What follows are words to consider (in four parts) from one of our Garden Club Members, Wendy Craig. She has been thinking gardening all winter long and wanted to share her plan. She hopes to help you plan an ornamental garden and make informed decisions when you purchase plants this season.
She is also the ‘keeper’ of the club’s Facebook page found at Caro Garden Club | Facebook or https://www.facebook.com/CaroGardenClubMi
Check it out
Wendy works for a local garden center during the busy season and is caretaker of her own beautiful home garden. Though written for novices, we’re hoping even well-seasoned gardeners will find some takeaways.
It’s time to plan your planting for 2022!
PART 1 - KNOW YOUR SITE. This is where you start before selecting any plant material. In order to get to know your site, you will need to answer these questions: What size is your garden area going to be, what’s the sun exposure, what type of soil is it, how well does it drain and what’s your growing zone??? Google and your local extension service are your new best friends. If it’s a new bed…What size? That’s entirely up to you. That said, it’s easier to enlarge a garden as you go than to find you’re in over your head in terms of expense and workload.
Knowing the size of your garden is an important factor in determining how many plants you will need, based on the size of mature plants.
What’s the sun exposure in the location of the garden area you’re planning? Is it deep shade? Full sun? Part shade/part sun (generally 4-6 hours of sun per day)? Be careful about this because a shade plant will burn up in full sun, and a full sun plant will not thrive in the shade.
What type of soil do you have? This is where the local extension service comes in because they have soil testing kits. Follow the directions to fill up the container, send it in and get your results. Not only will you find out what type of soil you have, but recommendations will be given for any amendments you might need for your soil to produce a successful garden. Some plants are very picky about the soil they sink their feet into! Any existing plants that are doing well are an excellent clue as well. Drainage – do you sink in up to your ankles after it rains or are you high and dry?
Growing zone? Google “What’s my growing zone in (your zip code)”. It’s that easy. This is how long your growing season is, when the last frost of the spring is and the first frost of the fall. Pay attention to the dates for last frost/first frost because frost can heavily damage or kill your plants, especially a concern with annuals. If you have answered all of these questions, you have the logistics of your garden covered. Now it’s time to turn your attention to plants!
PART 2
- WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR GARDEN TO LOOK LIKE? Do you favor an English cottage garden or something more formal? Mixing it up or mass plantings? Many of us shoot for an informal yet balanced look. A mix of perennials and annuals is often ideal, generally starting with taller plants at the back and walking down in size toward the front of the bed. A bed located within an open area usually has an “anchor” plant in the center (like a shrub) or hardscape (like a fountain) surrounded by tall, then medium and finally short plants around it. Perennials provide structure and food for pollinators.
Annuals provide all season color, and some annuals are good for our pollinators as well. (Think single blooms so there’s a “landing pad".) Annuals are ideal for providing a colorful border for beds or a sidewalk. A mix of perennials and annuals with attention to size/spread/bloom size/foliage/texture and bloom time can provide a lush, deep bed for interest all season. When considering perennials, be aware that most don’t last forever and our unpredictable spring weather is hard on some. Officially, a plant is a perennial if it lasts three seasons or more. You may need to replace a plant or two each year. Many don’t emerge until June, so be patient and give them time, and wait for perennial sales in July! Also consider that many perennials need to be dug up and divided (free plants for another area or to share with friends) once every few years to not only manage their size, but to keep them healthy and blooming as well.
Advanced garden design gets more heavily into how to work with varying bloom sizes, textures and color of foliage as well as hardscaping (structures, sidewalks/paths, walls and fences) to make your garden area more beautiful. Are you hungering for more knowledge? Members of garden clubs in Michigan can attend on-line garden school and get instruction from industry professionals and university instructors at a very reasonable cost. We also have the opportunity to attend various Zoom classes for FREE through Michigan Garden Clubs, Inc. (Are you interested in joining our club? PM me – we’d be happy to have you join us!)
PART 3 - PLAN YOUR PLANTING! Want to add true native plants to your yard? Why the recent fuss about native plants? From Audobon.org, “The human-dominated landscape no longer supports functioning ecosystems, and the remaining isolated natural areas are not large enough to support wildlife…By creating a native plant garden, each patch of habitat becomes part of a collective effort to nurture and sustain the living landscape for birds and other animals.” Do your due diligence as natives are not necessarily the plants that are available at your local garden supply center. In fact, they usually aren’t. The plant tag will give the genus and species in italics. A cultivar (non-native) will be added in single quotes. A native purple coneflower, for example, is echinacea pupurea. A popular cultivar is echinacea purpurea ‘PowWow Wild Berry’. It’s a beautiful plant, but it’s not native to our area. Adding one or two natives each growing season is less overwhelming than trying an all-out changeover, and be assured that plenty of cultivars are also very beneficial for bees, butterflies, birds and bugs, including 'PowWow Wild Berry'.
The big push is to get rid of huge expanses of lawns that are a “monoculture”, doing nothing to sustain the biodiversity we need to have a healthy ecosystem. Also, cut back or fully cease the use of pesticides if possible because chemicals cannot differentiate between pests and beneficial insects. (Not possible because of an influx of pests of biblical proportions? Google to find the most effective, least damaging pesticide for that specific pest and how to safely apply it.)
If you’re establishing an entire new area, consider planting native seeds. Apply water as necessary to germinate and establish the new plants and supply plenty of patience. They may take a few seasons to really get going. An old folk saying about perennial plants is “one year to sleep, one year to creep and one year to leap.” During the first growing season the plant grows a robust root system while the visible plant doesn’t seem to be doing much. The plant grows a little bigger and sturdier in the second year, but by the third you will generally see the plant you were hoping to see.
Nurseries near Caro that grow native plants are BetterFinds Native Plants in Saginaw and East Michigan Native Plants in Durand. If you’re not in our immediate area, here’s a link to help you find nurseries dedicated to growing local native plants in your area of the US: https://growitbuildit.com/where-to-buy-native I don’t know about you, but I’m planning a road trip with friends this spring!
PART 4 - PLAN FOR PLANTING, the final installment! - When purchasing plants, READ THE TAGS and look up further info on the internet. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned about plants over the years just by reading plant tags! Those little plastic tags will tell you the common and botanical name, sun and water requirements, how to plant, the size of MATURE plants (this determines how many plants you’ll need in an area) and growing zone. Tags on perennials will usually tell you requirements for pruning as well. Use your smart phone for further info you may require.
Be aware that growing zones were changed a couple of years ago. The garden center just south of you might be selling some plants that aren’t hardy in your zone. And with our unpredictable spring weather, you might want to stay one zone “safer” than what your official zone is. The lower the number, the more cold-hardy a plant is. It’s safe to select plants from a lower zone, but not a higher zone. Caro is officially in Zone 5A but many of us stick to Zone 4 or lower plants.
One of my favorite resources for comprehensive information on perennials is Walters Gardens, a wholesale perennial grower in Zealand, Michigan. Just be aware that they only sell to retailers like our local friends at Szcygiels Plant Farm, not directly to gardeners. (https://www.waltersgardens.com/index.php) They have an extensive list of plants with full color pictures, and all growing information is included on each plant – size, growth habits, care needed, pollinator plants, deer resistance, etc.
Speaking of deer resistant plants, the most comprehensive list that I’ve found is from Rutgers University. Even though Rutgers is located in New Jersey, it’s easy to get the info you need with a little cross-checking. Here’s the link: https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants/
Now it’s time to get your shopping list ready! Our spring plant sale order form will be posted soon. Some plants are already sprouting at the growers in our area! DO make a list for what you need and want, organized however it works best for you. It really helps to not overspend and end up with plants you really don’t have room for. (I need to take my own advice on this. I take my shopping list but then I get carried away!) (I can hear all my gardening friends saying “Yeah, she does!”)
Stay tuned for our Spring Plant Sale order form later this week.
This is echinacea (coneflower) Cheyenne Spirit, which will be on our spring plant sale order form.
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