Week 7 - Year 1: Dead Heads

Unlike Jerry's famed followers, my dead heads get their name from less ethereal sources. In gardening, the dead heads are simply what they sound like - the dead, shriveled up buds on a flower. I'm still mastering the art of deadheading - figuring out which heads need to be removed to spark new growth and which are "self-cleaning" and will take care of it themselves. There are apparently four ways to "deadhead" a plant - Snipping, Snapping, Shearing or Pinching - all of which sound uncomfortable and surely make any male wince at the thought. In my garden, I've been dealing with all of the techniques with varied success.

Here's what I know:

The Pinchers

The lowest (well besides self-cleaners) maintenance and the most intuitive. You just "pinch" the deadhead off the stem.

• Begonias
• Pansies
• Petunias (optional)

The Snippers

Here's where the tools come in - you use a hand pruner to cut the dead bud right before the first leaf.

• Campanula (can also be snapped or pinched)
• Heliotrope
• Nicotiana
• Roses

The Snappers

This requires you to "snap" the flower off at the base. It really only applies to really long flowers like geraniums that have a large head.

• Snapdragon

The Shear-ers

This requires the large scary shears to do some serious cutting. I just use my hand pruners since containers aren't going to grow big enough to justify that kind of blade.

• Campanula
• Snapdragon

The Self-Cleaners

These are the easy guys. Though it can be hard to resist the temptation of snapping off the dead plants, the rule is that these guys can take care of themselves.

• Bidens
• Calibrachoa
• Lobelia
• Verbena
• Wave Petunias

The Big Projects - Pruners

Then, some plants are so high maintenance that they require annual, complicated pruning in early spring:

• Clematis

Unknown

With the rest, I've been going with my gut since I haven't found any great insight on the worldwide web.

But, what to do with the deadheads? I'm not entirely sure. Sometimes, I just throw them over the deck. Other times, I test them out as fertilizer for some of the bigger pots, but I'm not sure how effective it is ....

Week 6 - Year 1: Every Garden Needs a Gnome

... And, every gnome a garden? We spotted this guy at our grocery store hiding out in one of the random odds & ends aisles. We named him G-Nome. While tacky gnomes are not usually my style, I was in the kind of mood that made him irresistible. He is probably a 10 on the tackiness meter. Between his Santa Clause face, vacant (creepy) expression, mushroom seat and $10 price tag, he is a dead 8, but when you add in the fact that he is made of plastic, G-Nome's a definite 10.

G-Nome definitely adds some charm and character to our little experiment, but his plastic nature makes him especially vulnerable to the winds of a fourth floor deck. So, my husband has insisted that G-Nome not take residence outside as he would likely blow away in the winds and storms we've had lately. Instead, he gets to watch his garden from the other side of the sliding doors. Maybe it's the way he's perched on his mushroom stool, or maybe (probably) it's my overactive imagination, but you can almost feel the longing in him to be outside.

Since we've had a break in the weather, I did set him outside, but I have a feeling he will not get staying out there for long without supervision. I imagine that he is enjoying it for now. When he inevitably takes up residence on the other side of the door again, I'm sure he'll be dreaming of the day when he can take a more permanent residence in a yard or wind sheltered garden.

Week 5 - Year 1: June Showers, Bring July ____?

Before we started gardening, I used to love rain - the smell, the sounds, and the excuse to snuggle up with a good book were a great way to spend a day. Now that I'm gardening, me and the rain gods need to have a talk. We have had rain for a week straight and the forecast predicts more gray and more rain are in our future. I'm wondering if June has become the new April in Madison.

Last weekend was especially bad. Things got so bad with the wind and massive downpour that we had to have an emergency rescue mission, which is what the picture at the top of the blog shows. The window boxes were being pummeled and the pots along the sides were being blown in every direction. So, in the midst of it all, I went out and moved everything to the center. The rain was pretty severe and water was running everywhere.

While the rest of the week days were not as bad, we did not get any sun either, and it's starting to wreak havoc on the garden. I had to move the African Violet inside because I was afraid it could not take this outdoor deluge. The roses have not bloomed since the beginning of the rain. The Morning Glory's leaves are starting to decay. The heliotrope and verbena have not had any new growth and are starting to look sad. The pansies are wilting (in fact, I had to toss some of the ones I had replanted in the Clematis containers). And, the Osteospermum got so excited that it bloomed all at once, keeled over and gave in. This was what was left of the carcass.

However, all hope is not lost yet. The clematis are actually doing pretty well all things considered and some of the smaller pots are starting to bloom. While sun may be coming mid week, I am hard pressed to believe the weather man and am wondering if a grow light would be a better investment.

Week 5 - Year 1: Good Morning, Glory

One of my latest acquisitions is a Morning Glory. Morning Glories are vigorous climbers and I'm hoping this guy can handle the right side of our deck. As most of our flowers are in the purple family, I was really drawn by the deep purple flowers on this particular Morning Glory. Like the Clematis and Black-Eyed Susans, I potted these in a large plastic container with a mix of potting soil & peat moss.

Unlike the other climbers though, these came with wooden hoops rather than a mini trellis, so it was harder to use that as the original climbing structure. Instead, I wound the existing vines around our spindles and secured them with zip ties to help them get started.

The flower itself is gorgeous. If you look closely, you can see it has red striations with a white center that seems to almost glow in the photos.

The biggest problem I've had with it so far is the problem I'm having with all of our flowers - no sun. We've had gray, rainy day after gray day and we only have more in sight (more on this later). If you look closely at the leaves, you can see they are starting to decay a little and I'm worried about the long term impact this could have on the new additions. So far, the Morning Glory is still flowering, but I'm concerned that this could change with continued gray days.

Week 4 - Year 1: The New Guys

Given the semi-success we've had so far with our container garden, I just couldn't resist adding more members to our wolfpack. We usually go to Johannsen's Greenhouse in Madison, but I thought we should check out the competition and today we went to Felly's Garden Center out near Verona. It was huge and had more selections than Johannsen's and we were able to add some new variety to our collection. However, I think we will probably stick with Johannsen's. While both are nice greenhouses, the longer drive wasn't really worth it, even with the extra stock and we like the staff and set up at Johannsen's better. Plus, Johannsen's has a lot more odds ands ends (like soil, pots variety, etc.), which allows us avoid a trip to the big orange box.

As for the new talent, we added two new containers and two new windowboxes. I planted all of them in a mix of potting soil.

Window Boxes

I placed the new boxes on the sides of the deck. The flowers are a mix of sun/part-sun. The sides of the deck do not get as much sun as the center, but I'm hopeful that it will be enough to support both new boxes.

Window Box #4 (from left to right)

1. Painted Porcelain Sweet Violets

2. ???? - I can't remember! It's driving me crazy, but I cannot remember the name of these flowers. I think it starts with an R. Update - One of my awesome co-workers was able to identify this one for me - it's flowering tobacco, or Nicotiana, which is also known as night jasmine. Thanks, Kathy!

3. Enduring Blue Brachycome

Window Box #5 (from left to right)

1. Dark Blue Verbena

2. Unknown - we found this guy mixed in with the heliotrope, but none of the staff members at Felly's could tell us what it is and there were not any tags on it. It looks like a marigold hybrid of sorts. I'm hoping it plays nice with others, but we will have to wait and see.

3. Heliotrope

Containers

1. African Violets

2. "Grandpa Ott" Morning Glories

Week 4 - Year 1: Petunia, Petunia, Let Down Your Vines

Like Rapunzel's golden hair, I have hopes that the wave petunias I planted in window box #1 will grow their vines down the side of our deck's railing.

Last year, our neighbors across the way had the most beautiful window boxes of pink petunias and sweet potato vine that managed to climb down the entire length of their railing.

I'm hoping to achieve similar results with our purple petunias. While we had white petunias last year, they did not manage the same results because they were not the "wave" kind, so they grew straight up rather than down.

So far, we seem to be on target. The petunias are monsters (even overrunning the poor pansies) and seem to be cooperating with my plan.

My only question is whether I'm supposed to "coach" them along as they seem to grow in every direction. I've been trying to gently coax them downward, but they have strong, heavy vines (that are also really sticky) and it's hard to push them.

All in all, I really love the look of these sprawling vines, so I'm thinking about adding petunia window boxes to the other sides of our deck if these continue to thrive.

Week 4 - Year 1: The Pansy Wars

I planted pansies in the center of all of the window boxes. While the yellow ones in the center box are doing fine, the variety of purple pansies that are in the two outer boxes are under siege.

We've had a week of mostly rainy/cloudy days, which have caused the petunias to thrive, but the pansies seem to have wilted (or been attacked by their box mates). When I got home last night, it looked like the pansies had been mauled to death.

Emergency surgery was required. I decided to replant the tired looking pansies into the clematis containers because I recently read that clematis like to have their roots shaded by annuals.

The pansies in box #1 (with the petunias) looked the worst by far as it looked like the petunias were overtaking them and the pansies I had literally decided to lay down on the job as a result. So, I decided to remove all of them, but I'm not sure if it is too late - they look pretty sad.

The situation in Box #3 was not as dire. While some of the pansies had that wilted look to them, others were thriving and I ultimately decided only to remove half of them to see if that will help the box situation. The pansies in box #3 are a really unique mix of purple (see the first picture) and I really want them to succeed, so I was nervous about replanting all of them.

Unfortunately, pansies are not big fans of heat, so I might be saying good bye to all of them in July if we have a hot summer. Wisconsin is not exactly known for its heat, so they might make it through the summer, but we will have to wait and see.

Week 3 - Year 1: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A couple of year's ago, we had a couple of birds build their nest in the upper part of our deck in early March. They were incredibly territorial and we could never go out on the deck, but we couldn't bear to make them leave either. This year, it looks like another pair have created a nest in our hanger. While it seems a little late to be nesting, every time I walk on to the deck these birds fly out of the hanger and watch us from the roof next door.

Yesterday, I watered the plants excessively (without knowing about the bird family) and I'm not sure if they had moved in at that point or not. Now, I'm terrified to water the plant, but I don't really want it to die either. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to care for - the plant tags even claim to be drought proof!

So, I'm thinking it's a job for my husband, who does not have as many qualms about watering the birds out. I've never heard of birds building a nest in a planter, but what else could they be doing?