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A Walk in the Garden with Bob Hill<br />
The<br />
Holiday<br />
Gardening<br />
Season<br />
G<br />
ive or take a 10-day dry spell –<br />
and the occasional spring deluge<br />
only a duck could love – it’s<br />
been a very good year for gardening<br />
in our corner of <strong>Southern</strong> <strong>Indiana</strong>.<br />
And it’s not going to end there. The<br />
holiday season can bring out the best of all<br />
worlds: bright colors and luscious landscapes<br />
without weeding or mosquitoes.<br />
Again, all that takes is a litle spring<br />
planning and the right plants. While<br />
you’re at it, think about some garden art<br />
or whimsy for which you can truly ofer<br />
Thanksgiving – if not Christmas – blessings.<br />
Make it fun. Enjoy the seasons. Place<br />
some just outside your windows and you<br />
won’t even have to go outside to enjoy it.<br />
Here are a few possibilities:<br />
ARUM ITALICUM<br />
(Arum Italicum)<br />
THE CERAMIC MUSHROOM WITH<br />
FROGS (Mushroomus protectus)<br />
LINDEN VIBURNUM<br />
(Viburnum Dilatatum)<br />
A perennial favorite with me because – in<br />
a loveably cantankerous sort of way – its<br />
striped-green leaves are up and happy all<br />
fall and winter. Then they fade away in<br />
spring leaving a funky red-orange seed<br />
cone and a bare hunk of ground in which<br />
you could plant annuals. Arum will give<br />
you living green color outside the side<br />
door way past Christmas.<br />
This bright red creature lives outside our<br />
kitchen window every day. It looks especially<br />
cool and wonderful when surrounded<br />
by a few inches of fresh white snow. It<br />
is very low maintenance, never requires<br />
pruning or watering, and provides some<br />
shelter for the seasonally celebrating frogs<br />
below. Truth be told, we have three of<br />
them in vivid colors lurking out there all<br />
winter. Talk about feliz Navidad.<br />
This fne and very adaptable shrub adds<br />
to the seasonal joy because it can be<br />
shared both with your fellow humans and<br />
the local bird population. It will grow 8 to<br />
10 feet tall, thus providing a needed visual<br />
barrier to your less than fastidious neighbors.<br />
It has creamy white fowers in the<br />
spring that give way to those cranberrylike<br />
red, yellow and even blue berries in<br />
fall and winter. Then come the grandkids<br />
to watch the birds feed. Perfect.<br />
Nov/Dec <strong>2015</strong> • 14
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