From the garden experience of Felder Rushing

It hit me the other day and, going in to wash up, found a sprig of rosemary soaking in a water glass on the kitchen sink. I had slipped it into my shirt pocket a few evenings earlier during a “date” with daughter Zoe at an upscale restaurant, promising to root it for her when we got home. Somebody help me!

Have you ever bought plants you didn’t need, or really even want, but just couldn’t resist? I have set pots and even entire flats of flowers on the driveway, and watered them for weeks and months until they eventually just melted away, because there simply was no place to plant them.

I suppose outsiders could see our passion as tame when compared superficially with, say, indoor soccer (“dry hockey”) or Nascar racing. But I don’t have to explain to real gardeners how fast a heart rate can get from a few pulls on the starter rope on a recalcitrant gas engine, or how sweat drips from our eyebrows as we toss bulbs and mulch into freshly-prepared soil, or how itchy fire ant stings (and even poison ivy) can be, between toes and fingers. Or how our hearts sing when we discover a delicate detail, flavor, fragrance, or other bonus in a newfound plant.

From the garden experiences of Felder Rushing

Note: The following plants are best suited for Southern gardens

Azaleas belong on school campuses, for three reasons: They are beautiful, they bloom during the school year, and they start with the letter A, followed by the letter Z. Get it? A to Z.

Children respond to bright colors and broad concepts, so having an “alphabet garden” is a no-brainer. It’s easy to use both plants and hard-features to teach letters and also work in other things as well (organization, connections between plants and insects, orderliness, etc.). Bold, home-made or artistic signs representing each letter, with corresponding colors, are attractive throughout the entire year, and provide opportunities to be creative and artistic. For example, a large letter B painted blue (and painted-on bees) can have silk butterflies glued on.

Here’s a fun gallery with which to start. Let children look up others, then make their own decisions!

From the garden experiences of Felder Rushing

It’s not a religion, or complicated - feng shui (fung-shway) is simply trying to create a pleasing, harmonious design, coupling common sense and the art of good placement. It works with, not against, nature, and takes into consideration many different elements. Though no two gardeners use the same “recipe” here are a few basic principles to consider.

Assuming there are universal energies flowing around us at all times, feng shui (which means the flow of “wind” and “water”) tries to attract that which is good, and minimize that which is bad, to balance passive and active qualities (yin and yang), and to create a positive, happy relationship between us, our home, and the environment.

Five elements or forces (wood-fire-earth-metal-water) can be arranged in a natural or productive cycle, and we can redesign or modify unnatural or unhappy elements of design such as excessive straight lines, sharp angles, narrow walks and steps, poor lighting, clutter, contrasting colors, competing sounds, bad weather exposure, poor plant choices, etc.

From the garden experience of Felder Rushing

CURRICULUM NEEDS ASIDE, here are a few design features found in most successful school/youth gardens around the country.

Note: While youth should be involved in as many aspects of design as possible, EVERY consideration must be given for SAFETY (physical hazards include sharp edges, falls, water features, bee stings, poisonous plants and seeds, etc.), and MAINTENANCE. These CANNOT be overstated!

- “Special space” sense of enclosure, including walls and kid-size, kid- designed entry; security|

- Access to water (w/hard surface to keep feet dry), electricity (w/ground- fault interrupter circuit for safety)

- Firm walkways (for wet weather and for access by the disabled)

- Teaching area (classroom setting, partially walled from rest of garden), with shaded seating that stays dry

- Roomy potting bench, and tool and equipment storage (can double as seating)

From the garden experience of Felder Rushing

Unless you are in a race or something, there are only two “rules” for successful composting: Stop throwing all that stuff away, and pile it up somewhere.

What actually creates compost are bacteria, fungi, worms, and many other small creatures who digest organic debris (leaves, mulch, grass clippings, weeds, and kitchen scraps such as vegetable trimmings, coffee grounds and filters, and the like). Decomposition time will vary depending on the type and size and of the material, and the amount of air and water present.

In general, there are two kinds of organic debris: “Brown” stuff (dried leaves, mulch, paper), which is slow to decompose, and “green” stuff (fresh grass clippings, vegetable trimmings, weeds), which composts almost too quickly. What happens in a good compost pile, is the bacteria and fungi “eat” the brown stuff, using nitrogen from the “green” stuff to build their bodies and help in digestion. Therefore, a good blend of green and grown stuff composts the best.

From the garden experience of Felder Rushing

Cottage gardening, a style with the freedom of growing what you like, where you like, and how you like, has great rewards for folks who want to get the most out of their landscape - and don’t mind being called “gardeners” by envious neighbors.

Anyone can have a cottage garden - or a piece of one. In spite of it being much easier - not to mention more socially acceptable - to mindlessly mow grass and trim shrubs into simple meatball shapes, any landscape can include an area where you can plant stuff “every which way” and enjoy using all your senses. It doesn’t have to be an all-consuming obsession.

No two cottage gardeners - or their gardens - are alike, though most share certain characteristics, including a love of being outdoors, keen observation, attention to detail, appreciation of variety, and a sharing spirit. Their gardens, filled with plants having proven hardiness and often shared between a diverse lot of gardeners, typically provide a strong sense of place.

From the garden experience of Felder Rushing

Of the forty-plus kinds of roses I have growing basically on their own - including many at
a local cemetery that even dead people can grow, there are a solid dozen that I’d recommend to even total non-gardeners who have little more than dirt and sunshine and know little more than “green side up.” These everbloomers need no care whatsoever:

Aloha
The Fairy
La Marne
Red Cascades
Belinda’s Dream
Climbing Old Blush
Climbing New Dawn
Duchesse de Brabant
Mutablis (“butterfly” rose, a big ‘un)
Cecile Brunner (the old sweetheart” rose)
Caldwell Pink (a “found” rose from east Texas)
Martha Gonzales, evergreen shrub with deep red flowers.

Unfortunately, at this time they are hard to find locally. I got mine from Mike Shoup, the celebrated rose lover from east Texas. Check out his Antique Rose Emporium (www.antiqueroseemporium.com) or call 1-800-441-0002 for a free copy of his delightful catalog.

Prepared July 2002 by Felder Rushing

Smart gardeners choose beautiful but hardy garden plants which are well-suited for our typically hot, humid summer nights and do not require constant watering during summer drought. Here are a select few (there are others, but these enough for a start):

ANNUALS
Amaranth
Celosia
Copper Plant
Coreopsis
Cosmos
Dusty Miller
Gomphrena
Melampodium
Morning Glory
Moss Rose
Pentas
Periwinkle
Portulaca
Sunflower
Tithonia
Zinnia

PERENNIALS
Artemisias
Aspidistra
Asters
Canna
Daylily
Dianthus
Four O’Clocks
Gladiolus
Goldenrod
Iris
Lantana
Liatris
Liropie
Ornamental Grasses
Phlox
Purple Coneflower
Purple Heart (Setcreasea)
Rudbeckia
Salvias
Saporana
Sedums
Verbena
Yarrow (Achillea)

SHRUBS
Abelia
Boxwood
Cleyera
Cotoneaster
Flowering Quince
Eleagnus
Euonymous
Gardenia
Hollies
Junipers