Propagating in the Early Morning

Early morning is the best time for so many things including plant propagation. Taking cuttings when it is cool prevents them from drying out and losing too much moisture before they get prepared. If a cutting dries out it very well could be the end of the road for your potentially propagated plant! This morning, as I always try to do before 7:30 AM, I went out to the garden to find something to do. It's never hard to find some task or job that needs done, but I decided to take some cuttings. I didn't really need to take any cuttings but it is one of my favorite things to do in the garden. I accomplished a lot over the weekend in the garden and I felt that taking a few cuttings would be a good reward.

Here are the cuttings I took today:

Plant	Type of Cutting	Total Cuttings
Red Twig Dogwood	Greenwood, stem tip	2
Catmint 'Walker's Low' Nepeta faassenii	Stem tip	7
Mediterranean White Heather	Stem tip	6
Viburnum 'Shasta'	Stem tip	2
Silver Mound	Greenwood, stem tip	2
Unknown Variety of Sedum	Stem tip	2
Dragon's Blood Sedum	Stem tip	2
Blue Spruce Sedum	Stem tip	1
Salvia nemorosa	Stem and stem tip	3
Astilbe	Stem tip	2
'Purple Homestead' Verbena	Stem tip	4
Russian Sage	Greenwood, stem tip	1

The astilbe is experimental and probably won't work, but you never know if you don't try it right? The red twig dogwoods are from greenwood cuttings which are more sensitive to moisture, or the lack of it. They are supposed to root faster than the hardwood cuttings but hardwood cuttings of red twig dogwood root very easily.

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Blue Skies Smiling at Me

This morning I went out to tinker in the garden and had to capture some of images of the clear blue skies overhead. I was out taking cuttings on this cool spring-like morning that I'll share a with you later today.



The sky began as mostly overcast with a few spots of blue shining through.


Soon the overcast skies gave way to puffy cottonball-like clouds on a background of blue.


The clouds were parting above our Tulip poplar, the state tree of Tennessee.


As I finished feeding the birds I took one last picture of the sky. A clear day is ahead, have a good one!

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What's Not to Like About 'Homestead Purple' Verbena?

What's not to like about 'Homestead Purple' Verbena? The only answer I could come up with to my own question is that I don't have enough of it! It is a fantastic flowering ground cover. 'Purple Homestead' grows very well with little care in full sun. It's also a perennial here in Tennessee.


Do you know Allan Armitage (Armitage's Native Plants for North American Gardens) and Mike Dirr (Viburnums: Flowering Shrubs for Every Season)? You've probably heard their names before. These two University of Georgia professors, horticulturalists, and authors are responsible for the discovery of 'Purple Homestead' verbena. According to an article by retired Arkansas Extension Agent Gerald Klingamen, the two Georgia professors were driving to Athens when they spotted a large mass of Verbena on a homestead (hmm, could that be where the name came from?). They stopped to inquire about the plant but the lady who owned the property didn't know much about it. She allowed Armitage and Dirr to collect some cuttings and now it's in garden centers and nurseries everywhere.


It's hard to beat these purple blooms that flower prolifically throughout the summer. We have three of these plants with two more coming from cuttings. One of verbenas was in our mailbox garden and mysteriously died. I suspect it may have had too much moisture. It really looked fantastic this spring mixed with 'May Night' salvias and an Achillea (yarrow). I had just bought two more small plants for other locations when it passed away. The verbena in the first picture was a cutting from our first one that I rooted last summer so technically we still have the first plant since this one is a clone. It's growing thick and strong in our front porch garden.


This verbena bloom is forming a near perfect circle with its flowers. They root very easily from cuttings or you could divide them each year if you want more, who wouldn't?



I wish I could take a photo of the verbena flowers when they are bathed in the moonlight. I doubt my camera would get a great shot but they seem to glow an effervescent purple when reflecting the moonlight. It would be a perfect ground cover flower for a night garden.

Can you figure out what's not to like about 'Purple Homestead' verbena? I sure couldn't!

Want More?
Here's some information on propagating 'Purple Homestead' Verbena.

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My Vegetable Garden Layout Revisited

I suppose it's human nature to second guess oneself and lately I've been wondering if the vegetable garden layout I decided to make was designed the best way. It's very functional and all the vegetables have been growing wonderfully (until a couple pests came along, but that isn't related to the garden's layout.) Aesthetically the layout works well and there is plenty of space for our little vegetable crop, but there are a few things that could be tweaked.



Right now the area inside the rabbit fence is grass. Having grass inside the garden creates a small problem: it's inconvenient to mow around the irregular shapes. Mowing near the fence is difficult since the mower gets caught in the fencing. Around the beds I just can't get close enough to get all the grass and either a trimmer or a set of shears is needed to make the area look good. It might have been made easier if I had just done simple rectangular beds. My solution (that I haven't gotten to yet) is to take cardboard and lay it down over the grass then mulch. If I have mulch there the mowing won't be necessary. I would eventually like to have a steppable ground cover like elfin thyme covering the mulched areas. I've considered a gravel based mulch but I've heard some people swear against. Please don't swear as this is a family friendly blog but what do you think?

The beds are almost four feet across which makes planting in the center hard to reach. Planting in two rows should work better for next year. A three foot width would probably have worked well but I like having the extra space.

I still have some work to do. The outside perennial bed isn't ready yet. The left side is started and has been planted rather haphazardly. A mixture of "whatever I didn't have a spot for" seems to find the ring. The one ring. The one to hold them all and in the garden bind them. OK that's enough channeling my inner Tolkien. So far I only have one butterfly bush planted there. It's the one in the lower left that came from a cutting I made over the winter. I know he's glad to be planted. Daylilies, sunflowers, a canna lily, zinnias, a scarlet runner bean, and some cosmos have all found a home in the ring. Hodgepodge doesn't even begin to describe it. Eventually I'll move those plants into a better home, but for now the ring is their home.

I need to fashion a gate for each side. Right now I have creatively (or really, cheaply) allowed the fencing to overlap so it will form a flexible gate at each end. It seems to work since I haven't had any bunny attacks in the vegetable garden. Two wooden picket fence-like gates are on the agenda, just somewhere toward the bottom this season's list.

I would like to expand the ring a couple feet outward but that will have to wait for now. It's getting hot in Tennessee and planting might have to wait a while.

There's always too much to do isn't there?

A few other layout posts:

A Birdbath Garden Layout
Herb Garden Layout
Herb Garden Layout (Corridor Pathway)
Sidewalk Garden Layout
Vegetable Garden Layout
Vegetable Garden Layout for Companion Planting

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Enemies of the Garden: Squash Vine Borer and Cucumber Beetle

I've been riding a gardening high since everything seemed to be going so well. The summer squash has been putting out squash prolifically and everyday there have been more cucumbers to pick. Things are changing. Now there are some pesky pests who are honing in on my vegetables. The squash vine borer and the cucumber beetle are the villains.

These two garden pests have mercilessly dined upon my beloved vines. The squash vine borer is an ugly little thing in its larval state, which is where it does the damage. I was examining a cucumber beetle that had landed on the squash leaf and decided to knock him away. When I knocked the beetle off a large leaf of my squash plant came off too. That's when I found the rear end of this squash vine borer mooning me. As if he hadn't offended me already by damaging my squash plants.




There's not much that can be done now. I haven't used any pesticides this year which may have allowed these guys to find my plants. All I can do is manage the situation. I'll attempt to remove the borer then bury the squash vine under more dirt. This will allow the squash vine to root in more places and will lessen any possible die back from borer damage and girdling.




The cucumber beetle wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the bacteria it carries. I noticed about a week ago that the cucumber leaves seemed to be wilting in the heat of the day. Since it was in the mid 90's and the plants needed watered I didn't think too much of the wilt at the time but it turns out I should have. The cucumber beetle carries with it a bacteria that causes bacterial wilt. It transmits the bacteria to the plant either through its mouth or through its excrement. In the first picture below the damage doesn't look bad until you look a little closer.



Unfortunately there is no cure. My vines have a terminal illness.




Here's the culprit who brought the devastation to my cucumber vine. By all appearances he looks like a friendly little beetle. Some of his relatives even have stripes. The University of Kentucky Department of Entomology has some information on preventing cucumber beetles from damaging your crop, but for my vines it's too late.




I'll try to start over with some new vines since I have plenty of seed. Hopefully they will do well but for now I'll harvest everything I can until the vines die off.

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Before 7:30 AM

One of the best times to work out in the garden is the early morning before 7:30 AM. Anytime thereafter the temperature and humidity skyrockets, at least here in Tennessee. Early morning is also one of the best times for watering. It gives the plants water in the coolest part of the day when they can absorb the most since it doesn't evaporate as fast. You also avoid the heat of midday which can contribute to fungal diseases. Fungi likes warm and wet. For me working before 7:30 AM is essential since anytime after that my little girls could wake up for the day.

Here's a few of the chores I got done before 7:30 AM this morning:

I Transplanted

I transplanted several English laurels into either larger pots or dirt. They all came from cuttings. Four of the laurels were recent cuttings that have be crying out for re-potting for quite some time. They just weren't happy staying in the sand. The other four were from cuttings I put into one large pot in the fall. They had a good deal of new growth and needed moved into separate pots. Now these 8 laurels will grow in their current pots until fall when I'll transplant them into the ground.

I also transplanted my Father's Day Japanese Maple into a larger pot. I have a great idea of where to plant it in our landscape but the spot isn't ready yet and probably won't be for at least a month, and most likely a bit longer. Until then a pot will have to do, besides fall is a better planting time for trees and shrubs then 90 degree June days.

I Watered

I watered some daylilies near the vegetable garden, watered all the pot transplants, and watered a few plants I put in the other day like Butterfly Weed, Salvia lyrata, ajuga, and a Silver mound (artemsia).

I Planted

My new additions to the garden include monarda and a neat little fern that I picked up from my wife's Aunt's garden. I have some research to do to find out the name of the new fern. It was in her garden that I found the variegated hydrangea.

I Took Cuttings

My sidewalk garden is coming along nicely with the silver mound forming a fluffy border that I want to continue down the length of the sidewalk. I didn't have enough plants to do that yet so I made five more cuttings of silver mound. It roots easily and thrives in our hot climate. I also collected three more cuttings of my Russian sage. I only took from branches that weren't forming flower stalks. Those stems should create a few more branches and make a bushier plant.

I Drank Coffee

When I finished I drank a cup of coffee. Yep I needed that!

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Taking Variegated Hydrangea Cuttings

While we were out of town this past weekend we visited one of my wife's aunts. She has a custom built log cabin in the woods surrounded by her garden. Since her property is very shady one of the most prominent plants in her garden is her hydrangeas. She has several kinds of hydrangeas that I'll show you in a later post, but I was fascinated by her variegated hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla). In the picture below you can see why. Even without blooms you would have an interesting plant to admire because of its variegated foliage, and the flowers aren't half bad either!




Here's a closeup of the variegated leaves. It has a creamy colored edging that sneaks inward toward the dark green heart of the leaf.




Can you guess what I did? Of course you could, it's in the title of this post. I took cuttings! I managed to limit myself to four suitable stem tip cuttings for rooting. Each cutting has at least 2 nodes along its stem not including the node with the top leaves, 3 nodes in all.


One of the challenges I faced with the hydrangea cuttings was transportation. I needed a way to keep them moist over the course of a few days. I couldn't root them while away from home so the solution was a plastic bag. By wrapping the cuttings in a moist paper towel I was able to keep the cuttings from drying out. I kept the cuttings indoors over the next couple days in a cool location until I was able to get to them. I took the cuttings on Saturday and rooted them Tuesday morning.


When I was ready to stick the cuttings I got my potting medium ready. It wasn't anything complicated, just plain old sterilized playground sand in a cleaned out plastic container.



Then I put some rooting hormone powder into an old yogurt cup. Cleaned out of course! I try to re-use what I don't recycle then recycle what I re-used. It's a good idea to use a cup like this then discard the hormone to prevent spreading possible diseases or contagions through the new cuttings.



Then it was time for a dip. I made sure that the cut ends of the hydrangea cuttings were damp by running them for a second under some water. Then I dipped them in the powder and shook off any excess.


Finally I stuck the cuttings into the sand and watered them. It may be unconventional but I don't put drainage holes in the sand containers, nor do I use misters. I've found that as long as I keep the sand damp, not soaking wet, that the cuttings do fine. This is probably because the sand is (or should be) completely sterile. If I monitor the moisture every couple days then I should have some newly rooted variegated hydrangeas in a couple weeks! Once these baby hydrangeas have rooted I'll give you a peak at their roots.



If you want more information on plant propagation check out The Basics of Cuttings.

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A Woodland Shade Garden Design Process

Very soon (July) a wedding will take place in the backyard at my in-laws home. A while back I was asked to help spruce up the area around where the ceremony will be to help improve its aesthetics for the wedding. The property itself is roughly 6 acres of mostly wooded land with a cleared area near the house for yard space. Since the wedding will take place in the back yard, my mind went toward designing a shade garden area that would be well suited to the rustic charm of the forest. I wanted to let the area blend in, yet still stand out. In the picture below you can see the area for the garden. To the left of the area is where the wedding ceremony will be.


We began by laying out stones for a small border. Some of the stones were in fact large 200-400 pound boulders that it took three of us to move (You can check out those boulders in my post: Rock'N Roll). Most of the stones were easily handled by one person and loaded into a wheelbarrow then brought to the site from the surrounding woods. Stone is an easily found commodity at their house since they live on top of limestone hills.

After the stones were placed between the trees, I positioned the plants in an arrangement that I thought looked best. We selected Autumn ferns, 'Palace Purple' heuchera, various hostas, coleus, and a rhododendron. The rhododendron would have been accompanied by two others but they didn't have three of the same kind at the store. Since then I've rethought things slightly and would rather put in oak leaf hydrangeas where at least one of the rhododendrons was destined to go. In addition to the ferns we purchased I went into the woods and transplanted several of the native ferns into the shade garden.




My daughter loves walking on the stone border and posing for pictures as you can see!



Once everything was in place I began planting. Several varieties of hosta were planted including 'Wide Brim' and 'Patriot'. The stump in the background is a placed log and not a real stump but it does appear to have been there for a while.



You might be asking "why didn't you clear the grass and weeds that were there?" One answer would be "because I didn't need to" but the other, more honest, answer would be "because I'm lazy!" Both of those answers are true since we used one of my favorite planting techniques: newspaper! By layering the newspaper between the plants we put an effective weed prevention barrier that was easy to work around. To me newspaper is better to use in gardens than landscape fabric. It breaks down over time and you can plant things where it used to be. Also the roots don't get tangled up in the newspaper like they do in landscape fabric. I do like the fabric for under mulched walkways and areas where NO plants will ever be!


I moved several more logs to use for planters and to add a bit of woodland charm to the garden. The stump toward the middle of the following picture was once a cedar tree that is now a stand for a Boston fern. I thought that placing a log on its side would help to evoke more of the woodland mood.



From this angle you can see the three large boulders I mentioned earlier. the two on the left are easily 300-400 pounds and about 3 feet in length. Perfect stones to have a seat and drink some cool lemonade or anything else for that matter.




Toward the front I added a small ring of stones that connects to the garden but distinguishes a transplanted redbud (Cercis canadensis). Redbuds are all over Tennessee and fit in well as an understory tree to help add to the shady conditions. Their spring color is spectacular and their heart shaped leaves look great through all growing seasons.




Here is the redbud tree itself. It's a small one with a good root system.


I picked a tree that had a "Y" branching pattern. My thought was that it would grow nice and bushy over time.



The next couple pictures were of the woodland shade garden in April. Work was mostly finished except for mulching, which was just recently completed.





Here is a heuchera next to a stump.




A few of the ferns.





Here is one final look at the woodland shade garden in April.



Now the garden is almost complete. The mulch is covering up the newspaper and the plants are growing in their new home. Toward the back you can see two small flags where other plants may be planted in the future.



Remember the Rustic bench I mentioned? Here it is right next to the shade garden. One side of the garden has the convenience of the large stones that double as seating and the other side has this bench. No matter where you go you can have a seat to enjoy the sounds and sights of nature.




It's amazing how much adding mulch dresses up an area. Any volunteer weeds that pop up can easily be pulled.


Here is a look at the garden from the front. The log caladium planter is standing in the center where one of the little flags was. A few pieces of driftwood were added to enhance the rustic look. There is a tiki torch in the center that needs moved, but that can be done once we know where all the seats will be.

Hopefully this garden will enhance the enjoyment of the wedding for the guests. Even if it doesn't, I had fun putting it together!

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Cucumbers and Mutant Squash

This morning I while out in the garden I found a couple cucumbers ready to be picked,



and mutant squash!

Apparently we had a Siamese squash growing on the vine. Each side of this vegetable anomaly appears like it could have been it's own fruit.


They are almost exactly the same length and size but completely connected on one side.



Here is the blossom end of the squash. Tonight we will have the Siamese twin separation surgery, I hope all goes well...or rather tastes good!




We also had this giant squash on the vine. Before we left for the weekend I check for any that needed picked. Either I missed one or it just grew really fast. It's almost 9 inches long. I like to pick them between 4 to 6 inches.

Can you guess what we're having for dinner?

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A Japanese Maple for Father's Day

This post is a little late in coming, especially since I actually received my Father's Day present from my wife and children a couple weeks early. They gave me a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum). I always like unique plants in the garden and a Japanese maple adds some foliar interest with its delicately shaped and burgundy colored leaves. I have a great place to put it, right next to our backyard patio...oh wait I still need to build that! Well until then I'll pot it up in a larger pot with some soil to allow it to grow a healthy root system. Japanese maples actually make good potted plants since they are generally slow growing and tend to be smaller sized trees.


We used to have a Japanese maple in a pot but the frost last year destroyed it beyond recovery.

This week has been a busy one and we just back into town so I haven't gotten to all the posts I had planned for last week yet. I'll have my woodland shade garden post ready very soon. We finished it up last weekend when we were preparing for my brother-in-law's wedding.

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In the Clouds

The other evening some clouds were blowing. Here's a look at what we saw. A small storm was on its way through our area which is usually when you get most interesting clouds!


Please excuse the power lines. Half the neighborhood has them below ground, our half doesn't.

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Life After Death (New Uses for Old Wood)

I am always trying to find new uses for old things. To a some extent I'm a recycler, to an even greater extent I'm a pack-rat. It is just a hard thing for me to throw something away that I might want to use someday. Knowing this, it should come as no great surprise that I tried to find some new uses for the trees we cut down over last weekend (Timber!). I've always thought that if you take the time to think about what you have you might find some really interesting ways to re-use your old stuff. One example of that would be the makeshift hoe I mentioned earlier in the week.

Now what could I do with the old wood? Nancy was able to guess one idea, a planter! One of the trees that had to be removed had a cavity where a bird had made its nest. Most of the surrounding area on the tree was also hollow which made it the perfect spot to stick some dirt in to plant a plant! Now in the lower hole there is a caladium. At the top of the log there is another hole where we'll stick in another caladium or something else for the shade garden. I was hoping that when the tree came down the hole could be salvaged to make a birdhouse, but the log was hollow along too much of the trunk which would have made hanging such a large chunk of log on a post or tree impractical.


We also put together a rustic bench to put next to the shade garden (Chey suggested using the stumps for seats, that was pretty close). This was a very easy project to accomplish. First we found two logs that were roughly the same size. We put landscape fabric underneath the area so that no weeds will grow up from underneath the bench area. Then we placed and leveled the logs. A perfect level was not absolutely necessary since we want the water to run off the bench. That will help the bench last a little longer.


We brought a leftover 2" x 12" scrap piece of lumber from the construction of the house, measured it to four feet long, then cut it down to size. We attached the 2" x 12" to the logs and used the chips from the chipped branches as a layer of mulch underneath the bench.



We also used some of the logs as plant stands (Chey was on the ball with this idea too!). This large log from an old fallen cedar tree looks great when you put a large Boston fern on top!



Those are just a couple of the things you can do to give an old tree new life in the garden. In my last post, A Weekend's Work (Logs and their Lives), many people offered some great suggestions on using wood for different uses. Make sure you go back and read those comments!

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Dinner at Dave's

Tonight we were able to make good use of our vegetables from the garden. Here's a quick look at what my family had for dinner tonight!



Now the chicken was the main course and it didn't come from the garden but the squash did! I covered it in olive oil with a little salt and pepper then grilled the squash halves. We'll definitely be doing that again! The chicken is a new favorite of mine that I made up, Dave's Basalamic Chicken. The main ingredient in the marinade is Basalamic vinegar which tenderizes the chicken perfectly! I'll keep the other ingredients a secret for the time being.


Here we have some leftover fried squash from the other day. It's fried with onions, garlic, cornmeal, and flour.



Here are our green beans from the garden. I steamed them for dinner and they were perfectly crisp. Fresh green beans are so much better than the canned stuff! The squash and beans were good, but I can't wait for a tomato!

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A Weekend's Work (Logs and Their Lives)

This past weekend I mentioned that we were working on cutting down some dead trees. The trees came down without a hitch and then the real work began. We chipped and cut our way through the limbs and logs. After a quick count of the rings on one of the trees we discovered that it was around 50 years old. It could have lived longer had some ailment not befallen the poor tree. All that remains of the trees now are a few stumps in the yard that will gradually decay, ...



...a few woodchips, and ...




...firewood!




Hauling the logs was difficult work. Some of them were very heavy while the more rotten wood was much lighter. The chipper that made the wood chips was relatively easy to use and made toothpicks of the branches very quickly. This post is more than just a show and tell of logs and their lives. Some of these elements were reused for other purposes in the landscape. Can you guess what elements were used and for what? You have until I post again tomorrow to guess!

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How to Weed Between the Cracks of a Patio

Many people have patios with permeable materials like sand and pea gravel in the cracks. These patios are open invitations for weeds that decide to drop in and make themselves at home in those cracks! It doesn't take anymore than a seed to sprout an annoyingly hard weed to pull out. There are many methods that will work to clean out the cracks like a high concentration of vinegar, boiling water, and yes even herbicides (I don't like those too much) but how about a mechanical method?


This weekend I took out an old metal mop handle and put it to a new use. By flattening out the exposed metal end, a sharp and narrow headed hoe was created!


It may not look pretty but it was a perfect tool for severing those weeds from their roots. A periodic sharpening with a file will keep the blade end sharp (a good thing to do with shovels also).



Of course you could go out and spend $15 on a brand new hoe...

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Checking out My Vegetable Garden

Since we were gone for a few days one of the first things I did was check the vegetable garden's progress. Things are shaping up even if it is a bit unkempt. The tomatoes need tied off again. I'm using bamboo stakes and twine to tie off the plants as they grow. I could easily have used store bought tomato cages or cut my own from concrete reinforcement wire but I like the simplicity of a stake. A bamboo stake is easy to put in and take out and seems to work for me pretty well. Besides storing a stake is a whole lot easier than a tomato cage!



Nearly all the tomato plants are producing fruit (yep fruit, tomato is a fruit, definitely a fruit). Here you can see our cherry tomatoes forming on the vine. They are Sweet 100's that I can't wait to try in a salad or just to pop one in my mouth. Mmmm.



I think I've gotten rid of the aphids that were on the tomatoes. Multiple treatments of an insecticidal soap combined with fast blast of water from the hose and a follow up visit by a battalion of ladybugs did the trick! Aphids are no match for the orange and black polka dotted tanks. They were all over the tomatoes last week which caused the leaves to begin curling. They didn't do any permanent damage but they did cause me a little mental anguish.




The squash is gigantic right now. There's probably too much nitrogen in the soil and consequently I'm getting a little blossom end rot on the ends of the squash. Blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. The extra nitrogen prevents the squash from absorbing the calcium it needs for good fruit growth. I bought some pulverized lime today that I'll give to the plants. Lime's primary element is calcium so it should help but it could also change the chemistry of the soil so it is best to do a little at a time. I plan on mixing about a tablespoon of lime in a gallon of water once every week for the next couple weeks. I'll monitor and adjust with more lime as I need it but I don't want the pH to get too high (alkaline).


Speaking of the blossoms here are a few more too admire! Squash could almost be an ornamental plant if only the flowers were above the canopy of the leaves rather than below.


Here's another blossom, but this time it has one of my little employees buzzing around the garden. I offer the bees all they can eat in exchange for their pollination duties. I haven't received any complaints from my work force. To meet OSHA standards I lay off the pesticides and go organic as much as possible. Any insecticidal soap spraying I do occurs when the bees aren't active.




We have bunches of beans. I'll be harvesting a batch of these for dinner tomorrow. The more you pick then more you get, not a bad deal right? That holds true with the summer squash as well. These area bush bean variety which means that they really don't vine. I have a trellis for them but they seem happy enough without using it.


You can see some of the beans that are ready for harvesting.




Here' s a bean flower ready for pollination. Bean flowers can be very attractive as well. These are white but you could plant scarlet runner beans that are a beautiful red color.

One more look at a bean!

Here are some other vegetable garden posts:

Companion Planting Vegetable Garden Layout
The Benefits of Gardening in Raised Beds
My Vegetable Garden Layout
My Vegetable Garden Layout Part 2
Building My Raised Beds
A Vegetable Garden Update
A Rad Harvest (Radishes)
Here's the Squash

I'll get back to my talking about my weekend work tomorrow. The upcoming posts will include: The results of wood chipping, a makeshift tool for weeding patio cracks, and a woodland shade garden.

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Garden Blogger's Bloom Day: Asiatic Lilies

I am currently away from my garden so I thought I would share some Asiatic lilies from my mother-in-law's garden. The blooms are spectacular this year! The lilies are mixed together with a variety of other plants in a raised bed garden made from local stone. Enjoy the blooms!










For a look at other people's June Blooms go to Carol's site: May Dreams Gardens

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Japanese Dappled Willow (Salix integra) Revisited

Several weeks ago I wrote a post about one of my favorite shrubs, the Japanese Dappled Willow 'Hakuro Nishiki' (Salix integra). It's a fast growing variegated willow that works well as a privacy screen and is hardy in zones 4-9. It's deciduous so it will be bare over the winter but the new growth in the spring time is fun to look at. It pops out with reddish tints on the tips of the leaves that eventually fade to a white and green "dappled" coloration.




I have a row of these plants along one side of our property. I didn't buy a single one. They all came from cuttings of this dappled willow in the picture above. My in-laws bought a few of these several years ago and this one at the edge of their patio has really enjoyed its location. With an occasional pruning they can be kept in check. What is really cool and really easy to do is to sprout new plants from cuttings. Just take a piece 8 inches long or so and put it in water. A week or so later you will have a new plant. Alternatively you could put the cutting into dirt either in a pot or in the ground and keep it wet and it should do the same thing. Like other willows their branches have a high level of auxins and one to two inch cuttings of branches can be used as a substitute for rooting hormone. Just brew a tea with the clippings by putting a bucket of water filled with little cuttings to steep overnight and you can use the water to stimulate root growth.


Although I haven't done this yet these willows can be trained into a topiary form as well as into a weeping tree. You just have to be creative with the pruning! I hope to attempt both of these projects in the future as soon as I have time...I say that a lot.


A few of my pants may have come from this willow which is planted near the other one in the first picture. If you're looking for a fast growing ornamental shrub with the potential to become a great privacy screen think willow, Japanese dappled willow.

For more information on plant propagation take a look at this post: Propagating Plants for your Landscape.

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Timber!

Among the many chores I mentioned in my last post was the toppling of several large trees. There were three trees in that were dead and needed removal. At some point recently one of the branches of the trees fell and speared the ground below to a depth of 6-8 inches. To keep the trees in such a state in a potentially populated area would be very dangerous. Before the wedding these bare behemoths would need to come down. These trees were probably around 50 feet tall and while that isn't gigantic it's still pretty big for the backyard gardener to take out. If you are considering removing trees you may want to hire a professional. I had a structural engineer do it who happened to be my father-in-law. He really wanted the trees cut done since it was a necessary step to make the backyard safe. Here are some pictures of the trees before they came tumbling down.



There's a wood pile in front of the trees from another one that was cut down last week.



The tree on the left had no growth on it at all where the one on the right only had a few branches at the top green and lots of dead limbs.



This tree has been dead for several years now and was beginning to drop branches. The only sad part of the dead trees coming down was the unfortunate eviction of the bird in the tree's cavity.



Hopefully he will find a new home to nest in.

TIMBER!

Here is the current state of the backyard. Three trees fallen down that will need trimmed and shredded or hauled away.



My father-in-law did the cutting while I observed and assisted. Mostly I just yelled "IT'S COMING DOWN!!" loud enough so he could get out of the way. I'll be busy tomorrow cutting the limbs down to appropriate sizes to fit into a shredder which will turn the fallen trees into mulch. Some of the log sections will be used for other projects and firewood. I'll bring two sections home with me for a future project of my own. I'll tell you about that one later, any guesses?

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A Quick Wedding Landscape Preparation Update

I don't have any pictures ready for this post although I did take some. I'm working to prepare my in-laws landscape for my brother-in-law's wedding in July. Here's just a quick list of some of the projects we're working to complete.

• Weed the various gardens including a patio garden, a front yard sidewalk garden, a shady woodland garden and a raised bed garden made from stone. I'm just looking to get them into a manageable state. The difficult part of weeding the patio area is getting in-between the cracks. I found a trick for that I'll share with you soon!
  
• Mulch up the shady woodland garden. I designed and planted the garden a while back but haven't shared it online yet. After it's mulched up I'll share the process from beginning to end. I did share part of the rock border in a post a while back.
  
• Help take down a few dangerous trees. There are several dead trees on the property in the neighborhood of 50 feet tall. These need taken down for safety reasons. We sure don't want a wedding party to come to a crashing end. Just talk to Gail at Clay and Limestone about trees and close calls!
• Move various plants including a euonymous, two nandinas (not my favorite plant), and a bunch of volunteer coreopsis.
  
• Trim up some plants including a Japanese dappled willow(Salix integra) and a butterfly bush. The dappled willow is actually the mother plant of the willows I have in my yard as a deciduous hedge row.
• Random tasks that will probably pop up!

We only have a couple days to do all this so I'll be busy. I started a good chunk of the list tonight. Tomorrow we'll take down two more trees and I'll be working on the rest of this list!

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Making a Children's Garden

One thing that is important to me is that our children learn to appreciate gardening and nature. All kids should learn at some point how to plant a seed, how that seed becomes a plant, and what it takes for that seed to grow. Learning those three ideas will instill in the child an appreciation for where our food supply comes from, how people historically gardened and why, and just might get them hooked on a very worthwhile hobby or profession: horticulture!

What is the best way to foster this appreciation? By letting them get their hands dirty while making gardens.


It can be as simple as a few seeds in a pot or as elaborate as you can dream. You could even do what we did last Saturday morning and find a spot in the yard to drop in a children's garden. It doesn't take much effort to make something for the kids to enjoy, especially when the child is only two years old.

We went out into the backyard and found a spot that wasn't growing any grass and just had weeds in it. It was caused by some moles that had passed through our yard and were no longer occupying the spot. It's too late in the season to worry with planting grass there so it made the perfect location to plant a few seeds for the younger generation.

I skimmed the ground clear of all plant material. Thanks to the moles the dirt was very easy to work. The weeds on top skimmed off leaving a nice loose soil underneath. Of course my daughter had her shovel out and got into the event quite eagerly.


Once the surface was skimmed I went around the 3' x 5' bed and churned up the soil to the depth of my shovel head. This was surprisingly easy, we have some good dirt back there with very little clay.


Then we had to decide what to plant. When picking seeds for kids to plant it is a good idea to think of their hands and how well they can handle the seeds. The larger seeds can be easier to handle but you can also sprinkle the smaller seeds. It just depends on how dexterous your child is. Sunflower seeds are perfect due to their size. If we were planting vegetables, watermelon and beans would have been great choices for little hands to handle (we planted both of these plants in the vegetable garden several weeks ago). Zinnias are great for sprinkling as are many other types of seeds. We used mostly the seed I collected in the fall since we have a bunch of it. Coneflowers, coreopsis, zinnia, rudbeckia and sunflowers were all planted in her garden. The zinnias and sunflowers are on their way up. The others may never grow or may not show up until next year but that won't matter since the zinnias and sunflowers are sure things for this season. At her age she won't realize that some of the seeds didn't sprout, she'll just see the colorful flowers that did.


After planting seeds we had to water the garden. She and I both had our own watering cans for the job. Her garden was ready all that was left to do now was wait and watch it grow!

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Tennessee Wildflowers Blooming: Sulphur Cinquefoil

Thank you for all those who took a stab at the latest Name that Plant. Several of you knew exactly what it was, sulphur cinquefoil or botanically known as Potentilla recta. This wildflower member of the Rosaceae family grows between 16 and 32 inches long with palmate leaves that have 5-7 leaflets on the lower parts of the plant and only 3 toward the top. Its flowers have five petals which is where it gets its name. In Tennessee it can be found from the Western Highland Rim and eastward as well as Carroll and Shelby Counties (Memphis).

Much of the information in this post comes from Jack B. Carman's book Wildflowers of Tennessee. It is definitely worth getting if you are a wildflower enthusiast.

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A Rabbit Rant

I had really planned to put up a different post tonight, all about gardening with children featuring my two year old daughter. Unfortunately that post will have to wait for tomorrow since I'm still seething over tonight's discovery, a rabbit attack. This wasn't some killer attack rabbit from Monty Python. On second thought maybe it was but plants, not people, were its prey. The rabbits didn't attack the vegetable garden. All the vegetables in the vegetable garden are safe and secure behind the rabbit fencing. The birdbath garden wasn't ravaged either. It was my newly planted shade garden. The one with the hostas and Japanese Painted Ferns. The garden with the heucheras and an oak leaf hydrangea. It was also the garden where I acclimate my cuttings to the hot weather...all my cuttings...

Bugs and his buddies took it upon themselves to feast on my Japanese painted ferns. They aren't dead yet but they were ravaged pretty good. Hopefully they will bounce back. I had a little hosta in a pot hiding amongst it's larger kin and it was swallowed as an appetizer. Several of the other hostas were nibbled and gnawed and one small heuchera was snipped. What I am the most angry about was my cuttings. Eighteen chrysanthemums are no more. Eighteen! I can make more but these were several weeks old. A tray of Russian sage is now a tray of dirt filled pots, devoid of vegetation. One salvia was in that tray as well and it's gone also. A salvia lyrata that I was bringing back to life had its new growth unceremoniously snipped. It wasn't even eaten, just snipped. If Elmer Fudd were wandering this way I would gladly lend him a hand. Of course he never did seem to have much luck.

After these discoveries I went inside and grabbed the cayenne pepper and dried red pepper from the spice rack and sprinkled it all over the plants. Maybe if the rabbit thought his feast was fulfilling he might return and find someone has flavored his buffet. Tomorrow I'll make a concoction of pepper spray to periodically add as a salad dressing for the rabbits.

I did learn something though that may be very valuable for selecting rabbit proof plants. Small plants no matter what they are are good game for the rabbits. They will try them even if they don't like them and leave the unwanted remains behind. This is what happened to the Russian sage cuttings and the salvia lyrata. The rabbits don't seem to have much interest in heucheras which is another great reason to plant more. They didn't do anything to the oak leaf hydrangea or the Soloman's seal. The hostas and Japanese Ferns seemed to be the primary targets of the attack.

There was a cat hanging around the last couple weeks and maybe he was keeping the rabbits at bay. He hasn't been around the last few days but I'd like him to come back, I would even start feeding him...do you think he would like rabbit?

I can really identify with Elmer Fudd right now...wascally wabbit. You want war wabbit, I mean rabbit, I'll give you war!

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Tennessee Garden Blogger Update

Every now and then I take a look around the Gardening Blogosphere to see if there are any new Tennessee Bloggers. And every now and then I find a few! Of course I have to thank Gail of Clay and Limestone for finding DP at Squarefoot Gardening. One of the great things about garden blogging is that each gardener has a different way of doing things and you can learn something new every day.

Adventures in my Garden Cumberland, TN

How Our Garden Grows Chattanooga, TN

Squarefoot Gardening in Nashville Nashville, TN

Be sure to check out these new blogs and continue to visit the gardens of your old favorite Tennessee bloggers!

Clay and Limestone
Faire Garden
In the Garden
Jen-O-Topia
The Home Garden (you are here)

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Walking on a Saturday Morning to See the Sunset (Echinacea and Maple)

This Saturday Morning I walked around the yard doing some little garden chores. I stopped by a mum and clipped it back (and took the cuttings inside for propagating). I watered a few things around the gardens, mostly cuttings that have been potted up. I limbed up our 'Sunset' maple (Acer rubrum) to prevent some lower branches from getting too large. This red maple cultivar was the first tree we planted in our yard after we bought our house. With it we planted our hopes for shade. I trimmed three lower branches and I may trim one or two more to encourage more growth on the high end of the tree. It's a good idea to trim trees when they are small and easy to cut with pruners rather than a saw.





I continued to meander around the yard stopping often to gaze at what plants were blooming in our various gardens. In the Birdbath Garden the Echinacea x 'Sunset's are stealing the show.


Their peachy blooms shine brightly in the morning sun as the antithesis of the dawn. How often can one stand in the sunlight at dawn and see the sunset? Everyday brings this figurative phenomenon to life in my garden. At least while the growing season is sweeping along. It is joined by other flowers like salvia, coreopsis, and a butterfly bush but for now just look at the sunset.


Not every bud is in bloom but each of those buds bring the promise of a future 'Sunset' in the garden.

This majestic bud appears with its newly formed petals like a king's crown awaiting his coronation.

The coneflowers that are in bloom are a broadcasting beacon for pollinators (and myself as well).

The beauty of echinacea is easy to appreciate but especially when so little care is needed to make the plant perform. In fact you might have to work hard to prevent it from performing. But really, why would you want to do that?

Here's one last look at the 'Sunset' Echinacea.

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Crape Myrtle Propagation by Cuttings

One of the great flowering summer trees of the south is the crape myrtle. They typically grow well in zones 6-9 (Tennessee generally falls in the zone 6 area with a few areas in the 7). One of the growing traits of a crape myrtle that makes them good for propagating is their ability to sucker. On a crape myrtle the phrase "there's a sucker born every minute" really applies! They are extremely fast growers which also is good for easy propagation. This is my first attempt at propagating the crapes but I can conclude that they are easy enough for anyone with a little knowledge at propagating by cuttings to succeed.

In the picture above there are three crape myrtle cuttings that rooted successfully. I have several more cuttings in the garage that I accidentally pulled the roots off of when I tried to remove them from their container but I came close to 100% success. Those cuttings may re-root if left alone for a little while.

Here's what I did:

1. I took several suckers from an established crape myrtle that is around 15-20 feet tall. It's a tree form crape myrtle, which I prefer over the shrub-like form that is a result of improper pruning (i.e. crape murder). I tried to cut each stem cutting just below a node. The node contains the auxins that are necessary for root production.
   
2. I used rooting hormone on the cut ends then stuck them in sand and watered.
3. Then I waited and watched. I watched for new growth to form from the buds above the sand.
4. Once the stems had some budding on them I pulled gently on the cutting . If there was resistance it probably had roots. To remove the cuttings from the sand use a spoon, fork, or other small utensil to pry it up from underneath.
   
5. I potted them up and put the cuttings back that needed more time.
   

That's all there is to it. Crape myrtles are great flowering trees for your landscape and have awesome fall colors. Now you can make a few for yourself for next to nothing!

On a side note, sometimes crape myrtles will root in water!

Here are some other posts on propagating plants:

• Propagating Plants: The Basics of Cuttings
• What in the World are Plant Patents?
• 10 Easy Plants to Propagate for Your Home Garden
• Red Twig Dogwood
• Dwarf English Laurel
• Pyracanthus Augustifolia
• Butterfly Bush Cuttings Making Progress
• Adventures on a Warm Winter Day (Progress report on Butterfly Bush Cuttings)
• Holly Cuttings
• Burning Bush (Euonymous alata)
• Purple Leaf Plum Propagation
• Russian Sage Cuttings (Plant Propagation Update)
• 5 Days 4 Catmints (Nepeta faassinii)
• Propagating Perennials: Russian Sage, Salvia, and Coneflower

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Here's the Squash

One of our favorite vegetables to grow each year is the yellow summer squash. These are some of the best looking squash plants we've managed to grow. It could be due to the increased rain this year or maybe the raised beds, but whatever the reason the plants are looking full and strong. They should provide an abundance of squash this season.


While the plants look really good the blossoms look even better. This is where all the magic happens. The flowers are either male or female. You can recognize which is which by inspecting the base of the flower. If you see what looks like a small version of the fruit or a little nub you have found a female flower. You need good pollination for the flowers to produce squash so go easy on the pesticides and allow the busy bees to do their work.


Here is a recently pollinated squash with the newly forming fruit. Below it you can see a male flower beginning to blossom.


Here's another close-up of a squash blossom. Did you know you can eat the blossoms? I saw a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms today on television. It sounds interesting but I'll wait on the squash itself!


Here's another view from underneath the plant.


We like to fry the squash with a mixture of cornmeal, flour, onions, salt and pepper and sometimes garlic. It may not be the healthiest way to prepare your veggies but it does taste good!

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Another Tennessean's Shade Garden

There are so many variations a person can make for a shade garden. Often there are similarities between plant selections or plant placement but the individual responsible for putting them together has a significant impact. Recently another Middle Tennessean sent me a picture of her shade garden. Rachel put together a very fine display of foliage and blooms that I wanted to post for others to appreciate. In her garden she put azaleas, hostas, hollyhocks, lilies, coleus, and impatiens.


It looks great and those hostas are very happy. The Asiatic lilies add some flower color and height to the hosta foliage. Rachel's garden gets morning sun and afternoon shade.

It's fun to see what other people do with their gardens. If you aren't a blogger and would like to share a garden picture or two with other readers of this blog please send me a quick email with a description of your attached pictures. Feel free to tell me about your garden!

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A Rad Harvest

No you're not having a bad 80's flashback. The word rad in the title doesn't refer to big hair glam bands or jelly shoes but rather radishes! How could you even think of the other stuff? The radishes are in from the vegetable garden and are quite tasty.



Here's the bunch I pulled today. There are still a few more in the garden that were to small to pull. I'll see if they will grow a little more then I'll harvest them.


Here they are all cleaned up and ready for human consumption! There were ten radishes in all. The largest of them is in the upper right of the photo.

Here is a close-up of the smallest of the bunch. The two tiny radishes in the next two pictures should have stayed in the garden longer but I accidentally pulled them and didn't want to put them back. The smaller the radish the bigger the taste. These two little one's were so tempting...

that they are now...

...gone!

I can tell you though that the radish in the last photograph was the strongest! So what can I do with the rest of them other than eat them raw with dip, in a potato salad, or in a garden salad?

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Close Ups in the Bird Bath Garden

Here is one of our coreopsis plants with it's blooming like dozens of little yellow and red suns. I've recently discovered two small pots that have between 10-15 coreopsis seedlings in each of them. The rain garden I built will probably be a recipient of several as will the vegetable garden perennial ring.


And a close-up picture with some rain drops appearing from our recent rains. These are great plants, full of blooms and drought hardy. If you like yellow plants that need little care then you have your candidate!


Here is our Echinacea purpurea. I think I can confirm now that it is a 'Sunset' variety. I like the unique peachy color of this coneflower with its normal looking petals. I don't really like the double mutant forms that are available, they look like alien plants to me.


This coneflower has quite a few buds for us to enjoy. I'm really looking forward to watching its progress over the summer. Our 'Sunset' coneflower has given us three volunteer seedlings in our birdbath garden. I like little surprises like that!


Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus'. I took a close-up shot to show the variegated foliage. It will grow quite large but I plan to divide it each spring to make more plants. The large ornamental grasses can make a good privacy screens if you have enough plants to plant in a row. If you want to divide ornamental grasses it's a good idea to do it when the plant is about a year old otherwise you might need heavier equipment than a shovel!

Bird Bath Garden Related Posts:

My Bird Bath Garden on June 1st

A Birdbath Garden Layout

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My Bird Bath Garden on June 1st

As I promised in my post yesterday (Birdbath Garden Layout), here is what our birdbath garden looks like right now. I'm pleased with the effect even though there are some small planting gaps in the garden. It needs a border but I haven't decided what kind yet. For now it's just a trench border. I might go with a stone border imported from the in-laws property.



I began the garden with the idea of creating a rustic birdbath. We were given a copper birdbath several years ago when we were living in an apartment. It was really designed for mounting on top of a deck rail but I was able to adjust the copper flaps at the bottom so they could fit on top of a 4x4. The 4x4 came from a wooden palette that I tore apart and recycled for this and a potting bench. I sanded the piece down and left some of the dark spots alone. Then I stained it with a cedar stain. You can still see some of the discoloration from the original palette but to me that just adds to the rustic look.


The grass around this birdbath garden needs some help. It was overtaken during the winter with an insidious weed called chickweed (my wife actually likes this one). It spreads rapidly and prevents other plants from growing in those locations. I've peeled back large clumps of chickweed from the area and it has left gaps of exposed brown dirt in the turf. My advice on chickweed is to get it before it spreads! Unfortunately that does mean some winter time weeding.


Here's the garden from the backyard, please ignore the sad looking back porch. It's been neglected and ignored but its day will come. We have some improvements planned like lattice work and a raised bed planter that we haven't had time to do yet. On this end of the bed there is a small purple leaf plum that should grow into a nice small tree. I'll try to keep it trimmed back that way it doesn't overtake the garden. Even without their blooms the the irises stand out with their sword like foliage. The 'Caradonna' Salvia nemorosa needs deadheaded, the work never ends. But is it really work?


Here you can see our coneflower reaching up to the height of the birdbath. There is another plant on the opposite side of the birdbath that just hasn't done as well as this Echinacea purpurea. They are both the same and I'm sure it will come along in time. The coreopsis is doing great. I couldn't have hoped for a better set of blooms from a seed plant. Fall is a great time to plant perennial seeds. When spring comes their roots are established and the plant takes off.


The post for the birdbath still has nail holes that stand out a little, but I'm happy with the look. Not to mention the price! To the left is the front of the bed. There are a total of five salvias in this bed with three coreopsis plants. The irises will get trimmed eventually and won't be visible due to the foliage of the other plants. I may need to move a couple of these irises to give them room to grow.



To the right is the back of the birdbath garden. On the bottom and to the right is a mum from the discount racks last fall. It's a good idea to pinch back the mums through mid-July to get a nice bushy plant for great fall colors. I like to cut back the mums and root the leaves to make more mums. I have 18 potted up that need transplanted and several more started.


These plants seem to do well together. The echinacea in the back with a salvia and a coreopsis (or tickseed, I try to avoid that name since it sounds pretty undesirable!)


Behind the birdbath is the butterfly bush. This one is starting to bloom. It was a discount plant last fall ($5 if I remember right). They are extremely tough plants that perform very well in Tennessee. Don't be afraid to cut them back when they get too large.


Here's a view from behind the garden. Coneflower and coreopsis.


I didn't get a very good shot of the Zebra Grass (Miscanthis sinensis 'Zebrinus') but I'll have some close up pictures of the plants later this week. For now just look at the first picture on the left in front of the salvia. I would like to expand this small garden later on with more perennials for a greater variety but for now I'm happy with the way it is going.

The garden should fill in more as the summer progresses. All of these plants are perennials which is great since I shouldn't have to replant anything here. They are also drought tolerant which as we all found out last year is a good thing!

I hope you enjoyed this short garden tour. I'll be sure to update you on its progress!

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A Bird Bath Garden Layout

I've been working on establishing my bird bath garden over the last couple days. I'll show you the results soon but I thought I would show you the layout of the garden first. I've chosen plants that both the birds and the butterflies will enjoy for their diets. Of course the main reason I selected the plants was I liked them! These plants are generally low maintenance that should look great all through the summer and into our mid-south fall season.

Here's what you're looking at:

1. The bird bath. Every birdbath garden needs a birdbath right? I put together a copper birdbath onto a 4x4 post from an old wooden palette. I stained the post then hooked the bird bath to the top for a rustic appearance. The copper birdbath was meant for the top of a deck rail but I like using it this way better.
   
2. Zebra Grass. This goes by several names and botanically it is known as Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus.' It's a variegated ornamental grass that originally hails from somewhere in China (that's what sinesis means on the end of a plant name). The seed stalks make great food for the birds in the fall.
3. Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'. I can't say enough good things about salvia. It's a late spring to summer bloomer that re-blooms through fall if you deadhead it periodically. If you don't have one you need one, if you have one you need more!
   
4. Butterfly Bush. Also known as Buddleja davidii. This particular plant has bluish to purplish blooms that act as a magnet for butterflies. They grow fast and can take aggressive pruning. The flowers bloom on new wood so give it a trim every now and then to reinvigorate the flowering capabilities of the butterfly bush. In fact hacking it down to a couple feet tall may not be a bad idea each year! They can get very large if you let them go.
   
5. Coreopsis. I don't know the specific variety of these coreopsis plants since I raised them from collected seed but they have yellow petals with a bright red color toward the center. I'm very pleased with how they have grown. Coreopsis is also known as tickseed.
   
6. Coneflower. Coneflowers or Echinacea are great flowers that will give you more plants if you let them. I think ours are 'Sunrise' Echinacea purpurea but any kind would work here. They can be propagated through cuttings if you want to experiment. The birds like the seed heads so if you can stand to leave them be rather than cut them down with your fall prunings, you will make some happy little feathered friends.
   
7. Chrysanthemum. These are some red mums I bought off the discount racks last fall. Mums are perennials here in Tennessee. They require pinching back a few times through the growing season to hold back the blooms for fall. Until then they look like happy little green shrubs.
   
8. Purple Leaf Plum. Prunus cerasifera is nice for it's showy spring flowers and its dark purple foliage.
   
9. Iris. These are purple bearded irises that provide us with some mid to late spring color.
   
10. Birdfeeders. If your design is for the birds you should have a bird feeder! We have a shepherd's hook with two feeder hanging from it. Don't plant anything under a birdfeeder. The seeds that drop from it will sprout. I have our feeders over the grass so that I won't have to weed the unwanted sunflowers out of the garden beds.
    

There are many other plant combinations you could do to make a birdbath garden. Just make sure that the flowers will provide seeds for fall or winter and the birds will like it!

Here are some links to my other garden layouts:

Herb Garden Layout
Herb Garden Layout (Corridor Pathway)
Sidewalk Garden Layout
Vegetable Garden Layout
Vegetable Garden Layout for Companion Planting

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