Maggie's Farm

Bright red berries produced in the fall close along the stems of a deciduous shrub, most often in damp areas in the Eastern US, is Winterberry - Ilex verticillata.

Yes some ilex, ie hollies, are deciduous.

Many cultivars with larger and more abundant berries are now available of this native shrub. They are commonly used in weaths and Christmas plant arrangements. Still, the plant looks best in the woods and swamps.

We have a couple of Pee Wee Hydrangeas in our compact front entry garden, which is part shade. They are the dwarf form of the big Oakleaf Hydrangea, and are not too easy to find.

I highly recommend them for shrub/perennial borders. Like everything else, they take several years to reach their full size (which is around 3'x3' or 4X4). Ours are in full bloom right now:

Mrs. BD loves her Little Lambs. It is a very special paniculata hydrangea.

I have never known anyone who did not enjoy hydrangeas.

Before you mess with hydrangeas, you need to know whether a plant is a macrophylla, oakleaf, arborescens, or a paniculata-type. The handling of each type is different - especially the pruning - and they vary in spring frost hardiness.

A good hydrangea site.

The Madame Hardy Rose, a Damask Rose, was bred by Alexandre Hardy in 1832.

My brother in CT emailed the photo with this note: "You gave this plant to me 15 years ago, and it's still doing well. I have never had a rose survive this long."

These folks waste no space on lawn, and seem to plant every spare inch except for grassy paths. But who does the weeding?

A few easy-growing salad (and I hate salad - rabbit food) greens for the garden that even I enjoy. I would never use these things in a mixed green salad, because you lose the flavor and character of the individual thing.

These are greens that you can plant every two or three weeks during the spring and summer, and harvest small and tender. Some of them will grow back after harvesting the leaves. They are often commercially grown hydroponically these days.

My favorite is Mache (aka Corn Salad), a sweet, tender mayonnaise-tasting leaf

Frisee, a member of the Chickory family. Bitter, tangy, crunchy: good to precede a game meal, grilled lamb, or steak. Never salad with the main course, in our view, unless it's a buffet, because salad dressing messes up the flavors of the main course.

Garden Cress, a member of the Mustard family. Sort of like Watercress.

Dandelion. Spicey with a bit of crunch.

Arugula. The strange kerosene flavor grows on you. Just try to ignore the fact that Liberals like it.

Short growing season up here. Ours are just getting going, but I already have some blossoms. Please do not tell me what you have in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri. Fact is, I do like it here despite the high taxes and the short growing season.

We do not even bother with the Beefsteaks and Beefmasters. No point to it. Lucky to get a decent harvest of them before the first frost. Big Boys work, though, and they are OK. Each one of my plants is a different variety. I like the pear-shaped mini yellows, the orange ones, the sweet millions, the Big Boys and the Big Girls, etc etc.

They say that fully healthy roses cannot be harmed by aphid infestations, and that may be true. However, we do not live in an ideal world, and it makes no sense to go out on strike until it appears.

We have abundant Rose Aphids this spring, but haven't seen them for the past few years.

We mix liquid dish soap at the rate of 1 tbsp/gallon in spray bottles, and spray the roses, especially their succulent tips, with it. Dead aphids by the thousands, without poisoning anything else. The surfactant suffocates the buggers. I brush off any Ladybugs first.

Mrs. BD claims that she is waterboarding them to death.

One treatment ought to do it. Best done before the first bloom. Had to do it today.

A planted space (aka "a garden") isn't a "space" without the sense of, a suggestion of, or the reality of, enclosure - regardless of scale; whether the scale is a 20X20' herb or rose garden or a 50-100 acre meadow bounded by woods or windbreaks. Just like a picture wants a frame.

I think that comfortable feeling is deeply embedded in the human soul, and it is the reason garden designers speak of outdoor "rooms." I kinda prefer designing or thinking about outdoor "hallways" - the paths which lead from space to space. Hallways, though, must lead to rooms or they have no meaning and no purpose.

Yesterday:

The new garden path that I mentioned on the Spring to-do list. Besides looking nice, it solved the problem of the previously muddy route that the dog always takes on his routine patrols for enemies and intruders. Fortunately, he likes the new path. No, I did not build it myself but I could have, given the time.

The Mrs. did a nice job with her new semi-shade border, but it will take a year or three to mature. As you can see, I pruned the heck out of that young Crepe Myrtle behind the hybrid Rhodies. Maybe too much. That's a small Kousa Dogwood on the corner.

I am putting mine in the ground today, after using my car as a greenhouse for a couple of weeks. I have 6 varieties this time. Always those Sweet Million cherry tomatoes, and always the classic Beefsteaks, even though they aren't ready around here until mid-late August. Still worth it for a few weeks of them. Some yellows. No plum tomatoes - the canned are fine with me if they are going to be cooked anyway.

Are yours in yet?

I think we did a good job on this little corner. Nepeta (which won't be blooming for a while), some giant allium and regular allium in bloom right now, Wisteria overhead getting ready to bloom (pruned them so hard this winter they might be disappointing this Spring), low boxwood hedging and a thick row of those dwarf yellow lilies heading up on the right. I forget the name of those clumps of bulbs with the bell-like purple flowers, but they are pleasant.

The pup just ate two baby bunnies (Cottontail rabbits). One baby ran away. He found their nest while we were doing outdoor clean-up. The pup was helping, of course.

It's always been my philosophy that too much outdoor clean-up is bad for the wild critters, and we love our wild critters. The early Mother's Day present to the Mrs. was the work of 4 yard guys for 4 days, plus however-many truckloads of black mulch, plus a couple of dumpsters. Three loads of mulch did the job, barely, but the garden beds look spiffy for the moment. But, sadly, with fewer bunnies.

That's our second truck load of it. This black stuff looks best, and only costs a little bit more for your garden beds. A 6" layer does the job.

For those who live in the northern parts of the world, just a reminder: unless you live in an area with remarkably fertile soil, your lawns, perennials and some of your shrubs count on some fertilizer because none of them are truly natural (they are all genetically-engineered and hybridized), nor do they receive what nature would otherwise supply them for free (rotten leaf mold, flooding silt, bear, human, and Wooly Mammoth poop, etc).

My point is that it's easy to forget that the roots wake up and begin growing and seeking nourishment long before any buds appear.

Not only that, but it takes a while for your fertilizer to get down to the roots. Time and rain. March and early April is the time to give your precious plants a good head start up here in the north country.

And, yes, this is a metaphor too.

Pruning is a subject of great interest to us, as it is to all gardeners. It is now the last chance to do our winter pruning of those late-blooming shrubs and trees which bloom on new growth.

This site from Texas A&M is an excellent pruning overview, with special attention to the pruning requirements of Crepe Myrtle.

Shrubs which are pruned wrong offend my delicate gardening sensibilities.

Photo: One of my young Crepe Myrtles blooming a couple of Augusts ago. Up here in Yankeeland, north of their growing zone, they have a small chance of thriving if they are a hardy variety, and are well-sheltered and well-mulched for the winter. Mine do just fine. While they are commonplace in the South, up here nobody seems to know what they are.

As with hybrid Rhodadendrons and azaleas, it's an iffy proposition up here - but well-worth when it works.

Taking a little break from fall planting. Last chance to do some lawn reseeding and to transplant, and to plant the last shipment of perennials hereabouts. I had to make a new small perennial border, under orders. Many bags of cow manure and peat moss from Home Depot, along with compost, to happify the lousy glacial soil we have here.

Simple pleasures. I like digging in the dirt, and I believe in digging and enriching 18" for new perennial plantings. You can only do it once.

Mostly rare Hostas, of course. Mrs. BD is an afficianado. Photo is "Dance with Me." Nice enough Hosta, but you have to get into it to fully appreciate. To get a clue, try Hosta Library.

Do me a favor: never plant Hostas in the sun. Terrible thing to do. And always en masse, or they will offend my delicate gardening sensibilities.

My Montauk Daisies always come into bloom in the first week of October. It's worth the wait but, depending on the first frost, their bloom time can be brief.

Advice to those who grow them: They don't need fertilizer. They want full sun. Prune them to 4-6" high each early spring or you will end up with a huge, scraggly shrub a bit like the one below.