I know that many of my fellow gardeners might consider the phrase “creative vegetable gardening” to be an oxymoron. What’s so creative about growing a lot of green stuff in straight rows in a rectangular plot?

Let me suggest some ways that your next vegetable gardening experience might be more creative …

Add Some Color

Add some marigolds to the borders of your vegetable garden; even if your plot is a basic rectangle, the color alone will make the garden more visually appealing. Of course, the marigolds may also help prevent nematodes and other pests from doing damage to your vegetables.

Add some color within the vegetable garden. Volunteer plume celosias have been showing up in both of my vegetable gardens for the past several years. I allow several of them to remain throughout the season, even if they interrupt a planned row of corn or carefully spaced tomato plants. Last year I also had a volunteer sunflower in my vegetable garden. You can add plume celosia or sunflowers to your vegetable garden. The color and texture of the flowers is a wonderful contrast to the otherwise predictable pattern and color of my vegetable gardens. And, both the celosias and the sunflowers tend to be self-seeding annuals that create wonderful surprises each season.

Throw a Curveball

You don’t have to grow vegetables in straight lines in rectangular plots. Why not create a curved border or two instead of all 90-degree angles? Curved borders can be more pleasing to the eye, and may also be easier for mowing. In his excellent biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson noted that Jobs – perhaps one of the most inspired designers of our time - insisted on curved corners for the iPhone, because curved corners felt and looked more pleasing than a “squared off” rectangle.

Plant Vegetables in Your Flower Garden

If it makes any sense to plant flowers in your vegetable garden (and, I think that it does), then why not consider planting vegetables in the flower garden? Earlier this year, I had some extra garlic; so, I planted several cloves within an area that contains an azalea and a daylily. I expect to harvest some extra garlic in July, without detracting from my colorful daylily.

I’ve always liked the pale purple flowers of eggplants, as well as the deep purple color of the fruits (yes, eggplants are technically fruits, because they have seeds inside them; but, we tend to think of them as part of our vegetable garden). So, this year, I’m planning on adding an eggplant to one of my perennial flower gardens. If I don’t like the effect as the season develops, I can always pull it out. But, I think it will be interesting.

Decorate Your Vegetable Garden

Most of us are comfortable adding decorations to our flower gardens. How about adding some decoration to the vegetable garden? Of course, this may require some additional planning, as many vegetable gardens don’t allow us to see very far into them. So, your decorations would need to be tall, or placed near the edges of the gardens. I think that a decoration toward the outside of the vegetable garden could be very interesting. I’m even thinking of adding a few solar lights to my vegetable garden … maybe they’ll scare away some of the insects that would otherwise do damage to my precious plants overnight. Or, maybe they’ll attract even more insects! We’ll see.

My wife and I bought an old house 37 years ago. The decision was based almost entirely on the house itself, an interesting three story brick Victorian dwelling with a big wrap-around porch and, as the realtor said, a lot of potential. We first saw the house in December and moved in toward the end of March. The following spring and summer we gradually learned about our new landscape. One of our delightful surprises was that a big shrub at one corner of the house was a beautiful hydrangea that produced an abundance of big blue puffball-like flowers – with absolutely no input from me or my wife. I’ve loved hydrangeas ever since then.

Pruning

Through trial and error, I gradually learned how to prune the hydrangea for good results the following season. At some point along the way, I learned that older hydrangea cultivars only produce flowers from old (last year’s or older) woody stems, and that all new growth is just plain green leaves and stems the first year. In early spring, I remove only the obviously dead branches and all old flower heads. I may trim some very long healthy branches, simply to keep the hydrangea from getting into other perennials nearby.

There are a number of stories about folks who rigorously pruned their hydrangea each fall, cutting them all the way back, only to be rewarded with green growth – and no flowers – for years, until they learned that older varieties only produce flowers on older growth.

“Everblooming” Hydrangeas

Newer cultivars have been developed that produce flowers from both old and new growth. Perhaps the most popular of these new hydrangeas is Endless Summer®, which has been promoted as a hydrangea that will produce flowers all season long.

This is a wonderful example of plant breeders developing new varieties of old favorites with improved characteristics. And, it gives us gardeners more choices and more interesting options. I like both the old and the new varieties; our collection now consists of seven different hydrangeas.

Colors

The classic hydrangea in our part of the country is a bushy perennial that can grow well over six feet tall, and typically produces an abundance of big blue flowers from mid-summer to fall. Of course, there are red and white hydrangeas as well. The color of the blooms is caused by the pH of the soil, and one can actually cause a red or pale blue hydrangea to produce rich blue flowers by adding aluminum or aluminum sulfate to the soil to make it more acidic. (Hydra Blue is a popular product for this, available at most garden centers.) I suppose that the reason we see more blue hydrangeas around here is that we tend to have more acidic soil. However, you cannot change the color of a white hydrangea by manipulating the soil chemistry. White hydrangeas will always be white.

I’ve planted a trio of hydrangeas near our house that is my own personal red, white, and blue garden. When I add a little bit of Hydra Blue to the blue one, the display is nothing less than spectacular. A few cut flowers from each plant can create a wonderfully patriotic bouquet during the summer.

Dried Hydrangea Bouquets

At the end of the gardening season, we often clip a few large flowers on 18” stems and allow them to dry naturally. They can make an interesting winter bouquet that needs virtually no maintenance. Many floral shops have special flower spray paints that can be used to intensify the colors of dried flowers. I’ve never done this, but I’ve seen it done by others. It’s on my list of things to try this year. If it works as well as I think it should, I’ll update the blog with some new photos.

Bugs
Most observers suggest that there may be a larger population of insects, and that they’ll be around earlier, this spring. Prolonged freeze cycles will kill some insects, and many parts of the country didn’t have any prolonged hard freeze period this winter. The very mild March weather throughout the country suggests that some harmful garden insects – as well as fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes – may be problematic a little earlier this year.

However, the mild winter has also been kind to beneficial insects. So, those of us who are careful not to harm the beneficial bugs in our gardens may not suffer any significant increase in insect damage. Nature has a wonderful way of keeping things in balance.

On the flip side, a recent cold snap in parts of the country may have helped control some of the insect population that became active earlier than usual because of the mild winter.

Lawns
The absence of a normal long term freeze cycle that most of us in the North, Midwest, Middle Atlantic, and New England states are accustomed to experiencing may have some adverse affects on our lawns.

The normal freezing and thawing cycles cause a natural fracturing and aerating of the top layer of the soil. Also, long term freezes tend to kill harmful lawn fungi that may have bloomed during a very moist fall.

And, to the extent that a mild winter meant more of us were outside puttering around in our unfrozen yards may have contributed a little bit to soil compaction. Of course, the mild spring caused lawn weeds to germinate much earlier than normal.

This may be a very good year for an early season aeration of your turf.

Perennials and Fruit Trees
The very mild winter and an unseasonably warm March caused many perennials and fruit trees to bud earlier than normal. Unfortunately, some of those buds were susceptible to a late March cold snap that killed some of the tender plant tissue. This hydrangea had started budding when we got hit with two consecutive days of overnight frost.

Most plants and trees can survive this kind of weather cycle; but, it might not be very pretty for a couple of weeks.

Some additional early spring pruning may be necessary this year.

Compost
One of the benefits of the extremely mild winter will be that compost will be ready sooner. Most of us in the upper half of the country are used to our compost piles freezing solid for all or most of the winter.

I actually turned my compost bin on Groundhog Day and noticed a healthy and active population of worms in the top layer of my compost! They were eating and multiplying like they normally do in May or June.

What have you observed?
Let us know what you have observed with regard to the mild winter and very warm March. Have you had any problems with plants budding or flowering too early? Have you seen any bugs that you normally wouldn’t see for several more weeks?

If you have any other tips to share with your fellow Mantis gardeners, let us know.

Started in 1829, the event has blossomed (sorry) into the largest indoor flower show in the world, with 10 acres of breathtaking displays and over 150 vendors of garden-related products.

This year’s show theme - “Hawaii: Islands of Aloha” – is certain to provide some dramatic photo opportunities, which I plan to enjoy. We who live in the Philly area hear a lot of publicity about the Flower Show on the radio and TV as the first week of March approaches. One of the displays that I’m eager to see is the 30 foot high waterfall – inside the Convention Center!

I’ll try to get some good photos to share on the blog next week or soon after that. The show opens Sunday, March 4^th and runs through the following Sunday, March 11^th. If you have a chance to attend this year’s show, stop by the Mantis booth - #818/#919 – to say “hi” and tell us what you like at the Flower Show.

… updated March 12, 2012

Well, the Flower Show was wonderful. I’m always amazed at the profusion of color and creativity – all indoors, and in the middle of a big city!

Just inside the entrance was the 30 foot tall waterfall, complete with music and lights that constantly changed color.

There were exotic flowers that I’ll never attempt to grow in Pennsylvania; but seeing the real flowers – especially at the end of winter – was much more enjoyable than seeing photos or videos of them.

There were flower arrangements that were both very complex and delightfully simple. There really is beauty in simplicity.

For those of us who genuinely enjoy living and entertaining outside, there were front porch garden designs and very inviting deck and patio designs. While we can’t grow all of the same exotic varieties that our Hawaiian friends can, we can borrow some of the decorating ideas and incorporate our own native plants. I’m even more motivated now to add more containers to our deck this year.

There was a “wall of lettuce” that was made of dozens of flats of lettuce seedlings attached to a wall at a very slight angle to keep the plants from falling out. Don’t try this at home!

And, the beautiful display of bonsai trees is always fascinating. My favorite was a 70 year old Cypress tree that was about 18 inches tall!

Spring cleaning for us includes the obligatory window cleaning (I focus on the result of being able to better see the wonders of spring vs. the chore of cleaning multiple surfaces of lots of windows), deck and porch cleaning, and a re-evaluation of all of the stuff in my basement and garage. My wife and I aren’t hoarders, but we don’t always see the value of some of the things one of us chooses to keep.

Some years I have a short written “to do” list of things that need to be cleaned or checked out. Sometimes I just have a mental list, which seems to make the process a little less daunting and often more enjoyable.

This year, one of the things on my mental list is to consider using some of the interesting containers I’ve saved over the years for outdoor planters or flower vases. This is part of my spring cleaning list because when my wife says “Throw it out” I’ll be able to say “It’ll make a really interesting planter for our deck.” We love to entertain outside, and I think that you can almost always find room for one or two more planters or vases. And, I feel better about using them than contributing them to the local trash stream. Some of the containers on my list might need just a little bit of work before they can be used as planters for annuals or vases for cut flowers.

My wife bought an old milk can from Lancaster, PA at a yard sale some years ago. It’s been sitting in our garage for years, and she really likes it. This year, I’m going to clean it up and make into an attractive planter or plant stand.

We have a watering can that no longer holds water (that’ll happen when water inside the can freezes and makes a small split in the seam). It’ll make an interesting container for cut flowers on our deck.

We bought an old milk carton many years ago because it had the name of a local dairy imprinted on the side. Unfortunately, the dairy is long gone; but, the carton lives on as nice reminder of simpler times. I think this will be a good planter and perhaps a conversation starter for our summer outdoor parties.

Our old berry lug from a farm in California somehow found its way to Pennsylvania and to our collection. It, too, should make an interesting container for several small potted geraniums.

I plan to have the “after” photos to show you this summer. Wish me luck!