Painting & Bulbs - Time to rethink and renew

This is no day to plant bulbs. Nope, too hot. What I'm up to with color on a hot day like today is PAINT. One of the easiest, cheapest and most instant gratifications with color. Two benches and a door got new coats to protect them from winter wets. Over at a clients together we took paint and brush following drawings done at the kitchen table...out into the garden to draw then paint images of her dogs on pots.  I will have to 'run' over and take some pics.

Yes, get out your paints. While you are at make plans for where you are going to place and plant your bulbs. One friend wanted to know which ones will come back. First we scouted out her garden naming the color combos for the different areas. No pen in hand she committed the colors to memory. Once color coded; on to bulbs. Sparaxis for a long border topped her list. "Do you like yellow and red together?" she asked. "Yes." "Yes I do like yellow and red together." Sparaxis has red petals with yellow centers. Perfect and they come back. As do the yellow ones.

Here's the list I gave her of bulbs that will return:

Muscari grape hyacinths (blue or white):  the fancier ones have not returned as well.

Freesias, especially the egg yolk yellows which are also fragrant, are great hanging over the edge of a pot.

Ixia:  wonderful for naturalizing; make a meadow with grasses

Ipheion:  starflower or wisely blue - good in rock gardens and at edges

Peruvian Scilla:  a wonderful blue

Homeria will bring the slugs and snails out, but very reliable

Tritonia:  an african bulb that has a lot in common with freesias

Hoop Daffodil and most of the smaller daffodils

Crocus

Scilla

Lilies:  some have a strong return; great for pots

I plant tulips and ranunculus as annual bouquets.

Bulbs are my choice for giving Spring The Wow and the Yes factor. 'Like sunshine coming up from the ground' one passerby said of the trumpeting daffodils.

In addition to painting there is a lot of cutting and pulling going on. Compost heaps heading for the green can. Soil being turned and amended.

On your garden to do list: Reminder to fertilize all acid loving plants with an organic mix to be topped with mulch. Acid loving includes blueberries.

This year I'm even cleaning out several container plantings that have been 'going' for about six years. Time to rethink and renew. Mostly I'm clearing space for the bulbs.

After planting bulbs with the soil turned over wildflower seeds will get thrown about to fill in the gaps both in the flower garden and between the climbing fava beans and peas.

The more you get done now the more you can enjoy spring unfolding in waves of color.

This year I'm returning to earlier loves. Natives both in bulbs and flowering perennials are making a comeback. Pink flower mop heads of buckwheats are bee favorites and hummers seek out the tubular orange flowers of the california fuschias...Zauscheneria or epilobium.

Happy Gardening,

Keeyla Meadows

Keeyla's article in the SF Chronicle!

 

A quick primer all about bulbs

Keeyla Meadows, Special to The Chronicle

Friday, November 5, 2010

    

I open my garden in March for Show and Tell. What I have to "show" are bouquets of blooming-their-heads-off, full-of-sun-shining-light, colorful bulbs. Sadly, in March, what I have to "tell" visitors wanting to know where they can get these spring beauties for their own garden is that I planted these bulbs in November. Well, here it is November, so you are in luck. Now is the time to be fearless with the use of color in your garden by planting bulbs.
While a vast array of flowering and some edible bulbs are available, I always start with my tried-and-true favorites and branch out with a few newbies.
Color is key in how I organize both my planting zones and bulb selection. A bouquet of different types of bulbs including tulips, daffodils, ranunculus, freesias, muscari, lilies and more, are planned for each area of the garden. A favorite matching palette in shades of maroon and yellow is made up on Tango 'Honey Bee' lilies, ranunculus 'Cafe,' and tulip 'Gavota.'
I concentrate my design and plantings around what can be seen from the windows as the weather may be wet during part of the bloom season. Bulbs planted in containers of various sizes work well both in focal spots outside windows and at entries, balconies or on window sills.
After deciding where to plant the bulbs, make lists of what to plant. This is the hard part because there are just so many to choose from.
One approach to bulb selection is practicality. Which bulbs are easy, reliable, will return and even multiply? Do you want natives or edibles? The practical list is long but does not include the reigning beauty: tulips. In California, Tulipmania is a short thrill. Still, just for their sheer amount of saturated color, these beauties will find a way onto your list.
To top off your bulb display, seed the spaces over and between your planting with spring wildflowers. Poppies are my favorites; the seeds are economical and will bloom through the season, providing forage for pollinators: bees, birds and butterflies.
Whether you concentrate on color, edibles, natives or a combination, come spring, you'll have your own garden bouquet for Show and Tell.

Inside: Landscape designer Keeyla Meadows' guide to spring bulbs and wildflowers that attract pollinators and people. L4

A word on organics

This year, while searching the Internet for red tulips, I came across EcoTulips ( www.ecotulips.com). Jeroen Koeman, who calls himself "The Tulip Man," is a pioneer in organic tulip farming. His growing fields in Holland are pesticide-free and benefit by a process of crop rotation-sharing pastures with the cows of an organic dairy. He says that his red 'Ille de France' doesn't need added fertilizer, just a handful of compost dug into the soil. I'm still using organic bulb food. Koeman's EcoTulips are pre-chilled, leaving your fridge free for turkey stuffing instead of tulip stuffing (one friend cooked his wife's tulips for their Thanksgiving meal!).
- Keeyla Meadows

Bulbs for spring show and tell

Here are some of my tried-and-true spring favorites. Note: The rule of thumb when planting bulbs is to make the depth of the hole twice the width of their diameter. I've experimented and found chilling tulips four to six weeks in the fridge is necessary. I plant all my bulbs between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

Color

Tulips are the reigning beauty of spring bulbs. Here are my favorite varieties by hue:
-- Salmon: 'Menton,' 'Big Eartha,' 'Apricot Beauty'
-- Yellow: 'Big Smile,' 'Jaap Groot'
-- Purple: 'Passionale,' 'Violet Beauty,' 'Blueberry Ripple,' 'Purple Prince'
-- Magenta: 'Gypsy Love'
-- Nearly black: 'Queen of the Night,' 'Negrita'
-- Green: 'Spring Green,' 'Greenland' (green and pink )
-- White: 'Maureen'
-- Orange: 'Orange Emperor,' 'Orange Queen'
-- Orange tones: 'Princess Irene,' 'Gudoshnik'
-- Red: 'Ille de France'
Daffodils are easy and a must for those with deer and gophers, as those critters don't like them. Plant them in drifts by trenching out long furrows. With grassy foliage, 'Golden Bells' (Bulbocodium) is a container favorite.

Edibles

Crocus sativus is a savory for edibles enthusiasts. It sports those golden saffron threads so essential for Moroccan tagines. Crocus could share a pot with onion sets, garlic and grape hyacinth, topped by a seeding of borage. Share the forage with the flybys: Bees love borage. Drop blue borage flowers along with the blue "beads" of grape hyacinth spires on salads, or float in soup.

Natives

Skip from forays into color and flavor to jaunts on the wild side of gardening. Nevin Smith, founding horticulturalist of Suncrest nurseries and author of "Native Treasures," has some suggestions for planting out native bulbs. When asked about which to start with, he replied: "Many of the brodiaeas are good with the dichelostemmas being probably the easiest." You can see why they are simply called 'Blue Dicks.' But don't let the lingo stop you in your tracks: There are stunners on this path. He continued: "Brodiaea elegans, coronaria and californica are all good beginners' bulbs." To my question on how to get Mariposa lilies and Brodiaeas to return, Nevin instructs: "Plant them in well-drained soil, with little summer water and a top dressing of crushed coarse gravel." Use native seeds ( www.larnerseeds.com) for bulb cover, and you are on your way to planting a meadow. Next to my list of native bulbs, I make a note to take spring walks to see these splendors in the wild.
- K.M.

Keeyla Meadows the owner of design/buiild/landscape company Keeyla Meadows Gardens & Art andauthor of books including "Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel" (Timber Press, 2009). E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/05/HOB51G3GKO.DTL

This article appeared on page L - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

© 2010 Hearst Communications Inc. 

Don't miss Keeyla's talk in LA!

This September, Keeyla is giving a talk about Sustaining Spirit with Color and Whimsy!   Don't miss it!

Event:      2010 Pacific Horticulture Symposium 

Where:      Ayers Hall, L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Arcadia/Pasadena, CA

When:      Friday, September 24th at  10.15am 

Sustaining Spirit with Color & Whimsy

Friday September 24th at 10:15 am
Ayers Hall, L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden

How much more whimsical can you get than turning gardens into gigantic works of art you can walk into and be a part of? From adventures in a blue pear fountain, a strawberry paving, or even painted shovels, Keeyla Meadows will inspire you to transform your gardens by being wildly colorful, artistically playful, and energetically resourceful. She shares her expertise with a "try this, try that" attitude that engages the imagination - whether you are making decisions about design or selecting specific materials for your garden. Keeyla likes to focus on garden spaces as works of art to eat in, meditate, or to be colorfully sublime. There's one answer for all these gardens: "Raise it up!" For this she has developed planters and wavy cement containers to shape and create wildly imaginative garden spaces. Along with her simple principles for creating and using color in space, she will share these techniques and demonstrate with some fabulous images!

Speaker

Keeyla Meadows

Artist & author, Fearless Color Gardens

For more than 20 years, award-winning designer and artist Keeyla Meadows has been creating original, surprising and inspiring gardens. She runs a full-scale landscaping company and operates an art gallery in the San Francisco Bay area.  The New Leaf and Sculpturesite galleries represent her artwork.  Her garden has been featured on national television and in Sunset, Metropolitan Home and Fine Gardening.  She won the Best in Show 'Golden Gate Award' at the 2001 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show.  Her latest book, Fearless Color Gardens, was released by Timber Press in November, 2009. She is also the author of Making Gardens Works of Art: Creating Your Personal Paradise (Sasquatch, 2002).  She holds a BA from the California Institute of the Arts, a MA in sculpture from the Univ. of California at Berkeley, and has completed post-graduate studies at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Keeyla has made extraordinary contributions to the gardening world, as she teaches how to turn a gardener into an artist, and a garden into a work of art.

www.keeylameadows.net

Please see their website for more details on how to attend and register for the event.

Hope to see you soon,

Keeyla

Park Day School Garden Tour - A Success!

We started with the idea of "Figs & Flowers"...now the picture is complete!

It's another good day sunshine. While the Parkday School Garden Tour of 12 wonderful gardens still lingers and winds through your imagination, take a moment today to stop and smell the flowers.

Megan and I both had a great day in her garden. We enjoyed seeing you there, answering questions about names of plants. Polka was a favorite rose, chartreuse philadelphus a favorite show stopper, ixia a new bulb for many and cerinthe, the bluey shrimpy flower was one that a lot a people will head out to their local nurseries (If you are local, head out to Annie's Annuals or Berkeley Horticultural Nursery)to purchase and find a place in their own gardens.  Please see Megan's note below about her thoughts on the Park Day Garden Tour.

Cerinthe

I want to remind you garden lovers that my home garden will be open this Sunday from one to four. Not at this moment to be compared to these show ready gardens, but still worth a visit.

Thank you to you book buyers. Mrs Dalloway's is a great place to pick up Fearless Color Gardens; as now is a good time to be planting your garden.

Paint-a-Pot:  Keeyla's pots are for sale!

Please join Keeyla as she holds a pot-painting workshop at Filoli Garden show on May 8 at 1.30pm.

This morning also found me waking to an alarming note as the buzz I heard inside the Secret Shadows of the Tour on Saturday and Sunday were about not enough tickets to sustain the tour in the future. This saddened me since I've been a part of the tour for a long time: I've always loved looking forward to seeing new gardens each spring, having a space for local designers and homeowners to share their work, be a part of a gardening community, and also feel connected to a school and community where I have felt that gardens and gardening are part of the heart, soul and expression of a whole community. 

Gardens are important and an important part of the education of children. Earth day this past weekend celebrated her 40th anniversary, and it made me think how great that here is a school and community so connected to the earth through her gardens. Gardens teach kids about nature, food source, the relationship between plants and insects, and between plants and animals; they are a source of art and expression, a source of crafts, a source for the study of science and the list goes on. So yes, I felt some alarm as I had these whispers of the end of the show confirmed.

Those of you who feel moved to action by contacting the school I hope you do.

In the meantime, I'm sure that there is much to take from the tour to inspire you in your own garden celebration and efforts.

Happy Gardening,

Keeyla Meadows

Note from Megan:

Wow! That was fun. What a treat to see the garden light up the faces with huge smiles of everyone that came to see it. That was a key goal for sharing our garden. Some people came back twice and many lingered for quite a awhile asking questions about plants, the process of making a garden and just expressing pure joy. Ian’s rock work was much admired as were all the flowers and color combinations and of course Keeyla’s pots!! Lucy hung out with me Sunday morning chatting to people and answering questions about the garden. She was astounded at the number of people that filled our small garden. I hope people got inspired at what you can do in a small urban garden space and get busy creating their own magical gardens!

Secret Gardens of the East Bay this weekend!

It's about to happen! Tell the sun to shine, rain to stay away. Megan's made her garden completely into a show garden. All the planning, purchasing, planting has come to fruition. As we headed down the homestretch to the EAST BAY SECRET GARDEN TOUR, I sent Megan some questions about the process of preparing the garden. Here she is with a long list of answers. 


I am giving a talk on color at the Park Day School on Sunday April 25 at 1pm.  Mrs. Dalloway's will be selling FEARLESS COLOR GARDENS at the school.  Come and get your personally signed copy.


Hope to see you Saturday (April 24) or Sunday (April 25) this week for the tour. 


Happy Gardening, Keeyla

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Q & A with Megan 

What are you looking forward to with the Secret Gardens Tour?

Being able to share how beautiful the garden looks right now.  Hopefully people will be inspired to transform their own urban plots into a garden paradise.

What do you look for when you see other people's gardens?

Being inspired by new planting combinations.

What plants are the most satisfying to you right now in your garden?

I LOVE the heucheras. They provide all the color of flowers but in foliage form. There are new colors each year with yummy names like Crème Brulee and Peach Melba. We went crazy adding new heucheras for the tour.

Which area or color combination in your garden is the most interesting/exciting/stimulating?

The garden to the left of the fig bench is a particular favorite garden area. The shades of orange and yellow are bright and cheery all year long.

Which color combination makes you feel peaceful and serene?

I love the shade garden along the side of the house. Chartreuse, salmon, white, yellows. I love gazing out the kitchen window as I wash dishes and see the hummingbirds flittering in the abutilon.

Why do you want to grow plants that you can eat?

Cooking is a passion. Nothing is better than being able to walk out to the garden and gather ingredients for a meal.

What is most frustrating to you about your garden?

Too little space for vegetables. I’m considering replacing the blue bed with all vegetables.

In what ways have you seen the garden come into Lucy's life?

Lucy has been in the garden with me since she was a baby. At 6 months she would sit by my side as I gardened, picking up the lava that is in the soil mix. As she got older she created fairy houses made of flower petals that she laid out carefully on the “fairy rock.” Her friends call it a Cinderella garden. As a child I imagined having a flower garden and I love being able to provide such a beautiful place for her to play and imagine.

In what ways has having a garden transformed your life?

Gardening and cooking are my two passions. They are my creative outlets and as someone who spends her work life on a computer, they provide a much needed connection with what I find important in life. Spending a day gardening or cooking a meal for family and friends is my idea of the perfect day. At the end of it you have something of beauty to appreciate and share. When I’m stressed out, all I need to do is gaze outside at the garden and I’m instantly calmed.

In what ways has the garden influenced your relationship to color?

When we put our first garden in over 13 years ago, I gravitated towards paler colors: light pink, lilac, pale yellow. Think romantic impressionist colors. Orange, red, chartreuse were not colors I would have asked for. When we did the back yard a few years later, we added a lot of orange. I fell in love with orange then and it was and still is a prominent color of the backyard. It’s a feature color in our new kitchen. It was seeing what Keeyla did with her new garden that truly opened me up to hotter color combinations. The redone front yard is maroon, butterscotch, and mustard. It’s much splashier.

In preparing the garden for the upcoming tour:

What new plants are the most interesting to you?

The heucheras as I mentioned earlier are by far my most favorite additions.  They are just spectacular.  

New color combinations?

The hotter colors in the front yard and the maroon that was added to the dogwood garden. 

Your garden has many containers.  How do the containers work to improve, or express the garden?  How do the containers work with the house and the space?

Containers, more than anything, are perhaps what has inspired me more than anything about working with Keeyla.  They provide height and art to the garden and it's astonishing how many plants you can fit into one container.  Planting up a beautiful container is something I learned from studying how Keeyla plants containers.  This year for the tour I finally splurged and bought one of Keeyla's custom art ceramic containers.  I love it and would like to add more to the garden as budget permits. 

It's Spring...

Open Gardens this Sunday, Aprill 11 at 1137 Stannage Avenue, Albany CA

How are you? It is spring. The flowers are good...between downpours that is. My garden is open this Sunday. Lilies and roses are stepping up to the plate, 'eyes' still shut -- but maybe we will have blooms by Sunday and definitely by May. You are invited. 

Keeyla's Paint-a-Pot workshop at Annie's Annuals

There are planters for sale in the studio. Most of the planters from the garden show are sold and getting repositioned:  new plants, new gardens. Planters do add a lot to your garden. On that note, I will be teaching a paint-a-pot workshop at Annie's Annuals Spring Extravaganza. The workshop is titled "How to Do It, How to Plant it", and it's this Saturday April 10 at 11am. Check out her website for more info.

My new book, Fearless Color Gardens, will be on sale and available for signing.

Secret Gardens of the East Bay 

If you miss the Annie's Annuals event, there is always the Secret Gardens of the East Bay Tour on April 24-25 (last Sunday of April).  The website is here.  Megan's garden will be on the tour. The plants are looking amazing and then we are adding a truckload of Color today. Yesterday, Megan and I stopped for a picnic between nurseries to get hand-signed bottles of wine and we had a wonderful at B Winery. Our plant search for color was 100% a success story with Heucheras being the color stars. Foliage rules in shades of creme brulee and peach melba. We had fun.

You are invited to the Color party.  More containers with plants to match. 

Bring your cameras for all events.

Looking forward to meeting up with you on garden paths this Spring...

Be Colorful, 

Keeyla

Keeyla's Upcoming Events - Don't Miss!

Visit Keeyla at

SAN FRANCISCO FLOWER and GARDEN SHOW 
and
OPEN GARDEN DAYS

While Keeyla is gearing up for the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, we are also going forward with the first OPEN GARDEN DAYS this year.  The garden hasn't come into season yet but we are still open for visitors in a few weeks!  


OPEN GARDEN DAYS 
Sunday, March 7, 1-4pm
Sunday, March 14, 1-4pm 
1137 Stannage Avenue, Albany, CA 94706


Just a reminder:  Please be careful when walking through Keeyla's gardens - as it has been raining, the floor is at times slippery and the ground might be uneven.  Watch your step!


Don't miss Keeyla's fantastic showpiece at this year's SAN FRANCISCO FLOWER and GARDEN SHOW.  

2010 San Francisco Flower and Garden Show 

San Mateo Event Center

2495 South Delaware Street, San Mateo CA 

March 24-28, 2010

Wed-Sat:  10am-8pm

Sun:  10am-6pm

Keeyla's Seminar:  

"Fearless Color Gardens:  A Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel"

Friday March 26, 2:15pm, Meeting Pavilion 

Followed by Keeyla's Book Signing at 3pm 

Get a copy of Keeyla's book at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore in Berkeley!

Please visit Keeyla's Garden at the Display Gardens Area!

This Year's Garden:  Habitat Dance with a Red Snake

The purpose of this garden is to focus on a red-headed snake, the San Francisco (peninsula) Garter Snake, which iis on the endangered species list. San Mateo COunty is the habitate of this snake. The colors of this snake - red, turquoise, and black - inspired the material sections of this garden. I want to bring attention to the beauty of this snake as it represents a threatened habitat with all its diversity and importance. The snake feeds in the wetlands and suns itself upland. This garden points out that both we and the garter snake depend on our environment for survival. This garden is about gardening for the future to protect our habitat, teaching children about food sources, having space for mediation and social space, increasing awareness of native plants, and indeed being inspired by nature to design features that help maintain and respect the natural environment and our place in it.

See you there!


-Keeyla