Well, the most amazing gardening shows are running all week on WETA, the local PBS affiliate – Jerry Baker’s how-to videos. He not only calls himself "America’s Master Gardener," he’s actually trademarked the term. Takes cajones, don’t ya think? Well, that’s just for starters (though I can’t help wondering if "Maryland’s Master Gardener" is still available. Hmm.)
Anyway, his advice for a "spring clean-up" is to spray everything with a mixture of antiseptic mouthwash, dishsoap, the juice of chewing tobacco, and any "medication" that we think is needed. And by "everything" he means lawn and all your "trees, shrubs and evergreens." He used that nonsensical term so often during his show on the subject, I almost forgot how stupid mistaken it is. This homemade formula is supposed to start our gardens out "clean, green and mean" and is to be followed by spraying everything with dormant hort oil, followed by a combination of "any old fertilizer" to which is added sugar and epsom salts. This is not only to be sprayed on everything but also inserted into holes drilled around every tree.
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Thanks to Val for helping me convert this and other House and Garden Tour photos into JPEG. Here’s one taken in the woods looking back at my house (on the left) and my neighbors’ house. And one more for now – a nice shot of the birdhouses. For some reason the color got all screwy in the conversion from TIFF, so imagine the leaves here a normal-looking green, okay?
But back to Val. If I think it’s cool that my new buddy in Australia helped me with a computer problem, does that make me hopelessly uncool?
[Photos by Julie Wyatt, Takoma/Silver Spring Voice.]
The results are in from my 2001 trial of various miniature daffodils (narcissus, if you insist). For sheer staying power, ‘Jetfire’ is the winner by a mile. It’s even spreading, so it qualifies as a naturalizing bulb (as opposed to perennializing, meaning returning for several years). ‘Thalia’ and ‘Tete-a-Tete’ tie for second place, still popping up after five years but in diminishing numbers. And the varieties that have proven to be short-lived are: ‘Pipit,’ ‘Bell Song,’ ‘Jack Snipe,’ and ‘Hawera,’ and all of the doubles. None of the contestants received any attention on my part – surely we all have better things to do than pamper our daffodils.
I stopped by the local paper to pick up their photos of last spring’s House and Garden Tour, the fun day in May when 700+ people traipsed through my house and garden and that of my neighbors. It was a wonderful neighborhood lovefest, the sharing of our little slice of heaven, and we raised big bucks for the local historic society. And now that I have these photos, I can add them to our new website. Well, that’s the idea. For some reason this is the only one that Photo Deluxe recognizes (yes, I still use the freebie program that came with my first digital camera.) In order to do anything with the others I’ll have to figure out Picasa, a program also on my computer that I’ve never used and which looks utterly foreign to me. If continually having to learn new programs doesn’t stave off senility, well, I don’t know what will.
Anyway, I’m glad the one shot I can show you is this one, taken by the Takoma Voice’s Julie Wyatt from my neighbor’s deck and looking into my garden, with tour-goers strewn about. In the center of the photo is the doomed Bradford pear you’ve heard so much about, which I’m resolved to have removed this very month. To that end, my job this weekend is to move FIVE fully grown shrubs that are in the way of the removal work and, if I can manage it, a four-year-old Kousa dogwood with presumably a sizable rootball.
Yeah, I’m busting my butt this weekend moving these large plants that I’ve been told don’t really have to be moved because I don’t trust myself. If I leave them there, assuming they really do survive the tree work, I’m afraid I’ll get lazy and plant all the new trees conveniently around them instead of where they should go. No, after decades of compiling one mistake on top of another in that border by planting around whatever’s already there, I’m finally doing it right, dammit. No more slacker design for me. Good thing I know a good physical therapist, though.
In order to remove the "candidate" in front of "Master Gardener" in my profile, I have to complete one take-home exam and perform 50 hours of qualifying community service in D.C. And lucky me, this past weekend I got NINE hours under my belt driving around with my friend Judy, reviewing proposals submitted to her organization, Garden Resources of Washington, and spewing forth ideas about design and plant choices. The sites were schools, churches and a training center, all waaay off the tourist beat and boy, what a challenge they are. First, the amounts of money they have to work with are miniscule and another challenge, at least for me, is the disconnect between my design taste and that of the applicants.
Now this isn’t th
e first time I’d dealt with folks who liked red mulch and straight lines of evenly spaced annuals and lots of azaleas and boxwoods and want to put a butterfly garden in the shade. But my coachees, all demographically identical to myself, have been easy to bring around to a more naturalistic and practical type of garden design. Judy’s applicants are also gardening newbies but because they’re poor and black, I wonder if our design choices are right for them. For example, should we encourage curves for people who seem to prefer geometry and formality? I kept doubting my natural inclination in design and plant choice. Anybody have any thoughts on these cultural differences? There may be regional differences at work here, as well, judging from the lingering love of formality I see in Southern cities.
The photos are winter views from my back deck – first across the hedge of cherry laurels to my neighbors’ gorgeous garden and then directly into the wooded part of my property. Wait till you see it all leafed-out and blazing with spring color. I’m practically peeing in my pants in anticipation.
Before all hell breaks loose in the garden – we have particularly severe springs here in the Mid-Atlantic – I thought I’d show you a scene I’ve been appreciating over the winter. It’s this basket of fake ivy hanging outside the toolshed, with two pots of real liriope beneath it. People seem shocked when I tell them it’s fake, but hey, it’s fooled them so why not? They may be giving me too much credit – oh, Susan’s such a devoted gardener it must be real – but it’s exactly the reality-hardened gardener who knows that nothing would survive such an inhospitable spot and that a reasonable facsimile sure looks better than a blank wall.
Blog Note:
We have a response to my recent post about Gardening’s History of Invasion and your interesting comments thereto. Influential nurseryman/invasive plant crusader John Peter Thompson sent me a very thoughtful reply; it’s the first comment listed. Sorry I’m having trouble creating a link to the post, but you can just click "Rants" in my categories and it’s the first post. Grrr.
Well, the most amazing gardening shows are running all week on WETA, the local PBS affiliate – Jerry Baker’s how-to videos. He not only calls himself "America’s Master Gardener," he’s actually trademarked the term. Takes cajones, don’t ya think? Well, that’s just for starters (though I can’t help wondering if "Maryland’s Master Gardener" is still available. Hmm.)
