Create Your Best Garden Ever Create Your Best

Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications
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75 Easy Ideas
Create Your Best
Garden Ever
Brighten the Shade
with Fuchsias
Grow
Carrots in
Containers
Plant
this
Border
Spring 2010
Vol. 19, No. 2
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Contents
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Country Gardens® Spring 2010
Gardens & Plants
34 The Perfect Country Garden An enthusiastic novice travels to England
for her horticultural education with the greats and returns home to her Connecticut
garden to trust her own finely honed design instincts.
40 Tulip Time Meet a Dutch couple who tend two deep and narrow gardens
packed with tulips and other reliable spring-blooming bulbs. Plus, check out our
roundup of the best tulips for the country garden.
40
60
48 Grow Carrots in Containers Wait until you see how easy it is to grow
delicious carrots in country-fresh containers. We include step-by-step instructions for
planting a pretty but practical pot for a crop of carrots.
54 Better Together Find out how a Washington couple combined her love of
fragrant, old-fashioned flowers with his passion for texture and foliage. Together,
they’ve created a garden that’s the best of both worlds.
64 Fabulous Fuchsias Justin Marotta of Possum Run Greenhouse in Ohio has
created a Noah’s Ark for fuchsias and tends more than 260 varieties.
72 21 Ideas Worth Stealing We asked garden design expert Brian Minter of
Vancouver to share some of the secrets behind his spectacular show gardens.
78 Living Art Gallery Explore an organic garden in Vermont that inspires the
creative spirit of a world-renowned painter whose works capture the brilliance of
this rural landscape.
Decorating & Inspiration
60 Garden Collectibles: Bybee Pottery Show off bouquets from the
garden with pretty pottery that’s been made by the same family in the same log
shed in Kentucky and in about the same way since 1809.
84 Hats Off to Spring Check out our collection of vintage bonnets that have
been recycled into pretty cachepots for gift plants—just in time for Mother’s Day.
90 Fringe Benefits Looking for inexpensive ideas for creating a boundary
between your lawn and garden? We’ve got five solutions using everyday objects.
Search for Country Gardens. We want to hear about your country
garden, or just stop by and become a fan.
COVER: Photography by André Baranowski. See the story on page 34.
Country Gardens Spring 2010
64
by Name
photographer Name
produced by Name
18
26
92
Cooking & Entertaining
92 Life’s a Picnic Celebrate the season of renewal by getting your
friends and family together for a spring picnic in the garden. Grab our make-ahead recipes and head out for some fresh air. Departments
9 Slow Lane Karen Weir-Jimerson tackles encounters of a weedy
nature and learns to embrace the charming side of stinging nettles.
12 Plantings Plant expert Ruth Rogers Clausen explains why trillium may
possibly be the most cherished of spring ephemeral wildflowers.
14 Backyard Almanac Our resident nature lover Anne Raver wonders
if it’s possible to feed our feathered friends and keep the thugs away.
18 Weekend Gardener Find out how to transform vintage chairs into
colorful planted and elevated displays of your favorite blooms. 22 Design Notebook The Little Herb House’s Lisa Treadaway shares a
simple design for a four-square herb garden that’s perfect for small spaces.
26 Garden Shop Which eco-friendly lawn mower is right for you?
30
30 Breaking Ground Short on space but want to attract butterflies to
stop by for a sip of nectar? We’ve got three easy container plans.
98 Gardener’s Bookshelf A roundup of our favorite recent books.
100 Grassroots Our regional garden editors share their observations on
their favorite ways to save time and money in the garden.
Reflections
Shopping
6 Editor’s Note
112 Over the Garden Gate
102 Buyer’s Guide
105 Reader Shopping
Attention Retailers!
Interested in carrying Better Homes and Gardens® gardening specials in your
shop? Please e-mail [email protected] for more information.
Country Gardens Spring 2010
By Carole Ottesen
Produced by Jon Carloftis
Photography by Rob Cardillo
Garden Collectibles:
Bybee Pottery
Colorful stoneware offers a link to pioneer days in central Kentucky
When Bonnie Tanner of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, finds a piece of Bybee
pottery, she does more than acquire another beautiful object—she adds a
treasured bit of Kentucky history to her collection. Bybee pottery “is made
by the oldest existing pottery west of the Alleghenies,” she says.
Bybee Pottery, in the rural town of Bybee in the hills of Madison County,
began after clay deposits were found near the Cornelison farm on land
that had been granted to an ancestor, Conrad Cornelison Jr., for service
in the Revolutionary War. In 1809, a descendant, Walter Cornelison,
built the great log barn with dirt floor and sturdy walnut beams that still
houses the pottery’s equipment and business. In its long existence, the
log building has sheltered six generations of Cornelisons as they turned
yellow Kentucky clay into more than 100 sizes and shapes of stoneware.
Country Gardens Spring 2010
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Opposite: A wooden bench
from an old train station
showcases Bonnie Tanner’s
collection of jade-colored
Bybee vases. This photo:
This vase with ornate
handles probably had two
or three coats of glaze. It
holds a bouquet of lilies,
mums and trailing green
love-lies-bleeding.
Below: Part of Bonnie’s collection
of pink to red stoneware is arranged in front of the brick wall of
the old smokehouse, an outbuilding belonging to her 1856 house,
which is on the National Register
of Historic Places. Right: “The
brown pieces really look metallic,”
Bonnie says of the vases holding
deep purple anemones, irises in
bud, and statice. Far right:
The lime green of bells of Ireland
and button and spider mums
contrasts smartly with Bybee blue
glazes, including “a cobalt … black as midnight.”
For more information, see the Buyer’s
Guide on page 102.
If you multiply hundreds of kinds of stoneware by six generations on Cornelisons
by 200 years, you get thousands upon thousands of pieces of pottery. In addition,
there are the products of other Kentucky potteries, as well as old Bybee pottery
and new Bybee pottery.
Bonnie has trained her eye to recognize the Selden Bybee pottery. “You can
almost tell it by the feel and the glaze,” she says. Her collection now numbers
more than 60 pieces of the richly glazed stoneware. Made by hand of Kentucky’s
very earth, “Bybee pottery is one of the jewels created in our state,” she says. 
For more information, see the Buyer’s Guide on page 102.
ON THE BYBEE TRAIL
Bonnie has found Selden Bybee’s signature high-fired,
double-glazed pieces “at flea markets, antiques shops,
and on eBay.” Once, Bonnie says, everyone thought
this was just common old stuff. “You could pick up
pieces of Bybee fairly reasonably,” she says. “Now,
they’re expensive: $500 or so each.” Bybee pottery’s
popularity also has to do with the pride Kentuckians
have in their state.
Bonnie primarily collects Selden Bybee, made
during a blip in the long Bybee history. “Selden was
a salesman for the Bybee Pottery, selling in New York
in 1925. He went off on his own—that’s how Selden
Bybee came about. It was made for just two to three
years, from 1927 to 1929. He used the kiln at the
brickyard in Lexington.” Those years coincided with
a period when traditional Kentucky pottery came
under the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Potters began turning out
pieces of extraordinary grace
that combined traditional
functionality with forms
admired since ancient times.
The potter identified
his distinctive work as
“Selden Bybee,” enclosing
the name in a rough outline
of the state of Kentucky.
Country Gardens Spring 2010
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Selden Bybee’s jadecolored glaze sets off
the deep pink of million bells, mums, and
branches of redbud, cut
from Bonnie’s garden.
Country Gardens Spring 2010
61
Buyer’s Guide
Compiled by
Renee Freemon Mulvihill
Resources 30
For information about
gardening products and
services in this issue, contact
the sources listed here.
The source is unknown for
products not listed.
Plantings: Trilliums
Pages 12–13
Trillium sources include:
Fraser’s Thimble Farms; 250/537-5788;
thimblefarms.com.
Asiatica; 717/938-8677; asiaticanursery.com.
Eastern Plant Specialties; 732/382-2508;
easternplant.com.
Backyard Almanac
Pages 14–16
For more from Anne Raver, consider: Deep in
the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures by Ann Raver; Vintage; 1996; 300 pages.
To purchase, visit amazon.com.
Weekend Gardener: Sitting Pretty
Pages 18–21
Designer—Renee Buchhauser, At Home With
Laurie Ann, 2855 Perry Rd. San Diego, CA
92106; 619/758-9981; laurieann.com; e-mail:
[email protected].
Design Notebook:
Plant a Four-Square Herb Garden
Pages 22–24
The Little Herb House. 5800 Holland Church
Rd., Raleigh, NC 27603; 919/772-3543;
littleherbhouse.com.
Stone—Tennessee Buff Ashlar—Charles Luck
Stone Center; 800/898-5825; charlesluck.com.
48
Breaking Ground: Butterfly Containers
Pages 30–33
Plants—Proven Winners; 877/865-5818;
provenwinners.com.
For more information on attracting butterflies: National Wildlife Federation Attracting
Birds, Butterflies, and Backyard Wildlife by
David Mizejewski; Creative Homeowners;
2004. To purchase, visit amazon.com.
Tulip Time
Pages 40–47
De Heerenhof, Veldstraat 12a, NL-6227 SZ
Maastricht; +31(0)43-4084800; heerenhof.nl;
e-mail: [email protected]. For more information about their bed-and-breakfast, visit
bedandbreakfast.nl/heerenhof.
Better Together
Pages 54–59
Christianson’s Nursery and Greenhouses,
15806 Best Road, Mount Vernon, WA 98273;
800/585-8200; christiansonsnursery.com.
Garden Collectibles: Bybee Pottery
Pages 60–63
Bybee Pottery, 610 Waco Loop Rd., P.O
Box 555, Waco, KY 40385, is on Kentucky
Highway 52 between Richmond and Irvine
at milepost 21, 8 miles east of Richmond;
859/369-5350.
Grow Carrots in Containers
Pages 48–53
Plant sources include:
‘Bull’s Blood’ beet: Burpee—800/888-1447;
burpee.com.
‘Purple Haze’, and ‘White Satin’ carrots:
Johnny’s Selected Seeds—877/564-6697;
johnnyseeds.com.
‘Babette French’, ‘Romeo’, and Sunshine Mix
carrots: Renee’s Garden Seeds—888/880-7228;
reneesgarden.com.
‘Dragon’ carrot and ‘Painted Lady’ runner
beans: Seed Savers Exchange—563/382-5990;
seedsavers.org.
Containers—Fern Hill Gifts & Quilts, 103
220th Trail, South Amana, IA 52334.
Paint—SW 6467/Kendal Green and SW6753/
Jargon Green—Sherwin-Williams;
sherwin-williams.com.
60
continued on page 104
Country Gardens Spring 2010
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Buyer’s Guide
continued from page 102
78
Little Bit of Bybee, a retail store owned by
Cornelison family cousin Ron Stambaugh,
is located at 11617 Main St. in Middletown, KY 40243. To place a mail order, call
502/245-0557, fax 502/245-0656, or e-mail
[email protected].
Fabulous Fuchsias
Pages 64–71
Possum Run Greenhouses, Inc., 5384 Possum
Run Rd., Bellville, OH 44813; 419/892-2770;
possumrungreenhouse.com. Amish baskets—
Annie Schar, Annie’s Amish Baskets;
800/338-1121; AnniesAmishBaskets.com.
Vintage flowerpots—Farmhouse 1807, 20637
S. State Hwy. 21, Caledonia, MO 63631;
573/779-3869; Farmhouse1807.com.
21 Ideas Worth Stealing
Pages 72–77
Minter Gardens is open daily from late March
to mid-October. It’s located 90 minutes east
of downtown Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, just off Highway 1 at 52892 Bunker
Rd., Rosedale, BC. Guided tours of the 32-acre
garden are available by appointment. There
are two restaurants, a plant and gift shop, a
conservatory banquet room, and a wedding
pavilion. For more information, call 888/6468377 or e-mail [email protected]. You
can take a virtual tour at mintergardens.com.
The mailing address is Box 40, Chilliwack, BC
V2P 6H7.
Living Art Gallery
Pages 78–83
Cider Hill Gardens and Gallery, 1747 Hunt Rd.,
Windsor, VT 05089; 800/232-4337;
ciderhillgardens.com.
Fringe Benefits
Pages 84–85
Aluminum cookie cutters, fruit-crate ends,
license plates, salad plates—online auctions
and collectibles merchants. Annuals—Proven
Winners; 877/865-5818; provenwinners.com.
Terra-cotta pots—Craftware Pottery and
Baskets (wholesale only); 800/311-7491;
craftwareusa.com. E-mail: [email protected] to find a retailer near you.
The Perfect Country Garden
Pages 86–91
Landscape Design—Pine Meadow Gardens,
Inc., 237 Old Waterbury Rd., Southbury, CT
06488; 203/264-6066.
Grassroots:
Pages 100–101
Sources for the Midwest region include:
For more information on The Chicago
Botanic Garden’s Plant Evaluation Notes,
visit chicagobotanic.org. Under the “Conservation” menu, click on “Plant science and
conservation,” then “Environmental horticulture” and “Plant evaluation.”
For more information on Nebraska Statewide
Arboretum’s GreatPlants, visit arboretum
.unl.edu and click on “Great plants.”
For more information on Missouri Botanical
Garden and Powell Gardens’ Plants of Merit
program, visit mobot.org and click on “Gardening and horticulture.”
For Buffalograss: High Country Gardens;
800/925.9387; highcountrygardens.com.
For more information about buffalograss,
visit the University of Missouri Extension Web
site at extension.missouri.edu and search for
“buffalograss.”
Sources for the Southwest region include:
For wildflower seeds: Wild Seed—P.O. Box
27751, Tempe, AZ 85285; 602/276-3536.
Sources for the Southeast region include:
For larkspur: Wild Seed Farms—800/848-0078;
wildseedfarms.com.
For crinum lilies: jenksfarmer.com.
For rose of Sharon, and grasses: Nurseries
Caroliniana—803/279-2707; nurcar.com.
Over the Garden Gate
Page 112
For more from John Greenlee, consider:
The American Meadow Garden: Creating a
Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn
by John Greenlee; Timber Press; 2009; 280
pages. To purchase, visit amazon.com. 
Country Gardens Spring 2010
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