This perennial statice, Limonium perezii is frost tender but tough as nails in salt air and coastal conditions.
“Where did you get those flowers?” my mother asked suspiciously when I presented her with a bouquet of papery dry blossoms. They were as deep blue as Egyptian lapis stone. The stems still held their heads high after the long walk home that hot summer day.
The moment she learned they had come from the neighbor’s garden Mom was on the phone. I heard mea culpas flooding the kitchen. Then she hung up to announce we would be taking them back because they were “everlastings”, and the neighbor wanted to dry them for her arrangements. Continue reading “Maintaining the ‘Statice’ Quo”
The first settlers of the American prairie could not farm the land. First they had to strip away thick sod layer to expose this extraordinarily fertile soil. Sod was so dense, the slabs were stacked into earthen houses known as “soddies” on the open range. But the sod held more than grass, it was its own natural prairie garden that included a wide range of large prairie perennials.
This is the origin of our easiest and most magnificent perennials. Among them are purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, blazing star and Joe Pye weed. All of these evolved to live in concert with our native bunch grasses to create prairies that range from very dry (mesic) in the south and the verdant tallgrass prairie in the north. There is no better model for switching out your lawn to a beautiful, natural prairie garden that lures wildlife and provides vital backyard habitat.
The problem is that turf grass lawns are a heavy feeding monoculture that depends on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to maintain its beauty. Strip away this turf and what’s left beneath is ground worn out by chemical fertilizers much like the cotton fields of the South that were so lean newly freed African Americans could barely eek out a living. These worn out soils starve the microbes to death due to lack of organic matter. That’s why it’s so important to beef up that former turf grass ground to make it more fertile and supportive of a natural prairie garden.
Whether you’re planning a prairie, food garden or a new landscape, that soil must be very well amended if it is to grow a variety of plants again. You’ll want to provide amendments that do three things: boost nitrogen, introduce new microbes and provide plentiful organic matter to feed the microbes.
Because turf grass acts as a barrier, this heavily compacted ground has not experienced new organic matter for many years. Your first step is to turn every inch or rototill to aerate the ground. Then add Black Gold Garden Compost Blend, which are rich in humus. Be generous with these rich materials and work them in as deeply and thoroughly as you can. Remember, this is food to grow your microbe populations.
To compensate for nutrient deficiencies, particularly nitrogen, use potent organic fertilizers. To really boost the nitrogen levels in year one, use fast acting alfalfa meal. Then add a good all-purpose fertilizer to increase your phosphorus and potassium levels. Finally, distribute Black Gold Earthworm Castings for its heavy load of microbes ready to feed on all that new organic matter.
The sooner you apply this prescription the better your new, natural prairie garden will perform. With each month that passes it will grow progressively more fertile. You can plant the beautiful perennials and grasses right into the newly amended soil, or start a new food garden right in your own ground.
This preliminary soil work is vital for anything you plan to grow in lieu of lawn. Such a formula turns secondary earth into first class agricultural soil much like that ground that grew the first incredible bumper crops of corn and wheat. So whether you wish to look out on a flowering prairie or a garden filled with organically grown vegetables, all that’s required is to rehabilitate the soil and Mother Nature does the rest.
From mid-September through October, here in the Pacific Northwest, we have an abundance of plants for great fall color. Whether it is foliage, stems, bark or flowers, the color array is almost unbelievable. I think the reason we do not see more of these plants is that many times they reach their prime in the fall and this is not a time of year that we are generally visiting garden centers or viewing home gardens. Here are some ideas that I would like to share after recently visiting various private gardens.
Spring has finally arrived and we are having sunny days and warm weather. It has been a long time coming. It is exciting to walk around the garden and see what new plants are showing growth. This picture of a Gunnera in my garden is showing new growth. It is obvious that I need to amend the soil and that will be done soon. Gunnera likes a moist soil, wet but not standing water. I will soon work Black Gold Garden Compost Blend into the upper several inches of soil as well as some OMRI Listed general purpose fertilizer.
Lily of the Nile produces huge plants that are among the easiest to divide in fall for many new plants for free.
Planting a perennial in spring is a lot like moving from Maine to Florida in May. You’d have to adjust to the heat and humidity at the worst time of year. Bring a Maine resident to Florida in November, and that snowbird will relish every day of welcome sunshine. When you plant spring blooming perennials in early fall, they root actively into the still-warm soil. Roots will form quickly and help it become established before the short days of winter force dormancy.
Top dressing plantings with a little Black Gold Garden Compost Blend also helps with establishment and winter protection. After that perennial’s dormancy breaks in spring, it will be well rooted to flourish compared to one newly planted from greenhouse into cold spring soil.
Leather leaf bergenia with its thick succulent leaves are quite frost hardy with an intense spring show.
Early Blooming Perennials
Perennials are the workhorses of a fabulous landscape. The early bloomers include bergenia, columbine, heuchera, geum, anemone, primrose and thrift. They flower along with many of our spring bulbs for a beautiful display at winter’s end.
Potted Perennials
In fall, container-grown plants will be at their largest for this growing season, so shop to your heart’s content, but don’t leave the garden center without doing your best to make the soil richer too. Increased fertility enhances the spring show immeasurably. Even the best plant forced into poor soil will fail to thrive at any time of year.
Geraniums require lots of rich organic matter when planted to simulate a forest environment.
Perennial Beds
To flesh out your beds and borders with perennials for a big spring show, enrich the ground with Black Gold Garden Compost Blend. Both add fine organic matter to worn out soil when distributed evenly, then turned deeply with a spading fork. Go over the area in one direction, then do the same the opposite way to ensure full integration of your amendments into native soil.
When you dig the planting holes, there’s another opportunity to give your perennials an extra push in the spring with slow release organic fertilizer. Dig the planting hole a few inches deeper than you would normally. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of fertilizer into the bottom of the hole and work it in. Then cover this with a few inches of your excavated soil and gently press it down. The new perennial goes on top of all this, then backfill and water in deeply. This deep down source of macro and micronutrients from slow-release organic sources offers your plant a boost later on. The roots are rewarded for going deep enough to access the nutrients, which also makes them able to reach moisture deeper underground during the growing season. Deep rooting is the best way to make any plant more drought resistant.
Bleeding heart blooms while many trees are still bear, so planting in fall offers many months of establishment before flowering.
While late fall planting can be problematic in the far north, throughout the south and west it is the best time for most perennials. The dry climate of the West is a big stressor for spring-planted perennials.
Do your homework in the fall, apply the fall perennial strategies mentioned above and your plants won’t have to struggle through late spring frosts. They won’t face rooting into hard, dense soils either. Best of all, they’ll be fully established by spring and well-fed to double in size before the end of season arrives.
October is a fine time to dig and divide clumps of perennials that are so old they fail to bloom like they should. Lift the plant with a fork, wash it off to see the stem and root structure, then divide perennials at the natural points with a sharp knife. Soften the soil at the new planting locations with Black Gold Garden Compost Blend to make it easier for the divisions to strike new roots for bountiful displays come spring.
Rich in organics, Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend is a quality amendment that will fortify any garden. Not only will it build soil health and structure, but gardeners can be assured plants will be supplied with needed fertility for top performance.
The first settlers of the American prairie could not farm the land. First they had to strip away thick sod layer to expose this extraordinarily fertile soil. Sod was so dense, the slabs were stacked into earthen houses known as 
