Woodland Gardens- Dwarf Cherry Rose

Hello everybody, welcome back to this blog. Today I’m going to talk about my experience on gardening dwarf cherry roses. We all know what a rose is but, what about a dwarf cherry rose? It’s a perennial, so it’s a type of plant that can last for a long time. It was a really fascinating flower because of the pinkish-red color. When opening the package of the seeds I noticed that they were rocks, since I’m new to this gardening stuff, I was really intrigued by how the rocks I was holding in my hands will soon bloom to become really beautiful flower.

     Keith Wiley, Author of Designing and Gardening Woodland Gardens, said that “Perennials form the core of many woodland plantings”(31). I agree with him because since these flowers live longer it would be the main core of the woodland garden, I believe it's because that fact that they come out of rocks, just joking. when planting these seeds it felt different because with my lack of knowledge on gardening still I didn't know if I would still be planting it the right way however I felt reassured because Wiley said, “In addition, many shade-loving woodlander come from parts of the world where heavy rains can be expected…”(31). Living in an area where it rains a lot helps the woodland garden since it the main source to keeping the plants living.   Last time on the blog I talked about how when I plant it helps me feel better, planting the dwarf cherry roses made me more relaxed because I finally got the hang of how to garden and make my woodland garden into an actual one. 

In what ways do you think flower/plants in general help our community?

Wiley, Keith. Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden. London: Timber Press, 2014. Print.



Woodland Gardens- Morning Glory

Welcome back bloggers! I’m back with another special flower, a flower called “Morning Glory”, interesting name right? This flower was really intriguing to me because of the color of the flower and also the name. I got this flower because it was one that really caught my eye because especially the way the flower looked, for some reason it reminded me of an elephants ear.  Flowers look interesting with their different shapes and colors and Keith Wiley, the author of Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden , says, “Although I love their flowers what is more important for me is the overall shape and habit of the plants and the colors and textures of the foliage”(31).

Morning Glory is a flower that I would say is very different, interesting, and also a pretty flower because of the colors, I think that this flower will be the most interesting flower to grow because it has something that is different from other flowers/plants. While doing the normal steps of planting this flower with its name I could really feel that “morning glory”, it made me feel more excited and happy. While gardening these types of flowers I realized that with every different flower I planted there was some great feeling, especially with the morning glory. I planted the Morning glory right next to the Ipomoea flower because the ipomoea flower the first flower I planted because I believed that it would be interesting how the colors of the morning glory flower and the ipomoea flower will look when there next to each other. Forgetting to tell you guys in the last blog don’t forget to label your flower with a post because these precious flowers can get crushed if you’re not too careful. Continuing on and planting these flowers it will be even more interesting having them next to each other as my woodland garden.

What type of flower would you like to have near you to grow?

Wiley, Keith. Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden. London: Timber Press, 2014. Print.

Woodland Garden- Sunflowers

        Welcome back, bloggers. Today I’m going to talk about the sunflowers that I grew. Last time on the blog I talked about the steps it takes to plant an Ipomoea flower in the woodland garden. When I went to go look at my woodland garden, to check on the ipomoea flowers I noticed how it seem to have little to no color, and there was no sun, so I thought why not plant a sunflower to make the forest have color. While reading Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden, Keith Wiley, the author, had informed me of how there needs to be many trees around the woodland garden, “In addition to land forming, the most obvious way to create good conditions for woodland plants to plant some trees”(48). Since there are trees around my woodland garden, it would be best to have some more, you can never have enough trees, so I wanted to change where I had planted the sunflowers this time, I know that its best to have all your flowers together but I wanted the flowers to be very spread out but, I also want it to be surrounded by trees to still have that effect of being a woodland garden. Wiley says that it's challenging "In the open garden, raised beds are really the best place to grow desirable but difficult woodland treasures, and they offer the advantage of bringing the plant to closer view”(36). It can be a challenge when it comes to spreading out the flowers it can be a challenge, however, I feel that it's the best way for me to grow my woodland garden. What I needed to plant the sunflowers wasn’t much and basically the same thing as the last blog all that changed was that the Ipomoea flower seeds changed to Sunflower seeds. It was really different planting the sunflowers away from the Ipomoea flowers but it was great decision because in the future I want the flowers and other types of plant to bloom in instead of growing out so that it's more interesting looking.

What type a flower brightens your day?

Wiley, Keith. Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden. London: Timber Press, 2014. Print.

Gardening Ipomoea

Hello everyone!  Last time on the blog I said that I would be telling you guys how to make a woodland garden; the first plant that I chose to use in my woodland garden would be an ipomoea. I chose to use an ipomoea flower because I really love how breathtaking the color and the flower is. It’s best to use variety of flowers in the woodland garden, and Keith Wiley also agrees because in Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden it says “the fact that woodlands vary so much in the wild with a correspondingly large range of plants suited to this diversity suggests there are solutions for every home garden”(90). I found out that this plant would be great for the woodland garden because I need a lot of diversity in this garden to make it even more like an actual garden. 

Materials:

1. Flower seeds (ipomoea)
2. Shovel
3. Watering can
4. Rake
5. Gloves
6. Plant label/stake

        Wiley believes that the woodland garden needs really good soil to help the plants grow well (23). The First thing to do is find a nice area where it’s shaded and surrounded by lots of trees. Using your shovel dig the dirt to make a little hole. Add in about 2-3 seeds (depends on whatever amount you want). Cover the seeds with the dirt you dug before and pat the dirt. Lastly add a moderate amount of water on top. The first flower that was used in my woodland garden is an Ipomoea flower, and I believe that for my first gardening experience it was a success because it didn’t feel different from creating a normal garden. Even though the flower didn’t bloom yet, I know that it will be well taken care of so that it lives well.

If you had to choose a flower to plant what would it be?

Wiley, Keith. Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden. London: Timber Press, 2014. Print.

 

Introduction into Woodland Gardens

This is a woodland garden

Have you ever wondered how something could be so beautiful? Since the summer I have always seen these really beautiful flowers that were being planted by my neighbor. My neighbor plants and takes really good care of these flowers every day and that has inspired me to try something new. In these 3 months that we are doing this independent reading assignment, I want to take on the challenge of learning how to create a woodland garden (a garden in an area where land is covered by trees) with a variety of different types of flowers. I chose to make a woodland garden, because it is different from the common gardens that we see everyday. Gardening somewhere different then a yard can be seen as a very strange idea, and I myself also believed the same thing, but instead of thinking inside the box, I want to think outside of the box and see things from a different point of view. Since this is my first time gardening I’ve always believed that when gardening it needs to be in the sunlight and I also thought woodland gardens would have the same conditions as well. However Wiley doesn’t believe that is true. He says that woodland gardens need to be in a place where there is a lot of shade and in an area where there is also a lot of rainfall (39). Wiley suggests that I should depend on my local climate and soil conditions when having a woodland.

First flower that will be used
in the woodland garden.

A way to make the woodland garden possible is to think of what type of environment you will be using, what resources you need, and also what adjustments you have to make to have the woodland garden to be successful. Wiley says that “Thus, shape, habit, and placement are all worthy consideration as you begin to plant your woodland” (27). While reading this quote I started to visualize how this woodland garden will eventually look when I create it and also consider what type of places would be acceptable for the garden. I hope that while making this woodland garden, I remember where would be a good place for this garden and make adjustments so the plants can live.

In your opinion, do you think that having a garden somewhere other than a yard is very strange? Or, do you think having a garden somewhere else is actually a good idea?

Wiley, Keith. Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden. London: Timber Press, 2014. Print.