Found Objects

Gardens are FULL of surprises... planned and unplanned - we find joy in the smallest of details.

What treasures have you discovered?

What's that I see?

What is that in the sky?

I think it may be a GLORIOUS weekend for Gardening!

Everyone go out there and Enjoy.

We will touch base next week... with more gardening tips galore.

Until then...

Fall Already?... Time for the End of Summer Cleanup

There was that day mid August where the clouds pooled and the wind shifted a certain way I knew it was happening again. And then the rains, so early this year. What does this mean for the garden?

Well, the rains make the spent blooms flop to the ground telling us they're ready to cut back. There will be quite a lot of seasonal pruning to do, especially those perennials.The rain does help put on a flush of new growth to everything and that includes restarting those dry, dormant weed seeds. So in a few days/weeks out in the un-tended garden, the weeds might have already started making a grand end-of-summer appearance.

Call us for a careful, detailed cleanup of your garden before the weeds take over! We're experienced and can turn a messy garden into a great place to spend the waning days of summer (or whatever season this is..)...

Happy gardens!

Correcting the Mistakes of the Inexperienced...

When thinking about a late summer or fall cleanup to the garden I feel like I should offer some advice. Opt for experience over price. Experience does matter in our field.

I had a bad feeling about a call that came in this week from one of our former clients. I get this often have when a client opts for a less expensive company and calls a few months or a year later. Their "camelias and rhododendrons have been butchered," Could I please hurry out and see what might be done, was the frantic request. They were putting the place on the market next month.

Now, after so many years in the field, I've learned that there is a certain amount of hyperbole that goes on when shocking pruning is done. In this case, however, the word "butchered" was pretty close to accurate. Actually that might be doing a dis-service to the art of meat rendering.

I drove to the site this week and took a look. In short, the Rhody and the Camelia may not survive the midsummer hacking. There would be a better survival chance if there was some kind of watering there, but in this case, no such luck. I've advised a few more corrective cuts on these shrubs and many more on the site but not too much more. We'll let them recover, put on some new growth and then next year after bloom-- after the time that blooming might occur -- more corrective pruning and assessment can be done.

The client would have spent less and had a sale-able landscape all year rather than now needing to spend what they already did to get some very unpleasant results and then more later to correct what ills were done.

The cheaper price very often leads to problems down the road that can surely leave a mess of butchered plants in its wake.

Another post from the desk of Sara Lawrence:

Hello gardeners!

Last week in preparation for the month of June, a new month and what to me feels like the beginning of summer warmth, I toured the nursery looking for a few plants to take home and plant in a container by my kitchen. I had just completed pulling together a few flats of color for a client and was enjoying the insights of Beth and Vivian on some new coleus that had come in. I was basking in that very special glow that is City People's nursery; full of so many good things and informative and thoughtful people. Being that it was my last day as the interim container designer at City People's I found more than ever I wanted to take home the conversation and excitement over different plants that everyone had.

I started my foraging by picking out a beautiful bronze fennel that I had my eye the last month in the sale section at the back of the outdoor nursery and then worked my way forward towards the racks of annuals and veggie starts outside the store (When shopping it can sometimes be helpful to have a route in mind to structure your finds and the design!). When I arrived at the indoor nursery I could hear Rolland discussing the historical question of what constituted an heirloom jovially with one of our plant suppliers.

This little tete-a-tete got me to thinking that although I've never experimented much with vegetables that might be just the right thing. With my fennel in hand Rolland and I got to talking about some of his favorites... Full of warmth and wisdom I was brought into the fold of heirloom tomatoes, their great flavor, many colors... I had to have one... and chose a bright red that I thought would contrast nicely with the soft purple misted leaves of the fennel. What else would help to make this decorative pot pop? I scooped up two new coleus with a little smile for Vivian. Of course I wasn't sure about the edibility of the coleus and spent a minute with Glen around the checkout counter googling what we could find out about the plant - good for decoration but not munching - note to self.

To top it all off I needed a trellis, something I'd always wanted an excuse to splurge on! The little arrangement felt like a bit of a cottage garden without all the work of staking innumerable perennials. Sometimes all you need is one small item to create a genuine feel for a certain time or place. For me the trellis was going to help make a container that belonged to my landlord of very different disposition and taste...feel warmer. And all those little pieces really did the trick because when I placed everything into their pot I got to reminiscing on where all these good things had come from... so sweet... and I haven't even eaten one of the sun ripened tomatoes!

Have a great summer reaping the bounty of what you sow! Perhaps we'll meet in the nursery some time and get to chatting about your new plant endeavors...!

Sara



THANKS SARA!!!!

Springtime again!

A few pictures from my garden on a raining spring evening.

Once again the Dogwood blooms. This small tree takes a pagoda-like space in the middle of my back garden. Ever since I salvaged it and moved it (twice), it has settled in quite well if I do say so. Don't look at those weeds below there... Next warm day, they'll be gone.... Maybe..







and the Sedum's bright gold runs into the purple Heuchera. I let the orange California Poppies volunteer where they will and I'll thin them out later if I need to.

Right beside that I've begun to turn the soil, removed an old Spanish Lavender and I'm going to plant three Blue Berry shrubs. I'll need to make their growing space a whole lot more acidic if the blueberries are going to make it. More Coffee! Coffee grounds turned in to the soil will help...


I've had this water bowl here a few years and the stand of Japanese Iris coming up around them needs to be thinned. I'll do that after this season is done. My red-twig Dogwoods not cut back again this year? I missed the window of time and just couldn't bring myself to do it. A few selective thinning cuts and it's back into manageable shape.

FROM the desk of Sara Lawrence...

This early Spring is helping me meditate on a few things... First, I'm seeing the significance of emergent buds. Like complex origami the unfurling of leaves and blooms is a stunningly beautiful event. In Japanese chabana (tea ceremony flower arrangements) the focus is on the bud more than the flower, where there is more sense of yearning, effort, and mystery in its progress towards opening. Second, I'm loving moments that highlight this experience whether that be a patch of snow drop bulbs lifting out of a bed of quite moss or a quince blooming on the side of a cement garage wall, keeping the background simple for spring seems to help me focus on the miracle that is unfolding in front of me...
At home I've been translating this into my thoughts about Spring containers. By my front door I have an old gnarled archtostaphylos media that winds it red peeling bark sideways out of a sea green container. I under planted it with two Erica ca. 'Golden Hue' that reach out like yellow plumes of smoke and form a soft yet bright contrast. Inside this golden haze I tucked one Helleborus niger. That's it. I experience each part of spring through that Helleborus when I get home in the evening, its' buds reflect what is happening around it in the Tulip Magnolia, or the fern fiddle heads, but I don't feel rushed to take it all in at once.
This weekend I spent a few hours combing my sweaters. Okay laugh, but because I did it I feel totally different about my whole wardrobe that was looking worn ragged with pilling. My sweetheart called it my spring cleaning and that reminded me that this is what the season is all about. Each season has its own feeling and special magic. Spring is about taking notice of the change, preparing the stage, and enjoying that moment. You don't have to rush summer into your garden. Instead, try quieting your pallet and honing your understanding of what is beautiful.