The Spotts Blog

This Week in the Garden (March 18 to 24, 2013)

Posted on March 22, 2013 by Amy Mullen

Normally we’d be putting spring crops in the ground, but not with more snow scheduled for Sunday! In fact, we’re betting on two more weeks of wintery weather before spring really rolls in.

Kitchen Gardens

In fruit and vegetable gardens, we’re

  • • holding off on planting. The soil is still too cold for even the earliest of crops, like peas and potatoes.
  • • starting some of our cooler-weather flowers. We’re sowing calendula inside this week.
  • • feeding our seedlings. Seedlings need food, so feed them with a half-dose of compost tea or organic fertilizer once a week. (Don’t forget to keep them watered!)
  • • hardening off our cold-weather seedlings, like lettuce, onions, and leeks.
    • • Move your plants into a semi-shady location for a few hours, then bring them back inside. Or use a cold frame.
    • • Work up to longer periods over 7 to 10 days until they’re out all day and night.
    • • They’ll be ready to plant in their permanent location.
The crocus are reassuring us that spring is on the way.

The crocus are reassuring us that spring is on the way.

Ornamental Gardens

In other parts of the garden, we’re

  • • watching for crocus and daffodils. The crocus is blooming, but most daffodils are still holding out.
  • • still doing spring pruning of shrubs and trees.
  • • turning the compost heap.
  • • obsessively refreshing the feed for the National Weather Service.
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This Week in the Garden (March 11 to 17, 2013)

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Amy Mullen

Sixty degree days followed by snow; seems like Mother Nature can’t make up her mind. We’re so ready for spring!

Kitchen Gardens

In fruit and vegetable gardens, we’re

  • • checking our soil.
    • • To figure out if your soil is workable (dry and warm enough to plant) pick up a handful and squeeze.
    • • If it stays in a clod in your hand, the soil’s still too wet.
    • • But if it crumbles when you prod it with your thumb, you can start planting!
  • • feeding our seedlings. Seedlings need food, so feed them with a half-dose of compost tea or organic fertilizer once a week. (Don’t forget to keep them watered!)
  • • hardening off our cold-weather seedlings, like lettuce, onions, and leeks. Hardening off means gradually getting your plants used to cooler temperatures.
    • • Move your plants into a semi-shady location for a few hours, then bring them back inside.
    • • Work up to longer periods over 7 to 10 days until they’re out all day and night.
    • • They’ll be ready to plant in their permanent location.
  • • waiting for the soil to dry a bit so we can plant parsnips, asparagus, and horseradish. We’ll harvest parsnips this fall, but the other two are perennials, so we’ll be able to harvest them for years!
  • • plotting where to add new rain barrels to the garden. The more rainwater we can use in the garden, the better.
The crocus are up! Spring is on the way, even if it doesn't officially start until next week.

The crocus are up! Spring is on the way, even if it doesn’t officially start until next week.

Ornamental Gardens

In other parts of the garden, we’re

  • • watching for crocus and daffodils. We’ve seen crocus blooming, but no daffodil blooms—yet.
  • • breaking out the camera to track bulbs. Take pictures this spring of your bulbs, including places you’d like them next year. You’ll have a record when it’s time to plant this fall.
  • • doing dormant pruning of small-stature trees.
  • • pruning summer-blooming shrubs like spirea, hydrangea, and abelia.
  • • pruning lavender. Good pruning helps lavender live longer in our zone 6 climate. Cut the plant back by about 1/3, but only into green growth. If you cut into the woody part, the lavender will have a harder time putting out new growth.
  • • turning the compost heap.
  • • wrapping up at the Indiana Flower and Patio Show through March 17. We’ll be hanging out to talk gardening at the Urban Homestead exhibit. You can also catch our presentations at these times:
    • Friday, March 15 at 1:00 p.m.: Organic Weed and Pest Control
    • Friday, March 15 at 6:00 p.m.: Edible Landscaping
    • Sunday, March 17 at 10:15 a.m.: Food Gardening for Beginners
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Beauty from Function in the Garden

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Amy Mullen

At Spotts Garden Service, we know that function underlies everything else in the garden. We found this attitude reflected in a quote from landscape architect Casey May  in a recent article. ”For the past century,” she said, “we’ve designed gardens with one thing in mind — the way we want them to look and how they fit into our artistic sensibilities. If we designed buildings the same way, they’d fall down.”

No falling-down gardens for us, thanks! When we design, we always start by asking “how do you want to live in your garden?” The garden should be a melding of the personality and desires of the gardener and the promptings of the genus loci, or spirit of the place.

This client wanted a garden to attract birds and butterflies right outside the window. The garden is full of berry-producing shrubs and nectar plants to lure them in. It's also a great place to sit in the evening.

This client wanted a garden to attract birds and butterflies right outside the window. The garden is full of berry-producing shrubs and nectar plants to lure them in. It’s also a great place to sit in the evening.

The Human Touch

We begin by asking a lot of questions of the clients, about how they currently use the garden and how they’d like to in the future.

  • • Do you plan to entertain in this garden?
  • • Are you a cook? Do you want fresh herbs or a kitchen garden?
  • • Do you like to drink your morning coffee or an evening cocktail outside?
  • • When do you spend time in the garden: morning, evening, weekend?
  • • Where do you keep your trash can? Grill? Compost heap?
  • • Which rooms do you spend the most time in inside? Where are the windows?
  • • Do you regularly come in the front door, back door, or through the garage?
  • • Do you have pets or children? How do we need to accommodate them?
  • • How much time can you devote to maintaining the garden? Are you an avid gardener? A putterer? Will someone else maintain this garden for you?

Then it’s on to our “The Dating Game” questions, designed to help us get at a client’s visual style.

  • • What’s your tolerance for messiness?
  • • What colors are you drawn to? Do you like high contrast, like oranges and purples? Pastels? A predominantly green garden?
  • • Do any plants hold a strong emotional attachment for you?
  • • Where’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited?
This full-sun border is most often seen from a distance, so we used brilliant colors and blocks of texture to give it pop from a distance. The plants were also chosen to lure butterflies.

This full-sun border is most often seen from a distance, so we used brilliant colors and blocks of texture to make it pop. The plants were also chosen to lure butterflies.

And What Does the Site Say?

The human element is only part of the equation. We also have to observe the site carefully and poke around for some answers to these questions:

  • • How much sunlight do plants in different parts of the garden get?
  • • What is the soil pH? No sense planting acid-loving azaleas if, like most Hoosiers, you have neutral-to-alkaline soil.
  • • How much organic matter does the soil contain?
  • • Where is the water source? How does water flow through the garden?
  • • Are there views from surrounding properties we want to highlight or screen?
  • • Are there boggy locations, spots with forgotten concrete under them, old tree stumps, microclimates, or other special considerations?
  • • How can we encourage wildlife, make use of native species, and otherwise be good environmental stewards?

Pulling It Together

Good design can solve a multitude of woes in the garden. For example,

  • • Regrading and installing a rain garden can eliminate a soggy basement.
  • • A rose hedge can force people to go through the gate instead of cutting across the garden.
  • • A pergola on the west side of the house can cool the interior of the house and create a shaded spot for entertaining.

Style—colors, textures, influences—all guide us in creating a garden, but they are secondary to how the garden functions. When we’ve created a great garden, the patios welcome gatherings, the paths lead you through and keep your feet dry, the plants thrive in their chosen spots, and the whole thing reflects the gardener’s personal style. Now that’s a garden that works.

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Top 5 Flowers for the Kitchen Garden

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Amy Mullen

As you’re planning your kitchen garden this year, consider adding flowers. Depending on what you plant, you can use them to lure pollinators, add to salads, and cut a bouquet for the dining room table.

• Calendula (Calendula officinalis). Also called “pot marigold,” calendula has long been used as a far more affordable substitute for saffron. Its zingy taste and intense color make a nice additions to salads, soups, and cream cheese. You can also use this annual in beauty creams and rinses for blonde hair. Despite their long stems and orange and yellow blooms, they aren’t great for cut flowers, because the strong fragrance can be overwhelming indoors.

• Dill (Anethum graveolens). The yellow, flat umbrels of dill flowers are a beneficial insect magnet. Plant dill under your fruit trees to draw in pollinators and lady bugs. You can harvest the dill seeds for pickling, chop the leaves for cooking, and use the feathery foliage to fill out bouquets. Even the flowers are edible!

Choose climbing nasturtium like these or low-growing varieties; either gives you bright color and edible flowers.

Choose climbing nasturtium like these or low-growing varieties; either gives you bright color and edible flowers.

• Nasturtium (Tropaeolum minus). Whether you grow the vining type or the lower-growing kind, nasturtiums brighten up the garden with reds, oranges, and yellows. Both the flowers and leaves are edible, with a peppery taste. Nasturtiums like a fairly lean soil, so don’t put them in your vegetable beds. Instead, grow them under fruit trees where their large leaves and sprawling habit can serve as a living mulch. They look good edging a bed, too. Nasturtiums are grown as annuals in zone 6.

• Sunflower (Helianthus spp.) Native to the Americas, sunflowers attract loads of beneficial insects. Plus, of course, they offer bright colors and edible seeds. Be sure to buy the old-fashioned kind, and not one of the new “pollenless” varieties, which are no good at attracting insects. The dwarf sunflowers can go anywhere in the kitchen garden, but be sure to put tall ones where they won’t shade other plants—on the north side, perhaps.

Zinnias are a natural in the kitchen garden, prolific, easy to grow from seed, and long-blooming.

Zinnias are a natural in the kitchen garden, prolific, easy to grow from seed, and long-blooming.

• Zinnia (Zinnia elegans). These long-blooming summer annuals attract beneficial insects to the garden and are a knockout in a vase. Zinnas are available in every color from pink to red to yellow to green, so you’re sure to be able to find colors you love. Check out the different flower forms, too. Plant them with annual salvias for a rainbow of cut flowers. Zinnias like a fertile soil and will appreciate a spot in the vegetable garden.

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Gardeners on the Go!

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Amy Mullen

We’re all over the place for the next couple of months! Come see us at one of these events, ask questions, and let us know what’s going on in your garden!

We’re especially excited to be part of the Indiana Flower and Patio Show’s Urban Homestead exhibit. The Flower and Patio Show runs through March 17.

Upcoming events featuring Spotts Garden Service include:

  • Indiana Flower and Patio Show
  • Join us at the Urban Homestead exhibit! Designed around a small “eco-cottage,” this centerpiece garden incorporates permeable pavers, a rain garden, raised bed food gardens, a chicken coop, a biomass heater, small wind turbines, and more! We’ll be around Friday afternoon and evening, and Saturday and Sunday mornings until early afternoon. We’ll also be presenting several times this weekend:
  • Friday, March 15, 1:00 p.m. Organic Weed and Pest Control
  • Friday, March 15, 6:00 to 7:00 Edible Landscapes
  • Sunday, March 17, 10:15 a.m. Food Gardening for Beginners
  • Indy Winter Farmers Market, sponsored by Spotts Garden Service. The Spotts crew will be talking compost and answering garden questions.
  • Saturday, March 16, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
  • Irvington Green Hour, sponsored by Spotts Garden Service
  • Tuesday, March 26, 6:00 p.m.
  • Irvington Green Hour, sponsored by Spotts Garden Service
  • Tuesday, April 16, 6:00 p.m.
  • Orchard in Bloom
  • Friday, May 3. We’ll be at Orchard in Bloom all day!
  • SGS presents “Vegetable Gardens for Beginners” at 2:00 p.m.
  • Orchard in Bloom
  • Saturday, May 4. We’ll be there all day.
  • SGS presents “Small Space Gardening” at 11:00 a.m.
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This Week in the Garden (March 4 to 10, 2013)

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Amy Mullen

Despite late snows, we’re seeing signs of spring throughout the garden—from bulb foliage to buds on the trees!

Kitchen Gardens

In fruit and vegetable gardens, we’re

  • • feeding our seedlings. Once your seedlings have their first set of true leaves, consider giving them a weak dose of compost tea or other liquid organic fertilizer about once a week. Fertilize using half the strength recommended on the bottle.
  • • starting the first of our warm-weather seeds. If you have not yet planted eggplant and peppers, now’s the time. (We’re holding off on tomatoes for a few more weeks).
  • • repotting larger seedlings. Once your seedlings have their first set of true leaves, you might want to move them to a bigger pot to give them more room to root.
  • • waiting for the soil to dry a bit so we can plant parsnips, asparagus, and horseradish. We’ll harvest parsnips this fall, but the other two are perennials, so we’ll be able to harvest them for years!
  • • pruning fruit trees and cutting back bramble fruit. Guides from the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service can give you more information.
  • • cutting down our cover crops. Don’t try to turn them under when the soil is this wet. Instead, leave them on top of the soil as mulch, compost them, or feed them to chickens.
  • • plotting where to add new rain barrels to the garden. The more rainwater we can use in the garden, the better. (Check out our new friends at Circle City Rain Barrels!)
These leeks are basking under a shop light, but we'll start hardening them off next week.

These leeks are basking under a shop light, but we’ll start hardening them off next week.

Ornamental Gardens

In other parts of the garden, we’re

  • • watching for emerging bulbs. We’ve seen snowdrops blooming, and daffodil and tulip foliage is up. (Tulip foliage looks like a coil uncurling from a point, usually with a red edge; daffodil foliage has blunt, flat green ends).
  • • doing dormant pruning of small-stature trees.
  • • pruning summer-blooming shrubs like spirea, hydrangea, and abelia.
    • • If a shrub blooms in spring, wait until after it flowers to prune it; pruning it now removes the flowering buds. On the other hand, we sometimes prune overgrown spring-blooming shrubs this time of year, sacrificing a few flowers so we can get the shrub under control.
    • • Certain shrubs (like butterfly bush and caryopteris) should be cut back hard to about 6″ above the ground. We’ll hold off on doing that until early April.
  • • pruning lavender. Good pruning helps lavender live longer in our zone 6 climate. Cut the plant back by about 1/3, but only into green growth. If you cut into the woody part, the lavender will have a harder time putting out new growth.
  • • turning the compost heap.
  • • planning to visit the Indiana Flower and Patio Show from March 9 to 17. We’ll be hanging out to talk gardening at the Urban Homestead exhibit. You can also catch our presentations at these times:
    • Saturday, March 9 at 12:30 p.m.: Food Gardening for Beginners
    • Friday, March 15 at 1:00 p.m.: Organic Weed and Pest Control
    • Friday, March 15 at 6:00 p.m.: Edible Landscaping
    • Sunday, March 17 at 10:15 a.m.: Food Gardening for Beginners
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This Week in the Garden (February 25 to March 3, 2013)

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Amy Mullen

You can tell it’s late winter in Indiana: the weather is shifting all over the place and mud is everywhere. We’re breaking out our boots and taking a good look around the garden.

Kitchen Gardens

In fruit and vegetable gardens, we’re

  • • watching our cold-weather veggie seedlings inside. Make sure they have good air circulation to avoid fungal attacks (the dreaded “damping off”).
  • • starting the first of our warm-weather seeds. We’re planting eggplant and peppers inside this week, both of which get off to a slow start.
  • • starting a few herbs inside. If you want to grow anise, parsley, or fennel from seed, sow them inside now.
  • • feeding our seedlings. Once your seedlings have their first set of true leaves, consider giving them a weak dose of compost tea or other liquid organic fertilizer about once a week. Fertilize using half the strength recommended on the bottle.
  • • pruning fruit trees and cutting back bramble fruit. Guides from the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service can give you more information.
  • • starting to cut down our cover crops. The ground is still too wet to work, so we’re leaving them on top of the soil as mulch, dumping them into the compost pile, or feeding them to the chickens.
  • • plotting where to add new rain barrels to the garden. The more rainwater we can use in the garden, the better!
Mud season has arrived! Get out your boots and take a squishy walk through the garden.

Mud season has arrived! Get out your boots and take a squishy walk through the garden.

Ornamental Gardens

In other parts of the garden, we’re

  • • watching for emerging bulbs. We’ve seen snowdrops blooming already, and the daffodil foliage is already up.
  • • doing dormant pruning of small-stature trees.
  • • pruning summer-blooming shrubs like spirea, hydrangea, abelia, caryopteris, and buddleia.
    • • If a shrub blooms in spring, wait until after it flowers to prune it; pruning it now removes the flowering buds. On the other hand, we sometimes prune overgrown spring-blooming shrubs this time of year, sacrificing a few flowers so we can get the shrub under control.
    • • To prune an overgrown, multi-stemmed shrub, climb under the shrub, then cut one-third of the oldest stems off at ground level. For the next two years, take out another third of growth. Within three years, you will have completely rejuvenated the shrub.
    • • You can smash the bottom of some of those cut branches with a hammer and put them in water to force blooms indoors, too! This trick works with spring-flowers shrubs like lilac and forsythia.
  • • turning the compost heap.
  • • planning to visit the Indiana Flower and Patio Show from March 9 to 17. We’ll be hanging out to talk gardening at the Urban Homestead exhibit. You can also catch our presentations at these times:
    • Saturday, March 9 at 12:30 p.m.: Food Gardening for Beginners
    • Friday, March 15 at 1:00 p.m.: Organic Weed and Pest Control
    • Friday, March 15 at 6:00 p.m.: Edible Landscaping
    • Sunday, March 17 at 10:15 a.m.: Food Gardening for Beginners
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Grow, Don’t Mow: Lawn Alternatives

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Amy Mullen

During last summer’s drought-prompted ban on watering lawns, Indianapolis’s water use dropped by 40 million gallons per day. Turfgrass has become the largest irrigated crop in America (four times more water is used on turfgrass than on corn), and we can’t even eat it! It’s time to rethink the lawn.

Fortunately, we have a wealth of lawn alternatives to choose from. Among their benefits are the use of fewer resources, no demand for artificial fertilizers and pesticides, expansion of ecological diversity, and the creation of beautiful gardens. And no more lawn-mowing chores!

Amy F replaced the lawn on a hard-to-mow slope with a rock garden full of miniature bulbs, cantdytuft, and other low-growing herbs and perennials.

Amy F replaced the lawn on a hard-to-mow slope with a rock garden full of miniature bulbs, cantdytuft, and other low-growing herbs and perennials.

In a shady spot (where turfgrass often struggles), you could plant:

  • • a stroll garden of shrubs, astilbe, hostas, and anemone.
  • • a woodland natives garden, full of columbine, bluebells, and Jacob’s ladder.
  • • a living carpet of shade-loving plants like bugleweed, liriope, or even moss (if your soil is acid enough).

Need something to lure in wildlife? Think about planting:

  • • semi-shady garden devoted to Midwestern natives like monarda, penstemon, and hydrangea.
  • • a prairie garden full of drought-tolerant grasses and flowers: little bluestem, pale-purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, and prarie drop seed.
  • • a garden designed for the birds, full viburnums and chokeberries for fruit and grasses for seeds and nesting materials.

Want a space that fulfills a practical need? Consider creating:

  • • a tidy kitchen garden to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
  • • a rain garden of combined native and non-native plants to mitigate storm-water run off.
  • • a mixed-species play lawn, with turfgrass, clover, violets, low-growing herbs, and broad-leafed plants sometimes considered “weeds.” This kind of “freedom lawn” still requires the occasional mowing, but no fertilizers, pesticides, or supplemental water.

To really get your imagination going, check out Beautiful Now-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives. And if you’re thinking of converting your lawn to garden, call us at (317) 356-8808 for a free consultation. We can help you retire that lawn mower in favor of a hammock in the garden!

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Garden Books for Winter Reading

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Amy Mullen

Despite occasional warm days and that hint of spring in the air, winter hasn’t exactly released its grip. What to do when the soil’s too wet to work and the wind is blowing? How about some armchair gardening? To that end, a list of some of our newly-discovered garden book favorites.

The Layered Garden, Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty from Brandywine Cottage, by David L. Culp

This flat-out gorgeous book pulls from the author’s 20 years gardening a 2-acre spread in Pennsylvania. Culp recommends creating waves of garden peaks by “layering” plants of different statures and bloom times. Not for the gardener who craves a low-maintenance garden (Culp does a lot of deadheading), but undeniably inspiring.

Beautiful No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives, by Eveyn J. Hadden

That restful green lawn isn’t actually that restful, once you figure in the amount of maintenance, number of chemicals, and lack of ecological diversity it fosters. Fortunately, Hadden gives us a tour of 50 other options, every one an inspiration. From family-friendly play spaces to wild life gardens to alternatives that will thrive even in (gasp!) dry shade, Hadden offers a beautiful, eco-friendly way out of Saturday morning lawn mowing.

So many books, so little time before planting season starts.

Small Green Roofs: Low-Tech Options for Greener Living, by Nigel Dunnett et. al.

The Spotts crew is fascinated by green roofs, and we ripped through this tour of small-scale, homemade green roofs. The more than 40 profiles focus on extensive (shallow-layer) green roofs that eschew the complicated infrastructure of intensive versions. After seeing these pictures, you may start casting a calculating eye at the roof of the garden shed.

The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture: Creating an Edible Ecosystem, by Christopher Shein

Permaculture (permanent + agriculture) is making its way into the mainstream of food gardening. Shein presents a photo-packed, easy-to-understand guide for those who want to incorporate the ideas of an edible ecology into their own gardens. Friendly and full of good advice, it’s an accessible entry into permaculture. Once you’ve read this one, you’ll be ready to take on Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway, Amy M’s favorite book on permaculture.

Kiss My Aster: A Graphic Guide to Creating a Fantastic Yard Totally Tailored to You, by Amanda Thomsen

If what you really need from your gardening book is a good laugh, you’ll love Thomsen’s illustrated guide to creating a garden that is totally you. The comic-book style is great, and we can totally get behind anyone who recognizes that a garden should reflect the personality of the gardener. Check it out, and prepare to laugh.

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Gardeners on the Go!

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Amy Mullen

We love to talk gardens, and we’re looking forward to a busy season! Come see us at one of these events to ask questions or chat about what’s going on in your garden.

We’re especially excited to be part of the Indiana Flower and Patio Show’s Urban Homestead exhibit. Designed around a small “eco-cottage,” this centerpiece garden incorporates permeable pavers, a rain garden, raised bed food gardens, a chicken coop, a biomass heater, small wind turbines, and more! The Flower and Patio Show runs March 9 to March 17.

Upcoming events featuring Spotts Garden Service include:

  • Irvington Green Hour, sponsored by Spotts Garden Service
  • Tuesday, March 19, 6:00 p.m.
  • Orchard in Bloom
  • Friday, May 3. We’ll be at Orchard in Bloom all day!
  • SGS presents “Vegetable Gardens for Beginners” at 2:00 p.m.
  • Orchard in Bloom
  • Saturday, May 4. We’ll be there all day.
  • SGS presents “Small Space Gardening” at 11:00 a.m.
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