A happy update to one of my February posts. One of my former coworkers (hopefully now friend) has relieved me of my leaning pagoda dogwood.  The roots were not extensive, so we were able to dig it up quite easily and she immediately planted it in her yard.  I reminded her to water it consistently when rain is scarce, but initially forgot to tell her a liquid root stimulator (found at most nurseries) would help to curb any transplant shock.  I remembered a couple of days later to tell her and now my conscience is clear (but I really hope it makes it!)

This Spring we expect the City's contractors to begin work on a combined sewer overflow project on our street.  We can see the trucks, front loaders, piles of sand and gravel headed our way from the adjacent street and I'm bracing myself for the noise and mess soon to follow.  I had planted our esplanade (the part between the sidewalk and street) with overflows from my perennial garden (like shasta daisies, coreopsis, iris, oenothera, and day lilies) as the grass died there as well.  Now I fully expect to come home from work one day to find it completely buried under sand, gravel, trucks, etc.  So, I am making a big effort to give away and move what I can.  My friend who adopted the dogwood, filled a pick up truck with plants, and I couldn't even see a dent in my esplanade garden!  Now I've begun actively soliciting my children's friends' parents.  I have found some takers, but it does mean finding plants pots and boxes to put the items in.

Since I have now run out of plant pots, I am resorting to empty paper coffee cups and yogurt containers (mostly for seedlings) and using copy paper box tops for the larger items that once pulled really need to be planted right away.  I may try to leave a few things planted, like the ajuga, and pray it comes back.  But I mostly suspect the City's contractors will demolish the area, then attempt to grow grass back once and forget about it once it doesn't take.  I just hope they are done by Fall so that I can replant with any "volunteers" that pop up over the summer.

Tools

Tools, like plants, don't have to be expensive or time consuming.  A few simple items are needed for basic care; long handled digging shovel, spade, pruning shears, pruning saw, rake, and, perhaps, sod lifter (for edging, and in Maine, breaking up driveway ice and lifting it out of the way).    Oftentimes the best tools can be found at a yard sale where the family is downsizing into some type of condo/town house and no longer need to maintain their landscape.  

Some things aren't, in my opinion, a good investment.  Items like a large watering can (a hose gives a much better soaking and deep watering is best, also empty milk jugs are free and easier to cart again), or fancy plastic buckets (I use empty cat litter containers, the plastic kind with a handle),or store-bought trellises (I have two clematis that need to climb, I use a broken side of a lobster trap found at the beach for one, and the old grill from the storm door for the other.  Other good trellises would be the side of a baby crib or an old wooden ladder (good for recycling and good for your wallet).  Also, don't waste your money on gardening design magazines unless you enjoy feeling poor and untalented.  You may get one or two practical ideas, but generally the designs are too large scale and can be intimidating to the everyday gardener (unless you indeed have deep pockets and an estate groundskeeper).

If you like practical advice and doable ideas, I've always enjoyed "People, Places, and Plants".  I don't usually subscribe to magazines, but on occasion have purchased a subscription and though it's not completely dedicated to plants (there are people and places as well, title doesn't lie) I haven't been able to recycle my old copies as I like to re-read them on occasion.

With the early spring in Maine, it's hard not to be seduced into premature gardening.  It may be warm out and the ground may be thawed, I just caution that traditionally Memorial Day weekend is usually the best time to plant annuals as there is always a danger of a frost or, sadly enough, a freak April snow storm.  Sometimes a hardy annual (such as a pansy) will do just fine if planted early, but usually the more delicate plants (such as vegetable seedlings) are better off inside at night until late May.

I admire those gardeners who dedicate themselves to starting seedlings each year in the anticipation of having a large vegetable garden.  Those of us with limited space, indoors and outdoors, and limited patience for seed starting, buy already started healthy plants at a local nursery or farmers' markets.  Since we only have room to grow about 4 cucumber plants and an equal number of tomato plants, I don't need to spend very much to get great quality seedlings.  I've tried other vegetables (miniature pumpkins, leeks, carrots, string beans, and peppers) but have found that cucumbers and cherry tomatoes consistently perform well and the others not so much.

It's good to experiment and find out what does well for you and your yard.  Don't mind that your neighbor seems to grow fabulous beefsteak tomatoes or large red peppers, sometimes success is based on the amount and time of sunlight in your garden, the soil quality, or other factors that you just can't decipher.  For example, doronicum (leopard's bane) is in all the basic gardening books as an easy plant to grow.  My father can't kill it in his yard (which is only about one mile from mine).  He has given me seedling after seedling.  For some reason, I can't keep it alive.  I grow plenty of other plants that thrive under conditions that are textbook perfect for doronicum (and I even think I've seen it along deserted stretches of highway) but it will not grow for me.  I accepted defeat and enjoy it in other people's yards.

And I would recommend, if you are just starting out, looking in your neighbors' yards to see what is growing and doing well.  Look at different times of the year to see what is in bloom and if you like the shape, texture, color, and overall look of the plants.  If you don't know the name of the plant you like, buy an inexpensive book (Goodwill and library sales are good sources) that has photos of common plants and basic information.  Once you learn a few basics, you can add to your gardening library by looking for more complex books that discuss how to create a master plan for your yard and how to implement design techniques.  Over the course of the last 20 years I've accumulated quite a few gardening books, some more useful than others.

For instance, I started off with the Better Homes and Gardens New Complete Guide to Gardening, which is a good, very basic guide for a beginner, and have ended with Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping, which is hands down my favorite gardening book as the detail is exceptional.  I have many other books in between those, and you will find, if interested, each book gives a different perspective or different advice and it's all useful.

With the snow melted and the crocuses blooming, I like to walk my yard and play a simple memory game, as in "I wonder what I planted there?  And there?".  I can usually remember after a bit, once I've examined the spent leaves and any dead blooms I forgot to trim.  Although I have been known to accidentally pull out a desirable seedling mistaking it for a weed.  If you have the time and inclination, you can certainly buy fancy plant markers and have your yard resemble a pretty little botanical garden.  But working around those markers can be cumbersome and if you use the kind that you write on with a marker, the writing will fade over a winter and be illegible.  If you absolutely need to know what is planted where in the spring, it may be more beneficial to make a sketch of your yard and map out where you put your plants.  I, personally, am pleased by what survived the winter and don't want to be reminded if something didn't make it.

Each spring our local Public Works department offers up rain barrels and compost pails at discounted prices.  Surprisingly, I do not see a rain barrel in more than a couple of yards with gardens.  Either our neighbors hide theirs very well, or they simply don't bother.  I'm a huge fan of the rain barrel.  Ours fills fast with a heavy rain as we place it directly under a gutter drain.  To water the yard, I fill cleaned and emptied milk jugs with water from the barrel, place about 12 filled jugs in my kids' old radio flyer wagon to transport, and take a trip around the yard.  Maine doesn't have watering restrictions so we are lucky.  But shouldn't we?  Water is taken for granted and those who have an automatic sprinkler system (which even runs when it's raining), I believe, are purposely wasteful.  What worries me more is that these same neighbors who believe that perpetual green grass is a symbol of wealth and prosperity also use chemical enhancers on their lawn (for grub control and fertilization) which then wash into our street drains and back into our oceans or water supply  polluting both.

From what I've read and learned from my sister (who has a degree in landscaping) grass in Maine is problematic on two levels.  First, cool weather grasses will go dormant in summer, it's completely natural no panic needed.  Second, warm weather grasses, that will be bright green in July, won't survive a cold winter.  So, in Maine, it really isn't possible to keep that green grass looking green year round, so accept the dormancy as the growth cycle and stop expecting miracles from your lawn.   And if you follow simple suggestions, like leaving grass clippings on the lawn (as it decomposes it will release nitrogen into the soil), you can have a decent lawn without the extra effort or expense.

If you really like the idea of cutting costs and avoiding pesticides, here is another good suggestion (from my sister and from experience).  If you notice bugs on your plants (like aphids, or other small eating bugs) throwing your dirty dish water onto the plant will actually help it.  The soap in the dishwater will smother the bugs (and if the water is slightly oily it will cling to the leaves for a longer period of time) and you will be watering the plant without getting out the hose.

While I understand that most people are weekend gardeners and don't have the time to dedicate a large amount of general care for their yards, small changes can really make a difference.  For example, when we bought our first house in Brockton, Massachusetts, we had overgrown shrubs, weeds all over, and grass 2 feet high (we got it cheap as a bank owned property, so no complaints). Slowly we began to trim, pull weeds, and establish several small garden areas.  We were quickly informed that Brockton had strict watering policies.  We could only water the lawn during certain hours of certain days of the week.  As it turns out, we really never had to "water" using a hose or sprinkler.  First, we let our grass go dormant in the summer.  We had good soil and it always rebounded in the cooler months. Then, we put out a couple of plastic trash cans for water barrels, planted drought resistant perennials, and used every bit of water from washing dishes and laundry and emptying our dehumidifier during dry periods to keep new shrubs and perennials watered.  Coworkers and friends who lived in Brockton were amazed by our yard; they claimed they didn't garden because of the water restrictions and had thought that plants couldn't thrive.  I hope we proved them wrong.  

I'm thinking of applying the "no mercy" rule this Spring.  There is a Pagoda Dogwood leaning badly that we planted before we moved our fence and now it just looks sad.  It was a $5 "orphan" and we couldn't resist it as we had purchased a full price Pagoda Dogwood a couple of years previous to put in the back yard and it has filled its corner beautifully.  When we first saw our sad orphan it looked like a dead twig.  I thought the neighbors would collectively perform an intervention suspecting that we had lost our minds to plant such a hideous thing on purpose.  But, sure enough, like all other "orphans" we have brought home, it did well.  So well, in fact, we quickly realized we hadn't taken enough care to plant it in a space that was appropriate to its ever increasing size.  Now that we have moved a fence (longer story later about a land/fence dispute), the space seems so much smaller and I am bracing myself for what I think may be the right thing to do, take it down.

In cases like this I wish I had more friends who liked to garden.  I would be able to dig this little beauty up and carefully transport it to another yard where a friend would care for it and let me have weekend visitations.  But most people I associate with don't seem to enjoy getting their hands dirty (although I really can't imagine why, it's free exercise, keeps you out of the refrigerator, and teaches children that the outdoors isn't something that you just walk through on your way inside).  I can hear the suggestion already, "why don't you join a garden club?", well, yes, that would be one option, and one I should probably seriously consider, but I spend so much of my time with people I don't know very well, work, church, kids' school, I just don't feel like making small talk with one more group of people (FYI a gardening blog is not small talk, this is serious business we are talking here).

If I had more than a small city lot I would be better prepared to handle the size of trees and shrubs as they grow into, and out of, their designated spaces.  It is so tempting when starting a garden to plant trees, shrubs, and perennials close together to give that instant satisfying effect.  BUT DON'T DO IT!  You will regret it later.  Always give your plants plenty of room and just know that though it looks empty now, it won't in a couple of years.  You can always fill in between the shrubs and trees with annuals to give that "full" look if you need.

Looking back when we first bought this house, I don't remember taking much notice of the yard.  I was so happy to find a home with real closets I think I just figured we could take our time with the outside once we got settled.

We moved in at the end of June and sometime around the 4th of July I had my husband outside hacking away at the multitude of yew bushes that were planted far too close to the foundation and pruned flat on top (so much for taking our time).  Not that I have a problem with yew bushes in general, in fact, I think they can be quite pretty.  But unless you prune them correctly (thinned not sheared) and give them plenty of air, you can end up with a shrub all brown and dead looking in the middle and overly thick and green on top.  

I really don't know why home owners shape their evergreens into boxes, triangles, and globes.  Most shrubs (holly, boxwood, etc) have a lovely natural shape and to make them into something more formal doesn't really enhance your house and yard, unless, of course, you live in a palace (and, if you are reading this, I suspect you don't).  I've come to think that homeowners resort to these shapes as they are unsure of what else to do, or have hired some lawn care company that descends upon their lawns like a S.W.A.T. team with one goal: to get the job done as quickly as possible with the fewest number of casualties.

Once the yew bushes were gone we were left with the task of replacing the foundation plantings with something more interesting.  Over the years I have purchased a few basic gardening books to help with decisions such as these.  Sometimes I abide by the advice of the book of choice, and other times I just buy the discounted "orphan" shrub at the nursery as it's cheap, knowing that one day, with a little care, it may be healthy and vigorous, and, if not, I can pull it out without any regret.

The "pull it out without any regret" method of gardening is what I call the "no mercy" rule of thumb.  Whenever I used to ask my Dad about whether or not something should be given more time to perform, or whether I should place a plant in a particular location he would always say, "if you don't like it. pull it out and throw it away".  This advice I rarely ever take, I have a incessant need to "save" every plant like they are little lost lambs, but if you find yourself dissatisfied with where something is and there is no other place to relocate it, and you can't pawn it off by shaming your friends, well, then you should probably apply the "no mercy" rule.