This has been a great week in the Ray garden.  I am man of all responsibilities here….design, planting, maintaining, critic, teacher, but I do have artificial irrigation, which is not yet turned on.

Water, light, fertilizer, space, and observation, knowledge  and imagination….yours….are the main factors in creating and maintaining the Eden of your life.   If you need assistance, by all means call Masterpiece Landscaping at 952-933-5777.

What is beautiful in your grounds now?  March is notoriously the ugliest month of the landscaped grounds in Minnesota.  The gathering of junk and disorder, kept hidden under the snowfalls of winter are finally coming to view for everyone to see.   Raking debris out of the plantings almost immediately improves the look of the setting.  

I recycle  the leaves on my grounds.  I spread them along the paths through the  more naturalistic settings on my groundsk.   They add to a suggestion of a walk through the northern woods.  These areas usually require little maintenance throughout the rest of the year.

This week Heleborus, Siberian Squill, Pushkinia, Crocus, Kaufmannia tulips, Eranthis, Snowdrops  and Chionodoxa are all in bloom.  The King’s Gold Chamaecyparis is already bright yellow in the sun.  Dwarf  Colorado Blue Spruce a bright aqua-powder blue.  Grey green of Hughes juniper, chartreuse Golden Globe and Sunkist Arborvitae add sharp color contrasts  to the rest of the greens of my coniferous dominated landscape this time of year. 

The evergreen conifers dominate the landscape in Minnesota from roughly November first to usually the first week in May.  No Winter Garden exists in  our area with some evergreen conifer as its dominant planting either as leading actor  or as supporting cast. 

There can be a lovely winter landscape over looking an iced over pond, or rolling snow covered hills…..but if it is a garden look disired for  winter beauty in Minnesota, conifers dictate its every look. 

Sometime during the second week in May give or take a few days earlier or later depending on the mood of a particular Spring, a great wave of green lace begins  to overcome the color, shape and form of the great conifers of the winter garden as the mature elms, maples, buckeyes, ash and all of those other grand deciduous trees and shrubs begin to swell and open their leaf buds. 

Within   five to seven days the green lacy bud cover turns to a mass of green leaves covering the Earth’s landscape whereever trees grow and the conifer forms are seen no more until leaf fall in October. 

I have never seen my own landscaped grounds more beautful than it has been in winter.  I usually sweep its paths regularly with a kitchen broom……easy to do if the snow is light.

But not every winter is equal.  Last winter yews and some junipers were heavily damaged or killed by strong winds during below zero temperatures.  This past winter arborvitaes were crushed under the enormous weight of December rain and subsequent snowfall.    Most of my dozens of global arborvitae simply disappeared under the snow.   

Critique your  landscape garden as you walk through your grounds.  Are you sure it is as beautiful as it could be….should be?    Call us at Masterpiece at 952-933-5777 for consultation and/or maintenance and installation. 

We will be opening  my grounds for garden tours during this coming landscape garden season.  If you or your group is interested in joining  the tour, please schedule a time by calling us at 952-933-5777.