Savvy Gardening: Garden Ideas, Tips, Pictures, and More » Gardening Ideas

Creating a Living Wreath Part 2

Sirena Van Schaik — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:00:06 +0000

If you remember a few days ago, I went on and on about how great living wreaths are. Today, I am going to look at making one.

What you need:

Wire Wreath Form
Sphagnum Moss
Small Well Rooted Plants
Floral U-pins
Fishing Line
Rubber Gloves
Scissors
Bucket

Before starting, a nice leisurely stroll through your local garden center is a wonderful way to find the right theme for your wreath. Go in and absorb the sights, sounds and smells around you to gain inspiration for the wreath. Plan your visit around the central idea of the wreath; a busy garden center might inspire a wreath that is colorful and filled with busy cheer. A quiet early morning visit may inspire a wreth that exudes serenity.

Now that you have the mood, you need the plants. There are hundreds of plants that can be used for living wreaths but it is important to use well-rooted plants. When choosing the plants, take into consideration the soil composition, light requirements, and moisture needs of the plants since they should all be similar. Succulents do very well in living wreaths and they come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. If you are looking for some blooms in your living wreath, plants such as pansies, violets and many other flowering plants can do well. Plants that have quick growing roots such as ivy also make an excellent choice for a living wreath. Herbs such as mint, rosemary and lavender to name a few can be added to a wreath to create a desired ambiance. Take time when choosing your plants and play around with placement before you commit to the purchase.

When you sit down to create your living wreath, make sure you do it in an area that can be cleaned easily. Like many creative processes, this can be very messy. I usually place a garbage bag down and work on top of it. This makes clean up a breeze and saves time for the more important stuff, like admiring your work.

You will need a wire wreath form but it does not have to be a simple circular shape; hearts and other shapes also look nice. You will also need fishing line, scissors, floral u-pins, a bucket and rubber gloves. It is very important to wear rubber gloves since you will also be using Sphagnum Moss to line the wreath and hold the plants. Sphagnum moss can cause a skin infection if it is handled without gloves.

To begin, you will need to tie the end of the fishing line to a starting point on your wreath. Place the Sphagnum Moss, which needs to be soaked for 30 minutes before hand, around the wreath form and make sure that it is generously layered. Arrange the plants on top of the moss. It is best if you lay them loosely so you can position the plants until you have created the mini garden that you desire. After you are happy with the placement, take the first plant closest to the fishing line and place it in the Sphagnum Moss. Secure the plant with more moss and loop the fishing line around both the moss and the plant. Repeat these steps all the way around the wreath and keep a close eye on the shape to prevent the size from fluctuating around the wreath. When the wreath is complete, tie off the fishing line and place the wreath where you want it.

Living wreaths do require a significant amount of care. The plants need to be trimmed and controlled with floral pins and the living wreath will need to be watered every day. The best way to accomplish this is to place the wreath in a garbage can lid and soak it for a few minutes in cool water.

A finished living wreath can be a work of art and can be used in a multitude of ways. Deep greens and seasonal flowers can create a welcoming wreath during the holidays. Create a wreath with nothing but fresh herbs and place it in a kitchen. Not only do you have a wonderfully scented kitchen but you can use the clippings to spice up any dish you desire.

Romance can be achieved by adding candleholder spikes into the wreath and setting it on a table. Be sure to securely fasten the spikes with fishing line. Add a touch of mint or another favorite herb to give the romantic setting a seductive scent.

A great way to bring the romance from indoors to out is to create several small wreaths and place them on candle spikes down a walkway. The flickering light of the candles warm the colors of the wreaths at night and can provide a charming decoration during the day.

One of my favourite ways to use a living wreath is to fill it with soothing greens, warm colors and a soft blend of lavender and chamomile. Add it as a table decoration or as a wall hanging in your bathroom spa. The need for scented candles will be unnecessary with the relaxing smells that drift from a well-placed living wreath.

The living wreath has become more than a way to bring the garden indoors during winter months. It has become a way to create a decoration, a miniature garden, and a central object for relaxation and meditation and there is no end to their enjoyment throughout the whole process of creating and owning one.

Sirena Van Schaik

Creating a Living Wreath Part One

Sirena Van Schaik — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:36:21 +0000

With summer coming to an end, you may be interested in bringing your garden inside. Over the next couple of days, I will look at creating a living wreath and ways to make it work for all spaces. So sit back and enjoy.

For anyone that grows a well-tended garden, there is no limit to the amount of emotions felt when it has taken shape. Gardens can reflect so many things; a person’s moods, dreams, desires or they can be a guided path through peace and tranquility. They can incite feelings of sun kissed joy, whisper of deep green serenity and exotic romance. There is no limit to the structure, flow and accessories that can be added to a garden but sometimes when the focus is on the central space, the outer edges become blurred and forgotten. A living wreath is a wonderful way to take the central idea and move it towards the edges of a garden or even inside.

Wreaths have been used for decades to provide decoration during holidays, to add a touch of color to a room or as a welcoming flourish to many front doors. Wreaths have moved from being decorations only seen around holidays to a potential yearlong celebration of both art and beauty. Living wreaths take a work of art and turn it into beauty that breathes life into a space. They can make an excellent accessory to any garden gate or home, welcoming people with deep greens, vibrant colors, and heavenly smells. They can be used for centerpieces during holidays and can be made year round, although the cost of a living wreath during off seasons can be fairly high. They can be simple to extravagant, a pool of deep cool greens or a bright splash of color. There really is no limit to the shape, colors, size or enjoyment that a living wreath can add to a space.

Making a living wreath can be as rewarding as tending a full size garden, in fact they can be thought of as small gardens that need to be shaped, tended and loved. Living wreaths do not have to be difficult to make and they can inspire the same feelings of accomplishment that gardens do.

So if you are interested in creating a living wreath, check back in a few days to read how to make them.

Sirena Van Schaik

Photo Credit

Unusual Containers

Sirena Van Schaik — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:28:31 +0000

Last year as I was wandering around my local garden center, I spotted the most unusual container that was an immediate must have for me. I quickly went and picked up the container, hoisted it to a worker to get the price, only to find out that the containers were made special for a client. I was heartbroken and just as I was getting ready to leave, the worker came up to me and said she had found one extra that I could have. I was overjoyed and took my little planter home and gave it a place of honor amongst my other planters.

It wasn’t that the planter was particularly beautiful with a black plastic that looked like several small tires stacked on top of each other but it was the original idea behind it. I had actually gone on the sole purpose of finally buying the impatients in the hanging bag, something that I had wanted for several years but kept forgetting to buy, and it ended up that for another year I was missing out on the impatients. The newest container was done in a similar style to those of the impatients except it was a hard plastic tube like container that had holes cut out of it and a white pipe running down the center of it. Shooting out of the holes in black plastic was streptocarpella, also known as Lady Slippers, in a deep blue. It was a beautiful contrast of blue, green and black and made an excellent addition to my patio.

The white tube was perforated and you watered the container by pouring the water down the tube; the water then dispersed throughout the soil for complete saturation.

My garden center offers new plantings each year as long as I drop off the planter in the fall and pick it up in the spring. Unfortunately, fall is a busy time of year for me and I missed the deadline for the drop off. I also forgot to plant my own seeds in the spring (I know I was on the ball this year) so when I realized that I had this unique planter to play with, I was at the garden center picking out some annuals for the new season.

This is when I had a stroke of genius. The garden center didn’t have any Lady Slippers so I decided to buy some Lobelia and some miniature pansies. I filled the planter myself with the Lobelia coming out of the holes and the pansies finishing off the top. I was very happy with what I had finished with that I wanted to share.

If you would like to make one yourself, find a tube like container, or make one yourself and cut wholes around the width and up the length of it. Fill it potting soil until the lowest hole, put in a young plant of your choice, and secure it with more potting soil. When you get about 2 or 3 inches of soil, plant a white tube with holes drilled into it, in the center of the planter. Make sure you duct tape the bottom so it doesn’t fill up with soil. Continue to do fill in with soil and plants until all the holes are filled. Top it off with the same plant or another one.

After a while, the plant should spread out to cover the entire planter. The pictures that I took of mine are after only two weeks and they are starting to cover very nicely. Next year I will try to get it in in time or at the very least try for the Lady Slippers again since the effect was wonderful.

Happy Gardening

Sirena Van Schaik

‘Cooking’ with Containers: Container-friendly Plant Combination Recipes

Jennifer — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:40:05 +0000

When spring has sprung, the chill of winter has gone, cooking up plant container combination recipes can invite life back into to the garden. Plants add colorful texture, contrast and variety to an array of outdoor spaces.

“Container gardening gives homeowners the opportunity to create striking results for their outdoor living areas without a great deal of time commitment or difficulty,” says Dan Heims, co-owner of Terra Nova Nurseries in Canby, Ore. “Whether a novice or seasoned gardener, incorporating the appropriate mix or combination of plants to containers is the most effective way to experience lasting results.”

Designed by Heims and his team of horticulturists at Terra Nova Nurseries, these four container recipes will enliven even the shabbiest of winter-hardened locales this spring and summer:

“Twist of Lime”

Ingredients:
Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’
Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger’
Heuchera ‘Mahogany’
Heuchera ‘Lime Rickey’

The stunning, chartreuse, elephant’s ear leaves of Xanthosoma ‘Lime Zinger’ stand out, adding height and a tropical flare to containers; its leaves reach 3 to 4 feet across. The gorgeous form of golden Japanese Forest Grass that is Hakonechola ‘All Gold’ has arching, graceful, upright, and spiky foliage, adding texture and bright color to this container combination. “The glossy, mahogany-red, ruffled foliage of Heuchera ‘Mahogany’ produces wonderful, dense, shiny tones year-round,” says Heims. Heuchera ‘Lime Ricky’ has chartreuse spring leaves, which turn to lime-green, showy, ruffled leaves for the remainder of the year. This recipe can brighten even the shadiest of spaces.

“Dawn to Dusk”

Ingredients:
Heuchera ‘Marmalade’
Begonia ‘River Nile’
Heuchera ‘Midnight Rose’
Athyrium ‘Dre’s Dagger’

Stunning, rich, shiny, undulating foliage adorn Terra Nova Nurseries’ Heuchera ‘Marmalade’ in ranges of color from umber to deep-sienna with hot-pink undersides. Begonia ‘River Nile’ produces distinguishing chartreuse leaves with heavily edged black or red-brown. Its leaf edges are ruffled while the leaf bases swirl inward to the leaf center. The compact plant of Heuchera ‘Midnight Rose’ has burnished black leaves, which are thickly spotted, hot-pink in spring. Its summer leaves lighten with creamy-pink dots that adorn the foliage. The narrow, deep-green fronds of Athyrium ‘Dre’s Dagger’ are crossed, coming to a narrow point with a terminal crest. Its statuesque form creates a dramatic quality in any container setting.

“Fun in the Shade”

Ingredients:
Heucherella ‘Stoplight’
Heuchera ‘Cinnabar Silver’
Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’
Eucomis ‘Oakhurst’
Corydalis ‘Berry Exciting’

Bright-yellow leaves and a large, stoplight-like red blotch embellish Heucherella ‘Stoplight’ in spring. The remarkable, purple-metallic leaves of Heuchera ‘Cinnabar Silver’ transform to silver, giving rise to striking cinnabar-red flowers. Because it is a compact plant with flowers that bloom just above the leaves, it is an excellent choice in container gardens. A favorite of Heim’s, Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven’ has broad, bold, cream, variegated foliage with 12-inch stems bearing light-blue flowers; it is an exceptionally hardy, large-leafed, showy selection of Polemonium. The thick, fleshy, broadly linear leaves of Eucomis ‘Oakhurts’ form in a spear-like rosette with a pineapple-like array of purple flowers in late summer. ‘Oakhurst’ is a strong, red-purple form that creates an impact in containers. A vigorous, spreading Corydalis with succulent stems and gold, ferny leaves on a wide-spreading plant, ‘Berry Exciting’ produces fragrant, purple flowers.

“Purple Passion”

Ingredients:
Colocasia ‘Black Magic’
Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’
Begonia ‘Benitochiba’
Heuchera ‘Black Beauty’

“One of the few ‘true blacks’ of the plant world,” says Heims, “the exotic form of Colocasia ‘Black Magic’ is tropical in appearance and loves moisture, making it superb for container gardens located around ponds or other water sources. ‘Jack Frost’ is a lovely Brunnera with silvered foliage on heart-shaped leaves with green veining and edged with a green border. The large, palmate leaves of Begonia ‘Benitochiba’ are a metallic, rose-red color; it is shrubby and self-branching with pint flowers and an upright cane-stem. The dark, glossy, ruffled leaves of Heuchera ‘Black Beauty’ are somewhat upright, catching sun from any direction. Attractive year-round and easy to grow, Terra Nova Nurseries’ horticulturists recommend it as a striking accent in the Purple Passion container recipe.

“Creating beautiful container gardens using various plant selections, colors, and textures is a therapeutic and enjoyable leisure activity for the whole family,” says Heims.

To learn about more plant container recipes, log onto www.terranovanurseries.com.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Garden Superstars for Spring 2008

Jennifer — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:25:49 +0000

New Plants and Garden Accessories Take a Starring Role in Outdoor Rooms this Spring

(ARA) – From show-stopping roses to containers rich in history, Spring 2008 promises to be an exciting year for garden lovers.

“Gardening this year will be easier than ever before, and a lot more fun, thanks to exciting new plants and smart new garden products scheduled for release this spring,” says Susan McCoy, owner of the Garden Media Group, a lawn and garden public relations agency.

As spring approaches, McCoy reveals a few of her favorite garden superstars for spring 2008.

New Stars in the Garden are no Divas
Looking for a great low-maintenance flowering shrub for your garden? Try the new Drift series of landscape groundcover roses for year round color with little to no effort. A cross between full-size groundcover roses and miniature roses, Drift Roses have a low, spreading habit that makes them perfect for container gardening, hanging baskets and small gardens. Highly disease resistant, they require no spraying except in the most black spot prone areas of the Deep South. Bred to be “chemical-free”, Drifts resist rust, mildew, Japanese beetles and black spot, while blooming for months on end. To find out more about these and other fine Star Roses, visit www.starroses.com.

Outdoor Living Takes on New Rooms
As we expand outdoors to entertain, cook and just relax, more of us are taking refuge in custom built gazebos to add an extra “room” in the backyard. New from Amish Country Gazebos (www.amishgazebos.com), the nation’s leading retailer of custom crafted Amish structures, is the 2008 Lancaster Collection. Named after prominent Pennsylvania cities, this series features three stunning handcrafted models: The Manheim, Carlisle, and Devon. Headquartered in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, this family-owned business uses only the finest materials for each and every special order and offers a lifetime guarantee on every gazebo they produce. For more information or to order a catalog, visit www.amishgazebos.com or call (800) 700-1777.

Garden Tropics for a Great Escape
Gone are the days when gardening in colder climates meant using only boxwoods, hostas and cold-hardy perennials. Thanks to advances in breeding, tropical beauties like the Bahama Bay Hibiscus collection can be successfully grown in gardens situated well above the Mason-Dixon Line.

Nearly two dozen hibiscuses with enormous bi- and tri-colored blooms accented with lush, dark green foliage are in the collection. With names like ‘Goin Steady’, ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘Big Bird,’ the plants have personalities all their own, and are a perfect fit for gardeners who have caught on to the tropical explosion. Gardeners in tropical climates, zones 7 to 9, can enjoy the hibiscus’ massive, multi-colored blooms almost year round. For those gardening in cooler climates, Bahama Bay will bloom abundantly during the summer months when grown in a container. For more information, visit www.bahamabay-hibiscus.com.

Garden Accents Inspired By American History
A touch of class for any garden can be found in the new Williamsburg Collection from Campania International (www.campaniainternational.com). The collection features an extensive range of garden containers, including cast-stone replicas of urns in the Governor’s Palace gardens, part of Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area. Birdbaths, an elegant window box, and a stepping stone round out the product line.

This historical collection features the rich designs of Colonial Williamsburg, offering today’s gardener an exceptional array of historical American garden accents. Try one of these elegant accents inside or outside your home to achieve the latest “designer” look from Campania.

Healthy Gardens from the Ground Up
Start your container garden off right this season with high-quality planting soil that feeds the plants and keeps the soil moist longer. The new organic potting soil, called Organic Mechanics (www.organicmechanicsoil.com), is an all-purpose, peat-free, potting soil that is 100 percent organic and promises to improve plant performance. Gardeners can pick up Organic Mechanics potting soil at Whole Foods, Wegmans and Wild Oats or the new 1.5 cubic foot bag at fine garden centers.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Several Lovely Gardening Ideas

Jennifer — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 22:12:47 +0000

If you are contemplating gardening ideas, you might look in some magazines for ideas on how to design the garden as well as what to plant and where. If you at some these gardening ideas, you might think it looks like so much work, in all reality it is not. The gardens look wonderful after all the planting is done and the flowers start to grow. If you start with some simple gardening ideas, you can gradually add the garden space every year until you have the perfect garden.

Gardening Ideas With A Gazebo As The Center Attraction

Gardens with a gazebo as the focal point are as lovely as the garden itself. The gardening ideas behind this are that the gazebo is the place where you will sit and enjoy the array of colors and scents that came from the garden. It will be the place to leave behind the day and relax in the tranquil sounds around the garden.

Because the gazebo is tall, one of the gardening ideas would be to have morning glories planted around the base of the gazebo. As the vines grow, they will creep up the gazebo sides and in the morning sun, they will have beautiful flowers incasing the gazebo.

Other Gardening Ideas

You might want to plant a bush garden. You could have burning bushes and peonies along with some other types of smaller ones. The burning bushes are a beautiful red and the peonies produce big bushy flowers. A lilac tree would also look nice since they bloom before the rest of the garden.

Gardening ideas do not stop there, you might take a section of the yard and grow a vegetable garden. You could plant tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, beans and peas. You could accent the garden with sunflowers, which will produce a big yellow flower. After the summer growing season the vegetables and the dried sunflower seeds make for a winter feast until the next season.

Some people have gardening ideas for a rock garden. This is beautiful if done with care. You can have many different types of rocks and colored rocks. Some people also have a water fountain in the middle of the rock garden for added beauty. Ponds are also a favorite in rock gardens as well as flower gardens. You can have some fish in the ponds or just colored rocks that will shimmer in the sunlight during the day and at night, you could have a spot light shining on the pond.