The Best of 2016 and Looking Forward to 2017

One of the gardens I hope to show you in 2017.

Happy new year everyone! 

I thought I'd begin the new year with a look back at the posts readers liked best and a give you at little preview of what is to come in 2017.

Not surprisingly this shade garden was your favourite.  I showed a number of terrific private gardens, but the mix of shady foliage plants in this backyard made it a standout for readers.

This post that featured a garden filled with hostas was also really popular, 

as was this post on collectable hostas.

The post on creating a butterfly garden was also a big hit with readers. 

And while I'm on the subject of insects, I was very glad to welcome Jean Godawa as a contributor to Three Dogs in a Garden. We gardeners have a tendency to view insects largely as pests. Jean viewpoint was a refreshing reminder that insects can play a positive role in the garden. 

Not surprisingly then, the post that introduced us to five insects whose role in the garden is highly beneficial really resonated with readers. 

Most popular of the craft posts was this one on drying roses and 

making a wreath using the roses you've dried.

Of all the plant posts I did on specific plants, readers responded in the greatest 

numbers to this post on Clematis.

All of the posts on container plantings did especially well. This post on trends I noted in summer containers was both my own personal favourite and that of readers as well.

A close second was this post on the spring baskets. I'll definitely repeat the hanging basket of cherry tomatoes next spring. I loved being able to go out onto the back porch and pick tomatoes for salads.

The hanging baskets of strawberries were fairly successful too, but I found you really have to keep an eye on them. Hanging baskets can dry out so quickly in the full sun! The strawberries did much better when I moved them to a spot where they got dappled sun in the afternoon. 

The spring container post ended with a hanging birdcage project. The lobelia in the birdcage died when I forgot to water it, but the ivy did really well. I brought both the birdcage and the baskets of strawberries onto the enclosed back porch for the winter. 

The post on garden sheds and another one on fences where both well-liked. Every garden needs a place to store tools and equipment and post included lots of shed-spiration.

Now looking to the future, what do readers have to look forward to seeing in 2017? 

Well, I can't wait to show you this garden near Uxbridge, Ontario. Around the bright blue house on a small corner lot there are roses, perennials and vegetables. This modest-sized garden even has a couple of ponds and pens for chickens and other birds.

This garden in Guelph, Ontario is another place I'm super excited to show you. It will probably take me 2 or 3 posts to cover both the wide array of container plantings and the garden itself.

An there will be new posts on herbs, hostas, new plant introductions and even a few posts on roses.

I also hope to have new craft and garden projects with instructions, recipes for you to try and book giveaways.

And speaking of book giveaways.... I decided to extend the deadline of the latest two book giveaways so more readers could have a chance to enter. 

You can enter to win Plant Craft here and Happy Hens & Fresh Eggs here.  If you are not a blogger, you can also enter by emailing me at jenc_art@hotmail.com. The draw will now be open until January 15th.

Photo by Marnie Wright

Up next is a post a new post on Marnie's garden. In 2016, I showed you the sunny sections of Marnie's garden. Next we'll slip under the shade of some pine trees and visit the shady part of her property.   

With the aid of some of Marnie's excellent photography, we'll follow this part of the garden from spring into the fall.

How to make a Winter Hanging Basket

There was a time, when I took down the hanging baskets, that are filled with flowers in the summer, and stored them away for the winter months. Then it struck me that I was missing out on a huge opportunity. Winter is a long season here in Canada (or at least it feels that way). Why not use those same hanging baskets to put some color back into those drab, cold months?

So as well as the metal urns and window boxes, I started to fill my hanging baskets with greenery and berries. 

Winter Greenery For Holiday Arrangements PIN

Altogether I have quite a few containers of one type or another to fill, so I try to forage as much as possible from the yard and the adjacent woodlot. I harvest responsibly, pruning branches carefully so that I never damage the trees or shrubs I am cutting.

In the shady part of the garden, I am lucky to have quite a number of yews. Every fall they get a good haircut which leaves me with quite a bit of raw material for my winter arrangements. But even with the yew, I don't have quite enough evergreen boughs to fill all my containers, so I also buy mixed bunches of pine, fir, boxwood, Oregonia and cedar at the grocery store. 

Once upon a time, Magnolia leaves were one of the pricy winter container options, but for the last few years, Walmart has had them available for a very reasonable cost. So I buy a few magnolia branches as well. Magnolia leaves have those soft, suede-like undersides that warm up all the other greens.

Natural Fruit & Berries for Holiday Arrangements PIN

Though it tempting at this time of year to add holiday bows and baubles, I resist the urge. The ground will be frozen in January, making it really hard to remove seasonal flourishes later on. Holiday decorations become cringe-worthy in February and March! 

Though I try to avoid a holiday look, I do add some fruit and berries to my baskets for a little color. In the garden, I forage rose hips, crabapples and euonymus berries. From the store, I purchase western red cedar, with its little brown rosettes, blue juniper berries and incense cedar, with its golden buds.

Here's how I put my hanging baskets together:

Step 1: The baskets that hang on our front porch are actual brown twig baskets. If you don't have a woven basket like this, a traditional plastic hanging basket would work just as well. 

Fill your hanging basket with potting soil (if you don't have a hanging basket that is already filled with soil). The only purpose of the soil is to secure your evergreens in the pot.

White Pine (left) and Cedar (right)

Step 2: As with any good containers planting, use "spillers, fillers and thrillers" to create a nice arrangement of greenery and berries. 

Begin with the "spillers" that will drape down over the edges of your basket. For this, I suggest long pieces of cedar and pine. Both evergreens have soft stems that allow them to hang down gracefully over the rim of the basket.

This is the basket after the white pine and cedar have been added.

Step 3: Next it's on to the "fillers" that will give the arrangement the fullness you want. 

For this, you can use almost any type of evergreen. I used pieces of boxwood, yew, spruce, noble fur, yew, Oregonia (the variegated leaf you see above) and magnolia leaves.

At the end of step 3, the basket has filled out nicely.

Step 4: The final step is to add some colorful accents with assorted fruit and berries.

If you don't have crabapples or rose hips, you can substitute them with red winter berries, which are readily available at a variety of stores and nurseries. If you can't find winter berries or they're too expensive, faux-berries would work just as nicely.

As well as the two hanging baskets on the front porch, I also fill the wire baskets in the back garden.

It looks so much nicer than leaving them empty all winter! 

A hanging basket like this goes together pretty quickly. It takes just 15-20 minutes to make something that will look great throughout the long months of cold and snow! 

Hanging Basket PIN