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Perennials for old fashioned gardens.

In Northfield, we do a lot of landscaping around older homes. I remember when I was younger, my Mom and Dad would take me to Grandma’s house. I’ll never forget how much I enjoyed looking at all the all the flowers she had. (A sign of things to come?). Grandma Smith would use a lot of them for flower arranging. Grandpa was a pastor, and she would make a nice arrangement for the church alter every Sunday. Other than a few shrubs around the front porch, I can’t recall seeing many houses “formally” landscaped. But almost ever body had a flower or vegetable garden of some sort.
Anyway, I like to incorporate some of the more old-fashioned varieties of perennials in my landscape plans. With the tremendous rise in popularity of perennials, a lot of new varieties are finding their way to the market, which makes the truly old fashioned perennials harder to find. I think too many of the older homes are “over-landscaped”, and to my way of thinking, it takes away from the uniqueness of the home by covering up some of its best features.
Of course there are the old standbys of peonies, hollyhocks, and lily-of-the-valley, but take a look at the list below. Hopefully, you will find a few that would suite your Grandma’s fancy.

Beebalm (Monarda)

Aster
Bellflower (Campanula)
Bleeding-heart (Dicentra)
Blue Bells (Mertensia)
Daylily (Hemerocallis)
Delphinium (Delphinium
Forget-me-nots (Myosotis)
Hollyhock (Althaea)
Foxgloves, (Digitalis)
Gas Plant (Dictamnus)
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema)

Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria)

Lupines, (Lupinus)
Monkshood (Aconitum)

Ostrich fern

Pansies, (Viola)

Phlox (Creeping and garden)
Pinks (Dianthus)

Primrose (Primula)
Sedum (Both groundcover and var. ‘Autumn Joy’)
Tiger Lily (Lilium)

Peony (Paeonia)

]]> http://grovelandscaping.com/archive/perennials-for-old-fashioned-gardens/feed/ 0 http://grovelandscaping.com/archive/were-expanding/ http://grovelandscaping.com/archive/were-expanding/#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:47:12 +0000 Doug Grove http://grovelandscaping.com/?p=423 OUT WITH THE OLD…….

This season will marks the first full year in our new shop. We started the process last summer with the demolition of the old building on Howard #3. After 15 years in the old wooden quonset, which was constructed in the 1940′s, the time finally came tear down the old and put up the new! We hated to see our old friend meet such an inglorious end, but we had long ago outgrown our space and needed more room to house our growing inventory, provide better security, and run our operation more efficiently.

The folks from American Excavating did the demolition of the old building, along with hauling in the gravel and grading. Fredrickson Lumber put up the building, interior walls and insulation. Schulz Electric was the electrical contractor, Welch Plumbing got us fixed up with water and plumbing, Erling Halvorsen did the heating, and Len Skluzacek and his crew were in charge of the concrete work.

IN WITH THE NEW!!

The front of the building is a future office space and display area. The larger back back part of the building is for equipment storage. We landscaped the front of the building with limestone outcroppings. and planted several varieties of perennials and grasses, along with a couple of birch trees and a dwarf flowering crabapple. We also constructed a clay paver entrance patio with 2 seat stones and some patterned flagstone leading up the clay pavers.

A while back we did a project west of Northfield that involved constructing a large clay paver patio and walkway designed by Northfield landscape architect Spencer Jones.

This project involved clay pavers, outcropping stones, a “bubbling rock” water feature, seat stones, and a pathway to a stone bench we constructed.

The pavers were laid in a herringbone pattern, which can be challenging in a large area because the pavers tend to wander and get out of alignment.

The real challenge came when we had to pave around the water feature. We had to start on one side, lay pavers all the around it and come back to meet the pavers at the exact spot we started.

CONSTRUCTION FINISHED!

Champion Buckeye

Check out these pictures of an Ohio Buckeye I saw over the weekend.

Mary Jo and I were in Wheaton, IL. last weekend to see our daughter play soccer for the Wheaton College team.

We stayed at a Hyatt Hotel in Oakbrook on the campus of McDonalds corporate headquarters. (Also home of Hamburger University, where new McDonalds managers and owners get trained in. No joke). We had just checked out and I happened to notice this tree.  I didn’t think much about it, until I saw this sign in front of it. (See picture)

That's me at 6'2"+ under the tree

I did some research on it and found out that it is 150 years old, 73’ high, has a 176′” trunk circumference (That’s a 56” diameter)!  Normal Buckeyes are 30-50’ tall.

McDonalds required the hotel to be built a safe distance away to protect the tree’s root system. The tree is fertilized and watered regularly, and cared for by arborists.

I also found out that championship status is given only to native and naturalized trees in the United States. Winners are determined by a point system based on the trunk’s circumference and the height and the crown spread of the tree.

The most destructive habit…………………………………..Worry
The greatest joy…………………………………………… Giving
The greatest loss……………………………………………..Loss of self respect
The most satisfying work…………………………………… Helping others
The ugliest personality trait…………………………………..Selfishness
The most endangered species……………………………… Dedicated leaders
Our greatest natural resource……………………………… Our youth
The greatest “shot in the arm”……………………………… Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome………………………… Fear
The most effective sleeping pill……………………………….Peace of mind
The most crippling failures disease……………………………Excuses
The most powerful force in life……………………………….Love
The most dangerous pariah………………………………… Gossip
The worst thing to be without…………………………………Hope
The deadliest weapon…………………………………………The tongue
The two most power-filled words…………………………… I can
The greatest asset…………………………………………… Faith
The most worthless emotion………………………………… Self Pity
The most beautiful attire……………………………………… Your smile
The most prized possession………………………………… Integrity
The most powerful channel of communication……………… Prayer

I wish that there was such a thing as deer-proof plants, but unfortunately, such a thing just doesn’t exist. However, there are some things you can do to discourage them from deciding to stop by for a visit and have lunch while they’re at it.

1) Erect a physical barrier. If you are up against a large population of deer, and you have large amounts of valuable plants a fence can be one way to go. To be effective it needs to be 7 feet tall, or more. It is only practical if and you want to go to the effort and expense of erecting a fence. Another way to make a barrier is s to cover your plants with chicken wire or welded wire mesh formed to a cone or dome and staked to the ground.

2) Deer repellent. They are available commercially. Hinder, and Deer-away are two brands that are available. It will usually be a trial and error process to find out which one works the best. Or, you can make your own. Some do-it-yourselfers will use 3-4 rotten eggs mixed with a quart of sour milk, putting the mixture in a spray bottle and applying it to the plants. You will need to reapply it after a rain. Another inexpensive treatment is to get a bag of Milorganite fertilizer and sprinkle it around the plants. Both of these treatments repel by smell. Milorganite is sewage sludge that is dried, bagged and sold as organic fertilizer. Both commercial repellents and homemade recipes have had mixed results. It really boils down to how hungry the deer are!

3) Experiment with deer resistant plants. And I do mean experiment! There are several lists of resistant that you will find, but it’s best to use one that is put out by someone in your area, like the University extension service. Another place to contact is to is a local grower of the plants you are interested in.
No plant is guaranteed, but some have been reported to be more resistant than others.There has been no “scientific” tests that I am aware of, because there are too many variables involved in what the deer will eat. The local deer population and competition, amount of snow cover if winter feeding is a problem, other available food sources, and how used they are to being around humans to name a few. I suspect there may even be regional differences in taste, just like there are with us. All of the lists that I am aware of are based merely on observation.

Anyway, there are some plants that seem to appear on multiple lists. In general, deer will avoid plants that have a strong odor or taste to them, such as yarrow, any of the mint family (such as bee balm, cat mint, and spearmint), Russian sage, and Sumac, to name a few. Also, plants with thorns are naturally avoided. Other plants that have made the list:

Perennials

Salvia
Astilbe
Artemesia
Foxglove
Monkshood
Russian sage
Joe Pye plant
Bleeding heart
Flowering onion
Yarrow (Achillea)
Most fern varieties
Globe thistle (Echinops)
Coneflower (Rudbeckia)
Most ornamental grasses
Butterfly weed (Asclepias)
Beebalm (monarda) and other mints

Ground covers
Ajuga
Vinca
Pachysandra
Lily of the valley

Trees and shrubs
Elm
Ginkgo
Magnolia
Coffeetree
Hawthorne
Some Pines
Honeylocust
Canadian Hemlock
Juniper (Eastern Red Cedar)


Lilac
Roses
Sumac
Juniper
Potentilla
Barberry
Smokebush
Honeysuckle
Ash leaf spirea
Bush honeysuckle

I designed this project it so that both entries attract your attention to the front door. The longer entry (which comes from the driveway on the other side of the house), needed to be more pleasing, making the “journey” to the front door a pleasant one. The front walk needed more character and a lot of softening up. (see photo at right) The first thing I did was eliminate all the sharp angles and long straight lines and switched the concrete sidewalks to pavers, which softened the look.

I added a small entry patio and installed a seat stone in it ,which helps draw attention to the front door, and also helps separate the two walkways. (see photo at left)

This picture was taken from the
street. Notice how the curved paver
walkway took the place of the old
straight walkway, which will create
a more relaxed and interesting
approach tothe front door

I would never believe it if I hadn’t seen it (or should I say “If we wouldn’t have done it with our own two hands!”) The picture you are looking at is from the project in southern Northfield that I started to describe to you last week, and yes, that is shredded bark covering the brand spanking new driveway with (from left) Matt, Jon, Jason, and Jordan wondering what the heck it is that they’ve just done!

The new driveway to the garage was big and bright because it was new concrete and had not aged. Because the rest of the project was in brown or earth tones (see photo at right), it just was too much of an attention grabber. How could it be toned down?

Spencer came up with a novel idea.If you have ever raked wet leaves off your walk or driveway in the spring after the snow has been on it all winter, you’ve probably noticed the stain it leaves behind. If we covered it with shredded bark, and watered it it down for a week or two, maybe the natural tannins in the bark would wash out of the shredded bark and stain the new concrete. Why not give it a try?

After the owners “watered” their driveway for a week or so, we had the unveiling. The concrete was definitely darker , and had that “aged” look. So, if you’re okay with drivers slowing down to stare and have who-knows-what go through their minds, you might want to think about it, if you ever want that “mature” look on your new driveway!!

Written and posted by Doug Grove, Grove Landscaping, Northfield, MN