The Elegant Garden

Welcome to 2013!

Now that we have entered the winter months and most of us are spending more time indoors than out, it’s the perfect time to catch up on reading some exceptional gardening books. Buy one for yourself or the friend you might have forgotten during the holidays.

I recently had the pleasure of enjoying “The Elegant Garden: Architecture and Landscape of the World’s Finest Gardens,” by Johann Kräftner (Rizzoli International Publications, 2012), www.rizzoliusa.com. This gorgeous collection of photography is representative of magnificent architecture in the landscape and offers ways to create your own garden paradise by extracting ideas from international grand gardens of the past and present.

The Elegant Garden

Kräftner introduces gardens as “a place of eternal life,” referred to as paradise in the Middle East, and has included historical information on gardens throughout the world beginning in the eleventh century B.C., going so far as to reference the Garden of Eden.

The designs depicted in the photographs are defined in depth throughout the book. Ranging from classical to contemporary, by following principles in this text you can embody garden spaces and create your own “pleasure ground.” Castles, sculptures, formally trained shrubs, garden rooms, orchards, vegetables, Asian, European, Moorish, American, modern and classical landscape designs are all represented in this superbly illustrated, 430 page hardcover tome that contains photography that will spark ideas for your own property.

The hundreds of gardens in this book promise to instill confidence for do-it-yourselfers and help develop a better grasp of how to envision space. Creating your outdoor comfort zone and comfortably flowing from one garden space to another are clearly defined by photos. This book abounds in landscape design ideas from around the world, containing approximately 850 high quality, full color photographs and superlative historic interpretation – from Rome to the present and a view of what each culture in between considered aesthetically pleasing.

Recognizing that designs occur onsite and not simply on a piece of paper, personal style, planning, recognizing the bones of a garden, planting for 12-month interest, color, architectural features, balance, scale and spatial definition are some design principles quickly discovered by simply perusing this outstanding book. This book contains images ranging from formal to rural, showing them in winter, spring, summer and autumn.

This book is well suited for your coffee table. It is the perfect inspiration to keep you focused on your landscape during the winter months. The photography, international appeal and inspiration alone are worth it. Cost: $60.

©2013 Joel M. Lerner

Editor, Sandra Leavitt Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook

Curb Appeal

Landscaped properties sell homes by adding curb appeal.

Well maintained landscaping shows that you care about your property.

Keep paving smooth, presenting a neat appearance. Comfortable entries allow you to enter a home guiding you in the most efficient manner. Walk grades, or steepness, should be no more than 5% with a minimum width of 42”. If stairs are necessary, always plan for at least two or more. A single stair is a “trip step.” Build each step a maximum of 6” high and the tread (the part you walk on) a minimum of 14” deep.

Comfortable Entry

Trip Step

Use landscape lighting for aesthetics, security and safety. Down-light from trees and use a few lights against the house or on plants with interesting growth habits. Invite buyers to experience your property in the evening to view this different atmosphere.

Color in the landscape “pops,” especially flowers. Sellers who do some homework in the year leading up to a listing can show their garden’s potential. Take pictures when plants are at their showiest times. Passing along information on plants, and photos of gardens is as important as other information buyers receive about your home.

Here are further landscape design suggestions to enhance your property:

• Balance the front of your property equally with trees and shrubs. Trees add the greatest value, according to the American Nursery and Landscape Association, so install them first. Create large beds, 8-12’ wide, around the home’s front corners. Utilize vertical plants, like holly, hinoki falsecypress, water lily star magnolia or chindo viburnum (V. awabuki ‘Chindo’), planted about 8’ off corners to “anchor” the house to the landscape. Install shrubs no closer than 3-4’ from the foundation.

• Design tiered beds – low flora in front, taller plants to the rear. Install them in groupings for impact. Use broadleaf evergreens, or other shrubs. Fill in open spaces with groupings of perennials or annuals that flower at various times throughout the growing season. This type of arrangement requires a planting bed 10-12’ wide. Keep planting beds edged and free of weeds.

• Choose shrubs for year round ornamental value, especially if you don’t know when you’re selling. Some shrubs and trees offer 12-month interest, like kousa dogwood with spring flowers, edible summer fruits, fall color and interesting winter bark. Little Henry Virginia sweetspire’s foliage turns maroon in fall, with deep maroon stems in winter, and white, fragrant, horizontally growing panicles of flowers in late spring/early summer.

• Containers enhance entries. Any plant that can be placed in the ground can be grown in a container. Any object that will hold soil with drainage holes in the bottom will work. Think of your containers as a garden – install trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, fruits and vegetables, as long as the size of the container will accommodate the size of the plant. Containers allow gardens in areas without space for traditional landscaping.

Colorful Container Planting

 • Watering and drainage are critical to plants in containers, especially hanging baskets. They can require watering every day during the summer if located in the sun.

• Repeating plants in mass by using the same colors in large sweeps will be an eye-catcher for buyers if in bloom when you’re planning to sell. For example, plant masses of mums in fall, moss phlox in early spring, purple coneflower in early summer, and black-eyed Susans later in the summer.

• Outdoor art or a specimen plant near the entry will attract attention. Only use a piece or two. Sculpture serves as a contrasting element with gardens. Design plants and sculptural elements in proportion to the size of your home or property.

©2012 Joel M. Lerner

Editor, Sandra Leavitt Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook

Fall Lawn Care

Fall is the best time to refurbish or plant cool season turf. It’s the most common groundcover used by homeowners, in full sun, when provided with moist, well-drained soil rich in organic material.

Lawns help control erosion and dust, dissipate heat and noise, reduce glare, lower fire hazards and are used for recreation and aesthetics.

Utilizing Lawn As A Path

They are specialized, withstanding regular cutting at heights of 2”-4”, perennial, green most of the year and grow into a tight carpet that will withstand some foot traffic. 

Turf is divided into two types -- warm and cool season. In the Washington DC region, now is the time to establish or renew cool season grasses. We live on the northern cusp of hardiness for warm season grasses. The only variety practical to plant here is zoysia and that’s in spring.

Cool season grasses stay green during cool temperatures and turn brown during drought and heat. Some will stay green through winter. They hold their chlorophyll longer and withstand our winters better. Even now, coming out of this hot summer, it took only one soaking rain and cooler temperatures for them to begin growing.

Pick a cool season grass seed by choosing between two types – dwarf, turf-type tall fescue or a fine leafed variety, such as bluegrass, creeping red fescue and perennial rye grass hybrids. A blend of several compact growing tall fescues or a mix of fine textured grasses for seeding your lawn depends on your needs. Tall fescues are wear tolerant, disease resistant and mowed at 3”-4” in height. Fine textured bluegrass, fine fescue, and/or perennial rye are softer to the touch. They can be mowed at 2 and ½” and still maintain their lush appearance.

 Most cool season grasses grow best in soil with a pH of 6.5 (pH is the measure of acidity and alkalinity). Find where to have your soil checked through your County Cooperative Extension System, www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension.

Create a healthy lawn:

• Aerate with a plug aerator from an equipment rental company. Spikes must be hollow and remove plugs of soil. Go over lawn three or four times, more if possible. Never aerate when lawns are soggy.

• Condition soil with compost that is fine textured enough to fill aeration holes. Sprinkle about ½” over holes. Don’t cover healthy turf because you will kill it. LeafGro is a locally composted, fine textured material. You might use as many as five bags of LeafGro per 1000 square feet of turf, if your lawn has a lot of bare areas, and only one or two bags per 1000 square feet if your lawn is thick.

• In September and October cool season grasses can use high nitrogen fertilizer because their leaves and roots grow vigorously until winter. Use a fertilizer that is at least 40 to 50% organic or has a percentage of slow release or water insoluble nitrogen (WIN) utilizing a drop or broadcast spreader. Always follow instructions on the packaging.

• There is a fine textured cool season seed mix, blended for thickness, slow growth and low nutrient requirements called Pearl’s Premium Ultra Low Maintenance Grass Seed Sun or Shade, www.pearlspremium.com. This mix contains five species of low growing native fescues plus frontier perennial rye and deep blue Kentucky bluegrass. This mix is slow growing, so lawn might only need mowing monthly. Follow directions on package for seeding.

• Moisture is available to plants in the form of dew with cooler temperatures. But, be sure your newly aerated and amended lawn is moist enough by sprinkling seed with water lightly every day. As seed begins to sprout, water more deeply to keep grass growing.

©2012 Joel M. Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook

Poison Ivy

One of the most common plants in our woodlands that is often found along paths and can cause distress is poison ivy (Rhus radicans). It has pros for wildlife but cons for people.

If you have ever been a victim of the uncomfortable rash caused by it, you already know the cons. But, there are a few pros. It is a native plant, a source of food for birds, and habitat for many critters that live on the forest floor or in trees.

Poison ivy is a close relative of the pistachio and cashew. It’s one in a family of plants that produce sap caustic to humans. Yet, some people don’t have a reaction at all when exposed to it.

If the oil stays on your skin for more than 10 minutes, even in winter, you can get an itchy rash, which will show up on your skin over a period of 24 to 72 hours, depending on your level of exposure and sensitivity. Although direct contact with the oil or smoke from burning poison ivy is necessary to get the rash, remember that the allergen, urushiol, doesn't become dormant; it remains active for days on whatever it touches, including pets. Pets don’t get a rash, but can get oil on their fur and then rub it onto furniture, rugs, and you. The oil will remain on your clothes.

Poison Ivy

Learn to recognize it. Poison ivy can look like a small shrub, or vine if it’s climbing a tree. The leaves grow in groups of three, usually with a red area in the center where the stems of the leaves meet. They can have smooth edges, be slightly lobed or have an undulating margin. Woody stems are tan and possibly covered with reddish-brown, hair-like aerial rootlets if they're climbing a tree or building.

It might be confused with box elders or wild raspberries, because of their compound three leaflet clusters. Boston ivy might look like poison since its young leaves have a shiny reddish color. These plants are very different. Box elders are large trees; raspberries have thorns, and Boston ivy has a different shape to its leaf. If you’re in doubt, don’t touch it until you get a positive identification.

If you have to work around it, wear gloves, long sleeves, long pants, and keep your socks pulled up. Wash clothes with a strong soap and any areas where it touched your skin with a solvent, such as isopropyl alcohol, as soon as possible.

Getting rid of poison ivy on your property is a slow and steady process. My herbicide of choice is a systemic weed killer such as a glyphosate based product. These are approved for use over tree roots where poison ivy is most commonly found. The herbicide works in about seven to ten days if it’s applied according to labeled instructions. The poison ivy will brown slowly and die, including roots.

It’s important to cut vines near the ground so you aren’t spraying herbicide up into trees. Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide that will kill any actively growing plant. And, depending on the amount of poison ivy you’re trying to control, a second application on regrowth might be necessary. If dead plants must be removed, wait until they begin to decay.

For more information on poison ivy, check http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view.

©2012 Joel M. Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook.

Butterflies

Our garden has been focused on growing plants to coordinate blooms for twelve-month interest. Throughout the years, it’s turned into a fabulous butterfly garden as well.

Sandy and I watch these beautiful and graceful winged creatures, some of which only live for a week, bring animation to our garden. As we learn more about them, their story becomes more interesting.

There are 670 species in the U.S. and Canada. In their short life as butterflies, they visit hundreds to thousands of flowers drinking nectar and pollinating plants. Only one of their larvae – caterpillars – might be considered a crop pest. The cabbage butterfly lays its eggs on young plants in the cabbage family and the larvae feed on the heads of these vegetables as they form.

There is a host plant on which each butterfly hatches, feeds and pupates from egg to caterpillar into adult. There are also nectar-producing flowers. So, you must grow flowers and host plants if you want to sustain their life cycle.

Monarch Caterpillar

Here are nectar-producing flowers:

• Black-eyed Susan, Maryland’s official state flower with golden yellow flowers throughout the summer,

• Butterfly weed or milkweed (Asclepias), both a perennial and host plant for monarchs,

• Goldenrod’s (Solidago) showy golden blooms aren’t an allergen and attract butterflies,

• Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium) has large flowers in August and September,

• Lavender (Lavandula) is evergreen, offering flowers for nectar,

• Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) also offers nectar,

• Sage (Salvia officinalis) enhances perennial borders and attracts butterflies with its flowers,

• Liatris keeps them busy,

• Verbena is enjoyed by every butterfly in our yard, with purple rounded clusters of flowers all summer, until first frost.

Butterflies cannot complete their life cycle without host plants. Monarchs will hatch and feed only on milkweed. They migrate 1000-2000 miles to the mountains of Mexico, resting on branches of fir trees, flying back in spring, mating along the way. The next generation will often complete the journey home.

Monarch

 These plants serve as hosts:

• Thistle, mallow and hollyhock – painted lady,

• Asters – pearly crescentspot,

• Oak, hickory, hops and sorrel – gray hairstreak,

• Spicebush and sassafras – spicebush swallowtail,

• Willow and poplar – viceroy,

• Parsley, dill and fennel – eastern black swallowtail,

• Plantain, cudweed and many others – buckeye,

• Wild cherry – tiger swallowtail.

Learn more about butterflies on the following Web sites:

North American Butterfly Association, www.naba.org 

 Monarch Butterfly Journey North, www.learner.org/jnorth/unpave/monarchWWW.html

The Butterfly Site.com, www.thebutterflysite.com/create-butterfly-garden.shtml

Watching butterflies float, dip and drink their way through gardens adds animation to a space. Myths surrounding them are positive. There’s a Native American legend, “To make a wish come true, whisper to a butterfly. Upon these wings it will be taken to heaven and granted, for they are the messengers of the Great Spirit.”

Ensure winged beauty in your garden by:

• Locating space in a sunny area,

• Installing host plants and nectar producing flowers,

• Including shallow puddles for drinking and small flat rocks for them to bask in the sun,

• Not using pesticides in or near their habitat,

• Researching butterflies that frequent your area.

Enjoy a one on one experience with butterflies in the Washington, DC region by visiting:

Smithsonian Butterfly Garden, http://www.mnh.si.edu/museum/butterfly.html and

"Wings of Fancy" Live Butterfly & Caterpillar Exhibit, http://www.montgomeryparks.org/brookside/wings_of_fancy.shtm

©2012 Joel M. Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook.

Deer Control

-->

Homeowners want lush gardens in spite of a rebounding deer population. Whitetail deer are the most common.

According to Dr. Clay Nielsen, Southern Illinois University, by 1930 U.S. populations were approximately 300,000, now there are roughly 29 million. Any plants with foliage or edible stems can become food sources. Neil Soderstrom’s book, “Deer-Resistant Landscaping: Proven Advice and Strategies for Outwitting Deer and 20 other Pesky Mammals” (Rodale, 2009), addresses these growth explosions.

Deer Browsing Our Woodland Area

“Today deer overpopulation among whitetails has proven almost disastrous in many wild areas,” writes Soderstrom. “In over-browsed areas, amphibians and insects have no cover . . . Birds and other wildlife that are dependent on those same insects must move on or starve.” Some forestland has more than 200 whitetails browsing per square mile. A healthy deciduous forest will support about 15. Rock Creek Park in the Washington, DC region is estimated to have 375 deer living there, reported by Chief Ranger Nick Bartolomeo on May 30, 2012.

Deer control theories begin with keeping them away from your plants. They are beautiful to watch, but “not in my backyard,” from a gardener’s standpoint.

Keep them from your garden with fences too high for them to jump -- 8’. Most county codes here allow 6-7’. If you must meet a 6’ height code, widen the horizontal distance deer must jump with deer resistant tall, spreading shrubs along both sides of the fence.

One fence is stiff plastic mesh that comes in rolls. It can be wrapped around and drawn between trees for support in woodland areas without staking. It’s black and not very visible. For information, call Benner’s Gardens at 1-800-753-4660, www.bennersgardens.com. Also check see-through mesh netting available as Poly Deer Fence, www.deerfence.com.

Other deterrents are draping netting over favorite plants, hanging CDs on shrubs to scare them; water blasting from motion activated automatic sprinklers (Scarecrow) and deer repellents.

Based on the fact that deer are herbivores, you can try home remedies such as hanging human hair in wool bags on plants, rubbing and stringing bar soap on shrubs and trees, and suet, if you’re using bird feeders.

Commercial repellants range from putrescent eggs to animal urine. Try an egg-based product like Deer Guard, www.repelproducts.com/deerguardgrowing.aspx or Coyote Urine, www.deerbusters.com/coyote-urine-lure, a deer and rabbit repellent made of ammonium salts of fatty acids.

Another class of repellents makes plants taste bad. We've had tremendous success in our garden with Messina Wildlife’s Deer Stopper, www.messinawildlife.com, approved for organic growers. Active ingredients are rosemary oil, mint oil and putrescent whole egg solids.

Use plants deer don’t like – those with thorny, hairy leaves, thick, leathery foliage or herbs (because of their strong flavor or odor). Deer prefer fertilized and irrigated plants. The more accustomed they are to people, the better the chance they’ll eat ornamentals. If they’re hungry, they’ll try almost anything. They’re known to have varied tastes.

Two Web sites that offer excellent suggestions for deer resistant plants and additional information about deer control are:

Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, http://njaes.rutgers.edu/deerresistance  and Out Out Deer, http://outoutdeer.com/deer-resistant-plants/

©2012 Joel M. Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook.

Weed Control

Last week I watched a gardener battling overgrown honeysuckle vines grown onto a privet hedge, through chain link fence, and even though cut back to their trunks were inextricably meshed with the fence. This occurred from years of neglect.

Weed control is key to having a handsome landscape. Gardens are lost in weeks, especially this time of year, without care. Keep weeds at bay.

Amur Honeysuckle

Lawn Weeds

Herbicides are very effective at controlling weeds, however they are toxic. Don’t use them around children, pets or edible plants. On sloping properties they will wash into rivers and streams, affecting the food chain. We have chosen to simply keep our lawn mowed and not treat with any toxic herbicides. When weeds are mowed as part of a lawn, they become part of the green carpet that is your turf.

The best weed control for turf is to maintain thick healthy grass through proper mowing, fertilizing and watering. Foot traffic, pets, rocks, low organic content in the soil, or shade can cause weed problems. Correct these situations by aerating or tilling the soil, amending with a layer of compost.

Many lawn weeds can be pulled by hand. Dandelions, when young and tender, are at their best for making wine and salads. If you use them, you might not have enough in your lawn, so get permission to harvest your neighbor’s lawn too.

Chicory roots can be pulverized for a coffee substitute and purslane is edible. The red, fleshy stems, thick succulent leaves and small yellow flowers of this plant can be eaten in salads or cooked.

NOTE: Before eating any weed, be sure to get a positive identification from a garden center, plant clinic, or Cooperative Extension Service. A thorough text on this subject is “Eat the Weeds” by Ben Charles Harris (Keats Publishing, 1995). Also check out Eat The Weeds and other things, too by Green Deane, www.eattheweeds.com/welcome-to-eattheweeds-com. Be certain any weed you eat has not been treated with herbicides or insecticides.

Kudzu or Porcelainberry

Weeds in Garden Beds

Best approach to weeds in planting beds – pull them when they’re young. That’s our preference. Every time you pass your beds, pluck some. Trees can begin as weeds and go unnoticed until they’re firmly rooted and difficult to pull.

If actively growing weeds are invasive, the most effective herbicide is glyphosate. This non-selective herbicide will kill any plant it contacts. Reportedly, it biodegrades quickly, and can safely be sprayed over roots of mature shade trees to control poison ivy, porcelainberry, or mile-a-minute weed. Read and follow labeled instructions, and apply glyphosate very carefully, even if it means putting it on weeds with a cotton swab or paintbrush. A gust of wind while you’re spraying could blow the spray onto ornamentals. I will only use glyphosate in extreme situations.

Nutsedge, Oxalis & Ground Ivy In Planting Bed

Vinegar has been approved by the EPA as a safe, non-toxic, non-selective weed killer. It burns and kills foliage it contacts. It’s very effective when weeds are saturated.

After you’ve gotten your weeds under control, apply Preen Organic (corn gluten) for a safe pre-emergent herbicide that will discourage weeds from germinating.

Information and advice on herbicides is available from:

• Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov

• Cooperative Extension System, www.csrees.usda.gov

Mulch is a practical method of controlling weeds without using chemicals. Materials that can be laid in beds as protective coverings will reduce evaporation, prevent erosion and control weeds. Use compost, straw, salt hay, pine bark nuggets, shredded hardwood bark, shredded pine bark, wood chips, newspapers or landscape fabric. I prefer organic, partially composted materials.

Put a 1” veneer of your favorite ornamental mulch on top to provide a clean unified appearance in your garden.

©2012 Joel M. Lerner

For more helpful tips follow me on Facebook.