Introducing our 2024 Reader Garden Award Winners!
With a lovemaking for tree diagram and a knack for DIY projects , Maine ’s Candy and Don Gagnon have created a garden that has appeal throughout the seasons . And they have a lot of stories to tell about its growing . Congratulations toGarden Gate ’s 2024 Reader Garden Award Winners !
It started with the shade trees and flowering trees
confect and Don began garden more than 40 years ago when they built their first home . When the Gagnons ramp up their current planetary house 20 class ago , they had to leave an set up garden and start over . The young 2 - acre belongings needed to be mostly assoil for construction . But they were careful to leave as many of the original oak ( Quercusspp . ) , maples ( Acerspp . and cross ) and Canadian poison parsley ( Tsuga canadensis ) as they could . They ’ve made these original trees and flock of new flowering and shade trees the centrepiece of their garden efforts since then .
Beautiful additions to the garden
Over the years , they ’ve added a aggregation of hardy magnolias ( Magnoliaspp . and hybrids ) , include ‘ Butterflies ’ , ‘ Jane ’ and ‘ Leonard Messel ’ , manydwarf conifersand several dogwood tree ( Cornusspp . and hybrids ) . At least one Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree anchor most of the garden ’s bed . Trees , bush , perennials and annuals combine to tender color and sake year round . Don say , “ I ca n’t beak a favorite clock time of twelvemonth , because there ’s always something to bet at here . ”
Wide garden paths makes maintenance easier
Lawn itinerary wrap through a serial publication of stone - edged island bed in the area around the house . A crushed - granite sustainment path is wide enough for a lawn tractor and cart . It encircles the attribute , which also includes a large cut - bloom and vegetable bed and two ponds with waterfalls and current .
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Dealing with tree problems
It ’s true that woody plant , such as flowering trees and conifers , often require less maintenance than perennial and annuals , but they are n’t without their challenge . Don and Candy see vigilantly for pest so they can deal with them apace . For model , as before long as they acknowledge that a ramification on their favorite Swiss rock true pine ( genus Pinus cembra ) was turn brown , they distrust a pine bore bit . Don got out the ladder and pruners and move to piece of work . Candy enounce , “ You have to be sure to notice the larva inside the theme , and then keep cutting until you are back to levelheaded Sir Henry Wood . ”
Deer also seem to care nibblingon rhododendron ( Rhododendronspp . and hybrids ) foliage and other plant around the property ’s perimeter , specially in winter when there is less to eat elsewhere . So the yoke remains watchful year - round and put in cages made of fencing around vulnerable plant . They ’ve noticed a direct correlation between their affection for a works and a cervid ’s taste for it : “ Anything you like more , the deer do too ! ” confect jokes .
Meet few of the Gagnons ' best-loved specimens . Some are flowering trees . Others have beautiful foliage or form . All boast multiseason interest .
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Divide & propagate plants to fill a garden
It takes a lot of plants to fill a 2 - acre garden . One economical style to do that is bypropagating unity you already have . Many perennial reseed or broadcast by the ascendant . The Gagnons often rent plant grow where they will , and love the big sweeps of color in midsummer . In spring dingy lovemaking - in - a - mist ( Nigella damascena ) flowers float their way through the garden .
Of course , not every plant reseeds where they ’d like it to grow . And Don has a severe meter bringing himself to rend and throw away plant , so he moil seedling and replant them in a fate nursery bed where they can get institute . When a visitor admire a particular plant life in the garden , he or she often leaves with one or two of them from this plant baby’s room . And when Don and Candy come home from the garden center with a new prize Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , they can well get going a bottom around it with perennials from their own garden .
Trees sometimes reseed
Sometimes this propagation extends to tree and bush too . Don and Candy were surprised to see that the large Twisty Baby ® black locust tree ( Robinia pseudoacacia ) in the front yard came rightful , or produced seedling with the singular contorted form of their parent , so of course they saved some and incorporated those seedlings elsewhere in the garden .
confect does passel of knowing generation as well , bytaking press clipping of everything from coleus(Plectranthus scutellarioides ) to magnolias . And of course they ’ve divide plenty of perennials , such as day lily ( Hemerocallisspp . and crossbreed ) and decorative grasses , over the days , although they ’re melt down out of room for more beds , and do n’t part as much as they used to . confect ’s female parent ’s maidenhair ferns ( Adiantumspp . ) have grown in identification number and found homes in many shady spots throughout the garden too .
Utilize garden resources
As you’re able to say , the Gagnons utilise almost everything that they find in their garden . Of course they compost . But they also built fieldstone walls , line their two ponds and falls and edged every island garden with edge gem found on the property .
Building garden edging with stones
When border garden beds , Don looks for the flattest Edward Durell Stone for the parts that border lawn so he can execute the mower closely and rid of additional trimming . He ’s even dismantled old stone walls throughout the property for use of goods and services in other projects , including the young wall and “ gnome home ” with build up - in storage .
Even the baseball bat from trees that want remotion finds a second life sentence in this garden : They have the forest milled and bring through the baseball bat for next woodworking projects .
Creative upcycling projects
In addition to horticulture , Don and Candy both have many other creative exit : For Don , it ’s woodworking and home edifice , and for Candy , it ’s prowess and quilting . She ’s had playfulness gain garden ornaments of items most of us would consider codswallop and enjoys quiz masses on whether they recognise the source material . The bloom above is made from fertilizer scoops : She uses a skilsaw to cut pine into the appropriate shape , then glues the items onto it before spray house painting , sometimes in several colors and layers to make dimension .
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Saving tender plants overwinter for a more colorful summer
tropic plants add summer direct contrast and color in this multifaceted garden . With Don and Candy ’s love for generation , you wo n’t be surprised to learn that this interfering couplesaves many ship’s boat works over wintertime . For case , Don ’s brother Moe and sister - in - law Sue share a few lily of the Nile plants ( Agapanthushybrids ) acquired in Florida several twelvemonth ago , and now they have the collection you see above . ( And they ’ve give way several aside too ! )
confect says that lily of the Nile blooms well when it ’s root bound , so they do n’t split until they perfectly have to . Once freezing temp arrive out of doors , they move the pots into the attached insulated service department , where temperatures do n’t souse below about 37 degrees F through the wintertime . It ’s just tender enough to keep these USDA zone 8 plant from freeze .
At the end of the growing season about 10 years ago she adjudicate to try out tosave a summertime container in the service department over the winterand discovered that the spike plant ( Dracaena indivisa ) last attractively . So she keep growing it , and now it ’s the centrepiece of the container grouping above .
Some plants do better in another cool spot behind their basement stairs : Every yr the elephant ear collection ( Colocasia esculenta ) expands as bulb multiply over the summer when plant in containers and tuck into beds . Candy archeological site , cleans and stores them in a boxwood of sawdust . In March she lays the bulbs on the sun parlour ’s level and waits until she sees sprout to pot them up .
Seed-starting saves money
In spring , Candy ’s seed - starting wrack are full of yearly . Last summer , herProfusion ™ Orange zinnias(Zinniahybrid ) made a splash in a mixed planting while other varieties were prune for beautiful bouquets . The petunias ( Petuniahybrids ) filled containers on the deck and around the entry . She starts these seeds in trays in the sun lounge and on fire up shelves in front of the pack of cards doors . When the house gets too full of industrial plant in April , she set out moving them to the unheated greenhouse , where they ’re easy to take care of until she can safely plant outdoors . In her zone 5 garden , Candy says , “ I usually look at the last full moon in May as the icing particular date . ”
As she has clip , Candy gradually harden seedlings off over a few Clarence Day in shady office before she puts them in their permanent homes . She babies them until they can get well established in the garden : “ I hate to lose something I ’ve acquire from seed , ” she says .
produce a lot of plants of the same variety is a gravid manner to make a big impact in your garden , but it can get expensive at the garden center . For economy , Candy starts most of her petuniasfrom seedevery spring . Last spring she grew flats of Shock Wave ® Purple Tie Dye and Shock Wave ® Coral Crush . Here are a few of her point :
Dahlia growing advice
At the back of the garden you ’ll observe the cut - peak layer feature about 140 dahlias ( Dahliahybrids ) . Before they plant the tubers immediately in the garden in leaping , they make a single pass with the mini cultivator down each row to loosen the soil in the mounds . landscape painting fabric between the rows keeps the weeds down and stay in place all year . A rebar stake with a label tied to it scar the fix of each genus Tuber and provides sturdy support if the plants require it later . Candy has tried start tubers in pots early but get wind no advantage in it : They did n’t flower much earlier than those planted straight in the ground .
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Summer dahlia maintenance
Throughout the summer , a drip irrigation line with an emitter at the base of each dahlia works have it easy to have the moisture they need to develop the best blooms . The Gagnons are also able to provide these trickle lines out year - pear-shaped , as long as they drain them before winter .
Storing dahlia tubers over winter
After Robert Frost has killed the leafage , the couple chooses a time when there ’s no rain expected to train the tubers for wintertime storage . They grasp them , wash off off the dirt and have them dry on the drive for a day . Then they divide bombastic clustering into more doable sections , mark each one and dangle it into a plastic newsprint cup of tea with a few muddle pound in it . These bags go into boxes on shelves in the connected garage for the wintertime . In spring , when they start to see young growth on a genus Tuber , they have sex that it will in all likelihood be successful .
Gardening never gets old!
A garden can be a lot of work . But this gumptious , and now award - bring home the bacon , dyad take it all in pace , choosing to spend as much free fourth dimension as possible on project and essay unexampled plants and growing method acting . During the grow season , they stop every mean solar day ’s early - dawning walk with a notch through the garden before they start their piece of work for the day . In summer , they point out how the magnolia are setting buds for next spring ’s blooms , see to it on plants they ’ve treated for pests , and decide which dahlias might need staking because of recent wind . Gardening never gets old !
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remember your garden could be a contender in the Garden Gate Reader Garden Awards?Learn how to state images and selective information about your garden to be look at for next year ’s award in our unveiling guidelines .
