A great list of ground covers

After spending a good amount of time in the garden pulling weeds, I have been thinking about what ground covers to add. Here is a great list from Better Homes and Gardens. Most of them are for our zone too! Thyme is my favorite since it tastes good too.

The Benefits of Vegetable Gardening

photo credit: gusandotherthings via pinterest

As we have just planted our midsummer vegetable crop, we have been looking forward to enjoying the many benefits of our labor. We only have a small vegetable garden, but we managed to plant a couple varieties of tomatoes, green peppers, red peppers, jalapenos, "big tom" peppers, tomatillos and various herbs.

Here are three reasons to start a fruit and vegetable garden:

1. There is an ever growing list of fruits and veggies that we should buy organic. This can be frustrating at times when the prices are high, the organic produce is less than appealing at the big box supermarkets and it's hard to remember which ones are high in pesticides. Planting a few of these in your garden will help ease that burden at least a little bit.

Here is a list of the fruits and veggies that you should consider buying organic whenever possible:

apples

bell peppers

celery

grapes (imported)

lettuce

nectarines

peaches

pears

potatoes

spinach

strawberries

Many of these are a great and simple addition to the garden!

2. Fresh produce is only a few steps away! One of our favorite things to do in the summer is check our crop and pick ripe fruit! It's exciting to watch something grow into a beautiful perfect piece of produce! It's also fun to make sauces with peppers (my personal plan with the tomatillos and "big tom"peppers) and herbs and freeze them for a quick and easy meal during the winter months. Canning, freezing and storing is a little bit of work for a LOT of benefit!

3. Sharing with others! It's so nice to receive fresh produce from a friend or neighbor. Really, it's the way humans functioned for thousands of years before our consumer dependence on big box stores began. What a great way to be generous and develop a sense of community by planting a garden and sharing it with those around you!

Get out, start planting and share the bounty!

Garden Design meets Floral Design

It's finally that time of year when arrangements can actually be made from the garden! Snowball viburnum is in full bloom, a few tulips are still hanging on and the peonies are about to burst. Here at Olive Branch we love cutting gardens! A garden is meant to be enjoyed right? So, plant some flowers that can be used in the house and if you need arrangements for parties or weddings let us know! We now offer floral design services! These arrangements filled with viburnum, waxflower, purple spider mums and tulips were used for Hotel Deco's first luncheon banquette. We are very excited to be a small part of this hotel's opening!

Fine Gardening June 2011

Hello fellow gardeners! We're very excited that Mike was asked to contribute to the June 2011 issue of Fine Gardening! He listed a few of his favorite picks for the Northern Plains region. The issue is on newsstands now so go check it out if you get a chance! Fine Gardening always has excellent ideas and tips whether you're an avid gardener or just want something easy. This one is particularly good with a mouth-watering article on heirloom tomatoes. Thanks for checking in!

A Garden Friend

We found this guy relaxing on an iris pod recently. I think he was just as curious about us as we were about him! We also had an interesting encounter with a squirrel today. He charged at the cat! Luckily, there was a sliding glass door between them! Hope you are enjoying your fall. The weather has been beautiful here. There is a lot of fall planting to be done!

A really big pet rock.

Water Features make great companions.

Adopt one today. There are many boulders out there looking for a good home. Nothing is better than the sound of water in the garden. Especially on a nice summer night. This particular stone is a basalt column which is a very dense volcanic rock.

A recirculating bubbling boulder really does make a great companion to any landscape. They are great as welcoming accents or clustered together for a very full sound. If you are using just one make sure to place it close to where you do most of your outdoor living. If it is placed too far away it might get lost in the rest of the garden. All that is needed is a nearby power outlet and enough room to dig a basin to hold the water.

Bubbling boulders fit into almost any space. If you have a open space, a larger and more prominent stone is preferable. If your space is more intimate, a smaller boulder with nice subtleties is probably best. Your local stone supplier should have a selection of pre-drilled stones to choose from, or you can pick your own and have them drill it for you. The character of the stone will determine the amount of noise it will produce. A smooth stone like the one above has a very consistent bubbling sound, while a rough stone will have a inconsistent splashing sound. If you already have a space in mind these characteristics will help you pick your new garden companion.

Here is a picture of basalt before it is harvested.

Columnar basalt at Sheepeater Cliff in Yellowstone. pic. from wikipedia

Sculpture so real even the birds are fooled

Here a young blue jay is trying to make sense of this artful handrail. I guess this means we were successful in capturing a bit of nature in this recycled steel handrail. I should keep in mind that he/she is just a young bird and not yet wise to the world.

Since installation, this functional sculpture has attracted many comments and much wildlife. Both being of the positive and negative sort. Of course we get the occasional comment about it being a pile of rusty twisted metal or something someones grandpa pulled out of their barn. Bird droppings are sometimes right where you don't want them, however, for the most part, the comments are kind and the wildlife is entertaining.

When presented with an opportunity fix or improve a space it is important to not only think functionally but also aesthetically. Seize the day, go out on a limb and try something new.

Late Spring Blooms

Here is a nice late spring combination: giant allium and 'husker red' penstemon. The allium bring out the subtle purple streaks of the penstemon while the penstemon provide the perfect backdrop for the allium. It is important to consider texture and shape as well as color when choosing plant combinations. I like the contrast of a bold plant against a more delicate one. They aren't competing for attention but compliment each other nicely. These are planted adjacent to a patio but they would also look great from a distance in the garden. If you're going to use allium, don't skimp, they tend to get lost if there are only a few. When used in a group though, their whimsical shape is unmatched by any other flower.

Spring Blooms

These "pigsqueaks" are one of my favorite plants for the landscape. They have a beautiful bloom in the spring, lush green leaves during the summer and have a subtle reddish tone in the fall. They look especially nice planted in mass or nestled between boulders for a pop of color in the spring and texture year round.

This year has been a little different for us here at Olive Branch. We've had a very busy spring. Landscape season is upon us and we are currently in limbo with our house on the market. We're doing a little less gardening of our own this year, but we do have a potted herb garden that is going strong and we're enjoying the work we've done in the past. After such a long winter, it's hard to believe the tulips have already come and gone and the peonies are about to bloom! Although we're missing a lot of the gardening we are used to doing, it's kind of nice to spend some time just enjoying what we have.

This spring Olive Branch added landscape maintenance to it's list of services! We are very excited to offer this to our clients. We take great care with proper maintenance and take pride in ensuring that our customer's landscapes are always at their finest.

"Boing"

I love adding art to the landscape whenever possible. I added this "boing" by Diane Mattern to my parents garden last fall. I have enjoyed seeing it all winter standing tall above the snow cover. For this particular site I wanted an upright accent. The space was a little tight for a tall slender evergreen and I wanted instant impact. I am excited to see this sculpture change as the landscape grows and matures. For this particular piece I planted ornamental grasses around the base, once the grasses fill in it will appear as though the "boing" is rising out of the grass. Diane can do a "boing" in just about any size and any color.

Spring is Around the Corner

This has definitely been one of the snowiest winters I can remember, but take heart fellow gardeners, spring is just around the corner! Now is a great time to be planning for spring. It's also a great time to consider a landscape design. Designers are less hurried and often offer winter discounts. Then you'll be ready, when the ground is warm once again, to start digging! I'll be ready to trade in my snow shovel for a trowel that's for sure!

Bubble Wrapped Deer

We thought this was kinda funny. We ordered this decorative deer for one of our clients recently. It's not everyday you receive a giant, bubble wrapped deer with a fragile sticker on it's behind! It was waiting for us just like that when we got home. We got a laugh and wondered what the neighbors thought.

Winter Pots

Okay, admittedly, these photos are a little late for the season! It's always good to plan for next year though right? This is a pot we decorated for some clients. We kept the look natural with a grapevine wreath shaped into a ball as the focal point. We then wrapped it with white lights. The rest is so simple, but classic: fresh mixed greens, some gold twigs, chocolate brown ornaments and a chocolate brown bow (which is hard to see in these photos). We love doing holiday decor here at Olive Branch! We offer container planting and decorating year round, as well as consulting, services and products for larger holiday decor projects (commercial or residential).

More Fall Faves

This "pig squeak" or Bergenia cordifolia is a great addition to any garden. Not only does it provide great interest throughout the growing season but it is also one of my favorite perennials for fall and winter. The leaves persist long into fall turning from green to a deep red. They provide a great contrast against the brown and grey of the fall landscape. These almost tropical looking perennials will slowly multiply and become a great mass. I especially like them amongst granite boulders.

A Favorite Fall Plant

We may have lost some blooms to the early October snow, but we still have some plants blooming and it's almost Thanksgiving. This one is Lamium which we've seen bloom late into the season multiple times. I also like how it fills in around the boulders. I would recommend adding this plant to your rock gardens, shade gardens or they would be nice as a border plant.

A Beautiful Fall

My apologies for the lack of blogging lately. We have had a surprisingly beautiful fall here in Omaha, which has allowed me to be out working on fall landscape clean up for my clients. I thought, with the early snow, that this fall might be pretty rough, but it has been really nice!

We also have moved our business back into our home this fall. We are very excited about the future of Olive Branch and reorganizing the business in order to better serve our clients and be able to focus on designs and projects without the distraction of the retail side of our business. We are still available to special order outdoor furniture, sculptures and pottery for anyone interested. We really enjoyed having our studio in Rockbrook Village and will miss the community there, but my wife and I are looking forward to the opportunity to work from home.

Staircases in the Garden

Here are a few examples of staircases that we have designed for some of our clients. I know the gardeners out there will be disappointed for the lack of plants, but it is still nice to show a good foundation for a garden. I love stairs in the landscape because they give a person a destination. They can lead someone to a patio, a sunken fire pit, a water feature or simply another area of the garden. They can also frame a landscape as in the top photo and cause a person to pause and take in the view. They also offer so many possibilities as far as container gardens, lighting display and even a place to set the pumpkins in October.

Fall Renovation Project

Today we installed a small ornamental grass and perennial garden at my parent's house. We ripped out several overgrown evergreens, various overgrown shrubs and shrub roses. Unfortunately, I didn't get before photos, but you can see one overgrown evergreen in the third photo from the top. (Ripping that out tomorrow). The large grasses will eventually grow rather tall and add some interest through the winter. We also had the challenge of hiding leftover stumps. The grasses and perennials that we chose should do a really good job of that. The yarrow will thrive and add a nice swath of color. We also chose a trial geranium, in the final photo, that has been tested to be hardy to zone 6 (we're zone 4/5) so we'll see what happens with that. I guess since it's my parent's house, I can get away with being experimental! Hopefully, we will luck out and they will do really well.

There are still some finishing touches to be done with this project. We will, of course, rip out the evergreen shrub at the corner and attempt to save the greens for my wife's holiday decorating. Then we will extend the yarrow around the corner and possibly add a unique, small evergreen which I have yet to choose. Any suggestions? We will also add some bulbs for spring color, a fresh layer of mulch and possibly a sculpture nestled somewhere in the grasses.

Landscape Photography Part 2

Here are a couple more of our favorite detail shots from our recent photo venture. It was nice to capture the impatiens in their final glory days. Look for these and many more new photos on our website soon!

Landscape Photography

My wife and I both really enjoy dabbling in landscape photography. We have been pursuing it more lately since she started working with me this summer. These are some of our most recent photos that we took for a local landscape contractor.