Patio greenhouse

November 20, 2010

My yard has already experienced a very light frost a little over a week ago. It did not touch the cool season vegetables or herbs but some of the perennials and annuals did die. I pulled them out and have been adding bulbs and more Giant Red mustard; colorful Kale, snapdragons and pansies. The night the weather forecast was for possible frost I set up my little patio greenhouse for my tender plants. This greenhouse I purchased at Lowe’s several years ago does a pretty good job of protecting some of my cutting and tender houseplants. I add a light bulb for heat when it is forecast to get below freezing. The trick is not to open during the day and let the heat build up and I only use the light at night. A few tropical plants won’t survive this so I do bring them indoors for the really cold nights.

Fall and winter colors for the garden

I’ve been busy the last few weeks taking out dying summer annuals and cutting back perennials in my yard to make way for some cool season flowers and foliage plants. Today I finished planting tulips and daffodils in the front yard. I change up the plants from year to year but Giant Red mustard; colorful cabbages and Kales are always favorites. I usually add some snapdragons and either pansies or violas to round out the plants that will survive winter and come on strong through late May or early June. Many don’t realize how attractive some vegetables and herbs can be in a flower garden. I’ve used red lettuce and rosemary in flower gardens as well over the years. Rosemary not only has a great fragrance when touched but adds year-round green to your garden. (Photos from Spring 2009; planted fall 2008)

Cool Season Weeds

Now that high temperatures are hitting the mid 70’s in my area it is time to start thinking about preventing cool season weeds. Before tackling a weed control program it is important to know that complete suppression of any weed from your yard is not practical. It is only possible to manage (not eliminate) the weeds by reducing the invasion to an acceptable level. The best method for preventing a weed problem is maintaining the health and density of your lawn. Accurate mowing height, irrigation and fertilization of the grass are the best defense against weeds. With that done; pre-emergence herbicides should be applied to well-established lawns in late summer or early fall. In this area sometime around Halloween seems to be a good time.
Keep in mind that you'll never get rid of all the weeds in your lawn. The wind will blow weed seeds from nearby lawns into your lawn, birds will deposit them and kids running from one lawn to the next will transport weed seeds on their shoes. So do what you feel you must to battle the weeds in your lawn, but do it wisely.

Fall Garden

Today I used some radishes from my fall garden in my salad. Lettuce is also ready to pick and spinach is nearly ready. My granddaughter picked a pepper from my kitchen garden while she was here visiting 2 weeks ago. A nice surprise since most of my summer peppers had sunscald. Leaving the pepper plants in the ground worked out as now I have at least 6 more peppers nearly ready to pick. Our extended growing season is a nice bonus for living in the lowcountry. I also planted some lettuce and parsley seeds in some of my large flower pots. Some of the cool season vegetables can also make attractive landscape plants this time of year and they can stand up to cold weather. I like to use colorful cabbages and kale's, and giant red mustard in with my fall pansies, snapdragons, and dianthus.

camellia sasanquas in bloom!

Two of my three camellia sasanquas have started to bloom. I’m not sure of the names because I bought them as an experiment to see if I could grow them in my yard. I wasn’t sure I’d have enough shade but knew sasanquas tolerated sun a little better. Since planting the first two my trees have grown enough to provide more dappled shade. The pink one is 5 years old and was moved once and the white one is 3 years old and also was relocated once. The third one was just planted this year and I’m anxiously waiting to see the blooms. It is supposed to bloom a little later.

Tea olives for a fragrant garden

Tea olives are some of the most sweetly fragrant plants in Southern gardens. The word Osmanthus is derived from Greek osma, meaning "fragrant", and anthos, meaning, "flower". That description is very accurate of the Osmanthus fragrans I planted in my yard! This may be their most fragrant year since I planted them. Tea olives grow as dense, evergreen shrubs or small trees and are long-lived and virtually pest free. Occasional disease and insect problems can develop, mainly under stressful conditions. I transplanted 3 shrubs this spring that had been in the ground for 5 years and they are blooming right along with the ones that have been in the same spot for 5 years.
I would never have guessed such tiny flowers could fill my yard with such a wonderful scent often being compared to the scent of peaches, orange blossoms or jasmine. I started out with 4 Fragrant Tea Olive (O. fragrans) when my local county extension agent mentioned the wonderful shrub/tree in a Master Gardener class in 2004. I was given two more from a neighbor who said his wife was allergic. My daughter-in-law was visiting from Colorado and immediately on stepping outside asked about the wonderful scent. I showed her the tiny flowers producing the wonderful smell and like me she was surprised. I love this almost carefree plant it blooms heavily in the fall (about 2 month) and also has scattered blooming through winter and into the spring. My flowers are creamy yellow. Some produce white flowers. There are several cultivars, mostly chosen for flower color (including orange). While some are still uncommon, they are well worth the search.


CultureWild olive is an adaptable, slow growing little tree that thrives in almost any soil and needs no attention once established.
Light: Partial shade to full sun. Wild olive does very well in light, dappled shade, and even in almost full shade.
Moisture: Once established, wild olive is drought tolerant. It also can tolerate moist soils, and even an occasional flooding.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 5 - 9. Although its native range is restricted to USDA zones 8 and 9, wild olive is known to be hardy in zone 5. This is the most cold hardy of the cultivated Osmanthus species.
Propagation: Seeds should be cleaned and planted outside as soon as ripe; they usually take two years to germinate. Tip cuttings from half ripe wood taken in summer can be rooted under glass.

Raised Garden

When I first laid out my plans for our yard in 2004 I planned a small space near the back door for a herb garden. I thought I'd grow the herbs I used the most in cooking. The rest of the yard was landscaped first to mask the buffer area & road running at back of our property line and then to give us something nice to look at in the backyard while enjoying the nice weather of extended spring and fall in the lowcountry. But gradually I decided I wanted to grow a few tomatoes, then some pepper,leaf lettuce, radishes, and even a little spinach. Now all these things won't fit in the space of the herb garden so what to do? There just really wasn't enough room to add a bed and I didn't really want to clear out a planting bed to put in vegetables. Then I noticed that the area where our willow tree once stood was fairly sunny. So I asked Jim to build me a small 4' X 4' raised bed. This fall I'm going to experiment raising few cool season vegetables like red, and green leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes, and more dill and parsley in this spot. I'm also starting a few flowers like hollyhocks and foxglove in the raised bed. If it isn't a sucess the raised bed can be moved in the spring to a new spot.

A Garden Pond

I haven’t forgotten about writing but have been very distracted taking care of a new puppy. This got me to wondering if this new lab puppy will be as fascinated by our pond as our older lab was when we first built our pond. I had wanted a pond for many years and my husband finally got on board and we put in a pond and waterfall using a pre-formed shell in April 2005. Here is some of the things we learned building our pond. First build a pond about twice the size you think you want! As soon as we were finished we wished we had made ours bigger. Second a waterfall will help mask traffic noise but only if you put it close enough to your sitting area. We put our pond near the back of our yard so we could see it better but this makes it harder to hear the cascade. Third I’d reconsidered the waterfall because we have made the waterfall over several times for different reasons. We had tree roots grow into the waterfall and suck water from the pool, the “Hill” created for the waterfall weir sunk over time twice. I think I’d skip the waterfall if we built another in this yard. Our yard is so flat it was a challenge to make it “blend” into the landscape. Fourth A small pond needs more maintenance than a larger one so invest in a UV filter to help control algae. Our first year we battled algae growth constantly and bought the UV filter the second year and wow what a difference!

Over the years this waterfall has been home to Comet fish; a hardy Goldfish type that is suitable for cold-water aquariums and garden ponds, assorted frogs, and the flagstones with crevices are homes to many cold-blooded wildlife like skinks and lizards. But best of all the sound attracts birds to the yard that are looking for water. Then they discover food from feeders and plants and places to nest. We also get the occasional opossum drinking from the pond and fish eating birds have found a meal of Comet fish once or twice. Our older Lab Lucy used to try and swim in the pond until plants took over some of the space. Overall we enjoy the pond and would build it again.

2006-Present

Not everything has gone as planned in my yard. Some plants struggled and had to be replace while others took off and out grew the spot they were planted and were moved or removed from my garden. One thing I would have done differently if I could go back would be how we went about putting in our kidney shaped planting bed. We killed the grass then used a tiller to turn the soil…BIG mistake. This allowed weed seeds to germinate and Nut Grass went crazy, first in the new bed then spread to the rest of the yard! To this day I am fighting Nut Grass.

I wish I had worked the large bed the way I did the beds that are along the fence. I did my own version of Lasagna Gardening before I knew it had a name. I used 6 layers of newspapers to cover the grass, then added compost and garden soil and covered with mulch. I waited for 6-8 months then planted my shrubs. A true lasagna garden would have used more organic materials in alternate layers of “browns” like fall leaves and “greens” like grass clippings and ended up about 2 feet tall. This material shrinks down quickly in just a few weeks.


If you are wondering what a Lasagna gardening is: it is a no-dig, no-till organic gardening method that results in rich, fluffy soil with very little work from the gardener. The name "lasagna gardening" has nothing to do with what you'll be growing in this garden. It refers to the method of building the garden, which is, essentially, adding layers of organic materials that will “cook down” over time, resulting in rich, fluffy soil that will help your plants thrive. Also known as “sheet composting,” lasagna gardening is great for the environment, because you're using your yard and kitchen waste and essentially composting it in place to make a new garden. Want more on this great new gardening method? Check out the link. http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm

December 2005

December is a time for resting for most gardeners even in the south. But planning is a big part of gardening so time not spent deadheading and weeding the garden can be spent refining and adjusting previous plans. But there are still things going on in a winter garden. Osmanthus and Camellia still bloom!