By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Handy husbands are a blessing.  Nina Mueller has one. When she saw a storage device for nursery pots and other small garden paraphernalia on page 48 of the most recent issue of Smith & Hawkin she liked but didn't want to pay the price for, her husband Steve offered to build her something similar.  Below is what it looks like.  The upslanted edges of the shelves that keep everything neatly in place were inspired by chicken coops.

Nina's friends in her Lake Forest Garden Club all covet her new chicken coop cubbies structure.  And I bet everyone that tours through the Muellers' garden on May 3--it's on the Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour--will want one for themselves as well.  So we asked Steve if he would share his construction plans and he was kind of enough to comply.  If you have a handy husband, he can take it from here.

Download Chicken_Coop.pdf

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

Sheets of red, lilac, blue, or purple flowers cover common aubrieta (A. deltoidea) in mid spring—and common aubrieta covers just about every low thing that surrounds it all year. At 4 to 6 inches tall and 18 inches wide, this spreading ground cover is a spring classic. Let it spill over rocks or out of walls.

This planting is in Marilyn Munro's garden in Sequim, Washington.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Bordering a garden with pleached trees or an aerial hedge is a centuries-old horticultural practice.  In both cases the trees are closely spaced and the effect, above the trunks, is one solid mass. 

In pleaching, side branches of adjoining trees are intertwined in one flat plane and all the rest of the branches are removed.  You get a similar effect from selecting trees with a dense habit and keeping them closely clipped to the shape of the tree; that variation is called the aerial hedge. 

Both practices create a distinctively formal look, which is probably why you don't see them much in American gardens, especially our casual Western ones.

But Irvine landscape designer Carole MacElwee used a variation of the aerial hedge in the front courtyard of Mirit and Joseph Konowiecki's garden in Long Beach. A row of Arbutus `Marina' trees were planted along the courtyard wall spaced only five feet apart.  Obviously these trees will never be able to develop full canopies, but MacElwee has no intention of letting them turn into the sheared box look of traditional aerial hedges either. 

"Gil De Santos [her Silverado-based landscape contractor] is a wonderful arborist," says MacElwee, "and he'll keep these trees pruned so they remain feathery and somewhat separate."  They'll be open enough for light to penetrate and natural looking shadows to form on the hardscape, she says.

Arbutus `Marina' is a great tree for this effect , says MacElwee.  It stays small, it has big, handsome leaves, and, of course, there's that great rich red bark.  "I love the way those trunks look when I'm inside looking out at that space," says Mirit.

Metrosideros excelsa (New Zealand Christmas tree) is another good candidate for close spacing and a similar effect, says De Santos.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

Hidden in the tall trees of Washington's northern Kitsap Peninsula, Dragonfly Farms Nursery is a perfect delight: its display gardens show off everything from bathtubs full of hardy pitcher plants to eucalyptus, ornamental rhubarb, Spanish fir, and bamboo. “At heart I’m a tree and shrub person,” says owner Heidi Kaster, “but I grow lots of unusual things from seed.” Go into the greenhouse and you’ll see for yourself: there are restios (sedge-like plants from South Africa), flats of 2-inch seedlings that will grow into trees, agaves, grevillias, and a host of things whose names you probably won’t even recognize.

Much of it is definitely not everyday nursery stock, though Dragonfly Farms has plenty of that too. Kaster’s background explains her love for the unusual (nursery motto: “Where Abnormality is the Normality!"). After a short teaching career, she did garden maintenance, including an important stint working for Linda Cochran, both in the garden and in Cochran’s Froggy Bottom Nursery. When Cochran got out of the nursery business, Kaster moved the nursery to her own place and renamed it Dragonfly Farms. She also spent a lot of time shopping at Hersonswood Nursery, which is just down the road, and currently does garden design.

The nursery is also full of garden art. I loved the chain gate made by Kaster’s husband Dave, a sedum frame Heidi made, and the sculptures, pots, and globes that show up all over the garden, most from local artists.

Dragonfly Farms, not to be confused with a Kitsap landscaping company that uses the name Dragonfly, is at 34881 Hansville Road between Kingston and Hansville. They’re open Fridays and Saturdays 9 to 5, and Sundays 9 to 4. Go on a Friday this summer and you can catch the Hansville Farmer's Market, which will be relocating here.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The scent of white sage (Salvia apiana) was perfuming my office when I came across an essay on scented plants on Greg Corman's website.  (Corman is the owner of Gardening Insights, a horticultural consulting and landscape design firm based in Tucson.)  I'd been weeding near my big clump of sage earlier, and the aromatic oils in its leaves had so thoroughly permeated my clothes, it was as if I were still in the garden.  So I was in the frame of mind to be receptive to Corman's message:

"Smell is our way of tasting the air, something we otherwise move through with little notice.  The scents of plants like Cleveland sage, Arabian jasmine, and fragrant olive are so heady and delicious that they make the air come alive and make us thankful for every breath.  These species do their magic well beyond their physical spaces, too, perfuming the air that wafts through windows and doors and adding delight to a garden at night when sight is a poor sense for enjoying the outdoors."

Arabian jasmine (J. sambac)

Follow this link to read the rest of Corman's essay and find his suggestions for scented plants for the desert. (Many of his favorites are also great for Southern California, including sage, sweet olive, star jasmine, and lemon verbena.)  Then head to a nursery, and let your nose lead you to something that smells irresistible. 

A garden without plants that add the sensual element of smell is incomplete, says Corman, and I fully concur.

Cleveland sage

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer
Garden photograph by Terry Moyemont, Mesogeo Garden

Will Giles literally wrote the book about how to grow tropical plants in temperate climates. Called Encyclopedia of Exotic Plants for Temperate Climates (Timber Press, Portland, 2007; $49.95), the book has quickly become a standard reference for growing some 2,500 kinds of exotics in England and the Pacific Northwest. Now you can hear Giles speak.

His talk, scheduled for 4:30 this Sunday (April 27) at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island (just a short ferry ride from Seattle), is sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society. As part of the lecture, he’ll be screening pictures of his own garden and of other gardens that fit the same category. A regular on BBC radio, Giles has nearly as much experience talking about gardens as growing them.

Giles has been cultivating exotics on his 1-acre garden in the English East Midlands (at nearly the same latitude as the Queen Charlotte Islands) for about 25 years. For reservations to Giles’ talk ($5), call 206 855-9017 or go to www.mesogeogarden.com.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The Venice Garden & Home Tour attracts thousands of visitors every year.  And the gardens shown below, all of which were on last year's tour, are an indication of why that's so.  Venice is full of small, distinctive gardens--everything from cottage to contemporary, quirky to chic.  Often you get to see the homes as well--a little peek into others' lives. The price--$70 the day of the event/$60 in advance--may seem steep.  But there are usually more gardens on the tour than you can see in a day--a minimum of 25.  And the cost is tax-deductible.  Proceeds go to Las Dorados Children's Center.

The tour this year is on May 3.  Follow this link for tickets and further details.

all photos by Eric Staudenmaier

By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

Though most bougainvilleas have a rampant, lanai-covering habit that makes them most useful outside in frost-free parts of the country, there are a few shrubby, draping, drop-dead-beautiful varieties that you can grow in any climate in containers. Just put them outside in the sun during the warm season, and overwinter them in a sun room or frost-free garage when the weather cools off.

Byron Martin, co-owner of Logee’s Tropical Plants, has three favorites among these more well-mannered varieties.

‘Vera Pink’ and ‘Vera Purple’ are Vera Blackman hybrids that were improved in Europe and sent back to North America, where ‘Vera Purple’ is new this year.

‘Firecracker Red’, also new this year, is a consistent, summer-long bloomer whose orange flowers don’t fade as the season advances (most orange bougainvilleas do).

You can order all online from Logee’s Tropical Plants.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Hopefully not too many garden writers are reading our blog yet because I'm about to give away one of my trade secrets.  Two of my favorite gardens, both of which turned into Sunset stories, were found on the Annual Green Gardens Tour in Santa Monica.  Grace Phillips garden was published in May, 2007.  And the Ping Ho/Loren Bloch garden was featured in February of this year.  Here's a vignette from that garden:

As the Tour's title suggests, all the gardens selected demonstrate sustainable designs, practices, and technologies.  And they show it can be done beautifully.

The Tour this year is on April 26, 10 am to 4 pm.  The cost is $40, and the proceeds go to the Virginia Avenue Project, a not-for-profit organization that uses the arts to help kids discover their full potential.  To order tickets, call (310) 264-4224.

Sunset.com: More on greening your garden

Photograph by Steven Gunther

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

If you live in California, before you plant anything this spring, visit PlantRight.  The site lists 19 species causing serious environmental damage that you should avoid planting. The culprits vary depending on where you live.  In my coastal area of Southern California, for instance, Vinca major, shown below, is a big offender.

PlantRight also offers well-thought out alternatives for each of the 19 invasive species.  Instead of V. major, for instance, I could plant Campanula poscharskyana, heartleaf bergenia, creeping barberry, Heuchera maxima, Helleborus foetidus, or the gorgeous Geranium 'Rozanne', shown below. Besides being more responsible, all these choices also seem more interesting and ornamental than Vinca.