Simply Colorful

Spring charges our senses, stimulating us with the brilliance of color. Every living thing seems to be in bloom, including our allergies. This non-stop color rush puts a ‘spring’ in one’s step, even for the oblivious. But don’t be oblivious. Wake up to this simply colorful time of year.

As often pointed out in these blogs, the true challenge of a sequential garden is carrying color throughout your growing season. When choosing your plant palette, select those that sparkle in one season and illuminate in another. Need an example? Take a true favorite, the Rhododendron ‘Weston’s ‘Pink Diamond;’ one hardy enough to be selected as a ‘Proven Winner’ by the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society. Here’s all the skinny for planting and care instructions from Weston Nurseries, the crew that developed and introduced this variety. http://www.westonnurseries.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/80/index.htm

Need more encouragement on this choice? Think of this shrub as colorful bookends for the growing season. ‘Pink Diamond’ greets us with its powerful punch in the early spring and quietly leaves with its last burning embers of fall color. As Bruce Lee points out, “Simplicity is the key to brilliance.” Translation for your garden: choose simply colorful plants that last more than one season.

Images of the Rhododendron ‘Weston’s Pink Diamond’ (Spring and Fall shots) in our garden taken by Greg Bilowz

If you like this blog, remember to post and become a friend on our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/abilowz or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/annbilowz (where there are even more shared tidbits) or subscribe on the blog to receive posts daily via email or a feed. Either way, we hope you follow the postings somewhere in cyberspace and share it with your gardening friends. Questions, comments or thoughts, contact me direct at annbilowz@gmail.com Happy Gardening. Annie

The Clash

For any of us old enough to remember that English punk rock band, ‘The Clash’, those two words can occur quite often in the planning stages of any construction project, inside or out. So how does one go about adding synergy rather than creating friction when jumping off the diving board into a full-fledged project?

Remember that paper is helpful. When you see a layout, a sketch, a thought or vision drawn out, it solidifies the beginning point. Although many of us have difficulty comprehending 3-Dimensional, there is a reason behind the madness of paper. Don’t overlook it as part of your initial step before you delve in, shovel first. There’s neat technology that assists now with taking the hard-to-understand 3-D world and turning it into a real image. But you need those correct dimensions, i.e., grades/topo to work with first. Never overlook those basic steps just because you can’t get your noodle around that initial yet crucial phase of design. Letting what you don’t understand throw you for a loop only starts you off on the wrong foot.

So before you go gung ho with the shovels and start digging before a plan is in place, take this first simple step of paper to bring it all together. And don’t let the 3-D aspect set you off kilter. Whether your project is small or large-scale, the paper process puts it in the context of the whole.

To switch gears and end with the typical quote of the day, not by ‘The Clash’ but by Tom Landry, who amazingly enough sums up this whole design thing ‘to a T.’ “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” How perfectly stated; by a man who really understood how to win the game.

Image of the Gnomes from the Internet (I just liked it and thought it fit with the title!)

If you like this blog, remember to post and become a friend on our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/abilowz or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/annbilowz (where there are even more shared tidbits) or subscribe on the blog to receive posts daily via email or a feed. Either way, we hope you follow the postings somewhere in cyberspace and share it with your gardening friends. Questions, comments or thoughts, contact me direct at annbilowz@gmail.com Happy Gardening. Annie

Improve Your Corner

Aldous Huxley wisely stated, “There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.”  The same goes for your own abode. So on this beautiful May Monday morning, we need to stretch our imagination when it comes to selecting plants. Reach beyond the typical and seek out areas in your garden that may need a bit of spring splash. Here’s a great suggestion – Epimediums. Also known as Barrenwort, this no-fuss plant peaks at this time of year with few gardening demands. Exactly what everyone looks for in a plant: adaptable and tough.

Mentioned in past blogs, Epimediums continue to be an underused genus considering its many attributes. This clump-form, low growing perennial offers many variations of height, flower, leaf color and texture. So let’s make it part of the gardener’s plant palette.  In general, you won’t encounter the unusual varieties of this perennial at your retail nursery, unless of course they are truly catering to the horticulturalist. You can find the standard fare, Epidmedium grandiflorum ‘Album’ (white flowering) or Epimedium x rubrum (red flowering), which is readily available and awfully attractive. As should be encouraged, don’t stop with the standards. 

Our Epimedium collection, purchased from the expert, Darrell Probst continues to surprise and flourish our garden with expansive growth each year. Here’s a Fine Gardening link written by the expert himself. http://www.finegardening.com/plants/articles/up-and-coming-epimediums.aspx This spread tells you everything you need to know or didn’t know about Epimediums.

So for the reluctant gardener that wants to perk up the garden area, look for this low-maintenance, deer-proof, tough perennial. Think Epimediums and improve your corner of the universe.    

Images of Spring Epimediums in our Garden by Greg Bilowz
Looking for additional images? More photos to follow on our Fan Page. (See below if you aren’t already a fan!)

If you like this blog, remember to post and become a friend on our fan page at http://www.facebook.com/abilowz or follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/annbilowz (where there are even more shared tidbits) or subscribe on the blog to receive posts daily via email or a feed. Either way, we hope you follow the postings somewhere in cyberspace and share it with your gardening friends. Questions, comments or thoughts, contact me direct at annbilowz@gmail.com Happy Gardening. Annie