Succulent planters

I have tons of pictures and ideas  to share with you.... I've been on 4 garden tours and visited several private gardens in the last week!

Yesterday we visited one of my favorite gardens, Bill and Luann's, which is primarily a shade garden.  But, Luann does very creative designs with succulents for the spots of bright light that do occur in their yard and garden beds!  I think she brings a bit of Arizona back with her in the spring!

She told me she plants them and sets them out...never waters them!

This gives you a view of her design from the top!

This one hangs over a planting of hostas!

Fair Flower Show Arrangements

Here are some of the floral arrangements from last night's arranging workshop!

County Fair Time!

Tis the season....for fairs!  Our local county fair is going on right now!   I spent a few hours last night having lots of fun there helping our local garden club with their annual Free Flower Arranging Workshop!

Each year we gather up a big supply of  flowers and plant material from our gardens and supplement that collection by purchasing some additional  flowers!  Then we gather up a supply of floral containers, floral tape, floral oasis and laminated instructions on various arrangement designs and have loads of fun helping all ages who show up to "make a floral arrangement" to enter in a Flower Show!  The line forms quickly and long at the designated start time of 6 PM.    I was so amazed at the 5 yr olds and 6 yr olds  who created stunning designs!  They stood right next to the adults and calmly put together beautiful arrangements to enter!  What a fun experience watching the activity and joy of the designers at work!

The next morning judges come in to evaluate and award ribbons to the winners in the various skill levels and categories!

I need to get back to the fair to get some pictures of the winning arrangements before Sunday when they come back to the fair  to claim their arrangements, ribbons and prize money!

Japanese Beetles! UGH!

Tis the season for Japanese Beetles to make their appearance and here they are!  What to do?

I was touring on another local Garden Tour a few days ago and part of the fun is to keep running into other gardening friends to visit with along the route!

As I was visiting with Mary Ann, who has tons of shade gardens (hostas) as well as sun beds (roses included) we were discussing the topic of the season...Japanese Beetles!   She shared with us what has been working for her the last few years!

If you have done any research in what to do about these ugly critters you have discovered they have  life cycle that just keeps them in our lives and gardens!  You see them now on plants but they lay their eggs and as a result their larva burrows under the soil to grow and winter over to come to the  surface next year to gobble up our plant material again  So, treating them is a two prong attack.  Above the soil and under the soil!   Mary Ann found this product at the local "Fleet Farm" and said it has had significant impact on her herd of beetles!

So, it may be worth a try as it attacks above soil as well as below soil!  It will probably require an on going annual attack but if it works, is well worth the effort.

 I only see a few in my beds...but am off today to search for this product hoping I can protect my plants for the next year!

Wow! What a fantastic experience!

I am resting today, our garden beds were on the Rochester Garden Club Annual Garden Tour this weekend!  It has been fun getting ready for it since spring but am thankful I have a normal city size lot which limits my garden beds in size so not tons of work getting ready for it!

We had storm weather hit on Saturday morning making  it unsafe to have the tour when it was scheduled!  The chairs of this event performed a miracle quickly deciding to contact all the host gardeners, volunteers which included musicians and artists scheduled to be at the gardens and the volunteer club members scheduled to be at each garden to assist....and various vendors who were scheduled to set up in the college garden where the maps/wrist bands were for sale...   Yes was the answer to are you willing to change this to tomorrow, Sunday!  And the tour went on with success the next day!   That's what I call teamwork and creative decision making!

It was a wonderful experience greeting guests to our yard and garden beds!  Gardeners are such fun and appreciative people to be with!  Then later in the afternoon the garden hosts and volunteers jumped on a trolley and had a chance to visit all the gardens on  the tour also!  Long day but full of great  experiences!  I will be sharing  pictures taken in future posts!

continued from yesterday.....

This beautiful veggie garden was planted in the Pergola below!

An unusual private home and garden we visited on the bus tour in June....

Not only were the gardens extensive with a wide variety of plants the home was spectacular and we were invited inside to enjoy it also!  We spent about 90 minutes there and enjoyed every minute!

This was all native and prairie planted area!

Visiting a friend's garden recently...

My favorite thing to do.... visit other gardens!   Vickie and I were chatting about Astilbes and she showed me an unusual one that gets quite tall!  Reminds me of a white flower one I have that is also tall but blooms in June, that I would love to know the variety name of!  Vickie's  has pink blooms so I took a picture and let her know I'd love a piece of it next time she downsizes it a bit!  

Then when I went home I was walking by a new plant I purchased this spring at our garden club plant sale that was marked simply "Pink Astible" and much to my surprise the flower had just opened up and it was one of the pieces Vickie had donated to the sale this spring!   Needless to say I was pretty pleased to identify it further and asked Vickie for the variety name!   'Ostrich Plume' is the variety....  THANKS VICKIE!

It is not the usual looking Astilbe we are all so familiar with.....

OSTRICH PLUME features a foliage mound (to 20” tall) of dark green leaves and large, loose, weeping panicles of pink flowers on arching stems typically rising to 2.5-3’ tall in late spring to early summer. Young foliage may be tinged with bronze. It is placed in the Thunbergii hybrid group, which are generally tall varieties (to 4’) which bloom late and feature arching, loosely-branched flower panicles and ovate to lance-shaped, 2-ternate leaves.

New mulch experience....

In getting my garden beds ready for the Annual Garden Club Garden Tour, which  I am on this year.... I decided to experiment with mulching some beds that I usually don't mulch.

I have been purchasing a really nice mini pine chip mulch, I find at Gerten's in Inver Grove Heights,  to use in mulching my Fairy Gardens and containers for several years.  This year when I picked up a new bag I had a sudden urge to try mulching my mini hosta bed with it.  I figured the pine chips not only will look great, hold in moisture and reduce weeds but certainly break down easily and end up improving my clay soil.   (I do not mulch hostas  because I don't like the usual mulch material working its way into the base of the hosta plants.)  So, I picked up a few more bags to try!  

Yep, it looks great...…  and I ended up going back for more and mulching a few more garden beds that I don't usually mulch!  Love the look!  Time will tell what it does for the soil, etc.

This hosta bed features smaller hostas which get lost in a bed with the big ones!  To add interest I tuck in some dwarf size shade perennials along with a touch of garden art to match the scale.

Note the dwarf  Solomens Seal in the back, larger plant by the Angel is a dwarf Goats Beard and the right of the center gold hosta is a dwarf Thalictrum and edging the bottom of the picture is some Irish Moss.

Water lilies .....

Nothing like water lilies serenely floating on water...…  it always catches my eye and I need to stop and contemplate the beauty and peace of the sight!

I was at the RCTC Heintz Center horticulture department gardens yesterday!  Just could not walk on by this scene!

Just have to share it with you!

Hostas!

This spring has been simply awesome for hostas this year!  They've loved the moisture and cooler temps here in Minnesota!  I miss my hostas I had to leave at the Lake when we sold the cabin last fall, but I simply did not have space to move them home!  Yes, I moved about 6 pieces of my favorites which I squeezed in  under the lilac tree, but am adjusting to the change!

Sharing some hosta views with you!

Some of my friends from the lake!

A view of my main hosta bed!

I am soooo excited!

When you lose a plant it is an opportunity to replace it with something new and maybe even better!
Although we liked the Weigela shrubs we planted a few years ago, this variety seems to be a bit not so hardy when our winters are on the extreme side.  So I went shopping hoping I'd find something that I'd like as well that might be more reliable for Minnesota.

Much to my surprise I found replacements that have me sooooo excited!  My friend, Rita, has the most beautiful 'Quickfire' hydrangea tree what begins blooming in June and just keeps on a going with magnificent blossoms on into winter providing a beautiful change of color thru the season!
I've had a big case of envy for several years now!   Well, guess what I found just waiting for me  to discover!   Yep, a new variety 'Little Quickfire'!  A shrub that only grows 3-5 Ft high with a spread of only 3-5 Ft!  AND IT IS IN BLOOM AND ON SALE!  Two of them quickly jumped into our car to find their new forever home with us!

And two of the Weigela's could stay for another year while the Quickfire's settle in to grow a bit!  If the Weigelas survive this coming winter, I guess we'll find another spot for them!

The color right now is a light rich cream!  

They should spread to about 5 Ft each and fill in this space!  I can hardly wait but will enjoy the view as they grow!

Creative use of a bird bath base......

A gardening friend, Mary Ann, just posted a picture of a beautiful planter and then disclosed it was the base to a bird bath that had lost it's bath bowl!  I've used them to support a pot of flowers in the garden beds, but this is even better!   I think I've got one buried in the garage....better check it out tomorrow!

The tip she shared is for the winter.  She empties it of soil and the container she uses inside to reduce the amount of potting soil needed and lays it on its side empty for the winter.

Great idea!

Fairy Gardens

Once again, Fairies reminded me they needed their playgrounds!  This year it was time to replace some of  the containers and I decided to reduce the sizes a bit so they were easier to transport around and display.  I made a few less also, but had just as much fun creating them.  Plant prices seem to be increasing also, and I decided I didn't have to use all of my collection of fairy size garden art every year!  So, instead of 35 I think I only made about 18!

The tiny plants are finally spreading and beginning to bloom so they will look especially nice for the Garden Tour in four more weeks!  Some of my favorite little plants were not available where I shopped this year, but there were some new ones, which I am  enjoying.  One new one is tiny daisies which is delighting me!

Here are few:

This one is fun because it has a water pump running water in the stream to the pond!

Just as charming at half the size!  My little woodland sprite and friends!

Half the size this year but still is a fun trip to the beach!

The plant on the right was enjoyed for Easter with its flowers  before it moved  outdoors to the beach later and is still happy!