- Saying Goodbye to 2009, Looking Forward to 2010
Not only is it the first day of the month, it’s also the first day of the new year and the first day of a new decade. Traditionally, on the first day of each month, I participate in GOOPs, (gardening OOPs) where gardeners share the mistakes they have made in their gardens over the years. The inspiration for GOOPs comes from Joene Hendry, a fellow CT garden coach and author of Joene’s Garden blog.
In honor of the uniqueness of this GOOPs day, I have decided to share some mistakes of omission I have been noticing in my garden that I plan to fix in 2010 so my garden is more interesting in the coming years.
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I need to plant more spring flowering bulbs. While I did plant a few hundred daffodil bulbs this fall, I know I need more bulbs – quantity and variety – so my garden greets spring the way I envision it should.
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I need more vines in my garden. Planting vines is an easy way to add another layer of interest in any garden. While I have a big, beautiful climbing hydrangea and a few clematis, I know that adding more vines will bring my garden to a new level. I will be researching deer-resistant vines this winter so I’m ready for planting in the spring. My current plan is to plant vines to grow on the trunks of several of my mature trees so I guess I should also look for a vine that can grow near oak trees. (If you’re having luck growing vines on your oak trees please let me know which ones you are growing.)
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My garden needs more shrubs with fall and winter berries. I had a definite case of berry-envy this fall as I saw all the beautiful red berries of winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata) lighting up the branches of shrubs in my local nursery. Since winterberry would be deer candy in my garden, I need to plant an alternative with colorful berries that is also deer-resistant. I have the perfect spot in my garden to plant a big clump – at least 5 shrubs - but the site is in fairly deep shade. Right now, I am leaning towards red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia ‘Brilliantissima’) but I’m also still open to suggestions.
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I plan to continue shrinking the size of my lawn. While I’ve been slowly doing this for years, creating new beds and widening existing borders, I have a lot more shrinking to do. I have a narrow strip of lawn on the north side of my house that constantly struggles so I am thinking about planting a bunch of landscape plugs. When you’re planting a large area and have more time than money, landscape plugs are the way to go.
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I should plant more conifers to add more structure and winter interest to my garden. I think as we grow as gardeners we begin to appreciate the subtle beauty of conifers and the way they add can add needed texture and color to a garden. Over the past few years I have added some low growing conifers to my mixed beds but I think it’s time to invest in a few larger conifers that will become focal points of my garden.
Now that you’ve read about my GOOPs, head over to joene’s garden and read about Joene’s GOOPs. And don’t forget to add a link to your GOOPs in the comments section of Joene’s post.
Happy 2010!
Debbie,
My climbing hydrangea uses an oak trunk to reach its heights – now about 12-15 feet. I also like perennial sweet pea, which grows fast and seems to jump back from infrequent deer nibbles. My winterberry shrubs survive in areas that deer visit. I had to protect them when they were small. Now that they have reached about 6 ft in height, I found the deer only nibble occasionally on lower branches. I suspect once they get even taller, deer nibbles will not be as much of an issue.
Like you, I need to plant more evergreens and bulbs. I also have these tasks in my long term plans.
Thanks for being asteadfast GOOPs contributor.
Joene,
You’re welcome. I hadn’t thought about using perennial sweet pea, I’ll have to look into that one. With the taste buds of my deer, which seem to change frequently, I am willing to try a plant that can recover quickly from an inquisitive browsing or two. That’s my problem with many conifers, they grow so slowly that an inquisiitive deer can knock out a full year’s growth in one bit!
Hi Debbie, those are all worthwhile aspirations! The need for conifers, and evergreens in general do seem to occur to us after we have a few seasons of gardening under our belts. It seems we all start out with flower petals clouding our vision. The Arnonia is a fabulous idea, we have Viking with black berries and gorgeous fall foliage. The native eastern wahoo, Euonymous atropurpurea has some delightful red berry like things too. Don’t know about the deer for it, but it can grow tall enough for them to not reach the uppermost branches.
Frances
fairegarden,
It is interesting to look back on your journey as a gardener and see how you, and your garden, have changed over the years. I am not familiar with Euonymous atropurpurea but I will check it out. I like to add natives to my garden as often as feasible and a large group of berrying shrubs will be the perfect choice for natives.
Like climbing hydrangea, Schizophragma ‘Moonlight’ grows nicely on an oak trunk.
[...] all the GOOPs I’d confessed to over the past year. At this time last year, I wrote about my GOOPs of omission, things in my garden that were bothering me and that I planned to address in 2010. So for this [...]