Spring doesn’t officially start for another two weeks, but it is 79 degrees here today. I’m climbing out of my skin trying to resist the impulse to plant stuff that I know cannot handle the frost that will come next week. My sunny spot in my house is almost ready and next year I will be able to start things from seed, just not this year. This year, I have to wait and purchase whole plants.

I’m still trying to figure out my “zone.” Some maps show me in 6, others show me in 7. I’m apparently on the cusp of both.

My gardens look great in the Spring and Summer with some nice fall interest as well, but in the winter? Even here, I have nadda. Everything is dormant, there is no color, not contrast. B-O-R-I-N-G. I used to have pine trees and they stayed green, but boy did I miss that this year. So, in looking for color for my gardens I came across two beauties I could not resist.

This wonderfully looking specimen is called – Beni Kaze Japanese Forest Grass
(Photo Credit: Spring Hill Nursery)

Botanical Name: Hakonechloa macra ‘Beni-kaze’
Form: Herbaceous perennial
Sun Exposure: Partial Shade/Full Sun
Height/Habit: 2 – 3′
Spread: 2 – 3′
Spacing: 2 – 4′
Hardiness Zone: Zones 5 – 9
Foliage Type: Mounds of arching linear green leaves which turn to rich red tones in fall.
Flower Form: Pale green spikelets. Not significant.
Flower Color: Green
Flowering Date: Late summer.
Planting Requirements: Tolerates a light shade without compromising the brilliant fall color.
Soil Requirements: Well drained, fertile, humus rich soil.
Growth Rate: Moderate.

Unique Characteristics: Flowing mound of green grass blades that turn a brilliant red for the fall season. Great for cascading over a bank or retaining wall. Tolerates a light shade area without compromising on the great fall color. Compliments most broad leaf plants nicely in the landscape setting.
Pruning: Cut to base in late winter or early spring.
Additional Information: Beni-kaze translates to “red wind”. Describes its flowing nature and beautiful fall color.

I’ll admit, there is nothing wrong with owning these – I’m just bored with it being my only “grass” planting. This one is mature enough to divide and place in other spots in my garden. Places where I have Spring and Summer color and need some green.

My other colorful beauty is the Red Twig Dogwood

(Photo Credit: Spring Hill Nursery)

Like I said, my yard has zero color in the winter. I need something pretty.

Botanical Name: Cornus alba ‘Argenteo-Marginata’
Form: Deciduous woody shrub
Sun Exposure: Partial Shade/Full Sun
Height/Habit: 5 – 8′
Spread: 5 – 8′
Spacing: 6 – 10′
Hardiness Zone: Zones 3 – 8
Foliage Type: Variegated green and cream ovate to elliptic leaves.
Flower Form: Small starry flowers form 1 1/2 – 2″ flat topped cymes, insignificant.
Flower Color: Yellowish white
Flowering Date: Spring
Planting Requirements: Best coloration in full sun.
Soil Requirements: Well drained, but adaptable to a wide range of soils.
Growth Rate: Moderate to fast.
Unique Characteristics: An old fashioned favorite that is still one of the best shrubs for year round appeal. Attractive variegated cream and green foliage all growing season followed by brilliant red stems that last all winter. Provides great color against a snowy backdrop or used indoors as an accent in cut-flower arrangements.
Pruning: Best coloration on new wood. Prune out 1/3 to 1/2 of old wood each year.
Time of Pruning: Late winter.

PLANT DESCRIPTIONS ARE COURTESY OF SPRINGHILLNURSERY.COM I’m using these until I learn what means what and how to properly log things in my gardening scrapbook.

I pretty much ignored the back strip of my yard last year, allowing the ground to settle from grinding out the Bradford Pear and Pin Oak trees that I lost. While I was resting it, this wondrous weedy looking thing appeared. At first I thought it was a bush planted by errant birdseed. When it reached over 5 feet tall, I decided it needed cutting. The stems were very strong, yet pulpy and fibrous instead of woody. Does anyone know what this is? I have no clue.

THIS is why I never get anywhere. I find pictures like this in magazines I should not be reading, and I give up hope. I found this photograph from Better Homes and Gardens that has given me, at the very least, inspiration and major doses of fear. I love beauty, and I kill things – bad combination if you ask me.

Looking at my yard today, it’s hard for me to believe that it used to have trees and was actually very pretty when we bought this house eight years ago. The previous owners had lilacs, azealas, redbuds and rose of sharon – all I which died when I moved in.

Before any of you think I really do stink at this, let me add there was new construction in the church next door. They built up their sidewalks along the fenceline, making our strip of homes the new “low zone” sending water to our yards and saturating our lawns. My shrubs all died from root rot or so I’m told.

I need french drains, but can’t afford them. I have right of way “issues” along the line and cannot dig to replace what died – and so, I’m being creative and building up in those places. – which will probably force water into my house, now that I think of it. I need french drains.

My front yard is almost completely planned, and planted. My side yard will be next. I’m looking through my garden scrapbook of hopes and ideas that I created last year,(consisting of photographs cut out from catalogus and magazines) and discovered that I own nothing yellow. Nor do I own trees anymore expect one. (The ice storm took care of those puppies) so, in a moment of spontaneous creativity I bought this:

The Spring Hill Catalog calls it a Golden Chain Tree. I have the spot picked, and the bed ready. I know once my husband sees it, he’ll think I’ve lost my mind and maybe I have.

I’m learning to keep a file of all plants and their facts for easier reference later on. These are the basic facts according to my catalog.

Botanical Name: Laburnum alpinum
Form: Deciduous tree
Sun Exposure: Partial Shade/Full Sun
Height/Habit: 20 – 30′
Spread: 18 – 25′
Spacing: 20 – 25′
Hardiness Zone: 4 – 8 (-20 degrees F) I live in zone 7
Foliage Type: 3-leaflet compound obovate leaves to 3″ long.
Flower Form: Pea-like, in pendant clusters, resembling wisteria blooms.
Flower Color: Yellow
Flowering Date: Late spring
Planting Requirements: Nothing special in maritime regions; inland, plant in a sheltered site, north or east slope, in sun but with protection from the wind.
Soil Requirements: Well drained but moisture retentive garden soils.
Growth Rate: Moderate
Unique Characteristics: One of the very few yellow-flowering trees for the spring garden, in blossom, small tree is completely covered with flowers.
Pruning: As little as possible, only to repair damage or provide head clearance – heals poorly.
Time of Pruning: Late summer.
Additional Information: All parts of plant poisonous. Very important note – must keep this away from the animals.

I only paid $19.00 for it, which I know sounds like a waste of money considering the fact that I don’t know if it will live or die. But then all my plant purchases are like that. With my skills? There is no telling.

Afterall – my houseplants are silk – if that tells you anything.

Our neighborhood web page offers more photos of the ice storm that destroyed my yard a year ago. These are far better than the ones I was able to take and show the extent of the damage.

I attacked my garden plans last years with visions of beauty, fullness, and completion. I purchased whole garden packages fully expecting them to fill in the first year. Classic rookie mistake. It actually takes about three years for perennial gardens to fill in. Lesson learned. This year, I will invest in a few more perennials and fill the rest of the spots in with annuals.

I still had some nice flowers though. My newest side garden was filled with carnations, black eyed susans, lilly of the valley, sedem, and coral bells. I was pleasantly surprised by the results.

This is my Beauty of Moscow Lilac. I knew she wouldn’t bloom last year, but she held up quite good. I’m looking forward to watching her mature.

My hard drive crashed over the winter and I lost a lot of my garden photos. So, I won’t be blogging much about last year after all. I do however still have some of my closeups. The garden did fill in pretty well by fall and should do really well this coming year.

We also added a Japanese Maple to the mix, but he really hated this sunny spot and we had to move it to a more shaded area in front of our porch.

This fall I added my tulips, Rose of Sharon Bushes, Lillies, and more daisies. I’m looking forward to seeing those results come Spring and Summer as well.

Losing all three of my pine trees out front left my yard looking more than a little sad. The sun is strong in Oklahoma and my house faces East. I thought the gaping hole left by my trees would be the perfect spot for a rose garden.

Building this garden took work, but wasn’t quite as difficult as I had thought. Friends of ours had just purchased a home in the hills of Keystone Lake and had rocks they were digging out of their yard – two wrongs don’t make a right. They learned that those rocks are what kept the dirt in place, and I learned moving roses wasn’t very bright.

Being the homicidal horticulturist in denial, I made a lot of rookie mistakes. I built the edging just fine. Found the right mixture of black dirt, compost and fertilizer, but do you notice that my roses are in bloom? I moved them without pruning them. I also moved them without checking for disease. Turns out, my roses had fireblight. I’m not sure how it started, but one went down and took the rest with them.

This is the last rose I saw before I had to dig out my new bed and start again.

Well, this is a change. I have another blog that I use primarily for blogging about my life, and about God. But I found that having that mix confuses people, so this blog is just about gardening.

My mother is my muse when it comes to gardening. She’s tilled and worked yards since I was a baby. Gardening was and is her meditation. (I’ll show pictures in a later blog.) I’ve tried for years to emulate her beautiful gardens, with little success.

It wasn’t until recently that I found out why. I learned how to garden in the land of black dirt and cold winters. Now I live in the land of sandy loam and red clay. And the winters? Well, if you call 20 degrees for three or four days a year, cold. Mostly it’s in the 30-40’s and we don’t get real hard freezes. But the summers. Wow – we’ll have two or three weeks of temps over 100 degress and that pretty much kills everything. But I keep trying. I guess that makes me a Homicidal Horticulturist in Denial. I pick my victims by the flats and by the gallon drum.

But not this year. THIS year I’ve spent months reading blogs, and studying my area. I’ve planned, plotted, planted and pruned. With some success I might add and only a few losses. Won’t you please join me while I learn how to plant what really grows in Oklahoma.