Gardening Tips from Joyce’s Garden
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Many of you visited Joyce Hannaford’s exuberant garden in Natick, Mass. during the Enchanted Gardens Tours in June and July. Joyce’s garden is packed with colorful flowers that bloom from spring through fall, peaking in mid July. Visitors are always curious about Joyce’s maintenance routines. Below, Joyce answers some of the most often asked gardening questions.
Joyce’s tips:
It seems that tending my garden has become a full-time job. It just seemed to happen over the years; it was not part of a plan when we purchased our home 25 years ago.
Color: To have a colorful garden, I add many annuals every year. Some of my favorites include dragonwing begonias, vincas, and annual blue salvias. These are real workhorse plants that thrive in all kinds of conditions.
Fertilizing: I fertilize my garden regularly starting in the spring by broadcasting Plant Tone on all areas after the spring cleanup. When planting my annuals, I soak the plants in a mixture of water and fish emulsion. I use Alaska Fish Emulsion or Maxsea which are both dissolved in water. All my pots also get a weekly feeding of fish emulsion.
Watering: I have 12 zones of sprinklers which run off of a deep well that we dug just for the gardens. Daily watering of the pots is necessary. All the window boxes are watered daily with misters from the sprinkler system.
Mulching: I mulch all of my gardens in late spring with a local product called Mad Mics, which is a combination of leaf mulch and aged horse manure. This mulch feeds the soil and deters weeds. After years of application, I have rich soil and vigorous plants. I also add compost when planting my annuals.
Pruning: I perform the Chelsea Chop in early June to reduce the height of tall perennials. I usually cut a third of the plant to encourage branching. Montauk daisies and phloxes really benefit from this.
Staking: I stake early in the season, while the plants are less than a foot tall. Plants that I stake include delphiniums, dahlias, lilies and fall anemones.
Deadheading: I try to deadhead daily to encourage new blooms.
Dividing: The dividing usually happens in August when the perennials start looking seedy after the usual summer drought.
Critters: While I don’t have an issue with deer, rabbits are a constant battle for me as for all my gardening friends. I’ve made cages from 1” black wire mesh that are 12” and 24” tall, and secured with small black tie wraps. Certain plants are candy for the rabbits, and if they aren’t caged, they get eaten to the ground. I also use Plantskyyd, Rabbit mace, Liquid Fence, Red pepper, Repels-all, but the cages provide the best protection over all.
To read more about Joyce’s garden, read Joie de Vivre in Joyce's Garden.
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