Stop 1: Pope-9097 Bryant Ave
Semi-formal, butterfly friendly with emphasis on flowering shrubs and plants. Low maintenance (no heading), reblooming plants with interesting structure. I also have a cut-flower garden.
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
I use Espoma products; Bio-tone, Plant-tone, Holly-tone Berry-tone and Soil Acidifier.
What do you do with your yard debris?
Once upon a time I used to just dispose of it in my backyard (my backyard flows into the natural wooded area with a small creek running behind), so it was easy to just throw it on the small mound at the edge of my property, but I now bag it for weekly county pick up.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
I pull weeds as soon as I see them so they don’t get out of control.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
My garden was very basic 10 years ago. It has slowly grown, developed, and become something that I am extremely proud of. I added a raised flower bed for cut flowers, extended the bed in front of my house, and added a bed along the sidewalk to make room for more plants. I’ve done research, watched videos, and observed other gardens which has helped me improve my gardening knowledge.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?
Either my Rose of Sharon or Candy Crush Hibiscus. I also have a dwarf grafted weeping pussy willow.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
My Summerific Cranberry Crush Hibiscus is a focal point in the front bed. I added two more that I purchased from QVC in my backyard, and I have a Rose of Sharon. Hydrangeas are my first love. My first one just didn’t do very well. I bought a new one and cut it back in the fall only to soon realize that it bloomed on old wood. After no blooms last year, I’m seeing an explosion of blooms on the branches, and I am hopeful that this will be the year that I’m successful. Last year I added a compact hydrangea bush. It has struggled a little because of the crazy spring we’ve had, but I think it’s going to be okay.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
Butterfly weed, Rudbeckia, Aster and Coreopsis.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs) that you have been able to carry over into your garden ?
My childhood home had Rose of Sharon Hibiscus. We would catch pollinating bees by pinching the petals together, picking the flower and listening to the bees buzzing inside. A few years ago, as I was pulling into the driveway, I noticed these purple blooms along the back edge of my mom’s backyard, which I had forgotten about and hadn’t noticed before. They were tangled up in vines, twisted, and being pulled in different directions, but I knew there was hope because they were blooming. Their roots were intertwined with many other trees, bushes and vines, and I had to surgically dig them out. I was able to rescue a total of five trees; four of which I transplanted alone one side of my mother’s house and one at my house. These have been around since I was a kid, so I know they are more than likely suckers that grew into individual plants.
My mom also had succulents for at least 30 plus years planted in strawberry pots. A few years ago, I cleaned them up and replanted them in the same pots. They stayed outside all year. They die back a little in the winter then come back with no issues in the spring.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
After replacing my deck in 2021, my backyard needed to be an extension of the mood and feel that I wanted to have; woodsy, natural, organic, and calming! I created a fire feature using pallets, cedar fence pickets, and old Weber tabletop charcoal grill. On Pinterest, I found an idea for a wood sculpture to put behind the fire feature. I used pea gravel, pavers, and slate to create a pathway to and around the pallet structure. This year I decided to expand further into my backyard. Using items I already had, found, made, or got for free, I got exactly the feel I wanted to achieve. I expanded the pathway using deck boards from my old deck, added two flower beds (needed room for more plants!), a pallet platform just big enough for a DIY cinder block bench, an area for a hammock and a bamboo privacy fence.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
Nothing unusual really, just bordering neighbors that don’t do anything to their space, so my area isn’t distracted by anything that doesn’t fit my aesthetic. I do have a tree stump that I plan to clean up to use as seating around the firepit.
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
I use Espoma products; Bio-tone, Plant-tone, Holly-tone Berry-tone and Soil Acidifier.
What do you do with your yard debris?
Once upon a time I used to just dispose of it in my backyard (my backyard flows into the natural wooded area with a small creek running behind), so it was easy to just throw it on the small mound at the edge of my property, but I now bag it for weekly county pick up.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
I pull weeds as soon as I see them so they don’t get out of control.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
My garden was very basic 10 years ago. It has slowly grown, developed, and become something that I am extremely proud of. I added a raised flower bed for cut flowers, extended the bed in front of my house, and added a bed along the sidewalk to make room for more plants. I’ve done research, watched videos, and observed other gardens which has helped me improve my gardening knowledge.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?
Either my Rose of Sharon or Candy Crush Hibiscus. I also have a dwarf grafted weeping pussy willow.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
My Summerific Cranberry Crush Hibiscus is a focal point in the front bed. I added two more that I purchased from QVC in my backyard, and I have a Rose of Sharon. Hydrangeas are my first love. My first one just didn’t do very well. I bought a new one and cut it back in the fall only to soon realize that it bloomed on old wood. After no blooms last year, I’m seeing an explosion of blooms on the branches, and I am hopeful that this will be the year that I’m successful. Last year I added a compact hydrangea bush. It has struggled a little because of the crazy spring we’ve had, but I think it’s going to be okay.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
Butterfly weed, Rudbeckia, Aster and Coreopsis.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs) that you have been able to carry over into your garden ?
My childhood home had Rose of Sharon Hibiscus. We would catch pollinating bees by pinching the petals together, picking the flower and listening to the bees buzzing inside. A few years ago, as I was pulling into the driveway, I noticed these purple blooms along the back edge of my mom’s backyard, which I had forgotten about and hadn’t noticed before. They were tangled up in vines, twisted, and being pulled in different directions, but I knew there was hope because they were blooming. Their roots were intertwined with many other trees, bushes and vines, and I had to surgically dig them out. I was able to rescue a total of five trees; four of which I transplanted alone one side of my mother’s house and one at my house. These have been around since I was a kid, so I know they are more than likely suckers that grew into individual plants.
My mom also had succulents for at least 30 plus years planted in strawberry pots. A few years ago, I cleaned them up and replanted them in the same pots. They stayed outside all year. They die back a little in the winter then come back with no issues in the spring.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
After replacing my deck in 2021, my backyard needed to be an extension of the mood and feel that I wanted to have; woodsy, natural, organic, and calming! I created a fire feature using pallets, cedar fence pickets, and old Weber tabletop charcoal grill. On Pinterest, I found an idea for a wood sculpture to put behind the fire feature. I used pea gravel, pavers, and slate to create a pathway to and around the pallet structure. This year I decided to expand further into my backyard. Using items I already had, found, made, or got for free, I got exactly the feel I wanted to achieve. I expanded the pathway using deck boards from my old deck, added two flower beds (needed room for more plants!), a pallet platform just big enough for a DIY cinder block bench, an area for a hammock and a bamboo privacy fence.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
Nothing unusual really, just bordering neighbors that don’t do anything to their space, so my area isn’t distracted by anything that doesn’t fit my aesthetic. I do have a tree stump that I plan to clean up to use as seating around the firepit.
Stop 2: Cobb-906 Philip Powers Dr
How would you describe your garden?
Low-water-use plants
I water infrequently, and some areas are never watered.
Edible landscape
I use edible plants mixed into my garden, including red currants, espalier apples and pears, blueberries, and herbs. This year I’ve added raspberries and a grape vine.
Insect-attracting plants
Many of my plants are insect friendly. I rarely use double flowers, so that bees can access the pollen, and if I see that a plant is attracting lots of insects, I often split it and make more. One of my most popular plants with insects is sedum Autumn Joy, and I have that everywhere in the garden.
Bird-friendly
I select plants specifically for feeding birds. Many of my shrubs and trees have berries that birds like, including my edible plants, which usually feed the birds rather than the humans. I also recognize that birds eat insects, and so I make my garden bird-friendly by being insect-friendly. I also have a bird bath and a small wildlife pond. The wildlife pond has the trunk of an old Christmas tree laying across it in the water so birds can perch and bathe safely, and the pond edge has large stones in it for the same reason.
Hummingbird-friendly
While I don’t put out a feeder, hummingbirds do find my salvia, crossvine, and purple hyacinth bean.
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
I use compost and manure if I use anything. This year I used pelleted chicken manure.
What do you do with your yard debris?
I send almost all yard debris to Laurel’s yard debris pick up. I compost a small amount of it at home in a cold pile (in other words, I don’t actively compost, but the pile does eventually turn into compost). I keep most of my tree prunings, though, to make trellis and other plant supports.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
I hand pull weeds. If a bed gets really infested with weeds I will occasionally take out all the plants, remove all the weeds, and replant. I probably do that to one small section of the garden per year.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
There was much more lawn 10 years ago! When we moved into the house when we got married in 2003, the front and back were entirely lawn. We had a son, and I gardened the backyard to be kid friendly. What kids need changes, and my garden has changed along with my son. He is now a teenager and doesn’t need the lawn to play, so I expanded the garden beds. He doesn’t use his climbing structure anymore and so I have repurposed it into a pergola with wisteria and other vines and a brick seating area beneath. He is a baseball player, and so the main axis of the garden now has a pitcher's mound at one end and a target at the other. When he goes off to college we’ll lose the pitching mound and I’ll have room for something new!
The front now has almost no lawn, and instead has garden beds with a brick path. For a long time there was one bed surrounded by lawn. In 2018 our sewer line burst, and in order to repair it the workers had to tear up the entire front garden to dig a very deep trench. I had 24 hours to dig up all the plants I wanted to save. When it was all said and done the clay subsoil from 8 feet down ended up on top of my entire front garden. It is sticky and dense when wet, and hard as concrete when dry.
I was very sad that my garden was destroyed, and worried I’d never be able to grow anything on the subsoil. I didn’t have the funds to hire someone to re-grade the front, or to buy lots of soil amendment, so I had to do what I could with what I had. Instead of trying to recreate the old garden I made a new layout, with no grass at all and just a path running down the front between garden beds. Visitors will be able to see the challenge of gardening in subsoil, but they will also see that it is indeed possible to grow a nice garden even in terrible soil.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?
The focal point of the front garden won’t blooming during the tour. My front porch is covered with a pergola that has a 15 year old New Dawn rose covering it. It blooms in mid May, and when it blooms it smothers the pergola and defines the whole front of the house. Unfortunately, the rose has a disease called witches’ broom, and there is no cure and it is fatal over time. The rose is declining despite my care and I’ll lose it over the coming years. Gardeners might be interested to see how I am planning for that transition, growing a clematis Montana on the same pergola now so the space won’t be empty when the focal-point plant dies.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
There are natives, but no, it isn’t a feature (and I forget which are native and which are not).
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)
There isn’t one plant in particular, but most of my plants come from family. When my parents sold the house I grew up in I dug up day lilies and peonies from their garden, and most of the day lilies and peonies I now have come from those original plants, as do all of my sedum. I have a yellow evening primrose that was in my great grandmother’s garden, and has been passed down. In the back the orange lilies (day lilies and lilium) come from my mother-in-law’s garden in North Dakota.
I split and increase these plants because they remind me of people I love who are gone, but I also do it because I don’t have a huge garden budget. I do buy a few plants every year, but for the most part my garden is the result of increasing my plant stock from plants I already have.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
Continuing the theme above, the major theme or feature of my garden is DIY and reuse. I make more plants rather than buying more, and I make my own plant supports. The little wildlife pond was a weekend project and the edge is defined/covered by a tree stump and other material I had laying around. The tool area is screened by a couple of pallets turned into a fence.
You can find pictures of my garden and a partial plant list on my blog: https://gardenerslot.com. The “About” section has a little write up of my approach and philosophy of gardening.
Low-water-use plants
I water infrequently, and some areas are never watered.
Edible landscape
I use edible plants mixed into my garden, including red currants, espalier apples and pears, blueberries, and herbs. This year I’ve added raspberries and a grape vine.
Insect-attracting plants
Many of my plants are insect friendly. I rarely use double flowers, so that bees can access the pollen, and if I see that a plant is attracting lots of insects, I often split it and make more. One of my most popular plants with insects is sedum Autumn Joy, and I have that everywhere in the garden.
Bird-friendly
I select plants specifically for feeding birds. Many of my shrubs and trees have berries that birds like, including my edible plants, which usually feed the birds rather than the humans. I also recognize that birds eat insects, and so I make my garden bird-friendly by being insect-friendly. I also have a bird bath and a small wildlife pond. The wildlife pond has the trunk of an old Christmas tree laying across it in the water so birds can perch and bathe safely, and the pond edge has large stones in it for the same reason.
Hummingbird-friendly
While I don’t put out a feeder, hummingbirds do find my salvia, crossvine, and purple hyacinth bean.
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
I use compost and manure if I use anything. This year I used pelleted chicken manure.
What do you do with your yard debris?
I send almost all yard debris to Laurel’s yard debris pick up. I compost a small amount of it at home in a cold pile (in other words, I don’t actively compost, but the pile does eventually turn into compost). I keep most of my tree prunings, though, to make trellis and other plant supports.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
I hand pull weeds. If a bed gets really infested with weeds I will occasionally take out all the plants, remove all the weeds, and replant. I probably do that to one small section of the garden per year.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
There was much more lawn 10 years ago! When we moved into the house when we got married in 2003, the front and back were entirely lawn. We had a son, and I gardened the backyard to be kid friendly. What kids need changes, and my garden has changed along with my son. He is now a teenager and doesn’t need the lawn to play, so I expanded the garden beds. He doesn’t use his climbing structure anymore and so I have repurposed it into a pergola with wisteria and other vines and a brick seating area beneath. He is a baseball player, and so the main axis of the garden now has a pitcher's mound at one end and a target at the other. When he goes off to college we’ll lose the pitching mound and I’ll have room for something new!
The front now has almost no lawn, and instead has garden beds with a brick path. For a long time there was one bed surrounded by lawn. In 2018 our sewer line burst, and in order to repair it the workers had to tear up the entire front garden to dig a very deep trench. I had 24 hours to dig up all the plants I wanted to save. When it was all said and done the clay subsoil from 8 feet down ended up on top of my entire front garden. It is sticky and dense when wet, and hard as concrete when dry.
I was very sad that my garden was destroyed, and worried I’d never be able to grow anything on the subsoil. I didn’t have the funds to hire someone to re-grade the front, or to buy lots of soil amendment, so I had to do what I could with what I had. Instead of trying to recreate the old garden I made a new layout, with no grass at all and just a path running down the front between garden beds. Visitors will be able to see the challenge of gardening in subsoil, but they will also see that it is indeed possible to grow a nice garden even in terrible soil.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?
The focal point of the front garden won’t blooming during the tour. My front porch is covered with a pergola that has a 15 year old New Dawn rose covering it. It blooms in mid May, and when it blooms it smothers the pergola and defines the whole front of the house. Unfortunately, the rose has a disease called witches’ broom, and there is no cure and it is fatal over time. The rose is declining despite my care and I’ll lose it over the coming years. Gardeners might be interested to see how I am planning for that transition, growing a clematis Montana on the same pergola now so the space won’t be empty when the focal-point plant dies.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
There are natives, but no, it isn’t a feature (and I forget which are native and which are not).
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)
There isn’t one plant in particular, but most of my plants come from family. When my parents sold the house I grew up in I dug up day lilies and peonies from their garden, and most of the day lilies and peonies I now have come from those original plants, as do all of my sedum. I have a yellow evening primrose that was in my great grandmother’s garden, and has been passed down. In the back the orange lilies (day lilies and lilium) come from my mother-in-law’s garden in North Dakota.
I split and increase these plants because they remind me of people I love who are gone, but I also do it because I don’t have a huge garden budget. I do buy a few plants every year, but for the most part my garden is the result of increasing my plant stock from plants I already have.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
Continuing the theme above, the major theme or feature of my garden is DIY and reuse. I make more plants rather than buying more, and I make my own plant supports. The little wildlife pond was a weekend project and the edge is defined/covered by a tree stump and other material I had laying around. The tool area is screened by a couple of pallets turned into a fence.
You can find pictures of my garden and a partial plant list on my blog: https://gardenerslot.com. The “About” section has a little write up of my approach and philosophy of gardening.
Stop 3: Laurel Elementary-516 Montgomery St
How would you describe your garden?
Locally native plants
drought tolerant plants
low water use plants
insect attracting plants
butterfly friendly
Hummingbird friendly
wild flowers
kids friendly
low maintenance
About the Garden
What if any fertilizer do you use?
We use compost dash mainly food, like coffee grinds and eggs. We also use manure.
What do you do with your yard debris?
The grass is left to compost on the lawn new sentence large debris and branches are removed from the property in the trash dumpster
How do you deal with persistent weeds? Manual removal
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
About 10 years ago, we installed our first raised dash bed gardens in front of the school via a Girl Scout gold award project. a pollinator space out of one of the raised beds and student learning spaces out of the other two. we have been adding raised beds since then.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees or shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?About five years ago the Japanese Maple in front of our school had to be removed due to disease. We replaced it with a native eastern redbud.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i. e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azaleas, etc.)?
We tried to add appropriate signage so that visitors to our garden would understand that the plants in the pollinator gardens had a habitat purpose dash and are not just weeds
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs? We try
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? ETC.)
Being next to a school, we struggle with educating students that the gardens are not play places - the wood bark boarded helps, but we still get students running into the boxes and all over our plants.
Locally native plants
drought tolerant plants
low water use plants
insect attracting plants
butterfly friendly
Hummingbird friendly
wild flowers
kids friendly
low maintenance
About the Garden
What if any fertilizer do you use?
We use compost dash mainly food, like coffee grinds and eggs. We also use manure.
What do you do with your yard debris?
The grass is left to compost on the lawn new sentence large debris and branches are removed from the property in the trash dumpster
How do you deal with persistent weeds? Manual removal
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
About 10 years ago, we installed our first raised dash bed gardens in front of the school via a Girl Scout gold award project. a pollinator space out of one of the raised beds and student learning spaces out of the other two. we have been adding raised beds since then.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees or shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?About five years ago the Japanese Maple in front of our school had to be removed due to disease. We replaced it with a native eastern redbud.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i. e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azaleas, etc.)?
We tried to add appropriate signage so that visitors to our garden would understand that the plants in the pollinator gardens had a habitat purpose dash and are not just weeds
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs? We try
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? ETC.)
Being next to a school, we struggle with educating students that the gardens are not play places - the wood bark boarded helps, but we still get students running into the boxes and all over our plants.
Stop 4: Kole-322 Carroll Ave
How would you describe your garden?
Locally native plant
Low-water-use plants
Edible landscape
Formal garden
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
The vegetables are fertilized with Trifecta Plus from MI Gardener. The lawn is fertilized with compost topdressing and supplemental iron. Perennial plantings are fertilized with a 10-10-10 formulation of fertilizer. Annual flowers are liquid fertilized with Miracle Grow Bloom Booster
What do you do with your yard debris?
All lawn clippings and leaf debris are mulched using a mulching mower, and remain in the turf. Plant clippings and vegetable garden debris are recycled through the City's Yard Waste Pick Up.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
All vegetable plantings are organic. Weeds in the vegetables are pulled by hand or sprayed with Vinegar. Weeds in the planting beds are prevented using a pre emergent herbicide. Any weeds that do germinate are pulled by hand.
In the turf, weeds are prevented using the pre-emergent herbicides Tenacity and Dimension. If weeds do form, they are hand removed or selectively treated with post-emergent herbicide.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
When we purchased our home in 2016, the landscape was blank. It had just 8 damaged shrubs and lawn. Since then we have designed, implemented, and modified our home's master landscape plan including: regrading soil for positive drainage away from the house, new plantings, new driveway/paver sidewalk, rainwater harvesting cistern, and irrigation with rain sensor control.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden? No
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)? No
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
Yes - Red Maple, Southern Magnolia, Amsonia, Heuchera, Red Twig Dogwood, 'Shenandoah' Switchgrass, and Liatris.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)
We have lilac plants from a family farm that date to the 1890s. We have also planted a memorial garden to former Councilman Ed Ricks, using divided plants from his childhood home on Main Street.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
Our fully automated rainwater harvesting system combined with automatic irrigation has saved our water bill and countless hours that were previously spent watering.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
Poor drainage - many places in Laurel have poor drainage. Our property is particularly bad with less than 1% slope (essentially flat). Water ponds in our backyard. Many times, if you dig a hole, it will fill with water. We have selected plants that can handle these conditions or build raised gardens/mounded dirt to prevent some plants from getting wet feet.
Locally native plant
Low-water-use plants
Edible landscape
Formal garden
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
The vegetables are fertilized with Trifecta Plus from MI Gardener. The lawn is fertilized with compost topdressing and supplemental iron. Perennial plantings are fertilized with a 10-10-10 formulation of fertilizer. Annual flowers are liquid fertilized with Miracle Grow Bloom Booster
What do you do with your yard debris?
All lawn clippings and leaf debris are mulched using a mulching mower, and remain in the turf. Plant clippings and vegetable garden debris are recycled through the City's Yard Waste Pick Up.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
All vegetable plantings are organic. Weeds in the vegetables are pulled by hand or sprayed with Vinegar. Weeds in the planting beds are prevented using a pre emergent herbicide. Any weeds that do germinate are pulled by hand.
In the turf, weeds are prevented using the pre-emergent herbicides Tenacity and Dimension. If weeds do form, they are hand removed or selectively treated with post-emergent herbicide.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
When we purchased our home in 2016, the landscape was blank. It had just 8 damaged shrubs and lawn. Since then we have designed, implemented, and modified our home's master landscape plan including: regrading soil for positive drainage away from the house, new plantings, new driveway/paver sidewalk, rainwater harvesting cistern, and irrigation with rain sensor control.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden? No
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)? No
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
Yes - Red Maple, Southern Magnolia, Amsonia, Heuchera, Red Twig Dogwood, 'Shenandoah' Switchgrass, and Liatris.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)
We have lilac plants from a family farm that date to the 1890s. We have also planted a memorial garden to former Councilman Ed Ricks, using divided plants from his childhood home on Main Street.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
Our fully automated rainwater harvesting system combined with automatic irrigation has saved our water bill and countless hours that were previously spent watering.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
Poor drainage - many places in Laurel have poor drainage. Our property is particularly bad with less than 1% slope (essentially flat). Water ponds in our backyard. Many times, if you dig a hole, it will fill with water. We have selected plants that can handle these conditions or build raised gardens/mounded dirt to prevent some plants from getting wet feet.
Stop 5: Dyer-310 4th St
How would you describe your garden?)
Locally native plants
Garden contains some, but not as many as I would like. I am just learning about the benefits of native plants.
Drought-tolerant plants: Some
Low-water-use plants: Some
Edible landscape
Yes, edible for humans and wildlife: raspberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes and vegetable garden
Insect-attracting plants
Lots of these including calamintha, 3 kinds of asters, all the fruiting shrubs and trees
Butterfly-friendly: Milkweed, butterfly plant, zinnia, parsley, cosmos
Bird-friendly
Lots of cover for birds with dense shrubs, lots of trees and several water sources
Hummingbird-friendly
Cardinal vine, crossvine, lobelia and feeders
Wildflowers: Not sure as everything looks wild at times
Kids-friendly
The swing set has been repurposed as an arbor for climbing hydrangea and burial site for beloved animals
Low maintenance: HAHA!
Formal garden: Not really
Deer-resistant
Don’t have a problem with deer, just squirrels snatching tomatoes and birds getting raspberries and blueberries
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use? Compost only
What do you do with your yard debris?
Put in personal compost pile or city picks up for recycle/compost program
How do you deal with persistent weeds? Dig, dig dig
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
The garden is always changing, from year to year as some plants prosper and others dwindle.
I am always trying out new plants and adding sculptures, tweaking the combinations of manmade objects and natural features.
Garden Features
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hostas, azaleas, etc.)?
Five kinds of fern and as many kinds of hosta, but also lots of clematis which I am trying to coax into growing onto roses. Native honeysuckle, wisteria, bignonia capreolata and more.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
I planted Nyssa Sylvatica (black gum) in the front yard and there are native maples in front and back, as well as willow oak and pin oak. Native bushes are viburnum (possumhaw), native azalea and chokecherry.
Native perennials include black eyed susan, phlox, echinacea, native ageratum, lobelia
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)
The crepe myrtles in the front yard were tiny sprigs from my father’s garden in Birmingham, Alabama. I have vines and evening primrose from his garden too, carried in seed form. I also was gifted plants from gardening friends from here in Laurel.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
There are several pieces of bronze sculpture that I made all over the garden: a sundial on the deck, an alligator in the hosta/fern garden, a figure of Pan near the blueberry/baptista plants. There are also several clay pieces on the deck: spheres, dog, and sprinkled around are columns of clay work, more spheres, a turtle, frogs etc. In the tiny pond is a bronze dragonfly and several bronze lizards. Around the bird bath fountain are clay stones.
My husband built all of the arbors, trellises and the door to nowhere. He is not a gardener but is my partner in creating features to support the plants.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
Luckily I have a combination of light and shade so I can grow different kinds of plants in the front and back yards. The soil is clay but over the past 43 years I have amended it quite a lot.
Locally native plants
Garden contains some, but not as many as I would like. I am just learning about the benefits of native plants.
Drought-tolerant plants: Some
Low-water-use plants: Some
Edible landscape
Yes, edible for humans and wildlife: raspberries, blueberries, cherries, grapes and vegetable garden
Insect-attracting plants
Lots of these including calamintha, 3 kinds of asters, all the fruiting shrubs and trees
Butterfly-friendly: Milkweed, butterfly plant, zinnia, parsley, cosmos
Bird-friendly
Lots of cover for birds with dense shrubs, lots of trees and several water sources
Hummingbird-friendly
Cardinal vine, crossvine, lobelia and feeders
Wildflowers: Not sure as everything looks wild at times
Kids-friendly
The swing set has been repurposed as an arbor for climbing hydrangea and burial site for beloved animals
Low maintenance: HAHA!
Formal garden: Not really
Deer-resistant
Don’t have a problem with deer, just squirrels snatching tomatoes and birds getting raspberries and blueberries
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use? Compost only
What do you do with your yard debris?
Put in personal compost pile or city picks up for recycle/compost program
How do you deal with persistent weeds? Dig, dig dig
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
The garden is always changing, from year to year as some plants prosper and others dwindle.
I am always trying out new plants and adding sculptures, tweaking the combinations of manmade objects and natural features.
Garden Features
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hostas, azaleas, etc.)?
Five kinds of fern and as many kinds of hosta, but also lots of clematis which I am trying to coax into growing onto roses. Native honeysuckle, wisteria, bignonia capreolata and more.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
I planted Nyssa Sylvatica (black gum) in the front yard and there are native maples in front and back, as well as willow oak and pin oak. Native bushes are viburnum (possumhaw), native azalea and chokecherry.
Native perennials include black eyed susan, phlox, echinacea, native ageratum, lobelia
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)
The crepe myrtles in the front yard were tiny sprigs from my father’s garden in Birmingham, Alabama. I have vines and evening primrose from his garden too, carried in seed form. I also was gifted plants from gardening friends from here in Laurel.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
There are several pieces of bronze sculpture that I made all over the garden: a sundial on the deck, an alligator in the hosta/fern garden, a figure of Pan near the blueberry/baptista plants. There are also several clay pieces on the deck: spheres, dog, and sprinkled around are columns of clay work, more spheres, a turtle, frogs etc. In the tiny pond is a bronze dragonfly and several bronze lizards. Around the bird bath fountain are clay stones.
My husband built all of the arbors, trellises and the door to nowhere. He is not a gardener but is my partner in creating features to support the plants.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
Luckily I have a combination of light and shade so I can grow different kinds of plants in the front and back yards. The soil is clay but over the past 43 years I have amended it quite a lot.
Stop 6: Stanley/McMillen– 205 4th St
How would you describe your garden?
Creative Garden – We really embrace color and texture in our garden. Things don’t always have to be matchy-matchy to be beautiful. Instead of highlighting a small number of plants and flowers, we like to include a large, diverse collection. We include one flower bed of bright annuals in every color and shape – they might not come back every year but they do make a huge impact when they are alive. It's nice to go to different nurseries and plant shops and just pick out what looks pretty, and mix everything in together. We also include really bright hanging baskets, to give our garden real curb appeal. We also have a flower bed of plants that come back every year. The maintenance on that flower bed is much less, and we plan to add to it more every year. We are also working on a fern collection.
Edible landscape We have several raised garden plots along the sides of our house and the backyard. On the side of our house, we grow an array of spring vegetables, including lettuces, collards, greens, fennel, etc. In these same beds, we grow beans, corn, squash and other autumn crops during the fall. In the backyard, we have a collection of raised beds emulating the design of a French “potager” (or “kitchen) garden. We grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, tomatillos, melon, and other warm season crops in the backyard. We start all of our vegetable plants from seed indoors using grow tents and professional lights. This enables us to save money (seeds are way cheaper than starts from the store) and also extend the growing season. We grow food from early March all the way through November, in a typical year.
Tech-Embracing Garden – Since we grow so many different kinds of plants and produce, it can be difficult taking care of the garden, especially in summer. To help eliminate the time needed to water the plants (and our exposure to mosquitos) during the summer, we have designed a timed watering system for some of our raised beds, and for our hanging baskets. We hook the timer up to our hose and the plants are watered automatically according to our specifications and schedule. We also use digital water meters and other tools such as soil testing kits, to help us properly take care of our plants. Also, we start many of our plants inside under grow lights in grow tents. Embracing technology has really allowed our garden to flourish.
About The GardenWhat, if any, fertilizer do you use?
Since we had to add so much new soil to our raised beds (much of it containing some fertilizer) we don’t have to regularly fertilize our garden. We add mulch with compost at the end of the growing season, and then work in compost to the soil before planting in the Spring. Our hanging flower baskets come with fertilizer pellets already in them.
What do you do with your yard debris?In past years, we’ve bagged up our yard debris and had DPW pick it up from our house once per week. This year, we’re building a backyard compost bin for our yard debris. We get so much debris with all the weeding, mowing, pruning, and harvesting that we decided it would be beneficial to compost at home.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
When we moved in three years ago, the weeds were unmanageable. We quickly discovered that due to the infestation of crab grass and such in our lawn, that keeping the weeds out of the beds was near impossible. To circumvent this problem, we built raised flower beds and vegetable beds wherever we planned to grow stuff. We like to closely plant flowers and vegetables together to give the weeds less room to take root. We also mulch in the fall to keep down potential weed growth. We found that by raising the beds up 6 inches to a foot or more in some places, we’ve overcome the majority of the weed challenge.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
We moved into our house three years ago. When we moved in, there were beds around the house, but not raised beds. The weeds were very unmanageable. We’ve since created raised beds with more defined borders to help with the weeds. In our backyard, there is an old shed that we’re removing, and we plan to put a backyard composter in its place. When we moved in, there was a very old, overgrown Wisteria. We trimmed it back, and cut down a couple small trees that the Wisteria had grown onto. We now have a nice shady sitting area under the Wisteria that is particularly nice during hot summers.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden? Our Wisteria plant/tree is a feature of our back garden. There are not many shady spots to sit out of the sun in our yard. The Wisteria provides a nice cool area to hang out. In the summer when it's bushy it also provides privacy – a little hang out cave of sorts. We like to eat lunch or dinner under there. Since I work from home, I sometimes bring my computer out there to do work. While Wisterias can be pretty invasive and dangerous to other plants, we keep it cut back so it doesn’t grow into surrounding trees, etc.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
We’re working on a fern collection in a shady part of our yard. Ferns remind me of Washington State, where my husband and I are from. The fern collection is not that impressive right now, but we hope to add to it every year.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
No, we don’t have many native plants in our garden.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)?
Since we just moved here three years ago, we don’t have any special stories about particular aspects of our garden (not yet at least).
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
I would like to highlight our “Potager,” or kitchen garden, in the backyard. We grow a large variety of vegetables out there in the summer. While cinder blocks aren’t the prettiest building material, the way we built our potager allows us a lot of flexibility. Because the blocks aren’t cemented together in any way, we can change the shape of the beds. The first year we had a different configuration, for example. Cinder blocks are also fairly cheap, and don’t rot or attract termites. We are adding a new plot to the potager right now, for melons and cucumbers.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)We have very clay-like soil. Sometimes, when you are digging in the ground, its hard to differentiate clumps of dirt from actual rocks. While we’ve grown vegetables right in the ground, they don’t do well in clay soil. The clay soil is why we built raised beds. Our yard is also the low point of the immediate neighborhood. As such, when it rains hard and fast, we get a substantial amount of water that pools in the yard.
We also have a large number of squirrels that live in and around our yard. They steal a lot of tomatoes during the summer. It is always a constant battle in how to deter them. We’ve discovered that we have to pick the tomatoes when they are green, and have them ripen inside. Otherwise, the squirrels take one bit out of all of them and toss them in the yard when they are finished.
Creative Garden – We really embrace color and texture in our garden. Things don’t always have to be matchy-matchy to be beautiful. Instead of highlighting a small number of plants and flowers, we like to include a large, diverse collection. We include one flower bed of bright annuals in every color and shape – they might not come back every year but they do make a huge impact when they are alive. It's nice to go to different nurseries and plant shops and just pick out what looks pretty, and mix everything in together. We also include really bright hanging baskets, to give our garden real curb appeal. We also have a flower bed of plants that come back every year. The maintenance on that flower bed is much less, and we plan to add to it more every year. We are also working on a fern collection.
Edible landscape We have several raised garden plots along the sides of our house and the backyard. On the side of our house, we grow an array of spring vegetables, including lettuces, collards, greens, fennel, etc. In these same beds, we grow beans, corn, squash and other autumn crops during the fall. In the backyard, we have a collection of raised beds emulating the design of a French “potager” (or “kitchen) garden. We grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, tomatillos, melon, and other warm season crops in the backyard. We start all of our vegetable plants from seed indoors using grow tents and professional lights. This enables us to save money (seeds are way cheaper than starts from the store) and also extend the growing season. We grow food from early March all the way through November, in a typical year.
Tech-Embracing Garden – Since we grow so many different kinds of plants and produce, it can be difficult taking care of the garden, especially in summer. To help eliminate the time needed to water the plants (and our exposure to mosquitos) during the summer, we have designed a timed watering system for some of our raised beds, and for our hanging baskets. We hook the timer up to our hose and the plants are watered automatically according to our specifications and schedule. We also use digital water meters and other tools such as soil testing kits, to help us properly take care of our plants. Also, we start many of our plants inside under grow lights in grow tents. Embracing technology has really allowed our garden to flourish.
About The GardenWhat, if any, fertilizer do you use?
Since we had to add so much new soil to our raised beds (much of it containing some fertilizer) we don’t have to regularly fertilize our garden. We add mulch with compost at the end of the growing season, and then work in compost to the soil before planting in the Spring. Our hanging flower baskets come with fertilizer pellets already in them.
What do you do with your yard debris?In past years, we’ve bagged up our yard debris and had DPW pick it up from our house once per week. This year, we’re building a backyard compost bin for our yard debris. We get so much debris with all the weeding, mowing, pruning, and harvesting that we decided it would be beneficial to compost at home.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
When we moved in three years ago, the weeds were unmanageable. We quickly discovered that due to the infestation of crab grass and such in our lawn, that keeping the weeds out of the beds was near impossible. To circumvent this problem, we built raised flower beds and vegetable beds wherever we planned to grow stuff. We like to closely plant flowers and vegetables together to give the weeds less room to take root. We also mulch in the fall to keep down potential weed growth. We found that by raising the beds up 6 inches to a foot or more in some places, we’ve overcome the majority of the weed challenge.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
We moved into our house three years ago. When we moved in, there were beds around the house, but not raised beds. The weeds were very unmanageable. We’ve since created raised beds with more defined borders to help with the weeds. In our backyard, there is an old shed that we’re removing, and we plan to put a backyard composter in its place. When we moved in, there was a very old, overgrown Wisteria. We trimmed it back, and cut down a couple small trees that the Wisteria had grown onto. We now have a nice shady sitting area under the Wisteria that is particularly nice during hot summers.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden? Our Wisteria plant/tree is a feature of our back garden. There are not many shady spots to sit out of the sun in our yard. The Wisteria provides a nice cool area to hang out. In the summer when it's bushy it also provides privacy – a little hang out cave of sorts. We like to eat lunch or dinner under there. Since I work from home, I sometimes bring my computer out there to do work. While Wisterias can be pretty invasive and dangerous to other plants, we keep it cut back so it doesn’t grow into surrounding trees, etc.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
We’re working on a fern collection in a shady part of our yard. Ferns remind me of Washington State, where my husband and I are from. The fern collection is not that impressive right now, but we hope to add to it every year.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
No, we don’t have many native plants in our garden.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)?
Since we just moved here three years ago, we don’t have any special stories about particular aspects of our garden (not yet at least).
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
I would like to highlight our “Potager,” or kitchen garden, in the backyard. We grow a large variety of vegetables out there in the summer. While cinder blocks aren’t the prettiest building material, the way we built our potager allows us a lot of flexibility. Because the blocks aren’t cemented together in any way, we can change the shape of the beds. The first year we had a different configuration, for example. Cinder blocks are also fairly cheap, and don’t rot or attract termites. We are adding a new plot to the potager right now, for melons and cucumbers.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)We have very clay-like soil. Sometimes, when you are digging in the ground, its hard to differentiate clumps of dirt from actual rocks. While we’ve grown vegetables right in the ground, they don’t do well in clay soil. The clay soil is why we built raised beds. Our yard is also the low point of the immediate neighborhood. As such, when it rains hard and fast, we get a substantial amount of water that pools in the yard.
We also have a large number of squirrels that live in and around our yard. They steal a lot of tomatoes during the summer. It is always a constant battle in how to deter them. We’ve discovered that we have to pick the tomatoes when they are green, and have them ripen inside. Otherwise, the squirrels take one bit out of all of them and toss them in the yard when they are finished.
Stop 7: Snyder-513 Prince George St
How would you describe your garden?)
I have both local and native plants. Plants attract butterflies, bees and birds.
About The GardenHow do you deal with persistent weeds?
Maintenance – weeding, watering, and feeding. Constant weeding, no gloves and dirty fingernails. I now use gardening sleeves for protection.
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?Fertilizer – Osmocote, Organic Land and Sea Compost, Biotone, Bloom Booster
No compost pile
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
My mother had a rose garden at the end of the backyard on both sides of the sidewalk. When we took over the family home, we had a lot of yard work to do. I put in the perennial garden in 2020 and the raised boxes. The side of the house is all shade. I call it Hosta Way. There are also ferns there now. There is a 2nd perennial garden under the kitchen window. The sidewalk in the backyard is the original one from the early 1900’s.
The front yard is where I put my decorative pots containing annuals. The concrete bench was purchased in Carroll County, moved to Delaware, moved to Frederick, and finally back to Prince George Street. My husband says he is not moving it again. There is a pink dogwood and a crepe myrtle in the front yard. I like being able to see flowers and plants from the front porch, the kitchen window, and the back porch. I water 2-3 times a week and feed on Sunday. I have soaker hoses throughout the side and backyard. I also have what I call the alley garden which contains daylilies.
I have both local and native plants. Plants attract butterflies, bees and birds.
About The GardenHow do you deal with persistent weeds?
Maintenance – weeding, watering, and feeding. Constant weeding, no gloves and dirty fingernails. I now use gardening sleeves for protection.
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?Fertilizer – Osmocote, Organic Land and Sea Compost, Biotone, Bloom Booster
No compost pile
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
My mother had a rose garden at the end of the backyard on both sides of the sidewalk. When we took over the family home, we had a lot of yard work to do. I put in the perennial garden in 2020 and the raised boxes. The side of the house is all shade. I call it Hosta Way. There are also ferns there now. There is a 2nd perennial garden under the kitchen window. The sidewalk in the backyard is the original one from the early 1900’s.
The front yard is where I put my decorative pots containing annuals. The concrete bench was purchased in Carroll County, moved to Delaware, moved to Frederick, and finally back to Prince George Street. My husband says he is not moving it again. There is a pink dogwood and a crepe myrtle in the front yard. I like being able to see flowers and plants from the front porch, the kitchen window, and the back porch. I water 2-3 times a week and feed on Sunday. I have soaker hoses throughout the side and backyard. I also have what I call the alley garden which contains daylilies.
Stop 8: Montpelier House Museum– 9650 Muirkirk Rd
How would you describe your garden?
Bird-friendly
Formal boxwood garden
Deer-resistant -- I wish
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
Because Montpelier Historic House Museum is part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission we don’t know what, if any, fertilizer is used. Park and Planning has a very limited number of horticulture folks with numerous grounds to maintain. We do know they aerate the grounds every other year, cut the lawns at least once a week, and maintain the gardens. Any fertilizer that is used is applied in late fall. Occasionally an herbicide is sprayed on the brick walkways where it may be a tripping or slipping hazard.
What do you do with your yard debris?
The horticulture crew gathers debris into their dump truck. We don’t know where it goes when it leaves us but in the spring those same trucks bring back mulch and compost.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
We hope the deer eat them; however, seriously, once in a while the horticulture crew does some weeding. Occasionally volunteers do some. Employees of M-NCPPC are spread pretty thin since there are many, many park properties in need of care.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
Major garden renovation was done in the early 1980’s when numerous, overgrown American boxwoods were removed from the riverside of the house. This was done in an effort to provide a vista similar to the original. In the mid-2000’s, as part of a large moisture abatement project, very large boxwoods were removed from close to the foundations of the historic house.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?
There are a few very special features. One is the triple blossom white dogwood tree in the circle at the Carriage Entrance of the historic house. We believe, from letters, that the tree was an anniversary gift from the last private owner, Breckinridge Long, to his wife in the 1930’s. Instead of the standard 4 petals, each flower has 8 to 12 petals. It is especially beautiful in mid to late April.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
An English boxwood maze, next to the 1790’s Belvedere or Summer House, is estimated to be more than 200 years old. The Summer House is a structure in a formal garden used for outside seating during hot weather. This one is the only one in the United States on its original foundation. In a letter from George Washington, it was mentioned that he wants boxwood like he saw at the Snowden home for his home at Mount Vernon. Since boxwoods are started from clippings, this is certainly a possibility. Realizing how slowly English boxwood grows, makes a visit to the maze especially interesting.
Another significant specimen is the osage orange tree, near the fenced herb garden. Sometimes called hedge apple, this male tree doesn’t bear fruit. Before the invention of barbed wire, these thorny trees were often used as hedges. Seldom is an osage orange tree as large as this one. They are more often referred to as hedges or shrubs. The female tree bears the inedible fruit, which was put in baskets near open doorways to discourage rodents. This was a practice in the 17th and 18th century. The osage orange at Montpelier is the second largest in Prince George’s County. The largest is on private property in Clinton.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
There are a couple of rain gardens on the property to help filter contaminants from run-off. This improves the quality of the water that recharges groundwater. The rain gardens are at the large parking lot. A rain garden helps to provide a solution to stormwater pollution. This is something that we can all do to help our world.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden).
For a number of years in the 1980’s thru 2015 small English boxwood plants, grown from the boxwoods in the maze, were sold during the Festival of Herbs, Tea and the Arts. There are probably a few growing in Laurel right now.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
Chesapeake Woodturners have collected specimens of wood from trees on the property. From a limb of the osage orange, the artists created pens that are for sale in the Gift Shop.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
At the time the historic house was built the Patuxent River would have been flowing where Route 197 is presently. Rocky Gorge Dam was built in the 1950’s which rerouted the river, provided a reservoir, and allowed a shopping center and apartments in Crystal Plaza across Route 197. During Hurricane Agnes in 1972 that whole area was under water.
Bird-friendly
Formal boxwood garden
Deer-resistant -- I wish
About The Garden
What, if any, fertilizer do you use?
Because Montpelier Historic House Museum is part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission we don’t know what, if any, fertilizer is used. Park and Planning has a very limited number of horticulture folks with numerous grounds to maintain. We do know they aerate the grounds every other year, cut the lawns at least once a week, and maintain the gardens. Any fertilizer that is used is applied in late fall. Occasionally an herbicide is sprayed on the brick walkways where it may be a tripping or slipping hazard.
What do you do with your yard debris?
The horticulture crew gathers debris into their dump truck. We don’t know where it goes when it leaves us but in the spring those same trucks bring back mulch and compost.
How do you deal with persistent weeds?
We hope the deer eat them; however, seriously, once in a while the horticulture crew does some weeding. Occasionally volunteers do some. Employees of M-NCPPC are spread pretty thin since there are many, many park properties in need of care.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
Major garden renovation was done in the early 1980’s when numerous, overgrown American boxwoods were removed from the riverside of the house. This was done in an effort to provide a vista similar to the original. In the mid-2000’s, as part of a large moisture abatement project, very large boxwoods were removed from close to the foundations of the historic house.
Garden Features
Do you have any specimen trees-shrubs that would be a focal point of your garden?
There are a few very special features. One is the triple blossom white dogwood tree in the circle at the Carriage Entrance of the historic house. We believe, from letters, that the tree was an anniversary gift from the last private owner, Breckinridge Long, to his wife in the 1930’s. Instead of the standard 4 petals, each flower has 8 to 12 petals. It is especially beautiful in mid to late April.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
An English boxwood maze, next to the 1790’s Belvedere or Summer House, is estimated to be more than 200 years old. The Summer House is a structure in a formal garden used for outside seating during hot weather. This one is the only one in the United States on its original foundation. In a letter from George Washington, it was mentioned that he wants boxwood like he saw at the Snowden home for his home at Mount Vernon. Since boxwoods are started from clippings, this is certainly a possibility. Realizing how slowly English boxwood grows, makes a visit to the maze especially interesting.
Another significant specimen is the osage orange tree, near the fenced herb garden. Sometimes called hedge apple, this male tree doesn’t bear fruit. Before the invention of barbed wire, these thorny trees were often used as hedges. Seldom is an osage orange tree as large as this one. They are more often referred to as hedges or shrubs. The female tree bears the inedible fruit, which was put in baskets near open doorways to discourage rodents. This was a practice in the 17th and 18th century. The osage orange at Montpelier is the second largest in Prince George’s County. The largest is on private property in Clinton.
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs?
There are a couple of rain gardens on the property to help filter contaminants from run-off. This improves the quality of the water that recharges groundwater. The rain gardens are at the large parking lot. A rain garden helps to provide a solution to stormwater pollution. This is something that we can all do to help our world.
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden).
For a number of years in the 1980’s thru 2015 small English boxwood plants, grown from the boxwoods in the maze, were sold during the Festival of Herbs, Tea and the Arts. There are probably a few growing in Laurel right now.
Do you have a particular water feature, sculpture, or hardscape that you would like to highlight?
Chesapeake Woodturners have collected specimens of wood from trees on the property. From a limb of the osage orange, the artists created pens that are for sale in the Gift Shop.
Describe any unusual physical features of your garden. (Stream? Extreme shade? Extreme slope? Difficult soil? etc.)
At the time the historic house was built the Patuxent River would have been flowing where Route 197 is presently. Rocky Gorge Dam was built in the 1950’s which rerouted the river, provided a reservoir, and allowed a shopping center and apartments in Crystal Plaza across Route 197. During Hurricane Agnes in 1972 that whole area was under water.
Secret Garden
Laurel Manor House sits on nearly an acre with various garden beds which we have built and expanded upon every year since we purchased the property in 2011. Our goal has always been to have low-maintenance perennial beds which bloom spring through fall with a variety of mostly native plants enticing to pollinators. Another goal: plant trees that will endure for decades beyond our ownership of the property.
Our gardens are filled with numerous plants purchased from nurseries, but we also have beds filled with perennials which were shared from the excess of friends and family. Plants received in friendship include irises, daisies, beautyberry, canna lilies, lily-of-the-valley, lilacs, catmint, forsythia, hostas, vinca, and a pawpaw tree.
With the purchase of this property we inherited several trees: a sixty-year-old willow oak, two holly trees, (one of which has a Champion Tree designation by the Laurel Tree board), a hickory in the front yard, and two black walnut trees west of the driveway (an area we refer to as Walnut Grove.) In 2012, our need to replace the failing sewer line had the potential of threatening the life of the willow oak which canopies Montgomery Street on the north edge of our property, as it grows directly over the line. We found a plumbing company (Benjamin Franklin Plumbing) that performed the job without destroying tree roots. The extra cost for the job saved the tree and the eventual expense of removing an eighty-foot-tall dead tree.
When our property was brand-new to us, before we planned any of the garden beds, we initially focused on the border between our backyard and the church parking lot. We wanted a natural barrier, so we thinned out the lilac bushes from our home in Howard County, Laurel, then planted lilac bushes in a row along the parking lot. Then we added the row of crepe myrtle trees, and eventually obtained forsythia from a friend in Pennsylvania to add to the parking lot border.
Next, in planning a layout for a new driveway to access our new garage doors (the carriage house had not been used as a garage in forty years prior to our renovations), we planted a “deer resistant perennial garden” following a Better Homes and Gardens design Lisa found online. We refer to the driveway garden as the Spring Garden; it includes peonies, irises, creeping thyme, lambs' ear, yarrow, and Russian sage.
The Summer Garden, on the east side of the barn, came a few years later after Dave broke up some concrete and sifted out gravel (used in other parts of our landscaping) to create this bed. The Summer Garden attracts butterflies and other pollinators; it includes a butterfly bush, common milkweed and swamp milkweed, coneflowers, daisies, black-eyed Susans, bee balm, etc.
The well house is located on the northwest corner of our house near the kitchen door. The Well-House Garden includes a pot of mint, daisies, Sweet William (native phlox), milkweed, coneflowers, and others.
The largest garden bed is along the front (north side) of the house, between the front porch on the east side, and the well-house on the west (driveway side). This area includes the small garden pond which Dave built in 2020, and a variety of plantings: hellebores bloom before spring; creeping phlox, grape hyacinth, trillium in early spring, followed by hydrangeas, rhododendrons, beautyberry shrubs, astilbe, asters, hostas, liriope, etc. Goldfish in the pond keep mosquito larvae in check. The stream attracts thirsty birds and squirrels while also acting as a public bath for a variety of bird species.
The Holly Bed, centered in the front yard is a shady bed with mountain laurels, miniature rhododendron, ferns, and Appalachian sedge (new this year.)
The north-west corner of the property is a work-in-progress as we have attempted and failed to grow azaleas. In that bed you'll find: redbud tree, coneflowers, and Russian sage. Lily-of-the-valley on the corner slope near the driveway.
Bed along the road: a perennial ground cover, tulips, hostas, vinca
South-east corner: canna lilies, clematis, coneflowers, annuals
What, if any, fertilizer do you use? Holly Tone on mountain laurel, rhododendron (and azaleas)
What do you do with your yard debris?
Sometimes we put yard debris at the curb for collection by the city; usually we dump it behind the carriage house in the back (south-west) corner of our yard
How do you deal with persistent weeds?We mulch the beds to reduce the number of weeds, and we (continuously) pull weeds as they appear.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
Our property was overgrown with English ivy. Two very large cedars at the front of the property were dead and had to be removed. We eventually removed three other trees that were damaged in storms.
Trees that we have planted in the past ten years include three oak trees (a pin oak, black oak white oak), three redbuds, a dogwood, two chestnuts, a sycamore, and six crepe myrtles.
Landscape renovation began with adding dirt around the foundation to help reduce water in the basement: one large dump truck of fill dirt, another of topsoil.
We dug up the old undulating brick paths, then hired a landscaping company (Kalyx) to add new brick paths and other hardscape features (patio, driveway pull-off, landing and steps leading to the front door.)
Dave tilled and seeded the lawn. In 2020, he built the pond feature and we began the front-bed plantings. In 2021, Dave built the well-house and added to the plantings around it.
We are continually adding new plantings. This year: Virginia bluebells and Appalachian sedge.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
Herb garden: oregano, rosemary, chives, tarragon, basil, parsley, lavender, thyme
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs? yes
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)Dave is particularly fond of sycamore trees. More than twenty years ago he grew several sycamores from seed and planted them in the designated wetland behind our home in Howard County. The sycamore tree in our backyard is an offspring of one of those trees. It stood less than two feet tall when he planted it here in 2011.
Our gardens are filled with numerous plants purchased from nurseries, but we also have beds filled with perennials which were shared from the excess of friends and family. Plants received in friendship include irises, daisies, beautyberry, canna lilies, lily-of-the-valley, lilacs, catmint, forsythia, hostas, vinca, and a pawpaw tree.
With the purchase of this property we inherited several trees: a sixty-year-old willow oak, two holly trees, (one of which has a Champion Tree designation by the Laurel Tree board), a hickory in the front yard, and two black walnut trees west of the driveway (an area we refer to as Walnut Grove.) In 2012, our need to replace the failing sewer line had the potential of threatening the life of the willow oak which canopies Montgomery Street on the north edge of our property, as it grows directly over the line. We found a plumbing company (Benjamin Franklin Plumbing) that performed the job without destroying tree roots. The extra cost for the job saved the tree and the eventual expense of removing an eighty-foot-tall dead tree.
When our property was brand-new to us, before we planned any of the garden beds, we initially focused on the border between our backyard and the church parking lot. We wanted a natural barrier, so we thinned out the lilac bushes from our home in Howard County, Laurel, then planted lilac bushes in a row along the parking lot. Then we added the row of crepe myrtle trees, and eventually obtained forsythia from a friend in Pennsylvania to add to the parking lot border.
Next, in planning a layout for a new driveway to access our new garage doors (the carriage house had not been used as a garage in forty years prior to our renovations), we planted a “deer resistant perennial garden” following a Better Homes and Gardens design Lisa found online. We refer to the driveway garden as the Spring Garden; it includes peonies, irises, creeping thyme, lambs' ear, yarrow, and Russian sage.
The Summer Garden, on the east side of the barn, came a few years later after Dave broke up some concrete and sifted out gravel (used in other parts of our landscaping) to create this bed. The Summer Garden attracts butterflies and other pollinators; it includes a butterfly bush, common milkweed and swamp milkweed, coneflowers, daisies, black-eyed Susans, bee balm, etc.
The well house is located on the northwest corner of our house near the kitchen door. The Well-House Garden includes a pot of mint, daisies, Sweet William (native phlox), milkweed, coneflowers, and others.
The largest garden bed is along the front (north side) of the house, between the front porch on the east side, and the well-house on the west (driveway side). This area includes the small garden pond which Dave built in 2020, and a variety of plantings: hellebores bloom before spring; creeping phlox, grape hyacinth, trillium in early spring, followed by hydrangeas, rhododendrons, beautyberry shrubs, astilbe, asters, hostas, liriope, etc. Goldfish in the pond keep mosquito larvae in check. The stream attracts thirsty birds and squirrels while also acting as a public bath for a variety of bird species.
The Holly Bed, centered in the front yard is a shady bed with mountain laurels, miniature rhododendron, ferns, and Appalachian sedge (new this year.)
The north-west corner of the property is a work-in-progress as we have attempted and failed to grow azaleas. In that bed you'll find: redbud tree, coneflowers, and Russian sage. Lily-of-the-valley on the corner slope near the driveway.
Bed along the road: a perennial ground cover, tulips, hostas, vinca
South-east corner: canna lilies, clematis, coneflowers, annuals
What, if any, fertilizer do you use? Holly Tone on mountain laurel, rhododendron (and azaleas)
What do you do with your yard debris?
Sometimes we put yard debris at the curb for collection by the city; usually we dump it behind the carriage house in the back (south-west) corner of our yard
How do you deal with persistent weeds?We mulch the beds to reduce the number of weeds, and we (continuously) pull weeds as they appear.
What was your garden like 10 years ago, did you partake in any garden/landscape renovation?
Our property was overgrown with English ivy. Two very large cedars at the front of the property were dead and had to be removed. We eventually removed three other trees that were damaged in storms.
Trees that we have planted in the past ten years include three oak trees (a pin oak, black oak white oak), three redbuds, a dogwood, two chestnuts, a sycamore, and six crepe myrtles.
Landscape renovation began with adding dirt around the foundation to help reduce water in the basement: one large dump truck of fill dirt, another of topsoil.
We dug up the old undulating brick paths, then hired a landscaping company (Kalyx) to add new brick paths and other hardscape features (patio, driveway pull-off, landing and steps leading to the front door.)
Dave tilled and seeded the lawn. In 2020, he built the pond feature and we began the front-bed plantings. In 2021, Dave built the well-house and added to the plantings around it.
We are continually adding new plantings. This year: Virginia bluebells and Appalachian sedge.
Do you have a collection of perennials, shrubs that you would like to highlight as a feature in your garden (i.e., fern collection, variety of different cultivars of hosta’s, azalea’s, etc.)?
Herb garden: oregano, rosemary, chives, tarragon, basil, parsley, lavender, thyme
Does your garden feature a variety of native plants, trees, and shrubs? yes
Is there a special story about a particular tree or shrub (i.e. family heirloom tree, shrubs that you have been able to carry over into your garden)Dave is particularly fond of sycamore trees. More than twenty years ago he grew several sycamores from seed and planted them in the designated wetland behind our home in Howard County. The sycamore tree in our backyard is an offspring of one of those trees. It stood less than two feet tall when he planted it here in 2011.
