| Dalliance with dahlias blooms again
I feel like I have come full circle in my garden remembering my first attempts at planting a few wax begonias among my permanent landscape plants and anxiously waiting for my dinner plate dahlias to bloom. That was 30 years ago. Since then I have cycled back to a sturdy shrub-filled landscape again and I am eyeballing the latest and greatest dahlias on the Web. There was a time when I wouldn't be caught dead with a dahlia in my garden. Too easy to grow and too ostentatious, with loud screaming colors and gaudy forms. All I wanted for two decades or more were fussy perennials and weird rockery plants that were difficult to grow and impossible to find. Yet looking back, there was a lot of bloom there for that dahlia buck. And they can't be beat for their heat- and drought-tolerance.
Organic gardens' seeds of success
1 Soup up the soil. The key to gardening more naturally, Tyson says, is to build the nutrients in your soil and boost its organic matter. You can do this by making your own compost or buying a premade organic soil builder.
It's easy to make compost in a free-form pile or in an outdoor container in your own yard. Just find a sunny spot, use lawn clippings and tree leaves as the foundation, and then add your daily kitchen vegetable scraps, a handful of soil and occasional water to the pile.
Once the compost has turned into rich, fertile soil (about four to six months), add it to your garden. Don't have the time or the inclination to compost? Allison Palmer of Palmer's Garden & Goods suggests using a low-cost soil builder such as Greenleaf mushroom compost to enrich soil or mix it with your own compost to repel bugs.
Spring Gardening Workshop
ORONO — As the ground thaws, the air warms and the sun shines longer, the Page Farm and Home Museum at UMaine is offering a free lunchtime workshop on spring gardening — providing tips for backyard gardeners. On April 26 at noon, the museum will host a presentation, "Getting Ready for Spring Gardening," by UMaine Cooperative Extension’s ornamental horticulture specialist, Lois Stack. Participants are invited to bring a brown bag lunch. Stack is an expert in the field and consults for nurseries, greenhouses, garden centers and other businesses that depend upon healthy, hearty plants. She also contributes to the Master Gardener program, and speaks frequently to gardening groups. For more information, call 581-4100. Discuss this article on the forums.
Cultivating Your Kingdom
It is spring and the gardeners are back! Lawns are being raked, branches and felled trees, left behind in the wake of winter storms, are being gathered up. Its called Spring Clean Up and it is a ritual where everyone is doing yard work throughout the Hamptons.
There is something about country living that attracts gardeners. On the east end we are particularly conscious of our landscape, whether it is barren and beachy, or lush and green, our gardens consume us. Some of us are experts at growing plants in the sand and have become masters of the seascape, a great form of gardening that does not involve mowing, weeding, or watering.
In addition to being a great hobby, stress reliever, and source of tomatoes for sauce, a garden can enhance or detract from the value of your home.
Enjoy 13 of the Best Private Gardens in Los Angeles County
A regional guide, The West Edition, costs $6.95 including shipping. Call the Garden Conservancy toll-free at 1-888-842-2442 to order with a Visa or MasterCard, or send a check or money order to: the Garden Conservancy, P.O. Box 219, Cold Spring, NY 10516. Discount admission tickets are available as well through advanced mail order. The 2007 Open Days Program is generously sponsored by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Americas most trusted name in gardening for 125 years, providing seeds, plants, gardening supplies and accessories for the home gardener. The Open Days Program is also pleased to have Fine Gardening Magazine as its National Media Sponsor. Fine Gardening is published bimonthly by The Taunton Press, a trusted source of information and inspiration on house and home. The Garden Conservancys Open Days Program has been opening the gates to Americas best private gardens since 1995.
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