Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Nice Design and Flowers Really Make Me Swoon

Several mail-order gardening catalogs have arrived in my mailbox this past month. I toss the ones I don't plan on ordering from and usually dog-ear the pages of the ones I keep.

This year's White Flower Farm catalog caught my eye, not due to the offerings inside, but thanks to the redesigned layout. There's nothing crazy here that will shock return customers into questioning what type of company they are portraying themselves to be. It's evident that White Flower Farm, nestled in Litchfield County, Conn., still acts as a knowledgeable source in the botanical world.

So why does good design make me excited? In my previous career as an editor (before I switched and became a pastry chef) I routinely did the layout and design for the Sunday edition of the local newspaper. Maybe that's why this modest redesign really grabbed my attention when I leafed through the pages. Before I knew it, I wasn't dog-earring the pages as I usually do, but instead I was ripping them out to be scanned.

In past years, the catalog relied on alphabetical listings to sell their plants. This year, the company used the first 23 pages to highlight new introductions and customer favorites. The emphasis is on large, dominant, colorful photos as seen in the example below.



As compared to the previous year's catalog shown here:



The information is presented with more white space in the 2014 catalog. The block-out type over the main lavender photo is not difficult to read. The typeface between the two catalogs is basically the same, except the "Garden Essentials" header gives the catalog a more magazine-like feel. Between seeing the two examples, in 2014, I really want to grow more lavender.

Here's another example:



Look at the color! How could hummingbirds resist the fuchsias and begonias shown in the main image?White Flower Farm has access to a nice printing press, that is for sure. Now here is the same product being offered in the 2013 catalog:


While the same photograph is being utilized and is still the largest image on this page, the information is condensed. The collage of photos in itself acts as a dominant image, but doesn't share the same impact as the 2014 spread does. In this case, moving the Hummingbird collection onto two pages in the new catalog really showcases how lovely the plants can perform (given proper growing conditions, of course).

I could scan and provide more examples, but I'll close with just one more comparison. In the past, the perennial section was listed alphabetically, as shown in this example from 2013:


Not too much glamour in this layout. The reason I hold onto past editions of The White Flower Farm catalog is due to all the information it provides. If I have a question about a perennial that I own or I am thinking of purchasing, the odds are that I can find a description of it in the catalog: Did that hydrangea need part sun or part shade? Let me check.

The same information is available in the 2014 catalog, but it just looks prettier. 


In the subsequent pages, the information is still listed alphabetically, but it just looks more polished. This year's catalog is shorter on page count (155 vs 191), undoubtedly with some items being offered on the website only. Even with the shorter page count, I like the 2014 edition better. It makes me excited for spring. It makes me want to order plants and squeeze them into my already overflowing garden beds. So kudos to White Flower Farm for realizing that plants can really sell themselves when given the proper photographic real estate.

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Spring is Only 58 Days Away

Pansy seedlings
Even though it is snowing as I write this, spring does seem close. Even the birds and squirrels thought so early last week. The birds were singing songs only usually heard in the springtime while the squirrels were busy chasing each other through the trees.

What's 58 more days, really?
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Pansy Seeds


The first of the pansy and viola seeds sprouted today. They always look so delicate. These seedlings truly represent the beginning of spring in this household.
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Start the seeds!

I am ready for spring.

So ready that I began planting viola and pansy seeds on January 6. I thought I was actually behind schedule, but when I checked last year's calendar, I'm actually two weeks ahead!

Every year, I get carried away with pansies and violas. This year is no exception. I have planted eight different varieties so far. That's definitely more than I need, but by the time these flowers bloom in late March/early April, I'm so desperate for a flower fix that they are more than welcome.

Sorbet Delft Blue viola seeds in the palm of my hand.
To keep track of what is planted where, I use stickers to label my plastic pots and seed packages (as seen below). After sowing the seeds, I place the plastic containers in plastic bags from the grocery store. Then I tie off the bags to replicate a little greenhouse. In the case of pansy and viola seeds, they need darkness to germinate. I place newspaper or pieces of cardboard on top and then stash them in my living room where they won't get much light. They take about 10-14 days to germinate, but I always start checking at the fifth day in.

Viola and pansy seeds to kick off spring planting 2014.
The sticker method gets a little trickier when I make paper pots out of newspaper later in the season. Then I usually use post it notes to label sections of the grow light trays to get a rough idea of which plant is where. (It helps if I only sow one variety of plant, but who can stop at one, really?)

Sorbet Delft Blue viola seedlings on the left from last year.
Caramel Rose Shades viola on the right from last year.
Yesterday I also planted daylily seeds that I collected from last year's garden. I'm not sure which variety is which or if they cross-bred, so what emerges will be a nice experiment and a surprise. This week I need to sort through my older seeds to see what is left over from past growing seasons. I went overboard on ordering last year so I may not need to order as much this year.
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Yes, I Admit It: I'm That Girl

I have a confession to make.

When I drive past abandoned Christmas trees on the road in January, I get an urge to take them.

To pull over, put them in the trunk of my car, and then bring them home to my driveway to chop them up.

So yes, I was that girl today, on my street no less, who pulled over, and literally shoved a 5 foot plus Christmas tree into the trunk of my small SUV.

There were onlookers. I smiled and said I had garlic to cover. I then leaned against the door and pushed it closed with all of my body weight. (Normal people do this with suitcases when traveling.) The lady outside watching me went back inside and closed her door.

Once home, I started to chop off the branches and used them to cover my open garden beds, rose bushes, evergreens, etc.

Abandoned and ready for the garden.

My hands were numb and it was 10 degrees Farenheit out. I left the remainder of the tree trunk on the side of the road (in front of my house) for pickup. And now my car smells like Christmas due to all the fallen needles.

Christmas tree branches covering the garlic bed.

I put a few branches around this rose bush that was planted late.



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It's Pretty Cold Outside!

The temperature in our area is suppose to dip as low as -7 degrees Fahrenheit tonight (eep!) but luckily a layer of snow is covering the garden. The storm's timing yesterday evening was just inconvenient enough to throw off many work schedules today, including mine. So, to celebrate the unexpected Snow Day, I headed out into the cold (it only reached 17 degrees Fahrenheit today) and tried out some new camera settings. Enjoy!

Dark Eye Junco

White Throated Sparrow

House Sparrow (male)

White Throated Sparrow

House Finch

House Finch

House Sparrow (female)

House Sparrows (male)

House Sparrows (male)

House Finch

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Looking Back at the 2013 Garden

The overall theme of this year's garden seemed to be "Everything looks pretty good, but if I only had more time!"

The year started out with major plans on paper. I ordered too many seeds and tried to follow the Garden By The Moon calendar guidelines for sowing. (Eventually the calendar just became a log of what was planted when, despite the moon phase.)

There was learning how to use a partially buried cold frame to grow lettuce and dandelions over the winter in January. February brought one of the worst snowstorms I've ever experienced with drifting snow and sore muscles from roof raking.


But spring still arrived, not as early as the year before (which is good because that was just a little too eerie!).






The hellebores grew larger in size with more flowers. The pear and plum trees were covered in tiny little flowers that were pollinated with the aid of bee lures from Peaceful Valley Seeds. And some flowers that I don't even remember planting appeared in the garden.

Yellow tulips with a heavenly touch?
We were once again visited by a family of robins in the honeysuckle vine out front in May. I tried to leave them be but my curiosity kept getting the best of me!

Baby robins on May 22.
The garden was an explosion of life and color throughout the spring and early summer. My Dad asked me to excavate hostas that I planted in his Long Island garden when I was in high school. I only took about half of the plants in my SUV - dividing hostas that are about 15 years old is tiring work!

New additions to the garden from Long Island!
My first Endless Summer hydrangea., now at full-size.
A clematis in the back garden.

The tomatoes grew to record heights in their fabric pots, but did not set a lot of fruit. I experimented with companion planting and mingled flowers with vegetables along the driveway. The emphasis on growing vegetables was lessened slightly due to my membership in a local CSA.  I believe not having six hours or more of sunlight slightly diminished my yields. I'm thinking of scaling back on growing vegetables next year (except food for the rabbits) to give more space to flowers (who appear to be more forgiving when my schedule does not allow me to be in the garden).

There was a HUGE focus on insects this year in the garden. Primarily, the stars were butterflies, but dragonflies, praying mantises, mason bees, ladybugs and yellow jackets all had their fair share of attention. It was a summer (and fall) without a monarch butterfly sighting in the garden, despite my best efforts to grow plants that would attract them.

The black swallowtail butterflies laid eggs on my carrot plants, which led to a summer of raising caterpillars in the kitchen.

Dill tastes yummy.


And then, of course, their release into the garden.



There was a new love affair with daylilies, and every time I could find some on sale I would snatch them up for the garden.

One of my bright, flamboyant daylilies.

The plums and pears were plentiful, and I learned the hard way to leave plums on the tree until they were fully ripened (creating lots of jars of plum sauce, not jam). The pears however, were humongous and were eventually under attack from the yellow jackets that decided to make a nest out front.

Huge Kieffer pears.

I closed the fall with the large task of creating a walkway flanked in spring-blooming flowers. Halfway through, I wondered why I did! I purchased too many bulbs- I totally forgot the idea of ordering more smaller bulbs and less of the larger varieties and instead ordered equal amounts of both. Extra daffodils and alliums were given to my father-in-law, who was happy to have them.

So many bulbs!


This little guy was out front while I was digging.
We hired a local service to remove our leaves from the property. For the first time that we've lived here, we were unable to keep up with the deluge of leaves and black walnuts.

Too bad I'm not a black walnut fancier.
However, he never showed! So now as we enter January, I'm still attempting to rake and gather leaves. Most of my plant debris was left standing so I'll contend with that in the spring.

First snowfall, Dec. 10.


Coneflower seed heads left out for the birds.


What were your impressions from your garden in 2013?



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