PLAN YOUR 2011 POTAGER NOW.

Monticello in Winter
www.monticello.org




Greetings from Charlottesville, Virginia!




A section of the potager at Chateau de Villandry, France


Once again, The Green Man urges clients to convert useless and high-management turf in the Family Living Area ("backyard")of their houses into an elegant and productive potager.

Use the link below to see some excellent photos of the potager at the Chateau de Villandy in the France's Loire River valley to get a visual idea of what your potager should look like. Recall that a potager is a highly-formal and geometric space that COMBINES vegetable plants with trees, flowers vines, topiary, fountains and shrubs. Hence, look for smaller squares and rectangles for design ideas that are inscale with your own site.

Remember also, the potager location is critical. It must be situated in those areas of the site that receive at least 6 hours of sun per day. Strive for a location that abuts the rear terrace near the kitchen for quick access.

The scrawny and unsightful garden "patch" is no longer happening. Upgrade your thinking about what a vegetable garden should be: an integral and elegant, 4-season pleasing part of your landscaping investment..."the potager."

web.mac.com/charlierj/ArtOfGardening/Home/Entries/2008/1/28_Villandry_Gardens.html














www.amazon.com/Designing-New-Kitchen-Garden-American/dp/0881927724

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

WINTER 2011 DAYLILY SALE!

Monticello in Winter
www.monticello.org




Greetings from Charlottesville, Virginia!








The Green Man recommends that clients invest heavily in what he calls a "grateful" plant: the daylily. Provide daylilies with a sunny location, and they will multiply prolifically and bloom their little heads off from May to December. Daylilies are not only grateful...they're also "bulletproof" when they're happy: perfect for tough sites in the sun, pest-resistant, and low-management.

www.smokeysdaylilygardens.com



Rebloomer 'Happy Returns" in PRIMARY YELLOW is grateful, bulletproof, and tough.

Load up at Smokey's Winter sale AFTER planning the daylily beds around your site on paper, and have staked out the areas. A few caveats: Most daylilies will bloom in July and early August. Cultivars bearing the name "Happy Returns" and their relatives will bloom ALL SEASON LONG. The point is that if you want color consistently all season in your landscape, bulk up on "Happy Returns," "My Sweetheart Returns," and other daylilies marked "rebloomer." Then, accent with short-season varieties.

Final caveats:

Do not mix varieties in the same bed in a scatter gun effect. Keep varieties in a bed to 3, and DO NOT INTERMIX the sections (drifts of 1 variety). For example, try placing "Happy Returns" up front, "Apricot Sparkles" to the side in a smaller drift, and one tall seasonal classic such as "Barbara Mitchell" in the back. Keep in simple. Watch your color palette like a hawk.




Prolific, tough, and delightful "Happy Returns" companion, "Apricot Sparkles"

Photo courtesy:

www.whiteflowerfarm.com/31011-product.html



Photo courtesy:

www.gilberthwild.com/
(A The Green Man favorite supplier!)

Never, ever plant the "Taco Bell" daylily "Stella d'Oro"...unless, of course, you desire your grounds take on a commercial, "Taco Bell/KFC" look. In general, avoid daylilies the color of Velveeta. You have thousands of optional color choices.
















Hosta 'Guacamole"

Photo courtesy: www.easytogrowbulbs.com

"Happy Returns" will tolerate some shade. Use it there at the periphery where some sunlight penetrates, and accent with cinnamon fern, and WHITE and green hostas such as "Patriot" and/or "Guacamole."










Cinnamon fern 'Lady in Red'


www.gorgetopgardens.com/perennials/ferns-ladyinred.html

www.smokeysdaylilygardens.com

INVEST IN TOUGH TREES AND SHRUBS!

River birch, Betula nigra 'Heritage/Cully' is aesthetically-pleasing all 4 seasons, and it is most resistant to bronze birch borer.


The Green Man just visited a site that recommended trees for landscaping, and he was appalled. The list was filled with virtually every birch, including Betula pendula, cherry trees, horse chestnuts, and ash. What the site did not mention is the susceptibility of these trees to a host of pest diseases: bronze birch borer, fire-blight and everything else, blight, and die-back.

Invest in EQUITY trees and shrubs! Shop for diseases and pest resistance! Here's The Green Man's short-list of safe trees to take to the nursery this spring:

RIVER birch only! Betula nigra 'Heritage/Cully' NO OTHER BIRCH SPECIES.

Ginkgo biloba 'Autumn Gold' (Males only)



The glorious, tough, and reliable Serviceberry 'Autumn Brilliance'

Amelanchier "Serviceberry" 'Autumn
Brilliance'



Substitute Yellowood (Cladastris lutea) for Green Ash to avoid emerald ash borer infestations.

Koereuteria paniculata "Goldenrain Tree"

Hophornbeam

Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica)

Sweetgum Liquidambar styraciflua 'Rotundiloba'

2011 LANDSCAPING EQUITY PROJECTS FOR SPRING

Monticello in Winter
www.monticello.org




Greetings from Charlottesville, Virginia!




Illustration of a classic French potager. Keep your potager to scale with your site, keep it highly geometrical and formal.

Winter 2011 is here, and now is the time is to begin sketching out plans for Spring landscaping projects. The Green Man proposes 2 large-scale additions to clients' sites that ought to be conceptualized and initiated in 2011. Because of the scale of these 2 projects, they should be delineating physically on the site with stakes. Here's the key: Clear the space, and get the ball rolling...even with a minimal investment. Simply plant the seed, and add more each season.


willowbrookpark.blogspot.com/2009/09/potager.html

Readers may guess the first project as The Green Man has promoted it for several years: the off-terrace potager. Situate your potager in an area of the Family Living Area ("backyard") that receives at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. Attempt to place the potager near the kitchen entry and adjacent to the terrace. Your terrace and potager should be conceptualized as "outdoor rooms" that flow into one another. If the terrace is geometrical, the potager should incorporate the same symmetrical characteristics, yet each area should remain distinct. If the terrace is informal, enhance the formal geometry of the potager and create a formal entry.

Here is the book to get to begin your potager:

www.timberpress.com/books/designing_new_kitchen_garden/bartley/9780881927726



A 4' wide path meanders through a residential arboretum

Once you have delineated the area for your potager, move the the periphery of the sight. Here, most likely, you will find the wooded area of your lot that is simply "there" but not doing much aesthetically. This is what you will transform into a residential arboretum for preserving your favorite woodland trees and shrubs. Create a potential entry on the far right hand side. Using a ball twine, slowly wander through the woods to determine intuitively where a 4' wide pathway should run.

Add plenty of twists and turns, and once the grounds have been covered created an exit on the far left side of your sight. Revisit the pathway, and begin to clear small unwanted plants such as briers and volunteer seedlings. When planning what trees, shrubs, and flowers to install in your new residential arboretum, make sure they work aesthetically with the existing landscaping. One perfect tree for a transitional area between yard and woods is Ostrya virginiana, the hophornbeam.