Starting to long for, dream about and plan for next summer’s yard and garden spaces?

The best way to scratch the gardening itch in mid-winter is to start planning for spring. Now is the perfect time to review the landscape layout and last year’s garden journal and develop plans for the 2012 season. If you don’t already have a gardening journal, then why not start one now?

Unless you have a photographic memory, a journal is an indispensable tool for garden and landscape planning and on-going management. The trick is to find a journal style that is manageable for you – so you can sustain it over time. A journal can be anything from a shoebox stuffed with plant tags and photos that you keep next to your spades and rakes in the garden shed, to a sophisticated software package that guides you through the process of recording every last detail about your plants, their environment and care.

An online search for “garden journal” will yield hundreds of hits. Explore the software options, and the online garden organizers. They can provide useful templates and may even offer a ready-made gardening community to communicate with and share tips and information.

Garden centers and bookshops carry any number of bound journals – with inspirational sayings, drawings and photos. One of them might be just your style. For instance, The New Three-Year Garden Journal by Joanne Seale Lawson.

Our favorite though is the DIY Garden Journal – that grows and evolves with you and your needs.

http://ravengrrl.blogspot.com/2007/04/garden-journal-nows-great-time-to-start.html

Here are some of the basic office supplies you will need to get started:

• Simple three ring binder
• Sheet protectors and pocket pages – for photographs, plant tags, business cards, garden and landscape inspiration articles from newspapers and magazines, soil analysis reports, plant care information
• Graph paper for sketching landscape and garden layouts
• Writing paper
• Dividers to separate one  growing season from another
• Calendar pages to record and schedule gardening and landscape care activities
• Optional journal template pages. There are many template options available online for free or low-cost download. For instance, the Northern Gardening website has a FREE TEMPLATE developed by Marie Dean of Homestead Harvest that is worth investigating.

Information you might want to track throughout the growing season includes:

• Plant/tree/shrub inventory
• Plant/tree/shrub location graph
• Plant/tree/shrub wish list
• Plant/tree/shrub care information
• Month by month list of yard and garden tasks
• Significant dates: Planting, bloom/harvest, transplant/division
• Weather: First and last frost, rainfall amounts
• Notes regarding the success or failure of particular plants or plant varieties.
• Disease and pest problems; solutions that did/didn’t work
• Costs

Rain Gauge: http://www.windandweather.com/

Photography Journal

Digital photography has made us all photographers. Develop the habit of photographing your gardens and landscape at regular intervals and you will have an enjoyable and useful visual journal for future planning – and perhaps some spectacular wall art to bring the beauty of your garden indoors for year-round enjoyment.

Remember to share your journal with your landscape designer so your wishes, knowledge and skills can be incorporated into any new plans for your outdoor spaces. And take heart – we’ll be outside amid the glorious greenery again soon.

Oh the Places MAGNOLIA Will Go!

Come to these events for inspiration and information. Be sure to stop by our booth to say “Hello”. We look forward to seeing you.

March 10 – Saturday, 10 AM to 3 PM
2012 Home, Landscape and Lifestyle Expo
Sponsor: SouthWest Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Free admission
Location: Chanhassen High School, 2200 County Road 18, Chanhassen, MN
More info: Click HERE

March 17 – Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM
Home Improvement & Design Expo
Cost: Adults $6; under 17 admitted FREE with adult. No additional charge for seminars and demonstrations.
Location: Canterbury Park, Shakopee, MN
More info: Click HERE

March 24  – Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM
The Home Improvement and Design Expo
Cost: Adults $6; under 17 admitted FREE with adult. No additional charge for seminars and demonstrations.
Location: Maple Grove Community Center, 12951 Weaver Lake Road Maple Grove, MN
More info: Click HERE

April 14 – Saturday, 9 AM to 1 PM
Yard and Garden Expo
Sponsor: City of Plymouth
Cost: $5
Location: Plymouth Creek Center, 14800 34th Ave No, Plymouth, MN
More info: Click HERE

Magnolia Plant Pick for February

Profusion Flowering Crab (Malus ‘Profusion‘)

If you have a yard space looking for a stand-alone showpiece, Tom highly recommends the Profusion Crab. It has year round visual appeal. In the spring dark red flower buds appear before the leaves emerge. The flowers are a beautiful shade of red, nestled among bronze-tipped dark green foliage. In fall the fruit is deep red and the pointy leaves turn yellow. The bark is nothing special, but the tree’s winter’s silhouette is attractive. At maturity the rounded plant stands about 20’ tall, with a 25’ spread and low canopy.

Plant Profusion Crab in full sun and well drained soil. Prune late in winter after the threat of extreme low temperatures has passed. This hardy tree persists through whatever a Minnesota winters throws at it, plus it is highly resistant to diseases, pests and urban pollutants. Count on having it for at least 50 years. All this – and it also attracts birds to the yard.

Know Your Zone

When creating or revising your 2012 landscaping plan be sure to check out the new Plant Hardiness Zone Map recently released by The United States Department of Agriculture. The new map might not be the zone envy cure that many Minnesotans growers and landscapers long for – but most of the Twin Cities metro area saw at least a half zone increase (from 4a to 4b) and one South Minneapolis/Richfield pocket, called a micro-climate, is even classified as a 5. Other parts of the state saw as much as a whole zone shift.

We have to remember it is still Minnesota, and we are susceptible to all kinds of unusual weather patterns from one year to the next, but this new map should at least encourage some fun plant experimentation in 2012. Maybe there is a Japanese maple in your future?

This is the first change to the map since 1990 – and reflects a general warming trend across Minnesota for the past 30 years. The map is based on average annual minimum winter temperatures, and divided into 10-degree F zones. It is the standard way to predict which plants are most likely to grow and thrive in a particular area. Click here for interactive version of the map available at the USDA website, allowing you to search by zip code and zoom in on your own neighborhood.

Our Strange Winter

It’s been a strange winter in Minnesota this year. Conditions – like the fall drought, extreme temperature fluctuations, and light snow cover – are posing some unique gardening concerns. Julie Weisenhorn, master gardener with the University of Minnesota Extension School was recently on the Mid-Morning Show on Minnesota Public Radio to address these issues. You can hear the complete January 19 broadcast here.

In the meantime, here are some tidbits from the program:

Fall Drought and Severe Cold Temperatures: Minnesota started winter this year with a precipitation deficit. Unless we watered our evergreens, shrubs and plants well in the fall the drought may mean that their roots are not hydrated well enough. This plus the lack of an insulating snow cover may result in some winter die back.

Combined with the periods of severe cold, evergreens may be especially susceptible to winter burn. Some of the early spring blooming shrubs (i.e. magnolias, azaleas) may also see some winter damage on their buds and foliage. However, when spring arrives it is best to take a wait and see approach. Foliage damage does not necessarily mean permanent damage to the branch. It may still push out new growth and make a nice recovery in the spring.

Warm Winter: This is a welcome oxymoron to Minnesotans – but it is causing some alarm for gardeners who are seeing their bulbs and plants putting up green shoots much too early. Higher temperatures can kick plants out of their usual winter dormancy. The truth is no one knows if this is a temporary aberration or a death knell. Buds may die back and some foliage will display with black edges. However, the bulb, rhizome, or plant may recover in the spring and produce new buds and eventually its beloved blooms – and if not this season then perhaps the next. Hope springs eternal!

Light Snow Cover and Mulching: The lack of snow this year means that we do not have our usual frost insulator for the ground. Some of our more fragile plants may not survive this kind of winter.

Mulching though is a good remedy – and it is not too late consider doing some mulching now, especially for the more tender perennials. The purpose of mulching is to slowly put plants into dormancy in the fall and then slowly bring them out of dormancy in the spring. It may be too late given the bitter cold we had earlier – but mulching now may still help with that critical emergent time – keeping plants from putting out shoots too early or offering protection to new growth against sudden, last minute cold snaps. If you still have bags of leaves from last fall that makes great mulch. Some nurseries may still have straw available.

Amazing mulching fact: Mark Seeley, University of Minnesota climatologist, noted that in their testing unprotected winter soil temperatures dropped as much as 41°.  But in mulched areas the soil temperature dropped only 8°. Mulching works!

In the spring be cautious about removing mulch. As plants starts to grow, gently pull away mulch from the base of the plant but mound it up nearby in case you want to recover for the inevitable Minnesota cold snap, winter’s last hurrah.

Go Native: Next year consider planting more Minnesota native plants, trees and shrubs as they have already adapted to our odd weather patterns. But bear in mind the new zone map – our warming climate is bringing new native plants into our area and some are not as well suited as they once were. If you have questions, ask Tom.

Heliopsis helianthoides, oxeye, is an easy to grow, showy native plant of the Minnesota prairies. About 4’tall, its bright yellow flowers are similar to tiny sunflowers. (University of Minnesota)

Magnolia Plant Pick for January

Horstmann’s Silberlocke’ Korean fir (Abies koreana)

Not your usual evergreen, this versatile conifer is know for providing year round interest. The dark green needles curve up, revealing bright silvery-white underside. An abundance of large showy cones stand upright along the branches. A slow grower, within 10 years it can grow to 10’ tall, 6’ wide – 20’ tall at maturity. Use this Korean to create a dramatic presence in the landscape.

No need to worry about zones with this selection – it is approved for both zones 4 and 5. It grows best in acidic soil with full sun. It needs regular, weekly watering or more often in extreme heat.