joene's garden: joene's garden

By joenesgarden, 7 months and 26 days ago

Keep gardens neat looking with deadheading

As a garden coach and personal gardener most of my springtime gardening work is done in clients' gardens. Gardening at home happens in tidbits of time. Fortunately, I only need tidbits of time to keep up with deadheading. Many clients and gardening friends have questions about deadheading – gardeners' term for removing of spent flowers. But careful attention to how a perennial flowers offers clues to how to deadhead. You don't want to cut down all green growth since perennials use the greenery to produce energy to survive. But unless you plan to harvest seeds from a specific perennial, allowing it to go to seed is simply taxing the plant's energy for no good gardening reason. So I expend a fair portion of my home gardening time removing spent blossoms. Beside ensuring perennials don't waste good energy on seed production, deadheading keeps the gardens looking fresh and allows currently blooming flowers to take center stage.

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By joenesgarden, 8 months and 16 days ago

Chives in Bloom

One of the most rewarding aspects of growing herbs is the ability to use their fresh flavor to spark up home-cooked meals. It's even better to find a way to capture the fresh flavor of herbs for use during months when plants are dormant.

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By joenesgarden, 9 months and 21 days ago

Shades of yellow, blue, violet and green and the best blossoms of all

Spring is off to a slow but welcome start in Connecticut. All the blooms in my gardens are still pretty much at ground level, but if you look closely … beyond the cheerful daffodil and narcissi … you'll see some colorful treasures. My trusty camera caught a few blooms to share on this April 2011 Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I snuck in some buds and greenery, too.

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By joenesgarden, 1 year and 8 months ago

How do you use chives?

chives2 May is chive season in Connecticut gardens. The multi-purpose herb blooms in showy globe-shaped flower heads in shades of lavender that gently stand atop long slender leaf shoots. I have chives planted in multiple locations, some in perennial beds and others along a garden fence line. In other gardens I've observed chives planted in herb beds, living year after year in a basic wooden planter, and as a border along a perennial bed. All striking ways to show off the herb's form and keep it close at hand for kitchen use. In a former … and formal … circle herb-style garden I created long ago, chives bordered the outermost edge of one of four equally-sized quadrants. Classic orange poppies grew in the middle of the quadrant. One year the two bloomed simultaneously and the effect was stunning (Sorry, no photos … before the digital age).

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  • Misjudged collaboration causes an NWF GOOPs:
    • joenesgarden: Debbie, NWF's GOOPs certainly seemed to be an eye opener for many NWF collaborators. Only time will tell whether NWF's reputation is sullied.
    • Debbie/GardenofPossibilities: Joene, What a good example of a major GOOPs. As Laurrie noted, it's unbelievable that NWF never mentioned the groundswell of outrage as a factor in the decision to end the partnership. I guess regadless of how/why it happened, most people are pleased it's over. BTW, thanks for the shout-out.
    • joenesgarden: Laurrie, The NWF's GOOPs may direct more followers to local wildlife-protecting and environmental organizations. This would be a good thing.
    • Laurrie: Talk about a gardening oops, this was a monster one. Absolute debacle. It's interesting that when they rescinded the partnership they blamed it on the lawsuits and gave no credit to the groundswell of public outrage. Never mentioned that at all. Unbelievable. My OOPS is on my blog today and...
  • Connecticut’s new planting zones:
    • joenesgarden: Jean, I think all seasoned gardeners understand zone map recommendations are no substitute for knowing your property, as your experience with temperature extremes in your Maine garden illustrates. I'm honored you named me as one of your Versatile Bloggers. I would participate if not for the sharing rules ... thanks anyway. I hope...
    • Jean: Joene, I was just looking at the new hardiness zones for Maine, and it brought home your point about knowing your own garden conditions. On the new map, my town has been moved from the boundary of zones 4b and 5a firmly into 5b. But the low temperature for zone 5b is -15F, and I...
    • joenesgarden: Debbie, I think the map is useful for new gardeners just beginning to understand what hardiness zones mean. It will also be very helpful to gardeners facing a move and garden and landscape designers who work in many different locations.
    • Debbie/GardenofPossibilities: Joene, I love the new interactive map. I'm still a zone 6b but 7a is creeping close.

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