Spring shape-up

Ever since my husband bought me a Fitbit this past Christmas I've been viewing the world through a healthier prism. Calculating my energy output and calorie intake has actually become fun. Now that Spring's here, I've happily discovered my longtime love of digging in the dirt pays off big time when it comes to decreasing stress and increasing muscle mass. Here's how:

Mentally: A productive day in the garden boosts self-esteem and focus, while reducing tension. Raking leaves, pulling weeds and prepping soil provides meditative energy which soothes us and teaches us to concentrate on individual tasks--and accomplishing our gardening goals makes us feel purposeful. To make the most of the experience, unplug. Leaving your electronic devices inside helps you disconnect from the wider world, enabling you to revel in the sounds of birdsong and sweet spring breezes. Hint: deep breaths--in through the nose, out through the mouth--enhance the relaxation effect.

Physically: A mere plant-watering session (30 minutes per day) burns more than 50 calories. Imagine how much energy you'll expend tidying up your backyard! Not such a tough row to hoe, is it? Bad puns aside, turning over dirt, collecting--and dumping--debris in wheelbarrows, and crisscrossing your yard dozens of times takes a lot work, but it also burns calories. And it gives back too--in the form of muscle-strengthening exercise. I spent an afternoon cleaning up my yard last week and recorded 20,000 steps on my Fitbit. That's more than 8 miles of walking!

Another plus: tending to your own outdoor spaces is cheaper than hiring someone else to do it. Make the commitment to shape up your landscape and enhance your health in the process. Spend the money you saved on a trip or a special treat for yourself. I plan on getting a mani-pedi and taking a two-week road trip!

Welcome, Spring!

The good new is that today's the first day of Spring! The bad news for northeasterners is that this (pictured above--at least the dogs are loving it) is what our garden spaces look like. Time to channel the inner Pollyanna buried deep within us: temperatures will be in the 50's today and tomorrow, the birds are twittering as if it were a mild summer morning, and the sun actually feels warm on my vitamin-D-deprived skin.

Time to banish the thought of the Nor'easter, six days ago, which dumped two feet of snow on our tenderly sprouting daffodils, crocus and hyacinths. As I dig out the perennial beds, I remind myself of the lovely photos my friend sent me from the recent Philadelphia Flower Show (pictured below).  Looking at the array of floral offerings from the famous event is a tension tamer, to be sure. The colors alone lower my cortisol levels.

If you're as antsy as I am to sample the flora of our area, but know you're at least a week's worth of snow melt away from seeing the seasonal shift in your garden, visit some of the botanical gardens in our area of the country:

New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY, has a fabulous Orchid Show, which it presents each spring. This year's offerings are not to be missed.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's 52-acre section of flowering cherry blossoms will soon be in full bloom--a true harbinger of spring.

Garden in the Woods, Framingham, MA, maintains a 45-acre landscape of native plants--the largest offering in the northeastern United States.

Green Animals Topiary Gardens, Portsmouth, RI, boasts topiary critters of all shapes and sizes .

Elizabeth Park Rose Garden, Hartford, CT, is the site of a famous flower show each spring.

This is just a small slice of the bountiful botanical pie the northeast offers. Each state has a wide variety of venues just ripe for the picking. Check out the ones closest to you.

Get to know Rosemary

I plant rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) in my window boxes each spring because I'm addicted to the scent, but there are a lot of reasons to love this herb. In addition to scenting the air around it--which keeps wildlife at bay--you can rub the tiny leaves on your skin to smell fresh and discourage bugs. It's also an attractive plant, sprouting pale blue flowers in spring, and its growing habit lends it to easy shaping. I've often seen rosemary fashioned into topiaries.

Of course rosemary is best known as a culinary herb, principally with meats. Chefs of all skills and talents keep this versatile herb in their kitchens. Rosemary tea is also quite popular, and can even be useful in alleviating headaches and congestion due to colds.

Historically, the leaves and flowering plant tops of rosemary were combined with other liquids and oils to create medicine to stimulate liver function and raise blood pressure--concoctions that I don't recommend whipping up in your kitchen! These remedies relied upon rosemary's mildly astringent, antiseptic properties which ancient healers also used to treat skin problems, wounds--and even baldness. I'd steer clear of such remedies, since large doses of ingested rosemary can be poisonous--even fatal. Best to stick with a few flavorful leaves adorning the Rosemary Chicken you're making for dinner.

Native to the Mediterranean, which is much milder than the Northeastern United States, it's not a perennial in these parts, but when planted in early spring, it will last a good five months--right up until the first hard frost in autumn. The scent alone--fresh, clean and ever-so-slightly spicy--is reason enough to add it each year to your garden.

Winter wrap-up--getting the garden ready for spring

March has arrived, which can only mean one thing: spring is right around the corner. Since we had a milder-than-usual winter in the Northeast, I'm eager to get my spring flowerbeds prepped, but I must put the brakes on that plan. March--and even April--have been known to throw climatic curve balls. Best to keep the oak leaves covering tender perennials for a few more weeks.

Still, Spring is in the air and I'm enjoying the clues nature is doling out: magnolia buds, tulips and hyacinths sprouting. Green moss everywhere. What a minute! Moss everywhere? It's a fine sight to see in places I've encouraged it to grow. Not so welcome in other areas. For that reason, I've begun to think of this illustrious time of year as "baking soda month."

Armed with my jumbo-sized box (for $1.98), I take to my front lawn, sprinkling it onto emerald patches like fairy dust. I then relentlessly grind my foot into the areas where moss is marked for extinction. This aggressive action forces the baking soda into the moss roots, killing them. Harsh, I know, but you have to get at it early. Come April, moss spores take to the air. That's moss-speak for "go forth and multiply." Next thing you know, you've got a whole new generation of the green stuff taking up residence in your lawn and flower beds.

A little due diligence is pretty easy this time of year. I mean, really, what else is there to do this early in the season, besides dream of the perfect outdoor space? Take the time to pull the plug on moss now. Your thriving spring garden will thank you for it in a month or two.

Get a jump on your spring garden

All right, I'll admit it: I'm getting antsy for Spring. I know we've still got a full month, here in the Northeast, until things start greening up, but I'm ready to begin gardening. The fact that it's going to be unseasonably warm today--temps are going to climb into the 60's--is all the more reason to start "thinking spring". I know I have to curb my enthusiasm. No reason to imitate my Magnolia 'Stellata' which is teased into bloom each March only to be hit by a killing frost--and see it's fluffy white flowers turn brown. I'll be a bit more cautious.

I'll get into the spirit with a few good old-fashioned bouquets scattered around the place. Even though the hothouse flowers aren't in season right now, a house full of flowers always jump-starts my imagination, and gets me ready to plan my best garden yet!

For those longing to get their green thumbs deep into the dirt, start now, with a few containers. For those of you with a heated greenhouse or plenty of room indoors, now is a great time to start potting annuals (if you can find them). If you're too early, you can start shopping for just the right containers and planning what plants you'd like them to contain. You can also start seedlings.

What to pot up? Depends on the amount of sun you get. In general, any area that receives fewer than 6 hours of sunlight each day calls for shade loving plants. Since that's my issue, I'll opt for the following:

*New Guinea impatiens
*Hosta
*Bacopa
*Oxalis
*Coleus
*Begonia
*Lobelia
*Sweet potato vine

If your landscape is drenched in sunshine, your container choices are virtually endless, but here are a few plants that I think do particularly well in pots that are prone to strong sun rays:

*Agave
*Angelonia
*Canna
*Petunia
*Lantana
*Salvia
*Pentas

As I always say, it's never too early to start planning a spectacular spring garden. The best thing about container gardening is that you can move plants to adjust the amount of light they receive, which ensures they'll look spectacular throughout the seasons.

A walk in the woods

After a cold spell and tons of snow, the weather in upstate New York has temporarily turned milder. In fact, it's going to be unseasonably warm for the next week. This, of course, is reason for celebration--for myself and my four-legged pals. Dog walks aplenty!

While the pooches and I wandered the roads, paths and snowy trails near my home, I realized winter is, in many ways, the best way to enjoy the wildlife in the area. Without the lush veil of leaves, the trees reveal their secrets. I can see exactly where the squirrels nest in the high crooks of branches; I can more fully enjoy the fluttering variety of birds, who may not sing as much--conserving their energy for keeping warm--but dodge and dive from snowy pillar to post. I've learned to identify tracks in the snow. It's how I know to keep an eye out for the skunk who enjoys the shelter of my front porch. His distinct gait (little footprints with that tail-dragging line between them) leads right to the front step.

There's a reason the great poets often chose nature as a theme in their writing. Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best when he opined,

“Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things?”

We are intricately entwined with our surroundings, but so often fail to notice it. Luckily we can remedy this--by simply taking a walk on a lovely winter morning, and noticing the beauty that abounds.

Pebble mosaic stepping stones

Maybe it's because more than a foot of snow fell yesterday, but in the midst of a very white winter I'm dreaming of spring. Not in the traditional sense--thoughts of crocus and daffodils poking through the snow drifts--but in terms of the ground being covered in anything that's not white!

Anyone who has read previous posts through the years has discovered that I have an obsession with stones. Maybe I was a geologist in a previous life! More likely, as my interest in landscaping grows, I've started to understand how vital non-growing things are to beautiful garden designs. Rocks, stones, wood, soil, mulch. All play their part in the mixing and matching of a miraculous outdoor setting.

One interest I've always harbored, but is now bordering on the obsessive, is the idea of incorporating pebble-stone mosaics into my walkways and patios. My husband is skeptical. I'll have to do a lot of convincing because, let's face it, he'll be doing a lot of "helping out" in this creative endeavor. Creating stone or pebble mosaic patios are not for the weekend-project set, unless you plan on stringing a number of weekends together. It takes a good deal of stone gathering to create even a small patio, so I've decided to start small, focusing my energy on a mosaic stepping-stone walkway.

The first thing to do is collect stones. Since that won't be possible if the stream beds around you are frozen and snow-covered, I suggest checking out drain rock. I have a bulk-stone supplier in my town. He has handy sample boards of every stone he carries displayed in the office next to his desk and three Boston Terriers, who accompany him to work each day. I'm not gonna lie, I go there to visit with the dogs as much as to see what's new in stone style. The best thing about this setup is that he will bag any variety and amount of stones I want. This makes for easy transport as well as allows me to play around with different types of pebbles and stones. If you don't have a local stone supplier, there's always good ole Amazon, which offers bagged decorative stone in all shapes and sizes.

For beginners like me there's an even easier option: pre-laid pebbles and stones on mesh backings (see photo, above). For those experiencing a time-crunch, or are unsure of their creative abilities, the prepared 12"X12" tiles may be the way to go. They're available in a variety of stones and finishes and can be found at Lowe's, Home Depot, Amazon, Wayfair, and a number of other online stores. They're a bit more expensive, but the effect is guaranteed to be more uniform.

Why would anyone want to go mosaic? Like anything else, it's a matter of preference, and a chance to get creative. Stone and pebble mosaics have a long, rich history which, to me anyway, is charming. Dating back centuries to many areas of the world, some of the most impressive examples can be traced back to Portugal and Spain. Lisbon sidewalks boast swirling pebble patterns and the Plaza de Espana in Seville offers great examples of this art, in the form of acres of pebbles set to resemble undulating waves.

As for my efforts, I'm gathering the stones. I'll document the process as I prepare and lay the actual walkway. Stay tuned, more to come!