CONVERT YOUR BACKYARD INTO A POTAGER IN SPRING 2010!

Potager expert Jennifer Bartley



The Green Man returns briefly from taking some vacation time to urge readers to initiate plans now to convert backyards (in landscaping parlance, "family living areas") into substantial potagers as the 2010 Spring landscaping season approaches!

In 2010, you and prudent homeowners everywhere may wish to begin vegetable farming in your backyard. For the uneducated, this process usually entails identifying the least aesthetically-desirable section of the yard, often somewhere at the rear of the property, and installing an unsightly and ill-conceived "vegetable patch."



Typically hideous and unncessary "vegetable patch."

Rethink everything now!

First: Eliminate the phrase "vegetable patch" from your vocabulary and thinking.

Second: Learn the French word potager ("PUH-ta-zhay"). Potager is related to potage or "soup." Hence, a potager is a "souper," a planned structure designed to grow vegetables, herbs, and other plants required to create soups.

Third: Note that unlike a vegetable "patch," a potager is aesthetically-pleasing, a delight to the senses, and a pleasure to work in. Unlike the dismal "patch," it is located nearest the kitchen and terrace areas wherever the site receives full sunlight for at least 6 hours per day.

Fourth: Unlike an impromptu "patch," a potager is FORMAL, HIGHLY-
STRUCTURED, and GEOMETRIC in layout. Unlike those of a a "patch," its walkways are brick, stone, gravel or mulch combinations rather than compressed soil and weeds.

Fifth: Unlike a patch, vegetables are not the only plants grown there. In a potager, vegetables are aesthetically-integrated into compositions using annuals, roses, dwarf fruit trees, certain perennials, shrubs, water-features, and sculpture. For example, whereas, 2 stone putti spouting water would look absurd in a vegetable "patch," in a substantial potager, they're virtually de rigueur.

To sum up, once a homeowner discovers the potager, a vegetable "patch" seems a ridiculous alternative. And, in addition to providing convenience, charm, sensual delight, pleasurable and neat work, and food, a well-planned and installed potager adds to the value of your landscaping investment!

The bottom line? Scrap your plans for a "patch," ("Please!") and educate yourself about how to create a large and viable potager that is an integrated addition to your in situ landscaping.



Plan for a well-conceived and substantial potager

Landscaper JENNIFER BARTLEY is the "go-to" source for learning. Visit and study here:

www.americanpotager.com



www.amazon.com/Designing-New-Kitchen-Garden-American/dp/0881927724/ref=sr_1_1/102-4026744-6890524?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177880191&sr=8-1

Think "potager." A vegetable garden should be elegant.

ON VACATION

DIANTHUS 'ELEGANCE WHITE' BLOOMS ALL SEASON

The Green Man recommends this stunning 2010 introduction from famous Heronswood Nursery. This pink (Dianthus) cultivar ("cultivated variety") is classic white for "elegance" which mediates colors in the border, double-fringed, and it blooms all season. Takes full sun.

Zone: 5 - 8 Height: 24"
Class: Perennial
Soil Type: Average
Siting: Full sun
Spread: 18"

This pristine white dianthus produces a shower of fringed double, lacy white flowers, and keeps on blooming right till late summer. Growing knee-high (24"), the sturdy, upright, slender plants keep their cool in the summer heat. As cut flowers: spectacular. Plant in a sunny spot with well-drained soil.

www.heronswood.com

A TRIAD OF NEW HOSTAS FOR SHADE WITH 3 MAPLES TO AVOID

Monticello in Winter
Greetings from Charlottesville, Virginia!



"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth,
no culture comparable to that of the garden ...
But though an old man, I am but a young gardener."

Thomas Jefferson, Garden Book, 1811











The Green Man wishes all a Happy New Year 2010. And, a new year means making preparations for Spring gardening and landscaping!

Many clients seem frustrated by shady areas on the grounds. Often older, established sites are planted with enormous maples that create dense shade. While most these trees are fine in the proper location, too often they end up having been sited too near the house itself.

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is often the "culprit." It's a fine tree for the edges of the property where it has room and shade may not be an issue. Much worse is Acer saccharinum or Silver maple...fortunately, these days usually unavailable because of its weak-wooded structure and rapid, weedy growth. Finally, the worst offender is Norway maple (Acer platinoides) and its cultivar ("cultivated variety") 'Crimson King.' The latter was planted extensively to provide the color burgundy in the landscape. The problem is that it is an introduced species that proliferates and drives out desirable native species. However, because of its enormous, leathery leaves, this tree casts dense shade. Do not use it!

Hence, a good rule of thumb is to plant no maples AT ALL with the exception of these 2 varieties that are smaller and add value to your property: Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) and paperbark maple (Acer griseum.)

Japanese maple 'Fireglow'



Paperbark maple provides Winter interest with its cinnamon-colored exfoliating bark
www.finegardening.com/plantguide/acer-griseum-paperbark-maple.aspx



The Green Man recommends 'Fire Glow' for the former and the use of 1 or 3, not 2, paperbark maples towards the back and side window areas of the site. These 2 maples are highly desirable trees and readily available at quality nurseries and garden centers. If you want a compact draping Japanese maple as a focal point tree near the house entrance, use 'Crimson Queen.' Thousands of Japanese maple cultivars exist, but keep it simple for starters.

Meanwhile, if your site is shady, do not despair! You simply have a "woodland garden" site, so work from there. Make any full-sun locations burst with color, and then work with a much more subtle color palette for the woodland garden areas.



Glorious Solomon's seal in bloom

Begin with the basic The Green Man woodland garden triad: Hostas, ferns, and Solomon's seal, and accent with a few woodland garden specimens such as astilbe in tight groupings. Use WHITE astilbe and BURGUNDY astible only.



Use Astile 'Vision in Red' and white Astilbe only, or the woodland effect will be destroyed.

Every other color tends to overpower the impact of adjacent plants with hideous, muddy shades of pink and worst of all magenta, a garden no no.

OK, here are three relatively new hostas for 2010 that can be incorporated into your woodland garden setting. Note that none features YELLOW. Do not use YELLOW hostas as they compete for attention. Use WHITE as much as possible to brighten shade along with lush greens. Use blue hostas carefully as they create focal areas and can grow huge. A single specimen of blue is best.

Create lozenge rather than circular beds 6' across widthwise at the bases of your shade trees. Cover exposed roots first with a small berm of soil...with the soil kept away from the tree trunk base.

White periwinkle, 'Vinca minor alba'

The ideal shade groundcover is Vinca minor alba or white periwinkle. Do NOT use the common blue.





Use trouble-free daylily 'Happy Returns' in PRIMARY YELLOW in any shade areas that receive some sunlight. You will get a remarkable number of flowers and the leaves provide texture, height, and complementary interest.



Stalwart daylily 'Happy Returns' in primary yellow






DO NOT use 'Stella d'Oro' daylilies ever as the chome yellow will throw off the color scheme, and it is an over-planted variety best saved for its KFC and Taco Bell sites.






















Hosta 'Dancing Stars' PPAF

NEW Incredible thick leaves that holds the crisp colors better than any similar types.

A Burpee Exclusive of a hosta that thrives in the shady garden with incredible thick leaves that holds the crisp colors of the white center with dark blue-green margins better than any similar types. Extremely prolific grower as its parent, ‘Dancing in the Rain’, a very long lived hosta. The light lavender spike flower sweeps over the variegated foliage in a very complimentary fashion.
Height: 26" Spread: 36" Zones: 3–9.
Sorry, state laws prohibit shipping plants to Alaska, Hawaii.

www.burpee.com/product/id/114911.do



Hosta 'Silver Bay'

NEW Spectacular blue color. Thick leaves with a striped pattern.

A fantastic silver-blue mounding hosta with thick leaves with a striped pattern likened to seer suckering. The intensity of the blue color is spectacular, will stand out in every garden where the primary color is green. Use as an edging, border plant due to its well-mannered short growth habit.
Height: 12" Spread: 36" Zones: 3–9.
Sorry, state laws prohibit shipping plants to Alaska, Hawaii.

www.burpee.com/product/id/114911.do



Hosta 'Night Before Christmas'

Hosta Night Before Christmas dark green leaves with a central white splash, pointed and slightly twisted leaves. Large mound size at maturity.

Not 'brand new' per se but 'new' as it's woefully underused.