Amaryllis not only make a wonderful Christmas gift, but once they finish blooming they can be planted in a large container in a sunny, protected area of the garden.
They’re available in a range of colors from pure white to deep red and assorted colors in between; shades of pink and peach that may be striped or speckled or feature a picotee edge.
Amaryllis like well-drained soil. We recommend using a bulb planting mix - it contains bone meal. Keep them moist and they will produce gorgeous, 6 to 8 inch blooms for many years to come!
Colette

I am proud to be able to say that Scenic Nursery has been named Modesto's Favorite Nursery for the seventh straight year. It makes me proud of all the hard work the Scenic staff does to make it happen. We are continually looking for ways to make the shopping experience here more fun and interesting for you.
Providing new and interesting plants is a large part of our goal. Our recently remodeled and expanded bedding department always has a selection of attractive, interesting and colorful perennials to add to your garden. Even in the off season, April keeps a selection that you will find interesting. In the store, Diana is always on the look out for organic methods of pest control. We test many products, but keep in stock only those things that actually work. We do try to provide organic pest control products first. Ranging from Sluggo, the pet safe snail control, to the new organic insect control, Spinosad, we are continually looking for the safest gardening products that work.
This winter The Garden Crew has plans to install more display vignettes to show what The Garden Crew can do and give you ideas for you to do. In addition to periodic maintenance and refreshing old gardens, The Garden Crew can do complete new garden installations.
In personal news, Donna and I are slowly making progress on our front yard remodel. You can check out our progress at www.scenicnursery.com under The Garden Crew section.
You can also see a picture of our twelve foot Puangyok Thai Pea Eggplant! Yes, twelve feet tall! I would like to say that it gave a crop in relation to it's size, but it set flowers late and the tiny fruits are still not ripe (as of early November). I have never heard or seen of an egg plant this size – how about you?

JIM

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!

As we drive around we often see lawns that just don’t look as nice as they should. Often the problem is brown spots in the lawn. There are three main reasons for this.

Watering Problems
If you see general brown spots the reason is often the lawn drying out. You can check for this by using a screwdriver in the affected areas and compare with good areas. If the brown areas are harder or dryer than the good areas you need to find out what is causing the problem.

Using pie pans to check the water coverage is the easiest way to check your sprinkler system. A 30% difference between pans in good areas and bad areas means the sprinklers system needs changing.

If it seems the dry areas are not caused by the sprinklers you need to aerate the lawn. We sell water aerators that make easy work of compaction.

Lawn Disease & Insects
If the problem is not a water issue we recommend you bring in a sample of the lawn. Pie-pan-sized and 1-2” thick samples are best for us to examine. One of our CCN’s will be glad to look it over. We also have an on site consultation service where someone comes to your house and helps solve garden problems. Only $65.00 per hour can get several garden problems solved. The Garden Crew can also help with irrigation problems.

This is the middle of Spring for Modesto. We have been getting warm weather, blue skies and lots of flowers.

Now is a good time to fertilize if you haven’t. Roses especially like lots of fertilizer to bloom well. Monthly applications of Rose and Flower Food until October will give you the most and best blooms.

It can be amazing what some regular applications of fertilizer can do. At home even I will fertilize sometimes and then step back and wonder about the difference it made.

For color I am still surprised with some of the new perennial color plants that are coming out. Some of my favorites include Million Bells, a miniature petunia like ground cover; Bidens, golden yellow ground cover or hanging plant with two or three varieties that grow to different heights in the ground; and Nemesia, a perennial that does best with filtered light. If you are looking for some unusual plants, check out our 4” perennial tables. We receive new varieties almost every week.

A perennial topic in these columns is the value in mulching. I strongly believe 1-2” of humus over the ground makes plants grow better. It keeps the soil moist, cool and increases the microbial activity in the soil. All of these help plants grow better. It needs to be redone every 2-3 years so go out and check. Almost all my Garden Crew projects get mulched.

Now is the time to start checking your irrigation system. If you have areas that run dry because of lack of water the tendency is to increase the water in the entire yard to keep those areas moist. The pie pan check over the lawn can help decide if there is an irrigation system problem. If there is more than a 30% difference in the amount of water in the pie pans you need to check and adjust your system.

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