Why the "OVERgrowth?"

I sometimes get the complaint that the children’s garden is so "overgrown." This is a complaint of adult personages and not of children. Children seem to have no problem navigating the environment in which they find themselves. I thought of this particular comment yesterday as I was pruning the Little Leaf Lindens that stretch their arms over each side of the front garden gate. The bottom branches create a filtered view into the garden and a height requirement as adults must bend slightly or face branch brushing. Hershey Children’s Garden is built around immersion. The garden is designed as a full immersion experience with plant, flower, frog and dragonfly. As a gardener I want plants smacking you in the face. In this garden, people move for the plants and not the other way around.

Having said all that, I do take certain measures. My style of gardening is to provide a wild but controlled look to any space I manage. This is reflected most in the way woody plants are pruned. I prune to control growth so as to keep plants in scale with others or to provide filtered views or clear path ways. Kids do become intimidated when a path becomes too overgrown. We find kids do not choose a path if it is so congested that it looks like a scary place to be or an impenetrable barrier.
 

Yes They Exist!

Okay, so maybe you are not as horticulturally ignorant as I am, but until recently I still conceived (even with all my vast training) of flowering bulbs as a spring and fall thing. There is, however, a whole series of options that add interest throughout the summer. Here are a couple of my current favorites found in Hershey Children’s Garden:

• Eucomis comosa  is the pineapple lily. This semi-hardy South African bulb provides interesting spikes of color for a solid week (if I recall) and the broad, coarse leaves add great textural interest.
• Many lilies, Lillium sp., are wonderful to behold. An unknown orange cultivar, pictured above, is blooming as I write this article.
• Triteleia sp. is actually a cormous set of fourteen species, but it’s delightful summer blue is worth pointing out. The blooms last for approximately a week and definitely like more sun. Come see such a display as seen below.

Mixed What?

I have come to love mixed garden borders. Borders in general are long narrow plant compositions meant to be viewed from one side. The most commonly discussed and most difficult to design is the classic formal herbaceous perennial border like Cleveland Botanical Garden’s C.K. Patrick Perennial Border.

The mixed garden border is the slightly easier and more interesting design as far as color, form and texture are concerned. The mixed border at the front of Hershey Children’s Garden is a good example. Mixed borders are simply border designs planted with a mix of woody and herbaceous perennials and annuals.

I love the mixed border because of the greater variety of color, texture and form options. I also think they tend to be easier to plant and coordinate the timing of flowering, etc. Herbaceous borders tend to require more plant material, thus increasing their complexity. One other feature of the mixed border I like is the extended seasonality of the design. Herbaceous borders tend to have a shorter window of display. Woody plants add seasonal interest from winter to winter and annuals push color throughout the main growing season.

Other gardeners can have their herbaceous borders. Me, I am going to keep it mixed up.

Posted by Josh Steffen

Changes Are A Comin’ to Our Sod Roof

If you are a regular visitor to Hershey Children’s Garden, you know that Garden staff members are constantly experimenting with new ideas to enhance the visitor experience. One of the favorite features of the garden, the sod house, is getting particular attention at the moment.

The sod house is a little play house set at the edge of the Children’s Garden prairie. Traditionally, the roof is annually planted with a wildflower sod mat. When I arrived, the flower mats were too expensive, so I went with a drought tolerant turf grass with wild flowers individually planted into the sod. Soon, all that will change.

This June, a team of contractors and garden staff are finishing work on enhancing the plant composition, as well as the structure itself. The entire wood frame has been rebuilt, and a rubber liner has been added along with modular planting trays used in conventional green roofs. The last phase will be seeding a mixture of low-mow grasses and native perennials. Come see the finished product soon!

Posted by Josh Steffen

What Shall I Do?

A visitor stopped in the garden today wondering if I have a problem with little four-legged, cute, long-eared vermin of the much breading sort.  In fact, in my first spring in the garden, I had one little fella who nearly wiped out all my newly-planted vegetables and annuals!

Many homeowners face the same problem. This particular visitor continues to see her precious perennials disappear or become short nubs. "Is there anything a rabbit will not eat?" was the anguished cry. When rabbits are really hungry the answer is, "precious little."

So, what can you do? Well the good news is that there are several options:

• The Elmer Fudd Method: You can attempt to trap your rascals and put them in your annoying neighbor’s yard waaaaay down the street. The downside is, nature hates a vacuum. The rascal’s cousins will move in.
• The Rabbit Delight Method: You can plant a crop of something you particularly do not care about in a far corner of your garden. The rabbits might eat the trap crop and not your lovelies. I have seen violets work well for this task.
• The Nasty Stuff Method: You can apply various types of repellents, such as human hair, fox urine, moth balls and various pepper sprays. The downside I find is that, again, when rascal is hungry, forget the nasty stuff.
• The Walking Yummy Method: You can try an outside cat or dog. There are public gardens and nurseries across the country that employ such a method.
• The Alcatraz Method: The most effective method I have found is a simple physical barrier. One method is to place chicken wire fencing (buried at least two feet in the ground) around the most critical areas during the most critical times (when there is very little else to eat). Another method is to use milk jugs, two-litter or twenty-ounce bottles to cover individual plants over night. Also, you can try covering various plants with white sheeting over night.

Posted by Josh Steffen

This post is devoted to the Easter Egg Radishes ready to harvest in the Hershey Children’s Garden vegetable patch. I cannot wait to share them with some little green thumbs.

I often get the question: what are some easy, kid-friendly seeds to grow? Well, here is a short list:

• Sunflowers
• Any bean
• Corn
• Wheat
• Cotton
• Any squash, cucumber or pumpkin
• Watermelon
• Of course, radish

Now, why is the Easter Egg Radish one of my favorites? Well, first of all, the radish tends to mature within 21-30 days (so you can grow several crops in one season). Second, the seeds are large enough to handle. Third, the plants have large enough plant parts that you can talk about what grows above ground and what grows below ground. Lastly, with Easter Egg Radish, you never know exactly what color you are going to pull out of the ground. How cool is that?

Posted by Josh Steffen 

The "Right" Place for a Rose

Whoever said that life is a bed of roses was loony. They clearly never spent any time working in a rose garden. Roses are a high maintenance plant, period. They require lots of attention, fertilizer, water and weeding (do not get me started about weeding among roses, ouch).

I think roses are ideal in a lovely mixed planting of shrubs, herbaceous perennials and annuals. I like variety and roses become a lot easier to manage when mixed in among other garden plants. If you’re not careful, a bunch of roses in the same place could be a smorgasbord for all kinds of pests. Spread your roses throughout a garden and watch your pest problems diminish (do not read as “gone completely”).  So, there you go. Now it is out. You know the "right" place for roses in the garden.

Posted by Josh Steffen 

Dive In And Ask

Hi, my name is Josh, and I am a dumpster gardener. I am always asking other staff gardeners if they have plants they are planning on composting.  I like to brag about how much of the Children’s Garden’s annual plantings are started from seed. I also love to brag about how much fun it is to convince others that they would have a grand old time creating wonderful container arrangements in the garden.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to dumpster gardening. Consider these things in advance:

• Ask yourself, "Why is my gardening friend smiling at me ohh so sweetly as they hand me that extra zucchini plant?" Your "find" might be really aggressive or a tremendous self-seeder (not necessarily a bad thing). I planted columbine in one place hoping it would spread.
• Is the plant diseased? You can often nurse a sick plant back to health, but is it really worth all that extra work?
• You usually end up with the same types of plants as your neighbors.

Despite these risks, I highly recommend peaking into your fellow green thumbs’ yards and asking, "Hey what are you doing with that plant right there?" 

Posted Josh Steffen

A Tribute to My Mother

The redbuds are blooming quite prolifically in the Children’s Garden woodland at the moment, and they remind me of my mom. One of my mother’s favorite spring moments is the sight of redbud trees blooming throughout the Michigan countryside, and she has passed that love onto her son.

My mother and father both profoundly influenced their son’s interest in all things beautiful and natural. I came to appreciate gardening and eventually chose a horticulture career through the nasty chore of taking care of our yard.

Never underestimate your influence upon your children. One comment from you and your children may grow up to make the world a better place to live.

Posted by Josh Steffen

Godzilla in the Garden?

Yes, my heart officially stops beating for two months every spring as I watch little plants emerge and little feet converge. One law of physics I know is that two bodies cannot occupy the same physical space at the same time. Plant stems poking their heads above the soil line must feel much like the little people peering up at the feet of Godzilla as he comes stomping through New York.

Just in case you have not noticed, kids don’t use a "garden" like adults do. Adults love big pretty vistas, and kids love the ant crawling on the sidewalk. Adults walk past and comment on how wonderful the garden looks, while kids run straight for the object of their desire (regardless what might be in their "path").

I discovered that telling kids "no" in the Garden does not work (for very long). Asking a child not dig here or there (especially right where I sowed seeds) is like asking the big Hollywood lizard to not smash cars or pick up helpless pedestrians. 

So, what do I do? I change my mindset, place physical barriers and distract them.  I must first remember my user. Second, I place bamboo stake and twine fencing around certain areas that come to about waist height on older children. Last of all, I distract them. "Oh, cool, do you hear what I hear? What is that over there?"

Posted by Josh Steffen