Columbine: A native bloomer for Atlanta woodland gardens
White and pink columbine flower.
(c) www.flowers.vg
. Established Atlanta gardens with stands of trees, can frequently use part-shade bloomers for interest. Columbine (
Aquilegia canadensis) is a good choice, and easy to maintain.
Columbine will produce nice bi-colored flowers in a variety of combinations: including yellow, white, blue, pink & purple. Established from seed or nursery pots, they can be grown in old tree stumps, rock crevasses, and of course, in flowerbeds.
Uses. Columbine make nice cut flowers, a good addition to a perennial beds, a filler for odd sections of establish tree stands.
Establishment. Plant from nursery pots or seed in early Spring, or purchase potted from nursery. Locate in dappled shade. Avoid all-day full sun. A woodland plant, it will prefer rich soil. Prepare soil well with compost. Seed sown in Spring may not flower the first season.
Maintenance. Primary maintenance concern is leaf-miners. If you see yellowed or mottled foliage, cut back and discard, and allow new foliage to sprout. Keep soil moist during dry spells.
A few varieties:
A. canadensis 'Corbet', yellow, 12-24 inches
A. flabellata 'Nana' under 12 inches.
A. hybrida - multiple hybrid varieties come in many color variations
References:
Abdurrahim is the lead designer at
metro-Atlanta based, Proudland Landscape, LLC.
You can contact him with question via email at
arjalal@proudlandlandscape.com.
Follow him on Twitter at
twitter.com/Proudland.
Also, check our Facebook fan page
facebook.com/ProudLandscapeLabels: color, flowers, garden, native, planting, Spring
March Vegetable Garden Considerations
Planning on a vegetable garden this year? March is the time to begin getting things done, regardless where in the country you are. There are several planning considerations to account for in preparing your garden. I'll be focusing on Planting Time. Your other considerations include:
- Planting time
- available sunlight
- soil condition
- available space
- irrigation
- plant types
- time available.
Many resources are available on methods to address each one of these considerations.
For this time year, we're looking at warm-season vegetables. Examples are tomatoe, lima bean, green bean, and cucumber. Each plant will have a different growing time to maturity,
typically ranging between 50 to 90 days (7 t0 12 weeks). Which brings us to our timing consideration.
Before planting, we need to prepare soils, if not frozen, this can be done at any point prior to planting. Some would argue it is best to let the prepared soil lay, and turn again, but this may not be practical for many.
Which brings us to planting timing for various
USDA Zones. A note about USDA zones, these have become more fine tuned in recent years, however, they remain general guidelines, and each local area will create varying growing characteristics based on humidity, ocean winds, etc. Additionally, the zones are targeted at
cold-hardiness, and don't account as well for
heat-tolerance.
Zones ................ What to Start Indoor & Outdoors
1 & 2 --- start tubers, tuberous roots, and rhizomes indoors
sow tender vegetable seeds indoors that require more than 12 weeks
3 & 4 --- start tubers, tuberous roots, and rhizomes indoors
sow tender vegetable seeds indoors that require 6 to 12 weeks
4 & 5 --- start tubers, tuberous roots, and rhizomes indoors
sow tender vegetable seeds indoors that require 8 to 10 weeks
6 & 7 --- start tubers, tuberous roots, and rhizomes indoors
sow tender vegetable seeds indoors that require 4 to 6 weeks
8 & 9 --- start tubers, tuberous roots, and rhizomes indoors
sow vegetable seeds outdoors
10 & 11 --- Plant tubers, tuberous roots, and rhizomes indoors
sow vegetable seeds outdoors
The bottom line: March is a good time to get things started, but unless you live in the coldest regions of the country, you need to get out there and start getting busy!
Abdurrahim is the lead designer at metro Atlanta based
Proudland Landscape, LLC.
You can contact him with question via email at
arjalal@proudlandlandscape.comFollow him on twitter at
twitter.com/Proudland.
Labels: garden, planting, Spring, vegetable
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