Photography by Joseph De Sciose

Collards- Georgia Southern and Pansies

Let me start this book review by admitting that while I love to harvest fresh vegetables (as well as the occasional strawberry) from my garden, I find vegetable gardening much more challenging than flower gardening.   Critters (rabbits and squirrels) are my biggest obstacle. This year I think I have a solution (plans for a low wire fence around my raised beds) but it is early yet. 

With this in mind, each time I pick up The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener,  I am inspired to try and grow more in my vegetable garden.  As I read this book, packed with information and beautiful photographs, I can almost taste the fresh onions or butternut squash I plan to grow.  The author Niki Jabbour lives near Halifax, Nova Scotia and speaks from experience when it comes to growing vegetables for every season.  She recommends intensive methods that promise results even on short, cold winter days. 

For each vegetable entry, in addition to an appealing color photograph, there is detailed information for each season on planting,  growing and harvesting.  There is also a feature I especially like called  ‘Niki’s’ Picks where she recommends and describes her favorite varieties of individual vegetables; although they may not all work equally well in every region of the US.  Additional chapters address garden design, soil building including the “Top Green Manure Crops,” succession planting, cold frames including detailed plans for construction, row houses, hoop houses, cloches and other ideas for gardening in the cold seasons. 

Her explanation and examples (including her favorite combinations) of interplanting provides a useful guide to help you get the most out of your garden. “You should combine plants with different maturity dates, growth patterns, and growing requirements.” There are extensive charts both for succession planting and interplanting. (These are in the Appendixes at that back of the book) 

Other gems of information include instructions on how to save the seed of open-pollinated tomatoes which , “enables gardeners to produce plants that adapted to the climatic conditions of their own backyard.”  The author also includes a chapter on herbs.   Under resources she offers an extensive list of  seed companies in the US and Canada   although as a gardener in the southern US I would have liked to see companies like Southern Exposure Seed Exchange included. 

This is a lovely book that anyone with the goal of growing a vegetable garden that offers crops to harvest throughout the year (especially in regions with cold winters) will find invaluable.

Camassia, ferns, geranium and phlox

Earlier this week on Wednesday, March 28, 2012  I, along with some fellow plant lovers, had the privilege of visiting the area on Pigeon Mountain known as “the pocket” in the extreme NW corner of Georgia about ½ way between Atlanta and Chattanooga, TN.    Fortunately it was a week day and when we arrived (after a 2 ½ hour drive from Atlanta) there was only one other car in the parking lot.  By the time we left several hours later the parking lot was full.  For information about fees and directions this is a great link http://journal.uswildflowers.com/?page_id=901

the boardwalk into the wildflowers at the Pocket

 This is a place where the word awesome is apt to describe the scene we encountered.  To protect the wildflowers a boardwalk has been constructed that also makes it possible to walk through the middle of what was and is an amazing landscape of native plants.  Spring in the southeast, as well as other parts of the country, (as far as blooming times) is about a month ahead of what we normally expect.  So, although we missed the Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica; only the foliage  and a few odd blooms were visible, we were treated to a large number of other delights including trilliums, like trailing trillium,  Trillium decumbens,  and Trillium flexipes, Camassia scilloides, masses of Phacelia bipinnatifida , woodland phlox, Phlox divaricata and several different species of violets.

Trillium decumbens

There were also patches of foam flower, Tiarella cordifolia in full bloom and  Geranium maculatum dotted throughout the woods.    Although it is less showy than some perennials, Bishop’s cap, Mitella diphylla was just finishing.  Moss, rocks, and foliage of Hepatica nobilis, blue cohosh, Caulophyllum thalictroides and baneberry, Actaea pachypoda,  were also evident.  With its  tiny white flowers stonecrop, Sedum ternatum was easy to spot, clinging to rocks, usually in combination with moss.  Where the boardwalk ends and a trail begins the show continued and growing out of the rocks (in some places there was barely any soil) were clumps of columbine, Aquilegia canadensis and in a few spots the native hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens.  The trail ends at a rock wall with several water falls that are beautiful.  There are additional trails that climb up and above the falls.   This is only some of what we saw on what I know will be the first of many visits.  I left inspired and once again in awe of mother nature and the gardens she creates. 

Trillium, foam flowers and violets

Aquilegia canadensis

Hepatica foliage, sedum and moss

waterfall at the pocket

Phacelia bipinnatifida

contest page  .

Okra 'Hill Country Red'

In my edible garden I grow blueberries and heirloom apples along with some vegetables and herbs.  I am hopeful that this year  I can keep the critters out and enjoy the fruits of my labor.  While March is a good month to plant bare-root trees in many parts of the country,  remember that mid-April is the frost free date to use as a guide for planting  tender vegetables and herbs like tomatoes, beans,  basil and many others.

Edible and ornamental crabapples with grasses and Patrina

Helleborus 'Ivory Prince' in my garden Feb. 28

  Plant lovers will be able to enjoy masses of  hellebores in bloom.  They will also be able to purchase them and  other choice plants.  For more information and directions visit http://sites.google.com/site/piccadillyfarm/home/special-events  .  In Clarksville, Virginia  Pine Knot Farms, a retail mail order nursery that specializes in hellebores and shade plants will host its second annual Hellebore Festival http://www.pineknotfarms.com/hellebore_festival.html .  They will also have several small nurseries offering unusual plants (including bulbs and Daphnes).  Other specialty mail order nurseries in the area opening their doors to visitors on this same weekend, Plant Delights in Raliegh, NC www.plantdelights.com ,  Camellia Forest www.camforest.com and Niche Gardens www.nichegardens.com  both in Chapel Hill, NC .  Don’t forget this is also the grand opening weekend for Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, GA about an hour from Atlanta.  For more information visit http://gibbsgardens.com/

Helleborus foetidus in my garden Feb 28

Helleborus seedlings in my garden Feb 28

Last year I wrote about visiting Gibbs Gardens in Ball Ground, Georgia. Less than an hour from Atlanta, this magical place offers visitors a rare experience. I was fortunate to stroll through the gardens with Jim at several different seasons during 2011 and experience the exquisite beauty of this garden with over 220 acres set in a mature forest, rich with both native and exotic plants. Jim designed the garden to take full advantage of the terrain so that your view and perspective changes depending on whether you are looking up a hill, at a reflection in a pond or winding down a path with bulbs naturalized on either side of it. The 40-acre Japanese Garden is home to 40 different unique lanterns from Japan and plants which have been selected and trained to have distinct forms and shapes.

reflections in winter

Water gardens both tranquil and moving provide year-round appeal, changing with the seasons. The careful attention to detail is evident throughout Gibbs Gardens. The result is this garden(s) has a sense of place. The more time I spent there the more time I wanted to spend there.

daffodils in March 2011

I am excited that these gardens will now be open to the public beginning March 1, 2012. For owner, designer and developer, Jim Gibbs, this garden is a dream come true. He spent years looking for just the right spot and over 30 years developing the property. His patience paid off! With 22 ponds, all fed by springs on the property, a diverse and rolling terrain, a large variety of plants; you will want to visit during every season to fully appreciate what it has to offer.

Japanese Garden in May, 2011

One of my favorite features is the fernery with a large assortment of native ferns. On  an early visit during the winter months many herbaceous plants were dormant but the bones of the garden including the deciduous trees, rocks, sculpture and water offered plenty to appreciate and experience. On subsequent visits I walked through the fernery with Royal ferns that grew up to 5’ tall and enjoyed the various collections of bulbs, perennials, hydrangeas, trees and shrubs. The Water Lily Gardens feature 140 varieties of lilies and a replica of the bridge in Monet’s Garden at Giverny. More than 3 million Daffodil bulbs are planted in large sweeps, with careful thought to the best varieties for the South. Gardens around the Manor House include flowering trees, annuals and perennials, covering 150 feet of elevation from the house to the Valley. Thank you Jim Gibbs for sharing your dream with us! See you in the garden.

view from fernery to Japanese Garden in March, 2011

For more information, directions, prices, etc, visit www.gibbsgardens.com Get  a season pass and visit throughout the year!

Fernery with New York fern,

Jim Gibbs, the owner, designer and developer of Gibbs Gardens, is the founder of Gibbs Landscape Co., one of the largest, oldest and most successful landscaping firms in Atlanta. Gibbs and his company have received more than 250 awards for landscape design excellence, including two national awards presented at White House receptions.

Japanese lantern

turtle rock in Japanese garden

Margaret Moseley in her garden, January 2012

 Also blooming on the day of my visit is a tree that is new to me, Michelia maudiae. ( also known as Magnolia maudiae, just in case you are looking for a source ).  A relative of the banana shrub, Michelia figo, an old fashioned plant that you find in many old southern gardens;  this species  has large luscious fragrant white flowers.  The foliage makes me think of Magnolia virginiana with silvery green leaves.  A  large shrub or small tree, it  appears to be hardy to Zone 7.   Margaret got her plant from her friend Lyndy Broder.  ( Lyndy is a clematis expert with a large garden in Stockbridge, Georgia ).  When Margaret received the plant, she realized she didn’t like where it had been placed and decided to move it to another spot.  Because the rootball was so big, she dragged the plant to its current location where it thrives today.  I don’t think she ever really planted it, it just decided to grow.

Michelia maudiae in full bloom, Jan. 28, 2012

Part of what makes visiting with Margaret in her garden so special is the way she evokes pictures with her stories about her plants and the people who have visited her garden.  I admire the form of a bare Japanese maple and she says “oh you should see it when the foliage comes out.”  And then directs me to a clump of hellebores that I must see. 

Camellia 'Fragrant Pink'

Margaret has been gardening in the same place for over 50 years and she says the hardest thing about getting older is that she can’t do the work herself.  You can only point out so much to someone doing the work, when it comes to what needs to be done.  Then, in the next breath, she says “Oh, you need to come back and see the garden in a few weeks, a month, etc.  I leave and know that my next visit, whenever it is promises to be inspiring too.

Japanese maple and hellebores in January

 Spring will soon be here but in many parts of the country plants don’t seem to be following the calendar and are blooming ahead of schedule.  As gardeners know, the weather is unpredictable and plants don’t read the books.  If you’re looking for ideas, techniques or new plants to try here are a few suggestions for events to attend that will inform and I hope inspire you to get out and work in your own garden.   

  Sat., February 25, 2012 Perennial Plant Symposium “The Inspired Gardener”- 8am-3:30pm, a cooperative effort between the Georgia Perennial Plant Association and the Atlanta Botanical Garden, this event takes place at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  A great lineup of speakers including Katy Moss Warner (former head of horticulture at Disney World) talking about “Beautiful Landscapes,” Steve Brady, former UGA extension agent for over 30 years presents “Easy-to-Grow Fruits,”  Shannon Pable, garden designer on “Transforming Wild “Weeds” into Residential Ornamentals,” Other People’s Gardens,” by landscape architect Norman Kent Johnson and the entertaining and informative Stephanie Cohen closes out the day with her talk on the “Nonstop Garden.”  For more info go to http://www.georgiaperennial.org/events/2012/index.htm 

Tuesday, March 6, 2012, The 28^th Horticultural Davidson Horticultural Symposium“The Roots of Passion:The Inspired Gardener,” this all day event at Davidson College in North Carolina and offers an impressive lineup of speakers including Andrea Wulf, author of the Founding Gardeners and The Brothers Gardener as well as David Howard, Bill Thomas of Chanticleer, Sean Hogan, Andrea Sprott, Dr. Larry Mellichamp and Tiz Johnston.  Registration required by Feb. 24^th http://www.davidsonsymposium.org/

Water garden at Chanticleer

Friday, March 16, 2012 Garden Conference-A one day Conference for the Home Gardener, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, speakers include Kerry Ann Mendez, Doug Tallamy, Charlie Nardozzi, Jo Ann Gardner and Mitch Rand.  To register http://www.2012garden.uconn.edu/

my garden, April 2011

Tuesday, March 13 and 20^th, 2012 6:30-8:30, Designing A Four Season Garden-more than just flowers, Evening at Emory, Emory University, by Erica Glasener http://ece.emory.edu/classes.cfm?cla=2150001968&pt=3

Thursday and Friday, March 22-23, 2012 Callaway Gardening School, Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia Garden Design Workshop,  Erica Glasener, workshop, lecture, panel discussion and an opportunity to purchase plants, http://www.callawaygardens.com/info/calendar/calendar.callaway_gardening_school.event.aspx

Container Gardens by David Ellis

Courtyard Garden in winter by David Ellis

Structure, David Ellis garden entrance

Daphne odora 'Aureo-marginata' in garden designer David Ellis garden

Daphne odora 'Aureo-marginata' in my friend Julie's garden, she took the photo and her son shows just how large the plant has grown

Daphne odora 'Alba' in my garden, small but fragrant

If you seek winter fragrance and are not a plant snob, Mahonia bealei is reliable and hardy from Zone 7 to 9.  I know this because it was a dominant plant in my landscape when we purchased our current home over 6 years ago.  A stalwart shrub, it thrives in the shade and has tough spiny evergreen leaves.    I still have more than I want of it and as time and my budget allow, I plan to replace the majority of them with other shrubs.  Still, in December through February I  appreciate its yellow sweetly scented blooms especially  in other people’s gardens when I’m out walking our black lab.     If I were going to plant a mahonia it would be Mahonia ‘Soft Caress.’    This smaller and more diminutive mahonia is great in the garden or in containers and as the name suggests, the shiny evergreen foliage is soft to the touch.

Other plants of note this month include the buds of  Edgeworthia papyifera, the Chinese rice paper plant, colorful bark of many different trees, fuzzy  buds of deciduous magnolias, winterberry with brilliant red fruits (deciduous hollies)  and foliage of Angelica keiskei which I see offered by Plant Delights www.plantdelights.com , a mail order nursery in Raliegh, NC.   One note here about this Angelica, Plant Delights describes it as an evergreen rosette of foliage.  Mine is evergreen until summer heat sets in and then the foliage disappears for a few months, only to return when the weather cools off.  Because of this you may want to underplant with a low creeping evergreen groundcover. 

Edgeworthia papyifera buds in January 2012

Helleborus x hybridus in my garden, Jan 2012