Jungle Jim Sez

After a much different spring than last year, gardeners are looking forward to a different summer too. We can hope for a milder summer. This year I added a number of landscape roses to our inventory. The idea behind landscape roses is to replace the traditional short, bushy plants like Wheelers Dwarf Pittosporum and Indian Hawthorn with bushy plants that bloom all spring, summer and fall. I have been using Starry Night, a white single rose, for the last few years. I added Home Run, a single red; Rainbow Knockout, a single coral; Imposter, a single pink with a dusting of red and Cherry Parfait, a double white with red edge. These are varieties that, with regular feeding, will bloom all season long. An added bonus is that you don't have to prune the old flowers off. We are also continually adding to our collection of interesting perennials, grasses and sedges. Come into our bedding area and see what we have for you to take home. The garden crew is continuing to make changes as we move to helping our clients create true living spaces outside. You can see some of our recent projects at www.scenicnursery.com under the garden crew section. Quarry stone pavers combined with stacking walls can transform an ordinary garden. Donna and I are engaged in transforming our yard. The small back yard is essentially finished and we are working on our front yard and courtyard. I will be posting pictures as it progresses. In other "Jim and Donna's Garden Notes", my fruit bush hedge is growing in leaps and bounds. I have peaches, nectarines, pluots and apricots set and this is just the second year. Our vegetable garden is making progress with two tomatoes, four peppers, two eggplants and a small row of chard. Because we added lots of humus, I am having to fertilize more than we generally recommend, but as the humus starts to break down it will all come back to us. We planted a Sungold yellow cherry tomato and Sweet 100, a red cherry tomato and will soon start picking! Have some fun in the garden this summer!