GET GROWING!
A FLOWERFUL STATEMENT
Image credit: Floratopia by Jan Johnsen.
By LADYBUG
Veteran garden designer Jan Johnsen shares ideas for designing gorgeous gardens in any outdoor area one may have available, be it a large yard or a compact deck or balcony.
She suggests beautiful varieties of old garden staples as well as new introductions and guides you through planting and maintaining flowers best suited for your zone, site and garden layout.
Drainage holes in pots? Potting mix and feeding? She’s got them covered.
Tired of fighting garden pests on your flowers? Plant more flowers!
But she also expands on the theme of companion planting to help deter insects and pests.
Planting flowers as a pest-control measure is an important step in our evolving natural gardening practices. For example, ladybugs eat destructive pests like aphids, mites, and scale. So plant flowers that ladybugs like, such as angelica, calendula, chamomile, chives, cilantro, cosmos, dill, fennel, feverfew, goldenrod, signet marigold and yarrow.
It’s like having discovered another gardening buddy, I think. One who is gladdened “by a slightly wilted posy of wildflowers gripped by the fingers of a smiling child”.
Her tips are practical and fun. The best part? She’s based in New York and so this is a lady who knows what gardeners in northern climes have to contend with, weather-wise.
All too often I read and drool over gardening books written by English gardeners – some of the best garden writers in the world, to be sure – only to sigh when I look out and see snow on the ground while they are going on about dancing bluebells in the meadows.
I love her ideas on using repetitive gardening chores to connect with nature. When I read about mindful weeding and the art of raking, I am reminded of my gardening guru and dear friend Dorothy who used to say there was no problem that a good whack at weeds wouldn’t help get out of her system.
I laugh out loud when I read the following about planters. Ask any gardener and they will tell you that planters, overflowing with vegetation, are like rabbits – they seem to multiply overnight. Soon, you will have planters on your porch or balcony, alongside the driveway, on your entry steps, and even placed within plant beds.
True, Jan, so very true. I have a large collection of pots and planters of various sizes, and yet I find it hard to walk by another be it at a garden store or placed on the curb by a neighbour. They all look interesting, they are all full of possibilities!
The chapter on an all-white garden is a dream. White flowers sing, she writes. If you look out on a gray day, you will see white-petalled blooms shining more than any other colour amidst the green foliage.
She follows this up with a cautionary note – many white flowers are not pure white. Some have a yellowish or greenish cast which makes it tricky to blend white flowers together.
I learnt this the hard way when I found my attempt at an all-white bed foiled by whites that weren’t all white.
Some, like an iris, even had a sneaky peach tint along the edges.
But it was so pretty that it was allowed to stay and soon, other whites with bits of colour crept in and there went my dream bed.
Her passion for colour is contagious and I draw up a list of must-haves as I browse her favourites.
And feel mighty pleased when I find that on her list of perennial favourites, out of 12 plants, I have 10.
A gardening buddy and a kindred spirit.
Floratopia by Jan Johnsen is published by The Countryman Press, $40.