A glimmer of spring

Spring is coming eventhough it doesn't feel like it outside. My Witch Hazel 'Jelena' is in full flower as of last week! I love, love, LOVE, this tree and cannot wait for it to grow up. I think the copper flowes will look awesome up against the grey of the weathered shingles (when they weather) I've used this tree in a couple of different designs and I would like to get the yellow variety, 'Arnold's Promise' for the back 40.

Next week is the Rhode Island Flower Show!!! The dates are Thursday, February 21st through Sunday, February 24th. I'll be in my usual spot - Booth 311 in the Marketplace or at the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association's Exhibit. This is the third year in a row I have been the designer for their exhibit. If you're in the neighborhood of the RI Convention Center, stop on by.

The Ecological Landscaping Conference: "RE-VISIONING THE LANDSCAPE:

An Ecological Approach" is in Springfield, MA in March. URI is a co-sponsor.
You do not need to be an ELA member to attend. It's geared for organic landscapers and serious organic gardeners.

For info and registration, see http://www.ecolandscaping.org/conference.html.

Welcome Lars Larson, Intern

Here's a peek at the training Sam had to give Lars today to work in The Garden Consultant's office. Here Lars learns the ropes of Break Time.

I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, both 4 legged and 2 legged.

Welcome aboard to The Garden Consultant, little man.

3 More Sleeps....

until little Lars comes home! He'll be 8 weeks this coming Sunday and he's been cleared to come home. So, it looks like I'll have to make a new position in The Garden Consultant Customer Service Department. Sam's not looking to retire any time soon so I can't retire him just yet. Maybe Lars can be an intern for a while. :)

Probably the biggest day of my career

Here's a little known fact about The Garden Consultant...I'm a raging night owl! I'm getting ready to hit the sack but have to report this news from the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association's Annual Winter Meeting and Conference for 2008.

The first thing wasn't really a surprise as it's been on the discussion table for a while. But they voted me in as this year's Vice President. So....that's very cool. What's doubly cool about being the Veep is I'll become President of the organization in 2009. That's pretty big.

Secondly...for the second year in a row, The Garden Consultant has won first place for Landscape Design in RINLA's 2007 Excellence Awards. Once again, pretty cool accomplishment.

Now the thing that blew me away and I didn't see coming was that RINLA and the New England Nursery Association has named ME....yes ME the Young Nursery Professional of the Year for Rhode Island. I'm still all speechless about that. Wow....I think 2008 is going to be a great year!

Being Festive outside!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas this past week and here's Sam wishing all a very Happy New Year!!!

The good news is the snow has melted enough I have gotten about 85% of my measuring for the winter finished. I think I have just 2 big jobs left and one small project to measure. PHEW! Once I get those done...it can snow all it wants. I think we're supposed to get some snow this evening which shouldn't accumulate too much. I think at this moment, it's projected to be about 2 - 4". That's A LOT better than the 4 - 7" they were forecasting last night.

I hadn't had a chance to post my window box all dressed up in its winter garb yet. I think this one blows away the one I had last year.

I thought it was so cool, it didn't even need a bow. I used some white pine roping that I took apart and some variegated boxwood, both of which I bought. The rest of the box came from my yard...I used Cedar, Norway Spruce, Eupatorium seed heads, Sedum, spent Hydrangea flowers, and the spent plumes from my Japanese Silver Feather Grass. The Ivy hanging down was left over from the summer box. I'm very curious to see if that actually makes it through the winter. I might run out there and take some cuttings to use around the yard.

The latest fish update from Lake Larson is everyone appears to be doing well! The ice melted and I can really see everything in there. They are swimming around(granted a little slower) like they normally do and I haven't seen any casulties. I did see two good sized mosquito fish swimming around. I have noticed that the hundreds of them we had as we went into the fall are missing. I bet the koi and goldfish have eaten them. That's okay, I was getting very concerned about their numbers. That's the circle of life, I suppose. I may take some photos of them today.

Let's see...Eric continues to get better. There's nothing big ro report on him which is a good thing. He's got about 2 more weeks before he can drive. Being house bound HAS to be driving him nuts.

Here's the news on the newest addition to Garden Consultant HQ I have been waiting to add. We're hoping to get a little male rottie in the next month or so. It's not for 100% certain yet because we need to make sure the litter's personality will match what I would like to do with him. But the lady who owns the mom told me she doesn't see any reason why the temperment wouldn't match my goals for obedience and working him. So, if all goes as planned - Deerwood's Larson Bravo Zulu; call name - Lars will join us the first weekend of February. Here's the link to the litter so you all can see!

http://www.esmondrott.com/deerwood_L.htm

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Don't get me wrong...I love snow. I'm probably one of the few people in Rhode Island who does like snow and hates a snowless winter. But, the timing is all wrong this year! Mother Nature was a little too eager for my work schedule.

Indoor Gardening takes over

I didn't want to make that last post an enormous one but I have some neat things happening indoors!

PAPERWHITES!!! Personally, I can't stand their scent. But this time of year, I'll tolerate it.

Here's the first of this year's orchid crop. **grin** I'll have to keep my eyes open for other buds coming.

The winter garden

Holy White Christmas Batman! I can't believe we've had this much snow this early! I don't remember EVER having this much in December this long. I'm kind of panicking because I don't have any of the measurements done for my winter projects. I normally do them all this month but I took a week off for the surgery and then it snowed the following week! UGH! It's starting to melt now and this rain tonight will really help. I should be able to head out this coming week and go out to do most of them. I feel like a complete grinch that I want the snow gone. After I get my measuring done, it can snow all it wants!

But I got some great frost photos of the yard the second week of December. I had gotten up early and had an opportunity to run outside with my camera:

(That fern photo above and the hens and chicks below are my favorites!)

Update on Eric

My last post I made a comment that Eric has going to go in for more back surgery. December 3rd, we went up to New England Baptist Hospital in Boston and he had his spinal fusion revision to remove a broken screw in his lowest level (L5-S1). Apparently he had an area in his first fusion that never fused completely after all of these years and that caused the screw to snap. All this time I thought it was doing crazy things like building Lake Larson which caused that screw to break. The surgeon said that it was the non-union in his fusion, nothing he did caused it to break, and that Eric will be close to 100% once this revision fuses.

So, he's going to be laid up for the next two and a half months and has to take it easy for the next year before he can carry on normally. But he's doing really well and getting stronger every day which is awesome! Thanks everyone who has wished him good luck and an excellent recovery.

Winter's knocking on our door....

Well, operation adding compost is in full swing! Since time is running out before the snow flies and Eric goes back under the knife for his back, I've switched my game plan to top dressing the beds with lots of compost. I've been scratching it into the soil the best I can. Eric also has been collecting leaves with his lawnmower and chomping them up into great leaf mold. So, I have been using the leaf mold as a mulch which I will turn into the soil in the spring when it breaks down. I've got about 50% of my beds put to sleep this fall. I haven't gotten the bulbs in yet and hope to do that this weekend if I have time. I don't think I'm going to do much of a fall clean up this season. I may just let everyone but the dahlia's and the tender cannas go into their winter's nap and clean them up in the spring.

I took a bunch of photos a couple of weekends ago of Garden Consultant HQ in the middle of it's autumnal glory!

Below, here's a close up of the fall color of my Coral Bark Japanese Maple from that top photo...I love her!!

Below is Lake Larson before I skimmed all of the water lettuce and leaves out of it. I've been procrastinating of getting the rest of the leaves out of there...I was sore from the first time around! I'll probably get to that this Sunday. Then I can put the fishies to bed for the winter. Actually, I have to order some pond heaters before I can officially put them to bed.

Above is the back part of the pond before the killing front whacked all of my annuals whom I have since yanked.

One of my dahlias that my father in law gave me earlier this season...it's last hurrah. I'll have to dig them up before thanksgiving. I actually don't have a great place in my house to overwinter them. My basement is too warm for them and the bulkhead is too cold. I'll have to send them back home to him. He's got this closet that butts up to an outside wall and it's worked out great for him and his dahlias...if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

My Sargent's Crabapple gearing up for her winter show!

There won't be much in the way of updates for the garden this winter which is understandable. But, I'll be doing Project Feederwatch through Cornell's Ornithology Lab and I'll probably post what I see every week. Also, the other big thing going on this winter or maybe spring will be a new addition of the four legged kind to Garden Consultant HQ. I'll definitely keep you all posted on that front.

OH Wow! Hurricanes!

I was going to make this post about something else that I'll get to in a minute. But...we have a little hurricane brewing outside. Normally, I would be completely freaked out about this, especially since we haven't had a hurricane or anything close to one come near Rhode Island since I moved here in 1997. However, they are forcasting at least 2 - 3" of rain out of this. This might be exactly what we need to break this dry soil streak we've had almost all season. I just came in from getting birdfeeders and things that could launch across the yard and end up in Lake Larson. I wasn't going to do it until I heard the updated weather forecast on TV and it sounds like it's gaining strength and coming closer than what was earlier predicted. Man, what the heck is going on...a frost and a hurricane all in one week. It must be the Apocalypse. Heh, I bet there's no bread or milk in the stores. Maybe Eric, Sam and I will go surf watching tomorrow at the beach.

Anyway...what I was really going to post about and what may become the subject of the blog over the winter is Project Feederwatch. Cornell's Lab of Ornithology runs a research project every late fall and winter that uses data from backyard birding enthusiasts. I missed the cut off date last year to sign up. This year, I'm ready to go and have my feeding stations all set up off in the back perimeter of the yard. It's kind of neat, you choose two days a week where you note the numbers and species of birds that visit your feeders. Then that information is sent to Cornell and they track the habits and numbers of birds.

It's probably too late to sign up now, but here's the link in case anyone wants to participate next year. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/

Batten down the hatches everyone, I think tomorrow is going to be a wild ride.

FROST!!!!

Yup, fall has officially arrived in RI...we got a touch of frost on Sunday night. My dahlias, ageratum, nasturtiums, and the peppers in the vegetable garden were lightly hit. I was really suprised the pond plants are fine. It makes sense why the water lettuce and others didn't get damaged. Water cools down much more slowly than air and it protected the plants. I think the water is going to be skimmed clean of floaters this weekend before they are reduced to mushy slime.

I was up at a client's house in Gloucester and man, they were hit HARD with frost. Their hydrangeas and annuals were pretty much fried with little hope of recovering. Newport and the surrounding areas weren't bothered at all with the drop in temperatures. That completely blows my mind we can have that much difference in temperatures in such a small state. That's what makes gardening so interesting in Rhode Island!

(Don't tell anyone, but I'm ready for some fall/winter weather after this growing season. Bring on my long winter's nap!)

It's still dry....who knew!

Hi Everyone!



I'm still alive, just not that active in the gardens. We've had a little bit of rain but not enough to really make a difference. We had some rain which I thought may have wet the soil on last Friday. I was helping a client move some plants in Portsmouth on Saturday and the soil an inch or two down was like powder. Not good.



The little rain we've gotten has brought weeds sprouting and Eric's grass is starting to come back. We did get a truck load of compost from the city two weekends ago. Eric said that there was hardly anything left at the DPW which actually shocked me. Thank goodness we got a lot of it...that will have to be a mental note for next year to not wait around. I was able to use the compost I had cooking over the summer but it didn't last long. I've lifted the shade gardens by the front door and divided some of the larger hostas and relocated some things to the back yard now that we are getting some more areas developed. I put out a soaker hose too in that area to help keep things wet as things get resestablished. It's still 80 degrees outside here so I'm waiting again to go back to lifting and dividing so things don't get shocky.



I've gotten some plants from The Farmer's Daughter: a very dwarf Japanese Holly (I have the label down in my office) and finally a Norway Spruce 'Little Gem' and some heathers for around the pond. I also picked up some small spring bulbs for the pond area: crocus, Iris reticulata, Snowdrops, and Mini Daffodils.



On the design front, I've started getting this year's RINLA Flower Show Exhibit in the works. The theme for the show this year is "Fairy Tales"...which kind of had us all scratching our heads. After a couple of brainstorming meetings we have a fun and function idea which could easily be taken from the show to a person's backyard.



This fall hasn't been too interesting gardening wise but Mother Nature continues to be uncooperative with us gardeners. The fall color in the backyard is starting to pick up and I'll be very curious to see how the colors are despite the drought.

That's one of the Sassafrass trees in the back behind Lake Larson. That photo doesn't do the tree's color justice.