Create a FOUR-SEASON GARDEN Bed: Color All Year Round - Ep. 200

We introduced the 'Yellow Garden' a couple weeks ago on this channel, and I finally got a second wind to begin putting together an exciting plant palette, which will turn this garden into MORE than a 'Yellow Garden' and one that not only has continued 4-season interest, but hues of yellows, oranges, rusty reds, purples, and blues. We see this as a garden that will connect the color ways of all the surrounding landscape and gardens, so choosing plants feels more intentional. Enjoy the planting!
And special thanks to @EspomaOrganic for being our partners in this video. We're using the following items below, which may include affiliate links:
- Espoma Soil Acidifier: amzn.to/3sFaz2w
- Espoma Mushroom Compost: amzn.to/45F2XM4
See what the garden was before -
Big Plans for Weedy Gardens: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2i4c6GsobFkZsUsi=ZkdBzhzWiwv4t7a9
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[@Fellowtellurian]

What I love about these videos is that to make them, you have a library of small 10 second clips stored on a computer with names of the plants in the video so you can splice them into this longer videos when their names are mentioned. That’s a level of organization I live for!

[@gocurtis27]

Thank you for all your knowledge and thank you for providing total costs for your projects. It helps us plan our projects better.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad it's useful to y'all.

[@pierrelipperheide7981]

I just went on a hiking trip through some natural Erica habitat here in Germany and the sea of pink and purple is just stunning. Especially the large, bell-flowered species. I was surprised to see how large they can get, almost small shrubs! Perfect addition to your conifer gardens. For a more habitat like planting you could add gooseberry or huckleberry.

[@ac42405]

Stunning work done there; seriously! Gawd it looks so great. I so enjoy your thoughtfulness in your plant selection. And your fabulous overall approach to garden design is the wave of the future -- I'm hoping. It must be very exciting (and rewarding) to dream of the years ahead in the little slice of heaven you are nurturing and developing.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We love seeing the garden come together. Hard to remember what it had looked like and just had to re-watch this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZfFcnmKmZ2bpqs and it's crazy to see how bare and weedy everything was. No front gardens. Barely any plants in the gardens. It's cool to see it all come together and to really be able to paint with flowers and grasses and trees. Glad you're enjoying the videos. Thanks for writing in and watching.

[@Alwaysherethere]

Fall is just around the corner. I can't tell the difference either. That's going to look so pretty!❤

[@raselbx]

SRO, ‘Fire chief’ is going to “pop” in the winter, but you already know that! Great choice.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Yeah, can't wait because a lot of these evergreens tend to turn yellows, oranges and reds in the fall and winter. Will be quite a show in the bed once we're finished with it!

[@raselbx]

@@FlockFingerLakes Y’all are so fortunate to have such a large property. I would be doing equally as much planting and designing as you three are. I am digging (pun intended) your gardening skillz!

[@thedivide3688]

We grow a lot of Heathers and Heaths in the PNW. It's one of the biggest sellers in the garden centers out here.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I think you have growers out there for heathers / heaths. I don't know any growers on the east coast that grow them. It's curious too because most of the PNW has similar growing zones (5/6) and annual precipitation (~40" ) as we do.

[@thedivide3688]

I like growing them alpine style. Neglected and squeezed between rocks. It's very interesting to see what growers grow from one region to another and why they don't grow certain things. I'm excited to see what they'll look like at Flock Finger Lakes in a few years. Thank you for a wonderful channel. You are always a wealth of information. @@FlockFingerLakes

[@cefcat5733]

I love your united creations. I once lived in a building which looked over a totally wild piece of land, untouched by farming. The colors were vibrant, although covered by a mist each morning. Autumn will be exciting at Flock. Hope Sander is feeling better. Maybe Dr. Berg in KZbin has some info about that illness. He makes time to read and inform, about all of the latest books, papers and studies, which come out, about anything medical. Sten Eckberg is also very good. ❤

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Autumn is one of our favorite times of year and I sense this will be a long autumn this year. Maybe not as far as colors go, but because it already is starting to feel like autumn some mornings and afternoons here. And the birds seemed to wrap their breeding season really early this year compared to last. I think the El Nino weathers have something to do with it this year. And so nice that you had a chance to see a landscape covered in mist. We love the mist that rolls in off the mountains here. It's at least a 1-2x/weekly affair. So ethereal!

[@barbarasimoes9463]

Beautiful. I just planted some winterberry and aronia in a garden that tends to be quite moist. I have a few winterberry already, and they kind of disappear during the gardening months, but boy, in winter, when I'm craving color, they sure come through. They are native and the birds can eat them as needed. I was thinking that they might be a nice addition to your garden color palette. I also just planted a button bush. (I have an artesian well where the water makes the ground very wet and I'm concerned about deer flies and mosquitoes.) The bush can take standing water and should fill the area of concern. The color on it is phenomenal and apparently a great native pollinator bush providing cover for many animals. I'm excited to take a problem area and turn it around to be a positive. I have many blueberries nearby and the amount of water is too much even for them. Hopefully, these extra shrubs will help. The fall and winter color should be extraordinary. I've never done grasses. I was given some muhly grass as a "free gift" when I ordered other stuff. It is not hardy in my zone 5 garden, so I don't know why that was the chosen gift. I planted it, and of course it died, which was kind of a relief. I'm worried about the maintenance on grasses--cutting it down, dividing, etc. as well as it jumping and spreading. Is this founded?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

I love me some fruiting groundcovers. The wintergreens and Aronias made it in some of our gardens here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qam2ZqSXZtKCnMksi=2nrg5u_UR0L9bqUP and we have winterberries that had lovingly been planted by the owners before us and carried through with more Aronias in the big front garden and by the Meadow House: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYjMfaiMj5uWjcksi=R4-LwqotKwkOG8T6 ... The Aronias tend to get munched on by the deer around here. They LOVE them. So we started to fence them in individually since they are such a target. Button bushes are so cool. They natively grow here around the ponds, and we have planted a couple more up around Half Lake. I LOVE their flowers. And inevitably so do the insects, as you shared. Blueberries have very shallow roots and they don't like too much moisture surprisingly. I mean, they like consistent moisture but it's preferable that they are raised up and get more of a slow drip of water that's consistent vs. anything too wet or too dry. We love grasses here. We are in Zone 5/6 and the muhly is hardy here. Maybe if we had a really, really cold winter, it would die back, but that has not been the case here. It's regrowing again. It may depend on the ecotype that you get as well. If you get clumping grasses, I find them easy to care for. I just take a hedge trimmer to them in the late winter/early spring and cut them back. If they spread slowly, you don't have to worry about dividing them for years and years. The movement that they provide, and the way they stitch together flowers, I think is beautiful. Another alternative you can try are also some of our Carex species (sedges), which could be a nice happy medium.

[@secretsquirrel9722]

I seriously wonder sometimes if you are actually aware of the absolute top level your videos are produced at? The way you can wax lyrical accross so much information and details while being backed up with brilliant camera work! The level of detail in the shots of plants close up with a fine focal point is amazing. Obviously, the editing is on point. Bringing it all together. Well done.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We try to create a nice listener and viewer experience. Sander generally takes on the wide shots and then I'll take the close-up shots, and we invested in a good camera and sound system for everyone's viewing and audio pleasure. I'm glad you enjoy the quality and thanks for saying so.

[@judymckerrow6720]

Thank you Ms. Summer, looks great! 🌺💚🙃

[@FlockFingerLakes]

glad you like it. Thanks so much. More to do!

[@rasberi1228]

Love this ! Nice work

[@sonnysome3201]

Yes, heathers! I completely spaced out on those! I have a rather problematic corner in my garden. Sunny, acid and on the dryish side. This I think will solve my problem. Thank you! Love what you did with the space. A beautiful continuum of the natural life of the land around it.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

So easy to forget about them. I had only bought a couple and popped them in the neighboring garden and see that they did well so I was encouraged to expand the plant pallete with more of them. G'luck on your garden!

[@sonnysome3201]

@@FlockFingerLakes Exactly right, easy to forget. They aren't the flashiest of perennials out there and they almost never come up when professional gardeners talk about garden spaces. These unpretentious plants need more hype around them, I think.

[@chuxmix65]

Summer, as you build your plant collection you will have more and more opportunities to propagate. Interested in your thoughts on non-propagation clauses? Are you saving seeds? Do you have plans for a greenhouse?

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Eventually we'll have a couple greenhouses here for plant starts and propagation and growing food and housing my indoor horticultural plants. It's in the plan, but the emphasis has been on putting in the perennial crops, which take a while to establish; renovating the buildings; and working on the landscaping. At this stage, I am just letting most of the plants, including the grasses and sedges naturally go to seed-mainly to help spread them around and allow for the birds to enjoy them. I'm getting much fulfillment seeing the songbirds sit on top of the seedheads and pull the seeds out.

[@ytubechannel997]

The textures and colors of the bed are striking. Well done.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you so much.

[@timgarner1957]

Love to see your plans come together..I think another great idea ..for Mr.Sauder to build you a beautiful wood trellis to replace the one in background ..lol.. Thanks for inviting us along

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Ha. I really liked that trellis because it is very modern, fades into the backdrop, and will match the corten steel edging and fixtures that we're incorporating throughout the garden. We'll be making more wood trellises close to the Meadow House, where it has a more cottage feel. :)

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

if you cut the growing tips on the potentilla, It bush out into a much showier bush.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

May just do that. We acquired it from a bulldozer pull from our neighbor's place who was bulldozing an old plant bed, so it was in pretty poor shape when we planted it and this is the first year that it looks somewhat presentable, but still a funny form.

[@MagicalZach]

EP. 200 was a fun one. Really liked the placement of where certain plants went.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad you enjoyed. There's still SO MUCH more to do with this garden, so hopefully will finish it up before the fall's end.

[@christophertaylor9826]

Love your video.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Thank you. Very kind of you to say.

[@charlesbale8376]

I am always, always looking for plant suggestions so this was ideal content for me.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Wendy-zl8kv]

I love it!!!

[@jsaysyay]

i have some of that bluestar! it really does look nice, i love the texture they create when they get larger. i've tried heather like 3 times? it looks so pretty but it refuses to live! from what i've researched over time it would seem to do well where i am in new england, but evidently my experience has gone otherwise lol

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Well, it's nice to see you gave it a good ol' fashioned go at the heathers. I experimented with several in the neighboring Memorial Garden that first year here and they were no trouble whatsoever-re-emerged and are such a nice texture and fixture within the beds, but if they were a flop, I wouldn't have expanded on them here because they tend to be pricey plants. Guess it's a good reminder to just try a bit at a time and adjust and trial before going "whole hog" so to speak. Do you have native blueberries and rhodies where you are? If so, it may be a good sign/area that heathers can work well in those areas too.

[@nachig4754]

Beautiful Summer! as always tons of information and inspiration, Cheers

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Many thanks! Glad it can be an inspiration and a service. :)

[@ninachristensen2434]

Some Heleniums would be perfect in the back.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

We don't have any Heleniums planned as of yet, but I'm wondering if there are any miniaturized versions of something like Helenium autumnale 'Helena Red Shades'... I really like that cultivar but those tend to be over 3 feet tall and that may be a bit too tall. If anyone has suggestions of a orangish Helenium that is more like 24" or lower, do tell!

[@ninachristensen2434]

@@FlockFingerLakes There are shorter varieties like Fuego, Mardi Gras, Chelsey, Short and Sassy.

[@ninachristensen2434]

And Ruby Tuesday and there are probably more😊

[@kathymacomber5115]

Effect choices

[@PlantRelated]

I’m gonna get some Heather seeds

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Never grew them from seeds. Let us know how it turns out!

[@Tiny_Yard_Bouquets]

I'm a fan of conifer & evergreen!. Will you plan for a VDO dedicate of conifers you have? have How do you prevent Fire Chief Arborvitae from deers? Mine was chewed so bad every year.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Well an interesting video may be when we started to prune these conifers: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aZfFcnmKmZ2bpqssi=yM9aPGg8TtCDA_lv - It's a great video because you'll see how far the beds have come along in the 2 years here. I was actually amazed myself looking at the old videos because the land and beds seem so bare! As for the Arborvitae, we have a deer fence kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKrYn4aro9RnZqcsi=58eoZZAan3OrXca- - That being said, the last two years, we have a mama houdini deer that is able to find some way in and birth two babies every year in the last two years. So we have 3 "pet" deer inside the fence, as we like to say, that do some damage, but they don't tend to venture up to the gardens as much. It's our hope that we'll be able to get them out by this winter. We'll see!

[@Tiny_Yard_Bouquets]

@@FlockFingerLakes Thank you very much.

[@amyk6403]

I think people don't use heathers and heaths in zone 4/5 midwest because we have alkaline soil. I've tried them and they didn't thrive.

[@yobeaubaby]

🫀

[@savedsole3848]

The way your potentilla is growing isn’t how they look the best. They bring in praying mantis.

[@FlockFingerLakes]

Agreed. This one had been literally ripped out by a bulldozer in a long forgotten garden bed at our neighbor's house and we salvaged it from going on the compost heap. We popped it in the ground here a year and a half ago and just want it to continue to acclimate it before potentially moving it. This is the first time it flowered from being unceremoniously uprooted from its original home. It has potential. Or shall we say 'potentilla".

[@FireflyOnTheMoon]

It would be nuts of you to buy mushroom compost at that scale. You would buy tonne bags, but I guess Espoma don't sell tonne bags. Disingenuous.