Kenyon Garden Walks
Every Other Week, April - September
A chance for Kenyon neighbors to ask questions, get advice, share plant materials and show off !

9:00-10:30.   Bring a pad, pencil and your coffee. Rain or shine

RSVP:  Volunteer your yard.  My yard needs help!

2009 schedule to be announced.


Schedule 2008     Walk Notes 2008     Our Plants      Plant Swap '06 - List  

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Other Activities:

Events Around Town      Adopted Rose Bed     Centennial Roses     Garden Design Tips 

Resources:

  Resources       Garden Centers-Book-Catalogues     Recommended Plant Lists     WFF Weekly Garden Tips 
Garden Walk Photos     More

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  Garden Events Around Town:          
  
  

 
  Kenyon Plant Lists: 

56 Kenyon  

2008
     All for 2008
    

65 Kenyon  

70 Kenyon  

2007
2007 schedule

     March 13
    April 21  
    May 5  
    Trip for 6/2
    Sept 8   

75 Kenyon  

96 Kenyon  

21 Sherman  

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Adopted Rose Bed: 

Thanks to Martha, Kenyon Streeters have adopted a rose bed at Elizabeth Park again for 2008.  This means that Martha, Mildred, Victoria and I have volunteered to pull weeds and prune the dead blossoms off the roses in our bed for this year.  
Feel free to pull any weeds we have missed when you visit the park.  

We have bed #308, located just opposite the Info Center (also just opposite a bench just inside the rose garden).  
#308 is in the second row from the edge.  Our roses are "Weeping China Doll".
See a diagram of the rose garden, and all the varieties planted in the 474 beds.  

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Elizabeth Park Centennial Roses on Kenyon: 

Picture with permission of Elizabeth Park

Thanks to Doug, Kenyon Streeters are planting 15 of Elizabeth Park's Centennial roses in our gardens.  
They arrived on May 5, 2007.

The Elizabeth Park Centennial Rose was bred especially for 
Elizabeth Park's 100th birthday.     order form    rose care  
For those who have Japanese beetles eating your roses - Doug reports great success by using a product: 
Spectracide: Systemic Rose & Flowering Shrub Insect Control + Fertilizer.

Elizabeth Park Centennial Rose

The long awaited (for some people) rose is here. Elizabeth Park Centennial is in the Rose Garden. 
It is a beautiful, pale pink, with a raspberry or deep pink picotee edge, hybrid tea. 
The form of the bush is upright and it is of medium height. 
It has a fairly fast repeat and it seems to always be in bloom.

 Elizabeth Park Centennial was hybridized by John Mattia of Orange, Connecticut. 
John is an amateur hybridizer, but he is no amateur when it comes to roses. 
John is one of the top three rose exhibitors in the United States, having won all of the top national awards including the prestigious McFarland and Nickelson trophies. 
John is one of the founding members of the Connecticut Rose Society, 
he is both a consulting rosarian and a master consulting rosarian for the American Rose Society, 
as well as being a Horticultural Judge. John is also a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of Elizabeth Park. 

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     Garden Design Tips:  

                Download more comprehensive Garden Design Tips

Basic Considerations

How will you use your yard?  What style do you want?  
Where are the views?  What are the problems?  
Where do you want shade...Where do you want sun?
Where do you want privacy?  Where do you want utilities (lighting, trash, compost, faucet)
How much work can you handle?    

Make a sketch with your house in the middle (show north) - add arrows.

Scale, Color, Bloom Time

Pick the shape, ultimate size and color that fits. 

What house color or other background is there?
When do you want the bloom color (spring, summer, fall - continuous)?  
What are the colors and bloom times of the surrounding plants? 
Leaf color and textures (silvers, grays, reds and browns break up the mass of green).
(don't forget fall foliage color combinations!)
Consider fragrance, fruit, attraction for birds, butterflies. 
Consider disease, pest resistance.

Oversized plants trees and shrubs soon become a maintenance headache! 

Make a design showing shape, height and color.

Identify Specific Plants

Shade (1-4 hrs), partial shade (4-6 hrs.) or sun (6-8 hrs.)
Wet or dry, root competition or not.  
Identify specific plants that fit the spot (for conditions, shape, size and color).

Draw a plan giving each plant its required space - fill in with annuals at first.

Planting

Wear sunscreen, gloves and a hat!  

Fall planting best, then spring planting - after the soil is dry ~May 1 to 15.

Prepare the soil well or you're wasting your time (soil test - rule of thumb: add some lime if it's too acid, extra manure if it's too alkaline.  UConn Cooperative Extension Service can give you exact amounts to amend the soil..)   Dig out the grass and compost it elsewhere.   Turn the soil over to loosen and aerate it - down at least a spade's depth - best to dig down 18".  Add 3" of compost over the whole bed and mix it in.  You may need more compost and manure, possibly sand if your soil is part clay.  Discard rocks and break up clods.  Smooth the surface so it drains away from the house.  Top dress with dried manure which fertilizes (sheep manure is best, but chicken's good, too.)  Check the package label for quantities.  Mix it in the top inch or two.  Plant your plants so that the plant soil level matches the level of the bed.  Pat it in to make sure the roots are in good contact with the soil.  Create a little dam on the sloping side to catch the water.  If planting seeds, follow the directions on the packet.    Put 2 " of shredded pine bark mulch around the plants and over the whole bed.  Mulch retains moisture and keeps the weeds down.  .  Give each plant  a long drink, so that when you push your index finger down 2", you can feel the soil is wet.

Maintenance

• Weed in fall to keep weeds from getting a foothold, and of course, in spring.  

• Top dressing of chicken manure each spring.  

• Spread Preen if you like extra help to keep weeds down.

• Mulch (shredded pine bark)  is our friend - about 2".

• Maintenance out front!   Weed!  (after it rains)

• Ongoing water requirements: rule of thumb- about 1" a week of rain.

• Only certain plants benefit from post-spring bloom fertilizer:  like lilies, delphinium, roses, reblooming bearded iris...
  

See below for pruning and dividing.

Fall

• Weed in fall and spring for best results.  

• Scratch in compost in early fall. 

• Divide plants that are crowded (lightly trim tops and roots of both when dividing).  

• After hard frost, add organic mulch to help protect plants from the more frequent freeze and thaw cycles our climate is getting.   

• Any areas that create standing water (which kill most plants) will need to be addressed:  The addition of coarse sand or even gravel dug well down into open spots will help.
  
  Prune roses in spring.  Transplant bearded iris in the fall, keeping them from being crowded by other perennials.  Cut bearded iris back to 3-4" and remove spent foliage to discourage borers. 
  

Spring

Cut clematis that bloom on new wood back to 18" each spring (or at least every 3 or 4 years).  Clematis that blooms on either old or new wood should have dead wood removed and light pruning each year to keep some blooms at eye level - severely back to 18" after the first bloom to rejuvenate an old plant.  (See WWF document to see varieties of each type)

Dividing

Divide most perennials every 3-4 years (bearded iris, etc)

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Resources:    

 

Elizabeth Park:   Overwintering Roses    glossary     
           Winter Lectures      Native Gardens      "Green" gardening     Tree Tour

UConn Coop Extension Service   Hartford office    home-garden 
            soil test    plant-insect test    fact sheets    plant database  
            master gardeners   seminars  

CT Agricultural Experiment Station 

CT Horticultural Society Master Gardener Links  

Garden Centers-Books      

WFF Weekly Garden Tips    rose planting & care   Lloyd Border 
            Climate Change in the Garden 
            Video How-Tos:  
                        Collecting hollyhock seeds    

The Seed Savers Exchange (save and exchange heirloom seeds) 

Planting and Maintaining Trees - our Knox photo-journal 

Annual February Flower Show  (lectures)

North-Central CT Conservation District Plant Sale (early April deadline)

For those who have Japanese beetles eating your roses - Doug reports great success by using a product: 
Spectracide: Systemic Rose & Flowering Shrub Insect Control + Fertilizer.

Hydrangeas  

Cedar-Apple-Rust Fungus 

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Kenyon Garden Walk Photos: 

  

Click here to see photos of our Kenyon Garden Walks   

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