by Christie Purifoy | May 11, 2020
Most of us know that too little water can be a problem for our gardens, but we’ve probably given less thought to the problem of too much.
But is it problem or opportunity?
That damp or boggy section of your garden might be a problem in need of a solution: perhaps a French drain or raised beds. But perhaps all it needs is the right plants.
As the garden writer Beth Chatto famously said,
Right plant, right place.
That simple phrase rocked the gardening world because it turned so much gardening practice on its head. Rather than attempting to change the conditions they’d been given, Chatto insisted, good gardeners should study their garden and choose the right plants for the conditions they had.
If that’s the approach you’re determined to take, here are some trees, shrubs, and perennials that don’t mind having “wet feet”:
Trees:
- River Birch
- Red maple
- Weeping willow
- Sycamore
Shrubs:
- Winterberry
- Bottlebrush Buckeye
- Sweet Pepperbush
Perennials:
- Hardy Hibiscus
- Black Snakeroot
- Meadow Rue
- Bee Balm
- Siberian iris
- Japanese iris
- Astilbe
- Calla Lilies
- Canna
- Elephant’s Ear
- Joe-pye Weed
- Phlox
- Royal fern
- Ostrich fern
- Camassia
Finally, is your wet area simply damp or is it completely submerged for days on end?
Keep this question in mind as you choose your plants. Some of these can handle dampness, while others can manage even prolonged submersion.
Explore the entire Black Barn Garden Club Library here.
by Christie Purifoy | May 6, 2020
Death, with all its loss and grief, creates the soil, the womb for life to seed, to take root, to thrive and flourish. Each day, my family and I live because something once alive transfers its energy into our own bodies. And someday, our own bodies will break back down into the dust, providing for whatever life comes after us. On this carefully, lovingly fashioned earth, death and life are not two separate beings but are instead two sides of the same coin. – Catherine McNiel, All Shall Be Well
Soil is the most vital component of our gardens. Everything depends on it.
As gardeners, we would do well to consider ourselves caretakers of the soil. Taking care of the plants themselves is a distant second, because–given the right, healthy soil–most plants can take care of themselves.
How can we take good care of the soil we have been given? Here is one way:
Do Less
It is one of those ironies of the garden, but often we can do better by doing less.
- Dig and till less: tilling, especially, is sometimes necessary when breaking new ground quickly, but it can also cause the soil to compress and can disrupt the natural, healthy life of the soil
- Use fewer chemicals and salts: too many chemical fertilizers give a short-term illusion of abundance, but once that season’s annual flowers have bloomed their hearts out, our soil is left depleted and–sometimes–even poisoned
- Remove less natural vegetation: don’t discard fallen leaves: chop them and use them as mulch; don’t yank out dead annuals: cut off their tops and leave the roots to decompose underneath the ground
by Christie Purifoy | May 5, 2020
The most important way we tend our container gardens is through feeding.
Plants set out in a garden can usually get the nutrients they need from the ground, but plants in a container quickly use up the nutrients available to them in that confined space.
Some gardeners use potting soil with slow-release fertilizers included, but I prefer not to use these. I like beginning with a basic potting soil that includes no chemical fertilizers. One reason for my preference is that at the end of the season I like to add the spent potting soil to my compost heap, and I really do not want to add chemicals or salts to anything I’ll use in other areas of my garden. As well, those fertilizers don’t feed forever. So, a few months in, some sort of feeding is still necessary.
As an organic gardener trying to tend my soil as much as my plants, I feed my containers weekly through the growing season with a liquid fish or seaweed emulsion.
It is very stinky stuff, but application is easy. I add a spoonful to a watering can, fill with water, then give each pot a good soaking.
Organic liquid fertilizers are:
- easily absorbed by roots and leaves
- less likely than granular fertilizers to burn our tender plants
- and they don’t leave behind harmful residue in the soil.
The hardest part might be remembering to use them.
I remind myself with the phrase “Friday Feed.”
If it’s a Friday, I feed. If I can’t remember when I last fed my container plants, I simply wait for the next Friday and get to work.
Explore all the categories and posts in our Garden Library here.
by Christie Purifoy | May 4, 2020
Margaret Roach is one of my favorite garden writers (she hosts a wonderful podcast, too), and I love the title of her recently updated book: A Way to Garden.
I love it because, while she has so much garden knowledge and wisdom to offer, she is always careful to acknowledge that her way of gardening is not the only way of gardening. And I find that enormously freeing. Gardening becomes more fun and less burdensome if we can shed the “shoulds” and simply get busy creating the garden we want to make.
Another favorite garden writer of mine is Monty Don.
His books are excellent, but he is best known for hosting the weekly British gardening television show Gardener’s World. For those of us who don’t live in the UK, we can often find old episodes on YouTube, but I watch new episodes on the subscription television channel called Britbox (available through Amazon Prime).
Recently, Monty and Gardener’s World have been constrained–as we all have–by the realities and limitations of the global corona virus pandemic. This means that they are not free to visit gardens to film, and the show has had to adapt.
Whereas the show used to be beautifully and professionally filmed and produced from start to finish, now the show incorporates short homemade videos submitted by home gardeners across the UK. The films are unpolished and quirky, and the gardens and gardening practices they showcase are the same.
I miss the old beauty and polish, but I am also newly encouraged by the reminder that there are so very many ways to garden. As inspiring as the old Gardener’s World always was, it did set a very high–and you might even say impossible–standard. Finishing an episode, I often felt inspired and discouraged in equal measure.
But now? Now I remember that there is no one way to garden.
And my way matters. Perhaps not to anyone else. But it matters to me. And it matters to the place I’ve been given.
Your way and your place matter, too.
by Christie Purifoy | Apr 30, 2020
Understory trees, they’re called, and I love them.
They are wonderful for small gardens because they naturally grow to only a very manageable size. In larger spaces, these are the trees we need to fill in that layer between the tops of our tall trees–our maples and pines, for instance–and the ground below.
Understory trees give us a whole new layer in the garden and help close the gap between the flowers near the ground and the sky above.
I also love understory trees because they seem to me to be especially beautiful. Many trees flower and produce fruit, but understory trees flower and give fruit right at eye level.
Here are a few of my favorites. These grow well where I live in zone 6 on the east coast of the U.S. They may grow well for you, too, but I hope they at least inspire you to search out the small trees that grow well in your place.
- Carolina silverbell (halesia carolina): Possibly my all-time favorite tree. Beautiful shape. Amazing, delicate bell-like flowers in late spring.
- Japanese Snowbell (styrax japonicus): Simply wonderful. The shape is umbrella-like and perfect for a small patio. The dangling flowers are beautiful in very late spring. White blooming and pink blooming varieties are available.
- Redbud (cercis canadensis): An eastern U.S. native. This purple spring-bloomer comes in many special varieties.
- White Fringetree (chionanthus virginicus): Another beautiful native selection. The fringe-like flowers in spring have an incredible scent. This is another good choice for a small patio.
- Witch Hazel (hamamelis): Witch hazels are yet another wonderful native understory tree. These come in many colors, some scented, and they are especially valued because they bloom in late winter when nothing else is in flower.
