Hearing frogs
We pluck yellow yamabuki roses
In the field
And float them in our sake cups
How pleasant the picnic is!

By Ryokan (1758-1831) quoted in “Ryokan: Selected Tanka Haiku,” translated by Sanford Goldstein, Shigeo Mizuguchi and Fujisato Kitajima (Kokodo)

We have used Japanese Kerria (Yamabuki, or Japanese Yellow Rose herein ‘JK’) in this clients yard as a deep shade flowering shrub that we prune into a more geometric form. We are departing from the geometric form to go back to a more naturalized bush look. Notice at the foot of the hedge in this photo the new growth shoots popping out of the ground.  As this plant takes into an area it will send out and up new growth shoots. This year, I harvested those new shoots to build the client 3 new JK gardens. I harvested approximately 100 rooted new growth shoots, planted and watered for less than $150. 100 1 gallon JK would have cost over $1,000.00 – Another way to look at this is if the client paid 500 for the initial installation of the JK with this new harvesting and transplantation that investment just paid for itself in savings, so to speak. Garden Smart.

Here are the new growth shoots coming up from the soil.

With a simple shovel under the new growth shoot and a gentle lift back toward the plant, the root system and new plant easily come out of the super loamy organic soil we have developed over the past 7 years on this site.

I have the roots sitting in water while I am pulling them out before they go back into the soil. Keep the roots wet during the transition (less than 2-3 hrs)

This is how I plant the new shoot back into the soil  - basically the same way they came out. A shallow long trench made with a few strokes of the perennial shovel. Notice how rich and dark that soil is. You are looking at 40+ years of fir needle decomposition.

I place them in, cover them up and soak them.

Below are photo’s of the new JK gardens. In a matter of 2 seasons these gardens will be booming and ready for more transplants into other parts of the yard or even for resale into other clients properties. No chemicals, no insect control – none of that crap – Easy. Garden Smart. The Japanese Yellow Rose.

JK is a solid plant for deeper shade flowering. It is hardy, it is easy to trasplant and it is pretty. A good consideration for mass plantings in woodland areas or as backdrops, formal or not, in shade gardens.

I searched for medicinal uses of this plant and found nothing, though I only looked for around 15 minutes. If you know of more uses for this plant, please do share.

More photo’s of JK here

Last week we spent a day expanding a clients gardens.

They have large clusters of a mixed variety of deep green and green/blue hosta’s. Around every other season I split them and rearrange them. This year I used these splits to build the client 2 new hasta gardens in the front of the home.

Above you can see the new hosta splits we planted. It is really important when planting hosta’s, especially the larger varieties, that you imagine this plant 3 seasons from now when you place it. The whole layout of this garden is simplicity. A simple grass patch, stunningly massive Red Oaks with nice woodland hemlock and taxus. We added some Japanese Astilbi that I split from another part of the yard. It is to the left of the oak in the first picture. The blue hosta are being used as texture, color and another transition layer. In the middle picture we are using them formally in a straight line, in the photo on the left we have them placed more naturally. Buying new hosta’s for the above garden could have cost between 20 and 30 per plant which would have cost this client around 4-500 just in plants. We built this garden for under 150 – the only cost being labor since we already had the plants growing on site. Garden Smart.

This is one of the patches of Hosta we split for the above new gardens. The picture on the far left is what the plants look like from the home. In the middle picture you can see upon closer look that I split the inside of the two hosta’s for the least visual impact and used the leaf as mulch for the plant. Hosta leaf is AMAZING mulch – smothering weeds, adding moisture to the soil and nutrients. It is always best to leave your clippings in the garden. In my case, people pay us to make their gardens look ultra clean and finished – still, there is a way to keep organic matter in the garden beds fashionably, and the above is one example.

I took over 20 splits from this patch. Can you see where I took them from? Even splitting this patch every season it is still increasing in size by about 20% every year. Soon it will be a massive area of giant blue leaf set against green grass and silver green hemlock.

When picking hosta’s go for the deep colors, the deep blues, the deep greens – stay away from green and whites and make sure to plant in large masses. The hosta always has a more pleasant impact when there are a bunch of them. The greatest thing about this plant is that you buy 10 this year and next year you have 20 or 30. With proper design and planning over the course of 5 years an investment of 100 hosta can supply enough plant material for massive gardens. By year 5 you could have 1,000+ plants from that 100.

I do not use slug bait or slug killer for hosta. If your soil is healthy, the slugs will not damage the plant to the point it is visably upsetting. When insects are killing your plants it is because your plant is weak. Strengthen the plant through organic soil conditioning or throw it out and get a plant that is Easy to grow for your area.

Fall is the best time to split this plant only because then it does not matter if you mess up the leaves. Other than that, you can split this plant anytime of the year. I did these in the early spring and within a matter of weeks they will look like they had been there for a season. Splitting the hosta in mid summer usually results in a very weak looking, hurt plant until the following spring – but, it does not seem to effect the plants ability to survive.

Easy. Garden Smart

Natural edging is more functional than Fake Landscape Edings (FLE’s) and far more attractive.

Natural cut edges are also less expensive than FLE’s. FLE’s have a large upfront materials cost with extensive labor to install it. The sales pitch for FLE’s is that this is a one time fee, a one time fee that saves you money in the long run  - but I promise you, if you live somewhere where it freezes, you will be paying the labor end of that deal a second time within a matter of 2 seasons – meaning, the cost of labor to reinstall the now sunken or popped up (from freezing and thawing) FLE’s. Note the color and texture of that soil. We have worked with that soil and that garden for 8 years now. Tons of worms.

That guy is a criminal, notice how professional he looks. Smoke and mirrors – and look at this photo here. Even with sunshine, green grass, misty sprinklers and robust golden flowers, that black plastic edging still looks like shit. Pardon my honest opinion. This looks like a photo from a bag of Scott’s Lawn Fertilizer or something. It looks like someone left a piece of garbage in a beautiful garden.

Don’t let this be your garden.

And then there is this beautiful edge we cut just the other day. Dynamically functional, affordable – better.

Best way is to have no lawn.

Remember you can click on the photo’s and you should be able to view them larger and in more detail.

This is one of my favorite trees. I came to this tree about 3 to 4 years ago. Originally it’s form was very much wild and overgrown – not that anything is wrong with wild and naturally grown except this client was looking for some fancy . I pruned this tree about 50%+ down from where it was and fully reconfigured the shape. We gave it over 100 custom blended food plugs coupled with a top coating of compost and soil conditioners. We did that in the fall. That following spring the tree simply exploded into color and has since been utterly vibrant.

I have not pruned this tree in a season but the basic form I created is 90%  present. We will be touching it up shortly along with a few other tasks in this truly enjoyable birmingham garden.

Cheers to the designer of this garden – we do not know who exactly. Stunning simplicity and performance – all it needed was our magic soil care and it went from being a tree that lost it’s leaves by late july to a power bloomer that is green until the fall turns her yellow.

IMAGINE EDIBLE: As perfect as this tree is, if I were to design this same space today I would replace the mrytle with strawberry and plant a semi circle of peach trees along the outer edge of the circle, forming a half moon – from inside the walk closest to the house this would create a very warm and inviting sitting space and from the outside/road the stunning spring flowers and the luminous abundant summer fruits. Imagine Edible. Garden Smart.

At this garden, I am undoing the improper application of mulch from a major local company. They have piled the mulch in some areas up to 6 inches thick and as you can see here there is some funky mold and fungus now fast at work decomposing the wood. Decomposition is good, but with the proper amount of mulch we can avoid this kind of funky fungus/mold growth.

Imagine someone straps a piece of steak (beef) to the bare skin of your arm and you have to walk around with it on your arm for months. What would happen? The same little creatures that decompose the meat would begin to decompose your arm and you would succumb to infection and it would eventually kill you if you did not take the steak off. When you put dead wood mulch piled against living bark it is the exact same thing happening. The fungus and molds decomposing the wood mulch begin to work on the bark of the tree.

If you are applying mulch this year make sure to not pile it up against your trees and shrubs. If you are hiring the service out make sure your contractor knows about this. Improper application of mulch can set up the conditions for short and long term depreciation of your landscape investment.

Note the white stuff here. Mold and fungus’ working hard to decompose the over application of mulch.

I grew up playing on this tree and I have pruned and fed it for 9 years. Two seasons ago I changed the shape of the bed to what you see now and placed that special stone there.  I am so happy, some 40 years ago someone planted this Beauty. She has fed a lot of birds and squirls in her day. This is a healthy organic crab apple. You can also get amazing spring flowers from the Pear, Plum, Apple and Peach tree to name a few – and they not only flower but they also produce awesome fruit for us. Twice the return on your investment.

If your crab apples’ leaves turn brown, yellow and funky in the later summer – I know how to fix this – and of course it is a secret. I will tell you it has something to do with Trace Minerals. One simple thing you can do is purchase Azomite and Kelp – then, mix with compost (you can be liberal with both substances without hurting the plant – be liberal, mix well), top coat the bed under the crab – no more than 2 inches thick – and then mulch to keep the weeds down. If a crab is really sick, I like to do dozens of deep root feeds along with top coating as stated prior. I custom blend the deep root feeds per tree, in the same way I cook – a little of this, a little of that – love, magic and time. If your soil is in poor condition it does take a few seasons of proper care to really get it humming again. With the right amount of attention though, you can hasten this process greatly. I will share with you that there is never a need to use chemicals, oils, or other synthetic treatments to keep a crab apple happy. These babies just need happy, vibrant soil and then they look like this.

If you click on the picture you should be able to see them larger and crisper.

The focus of our blend of soil conditioners is to propogate microorganisms that help balance the soil and make nutrients available to the plant/tree. I pay no attention to Nitrogen in the NPK – really, I pay no attention to NPK. In the plugs you see here, the highest Nitrogen count was in the fish emulsion liquid we topped the blend with – 2 years ago – so what is in that soil now that is causing so much vital green growth?….Hint: Trace Minerals.

I would tell you what I use, but – It is a secret. What I can tell you is there are no chemical applications of any kind. None. Trade secrets. If you want your Trees, Bushes and beds cared for the right way – contact us today for a quote. We are affordable, organic and effective.

If you click on the picture you should be able to see them larger and crisper.

Hello!

Check out this great article on my goji plants in HOUR magazine. READ ARTICLE HERE

Thank you Alexa for yet another awesome article on my work! Alexa has written about my companies over the past 9 years several times – thus, in my mind, she is the most talented writer in the city right now! lol

I took the plants from SEED to BERRY in 2 seasons while over wintering them in pots TWICE! What this means is this plant is Extremely hardy. At night I would have dreams of a berry colored woman telling me secrets about how to grow the plant, what it needs, how to prune it, how to transplant it and how to make it sing. I prefer this story more than how I really figured those things out

So – your goji’s by the end of this year would be multi-stem and around 4-6ft high depending on when we start growing them for you. All of the plants we did grow are being kept for production and experimentation. Sadly, half of my goji crop died last year due to a rare landscape disease commonly called ‘divorce.’ So we are taking orders right now to start growing your goji hedge. These plants express a luminous, shimmering silverbluegreen presence with airy long branching, similar to forsythia or red stem dogwood. This plant can be left to grow wild, or pruned into geometric hedges. It can even be grown as a vine.

I have read that the bark is anti-bacterial. The leaves taste AMAZING and are great in salads and tea. The berry is worthy of rolling around in naked. This is an exceptional plant. Get your order in.

Check out the first video we did on the goji last spring. Word JP! Thanks for being there with me on that one.

How I got turned on to growing Goji -

So have you gotten one of these phone calls ‘Hey Old Pal! Wow, I really missed your voice, it has been so long – hey, there is this new business…’ Yep…lolol…you know the rest. Well there is a company selling Goji Juice and they are using an MLM format and selling this juice for around $30 a bottle…yes THIRTY. So, 2 ‘friends’ of mine call me a few years ago trying to slang this thirty dollar kool aid on me because it is ‘Goji’ juice and Goji has this and that and blah blah blah. Well, it is true, the berry has been used in Ayurvedic, Tibetan and Chinese medicine for a long, long time and has numerous dynamic benefits. So, their initial call got me very excited about their product – A. because I trusted them and B. because I loved the berry and new of it’s benefits. Well, as I looked into this ‘wonder’ product I found out that in fact less than 10% of the drink is Goji Juice and of that 10% it is 100% reconstituted juice – meaning they dried the berry and then rehydrated it and then made the juice….Can you think of a single wine maker that would dehydrate a grape, rehydrate it and then try to make wine? BS. Total BS. At the end of the day, this product was $30 pear juice with goji flavor and worse, they claimed it was A. Raw and B. Organic yet could not produce any paper trail to substantiate. Despite their ruthless sales efforts which succeeded in showing me they were without decency, at least in this regard, I stayed farrr away from that goji drink racket and decided to instead start my own Goji Racket- get the real thing, real fresh, really organic and really cheap. In my own findings, the best place on the internet to get dried goji’s is www.gojiberry.com talk to Julie and tell her Michael from detroit sent you along. 100% of my berries from her sprouted. I don’t get any kick backs or anything from her…yet…lol…but I get a kick out of knowing I can bring more business to her. They are family owned and operated and her husband is a Tibetan Medicine Practioner. Worthy of all capital first letters.

So, in short, beware of expensive goji drinks, BS and people who are too friendly or over complimentary just prior to a sales effort (aka – BS).