The plan, then infrastructure, then the plants | Volunteer Gardener

This home garden features a variety of annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees that flow nicely through multiple beds. But this wasn’t by happenstance. This garden took a lot of planning and prep work before the first plant went in. First the pathways were laid, then the electrical support went in along with drainage and irrigation elements. This garden is pretty during the day, and beautiful at night.

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– I am so happy to visit in a garden this morning that has started from the ground up. And what I mean is they started with the very basics of electricity, water, and hardscape. The hardscape has created a wonderful platform for which the gardener can plant in. Mark Krueger, I want to commend you for being a technician. And you began a beautiful garden, I want you to tell us what you thought about and what you installed in this wonderful garden to make it easy to garden. – Well, I always say I handle the things that aren’t living, and Vicki handles the things that are living. So, well, as we started, we wanted to get a lot of things in place before Vicki planted. So I wanted to get drainage buried, we wanted some landscape lighting and irrigation. So we spent a fair amount of time, or I did, probably a year or two, just getting everything planned out before we started. And then, after that, we had an idea of what we wanted a garden to be. We wanted to be able to garden when we’re old and perhaps we’re in a walker or wheelchair, so we wanted some pathways that would take us meandering in a garden that we could still do that. We have about 130 landscape lights throughout the entire property. Some of it is moonlighting, down-lighting from trees, up-lighting on the crape myrtles. And I put as much in conduit ’cause I knew we would be planting, and transplanting, and moving like gardeners do. – [Annette] And be safe. – And be safe. – [Annette] Well, I say you make a great gardening partner. – Well, thank you, my dad was a builder. And it’s something that, as an adult, even I have an interest in designing and just thinking through how things will look no matter what, you know, the project is. – Now, this is the gardener, Vicki Krueger. But I wanna tell you, Vicki, that as I stand here with you, there’s an aroma in the air that’s unmistakable. It’s Cleome and I love it. – [Vicki] Cleome is one of my favorite flowers. My mom always had these when I was a kid, and I would be fascinated at how the seed pods would pop open. But I love them because they reseed themselves and they’ll come up like weeds in the springtime. – Good weeds. – And you could have as many of them as you want or as few of them as you want. So you can just kind of pull out what you don’t want and plant other things with them. But I just love them, because they look so well with some of the other spring-type plants, like my petunias are getting leggy. But these look great in July and August. – [Annette] Do the deer eat them? – The deer leave these alone. The deer don’t like the way they smell. And another way you can get around having some of the things you like is to protect what you have with these. If you’ll notice, I’ve got an impatien over there. I put a pot inside because the deer ate my impatiens. – [Annette] Oh, but so you are surrounding the plant’s exterior and putting the ones they love in the middle, and this acts as a barrier. The Cleome will act as a barrier then for the deer. – [Vicki] Another thing that you can do for deer repellent is take peppermint essential oil, just a few drops, in a spray bottle with water and spray the leaves. They don’t like peppermint. – [Annette] Yeah, that’s right, they don’t. You know, Vicki, we have a perfect example of a southern tree behind us. You have the white crape myrtle. And that tree is rather old, isn’t it? – [Vicki] Yes, it was here when we moved here. So I think that’s probably about 30 years old. – I believe that variety is probably Natchez. And I turn around, and over your head, you have some wonderful Altheas. Do you think you know the name of this one? – [Vicki] I’ve been told it’s the Diana. It’s the Rose of Sharon. – Yes! – That’s what I know. White Rose of Sharon. – [Annette] Yes, there was an introduction for this shrub dedicated to Diana. All right, well, now I want you to take me to some of your favorite plants in this garden. Well, Vicki, tell me why you like this coleus. – This coleus, it’s pretty, it’s colorful, it does well with the heat, it doesn’t require a lot of water, and you can make more plants with it. It’s very economical to buy. And then, you can break off a piece, strip off the lower leaves, put it in water, it will root, and you have another plant. – [Annette] That’s true. It’ll root almost instantly, I think. Well, and I do love the one that has the chartreuse color in it. And just look how the colors, you don’t have to have a flower is what you’re saying. – Yes. – You’ve got color and leaves that bounce off of all of the colors that are surrounded in your needled evergreen there, and just other plants throughout the garden. It’s a wonderful annual accent, isn’t it? This is a perfect example of foliage with no flower. Now this is a Loropetalum? – Yes, it’s a burgundy Loropetalum. – Now, is that evergreen? – Yes, it is. – Oh. Well, it just really is beautiful with your bird bath, and, again, the old friend Cleome. But this is a very healthy-looking plant and it does well to showcase other things off of it. Doesn’t it? – Yes. And, may I say, this is a dwarf. – [Annette] Oh. – Because you can get this in a variety that grows into a huge bush. So you want to choose the size when you buy the plant. – [Annette] Now tell me how you decided you were gonna garden the soil. – Well, it had to be amended. And many places, the soil is so hard, it’s rock and clay, and you have to dig out a big hole with a pickax where you’re gonna plant. So we compost, we use yard clippings, whatever green we can chop up, add, too, our kitchen waste, and turn it over and over. And, after a while, you get some really good dirt. – Well, Vicki, I’m ready to hear about your favorite plant here. What is this? – This is a Coral Drift Rose. It requires not much care at all. It’s very hardy. This one I bought on a discount rack, and that’s how I like to buy a lot of my plants. – Well, me too. – Yeah, and so nurse it back to health. The other one was given to me by a master gardener that was getting rid of all his plants. – Oh, it was a gift? – [Vicki] Yes. – [Annette] Right, and, you know, I believe this variety of rose, you don’t have much issue with disease. Do you? – No. – So it doesn’t have black spot. I only see one leaf that I would say is bad on that entire plant. That’s beautiful. Now tell me about this. This looks like a very good ground cover. What is this? – [Vicki] Okay. The person that gave this to me called it Angelica. But you’ve told me it’s a native, and it grows, I only started with a handful. – [Annette] Right, see, I could just reach right down there, and pull that up and it’s like a little ball, isn’t it? Of living stuff. – Yes. – And just drop it somewhere. But, you know, this is a native, and I’ve seen this on the creek sides, and even down by your river bank you may even have it down there. But I love it in the spring because it’s beautiful yellow when it blooms. But it is rampant with where it goes. – It is. You have to control it, and I regularly give it away to people. Even the day we had our garden tour, I had people just, "Hey, you want some? Grab a handful and go." – And it’s a fine gift. All right, now then, take me to another lovely spot. I like your foundation plantings here. Vicki, tell me about what you have in here. – [Vicki] We have a Mahonia, and it is the first thing to bloom, and it feeds the bees first. – Yes, they love those blooms, those yellow blooms that hang in clusters. Okay, and then I’m interested in the chartreuse. – [Vicki] That’s a Fire Chief Arborvitae. And if you notice it has red-tipped foliage. I like a lot of contrast with the foliage in my garden. ‘Cause you got the deep green, you’ve got red and kind of lime green there. – [Annette] Now these are beautiful. – [Vicki] Yes, these are Golden Thread Cyprus. – Yes. – And they’re very hardy. – Do you have to clip these or they just stay pyramidal? – They stay pyramidal. You can clip them if they get out of control. – But you can just intermittently go in, can’t you? – Yes. – Beautiful. These are beautiful, Vicki. Now this lantana. – [Vicki] Yes, I love lantana, because in July, August, and on to the fall kills it. It attracts butterflies. It’s a good source for their food, and also it attracts hummingbirds. – [Annette] Yes, it does. And they need to be fed right on up till October, I think, in our gardens. – Yes. – Those are beautiful. Vicki, I have to say, that’s a very beautiful lady garden over this garden. Tell me about her. – She’s one of the four seasons. And Mark did the base of the statue, so she is level, and there are two up-lights so we can see her at night. – [Annette] Oh, of course, he’s got lighting on her. – [Vicki] Yes, and some of the plants in here were going to be destroyed from an Adopt-a-Plot, so I got yucca, canna, Rudbeckia. So all we had to do was go dig them up and replant them. – [Annette] Take the time and the effort to give them a new place to live and be happy. – [Vicki] Yes, and so we got a lot of plants that we would’ve had to pay for. – [Annette] So this yucca right here, you say that blooms? – [Vicki] Yes, it does. It comes up on a huge stalk and it has beautiful white blooms. It bloomed in June. – Naturally. But look how beautiful her foliage is. And I’d say the deer don’t munch on that either. – [Vicki] Oh no, the deer will leave this alone. – All right, and I see, as I stand here with you, knowing the gardener that has her hands in the soil 12 months out of the year, I would venture to say that in this garden, and all these gardens, you have daffodils, tulips, spring-blooming things. And you have just taken the time to be economical with your garden, but yet it’s beautiful and vast. And you just put a lot of time, and thought, and effort into it. And you have shared it, and we thank you so much. And you can thank Mark also, because he had a hand in this. You’re a great team, and thank you for allowing us to come. – You’re welcome.