l've Never Met a Better Lavender - It's 'Phenomenal'!

We know that fragrance has the power to take us back in time to an experience and it can transform our mood. It's also one of the joys of gardening - growing plants that not only look pretty, but smell that way too.

Lavender is one of the most well-known fragrant plants there is and while I love growing it, it can be persnickety about our Zone 5b climate and our native heavy clay soil. Even with soil amendments, there are years that can be pretty tough on even well-established lavender plants. If only there was a lavender that existed that was just a little more forgiving...

Oh, wait. There IS!

A few years ago, I met Lloyd Traven, plant breeder and owner of Peace Tree Farm located in Pennsylvania, a short distance from Philadelphia. Lloyd is one of those people whom once you've met him, you never forget him. There's just something about him, whether it's his no-nonsense approach to life or his enthusiasm and knowledge about the plants he grows. Or maybe it's the beard. I'm not sure.

Lloyd and me at National Green Centre in St. Louis in
January 2013. (Photo by Chris Tidrick)

Lloyd had been working on some things and in 2012, he introduced Lavandula x intermedia 'Phenomenal' to the rest of us.

Now this is no ordinary lavender. Yes, it has purpley-blue flowers and yes, it smells really nice. But 'Phenomenal' lives up to its name in many ways:

• It has exceptional winter hardiness. Lavenders succumb to the cold mainly because they require excellent drainage and soggy soil coupled with the cold is more than most lavenders can handle. While 'Phenomenal' also likes good drainage, it's more tolerant of adverse conditions than most other lavenders.
  
  Remember the winter of 2013-14? Oooooh, that was a bad one. I'd been growing several types of lavender, including 'Hidcote' and 'Munstead', quite successfully for several years in my heavy clay garden that's located in what was once The Great Black Swamp. I had just planted two 'Phenomenal' plants that I'd been given as test plants late in the season right before that brutal winter and I was worried that they wouldn't survive it.
  
  But when spring came, guess what happened? I lost every single one of my well-established lavenders, but the 'Phenomenal' did just fine. Like most plants last spring, they were a little later to break dormancy, but both plants made it. Of course I bought more and to be honest, it's the only lavender I intend to grow for the time being.
  
  
• It's not bothered by hot and humid summers. Global warming, anyone? We've always had periods of extreme heat in July and August, but in recent years, it's pretty much a sure thing that those months are going to be scorchers. Not only that, with the exception of last summer, it's as if God turns off the spigot around mid-June and gets busy with other things until he finally remembers to turn it back on around September. Most plants hate that. 'Phenomenal' seems to just roll with the punches.
• It's a vigorous grower. Last summer was a good one around these parts and it seemed like we got rain right when we needed it and not too much when we didn't. So of course I would expect most plants to do well, and 'Phenomenal' was no exception.  But Lloyd sent me a photo of it growing at the farm in Pennsylvania, showing what it's capable of as it matures:
  
  

  

  Candy Traven (Mrs. Lloyd), standing behind just one 'Phenomenal' lavender plant!
  (Photo courtesy of Peace Tree Farm)

  
  Wowza! To be honest, if mine gets that big, I'ma gonna have to move some plants! Mine are relatively young yet, but those original ones I planted in 2013 just might do the third year leap this summer. We'll see.


• It's deer and rabbit resistant. Nothing is deer or rabbit proof, as most gardeners who battle these pests will tell you, but they don't seem to like this plant very well. Perhaps it's because of the oil that gives it that luscious scent. It's also resistant to common root and foliar diseases.


• It has both culinary and aromatherapy uses, not to mention its use in floral bouquets. You know how Dorothy and friends got sleepy when running through the poppy fields in The Wizard of Oz?  I secretly think those poppies were underplanted with lavender. 'Phenomenal' is exceptionally good for using its oil, which is known to have a calming effect and helps us sleep.
  
  

  

  Mmmmm... can't you just smell it?

  
  I cut the flower stems from my plants this year and let them dry. I then rubbed the dried flowers from the stems and put them in one of the lavender sachet bags I bought at Carolee's Herb Farm near Hartford City, Ind., a few years ago. Carolee grows a LOT of lavender there, among other wonderful things.

The oil in 'Phenomenal' is long-lasting. All I have to do is shake the sachet a bit and it releases a fresh waft of fragrance through the room. It was the beginning of last August when I cut those flower stems.

What you need to know

If you think you can't grow lavender, try 'Phenomenal'. I haven't done anything special in regard to growing them other than what I usually do when planting lavender of any type and that's making sure they've got good drainage. I  plant them in slightly elevated mounds of soil and if the soil is particularly heavy with clay, I'll amend it with a healthy helping of orchid bark. (Don't wrinkle your nose - it works for me!)

I found some plants locally last summer at Stuckey's in Ft. Wayne but they only had a few and I snatched them right up. As the word gets around about what a great lavender this is, I think it will get easier to find, although it's only sold in independent garden centers. If your favorite IGC doesn't have it, ask for it. That would be doing you both a favor.

Lavandula x intermedia 'Phenomenal'
Zone 5-10
Full sun
24-32" height and spread
Average moisture
Slightly acidic pH (our soil is alkaline and it does just fine)
Flowers in spring and summer


Hey, Lloyd... got any other wonderful things in the works?

The Gutter Planter Redux - Succulent Style!

Last year, I enlisted the help of my husband and friend Julie to create a gutter planter for my monthly project as a Lowe's Creative Ideas Garden Team member.  Once it was constructed, I planted it up with an assortment of annuals and perennials and just for fun, threw in a few glass watering balls that had gotten their bottoms broken off.

Angled gutter planter - Summer 2013

As the summer wore on, the planter, which was located on the hot south side of our house, demanded that I pay pretty close attention to keeping it watered.  Because there's not a whole lot of room for potting soil, there isn't a lot of leeway or forgiveness on the watering issue.

So this year, I decided to try something else. What kind of plants do well in hot, sunny locations that take a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to watering? SUCCULENTS!  So, with the help of Costa Farms, North America's largest houseplant grower and wholesaler, who sent an assortment to me, I planted that baby up with a bunch of cool succulents.

I added in some hens and chicks (Sempervivum spp.) that I already had in my garden, that I'd received from Forever and Ever Plants two years ago. One is 'Red Heart' (seen on the lower right in the photo above) and I've lost the tag for the orangey one.

I also used some of the succulents from Costa Farms in the ground, below the planter, as a tie-in.  Since there are some hardy mums growing here too, I've made sure that the soil drains well, because mums won't survive our cold, wet winters here if I don't amend the native clay soil.  Succulents should do just fine.

It's been a couple of weeks now and we've had a few heavy rains, but the drainage holes in the bottom of the planters allow for excess water to drain away and everything looks just as good or better than it did the day I planted it.  I think this planter will be filled with succulents every year now.  When the danger of frost arrives later this year, I'll pot up the tender succulents and put them in the greenhouse for the winter.

 I just love how this looks!

You can find out how we constructed the planter in my original post, "A Different Angle on Vertical Gardening."

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Thank you to Garden Media Group for arranging to have the succulents sent from Costa Farms.  Thank you, Costa Farms, for your generosity and help with this project!

A Different Angle on Vertical Gardening

On my recent trip to San Francisco for the Garden Bloggers Fling, I saw a piece of vertical gardening artwork for sale in the Ruth Bancroft Garden.  It was a whole lot out of my price range at $4000, but it gave me an idea for something I could do in my own garden at a fraction of the cost.

Using gutters for gardening isn't new and I've often thought about doing one here.  I didn't know exactly where I'd put one, nor how I would construct it, but as we all do, I stored ideas away in the back of my mind and finally, it all came together.

The theme for this month's Lowe's Creative Ideas project was vertical gardening and here's my take on it - using gutters!

Vertical Trough Garden

Materials

• 1 10-foot section of vinyl rain gutter
• 6 4½-inch vinyl gutter end caps
• 2 10-foot ¾-inch PVC pipes
• 7 ¾-inch PVC couplings
• 1  ¾-inch PVC tee
• 1 12-oz. can Rust-oleum Universal Hammered Spray Paint (I used Brown)
• A couple of deck screws  (we had these on hand)
• Potting soil
• Plants

The first thing we did was to have the pipes and the gutter cut in half while we were still at Lowe's, and special thanks to Chris, the plumbing department manager at the Findlay Lowe's store, for so cheerfully doing this!  That made it easier for us to get things home in our vehicle.

Construction

Figuring out the logistics of this was a little difficult, because I had a vision in my head, and knew what needed to happen to get things to come out the way I was seeing it, but executing it was another matter.  Friend Julie Kroske spent the day with us and provided valuable input on the project, as well as being a calming influence when frustrations ran high. And three heads are better than two!

Existing plantings and a window determined the length of the trough garden.  The longest piece of gutter was cut to a length of 42" and this was the bottom one of the three pieces.  The next higher gutter piece measured  36" long and the third and topmost piece was 24" long. After cutting these to the proper length, we put the end caps on.

We cut the PVC pipes into lengths of  56", 49" and 15".  A PVC cutter makes short work of that task and luckily Romie had purchased one a few years ago when he had to do some plumbing. Two ¾-inch holes were then drilled into the bottom of the bottom gutter piece, four inches from each end, for the PVC pipe "legs." 

The tricky part came in when it was time to drill the holes in the top two gutters.  These are angled and we wanted the angle to be the same degree off parallel on both of them, so I cut a template out of cardboard that matched the angle of the middle gutter.

I'm sure there's an easier way to do this part, but this worked for me.

I then placed the bottom straight edge of the template an equal distance from the top edge of the bottom gutter and matched up the angle for placement of the top gutter.  This then dictated where the holes would be drilled for the top and middle gutters.  It worked out to be 7" from each end of the middle piece, and the top gutter had holes drilled at 7½" from the left end and 6" from the right end.

Smaller holes were then drilled in the bottom for drainage.

Now it was time to put it all together.  To keep the gutters from sliding up and down on the PVC pipe and securely where they needed to be, we cut the seven ¾-inch couplings in two across the middle so that we ended up with 14 of equal size. These were then placed on the PVC pipe above and below where they went through the gutters.

These were not made to slide all the way down a pipe - only on the end - so they were super tight.  This was a good thing when it came to anchoring the gutters for this project, but it made it difficult to get them to the spot on the pipe where we needed them to be.  So Romie used an adjustable wrench, holding tightly onto the coupling and he hammered the wrench until the coupling was in the proper place.  Julie and I secured the pipe so that it stayed in place while he hammered.

I forgot to take a photo of the placement of the "T".  This was used at the bottom of the short piece of pipe, inside the bottom gutter.  It was orientated so that the bottom of the T was perpendicular to the sides of the gutter.  Romie then secured it in two places with deck screws that we already had here from another project.  This helped minimize torquing of the gutters.

Now it was time to paint!

Photo by Julie Kroske

I used Rust-oleum Universal spray paint in Hammered Brown.  This can be used on plastic and it gives whatever you paint the appearance of being made of metal (if you don't inspect it too closely).  I'd wanted to make this project out of metal to begin with, but we couldn't find appropriate metal pipe or gutters at Lowe's for the three planter parts. The vinyl worked well though.


Once the paint was dry, I used our post hole digger to dig holes for the legs, which ended up being in the ground about 15 inches, give or take.  We used some scrap steel rods from Romie's work and drove those into the ground first, then slipped the legs of the planter over them.  You wouldn't need to do that - you could just put the pipe directly into the ground - but I like the idea of being able to lift the planter off and storing it inside for winter.

In the ground, ready to plant!

Time for planting!  I used some plants grown by the Berry Family of Nurseries - Variegated Lilyturf (Liriope muscari 'Variegata') and English Ivy (Hedera helix 'Natasha') - as well as Proven Winners Supertunia® Red petunias.  I also used some white vinca (Catharanthus roseus).  Then, since it's July and we just celebrated our nation's birthday, I added some blue glass balls that are supposed to be watering aids, but I use them as accents in the garden and in containers.

Voila!

For more Lowe's Creative Ideas for your home and garden, visit their website.  And here's the bloggers' page, where you can see what other Lowe's Creative Ideas team members are up to:

The Lowe’s Creative Ideas Creator and Influencers Blogger Network

Very happy to see my May project, "Dress Up a Dry Bed," as one of the current featured projects!

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Lowe's Home Improvement provided me with gift cards for the purpose of purchasing the materials needed to complete this project.The total cost, including plants, was approximately $85.00.

Lowe's Creative Ideas: A Rainbow of Color For a Partly Shady Garden - and a Deck!

Our average last frost date here at Our Little Acre in northwest Ohio is May 15th, but it's been a long time since we've had a frost that late. This year, spring has taken its sweet time getting here, although we've had some nice weather here and there. Frost two nights in a row this week didn't make some things in the garden very happy - the gardener either.

My April Lowe's Creative Ideas project is just a bit late, due to the cold weather and a lot of rain.  It's hard to plant in mud. But finally, we got it completed! 

Sometimes I dream a little too big.  But I'm a possibility thinker and I could visualize this project.  In fact, part of it had lived in my head for a couple of years now.  A big tip of the hat to my ever-helpful husband, Romie.  Without him, most of it would not have been possible.

One of the Creative Ideas themes for April was to use colors of the rainbow.  I decided to incorporate these colors by using both flowers and hardscape.

A portion of our large garden at the back of the property has always been reserved for what I call "hot" flowers.  In the past, I'd grow colorful zinnias, cosmos, snapdragons, marigolds, and lilies.  Anything that would bring about a riot of color was fair game for that garden.  But in recent years, that has been a challenge, due to the maturing of several trees in that part of the yard and in the garden itself.  The kinds of flowers I'd always grown there needed a lot of sun to perform well.  That was Dilemma #1.

Secondly, we had made use of the trunk of a pine tree that had died, by converting it into a directional with colorful signs indicating the miles to the homes of family members.  We also put a decorative bird house on top, which the wrens always made use of.  This past year, the pine rotted to the point that it was only a matter of time before it fell over, so that was removed.  I had always loved this colorful addition to the "hot" garden, so this became Dilemma #2.

I put my thinking cap on.

I'd remembered seeing a cute set of birdhouses in my Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine awhile back, so I went to the website and found the plans.  I knew I was going to need some husband help for this, so I talked mine into making the birdhouses for me.  It didn't take him too long; I got them painted, and we put them up.

The birdhouses fit like a sleeve over 4x4s that are set into the ground.  The top of the 4x4 serves as the bottom of the nesting cavity of each birdhouse.  We made the holes 1¼-inch in diameter, so as to attract wrens and not sparrows.

This added a lot of color to the garden and I was pleased with how they looked as a replacement for the directional. 

Heucherella 'Gold Zebra'

To add more color, I planted some perennials and annuals, some of which do okay in shade.  For example, Heucherella 'Gold Zebra' has bright yellow foliage with deep red veining, and the fountain grass Pennisetum setaceum 'Fireworks' has a burgundy tint to it (more so with direct sun).

Gerbera jamesonii

The "hot" garden still gets a fair amount of direct sun on its western and northern edges at various times of the day, so I planted perennials lithodora (Lithodora diffusa 'Blue Star') and candytuft (Iberis sempervirens 'Purity').

A couple of Gerbera daisies in orange brightened things up and existing Asiatic lilies 'Matrix' and some colorful daylilies will provide some vibrant red-orange and golden yellow color as the season progresses.

The candytuft (front left) was done blooming by the time I finished the
project, but it will provide pretty foliage and occasional rebloom.

Lithodora diffusa 'Blue Star'

The second part of my plan was the one that I'd first expressed a desire for two years ago.  There's a small pond that's part of this garden and I'd wanted a deck for a sitting area next to it.  This took some convincing on my part before Romie agreed to make it.

I'd envisioned a curvy-edged deck, but when it became clear that curves were going to be much harder to execute than a deck with straight edges, I conceded to going with the simpler design.  After a geometry discussion, we agreed on a trapezoid shape for the deck.

We placed cardboard under the deck, to kill the grass.

The deck proved easier to make than the birdhouses, and they weren't difficult, so in the end, the project was pretty easy.  It just took some time and some cooperation from the weather to get it all in place.

I'd fallen in love with a yellow daisy bench on a previous visit to Lowe's, so I picked one up on my trip there to get supplies for the rest of the project.  That, I put together all by myself.  I mean, it was only a few nuts and bolts and voila!

To add some more color, I planted up one of my larger pots - bright blue! - with a braided Dracaena that I found in the Lowe's houseplant section.  I added a couple of shade-loving caladiums for red color, and sweet potato vine in a bright chartreuse.  The sweet potato vine will eventually spill out over the edge of the pot and will do fine in shade, even though it prefers sun.

I get to have my "hot" garden, even though a good deal of it is now in shade.

Supplies

Tall Trio of Birdhouses:

• 11 - 1"x6"x8' pine boards  ($5.96 x 11 = $65.56)
• 1 - 2"x8"x8' pine board  ($6.47)
• 3 - 4"x4"x8' treated pine posts  ($8.27 x 3 = $24.81)
• 1 lb. box of 6d galvanized finishing nails ($3.92)
• 3 - 1 qt. Valspar exterior semi-gloss paint + primer in Mountain Botanical, Classic Red, and Morning Sunrise ($12.33 x 3 = $36.99)

Total cost:  $137.75


Deck:

• 6 - 2"x4"x8' treated pine  ($3.37 x 6 = 20.22)
• 15 - 5/4" x6"x8' treated deck boards  ($3.97 x 15 = $59.55)
• 1 - 5 lb. box of 2.5" deck screws (Used about half of box @ $22.47)

Total cost:  $ 91.00


Plants:

• 3 - 1 gal. Heucherella 'Gold Zebra'  (3 x $10.98 = $32.94)
• 3 - 2.5 qt. Lithodora 'Blue Star'  (3 x $7.98 = $23.94)
• 1 - 2.5 qt. Pennisetum 'Fireworks'  ($5.98)
• 3 - 2.5 qt. Iberis 'Purity'  (3 x $5.98 = $17.94)
• 3 - 1.25 qt. Gerbera daisy  (3 x $4.98 = $14.94)
• 3 - 1 pt. Ipomoea (3 x $2.98 = $8.94)
• 2 - 1.25 qt. Caladium 'Freda Hemple'  (2 x $4.98 = $9.96)
• 1 - 1.25 qt. Dracaena  ($10.98)

Total cost:   $125.62

Cost of daisy bench:  $98.00

For more DIY inspiration, visit Lowe's Creative Ideas and the Lowe's Creative Ideas Creator and Influencers Blogger Network.

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Lowe's Home Improvement provided me with gift cards for the purpose of purchasing the materials needed to complete this project.

Staghorn Fern String Planter - DIY

String gardens are popping up all over Pinterest these days. The concept is pretty simple, really.  It's a hanging container with plants in it!  But what sets a string garden apart is that the container used for planting isn't an ordinary container and they're usually hung in groups.

Most of the string gardens I've seen are made with Kokedama (moss balls) or grapevine spheres. All sorts of plants are planted in them, even small trees. Trees look especially stunning because they're usually hung low and appear to be suspended in mid-air if the "string" used is nylon fishing line. They can be a bit tricky though, because they're top-heavy, so proper balance and support is important.

I've wanted to make a string planter of my own, and I had a number of grapevine spheres that I've used as decorator items in my home for years. So I took one of those and in less than 30 minutes, I planted it up and hung it.  Though mine isn't made using kokedama, the effect is pretty much the same and it really couldn't be easier.

DIY String Planter

Materials:

• hollow grapevine sphere
• sheet moss
• potting soil
• scissors
• 25-lb. strength nylon fishing line
• plant of your choice

First, cut an opening in the grapevine sphere, large enough that you can fit the root ball of the plant inside it.

Next, line the inside with sheet moss, keeping the greener side facing the outside of the sphere, because it will show through a little bit when you're finished.

Put a small amount of potting soil inside the sphere unless your root ball takes up the entire volume of the sphere.  You should have some space to be filled around the root ball to allow for a bit of growth.

I used a clump of staghorn ferns (Platycerium sp.) that needed to be repotted because they were outgrowing their plastic nursery pot and they fit nicely inside the grapevine sphere.  Once I had the plant potted up, I took lengths of the nylon fishing line and tied them around the top edge of the sphere, making sure they were secure enough to hold the weight of it when suspended.

After soaking the ball and letting it drain, I gathered the "strings" of fishing line at the top and tied a knot at the length I preferred for the sphere to hang from the ceiling - about 30 inches.

After hanging the sphere, I tucked in some sheet moss around the top edges to give it a more finished look.

This staghorn fern has been living in our bathroom for the last three months and it loves the more humid environment there.  I put it in the shower periodically and wet it down, and I'll still be able to do the same thing with this container. I'll have to monitor it more closely since it will dry out more quickly in the grapevine sphere than it did in the plastic pot.

Lowe's Creative Ideas - Furniture Rehab Project - Part Two

When I last left you with my Lowe's Creative Ideas Furniture Rehab Project (Part One is here), I hinted that there was something more than just putting a planter in a table. Even though just doing that takes the table from ordinary to interesting, just one more thing elevates it to functional.

Once the table was painted, I could drop the planter down into the hole that Romie cut for it. Since it will probably rain here someday (we're hoping, anyway), it needed to be sealed around the edge, where the planter and the table meet, to keep water from running down into the inside of the table. A thick ribbon of silicone sealant took care of that. (Sorry, but I forgot to take a photo of this step.)

Then here's where the beauty of the thing really takes shape. If you noticed in Part One, I bought two planters. One was now permanently affixed to the lid of the table.

I took the other one, popped out the hole in the bottom of it for drainage and planted a colorful Croton in it. I placed the planter down inside the one already in the table.

Nice, eh?

But let's just say we're having guests over for a swim. (This table is on the deck area by our pool.) Used like a coffee table, magazines and drink glasses always end up on it. We've often brought out a cooler with ice for keeping drinks cool, whether it's a bottle of wine or cans of pop.

But now...

...the table can serve as a drink cooler, too!

Just lift out the planted container and sit it on the table and fill the original planter with ice! I popped out the hole in the bottom of that one too, so that the melting ice could drain into a small bucket under it.

The top of this table is hinged so that the inside can be used for storage, so it's easy to empty the bucket. And because we try not to be wasteful, the water that drains into the bucket can then be used to water the planter!

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For other Lowe's Creative Ideas for your home and garden, check out their web page!





As part of the Lowe's Creative Ideas Garden Club, I was provided with a Lowe's Gift Card to cover the cost of materials for my project.