For those dreaming of a vegetable garden of goodies, an urn filled with colorful blooms or a literal cornucopia of fresh herbs, the wait is almost over.
Whether it’s going in the ground or into a container, local gardening experts offer their tips and advice for putting together a little bit of paradise.
“Look at display gardens, Noerenberg Garden, the [Minnesota Landscape] Arboretum, the Lake Harriet rose garden, to see what you like,” says Arlene Savory of Savory’s Gardens Inc. in Edina “Looking at the plant in full leaf gives you a good place to start.”
For Savory, an expert in perennials and hostas, planning a garden isn’t just about looks. She recommends that customers take some time to size up their yard, quite literally. “Study your garden a little bit,” she says.
Figure out exactly how much sun the yard or patio gets during various times of the day and choose plants accordingly. Most perennials love sunlight and need six hours of light a day. Often sun from the west and south is adequate. Shade plants, she explains, best tolerate sun from the north and the east. “There is trial and error; if it’s not doing well, you want to move it.”
Savory’s advice comes with decades of experience. What began as a full-scale nursery business 66 years ago has morphed into a garden store and mail-order business of perennials and more than 2,000 varieties of hostas, many of which Savory’s husband and son have created through hybridization.
Planning
Whether it’s in the ground or in a pot, garden experts agree that planning is key to putting together a cohesive look.
Savory urges customers to watch their sizes. Pay attention to the size of the mature plant and section off the garden, planning accordingly for tall items, middle-size plants as well as small plants and border materials. For borders she recommends mini hostas such as Baby Bunting, Pinwheel and Mouse Ears, as well as short daylilies, Japanese painted fern and grasses such as Hakonechola. Most border plants and mini hostas at Savory’s run from $8 to $12 depending on the size and variety; perennials average between $8 and $15.
In addition to size and location, Susan Bachman West, executive director of Bachman’s, recommends that customers plan for year-round color and interest.
“When you go to the garden center there will be plants that are gorgeous and in full bloom, and yes, you want to get those, but also remember the plant next to it that turns bright red in the fall,” she says.
A garden that provides constant color will have spring bloomers, summer bloomers and those that provide blooms or vibrant foliage in the fall.
Containers
When it comes to container gardening, Bachman West has a simple rule for choosing materials: thriller, filler, spiller.
“I always tell people the thriller is the back of the pot or the center of the pot—it’s the stately piece, the dramatic piece,” she says.
The middle of the pot is the filler, a medium-height plant that really bushes out. She recommends planting in odd numbers around the center of the pot if the thriller is centered and in a half moon if the thriller is at the back.
Then she recommends spillers—plants that cascade or trail, softening the edge of the pot and making the eye travel through the entire container.
How many of each species to include in the pot depends on the size of the container and the mature size of the plant.
“You can overplant a little bit because of our shortened growing season,” Bachman West says. But “don’t have things so jam-packed that the container doesn’t leave any room for something to grow.”
Though Bachman’s sells a wide variety of annuals, she says that consumers shouldn’t discount perennials for pots either. Perennial fillers such as coral bells provide beautiful foliage and texture. When the pot is done for the season the perennial can go in the ground as long as there’s enough time for it to take root before it freezes; the key to that, she says, is lots and lots of water.
She also recommends planting vegetables and herbs with flowers. Especially for people in apartments and townhomes, multiuse containers offer the ability to have a little of everything.
Most vegetables and herbs need full sun, and almost any herb will grow as a companion plant for an annual, she says. With vegetables she urges customers to think about vertical space; for example, to add green beans to a pot simply add a trellis for the plant to climb up.
At Bachman’s most of the annuals range from $1.99 to $4.99, with prices varying depending on the size of the plant. Herbs range from $2.49 to $4.99 for a four-inch pot. Some plants are available in smaller sizes or cell packs. Perennials have a much wider price point depending on the size and variety, but they start at $6.99.
First Things First
Before anything can go into a pot or into the ground, garden experts say the soil must first be prepared. Some recommend a mixture of equal parts topsoil or black dirt, organic matter such as compost, humus or peat, and a lightener like perlite. Others recommend doing a half-and-half mixture of Edina’s clay-based soil and peat moss or manure.
Tim Zimmerman, horticulturist for the city of Edina, says that good-quality compost is available free of charge to Edina residents each spring. The compost is available on a first come, first served basis and is usually available beginning in March at Bredesen Park.
Once the soil is amended—or something, like compost, has been added to it—Zimmerman urges consumers to use a slow-release, well-balanced fertilizer. The nitrogen shouldn’t be higher than the rest of the numbers, he says, because it promotes green growth rather than growth of flowers or vegetables. A high-quality slow-release product should only have to be applied once and will make it through most of the summer.
“Proper preparation for gardening will give rewards later on,” Zimmerman says.
What’s hot in gardening this year:
• Lemon Slice calibrachoa
• Papaya petunia
• Caliente geraniums: Produces a lot of blooms and performs well in the landscape.
• Calliope geraniums: Has a large flower head, a burgundy variety is making its debut for 2013.
• Hypnotica dahlias: The colors are so vivid they almost glow and they’re prolific bloomers.
• Sparks Will Fly begonia: A bronzy foliage with a reddish-orange flower, generally hardy and a little drought-tolerant.
• Anything in a peach or orange hue.
• Grasses of all varieties.
• Elderberry: the International Herb Association’s herb of the year for 2013. It grows in zones 4 through 7 (the Twin Cities are considered to be in zone 4) in full sun to partial shade. The plant begins with little white flowers in almost a shrub form and those flowers transition to deep purple or black berries in September. The berries can be harvested for use in jams, jellies, pies and muffins. The flowers can be harvested for teas.
• Miniature gardens: filled with small plants, mini orchids, mini succulents, mini hostas and mini grasses.
• Bright metallic colors, emerging blues and shades of green. Positive and happy colors are in.
At Twiggs Home & Garden off Upton Avenue, owner Beth Patrin follows the same “thriller, filler, spiller” rule as Bachman’s Susan Bachman West. These flower fanatics recommend the following plants for creating eye-catching displays:
• Sun thrillers (choose 1 per pot): mandevilla, hibiscus topiary, jasmine, green alocasia, lantana, snapdragons, dill grasses
• Sun filler (plant in odd numbers around the pot): dusty Miller, petunias, nemesia, brachycomb, geraniums, marigolds, herbs including rosemary, basil and cilantro, salvia, coral bells
• Sun spiller (plant in odd numbers to soften the edge of the pot): ivy, potato vine, Lemon Slice calibrachoa
• Shade thrillers: coleus, upright fuchsia, calla lily
• Shade fillers: ficus, azalea, croton, impatiens, torenia, coleus, begonias
• Shade spillers: wandering jew, Swedish ivy, vinca vine, asparagus fern
