Our Gardens

What started as a few flower beds of common plants has slowly grown over the years. Bored with the traditional offerings at garden centers, I’ve added and expanded gardens to contain an ever growing collection of plants. About 90% of the gardens consist of annuals and will be different every year– a feature many returning guests have come to enjoy.

Where did the tropical plants come from?

Many of the tropical plants, such as the bananas, originally came as small mail order plants from Florida Hill Nursery, Almost Eden Plants, Wellspring Gardens, and Logee’s Greenhouse. Almost Eden has always sent me the highest quality plants.

Where you get your flower seeds and plants?

Excluding the tropicals, nearly everything else is grown from seed in the greenhouse you see at the end of the driveway. Seeds come primarily from Swallowtail Garden Seeds and Summer Hill Seeds, as both of them are very reasonably priced. I occasionally use Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Burpee, but their prices are higher, sometimes considerably so. 

What happens to the magnolia and palm tree in the winter?

They are covered with makeshift greenhouses made out of 2×2 lumber and 8mm twinwall polycarbonate. The inside is heated with C9 christmas lights on a thermostat that keeps the magnolia between 20 and 35 degrees and the palm between 28 and 38 degrees.

When do you plant? How long is the growing season here?

Weather permitting, planting begins May 20th and blooming peaks during the third week of July. The tropical garden is impressive by the same time, but unlike the flowering plants, it continues to get taller and more impressive right up until the end of the season. The plants are pulled Columbus Day weekend, even though we typically don’t get frost until the last week of October thanks to our close proximity to the lake.

How do you water them all?

With thousands of feet of 1/4″ soaker dripline tubing, which is fed by hundreds of feet of 1/2″ or 3/4″ mainline tubing. If you are here earlier in summer before plants get big, you can still see the tubing laying on the ground. A total of 6 Orbit watering timers control water to 11 zones, each with different watering needs. I recommend Dripworks for irrigation supplies.

What do you feed them with?

Some watering zones get Miracle Gro liquidfeed using their universal feeder. The feeders are installed after the watering timers so the process of feeding can be automated. Plants in the planter barrels also get Dynamite brand slow release plant food. Petunias are supplemented with Jack’s Professional 20-3-19 FeED which contains extra iron. The tropical garden is actually given lawn food, since it’s high nitrogen content promotes extra big leaves. And lastly, the bananas are given a 0-0-60 potassium boost since our soil tested very low in potassium.

What’s that plant with the big red and kind of looks like it’s-

It’s Tower Red Amaranthus. The other most commonly asked about plant is the shiny metallic purple and black plant that is always by the front steps. It’s strobilanthes dyerianus, also called persian sheild. I’ve identified some other plants in pictures below.

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You’ll find me outside most evenings pulling weeds, watering, and stressing out over nibbling insects and woodchucks. Feel free to ask me any questions about what is what, or see if you can identify that plant that piqued your interest below.

An incomplete list of plants we’ve had over the years plants…