Judith’s Garden Adapting to Challenges

My name is John Rohde. My garden is located 15 miles north of Baltimore in Towson, Maryland, in Zone 7b. This is the second full year for this pandemic garden. I enjoy mixing annuals and perennials with trees and tropicals in containers. There is a water feature, tubs of lotus, a patio, and a vegetable garden at the rear of my house.

Everyone is familiar with the potted greenhouse mums offered at many garden centers that end up in the trash after the flowers fade, but are you acquainted with old-fashioned garden mums? These hardy heirloom mums have been shared by gardeners for generations. Blooming in the fall, they are excellent garden perennials that also provide food sources for pollinating insects.

A recent visit to Maplewood Gardens in East Flat Rock, NC where there is an incredible collection of Japanese maples. The Mr. Maple nursery specializes in these beautiful maples.

The Deer’s Delicate Palate: We all wonder (often in loud expletives when something has been chewed) what it is that deer won’t eat. I loved this online tool created at Rutgers University Extension (based on observations in northern New Jersey) that rates things from “Rarely Damaged” to “Frequently Severely Damaged” (above) in a five-point scale that seems more sensible to me that saying anything’s “deerproof.” We could all benefit from this kind of thinking, a sort of risk-assessment philosophy of planting in the presence of these beasts. (You know me; I don’t. I gave up and got a deer fence.)Compost-Bin Envy: I have never met Ryan Boren, one of the lead developers (read: software engineer) for WordPress, the platform I so love and that this site is built on. Who knew that Boren is also adept with wood-working tools and built himself a composter-to-covet at the Texas home he shares with his growing family and some mighty cute goats. The “after” shot of his three-stage compost bin is here; the detail shots here.An Old Friend, Overplanted:

FIRST, THE HAIRCUTS: Many perennials (euphorbia, some true geraniums, ribbon grass orPhalaris) do better the second half of the seasonif cut back hard. Others need just deadheading. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. :-)MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.IF YOU ARE IN JAPANESE BEETLE territory, handpick (as with other obvious pests like tomato hornworms) in early morning and drown in a can of water to reduce infe

This first-ever columnar conifer in my garden career came about quite by accident. I was actually looking for what a friend refers to as “a blob” (a sort of lumpy, wider-than-tall, hummocky-shaped shrub) to replace a Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’ that was badly snow-damaged last fall.Shop as I might for the right new “blob,” I saw nothing that was just right. And then I bumped into another friend at the garden center, who said, “Why not something vertical instead? Change it up.” Aha!punctuation points i considered:<a href=«http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/f930/thuja-occidentalis-degroot» s-spire.aspx>Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire:’ Ilex crenata ‘Sky Pencil’ (Japanese holly):  Grows to 10 feet and 2-3 feet wide; will need help, such as from a cat’s cradle of fishing lin

First, though, I recommend a long, hard look. I walked around outside the last week of June with a pad and pen–and a critical eye. In the flurry of spring prep, planting and pruning, I’d been working around some problems rather than tackling them properly.Where perennials or even worse, shrubs, are bulging out of the beds and drooping onto the lawn, it’s time for a decision. (And no, the decision cannot be “mow around them and deal with it later,” which is what I always do in a few spots in spring.) Time to either reduce the plants by division or pruning, or make the bed bigger, easing passage around its perimeter. I’m doing some of each (but waiting for fall weather for the divisions if it stays hot and relatively dry here).NOW, ONWARD! JULY STARTS OUT as Throw In the Trowel Month here, with June’s cutbacks s

FIRST, THE HAIRCUTS: If you were squeamish about cutbacks as spring faded, you may be regretting it now, and facing floppy, exhausted plants in certain spots. Some things (like certain perennial Geraniums, for instance) do better if cut back hard. Go for it. Others need just deadheading of spent blooms. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. :-)MAKE A PASS through each bed each week, since weeds are not just unsightly but steal moisture, nutrients and light from desired plants. Top up mulch in all garden beds if washed or worn away to help in the plight.LOOK WHILE WEEDING: Try to remember what’s done well (and not so well) so far in each bed. Make notes, to

Ask yourself this: Where do you see your garden from most often, and at what time of year? Where does the magical light happen, and catch your eye? For me, it’s a few places:The best seat in the house is the dining-room table (above), where I often plunk my laptop and heaps of messiness when writing and just generally like to be. (So does Jack the Demon Cat, who adores the west view.)I can see a long way due west from that old Chinese wooden chair, and also pretty far south, with a short east snapshot as well…so those directions, starting at the point of my favorite chair and emanating outward, are the primary axes of my garden. Fr

Some “fixes” are obvious: I’ll raise the deck on the mower to a longer cut, assuming the weather heats up and rain tapers. I’ll soak beds deeply (unless ample rain does first!), then clean up their edges and top up mulch. In many spots I’m being downright brutal with more “edits” and cutbacks. (I know, I gave a lot of haircuts in June to things like perennial geraniums and euphorbias, but the barbershop is still open here apparently, with bleeding hearts, groundcover sedums that flowered recently, Phalaris or ribbon grass and more getting hacked to the ground. Celandine poppy, orStylophorum diphyllum, too.)July is also a big month for the vegetable garden, and not just of harvesting: I’m sowing fresh crops to enjoy this fall (like more peas); more on doing a tuneup in the edible garden below.Frankly, July always starts out as Throw In the Trowel Month here, and I often do feel overwhelmed. But then summer shapes up and t

It’s six months since “The Backyard Parables” was published. (Happy half-birthday, little book.)In that same six months, half a million different people (yes!) have visited A Way to Garden dot com. But I haven’t sold each one a book — yet!Marketing gurus would say that’s partly because I don’t ask you often enough, clearly enough, loudly enough. I don’t like to be a pest (let’s leave that role to the woodchucks and Japanese beetles and cabbage worms). But I’m so proud of the book, and want you to have a copy.

I’ve been open as part of their Open Days scheme for 15 years (hard to believe) and even before all that am proud to have introduced the Conservancy to what has become a signature project, the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden (which was part of my “beat” when I was garden editor of “Newsday” on Long Island). Later I visited and covered many of their other projects in the pages of “Newsday” and then “Martha Stewart Living.” Read all about it–along with details of extra goodies like plant sales and guest lectures at this year’s open garden days at my place.And join me in saying a giant thank you to the Conservancy for all they have done for American gardens and gardeners.