In Gretchen's Garden

Went for a hike today and found this natural container display: little wildflowers growing in the crook of the root structure of a tree.  Lovely!  I will have to go back and see if I can transplant some of this into my own containers!  Clearly, it's thriving in the shade of the tree.

I signed up for a community garden plot this spring. I had heard my community had space for this and that the plots were only given out on a seniority basis, and then whatever was left over was dueled out as first-come-first-serve. And so I religiously checked the community website all through February and March, watching for sign-ups. On the evening registration was open, I raced home and flew to the community center (luckily not getting stopped for speeding or running stop signs!) and was able to obtain one. "What luck!!!" I thought to myself, because I really only thought I would have about a 10% chance of getting one. But then again maybe nobody thinks all day about gardening like I do. (I take a moment to laugh at myself here.)

I was overjoyed, until about two weeks ago when I visited my assigned plot and found that it's on the edge of the woods...with no sunlight hitting the ground AT ALL. I couldn't believe it, and so I went back at 10am, 1pm, 3pm and then finally at 5...shade all the way around. Not even a partly-sunny corner. I am not going to lie, I was angry, bitter, and depressed for over a week.

But now I am thinking, is this yet another shade challenge?
Can vegetables be grown in full shade?

I am going to continue with this, purely for experimental purposes. And for you, my dear readers who also may be drenched in shadows of trees and buildings. There has got to be something that can be done and damnit I will find a way.

Today, I put in my cold weather veggies - snow peas, lettuce, spinach, and onions. I said a prayer over them - hey you never know what may help!! I am thinking it will take nothing short of divine intervention to work. But time will tell.

It's been awhile since I wrote an entry and I have so much to write about! The past two weekends I've made mini-jaunts out to nurseries to browse and idea-generate. I'm on the edge of my seat wanting to try hordes of beautiful plants I've seen, like a kid in a candy shop. But I know I have to take it slow before I spend oodles of money and not have the time or space for good follow through.

Today I visited my parents, who have a truly spectacular flower garden. They have a lifetime of hand-me-down plants from various places they've lived or visited, dug up, subdivided, and replanted. The result is a phenomenal collection. It's amazing, because as we walk around the garden, they tell the tales -- "Here's the Creeping Phlox we took from the hillside by the old apartment at college... And now here's the Black-eyed-Susans we got from my parent's old Johnstown house..." and so forth. So endearing!! It adds a whole new dynamic to gardening all together.

Today I dug up bits and pieces of perennials to give them a shot, based on my research of what will do well in shade, and also based on pure observation of its current environment. It's a great beginning. Here's what I have:

Lily of the Valley
Hosta
Bleeding Heart
Columbine
Blue Bells
Various Seedum
Moss
Chives
Pachysandra
Creeping Phlox

Right now everything is watered, wrapped in newspaper, and in plastic bags. (I ran out of sunlight to plant!!) I am so excited to arrange them in my planters I am almost contemplating taking a sick day from work tomorrow to work on it! :)

Well, today is Valentine's Day and since I am now spending it alone for the second year in a row (I know! Who would have thought this could happen to me?!?), I thought it might be appropriate to post a little about the plant which matches synonymously with the way I am feeling today. Well maybe I am being overly dramatic, but here it goes:


Another fantastic plant that thrives in the shade and no doubt one I plan to include this spring.

Blooms mid-Spring through mid-Summer.
Trim off the spent stalks of flowers and new ones will spring up, but leave them and seed pods will be produced.
For potting:
Fill a pot one-third to one-half of its height with a fresh, well-drained potting medium such as a mix of half loam and half peat. If transplanting the plant from outside, prune the roots if necessary up to one-half their lengths. Place the bleeding heart flower in the container, allowing the roots to spread naturally, and fill the rest of the potting medium around the roots.

It sees the more I wish for Spring, the more wintry it becomes!! This weekend we got over 20" of snow and it's taken the city two full days to climb out of it. I, on the otherhand, did not leave my apartment. It gave me a chance to work on some of the many unfinished projects I've started throughout the years. Got a lot of sewing, housecleaning, and painting done. And blogging, of course. :)

Let's not forget about other crowd-pleasers! I have a feeling I will be a big fan of Impatiens and Coleus this year. Both can easily be found outside supermarkets and garden stores. Given their many varieties, they are just what I will need to add vibrant color to my porch garden. They are very good shade plants.

Coleus

Perennial
Pinch the tips to keep the plant bushy
(I have seen gardeners who are even able to sculpt the plants into colorful topiaries!)

This plant comes in so many wonderful colors that it may be hard to narrow it down to what I wants to buy.



Impatiens

Another plant that you will see everywhere once spring arrives. These are really hardy. Just water and they thrive.
Also, another bonus is that they flower all season throughout the end of summer. If taken care of properly, you will enjoy them for many months.

In all my recent research of types of plants that might survive given my climate circumstances, this name keeps coming up again and again. We may as well start with Astilbe.

Perennial
Zone 5
Blooms May through July
Flowers in a range of red, pink, and white
Partial to full shade
Needs potting soil rich in hummus
Trim stems back after flowering

This is the best comprehensive guide to container gardening that I have been able to find to date. I borrowed it from the library months ago, and then asked for it for Christmas when I found myself sad that I had to return it on the library due date.

Not only is it a great encyclopedia of plants you can use, but it also gives and brief description of what kind of sunlight each plant needs, the type of soil, and the type of container. It has plenty of pictures, and even shows examples of layouts for gardening in small spaces.

Sweet Woodruff | Pachysandra
Periwinkle | Astilbe | Ferns
Hellebore | Lungwort ---> Spring
Impatiens | Hosta | Flag Iris
Coral Bells | Trillium
* Siberian Buglass
Columbine | Some day lilies (ex: wood, trout)
Some Irises (ex: crested)
Soloman's seal ---> gets tall
Bleeding heart | Fern Leaf bleeding heart
Narcissus | Daffodils | Big leaf aster
Jacob's ladder | Violets
Rhododendron | Wood anemones
Moss | Wild sweet william
Foam flower | Golden Star
Jack in the Pulpit | Lily of the Valley
Goat's beard | Primrose
Turtlehead | Turks cap lilies


These are my first brainstorming notes, courtesy of my brother's girlfriend. It's a good list to start with. It also got me thinking that what I need to do is get into the mindset of WOODLAND PLANTS. In the woods, there is little or no sunlight...what kind of plants do you see there? I do gravitate more towards natural style gardening rather than formal anyway. I think this can work.

As this is my first ever blog, I feel I should introduce myself...every literary piece has it's introduction, and even magazines have their "letter from the editor"...so I am thinking, why not this as well? It just doesn't feel proper to go without.

So anyway, I am beginning this as a jolt of inspiration hit me first thing this Saturday morning at 7 am. It's winter...and literally 9 degrees outside. So naturally I've been daydreaming of spring gardening. I've always loved gardening since I was a little girl munching green beans picked from my parent's vegetable garden in the back yard. I would also stereotypically wander off Goldilocks-like into the woods picking wildflowers and trying to spot wildlife (though I'm a brunette, not a blonde, but let's go with it for the metaphor.)

In my prior living space, I was blessed with a ground-level apartment that came with a patio and a landlord who allowed me to dig up the lawn and put in a flower garden. (Well, I should say, allowed me after it was done and looked incredible!!) It got full sun all day. I grew flowers and vegetables and anything that I plunked into the ground thrived. I had explosions of color spilling over the garden trim. It was nearly out of control. Throughout the summers, I shared it with a nest of baby bunnies and a huge praying mantis - which I found out later is an ancient symbol of strength. The garden became a sanctuary for me from all the stress and anxiety of life. At that time, there was a lot of it so needless to say, I spent most of my extra time there. My realization for my love for gardening (can't resist saying it) BLOSSOMED. It had always been there, but I had never acknowledged it. Prior to that, there were plenty of philodendron and spider plants on windowsills of dorm rooms and Christmas cactuses on desks at work... I hadn't realized it, but there has always been a plant in my life.

Now zooming back to more present times, we get to the heart of the blog's theme. My apartment now is beautiful and I'm in love with it. This May will be my second garden season there and I've got a LOT to learn in preparation. It's a second floor duplex and has a lovely front porch which stretches the front of the building. Thus, I was flung into the world of container gardening. What a fabulous niche of gardening this is! I already had two wonderful large raised-bed planters my dad built for me, and last spring I scoured garage sales and ended up with a multitude of colorful pots and terracotta planters. Then I went straight to Home Depot and bought beautiful flowers and packages of herb seeds, put everything in it's place, and dreamed of how beautiful my porch would be.

The result was...nothing. I had a bunch of pathetic withering seedlings. A complete failure. A combination of my haste and my luxury of the previous full sun patio made me realize that -- though I admire the hobby -- I really don't know anything!! Part of the problem was the alluring age-old sumac tree in the front yard. It added to the charm of the place, but it was blocking all of my sunlight!!

So not only am I new to container gardening, but I also now have to learn how to garden in full-shade. Not impossible, but as I said, I've got a lot to learn. I've been reading a lot about it, and jotting notes and lists down on scraps of paper which are now littered around my computer screen and jammed in the bottom of my purses.

I need focus. So I am going to document what I find and chronicle my experiences to slowly develop a knowledge of what works and what doesn't work. So many things around me are inspiring and I am going to try to take pictures and post them too. This is not really going to be a how-to blog, but more like what I am doing with my garden while I find out "how-to" life. If you are following along, I encourage you to share what you find or any suggestions.