Motown Garden Girl

Sunday, April 22, 2012

What is this pretty tree?

This pretty tree flowers about a month after most trees start. After the hyacinths, weeping cherries and magnolias. We don't really know what it is. Could it be crabapple? Any ideas welcome.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Today at gardening design class (an MSU extension class), the instructor bought a bunch of plants that he asked us to arrange into a garden - using the concepts he is teaching.

He split the class in two and each team was to work on its own design and garden. We got three different color coral bells (chartreuse, dark chocolate and rusty brown), white astilbe, two different kinds of hostas, red geraniums, purple pansies, zebra grass, and day lilies.

Our group stuck the tall ones - astilbe and zebra grass - in each corner and worked the coral bells and hostas into the center and the annuals out front. The lilies were the center piece. The garden was kind of v-shaped. The other team did the exact opposite - the taller plants in the middle and worked downwards to the sides - sort of like an upside down V or a pyramid.

It's funny to see peoples' personalities come out in a group. I wanted to stick the "like" annuals into bunches. The group won out and scattered them. One guy, a self-proclaimed grass lover, wanted the zebra grass more towards the middle so it didn't overtake the side of the garden. The group over-rode him, too. One guy said the exercise felt like having nine wives. I kind of felt the same way but backwards. Like having nine husbands.

It was a fun exercise. The best part was when the instructor gave us feedback on each plan, moved around some plants and made everything look better.

It's only the second class of five. I'm loving it so far.