Planning your spring garden or landscape? Try a raised bed and a couple of conifers
Submitted by Lisa on Mon, 2010-01-25 22:20
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So as I mentioned in my previous post (on vegetable container gardening), I just moved to a new home with a completely blank slate in the back for gardening.
And seeing how it’s still winter here in western New York (and probably will continue to be for what feels like about six more months), I’m grabbing some of my 2 ½-year-old daughter’s paper and crayons, and remembering the best gardening (and landscaping) advice I ever got:
Start with raised beds, and be sure to use conifers (cone-bearing plants, mostly evergreens). The raised beds give you good “garden bones” and the conifers provide fantastic foliage and year-round texture, color and shape.
Of course, this advice came from conifer enthusiast, master gardener and former neighbor Jerry Kral, who has turned his Rochester, NY property into a terraced conifer dreamland featured in Better Homes & Gardens (see image at right, from the Genesee Valley Rocks! gardening blog at www.gvnargs.blogspot.com).
Building your raised bed
Before you stick any plants in the ground, Jerry taught me, the idea is to create a frame for your “art.”
First, determine the shape of your bed (a natural, organic form looks best – try something like a kidney bean). You may want to spraypaint the border on the grass and then run a course of bricks or stone (about $200 a pallet) on top of them. For the lovely terraced look you see (above) in Jerry's garden, you can feel free to go a few courses higher.
Next, plan on filling in that border with dirt (sorry, gardeners – “soil”) about 3 to 4 feet high and 4 to 6 feet wide (landscapers can provide the fill dirt for about $30 a cubic yard). If you plan to use dwarf or miniature conifers, (an especially good idea if you want low-maintenance or easy-care gardening), maybe go a bit smaller. Or, if you're putting in plants that are going to expand a lot as they grow, go a bit larger.
Next, just wheelbarrow the dirt from the delivered pile (usually on a tarp in your driveway) to your raised bed, and just shovel it right onto the grass within that border. No need to kill or dig out the turf below.
Designing your raised bed
Try to start with taller trees for a high leaf canopy. Add bushes and shrubs for a midlevel canopy. Then, fill in the bottom part with groundcovers and lower-growing perennials, bulbs, annuals, ornamental grasses, gnomes, flamingos - whatever it is that floats your boat.
Then, consider putting a tall, dark plant (like juniperus scopulorum 'Skyrocket') in the center or back and two weeping conifers (like Golden Cedar) on each outer edge. Fill in the space between with round- or bun-shaped conifers (like chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Green Globe') and a few tall, skinny ones (I'm a big fan of 'Sky Pencil' holly). Arrange smaller plants at the front, from shortest on the outside to tallest in the center.
Then, add a big rock. Or three. Or five. Odd numbers are better. If you're using three, get one small, one medium and one large. For a more natural effect, try to find stones that are native to your area.
For a high-impact look, try contrasting colors. Blue-green and yellow-variegated conifers go great together. So do dark green varieties with those variegated white.
Also contrast textures — stiff, sharp needles of spruce or pine, for instance, with the cup-shaped, ferny Hinoki cypress or the stringlike chamaecyparis pisifera.
Next, mix it up for a more natural look. In nature, notes Jerry, you won’t find straight lines or a mass of just one kind of shape, color, texture or kind of plant. So mix in some deciduous trees and shrubs as well as herbaceous perennials, annuals, bulbs, ground covers and ornamental grasses.
I’ll get more into planting when spring gets here. But now’s my time for dreaming, and I’m checking out mail-order sites such as Arrowhead Alpines and Greer Gardens and garden blogs such as The Amazing World of Conifers, The Garden Years, A Way to Garden and Daniel Mount Gardens. You can also find images of conifers and cultural information at the American Conifer Society Web site.
Are you a conifer lover? Let me know some varieties and plant compositions that have worked for you! And please feel free to post some pics!
Comments
Quality
You have some great gardening tips here and ones which if I may, I might write an article about upon my Garden Feature Fountains website which is very similar in nature to what you have here.
very nice share.
very nice share.
great
thanks
I am not a landscaping expert
Hi and thanks for visiting Your Easy Garden! The one thing Jerry always told me was that it's hard to design a garden without knowing how tall or wide your plants are really going to get…that often means they whack out of proportion after a few years. He avoids this by planting only dwarf or miniature evergreens, which basically stay the same size forever (our lifetimes, anyway). If you went this route, I'd definitely suggest some low-growing groundcover roses like the easy-care, pest-and-disease resistant Flower Carpet line. They also bloom all season long, so you've always got color. If you've got your heart set on long stem roses, however, you should know generally how tall they get and what kind of shape they take on ( a tall column? a globe? a vase?) and then choose other shapes and sizes that complement that shape. Generally, every garden bed should be filled with different shapes, textures and sizes, taller at the back and smaller in the front. So if they grow into taller, vertical shrubs, for instance, you may want to offset these shapes with some short, bun-shapes and some medium sized cone shapes). Here's a great Fine Gardening article on the topic. Best of luck, and stay tuned for more great pics of Jerry's garden!
I am not a landscaping expert
I am not a landscaping expert but I do plan to grow a long stem roses garden, I like the idea of using conifers but I am not sure how will my roses fit the evergreens. Is there any pattern I should create for perfect aesthetic looks?
Jerry Kral's garden
Thanks so much for visiting Your Easy Garden and for posting your comment. I can’t believe how many gardeners and nongardeners from all across the nation - and around the world - have seen Jerry’s truly amazing landscape and been blown away. I hope to visit Jerry and post some photos soon!
Stay tuned! Hope to see you back here soon!
Jerry Kral's garden
I had the privilege of touring Mr. Kral’s garden a couple years ago. Truly Eden at it’s best.
You mentioned that his garden was in Better Homes and Gardens. Would you mind sharing what issue? How blessed you were to have him for a neighbor. Wish I lived closer so I could visit and learn from him. Best of luck with your own garden. C. McQuinn, Lincoln, Nebraska
excellent post
Thanks for posting your comment, and for visiting Your Easy Garden! The past few weeks, I’ve FINALLY started to garden, and put in a raised bed of my own, which I’ll be filling with Flower Carpet roses (the peachy-pink Amber, I think). Stay tuned for pics of my friend Jerry Kral’s raised bed garden! He’s also an amateur stone mason and has a whole arboretum’s worth of rare and unusual conifers. Just spectacular!
Excelent post
That’s exactly what I was looking for!
Me and my husband have just moved to a bigger house with a bigger yard and we are in the process of organising our lawn and the whole garden. Your tips are very helpful so far.
I wish you get more into planting, since it’s already spring..:)
Looking forward to your blog posts.
Jane,
garden kneeling pads
thank you for the raised bed
Thanks for visiting and posting your comment! So glad you liked it! I hope to (very soon) have some great pics on Your Easy Garden of Jerry Kral’s amazing raised bed gardens that have been visited and admired by the likes of Michael Dirr (woody perennials guru) and Allan Armitage (herbaceous perennials authority).
Thank you for the raised bed
Thank you for the raised bed landscaping advice. Very informative and inspiring.
Agnes
Landmark Lansing Landscapers
Natural forms
Hey! I’d mail you a Garbage Plate, if I could! Although nothing beats the real thing, you can make it yourself with Nick Tahou’s original hot sauce recipe here: http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/The-Garbage-Plate-Burger-Version-224374. Thanks for posting your comment! Hope to see you here again!
Natural forms
I very much agree with your point on the organic form when looking framing your work. Makes for a truly natural look.
As an aside, I lived in Rochester for a few years, so I hope all is well there (I miss the garbage plate!)
All the best,
Mel
http://www.landmarklansing.com
I am desperately looking for
Here’s an update I got from Tesselaar. Best of luck!
Should be in Home Depot & Lowe’s by mid April
Can also got to search for Independent Garden Centers at www.Monrovia.com by entering their zip code (Monrovia is a licensed wholesaler)
Also available at www.WillowCreekGardens.com
And Flower Carpet are also available on QVC and www.CottageFarmsDirect.com
I am desperately looking for
Good news! Tesselaar has just appointed Color Spots Nurseries as its newest grower to make Flower Carpet and its other plant brands more accessible to customers in the western and southwestern U.S. Color Spot supplies more than 2,000 commercial customers and retailers (including home stores like Lowe’s and The Home Depot, mass merchants like Wal-Mart and CVS and independent garden centers) in Texas, California and other western states. So I’d check those places first, but in the meantime I’ll see if I can get a more specific answer for you! Thanks so much for visiting and for posting your comment. Hope you find Flower Carpet Pink Supreme soon! (Unfortunately, since I’m in upstate New York, I have to wait for the ground to warm and the danger of frost to pass to put in my own Flower Carpet roses this year! I’m jealous of your great weather!) Thanks again!
I am desperately looking for
I am desperately looking for Flower Carpet “Supreme Pink” - I already have an area cleared and ready to plant. I live in a small town in Texas and can”t find them here. Are they available from an internet source? I am within easy driving distance of Houston, San Antonio or Austin. Do any particular nurseries carry them in these cities? Thanks for your help - really like this blog!
I am desperately looking for
I am desperately looking for Flower Carpet “Supreme Pink” - I already have an area cleared and ready to plant. I live in a small town in Texas and can”t find them here. Are they available from an internet source? I am within easy driving distance of Houston, San Antonio or Austin. Do any particular nurseries carry them in these cities? Thanks for your help - really like this blog!
Flower Carpet Roses
Hi Carolyn,
Welcome to Your Easy Garden! I’m so glad you like the blog! Thanks so much for visiting and for taking the time to post your comment. Since I’m in Zone 6b (western New York), it’s nice to know how the Flower Carpet roses performed in a similar zone and in certain specific conditions - especially because I just moved to a new home (with very large, mature pine trees as a border which I’m sure are going to shade much of the yard) and plan to plant some Flower Carpet roses in the spring! Since I live in Deer Central, I’m definitely going to try the Milorganite - fertilization and deer repellant in one! Now that’s my idea of multi-tasking! Have you ever tried planting bulbs alongside the roses, too? Deer hate most bulbs and they’re supposed to be a good repellant…
Flower Carpet Roses
Love your blog! Very informational! Thought you might like to know my experience with Flower Carpet roses. I live in zone 7 and have several Flower Carpet roses growing in less than perfect locations. They are planted under a very large cherry tree. While getting good morning sun, they get filtered afternoon sun. Additionally, I have a deer problem and the roses are planted at the curb where the deer can easily get to them. I frequently fertilized the area with Milorganite, which seemed to make the roses happy while keeping the deer away. I’m amazed to see how my roses have thrived! Who knew I’d finally be able to grow roses!
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