Cait's Garden

We gardeners work hard to attract butterflies to our yards. I sometimes judge the success of my garden by the number of butterflies I see. But times seem to be hard for our butterfly friends. Although I am planting more and more flowers to entice them, I see fewer and fewer. Usually only a couple of monarchs, a couple of viceroys, and the occasional yellow or black swallowtail. The monarchs hit the milkweed, while the swallowtails prefer the phlox. All of them like coneflowers and buddleia. (I’ve also discovered the monarchs are the most camera shy…and they like to chase sparrows!) I wish more people would plant native flowers to support these amazing creatures. I fear one or two butterfly-friendly yards on each block are not going to bring back the butterflies in the numbers we hope for. We need a serious wildflower infusion throughout our neighborhoods, not just in the occasional park.

July is the time for tall flowers. Showy flowers. Sure, we thought May and June were pretty great, but on the whole those gentle months bring small to medium-sized, perfectly under control mounds of flowers. Now that it’s July, you’ve probably lost control of your garden completely to ostentatious giants like tall bee balm, balloon flowers, Shasta daisies, coneflowers, Culver’s Root, Joe Pye-Weed, tall phlox, lilies, and butterfly bushes. Things are growing on top of and in between each other, plants are climbing other plants, and the colors have gone kaleidoscope bright. Add a spray of water from your sprinkler and just let yourself be dazzled. There are so many choices of plants that are 36, 48, or even 60 inches tall! If you don’t have anything more than a foot tall in your garden, it’s time to build upward!

Ever see that British sleuth series “Rosemary and Thyme” where two middle-aged women with their own landscaping business solve murders? (Somehow they find dead bodies at every job!) They dress like we were led to believe gardeners dress. You know, crisp button down shirts with the sleeves rolled up, cute cropped khakis, colorful gloves (with no dirt or holes) and wide straw hats with jaunty trim. HA, I say, HA! I don’t know about you, but I am wearing old t-shirts (graphic tees that are no longer culturally relevant work well), cut-off sweat pants, a bandana around my head to catch the sweat, gardening gloves caked with mud (and probably tears on the index fingers), really ugly brown Crocs, a half a can of Deep Woods Off (I don’t even bother with anything less strong anymore), and SPF 100 sunblock. I am unfashionable, dirty, sweaty, and caked with chemicals. And many a time, when I am hosing the mud off my feet (while still in the Crocs), I wonder who the heck ever started the rumor that gardening is an elegant, gentle pastime. I blame the British!

Destruction! Carnage! Leafy mayhem! This little critter broke through the chicken wire perimeter of the veggie garden and stripped all the leaves off the lettuce, cucumbers, squash, beans, and pumpkins. In one night! Never has such a drastic example of a rodent gourmand existed in my yard! I am just grateful he doesn’t like tomatoes or peppers or this animal lover would be gunning for groundhog. (Well, not in real life, but definitely in my imagination.)

Or should I say scalping? I just performed the first big deadheading operations of the summer on my perennials. It can be a sobering thing. Some of my salvia now look like they survived a tiny bomb blast. Most of the time, nearby perennials now in bloom pick up the slack. But I discovered one area where I need some later season camouflage, stat! Coneflowers will do the trick, I think. They are such sturdy leafy plants and their flowers last forever. Best yet, no deadheading needed. To the garden center!

Who doesn’t love roses? But I was taught at a young age that traditional roses are trouble. I watched my grandma and then my mom sprinkling lots of white powder on their roses to prevent black spot disease. Fortunately for me, the Knock Out rose family, as well as other modern shrub roses, make it possible to have fabulous roses that bloom all summer with no risk of disease. The rosebush shown at left is called Carefree Delight and is particularly charming. It gets 3-4 feet tall and wide and is covered in peachy pink roses all summer. I also have some incredibly bright cherry-red Knock Out bushes and a new disease-resistant climbing rose called “Brite Eyes.” Brite Eyes has been especially rewarding for me as it has huge, traditional looking pink roses with yellow centers that have true rose fragrance. I can pick the blooms (sure, they have short stems, but I have small vases) and the blooms continue from June till frost. The only issues I have had with these roses is some stem die back over winter. I just have to prune out the dead branches come spring. I fertilize them once a year. And last summer, for the first time, I had a few aphids that were dispatched with a little insecticide dust. Every yard should have roses!

As much as I love perennials, a garden would not be complete or successful to me without a strong base of shrubbery. Flowers are fickle and very seasonal. Shrubs and evergreens form the backbone that make my yard look complete and lush. While my patio is surrounded by flowers, the back and sides of my yard are anchored with shrubs. Our ugly chain link fence (inherited, not built by us) is camouflaged along the back of the yard by a line of Arborvitae. In front of those are Golden Vicary Privets because I love their bright lemon-lime foliage, a Dwarf Burning Bush for its fall color, and then Bridal Veil Spirea, Wine and Roses Weigela, and Limelight and Pinky Winky Hydrangeas for flowers all summer. Along the sides of the yard are Honeysuckles, Pussy Willows, Lilacs, Black Chokeberry bushes, even more Hydrangeas (Annabelles and Limelights), some Rose of Sharon, and a Ruby Spice Summersweet.  The new trend is to mix small shrubs directly into perennial beds. Many of the new dwarf hybrids are custom-made for this. So far, I have added Buddleia, Caryopteris (Blue Mist), Rose of Sharon, and Hydrangeas into the flower garden, as well as the new Orange Rocket Barberry. I have been pleased with the way they’ve filled out and grounded my flower beds. In fact, gardeners who don’t want to deal with perennials could do quite nicely designing with nothing but shrubs.

While snapping some photos of the garden for inspiration for this blog, I happened upon this shot which made me appreciate the variety I’ve got going on, both in shape and color. In the foreground, you can just see the top of some pink Pentsemmon (or Beardtongue), followed by the fun bottle-brush-shaped purple Stachys (or Betony), followed by the out of this world red pom-poms of Mars Midget Knautia, then the pure punch of the Orange Pixie Lily. Way in the fuzzy background, you can just make out lots of purple Rozanne Cranesbill and orange Butterfly Weed.

Once again, I am reminded to look at the big picture, not sweat the small stuff. And the big picture is a really neat variety of plants with a good mix of hot and cool colors. This was achieved much like some artists paint. You start with one color and find you need a hint of something else. So you look for another color on your palette. And so on and so on. Every year, I look at my garden, see what’s missing, what could be better, and I adjust. Sometimes, happy accidents occur, like the ones shown in this photo! My advice is to go out with your camera every few weeks in the summer and take photos of your yard. You may be surprised at what you’ve got, or inspired to add something new.

Tomato Soup, Ruby Star, Coconut Lime, Pink Double Delight, Summer Sky, Sundown, Fragrant Angel, Fatal Attraction, After Midnight, Green Jewel, Mac ‘N’ Cheese, Paradoxa, Hot Papaya, Twilight. Colors of paint? Nope. Colors of coneflower! When I started my garden a decade ago, coneflowers came in two standard colors, purple and pink. Since then, a veritable explosion of new hybrids has occurred. It seems every color under the sun is available, and if it’s available, there’s a good chance I have it! Yes, it’s true. I’m just a girl who can’t say no to Echinacea. They really are a great flower. Sturdy, profuse blooming, able to tolerate the worst of our summer heat, and even food for birds. All this helps me justify the expense because these babies can cost a pretty penny at the garden center. Some people are addicted to clothes shopping; I am addicted to coneflowers. C’est la vie!

I make no secret of the fact that I am a gardener due to my mom’s influence (and genes). This photo shows just the tiniest corner of her patio, but already a few great design ideas are present. She’s got season-long bloomers like Carefree Delight roses and Rozanne Cranesbill, mixed with the bright pop of Coreopsis and Lychnis, mixed with fabulous annuals (in the pot and on the trellis). She threw in a new shrub this year, the bright Golden Pillar Barberry (in the corner), which will grow to be 4 feet tall and only about 16 inches wide. This demonstrates a great new trend of mixing shrubs in with perennials. And let’s not forget the adorable baby bunny cement statue to add whimsy. Way to go, Mom!