empty, and everything is dieing.  Like I said, I have one or two more posts to share before hibernation begins.  I’m going to highlight some of our other perennials which are more prominent now that everything else has been cut back.

Oct 25 2011

The Urban Gardener: That Blooming Basil? Nope…it’s Pineapple Sage!

It’s been several weeks (maybe even a month?) since my last Urban Gardener post.  Sadly, our growing season is pretty much done.  The sedums, which I posted about here in mid-September, are darker now – almost a burnt red. This past Saturday, we chopped down the banana trees and dug up their root balls.  We’ve also started trimming back some of the iris plants which have already started to yellow and wilt.  Think of it as having to spend a whole week after Christmas taking down all of the decorations and packing them away.  That’s what it feels like at least when you are having to start “winterizing” the garden.  It can be quit depressing.

As you may remember, from this post in May, this was the first year we added herbs to the flower beds.  We’ve tried several times to grow them in pots to no avail.  After seeing a segment on TV about how you should add certain herbs to your beds to attract butterflies or detract bugs, we decided to give it a go and invest in a few.  We frequently enjoyed picking their leaves through the summer to smell them, especially the mint and lemon balm.  We also couldn’t believe how big they grew once they were established in the ground.  No more growing herbs in pots for us come next year!

Most of the herbs are dry and dying off now.  Unfortunately, they don’t come back.  But one nice treat to this fall season has been the Pineapple Sage which is now in bloom.  It’s a beautiful red flower and now the only color in the back yard beside one of the roses which is being a late bloomer. We first thought it was thyme or basil (the reason for the title of this post).  But after going back and looking at the post about which herbs we planted, and Googling them for images of the herbs in bloom, we discovered it was the Pineapple Sage.

Like I said, I was well pleased with how well the herbs did and I plan to invest in more of them again next year to add to the beds for color and scent.

Oct 19 2011

Thies Farm, Creve Coeur – October 2011

It wouldn’t be October without a trip to Thies Farm. With family in town, we visited this past Saturday. The kids enjoy Pumpkinland and my brother-in-law loves their jams and preserved goods. Always eager for an opportune photogenic moment, I luckily had my camera in tow. I especially enjoyed the piles of pumpkins and gourds.  The closeups made for some nice photos that I thought would make awesome puzzles. I wish now I’d bought one of the red pears and tasted it, something I’d never seen before and may go back and get!

Remind me to get my mums here next year too.  The larger ones were 6 for $20!

Sadly, the farm closes for the season on October 31st, but their original location off 170 (which is actually closer to my house) is open through December.

Sep 29 2011

The Urban Gardener: If you see my porch, mums the word!

I couldn’t resist a few mums on Sunday at the farmers market when I went to get some red apples.  They were $2.99 each so I bought six of them for the small planters on my front porch.  I plan on getting two larger mums for the two larger planters to complete the fall ensemble for the front porch.  Medium sized pumpkins were just $2.99 also so I picked up two of those.  Next thing you know, I had put out the ghosts and tombstones in the yard as well.

I love autumn!

Mums supposedly come back every year, but I never get them planted in the ground quick enough.  I’ve always had them in pots and the frost usually gets to them before I can think about transplanting them.  A friend once told me that if you do put them in the ground, they can bloom in the spring if you want them to but if you don’t want them to bloom early, you should cut the blooms off  before they open, allowing them to sprout later.  Maybe I’ll give that a try with some of these before it gets too cold.

Anyone else have any luck with mums planted in your beds?

Sep 28 2011

The Urban Gardener: Allium Graceful

I didn’t get the alliums planted on Sunday like I had originally planned. Since I was potting those mums for the front porch and making soup in the crock and other things around the house, I ran out of time.  I’m still undecided on where to put them anyway.  It needs to be some place where they will have the most impact. And I’m definitely thinking about two clusters of them.  My purple alliums are spaced out throughout the beds, and I think now they’d look better in clumps.

I’m excited about this one and hope it does well next spring because it is white.  We don’t have a lot of white flowers although we did plant some Shasta Daisies this year.  I also have a white iris that I planted last October, but it did not bloom this year at all.

There are 10 bulbs total, so I’m thinking about two clumps of 5 either in the front or the kidney shaped bed in the middle of the back yard.  Oh well, I’ll get them in the ground sometime this week.