Garden Gate January/February 2022

Nature is full of surprises. Seedlings we didn’t plant, tender perennials that unexpectedly made it through the winter, an overnight deer decimation. That’s part of what makes gardening so interesting and keeps us doing it year after year: It’s never boring! I fully recognize that I’m not in control of my garden, but that doesn’t mean I’m not always looking for ways to fix last year’s disappointments and replicate its triumphs. For example, I ordered several dahlia tubers last spring. They were both my biggest success and failure. The rabbits made a meal of one, and others didn’t produce as many blooms as I’d hoped. But a few were just breathtaking. I’m hooked and can’t wait to pull those tubers out of the basement in a few months and do it…

Winter Flowers Didn’t think you could get anything to bloom this winter? Think again! Gardengatemagazine.com/articles/ flowers-plants/ Seed-Starting Know-How How early is too early to start seeds? What’s the best seed-starting setup for success? Find the answers to these questions and more on our website! Gardengatemagazine.com/articles/how-to/start-seeds/ JOIN OUR FACEBOOK COMMUNITY @GARDENGATEMAGAZINE See what we’re reading about gardening every day when you follow us on Facebook. Seasonal advice, new scientific research, inspiring photos... it’s all here!…

GREAT IDEAS FROM SMART GARDENERS Liven up the winter landscape by spray painting the dried flower heads on your hydrangea shrubs. Lee tears a slit into a newspaper to slide around the stem of each flower to prevent any overspray. Though birds rarely feed on hydrangea seeds, choose a nontoxic spray paint, such as Ironlak Sugar,® to limit exposing wildlife to harmful chemicals if that’s a concern. Lee Wikoff, MN Stylish spherical hanging basket Diane Schmidt, WA Create a trendy metal hanging basket planter by upcycling the hoops from an old whiskey barrel planter. Diane arranged three metal hoops into a sphere shape, then drilled a hole in the top where they overlapped. She inserted an eye bolt with a washer and a nut into the hole and screwed another washer and nut onto…

Combining plants is a lot like piecing together a puzzle with shifting parts: Plants often start the growing season looking one way and finish it another. Although we can appreciate “happy accidents” that happen once in a while, there are some easy rules that will help you pair plants successfully. Here are some useful tips to keep in mind (and a few tried-and-true spring plant combos). CREATE DRAMA The purple viola flowers and yellow stripes in the lily of the Nile foliage at right offer maximum contrast because they are complementary colors. You can also create contrasts with texture and shape. Pairing plants makes the individual parts look far better than they would if planted alone. Flowers that vary in shape, texture and color add unexpected depth to the garden. MATCH GROWING…

These garden poles have a simple design, can be made from supplies you may have on hand (or are inexpensive to buy), and are fun to personalize. The poles in this project are made from a series of stacked 3½-inch square blocks and 3-inch diameter river rocks. I used a chop saw to cut a 4×4 wood post (which are actually 3½×3½ inches) into blocks. If you don’t have one, you can ask your lumber source to cut them for you. Here’s how to make these unique ornaments: DECIDE ON THE DESIGN You can create whatever design you want on the blocks (or leave them plain—wood grain can be beautiful, too!). For efficiency, I did this process first, then cut my 6-foot-long wood posts into blocks, but you could decorate each…

Prep surfaces by lightly sanding with 80-120 grit sandpaper. To get these stripes, I ran a strip of painter’s tape along opposite sides of the post, applied the green semi-transparent stain on all four sides and let it dry. Then I peeled the tape off, masked the edges of the unstained stripes and stained the stripes light blue. I chose to emphasize the stripes with a wood-burned line on each side using its groove tip. You could also use a black or dark brown paint pen to achieve a similar look. Prestaining saved me time and after cutting the lumber into the blocks, it was easy to play with the arrangement and see the final pattern appear. Once the blocks were cut, I stained the exposed sides light blue.…