Each Little World

Looking back at the gardening year: 2023

It was a very mixed year in terms of garden successes; a better year in terms of learning more about gardening in this changing climate. More importantly, acknowledging my bad habits online and in the garden.

I ordered a lot of plants online last winter. Come spring, it was clear that I had too many things to deal with at one time as we had frost for ages. That meant I had plants everywhere indoors and was wheeling big planters in and out of the garage day after day as night approached and bringing them out again in the morning. And that's after having potted them up in the garage and basement rather than outdoors on my work table. These up and down Spring temperatures seem to be one of our new norms.

I continued to add more shrubs, native and non, as a way to reduce maintenance, but keep the garden looking good. Last year's drought and extremely high temps reminded me that new plantings need an incredible amount of attention (and water) to survive the trauma of planting. I lost two expensive evergreens in short order and a third by late summer. Even old reliables suffered with the weather.

I may be the gardener and thus responsible, but I am going to blame my losses and other problems on our weather/climate issues. This year it was still too hot and dry to plant much in the autumn which historically has been an optimum planting time. I was still dragging hoses and watering cans around until it got cold enough that we had to turn off the outside faucets. 

I overwintered a Eucomis that I received as a door prize at a garden party in 2021 and fell in love with it. I want to try a couple more this year. I won't reorder any Calla lily which left me unenthused. In 2022 I planted a dozen Byzantine gladioli in two pots and swooned over them all season. So last year I planted 3 dozen in 5 pots and felt oppressed with watering and deadheading them. It was definitely a lesson in "less is more."

When I order plants online in the winter, I always know where I am going to put them so it feels like I have a plan. I am now going to admit that it is a dream and not a plan, given how many plants don't go where I intended. There's no room for them, they don't look good with their neighbors or they aren't getting all they require to succeed, like sun or moisture. Less ordering and more thinking needed. 

Now it's time for me to come up with a serious list of what needs attention in the garden and what plants or shrubs might I plan on getting, preferably locally. In the winter I am mentally gardening like a 35 year old. I need to remember that come spring, I am more than twice that age with a very large garden. Time to get real. 

Going forward

If you noticed the headline on yesterday's post you will have figured out that I republished my very first blog post to acknowledge my 15th anniversary of blogging. I started my blog after a 30-year career in journalism that ended as my liberal local newspaper left print behind and went digital. They needed to seriously reduce the staff and my job was eliminated as they reconfigured the newsroom.

Most of the people who left were like me: long-time journalists who were nearing retirement. None of us was ready to leave and we definitely were not ready to see our daily paper fade into the ether. 

All this is to say that I taught myself to blog to show that this old dog could learn new tricks. If you go back to my early posts you will see that they read like newspaper or even magazine articles; long, literary and covering a variety of subjects. Over the years I've pretty much concentrated on gardening as that has consumed more and more of my mental and physical energy.

I used to check my stats but haven't done it for years. Mark, however, took a look. He said that in fifteen years I've put up 3,005 posts or 200 times per year or every 2 days; however one wants to break it down. I've averaged 222 page views per day or 404 per post. You've commented 16,328 times or 5.5 per post. Not exactly an influencer or as influential as a number of you whose excellent blogs have resulted in books, lectures and more.

These days I'm self-publishing my own garden books but I was on the lecture circuit for years; going back to the early 1990s using slides. I've got a library of over 7,000 slides that are all archivally filed, labeled and cross-referenced and I'm on my 26th volume of hand-written garden journals.

All of which is to say that I'm 76 years old. If I want to read more, draw more, make more books, see friends more — do anything more often — then blogging needs to happen less frequently. How much less?? I'm not sure; but definitely on a more random schedule when I have something to share. I know many of you only at a distance. But I've met a surprising number of you in person because you brought a tour here (Daniel Mount), were visiting Madison (Flingers, Kris in Kansas City) or you live here and read my newspaper columns long before I stared blogging. 

I may be ready to blog less but I'm not ready to give up all these blog-related relationships. My e-mail is listed on the blog so we should all be able to keep in touch easily. I will try to see if I can find a system that works for you to sign up for notifications when I post. And you can also do what I do on many blogs I read, just periodically stop by to see what's happening and leave a comment. I will still be here and I know you want to see how our road construction project finally turns out!

Let me close by saying that the idea of blogging less makes me feel panicky. For 45 years the first thing I've done almost every day is sit down at a computer of some kind and start writing essays, op-eds, editorials, lifestyle stories, columns and blog posts. It is going to be a hard habit to break. 

The first image is a snap of all of us who left the newsroom in 2008. Some of us, me included (in the blue sweater center left), are automatically smiling when faced with a camera. But you can see on some faces what a very bittersweet moment it was. 

The third photo shows Wisconsin native Daniel Mount leading a group of PNW gardeners on a tour of Midwest gardens and prairies. 

The fourth photo was taken the day Daniel Mount's tour group visited our garden. Blogging has resulted in me becoming interested in photography and in preserving the history of our garden, in words and pictures.

The last photo shows the crew putting in the new storm sewer in front of our property. They've now started to prepare the roadbed for paving, but that's still a ways away.

Slow spring

There are a few upcoming frosty overnight lows, but most plants seem to be dealing with the temperature swings. It's only the gardener who's having a hard time. Luckily I can use the rain this week as my excuse for not getting any work done out of doors — other than constantly checking plant progress. The real progress here has been the next phase of the street project. 

The street crews are getting a lot of work done. The gas company almost has the new main gas line in place and piles of huge cement rainwater and sanitary sewer pipes were unloaded all along the street the week. I dragged Mark out to photograph me next to a few of them in order to give you a sense of scale. The pair above are sitting on the lawn of the neighbors across the street. I'm standing behind the one below. 

It has openings on two sides so it will be interesting to see where it goes. 

As you can see the pipes range greatly in size.

This row of pipes are oval rather than round. 

I thought it would be consistently warmer by now and thus set up mid-and-late April delivery dates for plants I ordered on line. Two down and another one this weekend. Interestingly Digging Dog Nursery in California sent me an email saying they are moving my shipping date back from April 18 to May 18 because it has been so cold at their nursery. 

On again, off again

It rained most of last Sunday (4/16), eventually turning into snow. It was so wet and miserable I decided not to go out and cover any plants — despite the fact that the overnight low was going to be quite low. All week the forecast kept going down.

When we got up Monday mooring it was 27°F and snow covered the garden. We left the house at 6:30 a.m. for Mark's first cataract surgery. Got home around 10 a.m. which is when I took the snowy photos. All the gravel and stones melt the snow quickly.

But the plants were still well covered. Hellebore 'Jade Tiger'

Fritillaria 'Raddeana' on Monday morning.

F. 'Raddeana' at 10 am Tuesday morning. The snow is mostly gone but these flowers are only standing up by virtue of their cages. 

Just about complete recovery by 6 p.m.

That's pretty much the case with the plants I was most worried about — like Paeonia 'Nosegay' pictured in the a.m. and p.m. yesterday.

This very early blooming Peony is a second generation cross between P. mlokowitschii and P. tenufolia. I adore it. A 2014 purchase from the late, great Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery. 

I'm hoping everyone stands up straight again and that their buds haven't been fatally frozen. I went back in my records to 2018 and discovered that I'd covered plants to protect them from April frosts a good 4 or 5 times in four out of the five years. With climate change it seems our weather is more unpredictable than ever. I am thus moving toward an attitude where the plants have to survive without me. 

As I write this it's 39°F (3.88°C) but feels like 33 °F. (0.55°C) Rain is forecast for 6 out of the next 10 days. I'm good with that; less happy about the overnight lows that are forecast for this coming weekend. 

The alphabet garden

Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin often talks about plants in terms of the alphabet. Though we have only 26 letters in our alphabet, he notes that we come up with an endless variety of words and ways to use them.

Thus 26 different plants would give you more than enough garden options for a lifetime. Since I keep a record of all of my plants on individual index cards, Diblik's concept sent me looking at my alphabetically-arranged list of perennials. Here's what I discovered:

• There are no plants under "F." Instead I use "F" for my many, many ferns. 
• I have a mere 3 plants whose name begins with "K" and only 2 under "M."
• I have no perennials whose names begin with "N" or "O" or "W, X, Y or Z."

As for the other letters of the alphabet, some have a number of different plants listed. Others are almost exclusively one group as the following letters show:

B is for Brunnera

E is for Epimediums

F is for ferns

G is for Geranium

H is for Hellebores and Hostas

I is for Iris

P is for Primulas and Peonies

T is for Tricyrtis and Trilliums

What this little exercise did was to let me quickly see what plants I favor over others. I was not at all surprised as I know these are my favorites. It does suggest, however, that I should use this list as a quick way to see if I have enough variety in terms of size, texture, season, color and all the characteristics that make for effective plant groupings. An easy task for a winter day that will help me when I hit local nurseries come spring.

A look back at 2022

As gardening years go, 2022 was an unusual one. We had three major garden tours: One each in June, July and August. Won't ever do that again. I felt like all I did was get the garden in shape for other people. It was fun on one level, but it also kept me from just hanging out in my own garden.

This coming garden season I will be alone in my garden as the city will be tearing up our street for a summer-long project. So I will get to see if I really prefer that.

Here's a more detailed look back at 2022. 

JANUARY

I ordered more plants on-lilne at the start of the year than ever before. I'm not sure if I've even got room for much else, but I am currently getting emails from nurseries left and right. 

FEBRUARY

When Mark built the fence across the back of our property, he encased the old cherry tree that was growing there. We should have taken it down but we were using any extra cash for garden design and plants in those days. The tree finally came out in February making it possible to see the spectacular Dawn Redwood in our neighbor's garden.

I love watching the arborists work in the most awkward situations. 

MARCH

The Witch Hazel put on a great show before any other plants were pushing up.

APRIL

April Food's Day gave us snow and then the temps started climbing quickly . . .

until it snowed again mid-month. Pretty common weather for us.

MAY 

For the first time in long time, I planted multiple containers. Some had shrubs waiting for a final home, some were filled with bulbs or houseplants like Begonias. A big Buttonbush shrub in a pot is temporarily filling the space where half of a large Pagoda dogwood died over the winter. 

JUNE

We drove out to Vermont at the beginning of the month for my sister's memorial celebration, which was a lovely event. I dug these Primroses out of her garden to add to my garden as a way to remember her. 

A week after we got home, Mark had surgery for his A-fib and the following week the Garden Blogger's Fling visited us. Lots of fun to see long time blogger friends and meet new ones.

We we so pleased that at least a couple of people actually went into the Tea House and sat down. (I downloaded this photo from the Fling site and don't have any id's.)

JULY

I took advantage of the city putting off tearing up our street to invite members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society to stop by. This photo is by Steven King, the new president of the Wisconsin Daylily Society. I love the images he and other visitors took of the garden. So often standing in places where I had never thought to stop with my camera before. 

AUGUST

The first week of August I took advantage of early sales and bought even more plants. These are all from our local nursery, K & A.

SEPTEMBER

I spent a chunk of the month ripping out and redoing areas that had never quite been finished or had become problematic for many reasons. Two new shrubs were added in this narrow bed on the west side of the house. 

OCTOBER

We had spectacular fall color everywhere in the garden and it lasted and lasted. A memorable autumn. 

We took out another old and diseased evergreen tree (you can see the stump below), along with a Korean maple that had succumbed to verticillium wilt. Our arborists also did pruning on the trees that had suffered winter damage. 

NOVEMBER

All the problems I had with Typepad got me thinking about archival projects. I've kept years of big and little journals on the garden, trips, menus and parties. Now I've started making some physical books to remember the garden down the road when we're no longer living here.

DECEMBER

On December 9th we had such heavy wet snow that Mark went out to try to clean off the trees. I went out the following week to do the same after the next snow fall. On Thursday, Dec. 23, I noted that it was -7°F (and felt like -29°F, according to WeatherBug) at 9 p.m. The next Thursday, Dec. 29, the high was 50*F. which made the snow disappear overnight. Not really sure what to expect next.

Though we have a lot of winter left to get through here, I'm anxious to get out in the garden and hopeful that most of my new plantings will have successfully weathered our winter. 

New plants for 2022

Yes, I am ordering online again, long before local nurseries will open. It's possible I'll discover I would have been able to buy some of these locally, but I am not going to wait and see. I've ordered very few perennials; concentrating instead on ferns and Carexes that will be happy in my mostly shady garden and some shrubs that will help me cut down on maintenance. 

Here are a few of the plants I've ordered, though I know that ordering things early doesn't always mean you will get them. Fingers crossed.

. . .

Asplenium-scolopendrium-Furcata, a hart's tongue fern with lots of fascinating splits. I've had mixed luck with these but plan to add this to the two that have been in my garden a long time.

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

I have had excellent luck with Dryopteris ferns and am always interested in adding more. Dryopteris-cambrensis, aka log fern, can supposedly deal with more heat and humidity than many ferns. It gets 30" x 3' which should be quite a sight eventually. 

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

I've been successful with autumn ferns, making it sensible to try this one: Dryopteris erythrosora var. prolifica (prolific lacy autumn fern). PDN says it's drought tolerant and that the fronds emerge cinnamon red. 

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

This drama queen looks too good to pass up, so I ordered three. Dryopteris wallichiana 'Jurassic Gold' hails from the Jurassic coast of England. Will it really look like this? I'll let you know. 

WHITE FLOWER FARM

I also ordered three of Dryopteris affinis crispa 'Congesta', a dwarf crisped golden-scaled male fern. I tend to have more large ferns and don't find many small ones that appeal to me. 

KEEPING IT GREEN NURSERY

I've had a lone Osmunda claytoniana, Interrupted fern, growing in the front garden for years. I decided it was time to give it some company, so I'm adding two more. It's a Wisconsin native. 

PRAIRIE NURSERY

I ordered five Carex exurbina, Ivory sedge, to put around the big tree off the deck. At 6"-1' x 1' they will be small enough that I can slip a shrublet in between, but big enough to make a statement. 

PRAIRIE NURSERY

I planted one Carex morrowii 'Silk Tassel' last summer and like it so much I'm adding five more this summer. At 1' x 2' they will make a lovely contrast on the Tea House berm with evergreen shrubs, blue Hostas and Hakonechloa grass. 

PLANT DELIGHTS NURSERY

I have been lusting for a ruby muhly grass for years and finally found one listed for Zone 5, Muhlenbergia reverchonii 'Undaunted'. Really looking forward to giving this a try.

WHITE FLOWER FARM

Before I ordered anything I determined where the plant would go. Then I made my usual id cards for each plant and noted its exact location on the back side of the card. At first I grouped the cards by the nursery where I ordered them.

Later I decided it made more sense to group them by the location where they would be planted. That way I can mentally go through what is already growing, what I'm adding and whether I need anything else.

Flower Factory Forever

First it was Roslyn Nursery, then Heronswood, then Seneca Hill Perennials — poof! Here for years and then suddenly gone. I still have plants from all of those memorable nurseries. But they were "paper" places; I read their catalogs but never shopped in person at any of them.

They were coastal destinations, not friends and neighbors like Nancy and David Nedveck, hands-on owners of The Flower Factory, down the road from Madison. You run into them at local garden events as here at Olbrich Botanical Gardens before we all went inside for a talk by Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter in the UK. 

The first plants that I bought for my very first garden, a rather simple affair located behind my apartment, were from the Flower Factory at Madison's original downtown Farmers Market. To a new gardener, stopping there was a weekly slice of heaven. These days I can't remember the last time I went downtown on a Saturday morning and socialized with David; now I always drive out to the nursery so I can bring home a heavy haul.

I usually go out to the nursery a couple of times a season. I always sit a minute in my car anticipating what fun I am going to have shopping here. 

Then I meander along the incredible flower border running the length of the adjacent hoop house. 

Next I turn around and walk over to take a closer look at the plantings across the parking lot. Just a glance at those bright pink Dianthus carthusianorum told me why mine are not as happy as these. Mine are in soil that's too rich and moist: A garden lesson learned and I haven't even left the parking lot! Hasn't that always been one of the benefits of buying locally? We can learn just by looking, let alone consulting Nancy or David and their staff. 

This little green-roofed building always makes me smile. 

I save the Hosta houses until last. That way I don't bang up those big leaves while I shop. 

I peek in but don't stop. (photo below from April, 2010)

If the weather looks threatening, I wear my hooded rain jacket leaving the umbrellas for those who need them! I usually look like a gardener when I go to FF: boots, jeans and an old T-shirt, gloves, a hat. Now and then people have asked me for help because I looked like I must work there.  

Most of these photos are from 2016/17 and don't begin to show the kinds of container plantings and inspirational displays that abound at Flower Factory these days. I've been seduced more than once by plants that were unfamiliar or just so beautifully grouped into a display that I had to take some home with me. 

Even though I always bring my FF catalog and have a specific plant shopping list in hand, I don't think I have ever managed to get away without at least one impulse buy. 

I started filling an index card with relevant information (including source) for each plant I purchase beginning in the late 1980s and still do so. Thus I know I bought my first Japanese painted fern at FF in 1989; my first Toad lilies in 1996 and Geranium macrrohrizum in 1998. These are stalwarts in my garden.

More recently I started taking a photo of my plant purchases before I leave the Flower Factory or as soon as I get home. It's a great visual record of what I bought when.

These wagon loads are from early spring, 2010.

August, 2016

August, 2017

June, 2019

September, 2019

I would not be the gardener I am nor have the garden I do if not for Nancy and David. The incredible variety of plants they offer each year (2,500 in 2019) is only one small part of what they've given us. On-the-spot plant identification and advice no matter when or where I run into them. Presentations to garden groups large and small. Their catalog has a page of general gardening information in the back and they provide an entire alphabet list of uses for their perennials ranging from drought and salt tolerance to plants that like it wet or are fragrant and on and on. 

In my gardening heart-of-hearts, I've known that one of these days David and Nancy would retire. Why wouldn't they? Lots of us did it years ago, which is why we have all this time to garden. Running a nursery on the scale and complexity of Flower Factory is a job that never stops and rarely slows down. It is a business that is subject to the vagaries of weather and the whims of the gardening world. Those of us who live in Dane Country and the Upper Midwest have been luckier than most American gardeners to have such a rich source of plants and pleasant nursery folks right on our doorstep. Best wishes to David and Nancy as they take this next step on their journey.

The other zonal denial

Since I don't have a greenhouse or room indoors to keep marginal plants alive when the temperatures fall, I've pretty much avoided growing things above my USDA Zone. But in the spring of 2017, I tried a little zonal denial by planting a beautiful Alstroemeria 'Inca Ice' and a Sarcococca 'Fragrant Valley.' Both of these are plants that typically need a zone warmer than where I live. But these varieties were both listed as hardy for my zone. Alas, they died along with a depressing number of older shrubs and trees in the winter of 2017/18 when we had extremely cold temperatures with little to no snow cover. In fact, our biggest snowfall last season happened in late April.

PHOTO: DEC. 15, 2017

When I look at the print garden catalogs that are now arriving in the mail, I always look to see what zones are listed at the end of a plant's description. When I go plant shopping online, I tend to click on all those special ways of digitally searching — like listings of new plants, rare plants or those that a nursery has hybridized themselves.

Now and then I look at what plants a nursery offers that are specifically appropriate for my USDA hardiness zone. When I used my Zone 5 as a search tool recently, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment. Something I've known for as long as I've gardened in Wisconsin was right there in front of me; I realized I had been seeing it but not really acknowledging it in recent years. 

What I saw were the temperatures that go with a Zone 5 designation:

USDA Zone 5a:  —20° to —15° degrees F.

USDA Zone 5b: —15° to —10° degrees F.

In reality, we recently woke up to a low temperature of -28° with a wind chill of -48°,  significantly colder than the expected lows for Zone 5.

PHOTO: MARCH 2, 2017

According to the map, I live in Z5b. I have an urban garden which makes it a little more protected but I have been ignoring, if not denying, that very cold zonal truth. We've had multiple snowstorms since the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21). They've beautifully covered garden with a deep blanket of snow which I hope was enough to protect everything from the Polar Vortex temperatures we just went through. We had a few days were the temps went up into the mid-40s: a change of 70°almost overnight. Then back to snow and freezing rain and snow again. 

Despite all of our talk about warmer weather as part of climate change, it is the drier winter with little snow cover and cold temps like we had last year that is deadly for gardens like mine. Rather than playing with Z6 plants, I should be thinking about Z4 or even Z3. Time to get real in the garden again. No more planting for hotter summers. It's the colder winters that I need to be thinking about when I go plant hunting from now on.

What we learned

I had a great time at my Saturday workshops on "recording" the garden and people seemed to find the experience useful. And just as I hoped, there was a lot of sharing of tips and techniques for keeping track of our gardens. Here are a few of the things that surfaced at the workshops that I thought might be of use to other gardeners.

Recording on paper vs. online: The dozen gardeners who came to the workshops were different ages and levels of experience, but it turned out that just about everyone used some kind of paper record-keeping — index cards, journals, notebooks — even if they did most of their note-taking on the computer. I think that was a surprise to all of us.

Use Pinterest as a garden shopping tool: Make a Pinterest board for each garden bed or project. Include images of the what the garden bed looks like now, along with any inspirational ideas that show what you are hoping to achieve. Use this board as the spot to put pictures of all the plants you want to buy for the area. Since you can access Pinterest from anywhere on your various devices, you will always have all this information with you when you go plant shopping. You can show it to nursery staff if they don't know the plant or need more info. 

What's in a name: I suggested that garden "records" should tell the story of your garden. They don't just need to be lists of plants and projects. One of the other gardeners noted that she names her garden beds but they all have a personal story and connections. It hadn't occurred to her before our gathering that the names of the different areas could tell that story, rather than being based on location or the type of plants growing there.

Organizing information by area vs. the entire garden: I happen to have an old library card catalog so I keep track of my plants via an index card for each one. They are filed alphabetically by botanical name. Another gardener uses an accordion folder for each area/bed in her garden. In it she puts all the plant tags, index cards with information for each plant and any other information she wants to keep. If she moves a plant from one bed to another, she moves the card from its current folder to the folder for its new location. I thought this was a pretty efficient and effective system, especially if your garden has clearly delineated beds and areas. 

The downsides of 3-Ring Binders: Most of the gardeners who came to the workshops all used binders for various garden records and tasks. But one of the gardeners mentioned that she finds that once something gets put in a plastic sleeve in a binder, it never leaves. I think she's absolutely correct. I have a garden binder that has some great magazine clippings of garden ideas that I will never do. But inertia keeps them in the binder. And we all agreed that a binder is not easy to schlep around the garden making notes in place. 

I thought Mark or I would take some pictures while everyone was here, but it did not happen. The groups spent the better part of two hours looking at my Keynote presentation, asking questions of me and each other and making suggestions. Then we spent half an hour looking at all the various record-keeping methods I showed them in the pictures in person.