Episode 2445

- [Voiceover] Looking for plant recommendations and design tips to kick start a landscape project? Annette Schrader walks us through her selections for foundation plants. And Marty DeHart has an inside track to show us what perennial, shrub, and tree choices a garden center owner has made for his own home landscape. Stay tuned. First, durable plants that offer curb appeal.

- [Annette] Interior designers tell us that the first 15 seconds into your home someone will form an impression of the rest of your home. And so I want to take that same theory outside, because I believe the same principles are true with the way we landscape our home, the way we maintain it, and the colors that we choose. The planters that I have here at my columns I like to keep them where I can rotate the plants seasonally. So you can tell I have my beautiful Easter lilies. I've chosen the Skyrocket Juniper here in these containers because, number one, they will take this intense sun in the afternoon. They also are very low maintenance as far as watering. And on the surface of these planters I have, as you can tell, I like to pick up rocks. And so I have always used these because it might conserve moisture and it also keeps planters from blowing over. And then another thing that I did with my rocks so that I don't have to maintain a lot of weeding and grass underneath them, I just went ahead and put a little foundation of rocks underneath them. I'm standing with my Emily Bruner Holly. You know, they say at the corner of our homes we should always have an anchor plant. Well, at one point in time the contractors who had put maybe a Hemlock that has the ability to grow way out of size, you couldn't prune them, then next came the Foster Hollies. The Foster Holly was here but I just got tired, it will grow fast even though you can cut the main leader out of the top it still required more trimming than I wanted to maintain. Emily Bruner is another, is a very dark leaf glossy and if you'll see, it has very dark red berries and they can sometimes even turn black. Now, when I look at the rest of my home here I have, the way my house is situated, it sits back and comes forward and then with the addition of the porch I had created another offset of the house. And so in order to not have too much mulching and the areas to maintain, I took that into consideration. But one of the plants that I have utilized here is the Domestica Mandena. I love them because of their red berries and because I have part brick and part siding on my home here, the red was a good contrast. Well, the plants I have in front now are the Otto Luyken Laurels. And they do have a white blossom. But the way I went at arranging these I actually took two Laurels on each side. And then I brought 'em out to the front and I put two more Laurels so I encaged the Mandenas because they do get tall. And I don't really have to do anything with them. We did lose them to the ground two years ago but you can see they've already put out new growth for this season, and so I'm satisfied that now they have reached the point that I don't really have to mulch in here, except along when if I have them trimmed back. Now, as we progress along, I have put in some things that are actually deciduous plants, which sometimes we don't really want to do that in the front of our homes. Means that they're barren in the winter time. But these are White Dwarf Crape Myrtle. And they've done exceptionally well here. These are what you call English Wood Hyacinth, some call 'em Spanish Bluebells. But these have just receded and naturalized here. I had a friend from the garden club that gave me just a couple of little bulbs to those and they have naturalized through this area. Now then, this is a plant that's called a False Holly. I wanted to have some variegation of color. And so the one mistake though that I actually did with this, this is one of those Hollies that will it won't, once you've cut the top out of it it's not gonna grow pyramidally anymore. It's going to start to bush out. So this one had sort of outgrown its boundary. So this spring I cut the top out so that it can bush a little further out. This is a little plant that's called Deutzia. And so on each side of my porch now I have mirrored the False Holly, the three Boxwoods, see I had to come out again because I had a large area back here to mulch and maintain and I just didn't want that. So I grouped those together and then by putting the Deutzia here in front, again, I've allowed it to come forward. And this is not an Evergreen plant. But, again, it's backed up with plants that are Evergreen. Deutzias come in a lot of different varieties. There's one that's this size that has sharp crisp leaves to it that's really nice. And then we have the old-fashioned tall ones. This is what I think a beautiful specimen of the Gold Coast Cypress. This shrub has not had anything done to it. And I have allowed it to just flow out into the yard. And on this section I have a problem with Bermuda Grass, so I don't even have to worry about getting that out of the planting beds. But the only thing that's ever been cut off of this is in the winter time I might put in floral arrangement centerpiece for Christmas. But it's just, this is its beautiful time of the year with the new growth, and the winter also put some of the gold colors into it. One of the things that we think about and when trying to keep our front symmetrical, sometimes things happen. And one plant will even pass away. One will grow faster. But the plants that I have chosen, along the front of my home, I knew that they were slow growing. They are easily pruned. That's why I chose the American Boxwood. That's why I chose the Laurels. So, in choosing your plants if we keep that in mind, if I have to replace one, I can't say that I can find them always, but because they grow slowly then it's easier to work in a new plant. Or, you may have to go with something else. But you could usually work it out.

- As the weather warms in spring to the sounds of the birds and the bees, gardeners can warm up to their work. It's still too early to plant vegetables, but we can propagate berries. The first thing we do is we get the beds ready for where we're gonna plant 'em. We've composted this field and plowed it, and this is where the new raspberry patch is gonna be. And we're gonna grow vegetables around the raspberries to keep the grass, and stuff like that, out. The berries are propagated different ways. Blackberries, and blackcap raspberries are what we call tip layers. A blackberry plant will grow up out of the ground and make a long cane. The cane will then fall back to the ground and re-root. That's a new plant. We can take pruning sheers and prune it off. We clip the berry off right there and then dig up the plant. See how the new little shoot is ready? That little shoot there will grow up and make another blackberry plant. Red raspberries, on the other hand, are propagated from suckers. Let's go down and dig some. This raspberry patch has been here for several years. And raspberries come up from their roots. They tend to get overcrowded. So every now and then we go in and we thin them out a little bit and get plants to start our new raspberry patches. All we need to be careful for is not to break off our new shoot. We want to have a good shoot, and some roots. I'm gonna prune 'em a little bit before I plant 'em. And I like to prune the roots. Make it a nice clean cut. You want to get 'em into the ground as soon as possible because the plant out of the soil is like a fish out of water. We don't want these roots to dry out anymore than necessary just to get them from the field into the ground. So I'm gonna put them here in the shade and we're gonna plant these all right away. Raspberries come in an Everbearing type and a Springbearing type. We have had trouble with the Springbearing types because of the Japanese beetles. So we grow Heritage, which is a Everbearing type. It can be mown down in the winter. It'll send up shoots in the spring but it doesn't make berries until August and September, after the Japanese beetles are gone. Our Springbearing raspberries were getting demolished by those Japanese beetles. So we're just gonna put the plant in the soil here. Maybe put a couple of handfuls of some good compost. Around the plant. And we're gonna sprinkle some water, pour a little water in it. Put a little dry soil on top. Make sure it's firmed in real good. By putting the dry soil on top it keeps the ground from forming a crust. We never water something without covering it back up. Okay, onto the next one. Blueberries are planted in a very sunny location that has well-drained soil. We dig a hole and we set the plant in the hole at the same depth that it was in the pot. Blueberries are shallow rooted and you don't want to get them too deep, but we don't want to have them up above the soil level either. Then we'll take some compost and put compost around the roots. And then blueberries get something that none of our other plantings get. They get sulfur, which is an element that is very acidic. It lowers the soil pH, unlike lime, which raises the soil pH. Blueberries are like Azaleas and Rhododendrons. They have to have an acid soil something around 5.5 pH. So, we're gonna add about a cup of sulfur around our newly planted berries. The last thing we do to plant the blueberries is put some wood chip mulch on 'em. Wood chips are also acidic, but you'll notice how rotten these wood chips are. I don't use any fresh wood chips only ones that are well rotted and black. Although it's too early in the spring to do much with our vegetables we can relieve our spring fever by working with fruit crops. Planting berries now will give us lots of fruit not only for the many folks that will come out and enjoy the blueberries and raspberries and blackberries, but also, we'll have some many happy customers with the birds and the bees.

- [Marty] We're in the garden of Bill Hewitt. Which is a spectacular garden. And I want to welcome Bill. And Bill was gonna tell us all about this fabulous creation he's put together.

- [Bill] I've been here like 26 years. My wife and I. And when we first got married we moved out here and there was nothing here. I mean, it was absolutely hardly any trees or anything.

- [Marty] Wow.

- [Bill] Being in the business I'm in, I've collected over the years lots and lots of things. One reason I did it, I went to Portland, Oregon and saw beautiful plants out there and I never seen 'em in Tennessee, so I said, "I'm gonna figure out how to do this in Tennesee."

- [MArty] Well, I'd say you have figured it out. You'd never known this was just a barren lot, it's amazing.

- [Bill] Right.

- [Marty] One of the things that really strikes me about this beautiful garden is how you've combined hardscapes, and it was particularly, a lot of stone with plant material in such an evocative and really pleasing way.

- [Bill] Mm-hmm. The textures that you've got, tell me about what we're looking at here.

- That's a little Baby Blue Spruce, Juniper Communis.

- [Marty] Mm-hmm.

- Different , I just love to play with all the different colors and kind of that little spot's almost all yellow, but the one dark green in the middle here and there's blue.

- [Marty] And this is shades of blue.

- And then just the color people don't realize you can have all this color in your landscape without a flower.

- [Marty] Right.

- [Bill] Most people think color's flowers.

- [Marty] Right. They do.

- [Bill] Color's not flowers. The Maples are just spectacular in the fall.

- [Marty] Oh yes.

- [Bill] It is so pretty out here when the tree change their colors. Because I've got so many different Maples they all go different colors. and it's almost overwhelming with colors.

- [Marty] Oh, I bet.

- [Bill] In this thing.

- [Marty] I bet it's neon.

- [Bill] Mm-hmm.

- [Marty] I love the way that you've got this hillside coming down to this swimming pool. It's really beautiful. The plants groups are just what continually catch my eye, I love this movement of textures and colors over here. From this Japanese Maple, and what's the little Pine in front of it?

- [Bill] It's a little Japanese Red Pine.

- [Marty] Uh, that's just beautiful. And then up to the yellow blooming Hypericum is that Sunburst maybe?

- [Bill] Yes.

- [Marty] Yeah.

- [Bill] I think that's what that one is.

- [Marty] Yeah, that's. And then up to the Golden .

- [Bill] Yeah, Mount Cyprus.

- [Marty] Is that a waterslide going down the middle there?

- [Bill] That's correct.

- [Marty] Uhhh.

- [Bill] That was when the kids were young.

- [Marty] When the kid. What fun.

- [Bill] Yeah.

- [Marty] And then it looks like over when you cross over you're getting into maybe a little bit more of a shady natured look to the garden.

- [Bill] Yeah, over the years the trees have shaded it somewhat.

- [Marty] Mm-hmm.

- [Bill] From when it started out.

- [Marty] One of the things I love is the, not just the difference in color, but like the shine of the Magnolia leaves versus the soft matteness of the you know? You get that different light bouncing effect too.

- [Bill] The light goes off the pool.

- [Marty] I know. I love the way you built in these different rocks and different levels in this hardscape.

- The idea was to try to make it look natural, like the rock was set there to begin with. And you try to place the stone like you found it in nature.

- [Marty] That's a, it works, it's really really beautiful. And the way you've just done these nice curves and have boulders coming out of the terrace.

- We really wanted it very different from what you normally see. I wanted, that just helps naturalize it more to have the stone the way it is.

- [Marty] And then this beautiful little island you cut in, which is.

- This is my first rock garden I ever did.

- [Marty] Wow. It's.

- [Bill] It's been about 12 years ago when we built this one. Little things, I've grown these in. Some of them have suffered over the years and some of them got little spots in 'em but that's just kind of the way things are.

- Once again, Dwarf Conifers, mostly.

- [Bill] Right.

- So you have a lot of interest in all-season, little teeny tiny jet maybe.

- He's grown a lot over the years, that one. He decided he wass gonna be bigger than I hoped he would.

- [Marty] Plants do that, I've noticed. One of the things that caught my eye in this garden of many things that catch my eye is this terrific little, well, it's a big planter for a little Hosta.

- Right. Now this is one of those old fountains we had out in the garden center that winter cracked it. And people all the time don't know what to do with those old fountains when they crack. And this is what I come up with. Just a bunch of rocks and built a little hill in it and put these little Hostas. They're really easy to grow like this and the winter doesn't bother them. They just die down in the winter and next spring they'll come back up again.

- [Marty] And they really like this drainage. I know sometimes it's a little Hosta gonna be tough in the ground and difficult to grow well.

- [Bill] Yeah, they get away from the and all the other little creatures, and slugs somewhat.

- [Marty] And it's parked under this beautiful Crape Myrtle, which is what a Crape Myrtle looks like when it hasn't been slaughtered.

- Right. You take it and limb it from the bottom up, that's the way you do a Crape Myrtle is up and across the top.

- [Marty] Yeah, not give it that horrible brush cut.

- [Bill] Just clean it up, the colors of the bark develop. Most all of these Indian named hybrids all have real pretty trunks on 'em.

- [Marty] And they're usually pretty mildew resistant too, right?

- [Bill] Yeah. Yeah, that's the advantage of all of those.

- [Marty] This has got to be one of the nicest outdoor kitchens I've ever seen. And I love the way that you've just continued with the whole masonry and rock work. And, tell me about building these, I see you've kept the boulders.

- [Bill] I had to cut out my hillside a little bit when I built this. It used to be an old patio here and I decided last year to take it out and re-work it.

- [Marty] Mm-hmm.

- [Bill] So I decided I wanted to make it as natural as possible without so much cut stones. The idea was to place the boulders in to the grill and the corners of the different places. So, just to make it very natural.

- [Marty] It really works. It does look like you just sort of chiseled out of a rock face, almost.

- [Bill] Right.

- To make it.

- [Bill] Yeah.

- And this whole sort of rocky hillside that morphs into this spectacular fireplace.

- [Bill] Right. That's the first one I've ever built. I decided that last year that I really wanted to try that, I've seen them built on landscape jobs we've worked on before and never actually tried it.

- [Marty] Wow.

- [Bill] So I started and I worked off and on all winter on the thing. There's so many little stones in it, it takes

- [Marty] No

- [Bill] so long to put it

- [Marty] kidding.

- [Bill] together.

- [Marty] That's thousands of stones.

- [Bill] Right. It probably is.

- [Marty] Well.

- [Bill] Just little pieces and having to work from ground up, and.

- [Marty] Uh, it's just beautiful. And of course, in the summer you've got the lovely plants.

- [Bill] Right.

- [Marty] All positioned around it. But in the fall, come the cool weather that's gonna be a wonderful place. The whole place is gorgeous. Bill, I want to thank you so much for having us out here

- [Bill] You're welcome.

- [Marty] And letting us share your beautiful design, you've really designed up some beautiful gardens and this is a great example.

- Today we're gonna utilize a different kind of grain and it's called Freekeh. When you go to the supermarket to look for this it's going to be in packages similar to this. It's roasted green wheat and it can come in different flavors, like this. Or you can buy it plain. We're going to be utilizing the plain today and that's what it looks like. So basically what it is, this is this green wheat that's harvested and then burned. And then after it's burned, it's taken and rubbed, just like this, so as to remove all of the char from it. In fact, the name Freekeh is Arabic for, to rub. So we're gonna utilize this in a salad today. We're gonna start with our heat on medium high. And we're gonna add our Freekeh to the pan dry. So nothing in the pan. This is a cup of Freekeh. And we're gonna allow this to toast in the pan for about two minutes. So now we're going to add two cups of water to the pan. And a little bit of salt. I'm gonna give that just a quick stir. And we're going to reduce the heat to simmer and cover and let it cook for 22 minutes. I'm gonna turn the heat off. Remove this completely from the heat source. And then what we're going to do is make sure it stays good and moist while it cools down. So I'm gonna take a clean kitchen towel and put this over the top of the pan and put the lid back and let this sit for 10 minutes. Now, a bit of wisdom, when you shop for Freekeh in the grocery store you're going to look for it in the grain aisle. So look for it next to the rice, the wild rice, the couscous, the quinoa, look for it in that section. Okay, our Freekeh has rested for 10 minutes with the towel over the top. And it's perfectly cooked. Oh, it smells so delicious. Okay, so I'm gonna give that just a little bit of a stir. And allow that to cool without the towel over the top for just a few minutes more. And now we're going to assemble our salad. So we have two bunches of green onions that I've chopped up and added to a nice, deep salad bowl. And then we're going to add our Garbanzo beans, or chickpeas, to this mixture. So these have been rinsed, and drained from the canned version. And I'm just going to add those to the green onions. Okay? Mix that up a little bit with your hand. Then we're going to add some chopped celery. And this is one of those recipes that if you like a whole lot of chopped celery, you can add more to that. And we've got some chopped parsley. About a fourth of a cup that we're going to add to this. Fresh is essential in this recipe. Okay, now it needs some spicing up with some garlic. So we're going to mince some garlic and add that to it. Let me get my spoon here. And that's one large clove. I'm gonna add one more smaller clove to that. And then we're going to let this set a second while we put together our dressing. So our dressing is pretty basic. It's a little bit of olive oil. A little bit of lemon juice. Acid and oil. And then I've toasted some cumin seeds. So what I did was I just roasted these in a dry skillet, I'm gonna add the cumin to that. And then I like to use canning jars for this. So I just like to add the lid and a nice shake to emulsify. All right, we're going to add our cooled slightly Freekeh to the mixture. And that's going to serve to wilt just a little bit, the green onions which will make it really really nice. Okay, so just add this and mix it up really nicely. And again, if you want to serve this cold, we can just put this in the refrigerator before we dress it. But we're gonna serve this slightly warm so I'm gonna go ahead and add our dressing to this. All right, so just drizzle that over the top. That's okay, if that's those seeds are at the bottom because we're gonna mix this again. And you've got this lovely healthy vegetarian Freekeh and Chickpea Salad that's just waiting to be served on your patio.

- [Voiceover] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website at VolunteerGardener.org. Or on YouTube at the VolunteerGardener channel. And like us on Facebook.