- [Narrator] Troy Marden showcases what was once a typical grassy residential lot that was transformed into a gorgeous display of plants with lots of artistic touches. The new homeowners found they had a passion for plants and for garden design. Japanese maples are the darlings of this landscape. Jeff Poppen tours a vegetable garden that's very different from his own. This farmer grows in 35 raised beds, situated in seven long rows. Cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, it's unbelievable how much is grown and harvested here. All on this "Volunteer Gardener." Come along. First, a delightful stroll through a garden that feels like a living work of art.
- So I think artists create some of the most beautiful gardens. And we are here just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, in the garden of David and Christine Sabio. David is an artist and I think so many times that just translates so beautifully to the outdoors, also. And so this is a garden that's full of really wonderful plants, but also with a great eye for design and really wonderful art in all the right places. So, David, tell me how this garden came into being.
- So we bought the house and really the excitement was the woods in the back because the front was, well, landscaped as far as a field of grass, and a few basic contract installed plants.
- This is a subdivision house.
- Yes. I eventually knew I wanted a Japanese maple. I bought a Bloodgood, which is pretty typical. Planted it, built a little tiny bed around it and was enjoying that. And so then I bought, like, a cherry tree, did the same thing. It was further down here, a little bed. Those weren't very successful, but the little planting bug was kinda taking off. I then started looking at other little plants, little smaller blooming plants. And the passion just started growing and I was also getting tired of taking care of the grass. Started expanding those beds, which then gave room to try another plan, you know, and stick something else in. And then started seeing how different colors and textures play off each other, and then even heights. This was all experimental. I mean, it still really is, but for us, we didn't have the background to do it. It was just like, "Well how do you think that'll look?" You know? And little by little as we could afford it, or had the time and energy, we just kept broadening it, and, you know, expanding a bed until it became this organic creation you see.
- [Troy] What you see today. That's awesome. So a lot of the bones and structure of your garden, at least plant wise, are based around Japanese maples. Although there are a few other specimens around, also, but lots of really nice Japanese maples.
- [David] Yeah, as I said, I planted the Bloodgood, but the Japanese maples were this huge interest and they are the darlings of the garden.
- [Troy] Right.
- [David] And so I'm certainly a big small tree and shrub guy. And so I figured I got plenty of space and once I started looking at it more, I was like, there's so many varieties. Again, different leaves, textures, the way that the colors change. And so I said, let me get 'em, not 'em all, but let me get as many in here as I can to play off each other. And as we sort of kinda worked our way this way. So there's a number that just line this little, they flow here with, like, Tiny Tim.
- [Troy] Which is already leafed out. And I'll mention, it's like the third week of March here.
- [David] It is a little early, but there are some that reliably come out kinda soon. Above it is Beni shi en. Behind me is Kagiri Nishiki. Kasagiyama, Beni Otake, Red Dragon, Villa Taranto. Butterfly, which is starting also.
- [Troy] Butterfly is such a pretty one because it's got that nice variegation, so even in a shadier spot, or mixed in among some bigger trees like you have, it kinda shows up.
- [David] It does, and kinda all year long it also then gets that protection so it doesn't burn up, although it's a fairly sun tolerant tree, but it is nice and we get the little early pop of color.
- Right. So your Japanese maples do give a lot of structure to your garden, but you've also got some really incredible stone work and a few pieces that are particularly nice, like this big standing stone
- Yes.
- [Troy] That's here next to us.
- This one in particular as I was filling in the bed, because there was a patch of grass here for a while and we had a terrible accident where a tree fell into the house back in 2013. And that whole side of the garden was torn up with the machinery to take the tree out of the house and do the construction. While things were torn up, we had been thinking, like, we need some really large stones. And so we went to a local stone yard, which is no longer here, just to look around, and they had these particular ones from Tennessee. There's a complementary one over underneath the Aconitifolium maple, but when I saw this huge stone the guys were excited for us, came, brought it, and delivered it, but then the problem was I couldn't really move it. So they got it in place, but as we built a little stone seeding wall, the stone-mason said, "Hey, I'll have my guys help you." And they came over and helped me tip it up.
- [Troy] And helped stand it up.
- [David] And we kinda buried it because I like the sort of monolith look that it has.
- [Troy] Yeah, absolutely.
- So, and it's just a beautiful stone.
- Yeah, and I see, you know, all through as you're looking through the garden, I see standing stones and different arrangements all through and it really kinda helps tie everything together.
- [David] It does. It does get a slight mountainy effect, which I like. I mean, I'm not on a mountain by any means, but I just like that look. It just adds another quality to the garden with the mix of all the things that sort of stimulate the senses, so.
- [Troy] Yeah, awesome. Okay, so you have to tell me the story of this magnificent clump of Trillium. I've never seen anything like it.
- [David] I haven't either, and I'm glad it's in my garden and it's a mystery to me. I don't know what variety it is because this was a rescue. Brought this clump home, which just keeps increasing in size. I swear it's bigger every year, taller and larger. It's quite a phenomenon almost.
- [Troy] It's very happy where it is.
- [David] Yes.
- And very impressive. So you collect quite a few things.
- I do.
- Japanese maples. I mean, like all of us, all of us plant people collect more than one kind of plant.
- Indeed.
- But you have a particular interest also in clematis. And you've got some beautiful tree peonies in here too. So tell me a little bit about some of these combinations you have going on.
- Okay, well, the tree peony here to the right is my oldest one. It was a gift back in 2003, so this is about 20 years old. It started as four inches. You can see now it's about 36 with lots of blooms about to open up. To the left I have Feng Dan Bai, which is open currently which is a nice treat today.
- [Troy] Opened for us today, which is great.
- [David] And amongst those, 'cause they're spectacular when they bloom, but it's a short bloom time, and it is a nice leaf, but then you have this structural plant that I looked at that says offer some structure. So this was a chance to then throw some clematis in there, which would sort of give it another round of life, so to speak.
- [Troy] Sure.
- [David] So through this one because of its size, I have Cezanne and Miss Kyoko that will come up and weave themselves through it. So then you have blooms that will sit on sort of the blue/green leaves and give a nice color contrast. And actually just up here in front of us is the little honey hydrangea that's starting to leaf out. That will be those really bright metallic yellow leaves.
- [Troy] Yeah, golden yellow oak leaf hydrangea.
- [David] And through that I have, I believe it's pink champagne, which is this really bright, bright fuchsia bloom. So you get this, like, acid on acid kind of thing.
- [Troy] Yeah, yeah, great color combination.
- [David] It's very striking. And here to the left I have Josephine that weaves up through the Goshiki holly. And so you get this sort of two-toned pink and double bloom that sits on top of these. And, again, it's just really visually striking.
- [Troy] And this is budded. This is not just, you know, two weeks maybe, three weeks away from beginning to have some really spectacular color up against this variegated foliage.
- Indeed.
- And then speaking of spectacular color combinations, the Georgia blue Veronica and that great variegated abelia.
- [David] Yeah, the radiance.
- [Troy] Yeah.
- [David] Like I said, it's electric. I mean that is a wonderful combination. You stare at it and it's mesmerizing as well as you can't walk around and not see it. You feel drawn over to it.
- [Troy] It's great closeup, but it's also really recognizable from a distance.
- [David] Indeed.
- You also have lots of Epimediums. I see some Ligularias and ferns, other things mixed in here, but this pink Epimedium that's in bloom right now is really beautiful.
- [David] It is, it's really stunning. That is for all the '80's fans, that's Pretty In Pink. It's got some height to it, which is nice.
- [Troy] Yeah.
- [David] And it's a very heavy bloomer. This one we've had in the ground for quite a while.
- [Troy] Well, and the thing I like about this, I mean, you can see underneath at ground level, you still got even last year's foliage. So through the winter, this remains for you guys at least partially evergreen.
- [David] It does, yes.
- [Troy] And it would probably also in Tennessee, for most of our viewers. And so Epimedium is a really, I think, important kind of understory plant for some of these gardens that have, you know, multiple layers like yours do.
- [David] Yes, and it keeps the interest through the year. You know, the idea of the garden was to be 365. There's always a little something to keep your-
- [Troy] Attention.
- [David] Interested
- [Troy] Tough plant. And I'll mention just for people who garden with deer, they're deer resistant.
- [David] Yes.
- [Troy] Most of the Epimediums, the deer don't really like, so.
- [David] I've not had a problem, but I know we have deer and we have seen 'em in here. I can also see when they've gone through and nipped at stuff. One thing that has reliably been unbothered is Epimedium.
- [Troy] Right. So in your backyard you have a large natural stand of trees. It's wooded. And I assume these were here when you bought the land.
- [David] Yes.
- [Troy] And so what was the process back here?
- So when we bought the house, again, I was very excited about the woodland, but this was a disaster. There were downed and damaged trees from major Hurricane Fran back in '96 prior to us being here.
- Right.
- A lot of muscadine and Smilax all up the trees. It was almost they can't be seen with the foliage of the vines.
- Wow.
- So that's where I started, was just kind of clearing it, yanking the vines outta the trees. This is actually my first path right here that we-
- Down this way, yeah.
- That I developed and started seeing something happen. And next it was getting rid of all the smaller suckery trees like the baby Sweetgums. They were all growing crooked, all trying to fight for some sunlight.
- Right.
- And I figured I'd rather have one big nice healthy tree versus a half a dozen flunky ones.
- Right.
- And so I mainly just handled the lower part at first because I figured it would be a process moving up the hill. Once that happened, I started thinking, well, a woodland garden can happen as well. Mother Nature has her own design and I wanted to stay kinda natural. Yes, there's a slightly manicured aspect 'cause that's my influence, but I didn't want it to be uber structured and manicured. I wanted to keep that aspect.
- [Troy] You kinda worked within what was already here.
- [David] Yes.
- [Troy] And created your pathways and things with the lay of the land that was here, and around the trees that were here.
- [David] Yeah, if I could keep it natural I was gonna feel a lot better.
- [Troy] Yeah. And you've got some really cool plants back here, too. You've got these great Arisaemas, like that kinda one with its tongue sticking out over there that we should probably mention.
- [David] Yeah, I got the Bletillas coming up. I also have the Caliente, which I feel very fortunate that I can grow.
- So that's a terrestrial orchid.
- Yes.
- [Troy] The Caliente and the Bletilla, both are terrestrial orchids.
- [David] Yes.
- [Troy] And you've also got quite a few either colored leaf Japanese maples back here, or variegated plants.
- [David] Yes.
- [Troy] And so that helps kind of lighten the understory.
- [David] Where we are at currently is probably one of the shadiest parts of the garden. And so to lighten it up, I have these lighter leaf trees, like Orange Dream to the right. Even Palmatum's gold over here to the left, which has actually a little more orange to it than Orange Dream, but this corner here, you see a number of variegated plants like Daphne Rebecca. I have the variegated Anise, the Shaded Lady. The Aucuba Limbata, which will then throw out its variegated leaves, so it really brightens this corner. So even I can see it from the house.
- [Troy] You don't have to have light coming down from above.
- [David] Yes.
- [Troy] Because you can use foliage to create light in darker places in the garden.
- [David] Indeed.
- [Troy] So I mentioned that I feel like David does everything with an artist's eye, and this is no exception. This is a new addition to the garden. So tell me how this came into existence.
- [David] So about a month ago, a month and a half ago, we had a quick storm come through. Out front were four Leylands, which have dwindled over time, but the last green one, which was on the end, the winds were bad enough. It was like a sail and it brought it down. Fortunately, it fell the best way it could without much destruction, but it was out in the cul-de-sac, so I had to get on it immediately. So I cut it into pieces. I got rid of all the small branches and rolled these back here into this little clearing I have where I'm working on a little moss garden, and just kinda stacked them, which gave me sort of a shelf aspect that I could display some of these little moss bowls I do. I might bring one of my bonsai over here that require a little more shade seen under the canopy. It's also been a fun cat tree. I catch the cats out here all the time rocking around on this.
- Well, and I love the fact that it just lends so much personality. And I know you, so I know that this is you being creative. I think just stumbling across something like this in a private garden is a real, you know, it's just a gem of a thing to have.
- [David] I'm glad you appreciate it, that's great.
- [Troy] Absolutely, and I wanna thank you for letting us come and visit your beautiful garden. You and Christine just have a sanctuary here, so, thank you very much.
- [David] You're welcome. And I appreciate you coming and checking it out. It's nice to share it with people that get it and understand.
- Today we're down in Pleasant Shade to look at my friend Larry's garden. Now, Larry grows in raised beds, something that I don't do, but I thought it would be interesting to come down and see how he grows almost all of his vegetables in just a small garden. Looks like some pickling cucumbers here. Look at the size, that's just perfect there. These plants look very healthy. Larry, this is a beautiful garden.
- Thank you. Welcome, Jeff, to my wife and I's garden here, raised beds. These are the pickling Bush cucumbers.
- [Jeff] Bush Pickler.
- Yeah, Bush because I try to keep the Bush where it don't spread out all over the garden in my plants and them. There is 60 plants strewed up through here where I set out.
- Yeah, and you make a lot of pickles?
- [Larry] Make a lot of pickles. We just got through doing bread and butter pickles. And we're doing now 14-Day pickles. I just put in a late crop here of squash.
- Okay, so you grow 'em in hills.
- I grow 'em in hills. I usually put maybe five, six squash plants to a hill. And I work it up, mount it up a little bit, and so if it rains water stands in the beds, it's a little bit higher built up.
- [Jeff] So it doesn't waterlog.
- [Larry] Waterlog. And I happened to find a few onions here, bulbs, and I have put them out in there and they sort of now started coming up.
- [Jeff] For green onions.
- [Larry] Green onions, yeah, they're the yellow onions. And in the mix with the Bush pickling cucumbers, I've got, I believe it's a regular pickling Bush here 'cause it's spreading, you can tell the difference.
- [Jeff] Spreads more.
- [Larry] Spreads out a whole lot more.
- [Jeff] So tell us about this soil? What do you use for a soil mix? That's really nice looking stuff right there.
- [Larry] When I built these raised beds, I had, of course, you know, creek bottom is, you know how rocky it is.
- [Jeff] Right.
- And we had three tri-axles of topsoil brought down. And I would fill these beds up half full of dirt with my tractor and front-end loader and then put sand in it. And I would take a tiller and mix it all up. Then I would finish back filling up and filling 'em up like that 'til I got up there.
- So that sand keeps it real good and loose, doesn't it?
- Keeps it real good and loose. And you can see that pot, it's like a mixture for flares.
- [Jeff] Potted soil. I can see the Perlite.
- [Larry] Yeah, and I mix it in with it.
- [Jeff] Do you use some compost? This looks like it's.
- [Larry] Yeah, it's composted.
- [Jeff] Yeah, it looks like some good compost right there, doesn't it?
- [Larry] Yeah, and this row of beds here was the first beds we built and they were two by twelves.
- [Jeff] I see they're a little taller, aren't they?
- Yeah, and when we started backfilling I said, "This is gonna take too much dirt to fill it." And so to save work and all of that and time we dropped down the rest of 'em is two by tens. It's a total of 35 beds in here and seven rows. It's unbelievable what it produces.
- [Jeff] Yeah. Well, you grow a lot of vegetables here, don't you?
- Yeah, we give it away and we do a lot of canning and process on that.
- And it looks like you keep it pretty weed-free too.
- Well, yeah. I put down black paper and weed paper and then I put crusher run rock down. And so when it rains, you go out here and not get muddy and come out here in your regular shoes, and doesn't get muddy and all that.
- [Jeff] Everybody's favorite vegetable from the garden in the summertime are tomatoes. And we have just had our first one and it looks like you're starting to get your first tomatoes.
- [Larry] Yes, we just started getting them in. It's hard to keep blight outta your tomatoes. It's in the rain, it's in your soil. And to try keep that out, but they're just beginning to come in.
- [Jeff] Well, what variety is that?
- [Larry] These are Jet Star and we have Big Boy, but most of my tomatoes that we put out are Celebrities.
- [Jeff] Yeah, I love that Celebrity tomato. It came out about, I don't know, 30 or 40 years ago. And it was by far the most disease-resistant tomato that I had found, but it's more of a shorter determinate variety. It doesn't last as long, but it makes a lot of tomatoes all at once.
- [Larry] Yeah, they're a determinate plant. They don't get up real tall. They're not an indeterminate plant. Those indeterminates they'll grow.
- [Jeff] They just grow and grow and grow.
- [Larry] They just keep growing up, but these stay down.
- [Jeff] That's right. And these are from concrete reinforcement.
- [Larry] Reinforcement, and I've had them for years.
- [Jeff] They're plenty tall, aren't they?
- [Larry] Yes, they're about 5' tall, I think what they are. And then I'll go and measure so many slots and then cut it out and the last one I'll wrap it around.
- [Jeff] And then you use a little bit of rebar.
- [Larry] Yeah, that's them little rebar for an electric fence post.
- [Jeff] Perfect. What kind of peppers are you growing, Larry?
- [Larry] These here are the lunchbox sweet peppers.
- [Jeff] Oh yeah, the ones that you buy in the bags in the store.
- [Larry] Yeah, or either they're in the little trays, fruit trays. These two here are the red variety, and these two here are the orange and they have a yellow, but I didn't find any of them. And then these plants here are Big Bertha.
- [Jeff] Oh, those get huge.
- [Larry] Yeah, the sweet bell peppers. And then these right here are the 1819 sweet bell peppers.
- 1819.
- I got these at the Mennonites. It's called 1819 sweet bell peppers.
- [Jeff] Don't know that one.
- [Larry] And then this one here, I had to replace it and it's been set out a little late. And then here are your sweet bananas.
- [Jeff] Okay, yeah, I'll look at these here. These are the banana peppers right here. You don't wanna get 'em confused with the hot banana peppers though.
- [Larry] Then we get into these are the cayenne.
- [Jeff] Oh, okay, the cayenne peppers.
- [Larry] Yeah, and see here, you see right here how they're already getting.
- [Jeff] Yeah, you got green cayennes right now. They'll turn bright red.
- [Larry] Yeah, and then my wife, when they get real red, she'll string 'em up and then hang 'em up in the kitchen and use them later on. And then you got the jalapenos down here.
- Oh, okay, great. We got some hot peppers too. And what's in this bed over here?
- All right, these are the crowder peas.
- [Jeff] Oh, for late crowder peas.
- [Larry] Late crowder peas. And I left this open just a little bit and I've already got it sowed out, you can see.
- [Jeff] Yeah, that's about how far apart you planted 'em. Do you cover 'em up with your hands?
- [Larry] And then the way I cover mine up is I'll just take my hands and I go down through here like this. And that's the way I cover 'em up.
- [Jeff] And they're ready to go.
- [Larry] They're ready to go.
- [Jeff] Larry, it looks like you got a good stand of October beans.
- Yeah, they're doing good. It's got so dry lately that in the afternoon after the sun goes down, I go in there and water and help 'em 'cause it's got so dry lately, but I'd say there's about a week away maybe. You see some is already beginning to turn. And it's two rows of October beans. And you see I put the net over 'em.
- [Jeff] That's to keep the deer off?
- [Larry] Yeah, the lower end they eat the tops out of about a fourth of a bed. And I finally just moved them off my strawberries and moved the hoops up here and cover 'em up.
- [Jeff] Keep 'em off of it.
- [Larry] Yeah.
- [Jeff] And do you plant by the signs Larry?
- [Larry] Yeah, I try to plant by the signs, yeah. The other, the late October beans that I planted was planted the 18th of June.
- [Jeff] That was right before the full moon.
- Yeah, that was the last date of June. That was a sign was above crops and the seed beds. And then I planted them and they're already up.
- Yeah. So you plant the above ground crops in the full of the moon, and the below ground crop in the new of the moon.
- Yeah, I go by calendar, but I dunno. It seems like it works to me.
- [Jeff] Wow, you're still getting strawberries over here.
- [Larry] Yep, still getting ripe strawberries.
- [Jeff] Yeah, look at that.
- And we still got blooms coming off, and little green strawberries are coming on.
- [Jeff] Yeah, so these are coming on a little later than a lot of strawberries.
- [Larry] Yeah, uh-huh. There's 150 strawberry plants in these five beds here.
- [Jeff] And what variety is it?
- [Larry] Chandler.
- [Jeff] Oh, that's a good one.
- [Larry] Yeah. And I've already put my order in for another 150 Chandler plants that I pull up and reseed every year.
- [Jeff] And you plant them in the fall?
- [Larry] In the fall in September is when they usually come in.
- [Jeff] And I notice you use the landscape fabric.
- Yeah, I use landscape fabric on my strawberries. I don't like to use it on my other stuff. Seems like it's hard on the soil, so.
- [Jeff] I think it is too, but strawberries are just so hard to keep the grass out.
- [Larry] Yeah, it's hard to keep the grass out. That's that heavy duty fabric right here. And I'll go in and take scissors and cut a little circle out, and then plant my strawberry plants in.
- [Jeff] Some people just take these and plant these.
- [Larry] Yeah, they sure do, yeah.
- [Jeff] Each one of these will make another plant. Yeah, they'll put 'em in a pot.
- [Larry] They'll put them in a pot.
- [Jeff] Yeah, and let 'em reroot.
- [Larry] Yeah, I don't have time and patience to do that.
- Well, you obviously have more food than you can just eat right off. Let's look at your cellar and see how you put this stuff up.
- Okay, all right, sure will.
- [Jeff] Larry, this looks wonderful. You've been busy canning.
- [Larry] Yeah, we have already started canning this year. These are the Roma green beans. And these are the strawberry preserves.
- [Jeff] Oh, boy, I bet those are good.
- [Larry] And then here we canned 23 quarts of pork tenderloin. We can tenderloin, we can sausage, and we can chicken. And then these are the bread and butter pickles.
- [Troy] Oh yeah, those are awful good.
- [Larry] And right now we're doing the 14-Day pickles.
- [Troy] In the house still.
- In the house, but we're doing it in seven days. We got a recipe that a lady give us in the community so you can always get out and talk to gardeners and people that can they got better ideas that you have yourself.
- That's right.
- You always learn more from somebody.
- Oh yeah. Gardening is one thing that you can never know all about it. There's always something new.
- You never know it all and don't think you know it all.
- That's right. Larry, it has been so good to come here.
- [Larry] Nice to have you here, Jeff.
- [Narrator] For inspiring garden tours, growing tips, and garden projects, visit our website at volunteergardener.org. And find us on these platforms.
