Here’s why I ask. This is in my next-door neighbor’s back garden by Holt Jordan. With its sprinkling of evergreens, fabulous stonework, and two ponds with a waterfall between them, even winter looks damn good.
But imagine instead of these patches of cold season lawn there were just mulch, or bare earth above herbaceous plants that are hiding for the winter? Or compare it to the muddy expanse where turfgrass used to be in my own backyard, which is now SO NOT PRETTY I won’t even photograph it. (It’s sealed off from public display by its status as Work in Progress, I tell myself.)
Now that I’ve cavalierly, possibly rashly banned lawn as a groundcover from my property, is it really so terrible? These patches may even be maintained organically – I know the folks at Safe Lawns promise it can look this good without the gardener behaving badly. Not a bad deal, I say.
Don’t miss "Cracked" in tomorrow’s Washington Post Magazine by my friend Ruben. Unlike A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, Ruben’s story about covering DC’s crime scene as a crack addict himself is the truth. And unlike another recent story of recovery in the Post – by a self-pitying ex-university professor – his is honest. It would also make a helluva good book.
For years, this has been my favorite shrub for shady spots because of its 
outstanding
appearance all year long. Long white flowers appear in March and April,
but its evergreen foliage gets lots of attention, too, especially the
new growth that appears in fabulous shades of reds.
Then just this year I started hearing gardening
experts warn that global warming is NOT being
kind to this plant, and one has even stopped recommending it. Say it
isn’t so! Maybe now’s a good time to look into similar plants like the
American species and Japanese-American hybrids (more on them below).
Photo credit.
DETAILS
CARE
- Pieris has only average drought-tolerance, so needs watering during dry periods.
- Really requires no pruning but if you do you prune, do it after flowering to avoid cutting off the buds.
- Unless your soil is already acidic, apply Hollytone or other organic fertilizer for acid-soil-loving plants every spring.
-
Lacebug is a common and serious pest that sucks the sap from the
leaves, yellowing them. Adequate shade, water and soil acidity reduces
its vulnerability, however.
Photo credit.
PIERIS FLORIBUNDA, AND HYBRIDS OF THE TWO SPECIES
Pieris floribunda, a native plant from Virginia to Georgia, is 2 to
6′ tall, with a greater spread. It’s harder to propagate so, not
surprisingly, it’s not as available as the Japanese species. Woody plant expert Michael Dirr reports learning that the natives
consistently die out in the Atlanta area but that hybrids (crossed with
the Japanese species) do just fine there.
The December issue is out and available right here. "What’s New?" is a compilation of news and blog posts about such meaty topics as native plants, drought-resistance, composting, and organic gardening. This month there’s a link to Kathy Purdy’s review of a new organic gardening book and Graham Rice’s review of New Gardening – a British take on all those subject that I can’t wait to read myself. So please, if you know of good links or have written about these subjects yourself, drop me a line and I’ll include them – both in the newsletter and permanently on the site.
HELLO, SUBSCRIBERS, WHEREVER YOU ARE
All 86 of you and counting, and thanks for the encouragement you’ve sent via email. Apparently some people subscribed because they’re not regular readers of GardenRant (it happens) but still want to be kept in the loop on the meaty issues. If you’re like them, or if you just have a perverse interest in the new feature "My So-Called Second Career", subscribe here.
Funny thing – by reading gardenblogs from other climates I’ve come to better understand my own climate and how it affects my gardening choices. I now see that it’s only because my beds and borders aren’t covered with snow all winter that I care about having evergreen groundcovers. And unlike other gardeners who write about raking dead leaves into their borders for the winter, I quickly remove fallen leaves because I’d much rather see the evergreen groundcovers 
underneath (and potentially being smothered by) them.
Something that all temperate zone gardeners can agree on, though, are the glories of evergreen shrubs and trees, like the ones I grow listed here just below the deciduous ones. But today it’s not those big green partners in my garden that I’ve come to praise but rather the evergreen perennials that I wouldn’t even see if I didn’t continue to stroll my garden through the winter. But stroll I do here in Z
one 7, more days than not.
Euphorbia amygaloides (top) is
my new favorite perennial.
The lamb’s ears (above) are starting to look ragged and 
definitely aren’t blooming but they still look good, even after our first snow. Same goes for the Pulmonaria (right). Liriope looks look good all year. Carex? Same deal. (Photos in the links.)
And how about the Persian ivy ‘Sulphur Heart’ (above left)? It’s well behaved and always gorgeous.
It all seems so obvious now, that planting tulip bulbs in groups is
waaay easier than one at a time. Well,
that much I would have guessed but for some reason I thought we’re not supposed to do it that way. So my 50 tulips
in front of a sunny border have always sprung from 50 separate holes. But having learned
that Elizabeth sticks 50 of them in ONE HOLE and GETS AWAY WITH IT,
well damn, I can bunch ‘em up a bit, right?
So I planted in groups of 3, 5 and
7, resulting in the digging of only 10 holes for my yearly batch of 50
tulips. And I already know they’re going to look better that way
because when I’m looking for a really super photo of them at their
peak, I crouch and contort myself to get as many as possible in the shot. To me this is more proof that
the quest for beautiful garden photographs can be a fine guide to garden
design itself. ("Let’s see; where can I plant this for a killer photo?")
Oh, oh, and another big advantage of bunching is that it’s actually
possible to put squirrel-prevention screening on top of them, which it
sure wasn’t when I planted all 50 scattershot among the perennials. So
when I saw the squirrels digging right on top of where I’d planted them
(thankfully, stopping when they hit the red pepper flakes on top of
each one, but still messing up the planting) I knew I needed more protection than red pepper flakes,
and it was easy to cut just 3 pieces of wire window screening to cover
the tulip areas. (Note to 2008 calendar: remove the screens by late March.)
And here’s one of those gardening tips to add to the frenzy of bulb
worship we seem to be in the midst of over on GardenRant. Plant them in pure compost to make it super-easy. My tulip border started life in my garden as a gully,
so I filled it in with pure compost and man, digging in it is a breeze.
Sliding my spade in that friable black goodness, well, it’s like
bud-ah, to steal from an old SNL skit. And people like Elizabeth with
big raised beds all know this but here in the burbs, not so much.
WHAT THE USUAL SOURCES TELL US
I went a’surfing the Web and:
- Dutch Garden’s site offers the design idea that bulbs look best
in informal groups of 5 to 11. Endorsing the massing in one hole? Well, no, because they go on to recommend a solid block of color or 20+ bulbs
"planted just a few inches apart". So either that’s lots of separate holes or a much bigger hole than I had in mind.
- Here’s Cornell
telling us that planting tulips 4-6 inches apart leaves enough room for
bulbs to "grow for 2 or 3 years before they need to be divided." Ah,
so if that’s the reason we shouldn’t plant them cheek by jowl I can safely ignore that advice because my tulips are destined to being yanked and composted after they fade, anyway.
- eHow has a video on the subject by the very well qualified Willi
Galloway, West Coast editor of Organic Gardening Magazine,
but she makes is pretty intimidating. Materials needed before digging: soft rock
phosphate, bulbs, compost, trowel, chicken wire, chicken cutters. I can’t really disagree with anything she recommends
but it’s kinda daunting, not the "Bulbs are easy-peasy" reports you
read on blogs.
So are experts there to specify the ideal, while bloggers fill readers in on the reality, the good-enough, the relax-and-enjoy of growing plants?
