June 2011
1 post
Extree Extree Read About it - Cactus Flower Blooms...
Okay, so maybe not so exciting to some, but to me? I’m thrilled! - I’ve been waiting three years for this sucker (sticker) to bloom. Dug a piece from a client’s yard (yes, with permission) and three year’s later we have our first blooms. This is the 3rd bloom of five that I think we’ll have this year.
Using my trusty internet as a source, I identified it today...
February 2011
1 post
It's Time for a Winter Barbecue
Okay, I give up. I finally cried UNCLE!!
I just could not wait another minute for the snow to melt off my backyard deck. So, I got out my handy snow shovel and made a path through the ice and snow to the back of the deck and dug out the gas grill. It’s sunny and the snow will hopefully melt some of the icy patches left on the path so I won’t kill myself tonight on the way back and...
December 2010
1 post
Tis the Season - But for Snapdragons?
So, it’s the 17th of December and here in NJ, it’s a balmy 36 degrees in the early afternoon. A little respite from the below freezing - all day, every day - weather we’ve had for the past week. I don’t know about anyone else, but can we just skip winter and mark the first day of spring, instead?
So, I’m feeling a little chipper today with the temps above...
October 2010
2 posts
Fall, Glorious Fall
Okay, so I’ve been a little remiss in writing my blogs and I have heard about it from my friends and followers. To all of you, I humbly apologize. I can’t possibly keep up with life in the fast lane AND blog at the same time. Seriously, folks!
Anyway, I guess I haven’t blogged because you have to be in a certain frame of mind to blog. An avid gardener and plant lover, I...
Fall Crocus - Colchicums
Don’t have any? You’ll want to run out and get some. These glorious fall crocus are bass-ackwards. They send up leaves in the spring and bloom in the fall; the complete opposite of regular crocus. They also are a bulb, just like the spring crocus.
When everything is winding down at the end of the summer and the smell of autumn is in the air - all of a sudden, you’ll see...
August 2010
3 posts
Cleome - Gorgeous Cleome!
Since we are really in the dog days of August, I thought it might be a good idea to spend a moment on one of the mainstays of the August garden, the Cleome, a native of South America.
I’ve always been wondering if I was pronouncing them correctly - what a surprise - I actually wasn’t! You know - you say “Pow Tay Toe” and I say “Pow Tah Toe”. Well, Cleome...
Life In the Fast Lane
Wow, certainly feels like it this month. No time for blogging, even! We’ve just finished up ten days at the NJ State Fair in Sussex County, NJ. It’s always a great show for us and a great time too. If you missed it this year, you’ll want to come out next year and see what it’s all about.
Now we have a week off - of course not really a week off - more like a week...
Hostas - Gorgeous Hostas
If you haven’t a hosta in your shade garden, think again! The leaves are more important than the flowers. That’s what it’s all about. Glorious color and texture make a perfect backdrop or focal point in any shade garden.
Dark greens and blues, golds, light greens and chartreuses. Don’t forget the different textures and shapes in the leaves - puckered, strapleaf,...
July 2010
17 posts
It's My Breakfast - I'll Eat It Like I Like It
OMG - Ever want to feel young again? Well, actually like a small child? Go home and visit Mom. That’s exactly what we’re doing this weekend. Anna’s 85th B’day is next week. So all the fam is gathering. My Baby Bro from CA, my other sister and brother from nearby my Mom in Western PA. Anyway, the gang’s all here.
So, everyone kinda does their own thing for...
It's Black Eyed Susan Time
For those of you who don’t know the name of the great yellow daisy-like flower with the black center blooming in everyone’s gardens right now, well it’s Rudbeckia daisy, better known as a Black-Eyed Susan. It’s a great July-August bloomer but if you keep cutting the dead flowers, you’ll have flowers into September.
Now my friends and I wonder, how did the name come...
Sago Palm
What a great plant to fill a pool-side planter! These majestic palms are not actually a palm, but a cycad (not to be confused with a cyclops…) and are native to southern Japan. So, not hardy in the NJ region but will winter over well in a pot in a location that gets some sun in your home during the winter months. Too much water and they will rot, so easy on the water during the winter...
Just Add Dinner & Friends
Okay, to steal a phrase from my brother and his upcoming blog title, I decided today to chat about a great way to beat the summer heat. When it’s 100 degrees out, like it was yesterday, and you still want to have a get-together, it’s time to move the party inside. That’s exactly what we did yesterday.
Six friends, great food and wine (okay, if Steve is reading this -...
Hot Hot Hot Glue Gun Accident
I was all prepared to talk about dinner and friends, to rob a phrase from Lavender Blue Wines, but, while preparing for tomorrow’s dinner and friends, I had a slight accident with my glue gun. I gotta tell you, that sucker gets HOT! OMG, I couldn’t believe it. One minute I was gluing a picture frame and the photo slipped and the next thing I knew it, I had hot glued two spots on my...
We Live In The Tropics
Wow, what a summer! I can’t ever remember it being this hot and steamy for so long. The humidity is unbearable. Why take a shower! You can just walk outside and you’re drenched. Okay, I guess people would avoid me more than they do now, if I tried that showering method! It’s a bad hair day every day and who wants to even think about putting on makeup.
My new perfume this...
The Great Jersey Tomato
What’s so good about New Jersey’s tomatoes - or “ba-may-da’s” as we sometimes call them? Well, they have just the right mix of sweetness and acidity. Like you can’t wait to savor your next bite.
They don’t taste like hydroponically grown hothouse tomatoes that look perfect but taste like you’re eating - something - but not sure what! If I have...
One More Cat Story
Okay, so I know I’m digressing from my garden stories AGAIN but I wanted to let everyone know how successful the Garden State Cat Club Cat Show was this past weekend. I think everyone who attended had a Meowing good time. How could we not, we were among hundreds of our feline friends.
Animal Planet did a lot of filming of cats and their owners and a great time was had by all in the...
Must Love Cats - Absolutely We Do
We do love our “mules” as we call our ani-mules. Currently, we are owned by 4 very social cats. As I write this, our fat boy, Tiki is gracing the deck in front of our sliders - stretched out - full length - in all his glory. AND I’m sure if I got up from the desk, I’d easily find the other ones in similar repose throughout the house.
So, it’s no surprise that...
Rain, Rain & More Rain
Well, we finally got it! We’ve been waiting for months, it seems, for a good rain here in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Yesterday we finally got it intermittently all day.
It was heavenly. Big gushing buckets of the great stuff. Puddle stomping time! I don’t think we’ll be singing the rain, rain, go away song anytime soon. We were so happy to see it.
Of course, I had to...
Our Common Fig Tree Is Not So Common To Us
We have been babying a fig tree in our yard for about ten years now. It came as a little seedling from Wayside Gardens - a free gift because we had overspent on plants for the shade garden, before I was actually in the business. Now that I am, I buy locally from growers that have become my friends because of their plant knowledge and our mutual love of plants, like Cicconi Farms in Jackson, NJ. ...
Donovan's Reef Annual Pilgrimage
It wouldn’t be summer without a trip to Donovan’s Reef in Sea Bright, NJ. It used to be our regular hangout - every Sunday afternoon, every summer. In the past few years, it’s dwindled down to a once a year thing - an annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The trip only takes 30 minutes - but there’s always something else to do and that’s why it’s only once a year, I...
Like a Bat Out of Hell
Well, not exactly - but those guys really know how to fly!
We’ve been having fun the past few nights watching the bats come out around dusk to eat up all the blood-thirsty mosquitos. We’ve only counted four. We don’t really know anything about bats - but we prefer to call them the bat fam - since it looks like a mommy and daddy bat and two youngsters. Until we did some...
Curious George & The Compost Heap
Well, a few days ago, I wrote a note about composting. Imagine my surprise when I happened to be watching Curious George, the cartoon, yesterday and he was learning about composting.
Got a kick out of the kids “birds eye view” of the subject. Brown and green go in., they said. Green meaning veggie and fruit scraps, peels, rinds… Brown meaning leaves, twigs and - something I...
The Ho Hum of July
Okay, the Fourth of July holiday is over. Great time, but now into the true heat of the summer! 90’s and 100’s in New Jersey. No record setting heat, but enough to make me cringe when I think I need to go outside and out of the air conditioning.
So, I think about all the musts I must do to have my garden and flowers survive until we get a break from the heat.
Water every day,...
Lilies of the Field
Can’t get enough of the perfume in the gardens. Great Asiatic and Oriental lilies. The smell is overwhelming. Picked a few today and brought them inside. If you bring in any Star Gazers, like Rubrum lilies, make sure you snip the stamens or you’ll ruin your tablecloth or clothes or any other fabric it manages to get on.
Life is very good. Enjoy!
Happy 4th of July Weekend
Well, it’s another great holiday weekend coming up. A long one meant for barbecues, getting outdoors and enjoying friends, family or enjoying whatever it is we like to do.
We’re taking a few days off this weekend to relax, catch a friend’s barbecue, hopefully see some great fireworks and attend a graduation/birthday. Monday will be recuperation day with nothing but a long walk...
June 2010
10 posts
Glorious Gaura - Great Addition for Summer...
We love this marvelous plant. You can use it as a perennial in your garden or add it to your annual planters and treat it as an annual.
Also called the Wand Flower, this plant is long blooming and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
Two favorite varieties of ours are Siskiyou Pink (says you!) and Whirling Butterflies. Siskiyou Pink has dark green glossy foliage with deep rose pink flowers. ...
I Can Never Stop Wining!
Well, I certainly do love my wine. Not much of an officianado, but I know what I like. A good California Cab or French Chablis - Count me in!
My brother and his friends all work in the biz. Oenophiles, oenologists and cellar rats galore - but definitely wine snobs. Nothing is quite right - AND - when you get the group together, it’s difficult for one of them to be the first to admit...
The Enchanted Forest
Well, it’s really my shade garden, but my two granddaughters call it their enchanted forest. First the eldest, when she was 4 or 5, started parading through it in her Cinderella princess dress and slippers, hopping from one stepping stone to the next in her own magical moment. And now she’s outgrown the dress and it’s been passed down to our littlest one, who is going to soon...
Composting
No matter how you actually achieve it, composted material is a great thing to have. Compost enriches a garden’s soil and benefits potted plants too.
Our compost heap or pile, as we refer to it, has been brewing for years. Probably at least ten. We keep adding to the top and digging from the bottom. You can also be fancy and spend some money on a composter, like my son and his wife...
Beach Roses
My husband and I took a long walk this morning. We’re about two blocks from the Raritan Bay in New Jersey. It’s been really hot, but you’d never know it because of the wonderful salty breeze coming off the water.
While walking, I was thinking about what I might want to blog about today that might interest my gardening friends. All of a sudden, the sweet smell of beach roses...
Watering Plants in Hot Weather
Since it’s going to be another 90 degree day in New Jersey today, on this first day of summer, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about getting our plants through the lazy, hazy, hot days of summer.
First the lazy, hazy, hot days of summer are actually less stressful than the plain old hot and dry days. Those days just suck the moisture right out of the plants, planters or ground.
...
Mixing Perennials In Your Planters
Who said that summer planters have to be just annuals? We never did. Try mixing some black-eyed susans, dianthus, grasses or anything else that you fancy in with your planters.
Not only will you get added interest this year, next year, you’ll have a head start on planting. We’re in New Jersey where the rule of thumb is nothing tender outside til after May 15th, otherwise you might...
Non Stop Begonias
I love these annuals. They brighten up any pot and do well in the garden too. As long as they are not overwatered, not underwatered and have good drainage. A little finicky but well worth it for the show of color they put out all summer long til frost. Best in part sun and will do well in the shade also, provided you don’t overwater. If in sun, they prefer early morning or late...
Annuals v Perennials
Clients usually start out wanting just perennials in their garden design. I like to think of perennials as the backdrop or backbone of any garden. Once you have a good foundation of different bloom-time perennials, then add the annuals for accents and splashes of bold color. Choice of annuals and perennials depend on how much sun a garden gets each day. How wet, how dry, and so on. Once you've established that, the choices are endless.
My Gardening Website →
Ever have a dream that you’ve always wanted to fulfill? Well, mine is gardening. Spent too many hours in the corporate world and finally got to realize my dream and start my own business. Nothing is better than feeling the dirt under your nails and between your toes except maybe when you nurture a little tiny castoff plant to it’s full blown (I mean “bloom”)...