A Gardening Consultation/Planters – A Tutorial and Planting 101

One of our prospective clients went shopping today for  planter’s to place in front of her house, near her two white portico columns. Not too large, but a very good size. 14” x14”x 14”. For a first year pick, we think they are a good start; a fair price, sturdy, adequately equipped with built in drainage and made of a resin material which is not too heavy for moving them around. Ceramic planters these days are heavy, costly and they often crack near the base, if our winter is really cold. Plus, as a new gardener she wants to go at it carefully, so as to make sure her skill as a gardener and her commitment to execute a nice little garden, will stick. We think it will. She has owned her home fifteen years and this is her first attempt to learn, create and plant.

We visited to provide our 30-minute FREE gardening consultation. She has actually been reading our blog and  finally decided to give us a call for her rightful 30-minute gardening consultation. While we were together today, we covered pruning bushes, weed removal from the patio, bed cleanup and dead leaf removal, deep edging of her flower beds and size requirements for planted items, soil and mulch requirements and removing invasive repetitive weeds from her beds. When we left she had a couple of our tools to aid her with weed removal and the proper edging of her beds. She seemed to appreciate the concept and our tutorial.

She sent us a photo of the planter above, and checked in to get our “recipe” for extensive weed removal from her fairly small patio…. which she hopes to tackle this week prior to her company arriving for Easter.

The recipe follows:

1 gallon of white vinegar

1 Cup table Salt

2 Tbsp of Dawn Detergent

Pour all in a bucket, full strength, and using your kitchen broom, swish all over the patio. Do this on a full Sunny hot day. Make sure the day following will also be hot and Sunny. The hot sun combined with this homemade weed removal concoction should dry the weeds out… and you can either sweep them away, or power wash them away with your hose and a sprinkler, with the nozzle setting on high. Our homeowner is going to “give it a go.”

We are wishing her well ….and will follow up by going by to see how things are coming along one day this week. As of this posting time, she has secured recommended products and put in two hours labor pulling weeds and edging her beds with tools we left behind for her to take use of.

Such fun…. and we are pretty sure she is feeling like she accomplished some “gardening beginnings” today.

“Contessa” says……it’s a very good thing!

P. S. With her permission we may take photos of her accomplishment and revise this post later. So check back later in the week. And in May once planting can begin we will assist her with choosing plants and planting them. This activity will be a fee-based service by us, and she understands this.

A Re-Post…..Tips – All Purpose Plant Medicine/Treatment

NEEM OIL is a standard and common treatment for a number of gardens pests. Keeping it on hand is kind of like keeping Extra Strength Tylenol in your bathroom medicine cabinet. Meaning….. you will  use it very frequently. If you are a gardener you probably already have it on hand. It’s an effective “three in one” treatment. Combined it’s an Herbicide, Insecticide and Multicide treatment for various fungal diseases in the plant world. Rose bushes especially,  benefit from its use. If you see tiny holes in your Roses leaves, start your Neem Oil treatment right away. And treat it ever three weeks until you see the condition subside  two treatments should do the trick.

No doubt you’ve heard the term “black spot.” Using Neem Oil to cover the base, stems and leaves of an infected plant can revive it from pests such as aphids, and powdery mildew. If you are unsure, take a sampling leaf or stem to your local nursery or search common garden pests on the internet. Very often there are photos of the various pest conditions. You can hardly go wrong with Neem Oil. We highly recommend you keep it on hand. It comes in a convenient spray container and can be effective for the spring, summer, and fall growing seasons. Be sure and turn the spray dial to off once you are done with your treatment,  because it can evaporate from the container. Once the first frost arrives, of course the chill will kill any insect invasion, but Neem Oil should be used even in the fall to help protect your plant for next years healthy growing season. 

Black Spot

Powdery Mildew

“Contessa” says…… it’s all good!

Prairie Moon Nursery

Our spring native seed catalog has arrived. We are happy to lend. Just give us a call and we can drop it off. Some very nice grouping selections. Prairie Moon is very reputable, with tenure in the seed business, and in fact most of these seeds are found at the  family farm in Marshall County, Iowa.

This copy is 48 pages….and in full color

We are happy to lend to you for one week. We can then pick it up and pass to our next interested seed enthusiast.

Enjoy! 

“Contessa”

Holiday Wreaths by CONTESSA (REVISED ) 12/1/22 – Thursday / 10:00 am

UPDATED  (REVISED) ANNOUNCEMENT

Our Holiday Wreath Ad has been published in the December  “Forum Newsletter.” Hopefully you will receive it electronically or in your postal mail soon. It’s usually in everyone’s view by no later than the 10th of the month. Please look for our Ad and give us a call soon to place your order for one of our personally crafted live wreaths.

Our local neighborhood garden nursery is our wreath purveyor and you can be sure they will be fresh, as they receive holiday evergreen products every week during the season.

•••••••••••••••••

THE GARDEN CONTESSA is offering “live” Evergreen Door Wreaths (22” for the Holidays. Complete with colorful  three (3) inch wide festive ribbon, woodland “white tipped” pine cones, small  colorful holiday balls, fresh Holly Berries, a string of (50) battery operated “fairy lights” complete with two batteries and a wreath hanging bracket. We will arrange personal delivery direct to your door. $65 complete.

Please phone or txt 703-548-1882

email:  ContessasHome@gmail.com

FINAL Orders must be placed by Dec 15th.

Payment by VENMO/check/cash…..please!

By ”special order” we can string holiday “live” evergreen garlands on your stair railings or over your front door. Ten days notice required for garlands, with a separate fee, depending on quantity needed. 

 

Happy Holidays from CONTESSA!

Holiday Wreaths by CONTESSA

ANNOUNCEMENT

We are coming up on November 1st and our Holiday Wreath Ad will be published in the newest Forum Newsletter. Hopefully you will receive it electronically or in your mail by November 10th. Please look for our Ad and give us a call early,  to place your order for one of our personally created wreaths.

•••••••••••••••••

THE GARDEN CONTESSA is offering “live” Evergreen Door Wreaths (28”) for the Holidays. Complete with colorful  three (3) inch wide festive ribbon, woodland “white tipped” pine cones, small  colorful holiday balls, Holly Berries, a string of (50) battery operated “fairy lights” complete with batteries and a wreath hanging bracket. We will arrange personal delivery direct to your door. $65 complete.

Please phone or txt 703-548-1882. 

email:  ContessasHome@gmail.com

FINAL Orders by Dec 15th. Payment by check please. By ”special order” we can string holiday “live” evergreen garlands on your stair railings or over your front door. Ten days notice required for garlands, with a separate fee, depending on quantity needed. 

 

Happy Holidays from CONTESSA!

Tips- All Purpose Plant Medicine/Treatment

NEEM OIL is a standard and common treatment for a number of gardens pests. Keeping it on hand is kind of like keeping Extra Strength Tylenol in your bathroom medicine cabinet. Meaning….. you will  use it very frequently. If you are a gardener you probably already have it on hand. It’s an effective “three in one” treatment. Combined it’s an Herbicide, Insecticide and Multicide treatment for various fungal diseases in the plant world. Rose bushes especially,  benefit from its use. If you see tiny holes in your Roses leaves, start your Neem Oil treatment right away. And treat it ever three weeks until you see the condition subside  two treatments should do the trick.

No doubt you’ve heard the term “black spot.” Using Neem Oil to cover the base, stems and leaves of an infected plant can revive it from pests such as aphids, and powdery mildew. If you are unsure, take a sampling leaf or stem to your local nursery or search common garden pests on the internet. Very often there are photos of the various pest conditions. You can hardly go wrong with Neem Oil. We highly recommend you keep it on hand. It comes in a convenient spray container and can be effective for the spring, summer, and fall growing seasons. Be sure and turn the spray dial to off once you are done with your treatment,  because it can evaporate from the container. Once the first frost arrives, of course the chill will kill any insect invasion, but Neem Oil should be used even in the fall to help protect your plant for next years healthy growing season. 

Black Spot

Powdery Mildew

“Contessa” says…… it’s all good!

Preston Revisited… early Fall Tidy

BEFORE/IN PROCESS

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AFTER.

•••••••

At our customers request we keep mixing up this bed. We love moving things around. Too many Hostas says our lovely lady. So today we took out the two back center ones. They were carefully removed rootball and all. We placed them on a huge empty plastic mulch bag and are hopeful one of our gardener type residents will adopt them. In their place we added a blooming shade lover that quivers in a breeze and has blooms that look like castle spires. They are ethereal. We love Astilbe. Huge variety of colors available and they cluster. 28 to 24” and bushy near the soil. Very nice. Our homeowner let us pick them out. We made room for three on each side but only purchased one each. She approves…. so when we complete our October Pansy install she wants us to install two more on each side of the centered Hydrangea.

Once again this garden bed is looking pristine. It was a beautiful day to garden and we were in heaven. Outdoors and working and creating and accomplishing. It doesn’t get better. A great four (4) hours here today.

The gaps in our garden bed will be filled in with Pansies and today we added smallish purple and yellow Mums. One each.

“Contessa” says…. It’s all good!

EA is our “lady” Homeowner

7 am Sunday morning and we have arrived at “lady EA’s” place. She has been residing here now for two years and gradually, as her gardener we have transformed a plant-less plot into a very inviting and very well planned out corner property. Roughly a 45 x 45 ft section of the front was a packed Native Ivy Bed. We have…,vine by vine….removed all of it. The pulling process took a solid week and we did it while EA was away. The goud news is the following spring not one Ivy vine returned.

Parkfairfax then planted a small Holly tree at her request. And we began creating a garden space with new bushes to enhance the front center bed. We now have three Crimson Red Azalea bushes, two “Lady Red” Knock Out Rose bushes, two pinkish winter blooming Camellia’s, two sweet smelling Gardenia’s, just planted one week ago and three transplanted Day Lilies which we will yet divide again and create some new plants along the side if the house. EA has a very petit garden Etagere which accommodates five perennial plants potted in colorful planters. And we have  added a metal hanging basket with White and Pink Geraniums, Petunias and white Verbena.

This year….her second season Blue Hydrangea has quite a number of blossoms. The branches are heavy with fairly good sized blossoms for a two year old bush. The stems are still thin but within the next couple years they will strengthen, thicken and mature in size to support larger blossoms each year. It’s a powder blue so we are using a Nutone Hydrangea plant food to strengthen it to produce it’s true blue color. It’s a bit of a “Drama Queen” in terms of playing wilted when it’s warm outdoors, but Hydrangeas do this until they are three or four years established in their “spot.” We are delighted with its growth and it’s size in only two years time. And this year we added right beside and near it ….a beautiful pinkish/purple “Dahlia” tuber.  Beautiful blossoms and it’s also just getting started. They compliment each other beautifully

All in all…, EA’s lovely little end unit has taken on a very established look in a very short time. Often as we are working there…… we can hear complimentary comments at how pretty the property is looking. It’s come a long way and we are only just beginning. People tell us they walk up this way on Beverley Drive,  just to enjoy and see if anything new has been added to EA’s pretty garden.

We now are providing daily tidying and watering service to help keep EA a very happy “lady.”

Indeed our pleasure to garden here.

“Contessa”says…… its all good.

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Loppers- Aluminum.

We splurged and purchased new  “Loppers” this week. As a result we were able to trim the Arbor Vitae and the Lilac bush/tree in our newest clients yard. We have needed them for a while. They are light weight and flexible, very sharp and strong. We are pleased. Under $38. 

“Contessa” says ….. it’s a good thing.

Wellington Spring Clean Up and New Plantings.

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Our second year at this property. Little by little we introduce new and smaller ideas. This homeowner likes our ideas. Small steps. A few planters with flowers and the purchase of  a pink Azalea bush.  LWe have proposed tackling the area on the slope leading down to the front door. They are receptive now that we’ve done a few things for them. Building trust is important with our clients

On Wed this week our homeowner, after a year long hurdle  over the construction of their cement/brick patio had news that resulted in their lovely patio being torn out….at their cost. So some funds must now be appropriated to reconstruct. But they still want to proceed a little at a time. We are happy to accommodate.

For this spring a few planters and the new bush gave them a lift and a mental boost. They were so appreciative and excited to have even just a little “pretty” and color in a few pots.

Certainly our joy and pleasure to accommodate. It was actually a fun “little project.” We know there is more to come.

“Contessa” says……it’s a good thing!