First Lady Jill Biden and the White House Garden

Now that almost everyone concedes that the Bidens will be moving into the White House soon (hopefully, soon enough!), local garden writers like me are pondering what admittedly is the least important question about the transition – will it affect the White House gardens?

First, let’s go to the photos, like the one above of Dr. Biden doing a campaign video from their home in Wilmington. Whether she gardens or not, she clearly HAS a garden, and it looks lovely.

Here’s another photo, presumably in their Wilmington garden, with Champ.

That doesn’t tell us whether she (or her husband) actually gardens, of course, so I tried googling their names with “garden” and “gardening” and the results were slim and unhelpful:

This one shows the Bidens during a party at the official VP home in DC – the Naval Observatory. There’s never been a public tour there to my knowledge, and I had no idea there was a pool – and it’s gorgeous.

Here’s Dr. Biden with Michelle Obama at the U.S. Botanic Garden.

I did a little more research when I visited Rehoboth Beach, Delaware last month and looked for the Bidens’ vacation home there. It was surprisingly easy to find – “Just ask Google!,” a neighbor told me. In anticipation of selling their Wilmington home and moving to the beach full-time in retirement, the Bidens had sold their smaller beach house and upgraded to this 6-bedroom home with an ocean view. (Shown here, with lots of interior photos.) But admittedly, there’s scant evidence here of what might be called gardening. 

So maybe she’s not a gardener herself, and I’m guessing that with First Lady duties on top of her teaching schedule, we may not see her harvesting vegetables with local kids. 

But I’m still hopeful that the new administration will bring changes to the White House gardens and grounds, shown here in my October 2010 post. Maybe she’ll change the Jackie Kennedy Garden seen above; it’s just outside the East Wing where the First Lady’s offices are located.

Time for the White House grounds to get greener?

Big picture, the White House sits on 18 acres, you know, and although Michelle Obama’s kitchen garden was a great addition and essential to her campaign for children’s health, there’s lots more that could be done.

Way back in November of 2008, soon after the election, Michelle Obama’s staff contacted me for advice about a possible White House kitchen garden, which was so thrilling! I know nothing about growing food so I promised to get back to them with an answer. I consulted over 30 local experts and compiled their suggestions in this proposal, which went way beyond what I’d been asked, recommending improvements in lawn care, stormwater management, provisions for wildlife – all facets of sustainable landscaping.

The very disappointing result? I never got a response! I suppose it’s because my answers went waaay off-message. I did have some back-channel communications with Sam Kass, their Food Initiative Coordinator, and was at least able to connect him with some local food-growing and school-garden people. But my dreams of becoming new-best-friends with Michelle herself were dashed, as well as the more modest dream of being invited to the grand unveiling of the new food garden. 

This time, I’m not expecting to be contacted but I’ll do my best to get that proposal seen again. And I’ll definitely be there for the spring 2021 White House Garden and Grounds Tour, after which I’ll respond to the Rant commenters demanding that I condemn the recent changes to the Rose Garden. Any real gardener knows not to judge a redesign immediately after installation – in August, no less, and after its abuse during the convention.

First Lady Jill Biden and the White House Garden originally appeared on GardenRant on November 12, 2020.

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Simple Hacks That Will Make You Better At Hydroponics Gardening

The post Simple Hacks That Will Make You Better At Hydroponics Gardening appeared first on Miss Smarty Plants.

More and more people are exploring hydroponics gardening, which is perfect even for urban locations because the process doesn’t require the use of soil to grow plants. Rather, the nutrients that the plant usually gets from the soil are made present in the water surrounding the roots of the plants. If you are keen on being successful at hydroponics gardening, then the simple hacks below will prove to be beneficial for you.

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Research, research, research

One of the primary things that you need to do to make you better at hydroponics is to be informed. This means that you need to exert extra effort to research about it, such as how this specific type of gardening process works, as well as the equipment that you need to get started. If you have the proper knowledge about hydroponics gardening, you will be able to know how to better do the things that you need to do to produce healthy and thriving plants.

Ensure water quality

Another thing that you need to ensure if you want to grow healthy plants through hydroponics gardening is the quality of water that you use. In this case, you can consider the use of Bluelab hydroponic water control equipment to ensure that the water you will use for your plants has the right nutrients and pH level at the appropriate temperature. It is recommended that the pH level of the water you will be using is between 5.5 to 6.5 because, with this level, the ability of your plants to absorb the nutrients that they need is heightened.

Maintain cleanliness

You should also make sure that your entire system is clean at all times to ensure that the water you are using to grow your plants will not be contaminated. Thus, make sure that you adhere to a regular cleaning schedule, which includes the sterilization of your grow room. You should also take the time to clean the nutrient solution reservoir of your system every couple of weeks, in parallel to opening the valves of your system for a couple of seconds once every week to avoid clogging.

Leverage a fertigation system

Aside from the quality of the water you are using, as well as the cleanliness of your system, you can also consider the use of a fertigation system. This is where you will be injecting fertilizers into your irrigation system. However, you need to ensure that you use the right amount of fertilizer in your water supply so that your plants will be able to obtain a balanced amount of nutrients.

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To wrap things up, make sure that you are properly informed if you want to be successful in growing plants through the hydroponic process. Alongside this, you should also ensure the quality of the water that you will use and maintain the cleanliness of your system. Consider the installation of a fertigation system if you have to because all these are geared towards ensuring that you will be able to grow a healthy plant in your contemporary garden even if you are living in an urban location.

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Remembering Aunt Rose

Rose Russell Blakely passed away in late September. Aunt Rose loved her garden. She was 93 years old.

I often visited Aunt Rose, and her garden, in Washington, D.C., since I married her beloved niece and namesake, Rose Cooper, 25 years ago.

Aunt Rose was a real-deal gardener.

A good garden requires give and take. You need to nurture a place. It takes years to learn the nuances of soil types and hidden roots. Ice storms and hurricanes, among other forces of nature, can make a mess.

There is no sure deal.

Other than heavy lifting and hard pruning, Aunt Rose did all of her own gardening chores.

A well-loved garden can’t exist without a patient and deliberate gardener, but even the best intentions can’t slow the hands of time.

Aunt Rose’s garden, her final companion, was a jungle toward the end, but she seemed serenely unaware. She acknowledged regularly that it needed a “little work.” On calls this year, she would ask me when I was coming to visit. “I have questions,” she’d say. She was thinking about a shrub for the back of the garden. Aunt Rose’s mind was failing. Our phone calls became a regular playback of the previous call.

Getting ready for the 2017 Women’s March. L-R: Rose Cooper, Jill Winston, Cooper Francis and Aunt Rose.

The pandemic became full blown. I never got to visit Aunt Rose again but never stopped thinking about a shrub for her back garden.

Aunt Rose gardened in Georgetown, D.C., for 52 years. She worked for Republican senators for many of those and was Kentucky Republican Senator Thruston Morton’s Personal Assistant from 1957-1969. Those were different times. There was more political give and take across the aisle between Republicans and Democrats. Senators would eat meals together in the Senate dining room. Now they relentlessly go off the Hill to make calls to raise money for their next campaigns. 

Aunt Rose knew the Capitol Hill power brokers, and they knew her. She was a force. When Senator Morton retired from the Senate, he told Aunt Rose, “You did a great job, but I was always afraid of you,”

Aunt Rose did not mince words.

 

(She was a life-long Republican but lived her last years in disbelief that the Republicans, and her country, had inherited Donald Trump.)

Later, she enrolled in the garden design program at George Washington University.

She kept good notes.

I have been reading dozens of her typed (and sometimes neatly handwritten) flash cards that she compiled during her studies all those years ago. The breadth of the plants was fascinating. Heaths, heathers, serviceberries, sourwood and hollies were included but also the less familiar golden larch (Pseudolarix  amabilis) and fragrant snowball (Styrax obassia).

I laughed when I saw the styrax flash card. Summer, a year ago, she was staying with us in Salvisa, and while we were enjoying dinner on the porch, she pointed to a tree and said, “That needs to be moved.” I wondered why she wanted to move OUR tree, but she had spaced out. Her dementia was worsening. She imagined that she was sitting in her garden.

The tree was our Styrax obassia—not Aunt Rose’s.

I played along and asked her why she wanted to move her styrax. “It will grow too big for its cramped space,” she insisted.

Mid-September

I worried for months about whether to move our styrax. I knew it might eventually grow too big for our space, but not in my lifetime. (It was already too big for me to move.) I met Aunt Rose halfway this past late winter. I pollarded (pruned and tamed) the limbs to make its future presence less overwhelming.

I have spent many hours pruning, raking, digging and sitting in Aunt Rose’s, long, narrow (150’ x 27’) garden. I can’t stop thinking about her blue, Lobelia siphilitica or the translucent, triangular seedpods of the hardy Begonia grandis, the mottled bark of her elegant Stewartia pseudocamellia or the red, quince blooms by her backdoor.

It’s hard to put my finger on why Aunt Rose’s garden, especially when it was being taken over by knotweed and white heath aster, remained so intriguing. For one triumphant reason, I concluded: Life’s hectic pace slowed down. The sirens of ambulances, heading to the nearby Georgetown Hospital, were drowned out by her garden’s silence.

Her toad lilies (Tricyrtis ‘Sinonome’) and pink anemones persisted unflinchingly. The low-growing Himalayan sweetbox (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis) would not be overrun by weeds, either. I found a big clump of the equally defiant sacred lily (Rohdea japonica), hidden in a shady back corner of her garden.

Aunt Rose’s last few months were worrisome for her nieces. She was letting go and would not accept help. Aunt Rose lived life her way until the end. She stayed near her garden. It didn’t bother her that the garden needed work—lots of work. She spent Covid days on her sun porch, playing solitaire and looking out over a half-century of life and love.

Tidied up in late September

I kept thinking, since her passing, about the question she repeatedly asked: What shrub would I recommend for the back of her garden? I pored over her flash cards for ideas. I was tempted by a redbud, serviceberry or a mountain laurel.

I settled on summersweet (Clethra alnifolia). Mike Dirr, author and plantsman, sings its praises. “During the summer, the sweet floral fragrance of summersweet can permeate an entire garden… An amazingly adaptable plant in full sun to relatively heavy shade.”

Rose and Aunt Rose walk the garden in Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown, D.C. November 2016.

I’ve kept Rose’s son, and his wife, in mind. They may live there one day.

I’ll make my case for clethra in the months to come.

There have been more important immediate concerns.

Aunt Rose’s nieces cleaned up the garden in solemn gratitude after her passing.

Aunt Rose would be happy.

Remembering Aunt Rose originally appeared on GardenRant on November 11, 2020.

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Turning Your Garden Into a Winter Wonderland: 9 Top Tips for Garden Lovers

The post Turning Your Garden Into a Winter Wonderland: 9 Top Tips for Garden Lovers appeared first on Miss Smarty Plants.

Photo by Jill Wellington from Pexels

The many lockdowns and social distancing measures we have all endured over the summer months have made it evident how important our gardens and outdoor areas are. This is a place to spend quality time with your loved ones, make ever-lasting memories, exercise in all safety, and get your much-needed dose of Vitamin D. 

But, now the days are getting colder and colder, it is easy to feel trapped indoors and without an outdoor space to enjoy. However, your garden can still be an excellent environment for you to spend the Christmas holidays with your family and safely meet your friends. It just needs some adjustments – start with the ones below!

Tidy Up Your Whole Outdoor Area

First off, tidy up your outdoor area and clean your garden of leaves, brushes, branches, and debris. This step is important to make your outdoor area safe for your whole family – including little ones. Check your garden’s fences and borders, making sure that they are clean, neat, and safe. 

If you have used wood and nails, make sure these are perfectly in shape, and there is no rust. If rusted, bent, or poking out, it is recommendable to get rid of them and replace them with new fixtures. This is crucial to ensure that the garden structures and fences are safe and will stand the winter’s harsh weather conditions.  

Make Your Patio Cozy and Welcoming

If you have a patio or outdoor covered area, you should make the most of it. If you don’t, this is the best year to invest in one! Indeed, we are likely to be spending more time than we had imagined indoors this year. So, creating a sheltered, comfortable area for you and your family to enjoy throughout the cold season is paramount. 

You can turn your patio around by cleaning it, tidying it, and start adding thoughtful details. If you are using your patio as a storage area, you should reconsider its current design, implementing cabinets and cupboards that can give it a sleeker look.

If your patio is too exposed to the elements, you might also consider enclosing it with insulating materials.

Add Heating and Blankets

If you want to enjoy more time outside of your home this winter, you will need to make sure that your garden or patio is warm enough. As we’ll see, installing a fire pit can add a touch of extra magic to the atmosphere and warm up the immediate surrounding. 

But, if you wish to have a more practical solution, you should invest in outdoor heaters. Don’t forget to drape the chairs and armchairs with throws and blankets. Don’t forget to add extra pillows and cushions for an extra comfy evening. 

Don’t Hold Back on Lighting

During winter, days are famously short, and you can expect to be in the dark by 4 pm during certain months. So, fitting enough light fixtures to light up the whole area is a must. If you wish to make still the atmosphere comfortable and intimate, opting for fairy lights and brighter Edison bulbs are excellent options. 

Indeed, the light they create is enough for you to enjoy dinner parties in your enclosed patio or a cup of hot chocolate outdoors in the evening. So you can enjoy a magical design with just a few simple additions. 

Add Eco-Friendly Outdoor Furniture

Adding furniture to your garden is something you cannot overlook, but using the right materials is crucial. Indeed, the furniture industry does impact the environment, and if you are only looking for chairs and tables for one season, it is recommendable to find pre-loved items. 

Alternatively, you might decide to put your DIY skills to test and create your own pieces of furniture! Using elements such as pallets allow you to create bespoke pieces of furniture that will last through the winter. Once you have created the ideal furniture, just add pillows, blankets, and throws, to make it even more comfortable.

Plant Winter-Friendly Seeds

The winter season is not just the time of the year where you can forget about your garden. These are important months, especially if you wish to have a well-designed garden and cared for in spring. 

There is an endless list of flowers, plants, vegetables, and grasses that are hardy enough to not only survive the winter but even thrive through it! If you are yet to decide on the winter plants for your garden, take a look at Boston Seeds and start designing your dream winter garden.

Consider Installing a Small Conservatory

If you wish to make the most out of your garden this winter, you might consider installing a small conservatory or orangery. Whether you wish to call it a garden room or sunroom, this is the best way to enjoy the winter sun. This extension allows you to keep practicing your gardening skills and get your plants to continue to grow before spring. While it seems like an unnecessary investment at first, a conservatory can be a beautiful addition to any living room or kitchen. Start planning for it now!

Attract Wildlife

You can attract small-size wildlife, such as robins and other birds, just by adding little houses or feeding stations. Depending on where your home is, you might not be able to see your garden filled with animals, but you will be able to help some birds, squirrels, or frogs occasionally.

Consider Installing a Fire Pit

Installing a fire pit is a dream for every gardener or camping lover. It allows you to always have a place where you can say goodbye to your TV and enjoy the crisp evening air. You can use the flames to toast marshmallows or grill vegetables for your upcoming family dinner. 

And, with a cup of drinking hot chocolate or mulled wine in your hands, having a fire pit in your garden is an excellent way to get the whole family to come together and take time to tell stories and anecdotes. There is nothing better to make this upcoming Christmas a little more magic – even if in an unusual way!

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Brookside Gardens is More Appreciated than Ever

I come to praise a public garden in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. for helping thousands of locals get outdoors in nature, move their bodies and feel a little saner while staying covid-safe. It’s Brookside Gardens, a 50-acre county garden that’s kept its outdoors open all this year. 

As you can tell from this panoramic shot of their Visitors Center, they don’t skimp on color.

My favorite spot in the fall is this line of ginkgo leaves at their purest yellow. 

Near the entrance is their annual display of mums, which normally is indoors but since being moved outdoors it’s more popular than ever. Photo ops galore!  

The display includes a frame for portraits and two selfie stations where visitors could prop up their phones for the shot. 

The Full 2020 Report

I spoke with Ellen Hartranft, Visitors Services Coordinator for Brookside, for more details about how covid has affected the garden.

Sadly, their major holiday events – the Garden of Lights and the indoor railroad display – had to be cancelled.

The Visitors Center closed in March but reopened in mid-August (including rest rooms and the gift shop.) Despite its being closed for so long, with no rest rooms available, visitation this year has been up 75 percent over normal years!

I’m not surprised, hearing from so many of my friends that they’re visiting more than ever, and arranging get-togethers there with family and friends. Nobody’s back yard is as large and safe for socializing as Brookside’s 50 acres. Also, there’s no entrance fee, and parking is abundant.

As a visitor myself – a visitor in the vulnerable age group – I appreciated that only one person is allowed in the rest room at a time. And only six people or family units are allowed in the atrium at a time. To accomplish those safety measures, administrative staff and volunteers have been commandeered into doorman positions.   

Of course lots of things have gone virtual – both adult and children’s programming. But not everything. The spring plant sales went on in person, with curb-side pick-up. Friends of Brookside Gardens held their own plant sale – with record-breaking proceeds!

And the public has been able to hold their own small events there – weddings, memorials, and parties, all complying with the county’s 50-person limit, which includes staff and vendors. (Brookside reduced its event fees to be in line with the smaller event size.)

So kudos for everything Brookside does for the public, especially this year!

Now enjoy a few more scenes from late October.

 

Brookside Gardens is More Appreciated than Ever originally appeared on GardenRant on November 6, 2020.

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How to Grow and Maintain a Live “Go Green” Garden Fence

The post How to Grow and Maintain a Live “Go Green” Garden Fence appeared first on Miss Smarty Plants.

Creating a living garden fence is not as complicated process as it seems. Some rules may help to organize the whole process and get a well-grown fence in one season. The team of homemakerguide has united basic tips from the famous gardeners to help you with the process.

First of all, you have to consider the purpose of your garden fence, whether you need a garden fence to keep dogs out, or to train your fruit trees to form a unique figure in the garden. This choice will limit the type of trees you can use in the fencing.

Some trees grow very fast and can give the first harvest in the second year of fence training. If you choose between a garden fence or wall, you can combine them both in one construction. To train the trees in a well-formed fence, or espalier, you will need a brick or stone wall to support the growing plants.

First espaliers had a simple principle. The bricks absorbed the heat, and the fruits were ripening faster on the wall. Although the fences are used more for decorations nowadays, stone and brick walls are still the most straightforward garden fence maintenance, especially for beginners. 

There are several most popular types of garden fences: the candelabra, the cordon, and the Belgian fence. The horizontal cordon and the candelabra types are the easiest to master and do not require unique garden fence accessories. Choose the trees you want to grow, the side of the garden you want to use, plant the trees closer to the wall, and start forming the fence you desire.

With no lawn in the courtyard, this fountain becomes the focal point with low maintenance groundcovers and plants throughout to keep the lush feel.

It is better to grow the garden fence with six and more hours of sun lightning. Garden fence treatment is not something that demands all your attention, though you will have to work first weeks and every spring a lot. Do not forget about watering and fertilizing. If your trees grow in front of the wall, they will need more watering. Pay attention to the bugs and insects, and fix the problem immediately when you notice them.

Garden fence is a construction that needs time. The first year it will grow in the directions you guided it, though trying to escape the form. You have to control it and gently fix the shape. In the second year, the form will be more evident. You will see that your efforts were not useless.

Conclusion

Remember that the garden fence is a living growing sculpture with its character. It will never be perfect, and you need all your patience to train it to your desired form. Consider it being like a child in your garden, you will make mistakes as any parent, but with some added patience, you will have a fantastic result.

What fence would you like to grow? Have you chosen the trees already? Don’t hesitate to share the result!

About the Author:

Archie was a builder for more than 40 years. Mainly after his retirement the enthusiastic electrical works in garden and writes for a blog Homemakerguide.com to keep himself occupied. His many years of experience can get you the right tool reviews whether it is a drill, welding machine or so. An impressive fact to note about him is that almost everything in his house is a representation of his skills made by his hands.

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We must do better

One of my favorite national parks

While it’s common—and understandable—to believe that certain subjects are somehow beyond politics, one of the reasons I’ve stuck with Garden Rant all these years is that I believe—with my fellow Ranters—that gardening is more than  just a pretty hobby, where we can stroll through our flower beds and bury our noses in a stand of phlox or lilies as the world goes to hell around us.

Gardening is inextricably bound with environmental concerns, that range from the chemicals we deploy to the habitat we provide for wildlife to the natural resources we use (or deplete). It could not be more obvious that concern for the natural environment has become a partisan issue. Over the past four years, in the hands of an administration that values business interests (valid or not) over combating climate change, preserving habitat, or husbanding natural resources, we have seen environmental priorities ignored and actively undermined.

Here’s some of it:

—offshore oil and gas drilling has been expanded, risking ecosystems for dubious gains

—logging, mining, and drilling have been increased and/or acreage turned over to private industry in or near the following national parks/preserves:  Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the Okefenokee Swamp, public land surrounding the Grand Canyon, Bears Ears, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and Chaco Culture National Historic Park, just to name a few

—clean air and water standards have been weakened or eliminated

—pesticides such as chlorpyrifos have been kept on the market, despite protests and previous efforts to restrict them

—the Paris climate accord has been abandoned

Gardeners have been seeing the effects brought on my climate change for some years now. While private gardens may not be at the top of the list of what we need for survival in decades to come, they’re not at the bottom either.

Many scientists feel that it’s not too late. Barely. It would be nice to think that politics would have little to do with whether or not we heed scientific advice. I think we know now that’s wishful thinking.  

It’s up to us to do better.

We must do better originally appeared on GardenRant on November 3, 2020.

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