This is so beautiful Julie! I love learning about your garden! I live in central Washington state so my climate is a mixture of high desert sage in the valleys of Mt Rainier and Mt Adams. I have so much to learn about gardening in this climate. Our town is in the 7a and 7b zones. We have nearly an acre as well and it’s my dream to one day cultivate more of this vast yard into a beautiful garden. Yours reminds me of one of my favorite places, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, with its various “rooms”. Blessings on your garden! 🥰 - Jen
Thanks for stopping by, Jen! That sounds like a really beautiful place to garden, but definitely with some more water-wise plants than many of these. Mediterranean plants might do very well for you. Thats a huge complement - MBG is a beautiful place! Thanks again!
I have just moved to southwest PA into a parsonage that basically has a blank slate of a garden. I’ve been excited about planting a garden to add beauty and comfort to this home, even if it can’t be our forever home (since when my husband retires we will have to move). I planted tulips in the fall and they bloomed beautifully in April. But now I am planting like crazy so that this summer and next year I will have even more blooms to look at. I put in an herb garden and lilacs and apple trees so far. Tons of annuals too for now until I figure out what perennials I want to live with here. I’m enjoying myself and I’m loving reading your Substack. It’s very encouraging!
That is so exciting, Sarah! You are not too far away from me then. There are quite a few perennial things that you could grow and then take pieces on with you to a new place. Definitely check out my "Gardens as Sacred Spaces" class which is actually full of practical tips for getting things started in a new garden, as well as design advice. And if you would ever like to have a teleconference chat about your plans, you can fill out the Garden Owners Form on https://juliewitmer.com/ and we can spend an hour talking specifics about what could be possible in your given place. 🌿
Beautiful blooms, all the way around! I wasn't familiar with Trillium discolor. It's beautiful and unique. The Irises and Peonies aren't blooming here yet, but they will be soon. Happy Bloom Day!
I'm VERY envious of the peony. The woodland plants appeal to me as well. Unfortunately, there's little chance any of these would survive in my climate.
Yep! My local plant friend has had a lot of success with his and highly recommended it. It is a rectangular bin (in this case of durable plastic, but I am sure different materials will work better for different plants), filled with 8 inches deep of vermiculite. The only drainage holes are placed on the sides of the container about 2 inches from the bottom. That means that there is always moisture deep down inside the bin, but that the cutting is suspended over the damp spot. The roots reach down into the medium for the moisture. He keeps it in the shade, so I made mine last night and put it under my deck on the north side of the house. It will get morning sun, but shade mid-day, and is near a water source. I made mine last night from an old "rubbermaid" container (24 inches by 36 inches) and filled it with Campanula, Chelone, and Penstemon from their chop. The nice thing is that there is always a container ready for you to pop more into when you come back from a quick walk around the garden with new cuttings. Keeping it outdoors seems to mean that it is well vented and so there is no rot. But I am sure each place will dictate conditions! I may try mine in a cold frame if it seems too wet.
Beautiful pictures, Julie. I really love the yellow peony and light pink irises. How do you keep up with the weeds? Are you in the gardens all the time? I love the idea of gardening--and we do have plenty of flowers, trees, and vegetables in our yard-- but I'm more of a garden admirer. My husband does all the work. I often feel guilty about that, but I would rather be taking pictures of the flowers and writing poems about them than tending to them.
Thanks Stephanie! You would be very surprised to find out how little time I get to spend each week in the garden. I do enjoy the work, so I am always looking forward to it which helps. But I find that with this large of an area under cultivation that I have to work smarter, not harder. Mulching is essential, as well as planting the appropriate plants for each location so that they grow well and cover the ground. The hosta I mentioned just added are because everything else I have tried in that area has failed, and it was taken over with weeds last year. So gardening to use hosta and other easy plants to cover that ground will lead to less weeds in the future. It makes it more sustainable, and that is usually the way I am moving. The Kitchen garden with its planting, harvesting, cutting, etc is much more labor intensive than the perennial gardens! So I definitely recommend growing in layers plants that come back every year. :)
The Concertina iris is stunning! All the deep pinks and purples are so energizing as well! I'm new to taking cuttings and had a quick question about that. If you take cuttings now, do you plant them in fall, or do you overwinter them? Thanks!
Hi Jill! Yes, it is a real winner of an iris. As far as planting out cuttings, it all depends on the plant and how quickly it grows! Last summer I took 100 cutting of chocolate mint and placed them just in water. They were ready for the children to pot up just 2 weeks later. But other plants are slower to root, or sometimes the conditions are not perfect for growth.
I took a dozen cuttings last night of Campanula 'Pritchard's Variety' and would expect them to take a few months to root, as long as they do not dry out or rot. Then I will pot them on into 4" pots to let them more sturdy little plants in the cold frame before I think of planting them out. So I might do that this autumn, or next spring, depending on how well they grow on. It is pretty commom to wait until a year later to plant them out, but I have tended to push thing on and out into the garden because I did not have the space to overwinter them. This summer, however, we are building cold frames and have just finished a potting shed which I can use to overwinter things, so I may do that more in the future. It is all about which plants you are growing, and what space you have. Hope that helps!
This is so beautiful Julie! I love learning about your garden! I live in central Washington state so my climate is a mixture of high desert sage in the valleys of Mt Rainier and Mt Adams. I have so much to learn about gardening in this climate. Our town is in the 7a and 7b zones. We have nearly an acre as well and it’s my dream to one day cultivate more of this vast yard into a beautiful garden. Yours reminds me of one of my favorite places, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, with its various “rooms”. Blessings on your garden! 🥰 - Jen
Thanks for stopping by, Jen! That sounds like a really beautiful place to garden, but definitely with some more water-wise plants than many of these. Mediterranean plants might do very well for you. Thats a huge complement - MBG is a beautiful place! Thanks again!
I have just moved to southwest PA into a parsonage that basically has a blank slate of a garden. I’ve been excited about planting a garden to add beauty and comfort to this home, even if it can’t be our forever home (since when my husband retires we will have to move). I planted tulips in the fall and they bloomed beautifully in April. But now I am planting like crazy so that this summer and next year I will have even more blooms to look at. I put in an herb garden and lilacs and apple trees so far. Tons of annuals too for now until I figure out what perennials I want to live with here. I’m enjoying myself and I’m loving reading your Substack. It’s very encouraging!
That is so exciting, Sarah! You are not too far away from me then. There are quite a few perennial things that you could grow and then take pieces on with you to a new place. Definitely check out my "Gardens as Sacred Spaces" class which is actually full of practical tips for getting things started in a new garden, as well as design advice. And if you would ever like to have a teleconference chat about your plans, you can fill out the Garden Owners Form on https://juliewitmer.com/ and we can spend an hour talking specifics about what could be possible in your given place. 🌿
Thanks for sharing your beautiful blooms with us. The bog is perfect to see, love the color all around.
The bogs are such happy spots at this time of year. Thanks for stopping by, Judy!
Beautiful blooms, all the way around! I wasn't familiar with Trillium discolor. It's beautiful and unique. The Irises and Peonies aren't blooming here yet, but they will be soon. Happy Bloom Day!
Trillium discolor is a new one this spring, and it is much more buttery yellow than Trillium lutea. Thanks for stopping by!
I'm VERY envious of the peony. The woodland plants appeal to me as well. Unfortunately, there's little chance any of these would survive in my climate.
You have so many other delightful things going on though! Hope you are having a wonderful May.
Vermiculite cuttings bin - sounds interesting: jus a bin with vermiculite and errr.. cuttings?
Yep! My local plant friend has had a lot of success with his and highly recommended it. It is a rectangular bin (in this case of durable plastic, but I am sure different materials will work better for different plants), filled with 8 inches deep of vermiculite. The only drainage holes are placed on the sides of the container about 2 inches from the bottom. That means that there is always moisture deep down inside the bin, but that the cutting is suspended over the damp spot. The roots reach down into the medium for the moisture. He keeps it in the shade, so I made mine last night and put it under my deck on the north side of the house. It will get morning sun, but shade mid-day, and is near a water source. I made mine last night from an old "rubbermaid" container (24 inches by 36 inches) and filled it with Campanula, Chelone, and Penstemon from their chop. The nice thing is that there is always a container ready for you to pop more into when you come back from a quick walk around the garden with new cuttings. Keeping it outdoors seems to mean that it is well vented and so there is no rot. But I am sure each place will dictate conditions! I may try mine in a cold frame if it seems too wet.
Thanks for all that detail. I will have one within the week!
Beautiful pictures, Julie. I really love the yellow peony and light pink irises. How do you keep up with the weeds? Are you in the gardens all the time? I love the idea of gardening--and we do have plenty of flowers, trees, and vegetables in our yard-- but I'm more of a garden admirer. My husband does all the work. I often feel guilty about that, but I would rather be taking pictures of the flowers and writing poems about them than tending to them.
Thanks Stephanie! You would be very surprised to find out how little time I get to spend each week in the garden. I do enjoy the work, so I am always looking forward to it which helps. But I find that with this large of an area under cultivation that I have to work smarter, not harder. Mulching is essential, as well as planting the appropriate plants for each location so that they grow well and cover the ground. The hosta I mentioned just added are because everything else I have tried in that area has failed, and it was taken over with weeds last year. So gardening to use hosta and other easy plants to cover that ground will lead to less weeds in the future. It makes it more sustainable, and that is usually the way I am moving. The Kitchen garden with its planting, harvesting, cutting, etc is much more labor intensive than the perennial gardens! So I definitely recommend growing in layers plants that come back every year. :)
The Concertina iris is stunning! All the deep pinks and purples are so energizing as well! I'm new to taking cuttings and had a quick question about that. If you take cuttings now, do you plant them in fall, or do you overwinter them? Thanks!
Hi Jill! Yes, it is a real winner of an iris. As far as planting out cuttings, it all depends on the plant and how quickly it grows! Last summer I took 100 cutting of chocolate mint and placed them just in water. They were ready for the children to pot up just 2 weeks later. But other plants are slower to root, or sometimes the conditions are not perfect for growth.
I took a dozen cuttings last night of Campanula 'Pritchard's Variety' and would expect them to take a few months to root, as long as they do not dry out or rot. Then I will pot them on into 4" pots to let them more sturdy little plants in the cold frame before I think of planting them out. So I might do that this autumn, or next spring, depending on how well they grow on. It is pretty commom to wait until a year later to plant them out, but I have tended to push thing on and out into the garden because I did not have the space to overwinter them. This summer, however, we are building cold frames and have just finished a potting shed which I can use to overwinter things, so I may do that more in the future. It is all about which plants you are growing, and what space you have. Hope that helps!