2012 Gardening Guru Sucesses: Part 2

Editor's Note: This is part 2 of a 2 part piece. The first part ran Jan. 22, 2013.

By Melanie Mathieson
Gardening Guru

With the 2013 gardening season just around the corner, I have some more Gardening Guru tips to share with you as you start planning for your gardening activities.
Next to irises, my next favourite perennial that easily grows in both Zones 4 and 5 are perennial poppies. There are a few varieties of perennial poppies to try and should not to be confused with annual poppies, that are mistaken by many as perennials, because they self-seed themselves, which seems like they come back each year. Oriental poppies have tall, hairy, dark green leaves and stems and produce large flowers with bold black centres. Once done flowering, large seed pods form. Although I am still trying to a true deep blue-red Oriental poppy, I do have many absolutely stunning varieties. My current favourites are watermelon, “Plum Patty” and the flamingo pink blossoms with heavily ruffled petals. In addition to the Oriental poppies, I have added a few varieties of alpine and Icelandic poppies too. Both of these types of poppies are prolific bloomers, producing flowers continuously for at least a month. Adding these two families adds additional poppies of various bloom times and heights. So if you have a full sun location, even if it tends to be a drier site, you should try some perennial poppies if you like eye-catching and brightly-coloured blooms.
It doesn’t seem to matter where you live in the Rainy River or Thunder Bay Districts, white-tail deer are becoming damaging garden pests. Because the populations are growing, deer are becoming bolder as they try to find food. As I mentioned previously that 2012 was an important year from our gardens, I couldn’t let deer eat all my plants. I tried Bobbex Deer Repellent , a topical, proven effective spray that you spray directly onto plant leaves to deter and prevent deer, moose, and elk from browsing and causing damage to ornamental plantings, shrubs, and trees. It is environmentally friendly, uses only natural ingredients and will not wash off once dried after application. Most importantly it does work. I must warn you though this product is very stinky and I find I cannot work in the garden for at least a day after I spray, so I plan accordingly. Apply as directed, making sure to reapply about every three to four weeks. Keep the scent strong and current, and the deer will move on. This product is worth every penny and even though I used two large bottles this past season, the garden suffered no deer damage all summer. On the tour days, next to the gardens, the bottle of Bobbex was the biggest attraction, as people were amazed at the lack of deer damage, especially since I live across the street from a huge forested area definitely packed with deer.
No one likes to weed a patio, so to make your weeding chores much easier, I have two solutions:
•Spray the weedy areas with regular or pickling (stronger acid content) white vinegar. I use a two gallon hand pump pressure sprayer because of the large area to cover but a hand held spray bottle works for smaller areas. Apply as needed. Vinegar is safe on asphalt, bricks, cement or stone and around humans and pets but it will kill any plant it comes into contact with so spray only the ones you want to eliminate. Try to spray when rain isn’t forecasted for a few days and feel free to spray often as needed. We find a good thorough spray lasts at least a month before the hardiest of weeds start to appear again.
•Our property contains many square feet of limestone patio. The original patio was installed in 2007 as we began our landscaping. Crusher fines were used as filler between the stones and unfortunately certain weeds species have established themselves between the rocks in the gravel. Any of our most recently installed patio has polymer sand as a filler in the spaces between the rocks. Polymer sand is masonry sand with a “glue-like” additive that is wetted with water after it is swept in between the stones and forms a solid filler after it sets. It works best in smaller cracks, like in unistone installations, but can work between flagstones as well. Anywhere polymer sand has been installed immediately after our stone installations, we have no weeds. We have now added polymer product over the original crusher fine gravel and although some hardy weeds do poke through, it is not nearly as prevalent as before the polymer product was installed. The polymer sand is a bit pricey but is worth the investment unless you prefer to weed your patio over sitting and relaxing on it.
This past year, after all the beds were finally established and the bark mulch was installed, it was time to personalize the gardens. We added more texture and colour to the plant material by adding many ornamental features. We have named our property “Alsatian Manor”. The British used the name Alsatian for the German Shepherd Dog, around the time of the first world war, because of the anti-German sentiment in Britain. So in keeping with the German Shepherd theme, many German Shepherd statuary, signage and garden accessories decorate the gardens. Other personalized features including antique farm implements, signage and watering cans; metal art; animal statuary; arbours, and trellises; driftwood and logs; and various rock installations seem complement each other and all blend together seamlessly. The point here is to incorporate what you like in your garden to make it your own. Whether you stick to a theme or not is entirely up to you. We have a mix of what we love and it all seems to work together. The best part of this is you can move things around until you are happy with the placement or change items each year for a “fresh” look. Even items not related to gardening can be repurposed into new garden art. A search though the library for books and magazines, as well as, an Internet search, can turn up endless creative ideas. As an example, try searching for “repurposed garden art” and you’ll spend hours looking at all the great ideas you can try.
I hope that you appreciate my tips and try some of them for yourself. I love to garden but my time is limited like most people’s so I try to make sure everything I do is the most effective and efficient use of my time and efforts. If there is an easier way to do something, I do it and hope you use some of my tips to make things easier for you too.