Spring Wildflowers

Take a springtime walk through Lakewold Gardens, a casual, intimate garden that's just south of Tacoma in Washington State.

Lakewold Gardens, just south of Tacoma, Washington, is an estate garden with a casual, intimate appeal. Though the famous landscape architect Thomas Church was commissioned to help the owner design the 10-acre site, the garden's small, enclosed rooms, narrow pathways and framed vistas feel very private.

When I visited the garden on a morning in mid-April, I was delighted to see a wonderful assortment of wildflowers. With the garden entirely to myself, I spent almost two hours on hands and knees, face to face with trilliums and trout lilies, hepatica, bellwort, rue-anemone, wild geranium, cyclamen and forget-me-nots.

Seeing these spring wildflowers at Lakewold stirred some of my favorite childhood memories. When I was in grade school we lived in the suburbs of Minneapolis, within biking distance of a small nature preserve. Those meadows and streams, bogs and woodlands were my refuge; filled with secret places where I could be alone in nature.

Years later I learned that this playground wasn’t just any old nature preserve. The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden is actually the oldest public wildflower garden in the United States. What good fortune I had to grow up nearby and become friends with plants I’d have the pleasure of knowing for the rest of my life.

On the Butler Garden’s website there’s a photograph of the sign above the entrance. I haven’t been back in more than 40 years, but the sign’s message “Let Nature Be Your Teacher” definitely sunk in. I had no choice but to be a gardener.

Spring Wildflowers Slideshow

Slideshow:Spring Wildflowers To see captions, click on the image. To share comments or explore further, go to Flickr.

—Kathy LaLiberte
Director of Gardening, Gardener's Supply

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The Cows Come Home

Meet Moonique and learn how a herd of colorful cows contributes to communities throughout Vermont's Lake Champlain region.

Moonique, the Gardener's Supply cow, painted by artist Jackie Mangione.

Gardener's Supply is taking part in the Cows Come Home Project, organized by the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce in the Burlington, VT, area. Participating businesses can paint a fiberglass cow to be displayed all summer in downtown Burlington. Our cow, named Moonique, will be auctioned off for charity, with part of the proceeds going to the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger.

Artist Jackie Mangione, who is also works in our customer contact center, says her design is based on the work of Rococo painter Jean Honoré Fragonard. "His landscapes and gardens were lush with maturity and he often had great figurative scenes staged within gardens," Mangione says. "He was a 'rogue' painter, breaking all the rules of the day and going his own way. I'm certain he would approve of me using some of his work on a cow in Burlington."

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Mulch With Care

It's spring, and the homeowner's thoughts turn to mulch. Nothing like a new layer of mulch and a freshly cut bed edge to make a yard look sharp.

It's spring, and the homeowner's thoughts turn to mulch. Nothing like a new layer of mulch and a freshly cut bed edge to make a yard look sharp. But more than good looks, mulch provides functions in two ways:

1. Mulch helps the soil retain moisture and helps channel more rainfall into the soil.
2. The right mulch will inhibit weed growth. It will not eliminate the possibility of weeds, but it gives the gardener the upper hand.

Before spreading mulch this year, consider the following guidelines:

Don’t Mound Your Mulch

Not only do "mulch volcanoes" make your trees look a bit silly, they increase the risk of pests and disease. When mulch is mounded up around a tree trunk, it creates a warm humid environment — ideal for a host of insects and diseases problems.

When spreading mulch, apply it evenly around the base of the tree. It should be flat — not mounded up — and pulled back a few inches from the trunk.

Don’t Spread it Too Thick

If the layer of mulch too thick, it will absorb rainwater and overhead irrigation, preventing water from reaching the soil surface and percolating to the roots. In areas where fresh mulch is applied every year, an impenetrable shell can form, causing all water to run off.

The proper thickness depends on the mulch you use. In most cases, 3-4″ is fine. Some mulches, such as cocoa shells or buckwheat hulls, will break down over the winter and can be turned into the soil. Other types of mulch, such as shredded bark, do not break down sufficiently. Before applying a fresh layer in the spring, remove some or all of the mulch from the previous year and add it to your compost pile.

Mulching Tip from a Reader

“Having moved into a new home and bare landscape last year, among the items on the 'to-do' list was our landscaping, which required much mulch, so we ordered a full dump truck of dark mulch. It was dumped in four large piles that almost took your breath away when you thought about how to move it all over the lot.

“The only items at hand were a couple of plastic sleds. We would ease the side of the sled up to the mound and pull the mulch into the sled and the grandchildren ran to each area to spread the mulch – a regular production line!”

—John & Ann Barton, Soddy Daisy, Tenn.

Choose the Right Texture

Coarsely textured mulch (with individual pieces that are 1″ or more in diameter) will not pack as tightly as finely textured mulch. Because wind-blown seeds — and light — can get between the larger pieces, coarsely textured mulch tends to be less effective at suppressing weeds. Small plants can also look dwarfed when they're surrounded by big chunks of bark or 2″ pieces of stone.

Mulching materials vary by region (bark chips and shredded bark mulch in the Northeast, pine needle and stone mulch in the South, compost and straw in the West). Use whatever mulch is most available in your area, but also consider matching the texture of the mulch to the size and type of plants you are mulching around. Remember that brightly colored mulch will draw more attention to itself. A mulch that looks more like soil will keep the focus on your plants.

—David Grist
Online Content Coordinator, Gardener's Supply

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