| Greetings!
Don't forget that this weekend is the Friends School Plant Sale, the largest plant fundraiser in Minnesota. The sale offers a huge variety of annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, etc. below retail prices. Other plant sales are going on now through June where you can pick up plant material. The Northern Gardener magazine has a calendar of these sales on their website.
Before you create new plant beds around your yard, read below for design tips to create a beautiful look. Look for more of these design tips in next month's Cattales. Or if you are ready to throw in the towel on what to plant, my one hour consultation might be the remedy.
When you dig up these beds use the compost you've created to amend the soil. Included is information about composting thanks to a reader's inquiry to know more about composting.
Good luck with your home and yard projects. |
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Planting Design Guidelines |
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The plants on the left are not massed together creating less order. The plants on the right are grouped together and create unity.
Considerations to take into account when developing a plant bed include:
- function of plants
- plant arrangement
- plant sizing
- plant spacing
- plant selection
Plants are used for three main purposes: architectural, aesthetic, and climate control and engineering use. We look to plants to create the floors, walls, and ceilings of our outdoor rooms. Mother-of-thyme groundcover between flagstone creates our carpet. Hedge plants around a patio forms the wall, and the branches of a shade tree creates our ceiling. Aesthetically, plants can provide focal points or act as an accent in our yard. It can also compliment the architecture of the home with complimentary or contrasting shapes and forms. Or it can hide bad architecture too. Simply, plants also provide us with something beautiful to look at, smell, touch, and listen to. Plants are also used for climate and engineering purposes. Plants provide shade and cool the area around it and provide shelter from winds. Engineering uses include directing traffic patterns, controlling erosion, and minimizing difficult mowing areas.
Key points to plant arrangements are mass plantings, unity in odd numbers, and repetition. Plants should be massed together for a more unified look and lower maintenance. Odd number groupings look better and don't divide the garden. The rule of 1-3-5 is a good guideline to follow: 1 specimen, 3 larger plants, and 5 smaller shrubs or perennials. You can vary this rule to 3-5-7. Repetition of plants or plant forms and color will create unity in the garden. Something to remember when arranging your plants is "less is more". Edit your plant list and plant more of the same.
Information on plant sizing, spacing and selection will appear in next month's Cattales. |
| What's Blooming? Lilacs |
 Folks either have a love'em or hate'em attitude towards lilacs, Syringa sp. But if you are looking for spring bloom with an added bonus of fragrance, then look no further than lilacs. Through hybridization, a number of shrubs have been introduced which have a more compact form making them excellent specimens for a foundation planting.
Tinkerbelle, Fairy Dust, and Sugar Plum Fairy all come from the Fairytale series. They grow to 4-6' in height and 4-6' in width. Tinkerbelle has wine red buds opening to spicy scented, deep pink flowers. Fairy Dust has pink buds which open to fragrant antique pink flowers. Sugar Plum Fairy is the most compact of the three with rosy-lilac scented flowers.
Other compact lilacs include the dwarf Korean lilac with its more distinct smaller leaves. Wedgewood Blue and Wonderblue are two compact lilacs with blue flowers. The Miss Kim lilac has the added bonus of its leaves turning burgundy-red in the fall. Its stature will grow to 6-8' in height to 5-6' in width.
Plant lilacs in full sun. Lilacs will have less flowering and be leggier the more shade it receives. Prune lilacs after they bloom as flower buds grow on old wood. Once planted, it may take several years for the shrub to bloom. Most varieties need three and sometimes four years to grow, before they produce their first blooms. |
I welcome your feedback on the newsletter. If there are topics you want to learn more about, please email me at nancy.dahl@integra.net.
Sincerely,
Nancy Thorman Dahl, CLP
Cattail Design LLC
Creative Designs for Land and Lakeshore | |
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| Eco-friendly Tip |
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A stylish container like this can be stored under the sink or on the counter.
Reduce your household waste footprint and save money at the same time by composting. There are many cool containers on the market that make composting easier to fit into your lifestyle. A stylish container tucked under the sink with a carbon filter contains the odors of storing the scraps indoors. Or use an ice cream bucket to save money. Once that container is full, mine fills in about a week to 10 days, dump it into a compost bin or pile that is tucked somewhere in your yard. Let time turn it into "black gold" to mix into your flower, shrub or vegetable gardens or pots.
There are many varieties and sizes of compost bins on the market. You can find enclosed bins, bins that rotate, and kits to construct your own. Or you can buy a Rubbermaid container, punch holes in it, and, voila, you have a compost bin.
Concerns these bins or piles may be smelly or unsightly need to be addressed. First, a compost pile should not smell if done properly. There are ways to incorporate a bin into a urban or suburban landscape. One way is to place it in a location that is tucked away, such as behind the garage or along the side yard. A second way is to screen it by making a mixed shrub and flower garden around it.
Compostable Household Items:
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fruit and vegetable scraps
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egg shells
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coffee grinds with filter and tea bags
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pet hair
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dryer lint
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spent flower bouquets
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nut shells (excluding walnuts)
Mix in what is called brown material, such as dried leaves, straw or shredded newspaper, and a little soil to make compost.
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