A Garden Life: WILDFLOWERS

Garden Coach

I am a garden coach which simply means if you want to learn how to garden -- I will advise you on getting started!
I will come visit your yard with you to understand the sun and the soil and your vision of your garden. I will create drafts of some easy-to-begin gardenscapes for you.

If you want to continue working with me, I have some helpful offerings for nurturing your garden and your own skills as a gardener. As you begin your garden life, I have advise on where to order or purchase healthy plants, how to enrich your soil, determine an initial garden budget for your plants and your pocket book! I am available to go with you to purchase healthy plants your first year. I can also show you some planting magic when you are ready to put in your first garden plants.

Information on plant care and maintenance, wintering over, cutting back, and dividing plants might also be something you would like to learn. At the end of your first garden season I can come and do a "health check" for you and offer advice for the fall plantings and for the coming spring. At this point I can also draft a plan for your second year garden.

I am also delighted and expert in working with you to design gardenscapes which will attract a variety of wild life. I have expertise in gardens for hummingbirds, butterflies, toads - yes, toads are a wonderful addition to any garden - and bees! I have a certified Bee Keeper on staff who advises on how to help increase the population of bees. Bees are essential to our ecology and the bee population has been declining rapidly. This is a critical concern for pollination and continual renewal of our green resources.

Finally, I have artists who create unique and delightful outdoor gardenscapes. They use glass, stone, iron, and other weather resistant materials to add an intimate piece of art which blends in with the personality of your garden.

I am good at assisting gardeners-to-be of all ages. I love working with children and starting them on their life long, colorful garden path!

A few words about what I do and do not work with.
First of all, I will not work with any chemicals or toxic substances. We can enrich our soil and nurture our plants in safe, nutritious ways. We can also work with plant diseases or pests without resorting to chemistry.

I do offer my garden coach experience working with Perennial Flowers, Herbs, Wild Flowers, Ornamental Grass, and Spring Bulbs. I do not advise on Trees, Large Shrubs, Lawn care, or Landscaping. I also do not assist with vegetable gardens.
What I do work with, the flowers, I treat with love and respect.

The earth is our home and our flower gardens are the blooming smiles on its face!

Gardenscape Offerings

Here is a list of my earth-friendly services:

Detail plan(s) of garden spaces for your yard
Helping you to pick out healthy plants
Advice on actual planting of your selections
Mid-season maintenance check of your garden space
End of season advice on readying your garden space for winter
Advice on what, how, and when to put in spring-flowering bulbs
Creating a hummingbird garden
Creating a butterfly garden
Creating a bee-friendly garden scape
Creating a garden scape for toads
Gardening with containers
Garden art

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

WILDFLOWERS

The State of Maryland is home to many beautiful and exotic wildflowers. And as their name implies, they are found and thrive in the wild. They grow without human intervention and do not need our assistance in their cultivation. If a wildflower is indigenous to the continent, it is termed a "native."

Unfortunately, we have trampled, plowed under, chemically damaged, or picked for our own pleasure so many of these necessary plants that many are now endangered, threatened, or rare. Many have vanished.

Today, endangered wildflowers are covered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (P.L. 93-205). Notable in this Act is that it prevents "unauthorized taking, possession, sale, and transport of endangered species." A plant is considered threatened if it is likely to become endangered - threatened with extinction - in the near future. In the state of Maryland, there are 10 plants on the Federal list of endangered species and more than 500 wildflowers on the Maryland Department of Natural Resources listing of rare, threatened, and endangered plants.

Most U.S. states also have their own list of such wildflowers. What we need to remember however, is that what might be endangered in Maryland might thrive in Vermont or North Carolina - just not in Maryland. This does not, however, give us carte blanche to deprive the woodlands of our native wildflowers.

To see which plants are protected, the USDA has a current and complete list for each state and for the U.S. as a whole.

This does not mean that wildflowers are banned from our home gardens. There are many reliable garden centers which sell the seeds for you to cultivate your own favorites. Be sure before you embark on creating your own wildflower garden that the seeds you purchase are native to your region and zone. And then, GO WILD!