Category: Garden Photo Contest
Posted by Marge Colborn on Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 2:05 PMJudy Garrett is Week 7 Winner in Garden Photo Contest
Let's hear it for Judy Garrett of Rochester Hills, Week Seven winner in our Garden Photo Contest.
Garrett captured her photo, "I Love My Arbor!"
She says, "Last year we (she and garden partner/husband Dave) put an arbor in the front yard. A friend suggested New Dawn climbing roses, and after one year it looks beautiful! All the rain this spring has made it flourish. Daylilies, clematis, yellow marigolds, red geraniums and hanging baskets of impatiens add to the glow of color in the front yard. The pink daylilies and yucca will bloom soon. My goal is to add interest to the garden with a variety of color at different heights."
Garrett wins a copy of "The Gardener's Palette" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $17.95) by Pierre Nessmann with photographs by Brigitte and Philippe Perdereau.
For your chance at a prize, enter your photos of your beautiful blooms, backyard and gardens with your full name at detnews.com/gardenphotos. Each week we'll select an entry from the ReaderPix Garden Gallery to feature in Homestyle. Prizes will be awarded weekly, leading up to a grand prize winner in September. When you submit a photo, be sure to include your name and a brief description of the photo.
Category: Summer flowers
Posted by Dawn Needham on Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 1:41 PMEndless summer indeed
One of the first perennials I ever purchased was a hydrangea. I don't recall anything about it, but I was a gardening newbie, so I grabbed up the familiar-sounding plant. The mislabeled plant turned out to be a white spirea, and a totally uninspiring one at that, so I moved on and forgot about hydrangeas.
Until last summer, when Bordine Nursery gave us a "free" "Endless Summer" hydrangea. They didn't charge us for the plant, but since it came as a gift for spending so darn much money there, I can't really call it free and clear.
So we came home with a ton of things to plant, including one surprise and we had no idea where to put it. We tucked it by the back door, which was sorely in need of a specimen plant, thinking we could move it if a better idea came along.
It has thrived there. It began with blue blooms but those turned pink in our alkaline soil (if we want blue blooms, we can certainly treat the plant with aluminum sulfate, but it's a really nice pink and frankly, there's enough to do what with weeding, deadheading and trying to get rid of all the grass on our property to think about manipulating a plant to change its color.)
It blooms for a long time and rebloomed after some deadheading. The blossoms don't weigh down the plant, so it keeps a nice upright habit, and the brilliant green foliage is handsome. I left the mopheads on last fall and they looked nice through most of the winter. I pruned it in the spring and it's begun happily blooming again. Insects don't bug it; if it gets a little wilty it responds quickly to water; and it can bloom on new and old wood. I highly recommend it.
It makes me happy every time I walk by it, and you can't ask for much more from a plant than that.
Category: Garden Photo Contest
Posted by Marge Colborn on Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 1:05 PMRay Larkins is Week 6 winner in Garden Photo Contest
Congratulations to Ray Larkins of Waterford Township, our Week 6 winner in the Garden Photo Contest.
A passionate green thumb, Larkins, 86, tends a garden that blooms from spring through autumn. This photo shows a partial collection of the 200 tulip bulbs Larkins planted last fall on his property overlooking Loon Lake.
He also grows dahlias, roses, cleome, cosmos and gladiolas and likes to incorporate vintage furniture into his landscapes.
Larkins wins a copy of the Royal Horticultural Society's "New Gardening: How to Garden in a Changing Climate" (Mitchell Beazley, $24.95) by Matthew Wilson.
For your chance at a prize, enter your photos of your beautiful blooms, backyard and gardens with your full name at detnews.com/gardenphotos. Each week we'll select an entry from the ReaderPix Garden Gallery to feature in Homestyle. Prizes will be awarded weekly, leading up to a grand prize winner in September. When you submit a photo, be sure to include your name and a brief description of the photo.
Category: Fruits and vegetables
Posted by Dawn Needham on Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 10:20 PMEnjoy the fruits of your labor
Harvesting has begun!
Last week, I cut my first fresh herbs and this weekend, we ate our first backyard strawberries. They were divine, huge and flavorful. It seems the rains have been good for strawberries, judging by what we picked off our plants and what we're seeing at the farmers' market.Find area farmers markets
Our house came with a few strawberry plants, but not where we wanted them, so the first year, we tried strawberry pots. The squirrels were happy.
The second year, we put plants in the ground. The squirrels were delirious with joy.
This year, we got smart and "invested" (7 whole dollars!) in garden netting. Bingo! It amazes me that something so simple, cheap and easy worked, but we had fresh strawberries for breakfast, so who am I to question it?
We even got our second harvest Monday, so it's no fluke. Every other time we'd watch the strawberries eagerly, waiting for that moment when just-about-ripe turns into ready, only to have some animal beat us to the punch. Well, this time, we won. And victory is sweet indeed. We can't recall the variety we planted, but the berries are big and tasty.
I made a divine new strawberry dessert this year, and while I didn't use our own berries, I bought a few quarts from the local farmers' market. But it's a keeper: strawberry cream cake
Category: Summer flowers
Posted by Marti Davenport on Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 2:44 PMNot just any rose
I love roses but I seem to do best with climbers. I got my first red-rose climber as a starter from my mother. Since then, I've grown my own starters. I just pin one branch to the ground. Then I cover that part of the branch with dirt and before long -- if I'm lucky -- I have a starter.
These old-fashioned roses, however, have no smell. So a few years ago I bought a pink climber that has gone gang-busters in a protected spot next to my house. It gets blasted by the sun and the soil there is fairly dry. But the blossoms are like miniature tea roses and oh-so fragrant. I would highly recommend this variety.
What's the name, you ask? Well, I was hoping you could tell me because the little metal tag with the rose's name has disappeared. Darn those little elves that keep stealing them off my roses.
Category: Garden Photo Contest
Posted by Marge Colborn on Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 2:21 PMAl and Stephanie Calille of Plymouth Are Week 5 Winners
Congratulations to Al and Stephanie Calille of Plymouth, week five winners in our Garden Photo Contest.
Their photo shows off the couple's lush hosta garden.
"We have five varieties of hostas, plus day and spider lilies, irises, two varieties of hydrangeas and other perennials," Al Calille said.
The couple love growing hostas, hard-working perennials that reward green thumbs year after year.
The Calilles win a copy of "City Gardens: Creative Ideas for Small Spaces" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $17.95) by Pierre Nessmann with photographs by Brigitte and Philippe Perdereau.
For your chance at a prize, enter your photos and a description of your beautiful blooms, backyard and gardens with your full name at detnews.com/gardenphotos. Each week we'll select an entry from the ReaderPix Garden Gallery to feature in Homestyle. Prizes will be awarded weekly, leading up to a grand prize winner in September. When you submit a photo, be sure to include your name and a brief description of the photo.
Category: Trees
Posted by Karen Auch on Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:10 PMSmall size of toppled trees' roots system amazes
The recent storms prompted a rash of comments from people amazed at the size of the root ball on the trees that were toppled. Most of them couldn't believe that the root system was so shallow. Many of them believed the trees had root diseases or structural root problems to have so shallow a root system. When you see a toppled evergreen tree, the root system seems to be even smaller! Look at the pictures shown here and the evidence will be clear.
The truth is that the root system on most trees in the urban/suburban forest only grows 18-24 inches below the surface of the soil. It is truly amazing that a 100 foot tree can be supported when its roots are that shallow. Mother Nature is awesome, isn't she?
One of the reasons trees are able to withstand wind stress is that their anchoring roots grow out at least as far as the outer leaves of the branches and often even further. Evergreen trees, on the other hand, have even narrower root systems and may only be two-thirds to one-half the distance to the outer leaves.
Some trees that grow in undisturbed, nonurban/suburban areas may have a tap root that grows much deeper into the soil. In most cases, however, the trees in the urban/suburban forest have been grown on tree farms and have had their roots altered when transplanted. If they originally had a tap root, it would have been severed during the process of creating the root ball for transplanting into containers or wrapping in burlap for transport to your local nursery.
So, the next time you see a toppled tree, take a good look at Mother Nature's work and appreciate her genius yet again.
17th Annual Summer Garden Tour in Grosse Pointe
Attention, green thumbs. The 17th Annual Summer Garden Tour sponsored by the Grosse Pointe Garden Center, Inc., will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 21-22, rain or shine. Tickets are $12 pre-tour and $15 on tour days. They're available at local merchants and at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, 32 Lake Shore Dr., Grosse Pointe Farms, (313) 881-7511 ext. 206.
Six gardens in the Grosse Pointes, plus the Trial & Children's Gardens at the War Memorial will be on the tour. MSU master gareners will also have an information table. Local artists will be sketching in the gardens.
On Saturday, June 21, only, in the Garden Shoppe, gently-used garden and home treasures will be for sale.
Category: Spring flowers
Posted by Marti Davenport on Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 2:45 PMPlanting some memories
When I was growing up, my parents had a log cabin "up north" with wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) growing next to the front steps. Without any tending, those little red-flowered plants reappeared year after year.
When my parents sold the place decades ago, we made sure we took some transplants and seeds. It's become a family tradition to plant wild columbine at every house we've ever lived in.
This spring, much to my dismay, only one lonely plant appeared in my flower bed. Yikes.
When I was at my sister's home in Wisconsin a few weeks ago I was relieved to see not only a healthy bed of the columbine, rising at least 3 feet, blooming by her house, but also some starters alongside her country driveway. The plants are blooming at my mother's home, too. This means I'll have a source for seeds.
So even though life has taken all of us in different directions, our gardens bring us back to the happy family times we spent by the lake.
Garden tip of the week
This week's garden tip comes from Better Homes & Garden and focuses on the Endless Summer Hydrangea.
You can't go wrong with 'Endless Summer'. This gorgeous hydrangea blooms all season -- even in the north. It's great for cutting, with 8-inch-wide flower clusters. The blooms range from pink in alkaline soils to blue in acidic soils. The selection is wonderfully disease resistant, too.
Name: Hydrangea 'Endless Summer'
Growing Conditions: Afternoon shade and moist, well-drained soil
Size: To 5 feet tall and wide
Zones: 4-9
It's Also Perfect With: White impatiens for nonstop color to first fall frost.
By the way: For more information about Endless Summer hydrangeas, check out HYDRANGEAS
