While browsing a few news articles for tidbits about Wayside Gardens I came across this article, “Ooty’s Wayside Gardens Go to Seed”, on the front page of The Hindu, India’s national newspaper. My first thought was (foolishly) “why would we be mentioned in an Indian newspaper?”– we don’t ship to India.
It is actually a very good article about how wayside gardens in Indian urban areas are increasingly at risk from modern development, surely not a concern isolated to India. As many American urban gardeners have found, it can be very hard to maintain a respectable plot in the hustle and bustle. Also, it is getting more and more difficult to conserve historically significant gardens in booming cities where air pollution and new construction dominate.
The revelation for me, however, was that “wayside gardens” are more than just the name of a company, they are a particular kind of garden. I had just never thought about it. Dictionary.com defines “wayside” as “the side of the way” (obviously) or “roadside.” Wayside gardens are simply decorative gardens planted along the roadside. For example, the DOT projects where they plant flowers or ornamental trees along the interstate, sometimes on hills facing traffic. In the spirit of the article, however, I understand a traditional wayside garden to be a more cozy thing, an invitation into your home, maybe even a botanical welcome mat. I guess the big cities have little time for such frivolities.
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Wayside Gardens was mentioned in the New York Times because we are one of the few US carriers of the super hardy Kordes roses. The roses from German breeder, Kordes, have been selectively bred since the early nineties to be resistant to everything that rosarians hate about growing roses.
No harmful chemicals are necessary to prevent black-spot– these rose are inately durable and are expected to perform even better in the climate of the United States. In Germany, the climate is cooler than most of the United States. The Kordes roses do well in germany, but these hardy lovelies are expected to take off in the places in the US that have longer growing seasons.
Check out the article here: Kordes Roses, in the New York times Home and Garden section.
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Anyone who spends time outside knows the fear, the shock, and the lasting pain erupting from an attack by stinging insects such as wasps. You’re tending your business and your garden, and this villain darts out of some unseen burrow to strike down the spade-wielding giant. You swat, you squeal, you retreat, but to no avail. You’ve been stung.
It happened to me one summer, late in my adolescence, dutifully trimming about the retaining wall behind the old homestead with a top-o’-the-line weed-wacker (nothing but the best for my Pops). I hovered a bit too long over an area concealing an extensive yellow-jacket colony. I noticed the impending commotion, and the innocent lawn-care appliance quickly became my only means of defense. Taking out their front line with ease, I slowly backed away, thinking the battle was done. A lone soldier broke through my defenses and landed a winning blow right on my ear, knocking me to the ground.
I’m sure it was the surprise of the blow that took me off my feat and not the force. A yellow jacket is still only an insect. But, I conceded that battle– my head was swollen for a week.
This rambling story is prelude to a helpful gardening tip, I promise. Wasps and bees can bee stopped without buying a stinky poisonous spray. If you use a spray adhesive your insect enemies will drop right out of the air. Spray adhesives don’t contain any of the harmful poisons of bug spray, and if you buy the one with environmentally safe propellants instead of CFC’s, they are also better for the atmosphere.
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Planting a rock garden is one of those projects that really allows the gardener to become an artist. Texture and color are paramount when planning a rock garden, and beyond a few conventions, the yard becomes an uncarved piece of marble, bracing for the sculptor’s creative touch. The touch must be sensitive, however, because the objective is to simulate an alpine environment. Alpine ecosystems exists in the outcrops above the tree line in mountainous areas. The air is too thin to support trees, and the alpine plants thrive in this cool rocky environment. One cannot create the thin atmosphere, but alpine plant life, rock formations, and soil conditions are within the range of the home gardener’s spade.
The choice of rock largely depends on local availability, and for the sake of thriftiness, local rock is the best choice. Porous rocks like sandstone and tufa are preferred by the plants, limestone works well in rural areas, but will bleach in the more polluted areas near cities. The stones should be of various sizes up to about 60 lbs.(27 kg). The plants will not like anything smooth like granite. According to conventional standards for aesthetically pleasing rock gardens, one never mixes types of rock or uses broken concrete (concrete will also be more susceptible to environmental conditions).
There are a few things to consider when choosing alpine plants for a rock garden. If the intention is to have a garden feature that is interesting throughout the seasons, plants chosen must bloom at various times and provide color when others have faded. Choosing shrubbery and small trees with interesting architecture will ensure that a rock garden is interesting even through the bleakest winter. The trees and shrubs will affect the overall look, providing height and shape to the rock garden. The flowering and carpeting plants will add most of the color.
Early in winter, Helleborus will be the reliable source of color, but as winter winds down, Iris, daffodils, and crocus will start to peak out from behind the stones. Choosing spring plants requires moderation and keeping in mind the overall objective of an architecturally interesting feature– clematis and ramonda are great spring flowers for the rock garden. The summer offers similar abundance of choice, but low-growing bright flowers like phlox and dianthus work best. For fall, carpeting plants, cyclamen, and early crocus plants do really well.
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The purpose of fertilizing your garden or lawn is replacing soil nutrients or amending deficient soil. In nature, organic material falls to the ground and is reincorporated within the soil. An area rich with life constantly replenishes itself. In domestic situations, the soil is cleaned of debris and any interfering organisms that might be future food for plants. Even pruning and removing fallen leaves and fruit removes potential food. Harvesting and cleaning plant debris in your garden removes a possible source of nutrients– when left, your plants could be self-sufficient, maintaining a constant size and humble blooms and fruit. However, humanity did not master agricultural practices millennia ago just to let the plants do all of the work. The essence of technology is manipulating one’s environment. We can prune and keep our garden free of debris and still amend the soil to get better than average returns for our labors.
While we do this we must remember that there are other aspects of soil care that also affect plant performance. Temperature, aeration, moisture, and acidity are also very important. You could have the best grasp of fertilization, and still have poor performance because you missed another key element. Here I just intend to talk about fertilization.
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