The Natural Garden May Be the Break You Are Looking For

So you are ready to add a hardscape element or two to your landscape. Great! The question is, can you do it yourself or should you call in the experts? Here are five things to consider before tackling this project on your own.

Size and Site: Hardscape projects border on do-it-yourself and professional work. The size and area in which you are building your hardscape plays a big part in determining if you should tackle such a project or let the experts help. If you need a plan, a scaled drawing as well as some grading to make the site ready for a new patio, hiring a professional is a smart move.

Multiple Hardscape Elements: Whenever we are working on a patio, dining, fireplace and cooking area, a designer is your best tool for the project. She can ensure everything you are looking for is manageable, to scale within the space and executed in a way to ensure quality of work.

Wimberg Landscaping has partnered with the Cincinnati Zoo’s Plant for Pollinators Challenge. We admire their goal of registering 500 pollinator gardens in 2019. Gardens can be small, perfect for balcony gardeners, or very generous in size, like our Focal Garden at Ault Park.

Pollinator gardens do not have to be comprised exclusively of pollinator plants. Such gardens rely on thoughtful design, year-round blooms and winter interest. Then we take the next step: incorporating plants that will feed and host pollinators. 

If you are looking in the garden each day to see what’s emerging and flushing out, you are not alone. If you have these five plants in your garden you’re already seeing the start of this year’s garden season.

Bleeding Heart
Bleeding Hearts are the classic, elegant sign of spring in the shade garden. The more shade these plants have the longer they stay viable in the garden. If they get more sun and a bit dry, they will go dormant and greet you again next spring.

Wimberg Landscaping is happy to announce that we are partnering with the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens’ (CZBG) Plant for Pollinators Challenge. As we develop a better understanding about how our endeavors in the landscape have a direct impact on the success or failure of pollinators and other wildlife, gardeners are making a conscious effort to design and manage their gardens in a way that will support our pollinator population. The CZBG is in the forefront of plant and wildlife education. While the cheetahs and hippos may get a lot of fanfare, the work being done at the Zoo to promote plants that will benefit pollinators is equally important.

Most homeowners have it, the forgotten side yard that’s seldom used or viewed. One side of the house provides for a nice garden walk, playing area or perhaps a driveway. The other side of the house is dedicated to utilities, such as air conditioning units. When that house is in Cincinnati, chances are you also have a slope. We can't ignore this part of the yard, it’s part of the property and viewed by neighbors. Here’s a beautiful solution.

If you are not enjoying the beauty of spring flowering bulbs, such as daffodils in your yard, the question is, why? Now’s a great time to study where the landscape would benefit from a splash of much needed spring color. If you know you don't have the energy to plant bulbs in the fall, after a long season of gardening, call us.

We can plan where the bulbs will be planted in the fall and start securing the bulbs now. Then, come this time next year, you'll be enjoying a garden flush with spring flowers!

Pine straw is quickly moving up the list of must-use mulch options. For years we have used it at Peter Wimberg’s home, completely blanketing the front landscape and its gentle slope to the street. After the perennials are cut back in late fall, or simply left as is, we cover the landscape with a generous amount of pine straw. Unlike hardwood mulch which can become compact after the winter season, pine straw remains loose enough that ‘fluffing’ is not required come spring.

One way in which Wimberg Landscaping is unique in the industry is that we offer periodic garden maintenance. In addition to complete lawn care, irrigation services, design and installation services, we also offer maintenance of our new installations as well as existing landscapes. 

“Offering maintenance services was not only a smart business move, but it makes it easier for our clients to enjoy a beautiful, long-lived landscape,” share Peter Wimberg. “It’s simply easier, more efficient and cost effective for a homeowner to have one team addressing everything in the landscape. We know the property inside and out, we have a clear understanding of what should be happening year-to-year as our designs evolve. We can also head-off potential problems such as irrigation leaks or plant health issues.”

As to how much maintenance we provide a client, it runs the entire spectrum from our teams handling every detail to stopping in once a month to handle some of the bigger tasks. Our spring and fall clean up packages are one of our most popular services. We handle leaf clean up, bed edging, new mulch and cutting back spent perennials and grasses allowing the homeowner to focus on more of what she enjoys, such as planting. 

“Maintenance really is a partnership with our clients.” Peter says. “We’re there to help them where they need us most while offering sound, professional advice.”

If you could use a hand in the garden, call us. It’s never too early to schedule a spring clean up or arrange for regular garden maintenance. 
 

I tend to use far more perennials than annuals in my gardens. But last year, some diseased trees were removed and new trees planted leaving a sunny garden, but for a limited time. The new lilac trees will make a for a shady spot to sit, but for the next few years it will be pretty sunny. Not wanting to plant sun perennials that I would have to move, I opted for annuals to fill in the garden and give it a lot of instant, summer-long color. Here’s what I planted that won me over:

Work is beginning in the Focal Gardens at Ault Park. Grasses have been cut back, the coneflowers finally trimmed and winter weeds have been expelled from the gardens. A few plants are starting poke up-  most obviously the Monarda. Often, gently raking a garden is fine for removing plant debris, but with the thick carpet of Monarda, the best solution was cleaning it by hand. I didn't want to risk dislodging the tender new plants. The Monarda is quite vigorous in one of the four beds, despite being evenly distributed throughout all four in the original planting spaces. This is a great reminder to us all that even when planting spaces appear to be very much the same, subtleties in water and sun, perhaps even wind can affect the plants’ performance. 
 

Mulch is great, it offers many benefits to the garden, if you use it correctly. Are you up on your mulch basics?

The lawn has taken a beating over the years. There are those who would say all lawns are bad. I’m not one to subscribe to ‘always’ or ‘never’ declarations. The truth often lies somewhere in the middle. This also holds true for the lawn.

A lawn does a wonderful job of setting off a home and its gardens. In simplest terms, the lawn is the foreground, the gardens middle ground and your home, the background. It’s the perfect design scenario. A curved lawn-garden bed line is attractive in its own right. (see image above) The contrast of the low green cover next to the varieties of textures and colors of the garden is a wonderful contrast. Plus, where else do you kick a ball around? The busiest place in the park is often the lawn. A place to stretch out, read, nap maybe even do yoga. 
 

If you are looking for a way to shake up your garden colors a bit, consider adding silver plants this year. We found five great silver plants: some we have adored for years and others we can’t wait to try. 

Artemisia: (above) I grew this many years ago in Wisconsin and since then it slipped off my radar. What a shame! The light, feathery silver foliage is ideally suited for sunny, dry spots in the garden. And it’s deer resistant. I would love to see this tucked within a rock garden or planted with yuccas for an great contrast in color, texture and form.

If your garden is lacking signs of spring, meet with one of our garden professionals who can help you integrate touches of spring into your landscape. The spring flowering bulb is always a welcome sight, especially after our long, gray winters. But some take a while to emerge. Helleborus orientalis (above) are gorgeous in the garden: spring through winter. Their evergreen foliage adds a touch of green when all else has faded, and they bloom in the very early spring. Mine are in bloom now, under a fine dusting of snow. 

The native bulb, Winter Aconite, that naturalizes with ease, is still in bloom in the shadier areas of the garden and starting to fade in brighter spots. Its bright yellow blooms are harbingers of spring and often visited by groups of honeybees. 

Another great spring bulb, Galanthus is perhaps the only new addition of white to the garden we want to see this time of year. They do best in sunny spots in well-draining soil. I like them planted in conjunction with crocus and daffodils for a continuous show of spring flowers. 

And let’s not forget Witch Hazel. We’ve waxed sentimental about this tree in an earlier post and for good reason. It has gorgeous architectural form when thoughtfully pruned. It creates lovely dappled shade, anchors the garden and provides much needed winter interest. And of course, the incredibly early blooms are most welcome in late winter and into spring.

Your landscape is something that should be enjoyed year-round. If it’s lacking an early spring flush of interest, call us. 
 

Regular maintenance care for your landscape is not reserved for those new to gardening and those who simply don't have the time. Experienced gardeners also turn to a designated maintenance team to assist in their landscape’s care. The reasons are many. We share five.

Mulch Madness
I’ve edged and mulched enough gardens to last my lifetime! Many clients love gardening, just not every task that comes with it, especially hauling heavy mulch bags around the yard. We can edge the beds and replenish the mulch when needed.

When I’m Away, The Weeds Will Play  
Many clients travel and when they do they don't want to worry about their gardens turning to weed patches, spent flowers left languishing on the plants and the yard void of human activity. A consistently groomed yard gives the impression that everyone is home, not on a far away beach.

I have repeated this design rule many times: when adding a new plant, plant in odd numbers preferably 3, 5 or 7 if room permits. This is far more impactful than adding one of each plant here and there in the garden. The other rule of gardening is once you know the rules, you can break the rules. 

There are some perennials that offer enough visual weight and interest to be planted alone. They become a focal point in the garden vignette. You can use these plants in large groupings, of course, but if you have room for one plant only, or only want to invest in one plant, these are a great options. 

Britt-Marie Crawford Ligularia: (above)This plant has great visual weight thanks to it large, thick leaves with a gorgeous purple underside. They are not huge, about two feet tall and wide, but that space is all leaves, and in the late summer, yellow flowers atop thick stems. 

It’s too easy to get settled into our tried and true plants. They have served us well over the years, so why deviate?  We’re all guilty of it. But, there are countless plants available that are proven reliable (little risk to the gardener) that deserve a space in our home landscape. Here are five to consider.

Mount Airy Fothergilla (above): Great spring flowers, gorgeous fall color and easy to grow. Flexible: full sun to part shade and short (easy to tuck in anywhere).

There are a few plants that we strongly encourage you to eliminate from your landscape. Not only are they invasive or too aggressive, but the alternatives are far more attractive and beneficial to your landscape environment.

Top of the list, no surprise here, Honeysuckle. Wildy invasive, hinders the growth of desirable spring ephemerals, may possibly poison the soil and its berries are of marginal nutritional value for the birds.   

Instead consider: Shasta viburnum. A lovely large shrub/small tree. It blooms early, has gorgeous berries, in the winter it’s architectural interest shines, and if you love to prune your plants this one welcomes it!

Or consider a Witch Hazel. Again, gorgeous winter structure, it blooms as early as December or January (what a sight to behold on our gray days!) and its leaves have great fall color. The open nature of the this small tree makes it perfect for creating a dappled shade garden. It blooms best in full sun, but we’ve seen it do quite well in part shade, too.

<p>Sometimes, a garden has served its purpose. I will admit, it's not always easy to look at a familiar old garden and say, time to go. That's exactly what happened with the Wimberg Landscaping Focal Garden in Ault Park. Jennifer Smith, then a gardener for the park and now our Horticulturalist, said, It's time for a new design. And it was. The shrubs had become too large for their space, the roses where starting to struggle and the perennials where more maintenance then they were worth. So, with a new plan drafted by Jennifer, we removed the existing plant material, turned the soil, installed new plants and topped with fresh mulch. We could have integrated some of the original elements into the new design, but it would have been to the final design's detriment. The design you see now is prairie inspired, designed to maximize butterfly and hummingbird traffic and very loose and free flowing. Any original material left in the new design would have looked forced and wildly out of place. The Design The focal garden is comprised of four rectangular beds in a slight arching shape and a circular bed in the center punctuated with an urn. To achieve the look of one continuous garden, not four separate gardens, we manipulated the rules of three. For example, Panicum, Shenandoah, the group of three is split between the two beds; with one plant in a bed and two in the adjoining bed- visually drawing the two beds together. We did the same with the butterfly bushes, breaking up the planting leaving one shrub in one bed and the rest of the group in the adjoining bed. Muhuly Grass was planted not at the top of the bed as tradition would dictate, but more in the center and bending down to the foreground of the beds. The focal garden is the one garden that visitors can walk into and see from all different angles. The adopt-a plot-beds, which one passes by on a paved walk are viewed from the front, as if looking at art hanging in a museum.</p>