Drop-dead gorgeous, CONCRETE (!!) garden accessories

GardenStone Studio
Hell has apparently frozen over – GardenStone Studio in Vancouver, BC, enters the Twin Cities market this spring with a line of CONCRETE containers, benches, birdbaths, pedestals, and wall fountains that are as exquisite as any garden accessories I've seen.

The big problem with concrete containers and benches has always been, well, the look. Perfunctory design, limited color pallet, drab finishes, and an overall lack of intricate detail make concrete a poor second cousin to containers and other garden accessories made from terra cotta, iron, and stone. You know, the real stuff.

GardenStone Studio is a team of scientists and artisans who are changing all that. The founder and president tinkered with specialty concrete in his garage, mixing up various concoctions until he got it right, then hooked up with sculptors and design artists to create the company. The head designer comes from a Ukrainian family that for generations has created the intricate plasterwork found in museums and palaces across Europe. (His family's company did the decorative plaster in the interior of Michael Gorbachov's dacha.) The operations manager brings a background in metallurgic analysis from the mining industry. These guys get the finishes right.

Put it all together and their stuff rocks. Not only is the line beautiful, they use air entrainment in all their products, the same process used on bridges to prevent frost damage. They use polypropylene fibers for reinforcement, and silica fume for incredible strength (whatever the hell that is; I'm reading from a press release here). You can leave the benches and containers outside all winter and they won't chip or crack. Perhaps best, the entire line is mid-priced – it's concrete, after all.

The photos here (and on their site, for that matter) don't do the products justice. I saw the line at a trade show, then called the president and had a great chat. When you see the line in person, you won't believe the colors, finishes, and intricate design details. Around the Twin Cities you can find GardenStone this spring at Dundee Nursery, Otten Brothers, Gertens, Linder's, Lilydale, Kelley & Kelley, Frost & Budd, Squire House, Tonkadale, Bachman's, Boulevard Gardens, and Shorewood Nursery. Learn more and view online at www.gardenstonestatuary.com

Best Northern Shrub and Tree Book

Growing Shrubs and Small Trees in Cold Climates
By Nancy Rose, Don Selinger, and John Whitman
The Contemporary Gardener

For Christmas I received a copy of this new book, and haven't been able to put it down. In both my mind and bookshelf it has very quickly joined the small collection of gardening books I find truly essential.

Key to creating an attractive landscape is ample use of shrubs and ornamental trees. Some experts write that shrubs act as the "bones" to a landscape, an analogy I don't follow. Bones get covered up, and add support unseen. The shrubs and small trees covered in this book deserve very much to be focal points in the landscape, and in all cases will add shapes, colors, and textures to your property that help turn a mundane yard magical.

As far as most gardening book and magazine publishers are concerned, Minnesotans live on a different planet. It gets cold up here, and our selection of plant material is limited. This is why so few magazines (and even fewer books) provide comprehensive information on plants that thrive in the north.

This book is filled with nothing but. The authors include virtually every winter-proven, worthwhile variety of plant within each of the fifty genera, such that the book covers over 750 different shrubs and trees in all. In a stunningly simple move, they actually include the names of the nurseries where you can buy the darn things (ignoring that little detail being the flaw in far too many plant books).

Then in lucid prose they explain everything you need to know in order to achieve success: Where to plant; soil, moisture, and spacing requirements; how to plant and transplant; how to fertilize and mulch; how to propagate; problems to watch for; winter care, and more.

Nancy Rose works in the woody plant research program at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, with a stint prior at the Morton Arboretum outside Chicago. Wonderful speaker if you ever have the chance to see her. Don Selinger is a long-time nurseryman at Bailey Nursery in St. Paul. John Whitman is a Minnesota gardener and garden writer who has contributed to numerous gardening books over the years.

Combined with first-class photography covering many of the individual varieties, Growing Shrubs and Small Trees in Cold Climates joins the first two books in the series (Growing Perennials in Cold Climates and Growing Roses in Cold Climates) as an indispensable guide for northern gardeners.

The Ultimate Deer Proofing Book

Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden by Rhonda Massingham Hart
Storey Books

Stumbled on this book at the wonderful bookstore at the Minnesota State Hortcultural Society's offices in St. Paul. Finally! Someone put it all into one inexpensive book.

And you will find it all. All those lists of annuals that deer hate, perennials that deer hate, vegetables that deer hate (plus lists of all the plants deer love). Plus sections on identifying deer damage, how to make and use your own homemade deterrents, selecting commercial deterrents, and designing a landscape that repels deer.

This is it. There is nothing to know about deer proofing that isn't in this book. Hart has a nice, light, friendly tone, and the publisher has included clear illustrations that serve the prose well.

No more two-page e-mail replies from me when I get asked the dreaded deer question! Just a quick note to go out and buy this book.

Hip Annual Grasses Trend

Using annual grasses in containers and the mixed perennial border is a hip new trend finally filtering up here to the backwoods, and I love it.

Pennisetum setaceum

The big hitter in vogue the past few years is Pennisetum setaceum, or purple-leaved fountain grass, which comes in several varieties. 'Red Riding Hood' is my favorite; it's hard to pass a large container arrangement created with any bit of elan that doesn't include it as the centerpiece. Leaves, stems and seed heads are a rich burgundy color, but yielding to the 18- to 30-inch range, it stays erect and doesn't get all floppy. That was your brain, not mine.

Now, fountain grass is being joined in area nurseries by other, worthy annual grasses, including:

Eragrostis spp., or China love grass, is even smaller and works well at the front of the border or in smaller containers, or as a texture additive at the front or side of large ones. 12- to 18-inches, in mid-summer it fills with cloud-like seed heads of reddish-pink.

Mexican feather grass

Scirpus cernus, or fiber optic grass, is almost too over-the-top, but I've decided I like it. Tiny seed heads spring from the very tips of this dwarf, well-named grass. Very cute as a single at the front of the perennial bed. Likes it moist.

Stipa tenuissima, or Mexican feather grass, is a graceful, willowy grass with slender seed heads that move readily in the wind. Not the best for containers, unless a large one where it is used as a semi-trailer. Good in open areas of the garden where it can be massed. Also tolerates wet spots well.

Pennisetum messiacum 'Red Bunny Tails' is the other fountain grass of note, reaching three feet in height with an arching habit and good reddish color. Use this in the garden surrounded by cleome, cosmos, and other airy annuals.

Fiber optic grass

Since these are annuals in the north, they're cheaper than hardy tall grasses. Most of these are Zone 7 plants, with fiber optic grass hardy only to the darn near otherworldly Zone 9. All require full sun.

They're fun to play with. In containers, they can completely replace one's need for the infamous spike plant, that thin, reedy, green thingie that nurseries plunk into the center of their terra cotta-colored plastic containers, and then surround with red geraniums. Ugh.

Call around until you find nurseries in your area that are in on the trend. Annual grasses are a great new addition to our short-season hopes and dreams.

Fabulous Mail Order Nursery

Heronswood Nursery

I stumbled across Heronswood over the winter, and was astonished I had not heard of them sooner. In their words:

"Heronswood is committed to the evaluation and introduction of landscape plants, i.e. trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns and perennials, that deserve greater recognition as satisfying ingredients to our gardens. We spend weeks, sometimes months, each year in pursuit of these plants that we bring back into this country from remote areas of Asia, S. America, Australia and even from our own backyard. These are collected and imported responsibly, ethically and legally with all necessary legal protocols adhered to."

In a nutshell they are a collection of outstanding plants people interested in helping you grow as a collector of plants. The nursery is located north of Seattle, in Washington, and from what I've been perusing, they hold no grudge against plant material hardy in the north. People I know who have done business with Heronswood have raved about their plants and service. Their Web site is fabulous. I don't need to say any more, visit them at

Best Garden Design Book

The Ultimate Garden Designer
by Tim Newbury (Ward Lock Publishing UK)

Boy, are there a lot of these books out there. Big ones, small ones, fat ones, tall ones, each with its strong points, but none as good as this.

It's not a new book. It was first published in 1995 in the UK, and has been reprinted in paperback three times since. Newbury, an English landscape designer about whom the book says nothing, has created the only book I've ever come across that makes the reader say, "I get it, I can do this."

The book uses a marvelous combination of brilliant photos, color sketches, and line drawings to fully explain the varied elements of landscape design. Most important, the engineering aspects involved when installing some of the more demanding elements of a landscape are succinctly explained and diagrammed.

The author chooses wisely to break the book into many chapters (Cottage Gardens, Kitchen Gardens, Water Gardens, Formal Gardens, Coastal Gardens, Front Gardens, Roof Gardens, a dozen more). Then a large amount of pages are devoted to garden features, such as pergolas and arches, patios and paving, walls and fences, beds and borders, to name a few.

There isn't much covered in a one- or even two-year university landscape design program that isn't in this book. Yes, there are many plans listing plant material that wouldn't last up here in the north any longer than it would take to unload it from the truck, but that's fine. Good design principles work regardless of USDA Zone.

I cannot possibly live long enough to steal every idea shown wonderfully in this book, but I shall try.

Parade of Ponds
A Self-Guided Water Garden Tour

July 27 & 28, 2002

If cascading waterfalls, bubbling streams, and colorful fish & plants sound inviting to you, you'll want to attend the Twin Cities Parade of Ponds. Set for Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, it's the largest (over 100 private water gardens) self-guided water garden tour in Minnesota.

Sponsored by Hedberg Aggregates, Inc., the Twin Cities Parade of Ponds raises money for Children's Cancer Research Fund, the Minnesota Water Garden Society and the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. This is the second year of the annual event.

"When considering beneficiaries, the Children's Cancer Research Fund easily came to mind," said Steve Hedberg, president of Hedberg Aggregates, Inc. "My parents have had a long and satisfying relationship with the Children's Cancer Research Fund and we wanted to be a part of that, too."

New this year to the Parade of Ponds will be the Educational Pond Sites, staffed by Minnesota Water Garden Society volunteers who will answer visitor questions, and Nightscaping, selected ponds lit with low voltage lighting from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm on Saturday. Ponds glistening in the moonlight and lighted from within make nightscaping a beautiful and serene experience.

Returning this year is the Photo Contest. Open to all interested photographers, amateur and professional, who purchase the Parade of Pond ticket booklet.

Ticket Booklets are $15.00/person or $25.00/couple with children under 12 free. They are available starting July 1 at all Bachman's Garden Centers, Hedberg Aggregates Showrooms in Plymouth, Rosemount and Stillwater, by calling the Parade of Ponds Hotline (763) 392-5937, or by e-mailing info@hedbergaggregates.com.

Spearheaded by Hedberg Aggregates, Inc., co-sponsors include Anchor Block Company, AlphaGraphics, Aquascape Designs, Inc., Bachman's Garden Centers, and the Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association (MNLA).

Oxo Brand Garden Tools

Bumped into these at the trade show portion of the recent Garden Writers of America convention in Seattle. The second I picked up the Oxo three-prong hand cultivator I knew I had to give the salespeople my special, Better Homes and Gardens business card (that's the one that gets you free stuff – my Renegade Gardener business card only gets me literature and a polite "thanks for stopping"). After that it was just a matter of hang time, making small talk and telling them how great the tools are, until they gave me one.

And in the garden it's the best cultivator I've used. Long, hefty, perfectly balanced, comfortable, and cleverly designed (the two outer prongs are longer than the center prong, so you can cultivate and whap fertilizer in close to plants), the entire line of Oxo tools will become the hallmark of experienced, astute gardeners.

You probably know Oxo – they're the "Good Grips" people, who make those great can openers, carrot/potato peelers, cooking spoons and spatulas. I won't bore you with details, but their research and design department took an exhaustive look at the human hand, wrist, arm, and body positions employed by gardeners, then designed garden tools within the best principles of universal design.

Oxo garden tools debut next spring. The line includes all the standard digging and cultivating tools, plus snips, pruners and loppers. About the only mistake the company made is that they're not charging enough – most of the trowels and cultivors are going to retail at around nine bucks, and their big whoppin' lopper will come in at less than thirty.

For the truly curious, visit their Web site at www.oxo.com.

Best Book on Shade Gardening & Plants

Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening
Houghton Mifflin Company

It's inevitable – unless one begins gardening awfully late in life, or moves into a new home every few years, one will eventually garden in shade. Trees have a way of growing, is the thing, and as neighborhoods and landscapes mature, gardeners who never had to know much more than to plant yews, ferns, and hosta along the north side of the house wake up one day to discover half or more of their garden lies in some degree of shade.

No need for panic. This superb book, published in 1994, is the foremost, essential guide to shade gardening. It is the collective work of over a dozen shade gardening experts, and starts off with a terrific collection of articles on the subject. I love the optimistic tone; titles include "The Pleasures of Shade" and "Shade: A Kind of Light." For shade affords great benefits (less watering, stuff doesn't burn up) while still allowing an immense pallet of plants from which to choose.

The rest of the book is a nearly complete encyclopedia of trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, vines, grasses, bulbs, and groundcovers that flourish in less than full sun conditions. Full-color photos and exquisite line drawings abound.

One note, the book covers all USDA hardiness zones, so realize this is not a northern-only gardening book. Authors also have a mild tendency to list only Zone 5 or 6 varieties of a genus for which Zone 3 and 4 varieties exist. For example, the book gives three shade-worthy varieties of Miscanthus (Maiden Grass) hardy to Zone 5, but never mentions the Zone 4-hardy Micanthus 'Purpurascens,' which performs quite admirably in light shade. But the book gets a tremendous amount right.

You'll find the book in the gardening section of most good bookstores, selling for around twenty-two bucks, which is not much for a book you'll refer to often, sooner or later.