storm agapanthus

OK, I get it. I should be gardening in a more sustainable, eco-friendly way. But to be honest, I'm in survival mode so often that it seems too lofty a goal. 

"I'll do that when I'm retired," I say to myself.

Well, no. I should be doing something now. But how to squeeze it into my Gen X-working mom-trying-to-do-everything-life?

Small steps. Kinda the same way I get home improvement projects done. Or try to lose weight. Or get anything done beyond my usual, frenzied approach to life.

So I created a to-do list: "Sustainable Gardening in 2012 - Or Bust!"

1) I will buy (at least) one sustainable gardening product this year.

For this, I cheated and went to Treehugger.com for a list of Top 10 Products for Today's Green Grower. Some of them surprised me, like heirloom seeds, mulch (hey, I mulch!), organic soil (peat-free, which is good because of recent peat shortages), containers made of recycled or repurposed materials, rain barrels and composters.

I already re-mulched all the beds this year, then bought more for the weeping cherry we planted. But "mulching" does seem a bit like phoning it in. So this year, I bought and started some seeds for some black heirloom tomatoes instead of the ones I buy already-started at the garden center. Heirlooms are tastier anyway.

Here I am this past weekend with my newly-planted, spindly little seedlings that had lingered on the windowsill forever - I'm in front  of the chicken wire fence that keeps my dog out, and beyond that is the tomato cages that just look obscene hovering over the tiny little guys until they get bigger:

2) I will reduce the size of my lawn

Turf grass is a big water hog, so proponents of sustainable gardening suggest reducing the amount of lawn you have to water. So I'm planning on putting in a new perennial bed and filling it with drought-tolerant plants that don't need as much water (like the three Blue Storm agapanthus (below) I bought from Willow Creek Gardens, below). I got the idea when helping my elderly neighbor with her veggie patch that had grown over with crabgrass and weeds. The Storm series is the only variety of agapanthus variety to have survived the Dallas Arboretum's "trials by fire" in intense heat, drought and humidity.

3) I will replace my synthetic fertilizer with something organic.

When I opened my Big Garden Bin of Everything this spring, I was honestly shocked at the amount of synthetic, chemically-based fertilizers I had:

Synthetic fertilizers pollute the local waterways with a bunch of eco-system-altering chemicals and toxins, including phosphorus, which causes smelly, slimey algae blooms at our local beach on Lake Ontario (it also kills wildlife in the local waterways). So this year, instead of buying my usual slow-release, granular, chemical-based fertilizer, I'm investing in the black gold (poo).

I usually need tons of fertilizer for the bed of Flower Carpet roses next to my house, and more for my veggie garden. And this year, I needed even more - for our new weeping cherry and the perennial bed out front, which I realized I'd never fertilized since we moved here three years ago. So it turned out to be quite a few bags of manure. Maybe next year, I'll just get it by the truckload. To cut down on cost, I plan to share the truckload with my Italian neighbor, who uses plenty of it for his basil, tomatoes, garlic, beans, eggplant and figs.

So, what's one thing you can do this year to help the environment? What are some simple things you've already done? Post a comment and tell me about it. Small steps like this eventually add up.

For years, my grandfather has meticulously manicured his pachysandra, faithfully planted his gladiolus bulbs and dutifully cleaned up every leaf that has ever dropped from every tree around his house.

I'd have to guess it's been a source of pride - and artistic expression for a man who only found time to dabble in watercolors after retiring from a seven-day-a-week job as a father of six and and owner of a small family grocery.

But now the time has come when he and my grandmother (who has a form of dementia), have to make that decision whether or not to move to an assisted living center. It's a hard decision to make, with so many emotional ties to the home and landscape they've overseen and had so many memories in for so long.

When and if it comes to that, however, at least my grandparents won't have to move to a cold, landscape-free environment more remiscent of a hospital than a home.

That's because today's health-care and senior living facilities now resemble communities with many of the garden and landscape features residents remember from their own homes: tree- and flower-lined paths for walking, vegetable and flower gardens for working and even water features, plants and other features specifically incorporated for healing.

In fact, here are some of the landscaping features today's aging population can pretty much expect when moving to a health-care or senior living community:

Easy-care plants with season-long interest

Those in senior living and health-care communities want low-maintenance, tough plants that are reliably colorful and healthy-looking all season long. Residents at the Rolling Fields Elder Care Community in Conneautville, Pennsylvania, for instance, love looking at the Flower Carpet roses (pictured above) in the home’s Enchanted Garden, since they bloom May through November and are disease, drought and pest resistant. The roses were also planted with the idea in mind that residents could have fresh flowers in their room at any time (they can choose to cut the flowers themselves or have a caretaker do it for them).

And, since these roses are easy to prune and don’t require chemical sprays or deadheading, they’re also easier to maintain for the growing number of residents that want to help with the gardens at these kinds of facilities. The residents also don’t have to be subjected to toxic chemical treatments.

Elements for “active living”

Today’s aging population is much more active than its predecessors, and these individuals want to be outside, gardening, walking, reading and healing.

Even those in wheelchairs or motorized scooters want to take part – hence the need for raised beds for greater accessibility,  “workable” gardens (vegetables, herbs and cutting garden plots - one of Rolling Fields' veggie plots pictured above), non-glare paving, lighting for evening use and heat and shelter for inclement weather.

Zaretsky and Associates, a Rochester, NY landscape design-build firm, which has done award-winning work in this area, regularly adds these new “musts.” It even incorporates active-living features like measured walking tracks (so residents can track their progress) and storage sheds for gardening tools and materials.

Plants for horticultural therapy

Hospitals and other health-care centers are now recognizing that gardens are healing facilitators – as important as physical therapy, medications and other mainstream healing devices.

Zaretsky and Associates designs and builds pathways that incorporate increasingly difficult surfaces where seniors can "get their feet back" as they walk along peaceful paths. Even labyrinths, which foster meditation while walking, are a popular attraction.

Water features, with their peaceful sounds of running water and psychological association with life and tranquility, also provide auditory therapy. Rolling Fields residents love to gather at the koi ponds and waterfalls.

Beyond just creating an inspiring, peaceful environment that fosters healing, the plants themselves play a huge (not to mention profitable) role in therapy gardens. Their texture, fragrance, sound – and even taste (as is the case with Rolling Fields, which has planted fruit trees) – help stimulate the senses and the mind-body connection.

Fragrant plants like herbs, roses and phlox (mildew-resistant purple Volcano phlox pictured above) are wonderful for evoking memories, especially in Alzheimer’s gardens. Sounds can be added with grasses that sway in the wind. And teachable moments can be created by adding plants historically used for medicinal purposes. At Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, NY, Zaretsky and Associates has incorporated echinacea, Joe Pye weed, yew (taxus) and witchhazel just for this purpose.

Bring the outdoors in

Bringing landscaping, gardening and plants indoors – also called “interiorscaping” – has never been more popular, and that’s especially true at today’s health-care and senior living facilities. The public has become increasingly aware of recent studies showing how indoor plants not only filter allergens and pollutants from the air, but also pump out fresh oxygen, boosting energy levels and mood.

Rolling Fields, for instance, not only promotes the idea of bringing fresh flowers and plants into rooms – it has an indoor “planting” sunroom where elders can start their vegetable seeds or help take care of indoor plants.

While I'm sure such gardens and landscaping can never fully replace the gardens of home, I'm glad health-care and senior living centers are trying to move in that direction.

When it comes my time to make the difficult choice of moving out of my home, I hope I have the chance to enjoy and work in gardens and landscapes. There's just something about being in nature and watching life happens that psychologically instills an attitude of life within those who experience it. And that's what I want for my grandparents, too!

What about you? Do you have parents that have had to move to one of these facilities? Did they have to leave behind sentimental gardens and landscapes? If so, did the facility or community they moved to offer any gardens or landscaping to enjoy or work in?

Monarch butterfly on butterfly bush (image by Denise Pierce).

There goes my daughter, Maya, helping her "papa" (grandpa) feed the birds again. It's a very important job for her when she goes over to visit – scooping the bird seed from the big plastic bins in his garage and carefully pouring it into one of the many bird feeders hanging from his front tree like so much ripe fruit.

Now 4 years old, Maya has been doing this as long as she's been able to walk. And her love of Papa's birds has only grown through the years, as we've made peanut butter-and-birdseed pinecone feeders every winter and later on in the season, watched the hummingbirds and other feathered friends visit plants like our Tropicanna cannas, Volcano phlox, Sun Parasol mandevillas and Blue Storm agapanthus.

(Back row, from left): purple-tinged, dark green-leaved plectranthus, Tropicanna Gold cannas, Tropicanna Black cannas, Sun Parasol mandevillas. (Front row, from left): ornamental peppers, thread-leaved croton, lime green heuchera.

Blue Storm agapanthus in a container on my deck

Volcano phlox (Red) near my deck 

Last year, Maya fell in love with butterflies, too, after a visit to the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden at Rochester, NY's National Museum of Play. After that, we always noticed butterflies hovering around our Volcano phlox, black-eyed Susans, bee balm, Blue Storm agapanthus, coreopsis, stonecrop and chocolate eupatorium (Joe Pye weed).

Of course, we've never been able to get a shot of these winged friends in action – hence my borrowed pic of a butterfly (above) from one of Tesselaar's regional garden bloggers, Denise Pierce of Red Bay, Alabama. 

This year, Maya definitely wants more plants that will attract birds and butterflies in the garden, and of course I’m inclined to buy a full-grown plant from the garden center. But she seems to want to start everything from seed (sigh) –even these dying, leggy sunflowers she insisted on sowing in pots in the middle of winter, so the birds would have seeds to eat. (I told her sunflowers should be direct-sown into the ground later in the season, but she was so excited about gardening, I couldn't crush her spirits):

Leggy sunflower seeds sown indoors in pots

Now she wants to try this butterfly bush kit (lower right, $9.99 from Wegmans):

Butterfly bush garden kit for kids (Wegmans, $9.99)

I’ve never started a butterfly bush from seed, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

Speaking of butterflies, Maya also went bonkers over an Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden butterfly hatching kit she saw at Lowe's ($13.95 through Amazon). I don't know about this – little kids and fragile, live creatures just don't seem to be a good mix. Plus, I found out that the kit basically just includes a netted cage and a coupon in you send in to get the live caterpillars and food. I guess that makes sense, because you can't keep caterpillars alive in a box, but still – one more step? Ugh).

Maybe when Maya's older, we'll try to grow some milkweed, since that's what the Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat (I understand the milky white sap is poisonous, so I think I'd like to wait a few years on that one).

Regardless, I've learned that gardening is a great way to keep kids active and connected to their environment, and as with everything else, there's a fine line to walk between ensuring success and fostering independence. So I've gotta roll with what my daughter likes – right now, it's birds and butterflies – and let her call some shots and pick out and sow some plants, so she sort of "owns" the experience. I've also learned to let her experiment, even if it means dead plants on the windowsill. I think I'm just not ready for dead butterflies yet!

Maya sowing her sunflower seeds for the birdies

So tell me – what are some of your favorite bird- and butterfly-friendly plants that can encourage kids to get out in the garden? Post a comment and lemme know!

How do you find a plant for those less-than hospitable places in your yard? Here are a few such spots and the perfect plants for them, according to Dave Epstein of how-to gardening video site Growing Wisdom, in his new video, “How to Find a Plant for Any Location.” Check out the rest in Dave's video, at5min.com!

Location: Driveway and/or side of road.
Solution: Next Generation Flower Carpet roses (above) continuous, season-long blooms, salt tolerance and outstanding heat and humidity resistance. “It’s a nice greeting for people as they come in from the road, and you’re taking a lot of heat off the driveway,” says Epstein.

Location: Narrow space that could use some color.

Solution: Tropicanna cannas (see Tropicanna Black cannas, above), which offer psychedelically colored foliage all season long.

Location: Low spot with heavy foot traffic

Solution: Creeping thyme (i.e. ‘Pink Chintz’ - photo above courtesy of GardeningForNature blog). “There are also varieties of thyme, like lemon thyme, that when you step on them release a wonderful scent,” says Epstein.

A couple posts back, I talked about hot garden trends for 2012. One of them was the movement toward Mediterranean garden style.

The style, as explained by North Coast Gardening blogger Genevieve Schmidt, often features open and airy courtyards, light-colored, textured hardscaping such as mosaic walls, gravel beds or unglazed terra cotta pots. The style also is known for its low-growing, drought-tolerant plants, hedges, topiary trees and vines (i.e. olive, bay and lemon trees, succulents, lavender, palms, roses and grasses).

Well, there were a bunch of Mediterranean garden images I couldn't fit in that last post, so here they are:

Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt

Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt, designed by Lynda Pozel 

Euphorbia and purple salvia; designed by Lynda Pozel. Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt

Little bluestem grass (left), phormium (New Zealand flax, right). Photo courtesy Genevieve Schmidt

Festival Burgundy cordyline (spiky and dark red, in middle) with topiary tree, lemon tree and unglazed terra cotta pots featuring silver and white plants.

Snow Storm agapanthus (lily of the Nile) with unglazed terra cotta pot

Banks of Snow Storm agapanthus (lily of the Nile) and Flower Carpet roses (right).

How have you incorporated Mediterranean garden style into your landscape? Post a comment and tell me all about it. And you can email photos to lisa [dot] hutchursonbrandcool [dot] com.

Forget all those doomsday predictions about 2012. From the garden world’s perspective, life will continue to be good – with gardeners saving themselves water, hassles and misspent money. At least that’s according to several savvy garden experts and a leading garden trends survey.

Water-wise plants, products

(pictured here: Flower Carpet roses (center) and Festival Burgundy cordyline (either side)

Most on the minds of landscaping professionals right now are issues surrounding gardening and water, "whether it's the use of water or the cleaning of water," says Sharon Coates, co-owner of Zaretsky and Associates, a landscape design-and-build firm in Rochester, N.Y.

In light of recent droughts in places like Georgia, Texas and the Carolinas, people are trying to use the water they dohave more frugally, Coates explains. “People are making sure they’re watering responsibly, choosing plants that aren’t water hogs and putting rain sensors on their irrigation systems. They’re also making sure the irrigation is monitored so it’s not watering the driveway and sidewalk.”

Water-wise plants will also make the Mediterranean garden style (above) hot in 2012, says Genevieve Schmidt, a northern coastal California landscape designer and author of the North Coast Gardening blog. Mediterranean landscape design, she explains, often features open and airy courtyards, light-colored, textured hardscaping such as mosaic walls, gravel beds or unglazed terra cotta pots and low-growing, drought-tolerant plants, hedges, topiary trees and vines (i.e. olive, bay and lemon trees, succulents, lavender, palms, roses and grasses). “Of course, the vivid colors also help make this a winning style.”

Also, when it comes to cleaning the water, especially storm water carrying pollutants like fertilizers and motor oil into local waterways, many people are turning to rain gardens. “These shallow depressions are filled with deep-rooted plants and grasses­ — all of them noninvasive, native or locally adapted — that can handle being inundated with water and also don’t mind being dry,” Zaretsky and Associates’ Coates says.

“Many gardeners are catching their own rainwater in rain barrels and cleaning or recycling grey water (wastewater from domestic activities like laundry, dishwashing and bathing)” adds Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants. “In fact, in many municipalities now, saving water is not only ‘in’, but mandatory”.

Black and amber

Black and amber shades in plants continue to be a “hot” color trend, says North Coast Gardening’s Schmidt. “People have already been bewitched by the dark drama of black plants,” she explains, “and as they learn to design with them more effectively, they’ll only become more popular.”

Notable examples of popular dark plants include Petunia 'Black Velvet', Ipomoea (sweet potato vine) 'Blackie', Tropicanna Black cannas, Aeonium 'Zwartkop', black mondo grass, Colombine 'Black Barlow', Heuchera 'Black Beauty' and Hellebore 'Winter Dream.'

Amber shades, she adds, are also extremely popular – “amber heucheras, the amber Flower Carpet roses, and other plants with amber tones are going to be big in nurseries this year.”

Low-risk, high-value plants

(pictured here: mildew-resistant Volcano phlox)

Just as consumers are being more careful with their water usage, they’re also shopping smarter. In particular, they’re looking for low-risk, high-value plants that not only look good in the garden center, but have a tried-and-true reputation.

“Plants bred to withstand attacks from pests and diseases that are also tolerant of climate and soil extremes provide a better value,” says Tesselaar (developer of the low-maintenance, disease- and drought-resistant Flower Carpet^® roses, Festival^™ Burgundy cordyline, Storm^™ agapanthus and Volcano^®phlox). “Gardeners are more aware than ever that choosing the right plant for the right situation is imperative if you want to help save the planet — let alone your bank balance.”

For as little as $15 to $25, for instance, you can have long-term color without a lot of expense by using continuously flowering shrubs like Flower Carpet roses, hydrangeas, potentilla (shrubby cinquefoil) and spirea. Or, if your garden already has plenty of beautiful structure, use such colorful, flowering machines to dress up these ‘good bones.’”

Smaller water features

More and more people are moving away from large ponds and toward smaller water features, says Coates: “Now people prefer a cut piece of stone, a boulder or a beautiful glazed urn with water bubbling out of the top.”

Coates thinks it’s a maintenance issue: “People either have to be really into ponds and all the maintenance they take, or they have to hire someone to do it for them.”

What’s more, says Schmidt, fountains made with natural stone or metal are hotter sellers than features made of manmade materials. “The ball-shaped fountains made of stone are very big this year,” she says, “and I think that copper and other metals are coming into fashion as accents in fountains and as materials for planting containers.”

Seasonal interest

In colder areas, where the blooms are gone and deciduous leaves have fallen, Coates is seeing more people keep their ornamental grasses instead of cutting them back, so they can provide winter interest. For the same reason, they’re looking for plants with winter berries, evergreens, barks of different colors and textures or deciduous trees and shrubs with dramatic forms. But they’re also adding plants that change with the seasons, offering new interest with each.

“Customers have grown tired of the stark, all-season gardens that were so fashionable a decade ago,” Tesselaar says. “Every garden needs its backbone of plants that look great year round, but that doesn’t have to be at the expense of seasonal interest and color.”

More front yard gardens

The number of front yard gardens is also on a steady rise (29 percent in 2011, compared to 27 percent in 2010 and 25 percent in 2009), according to the Garden Trends Research Report’s Early Spring 2011 survey (conducted for the Garden Writers Association Foundation). Meanwhile, the number of backyard gardens has taken a 3-percent hit, down from 50 percent in 2009 and 2010.

Gardening “up”

Vertical gardening is also on the rise, as documented in the new, popular book Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spacesby California garden designers Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet. The practice of growing plants up from the ground instead of out, or of planting them off the ground to start with—on trellises, arbors, balconies and walls—has become especially popular among those with small spaces, landscape eyesores or an awkward “skinny spot” in their garden.

But Coates also notes the growth of a different kind of “gardening up” – green roofs.

“Green roofs have definitely seen more of a commercial application and have been done in mostly urban areas, but they’re still a huge trend,” she says. “Green roofs help save on heating and cooling costs and actually protect the roof underneath from the degrading effects of the elements, so cities have received tax incentives for green roof installations.” Some cities, like Toronto and Chicago, are even starting to require green roofs on some new buildings, based on the square footage.