What Gardening Meant to Me as a Child

Japanese gardens at San Antonio Botanical Gardens.

Today I was thinking of my dream garden and how I would love to be sitting on a nice bench in nice weather today. My dream garden is much of what I saw as a child in movies and TV. A well manicured garden filled to the brim with lush green. Everything in it's place looking lush and full but not so over crowded. The perfect harmony of flowers and foliage plants. I would love to have an Asian inspired garden where everything looks so balanced. I can't seem to wrap my head around how to even create that type of environment. Every time I see an Asian themed movie there are always these wonderful gardens. Wonderful water features are included with super large Koi. Flowering trees are everywhere and all these interesting shrubs and trees.


A great sun dress from Zappos.com

I some how got the image of gardening in a sun dress. I've always wanted to garden in a sun dress and thought it was the way to garden. Every women gardens in a sun dress right? Well no, maybe a few who don't really get down and dirty. That is one thing I never thought of with gardening. Dirtiness never crossed my mind in my dream garden wearing my sun dress walking on my path through lush plants. It's funny how when your younger everything looks glorified.

My favorite movie was The Secret Garden, the 1993 movie and not the one before that. Who hasn't watched that movie. That was the perfect garden to me. I wanted to be there in that movie as that girl in that great garden. Where walls were covered in ivy and climbing plants and there was a door leading to a secret garden.


Vines everywhere at the Botanical Gardens

Since seeing The Secret Garden I've seen photos of houses covered in vines. Walls covered everything covered and that I wanted in my garden. I never heard of ivy being invasive or any plant being invasive. As a young girl I thought plants all were perfect where they were put and grew to whatever size and never thought to be a problem.


Rose Garden at the Botanical Gardens

Lastly every garden would have roses, tons of them. Who hasn't seen the movies set in Victorian times with rose gardens. To me a garden had to have a rose garden. Gardens were to be sectioned off in themed parts. There were to be walls made from large shrubs that you could walk through making some sort of maze, and perfect symmetry. That was what garden wall all about to me as a young girl. I thought it to all be perfect and piece together.

All those images of the perfect garden has influenced my thought of the perfect garden now. I still want all the things I wanted as a young girl. That sun dress in the perfectly put together garden with large shrub walls, roses, ivy, and a secret garden but Asian inspired.

Garening and Me Questionnaire

Took this off of Playing in the Dirt's blog.
1. Why did you start gardening?
I started gardening because I have a strange fascination with plants. After visiting the Botanical Gardens and suddenly opening my eyes to the world I fell in love. It's something I always wanted to get into but never did. After doing some reading and browsing online I realized this could be the rest of my life and I would be forever happy

2. Do you remember the first thing you ever planted in a garden?
Well the first thing I planted as a houseplant in my apartment was curly locks ivy. After that on my balcony it was either my weeping dwarf crape myrlte, pampas grass, or corkscrew vine. The pampas grass is gone now because well it's HUGE!!!

3. Everyone goes through the Crazy Newbie Gardener thing: tell us about one of the silly overzealous things you did then:
The most overzealous silly thing I did was buy pampas grass seeds and plant them in a planter on my balcony. That was back in the days when I didn't know squat about gardening. I thought "Oh that plant looks interesting and it's good for zone 8. Cool I'll buy it". Not even taking into account how high it got or anything else.

4. Favorite plants: what was your first favorite plant, and is it still your favorite? Do you have favorites that come and go, but one all-time favorite that you've always loved, no matter what?
I've always had a heart for ivies. To me that ivy covered building is my dream house. If I could just keep on buying ivies for my apartment I would. I just don't buy them anymore because I am in love with the curly locks ivy that I just keep cutting and rooting and getting new plants from. My new favorite is dianthus. Those frilly fringe flowers are great and I love their foliage too! I have many favorites. I'm always wanting vines vines vines.

5. What's your favorite gardening or yardwork chore?
My favorite is potting plants. I like to dig the holes plop and cover. Anything that is repetitive but does not require great strength since I'm a weakling currently.

6. And your least favorite?
Anything that requires arm muscle. My arms do not have muscle.

7. If a Magical Garden Genie granted you three wishes right now, what would you wish for?
I would wish for a home with a large yard. Right now I just garden on my balcony in containers. What I would do to have a yard. Next I would wish for endless amounts of money to spend on plants and all the things that are need like fertilizer and soil and pots. Lastly I would wish that whatever plant I wanted would grow where I put it and in my zone and thrive.

8. You have ten dollars left to your name, and you get to spend it at a nursery. What do you buy?
A flowering tree. I would buy a flowering tree because it would be something that would last me many years and grow to great heights. If I bought just any old plant those precious 10 dollars would be gone in a year or two.

9. Tell us about one thing you learned about gardening in the past year:
I learn tons about gardening in the past year. I went from knowing nothing at all to knowing enough to sound like I've been gardening for a while. The most valuable thing I learned was to buy plants that will work in what you got. Don't try to pretend they won't grow or that you will prune them to the size you want.

10. Will you be trying anything new this year? A plant you haven't grown before, or a new technique?
I'm sure I'll be trying many new things. I would like to purchase more plants but really I don't have much more space for any new plants. I would like to try and learn even more and more and more everyday. I'll be making lists of seeds and plants I want for next year though so I won't go on spontaneity. It's better to look for something that I know will survive then hope will survive. I'm sure I'll learn many new things and techniques and try new things when I do my internship.

Grape Hyacinths and more...

Grape Hyacinths

Recently I complained that my Grape Hyacinths (muscari armeniacum) had no signs of flowers yet just foliage. Well yesterday while inspecting seedlings up close and personal I saw the signs! Quite a few of my Grape Hyacinths have the flower scape peaking up out of the center of their foliage. I purchased these in November or December maybe even Jaunuar I really don't remember. I got them on sale at lowes. Purchase them to force inside but had so many that I planted tons in any free space in my pots that I had. So I have tons of grape hyacinths to enjoy. The photo above are grape hyacinths I planted for forcing inside but put outside to receive more light. I never realized my apartment didn't receive that much light until these started yellow at the ends.

Muscari armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth)
fragrant
4-8 inches tall
deep cobalt blooms
flowers in mid spring
attracts bees
Great for indoor forcing, borders, cut flowers, rockgardens, beds, borders, and under shrubs and trees.

There are different varieties of Muscari armeniacum. There are the muscari armeniacum which is cobalt blue also the one normally called Grape Hyacinth. Album is white, Blue Spike has double florets and is flax blue, Cantab is sky blue with a slightly larger bloom, and Fantasy Creations double flowers with blue blooms that gain green with maturity. These are all fragrant.

There are over 30 different species of Muscari.


Today I have an interview/meeting to more then likely get started doing merchandising for a large wholesale nursery. Well the merchandising is at home depots I believe and lowes and those other stores. This is only for the spring. After the spring in May I'll start an internship and that I'm more than positive is a sure thing.

After my meeting when my husband gets home we'll be going to the Home and Garden show at the Alamodome. I'll be bringing my camera in hopes of great things to photograph.

Hyacinth Woodstock

Hyacinth Woodstock

My hyacinth woodstock looks like it should be blooming soon. I orginally bought these to force indoors. The container I had didn't fit all the bulbs so half went outside. I planted 3 inside and 3 outside. The other one outside is in another container and is not as large as these. The ones inside are outside right now getting some sun.


Photo from www.dutchgardens.com


Woodstock Hyacinth is a fragrant hyacinth with burgundy purple blooms. Some vary from a deeper wine purple red to a light reddish purple. They grow 8-12" high and can be grown in sun to partial shade. This hyacinth would be great for forcing indoors with the wonderful fragrance. I can't wait to smell it when mine bloom. The Woodstock Hyacinth is also good for containers and borders. They are deer and rabbit resistant. Their blooms last 3-4 weeks in mid spring.