During the “Period of Confinement” that all gardeners have to suffer through, as well as the white stuff that goes with it, there is actually much to do. This lull in physical function gives us the chance to learn ever more from books, as well as numerous opportunities to attend lectures at the Franklin Park Conservatory, the Art Museum, OSU Chadwick Arboretum, local garden shows as well as trips to Dawes and other arboreta which are areas of horticultural excellence.

 

Once the appetite for newer and more beautiful or fruitful plants has been created, this desire needs to be satiated. As we look out from our temporary indoor imprisonment, we remember the time or two last year and the one before that when the declarative statement along the lines of “there is no more space in my gardens” is brought to our conscious thinking.

 

Even if there is no more space in the present garden arrangement, you still have numerous options. Add 18 to 24 inches to the present beds’ width or, to create visual movement, flair out farther into the lawn areas in some places by 2 to 5 feet or more to also add interest by slowing the eye movement by adding curves along a linear area.

 

Then, pack that space full of newer and brighter colors. This allows for working with color, texture and height changes that also create the illusion of greater space and depth changes that can be very dramatic and make the entire garden look completely renewed.

 

There is another “trick” to use especially when working with perennials and bulbs. That is to start a variable four-year turnover in the present beds. Plant what is new and intriguing this year in the spaces you create by removing some of the older, less visually appealing or unproductive or miss-timed perennials and bulbs. You can decide the rate of turnover (time in place) of your garden on a rigid schedule or let it happen as the desire to change speeds or slows. This turnover can also be based on the need to dig and divide perennials to keep them young, vital and productive.

 

Simply dig and give away or throw out the older and presently less desirable plants and/or bulbs. Then, without disturbing the surrounding plants, re-prepare the soil in pockets and replant with the new. An unexpected benefit of this process is that it takes 1 to 2 years for a perennial to really develop its full size and flowering ability. Therefore, while the new selection is coming to size and full beauty, the remaining garden continues to flourish and cover or disguise the new. This is based on the comments and philosophy of a well-known gardener, author and speaker. She was asked how she kept some floppy, weak-stemmed plants from laying down in the garden. Paraphrasing her comment “Honey, my garden is so full that nothing has a space to lay down in.” Where this may sound like crowding new plants in, it also has the practical function of getting to use the new and make all plants stand at glorious attention.

 

Each of these procedures has a gardener’s labor function of time use and effort as well as a certain monetary consideration each has to make for themselves. However, having talked with hundreds of gardeners over the years, none of these considerations seem to stand in the way of the desire for new color and beauty.

 

The educational sessions of this passing winter have yielded even greater than the normal overwhelming lists of possibilities for us. From the standpoint of the old defeatists attitude of there being “nothing new under the sun,” we look primarily at new varieties or cultivars of well-known species. Yet, be aware that in this global market place we live in, many of our newest possibilities are coming from the same longitudes and latitudes in the southern hemisphere. Some may not be new there, but they can certainly be different and dazzling to us.

 

There are new, or at least, vastly upgraded annuals, perennials and woody ornamentals for us to choose from. The list from All-American Selections Winners yields new flower and plant types of celosia, petunia and vinca as well as for the pure vegetable gardener, a new hybrid pepper with the name “Holy Mol é” which is spicy, nutty and tangy. The new petunias are not only good in color and size, they are non-stop and need no deadheading. Of the many perennials there are, for example, some exciting new colors and flower head shapes on the old standard coneflowers. For those who need new woody ornamentals, consider the old species spirea in the new form of  “Pink Parasols” or in new small trees, two yellow flowering magnolias, “Yellow Lantern” and “Yellow Bird” to add flowers of soft yellows where formerly only white, pink and purple were available.

 

Color, form, texture and just plain excitement are keys to visual success in gardening. However, no planting can achieve full glory until the individual plants are growing to their full capacity. Consider checking zonal tolerance, light and water needs before grouping plants. Above all else, the best way to success is to install the plants properly. Dig the hole as wide as you are told to, then rest for a few minutes and go 30 percent wider. Dig the hole only as deep, or just less than the measured depth of the root ball so it can’t settle into our dense soils subsequent to placement and suffocate or drown. Add, by volume, 30 percent to 50 percent well decomposed organic matter. You can make your own “Black Gold” in behind some old shrubs, other screening or purchase peat or 100 percent organic and well-prepared materials from your local supplier to blend into and remake the native soil. Clay can be a gardener’s helper during mid-summer once it is properly amended and blended.

 

Our ultimate goal is pleasure, so select the right plant, install it properly and maintain it with adequate, but appropriate amounts of water and the pleasure of success will be yours.