To read the full article by Sandie Parrott on Sean Rosenkrans’ garden railroad, pick up a copy of the April, 2014 issue of Michigan Gardener in stores or find it in our digital edition.
Captions and photos by Sandie Parrott
To read the full article by Sandie Parrott on Sean Rosenkrans’ garden railroad, pick up a copy of the April, 2014 issue of Michigan Gardener in stores or find it in our digital edition.
Captions and photos by Sandie Parrott
To read the full article by Janet Macunovich on pruning evergreens, pick up a copy of the Nov/Dec, 2013 issue of Michigan Gardener in stores or find it in our digital edition.
Captions by Janet Macunovich / Photos by Steven Nikkila
To read the full profile on Judy and Larry Rowe, pick up a copy of the June, 2013 issue of Michigan Gardener in stores or find it in our digital edition.
Photos by Sandie Parrott
Photos by Steven Nikkila
For the full article on raised garden beds by Janet Macunovich, pickup a copy of the June, 2013 issue of Michigan Gardener in stores or find it in our digital edition.
Continued from page 50 of the May 2013 issue.
Photos by Sandie Parrott
Continued from page 54 of the May 2013 issue.
Photos by Steven Nikkila
Continued from page 42 of the April 2013 issue.
Photos by Steven Nikkila
prevents dehydration can extend the wood’s useful life. On this January day we seized an opportunity to cut a quantity of redtwig dogwood although we would not weave until April. It was a gamble but paid off in withes still quite flexible and ready when we were on April 1.
Materials needed:
1. Set three-part posts at 15-inch intervals along the desired fence line. Each three-part post consists of:
a. Two flexible weaving wands, 48 inches or greater. If the bottom 18 inches is rigid, not flexible, that’s okay but everything above that must bend easily. If the weaving wand has side branches you will treat the wand plus its twigs as one bundled unit.
b. One stout stake, its top at the desired finished height of the fence.
c. All with their butt ends securely seated in drilled or punched holes about 6 inches deep. Depth of the holes depends on soil type and finished fence height. Looser soil and taller fences need deeper holes.
2. Select a new 3- to 5-foot wand and weave it in and out around 3 or 4 posts. If this wand has side branches, treat it as one bundled unit. Pass alternately behind and in front of three-posts, and thread between each post and one of its weavers.
3. Grasp the left-side weaving wand of post group A. Bend it to meet B, the next post to the right. Wrap down and around the three branches that make up post B, beginning between post B’s stout stake and left-side weaving wand. Wrap around the horizontal wand. Leave this weaver wand’s tip trailing on the ground. If a wand should crack, don’t let it break through completely, or replace it if it does.
4. Now bend and weave post B’s right-hand weaving stem to the left. Thread it between post A and its free weaver, then wrap around that post group.
5. Weave to connect 4 or 5 posts. Then insert another 3- to 5-foot wand horizontally, as in #2, overlapping the first horizontal by half and alternating with it by weaving in and out between the posts.
6. Bend trailing tips of all weaving wands up to wrap around and run with horizontal wands. Tie with twine at intervals as necessary, or snug the wand tips into portions already woven.
7. Insert more 3-part posts and keep weaving.
Continued from page 36 of the April 2013 issue.
Photos by Sandie Parrott
To read the full Janet’s Journal, “Anti-gravity gardening: Planting on a hill,” pick up a copy of Michigan Gardener (in stores by Sept 5) or check out page 32 in our e-edition of the September/October Issue.
In the series above, a stone placed on a step cut to lean back into the hill. The next stone also leans back, and its face is set back away from vertical. Given stones stacked across the face of the hill, this setback would create a “battered” retaining wall. A batter of 1” back for each 12” rise stabilizes a retaining wall.
At the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh, Scotland, this 1.75:1 slope (57 percent) features artistically placed boulders but the main retainers are plants.
Those of us who garden on relatively flat lands may gape at how slopes are handled in hillier regions. Once you know something about terracing, you may focus as much on the ways this feat is accomplished as on the unusual plants you see in faraway places. Residents’ attitudes toward hills and their skill in dealing with them can be worth note, too. That is, the residents of up-and-down neighborhoods in the foothills of California’s San Bernardino Mountains regularly stabilize long, steep hills solely with plants such as these rambler roses and honeysuckle vines.
To read the full story on Atwood Elementary, pick up a copy of Michigan Gardener (in stores now) or check out page 28 in our e-edition of the July Issue.
All photos by Sandie Parrott