Fairy Garden Skeptic?

I admit it. Originally I was skeptical about Fairy Gardens, particularly for adults. With a full-sized garden and landscape to care for, I could not wrap my head around itty-bitty scenes and itty-bitty plants that might dry out too quickly. But with millions of people puzzling and writing about weaning today’s children away from their computer games and luring them into the great outdoors, I have changed my tune. 

To me, Fairy Gardens are the outdoor version of Dollhouses. Fairy Gardens are furnished with miniature structures and doll-sized accessories appealing to children: little fences, little birdbaths, little garden tools. What’s more, they include Actual Living Plants! This gets the idea of plants, soil, sunshine, photosynthesis, growing, dirty hands and success into young hands. And even if it seems to be entering gardening through the back door, if it works, it’s fine with me! When I saw a young girl standing mesmerized by the array of Fairy Gardening accessories in my nearby independent garden center, I was convinced! 

Fairy Gardens can be laid out formally on table top, with a $375 Primrose Cottage 27.25 inches tall, or less formally with homemade houses and benches that are crafted by kids and incorporated into a dish garden or an in-ground garden niche. 

On Pinterest, one Fairy Garden Board  has 864 people following 153 pins (so far), all of imaginative Fairy Gardens. 

In terms of Fairy Plants, tiny ground covers such as Scotch and Irish Moss and Corsican Mint in the Stepables lineup  come to mind.  

Perfect as a small evergreen for a Fairy Landscape is Garden Debut®’s Micron® Holly PP21168, a diminunitive little holly with very small leaves reaching 20 inches in height at maturity.      

If a Flowering Fairy Shrub is needed there is Princess Lyla™ Crapemyrtle that reliably adds summer color at only about a foot and a half tall,    the littlest princess in the Princess Series by Garden Debut®.

Do you know a child who might fall in love with gardening if introduced through the world of Fairy Gardens? Let’s hear from you.   

top photo thank you to Liesel Allen Merkel

posting a few weeks later, after Halloween, a photo of Halloween in the Fairy Garden.

photo by Jeremie Corp 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?bid=546864471995702&set=a.354274917921326.105388.236792266336259&type=1&theater

Geri's Abundant-Harvest, Throw It Together Pesto Recipe

 For the third time this season, I have cut back my 4 plants of Mrs. Burns' Lemon Basil by half, added clippings from a couple of Lettuce-Leaf Basil plants, and am making Pesto! This will be 6 pounds so far this year.

Geri's Abundant-Harvest, Throw It Together Pesto Recipe

Ingredients:
1 gallon basil leaves
3 peeled, smashed garlic cloves
1 cup walnuts
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 to 1 cup EVOO

Directions:
Pick clean,dry basil leaves and put about half in the blender
Add garlic cloves that have been peeled and smashed in a garlic press
Pulse in food processor
Add more basil leaves
Add Parmesan cheese
Add 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil and gradually more
Pulse in food processor
Add more oil until it is the right consistency for you

Use on fresh-cooked hot pasta, on chicken breast, in stews or as a spread for turkey sandwiches.

To save for later use, package in small containers (enough for one pound of pasta) and freeze. This brings the feeling of summer in the middle of winter.


photos copyright Geri Laufer, 2012
may use photos with attribution :-) thanks!

Friend Helen Yoest's New Book: Gardening With Confidence

My Raleigh friend Helen Yoest from Garden Writers Association sent me a copy of her new book and I think it has great merit! 

Gardening With Confidence-- 50 Ways to add style for personal creativity hits all the gardening highlights and offers practical ways to achieve gardening style in accessible, bite-sized pieces. Each essay is a quick study in four pages and Helen's great color photos help to illustrate her points.

Gardening With Confidence summarizes Helen's practical experience and is presented as an overview of the field, "the exact book a beginning gardener needs" presented as sort of a conversation with a knowledgeable friend over a virtual garden fence.

As might be expected, I am partial to her Herb Gardens chapter that includes herb care, plant types, harvesting, seed saving, drying and a profile of her fave herb garden, Little Herb House in Raleigh.

Some of her other essays that I especially enjoy are Fragrance in the Garden, Sound in the Garden and Layers of Light.

Which chapters are your favorites?

Rainbow of Ground Covers Enlivens the Landscape

Snow N Summer® Asiatic Jasmine

A colorful palette of ground covers adds an extra dimension to the lower levels of my landscape. These ground-hugging plants that spread widely yet remain short and close to the ground have a new look these days with a selection of foliage colors. Brightening up sunny spots as well as shade, many choices of perennial ground covers are available for the artistic gardener and landscaper. Ground covers protect the soil from erosion and drought, while providing a flat layer of vegetation beneath the shrub layer.

Pink and White

Trachelospermum asiaticum Snow N Summer® Asiatic Jasmine by Garden Debut®. The amazing pink foliage color of looks like flowers in the bed but is adaptable and evergreen, making it an excellent mounding 12-iinch ground cover that spreads to three feet. New foliage emerges striking pink, turning to clear white, then to variegated white and emerald green on older foliage.  

Mahogany-Red Bronze
Ajuga reptens Bronze has appealing dark mahogany-maroon foliage that thrives in sun or shade and reaches 6 to 10 inches in height and spreads by runners. Short spikes of attractive blue flowers cover the mat in spring, attracting bees and butterflies.

Angelina Sedum

Brilliant Yellow

Sedum rupestre Angelina- the brilliant-yellow spreading fleshy foliage of this succulent ground cover turns orange at the tips in autumn. It’s only 3 inches tall but spreads to two feet wide and more in sun.

Yellow and Green

Vinca minor ‘Sunny Skies’ PP13466 features yellow variegated leaves and bright blue springtime flowers, attaining about 12 inches in height and spreading to two feet.

Bunny Blue Sedge

Silvery Blue

Carex laxiculmus Bunny Blue Sedge Grass by Garden Debut® is a grass-like ornamental groundcover with narrow foliage and year-round interest. Aqua-silvery blue leaves to 12 inches tall will spread to a large, dense clump.

There are many other ground covers that increase the gardener’s color choices. Have you tried some of these? What is your favorite? 

Seed Collecting and Saving

Seeds I collected in the garden - so far. 

While the squirrels are collecting (and planting) pecans from our big tree in the backyard, I am also squirreling away seeds to plant next January. Of course I'll scatter some now, too.

I like to dry them thoroughly before packaging them in paper envelopes. Be sure to label them! I often forget if they are not labeled. My Dad used to like to quote Confucius: "the weakest ink is stronger than the strongest mind," or in other words, write it down b/c you might not remember what you have there.

I plan to take the Rudbeckia triloba off of that mass of clippings while watching NCIS this evening. Do you save seeds? I have parsley, white hibiscus, thorn apple, purple cone flower, annual Rudbeckia, my Grandmother's Balsam, Rudbeckia triloba (big bowl) --> and one composite I forgot to label (!) but I think it is feverfew.

Happy Collecting!

Urban™ Apple Caramel Upside-Down Cake

Edible landscaping is the number one consumer trend today acccording to Independent Garden Centers, as the locally-grown movement gains ground, and more and more gardeners find success harvesting their own crops. Enter Urban™ Columnar Apples by Garden Debut®, slender new apple trees that yield great tasting apples in a tiny space.

What could be more ideal than a “containerized orchard” on a sunny deck, or planted in the backyard? This is possible with Urban™ Columnar Apples by Garden Debut? Use your harvest in a simple upside-down cake recipe that combines the great autumn flavors of apples and caramel.     

Blushing Delight(TM) Apple PP21511 

Recipe 

Urban™ Apple Caramel Upside-DownCake

Ingredients: 

4 Blushing Delight™ Urban™ Columnar Apples, cored and sliced

1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 bag vanilla caramels

1-2  Tablespoons water

Yellow or Spice Cake batter (for one layer only)

Directions: 

Coat cake pan with oil

Place Urban™ Apple slices in an attractive pattern in the cake pan

Slowly melt caramels and water in a small saucepan over low heat

Pour melted caramel over apple slices without disturbing

Mix cake batter according to directions

Pour batter over caramel and apples

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes, or until cake is lightly brown and separates from pan

Flip cake onto serving dish and enjoy!

Serves 8

For more information about the Urban(TM) Columnar Apple Trees, visit the Garden Debut® website. 

We would like to see how you are using your Urban™ Apples this fall! Post on our Facebook Page 

2012 Gold Medal Plant Award Winner is The Rising Sun® Redbud PP21451

The Rising Sun® Redbud PP21451

Awards by horticultural societies help gardeners and landscapers make informed choices about plants. The societies run tests and then acknowledge the best of the best performers. Extensive trials take place before these awards are bestowed on old favorites or new plant introductions. 

A familiar example is the annual All-American Rose Selection Winners must embody all of the characteristics today’s homeowners desire in a garden plant. Each winner excelled in a 2-year trial program where it was judged on disease resistance to flower production, color and fragrance.

Another plant award is the American Hemerocallis Society’s Stout Silver Medal of Honor. This is the highest award a daylily cultivar can receive and is given in memory of Dr. Arlos Burdette Stout, the father of modern daylily breeding in North America. Winners are great performers.

The Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit (AGM), an honor that is well-known and transcends national boundaries. Judging committees from the RHS bestow the award to only the best performers.

Daffodils have their own award; the John and Gertrude Wister Award from the AmericanDaffodil Society emphasize garden performance with long lasting blooms, clean color, sunfast, vigorous foliage, disease resistant, and more. 

Gold Medal Plant Award, PHS

Gold Medal Plant Award Program, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

Since 1978 the prestigious Gold Medal Plant Award Program of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society has recognized trees, shrubs and woody vines of outstanding merit. Noted nurseryman Dr. J. Franklin Styler inaugurated this award to showcase superior woody plants for homeowners and landscapers. These woodies are evaluated for their superb eye-appeal, performance and hardiness. People know they can rely on winners for ease of growing, resistance to disease,   beauty in many seasons and hardiness in USDA Hardiness Zones 6 - 7 (encompassing Pennsylvania). Garden Debut(R) is pleased to announce The Rising Sun® Redbud PP21451 has been awarded the 2012 Gold Medal from the PHS! This honor recognizes beautiful, reliable and exceptional plants. 

Tangerine to apricot new foliage

The PHS website states: "Cercis canadensis The Rising Sun(R) Redbud PP21451 is a novel addition to the native eastern redbud roundup. Small but showy rosy orchid flowers climb the naked branches in early spring attracting bees and butterflies. The distinctive bark is smooth tan with a yellowish cast. Emerging heart-shaped foliage is brilliant tangerine to apricot and reputed to hold its color well into fall, surpassing other gold leaved redbuds. Heat tolerance, drought tolerance and cold hardiness are other desirable attributes." 

Gardeners and landscapers can purchase The Rising Sun(R) Redbud PP21451 with complete confidence in its performance every time. Another of the Great New Plants(TM) from Garden Debut(R).  .