Backyard Winter Garden Tour

Join me for a backyard garden tour where you can see what projects we are working on to prepare for spring, and hopefully give you some ideas on how you can maintain your garden.

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Wednesday-Saturday 9am-3pm through December 16, 2023

Creekside Nursery
181 Pine Hollow Dr
Dallas, NC, 28034

Hey friends welcome to Gardening with Creekside  today I’m going to give you an update on all of   the projects here in the backyard we’ve had a lot  a lot of fall cleanup preparing for a beautiful  

Spring and summer of 2024 uh we are going to  take it a little easy today uh yesterday I got   completely taken out by a like a 24-hour stomach  bug uh no fun I think we’ve all been there before  

And I just at one point I was like Lord just take  me now just take me home but I am feeling better   today tired but I am feeling better a huge shout  out and thank you to my sweet husband for stepping  

Up and filming yesterday because um honestly  that was the absolute last thing on my mind so   what we’re going to do today is going to take it  easy as far as physically but that does not mean   this is not really important information that  you can take and apply to your garden right now  

We are North Carolina a Zone 8A and I realized  that that we are in probably maybe a different   situation than maybe half of the country because  it is getting to be late December here and we have  

Very very mild Winters right compared to the  rest of the country and I know so some of you   are covered in snow or very frigid so take this  information and just apply it to a different time   calendar-wise to your garden but if you are in  my warmer zones really probably like zones six  

And warmer you can take these um things that  we are doing here in our Gardens and you can   apply them directly to your Gardens we are back  here in the backyard and I have talked about it  

Before that I have just the absolute most amazing  staff ever and they came over and cleaned up um   some things for us here in the backyard the other  day you will notice that the Dalia patch is quote  

Gone it is all cleaned up nice and neat and tidy  they just did a fantastic job now because um let’s   review here for those of you maybe who um are not  quite familiar with us and our dalas I have three  

Different rows here full of dalas they are planted  on both sides you can see that we have it on drip   irrigation on both the right and the left this  is our second year um just completed our second  

Summer of growing dalas and uh I always thought  that dalas were very daunting and just a very uh   Troublesome high maintenance kind of garden to  have flowers to keep in your garden and when we  

Went to go visit Lauren Aon of garden ancer three  years ago I guess now um we went in September and   that was when her dalas were just in all of their  Glory talking with her and she was like no they  

Are literally like the easiest crop ever so she  was sweet enough to send me a whole big box of   her Dalia tubers then next spring so that would  have been spring of 2022 and I planted them so  

Here in the Dalia patch on each side of the stakes  to the right side of the stakes are Laura’s dalas   and then last year because I love them so much  and they are highly addictive I ordered more for  

Myself so on the other side of the stakes are the  dalas that I um bought and then grew last year we   had a a stunning Garden they were gorgeous they  did much better the second year than they did the  

First year just because I think of the timing as  far as going in but we are with like I said that   North Carolina 8A we were just changed to an 8A  we were a 7B um and I know there is some question  

About do you leave the dalas do you dig them up  we do not dig our dalas we leave them alone next   year I may need to dig them in order to divide  them especially some of those from Laura because  

They are getting quite large you can see that  Cece and Randy came in here and basically cut   everything down to the ground that is what we’re  doing all the top had completely dyed from our   multiple freezes came in and just cut everything  down to the ground I am going to come back through  

And we are going to apply a nice layer of compost  mulch because dalas really enjoy that nice rich   organic material so compost is going to be a  great thing for us to add more than likely I  

Mean I could do the land and sea or I could do  our bulk compost it’ll honestly just depend on   which one I have more of right now and I will use  that but just come in on the beds and give them a  

Nice uh top layer as far as being worried about  losing my dalas um so last winter was the first   winter that I had dalas in the ground like Laura’s  dalas and for us it’s not the cold temperatures  

That we’re worried about our dalas is it is the  wet Winters this area it might be kind of hard   to tell um from the camera but it is on a gentle  slope so this whole area um especially from this  

It goes up and then there’s a nice gentle slope so  this area does not sit in water it drains really   really well and I only lost um probably three or  four tubers out of 200 I mean was she sent me a  

Ton and so what I would do is kind of throughout  the winter is I would come where you could see   the stocks were sticking up and I would pull back  the dirt and kind of fill my tubers and they were  

Nice and firm so then I’d cover them back up it  was just more of a mental check not that I could   really I guess I could dig them up but I did not  and they did great so I’m not worried about them  

This year we’ll put some Mulch on them and then  they will be fine so Dalia patch is all cleaned up   and ready to go if you have been following us you  know or been with us for the past couple of months  

You may remember that we are going to be hosting a  wedding the end of May our sweet Alyssa who works   for us she is getting married and the reception  is going to be right here in the backyard so we  

Are going to have um a nice big tent right here  all the fun reception festivities will be back   here in the backyard the dalas I was looking at my  pictures last year we will have some beginning to  

Bloom um but we’ll have nice green growth coming  up and they will have some flowers on on them so   we’re super excited about that clearly I do not  remove my steaks it is just too much of a pain  

To take these these metal steel rods in and out  these are fence posts I could come back through   and maybe I will maybe I’ll get some spray paint  and like spray paint them like a nice I don’t know  

A natural Brown kind of thing just to kind of uh  disguise them just a little bit more it’s actually   a really good idea I might do that sometime soon  um but or green I don’t know whatever but just to  

Disguise them a little bit but I do not take them  out that is just way too much work and taking them   out and then my luck when we put them back in we’d  probably put them like straight through the middle  

Of a Dalia tuber so we leave them alone so that’s  the dalas if you have dalas and you’re in our area   in our kind of those zones you need to get them  nice and cleaned up and cut back apply a nice  

Layer of mulch you’ll be good in the springtime  I I did not feed them this year I just use that   compost as a good food fertilizer for them if you  want to step by step season by season of how to  

Take care of your Dal I personally found that Swan  Island dalas just online that’s where I bought   some of mine they do a great like I said season  by season care of dalas I will try to remember  

To link that but go to Swan Island dallas.com and  just look under their maintenance category kind   of thing and it will have you U lots of good  information there because go to The Experts   right they are the Growers of these Dal tubers so  we’re going to rely on them now another area that  

My ladies took care of me with is over here here  um in the Phantom hydrangea bed this is a flower   bed that we installed three years ago I believe  it was we have these Phantom hydranges that are  

Very very similar to Lim lights now do I know the  exact difference between a phantom and a limelight   I do not other than I would say maybe that the  Lim lights are a little bit more vigorous and  

That their flowers are a little bit more compact  but we have tons tons of them through here this   was we had been growing Phantoms at the nursery  um in our early years they did not sell and so  

Why throw them away or toss them so we put them  in the landscape and we have got a nice huge bed   in here the ladies came back through and because  these are panicle hydranges and they pruned them  

So you can see that they did an excellent job of  just cutting these babies back by uh a third to a   half no more it was no more than a half definitely  at the least I mean yeah at the absolute most it  

Was at half and even then I don’t even think it  was a half cleaning them up because panicles of   course Bloom on New Growth so these get pruned  and they will be just beautiful the uh Vision  

Here of course is that they will just continue  to grow and get more and more massive those   beautiful flowers up next to these are crypto  Marias and crypto maras we planted these before   the house was even built like we were in the  construction process but we went ahead Jerry  

And I planted these so these are like 21 21 years  old 20 21 years old and they provide a beautiful   um Evergreen screen and then the Phantoms here in  front of them are just stunning the Phantoms will  

Get nice and big within that six somewhere between  that six to 10 mature size tall and wide we want   to be a nice big hedge right here again for the  wedding they probably won’t be blooming but they  

Will be nice and green I also have in here here  lots of jonquils this is where I have gigantic   star um same ones that I planted up at the chicken  cpop and they are just dotted all through here I  

Have some pictures from last year when they were  blooming and they were just spectacular we added   some perennials this year where kind of right  where Brena is sitting I’ve got some solidago   I’ve got some Rudbeckia I’ve got some agaki so  they came in here and cleaned all that up for me  

Again what we’re GNA do is we’re going to come  back and just lay like a bulk mulch compost on   this bed this is nothing but natural native red  clay very very thick there is no irrigation on  

This flower bed and so um adding that nice thick  mulch will help control the weeds it will help um   retain moisture it makes it look nice of course  and so for me my main two points of using the  

Mulch is that it helps the moisture control which  is really really important especially when a bed’s   not on irrigation and then two the suppression  of weeds because that is just massive especially   in an area like this that is very natural it’s  literally on the back of our property I don’t  

See it a whole ton so I’m not here so I’m not  as Vigilant about pruning my weeds here so any   little bit of help I can get I will get that for  sure and then uh let’s see one other area well not  

One other there’s a lot of areas that still need a  little bit of work let’s go through here and talk   about that so if you have areas like this in your  garden you can take care of them as well this is  

The Little Flower bed right beside the garden shed  of course the house driveway um and then the what   we call the forest pansy bed is just right here  in this bed we have let’s just start at the front  

Where Brena is this is amsonia and amsonia um is  a wonderful native perennial and it does gorgeous   light blue flowers in early spring has nice very  feathery green foliage throughout the summer and  

Then in the fall it turns a brilliant gold it is  stunning it is done so what I will do is take my   you take HED trimmers or you can take your pruners  and you’re just going to come through and just  

Whack it I mean all the way down to the ground so  essentially this plant completely disappears so   I need to come in there and then just go right  all the way down to the ground very much like  

You would do like a baptisia we had a couple of  phantoms left over when we did the um the bed we   were just at so we put them here underneath this  maple tree and I will do the same thing I will  

Come in and I will prune them back by uh you know  anywhere from a third is optimal right so we just   cut it back by a third and then of course any  weeds that are in here go ahead and get those  

Weeds out too my friends it t the season for weeds  you know that weeds are one of those gifts that   just keep on giving to The Gardener doesn’t matter  if it’s spring summer or fall there’s a whole new  

Crop of weeds all the time and then finally I  have in here these are some beautiful uh these   are I believe these are Oakland Hol and because we  want to basically create a screen we have a little  

Bit of a parking lot right here you know you got  three teenagers and uh yeah lots of cars and then   a business so we always have cars around here so  this is one little parking spot that we kind of  

Created and so these oaklands are going to grow  up and form a nice kind of Hedge for us in the   meantime what I did this past year which I will  do again next year this is Mexican sunflower and   you can see they two are completely done right  Mexican sunflowers are beautiful annuals that  

Get nice and big very very happy plants but they  are absolutely covered in these brilliant orange   flowers the butterflies absolutely go nuts over  this plant and I don’t know if you could hear  

But uh when Brena just ran by so it dropped some  seeds so I may have you know a gazillion of these   in the flower bed right here next year so we’ll  see but anyway it did its job what I wanted it to  

Because you can see right here between these two  Hol how it just filled in so in the especially   in the late summer it was really stunning so  all I have to do is just come in and just pull  

Them out and just get that bed cleaned up and it  will will’ll be good to go as far as that goes   and then one other thing that I wanted to show  you is um down here we have um I planted a whole  

Row of Chamas I’m pretty sure that we film that  so I’ll try to go back and um link that for you   but here in the south of course right Chamas are  just one of those iconic Southern shrubs because  

They are for those warmer zones uh there are some  Chamas that are Hardy to a zone six but typically   like the sweet spot I would say would be like an  maybe like an 8 to 10 even for me sometimes in  

That 7B 8A area depends on the chamelea and where  I put it that it may uh still be too cold for it   so last year um we planted a hedge of Chamas we  have two four six of them here now these Chamas  

Are tiny right and Chamas are notoriously slow  Growers so we have them basically in a straight   line right here along the creek Bank all of these  are what we call Japonica Chamas there’s two main   types that we grow here in the United States we’ve  grow sanqua which are blooming right now and then  

We have japonicas that will Bloom um anywhere  from January to early early spring you know the   difference because japonicas will have a a really  nice big leaf sanqua are little like if you look   at like my thumb compared to this Leaf sanqua  will be much closer to my thumb size a Japonica  

Is a really nice big leaf the great thing is is  that they are covered in buds so I have little   flower buds all over my japonicas each one of  these is different in this spot so they are all  

Different but they’re in that pink white and red  family and then I planted them according to their   colors what I’m so excited about these Chamas is  that they sat in their cans for over a year yeah  

They did so my mama and I went to uh Chamilia  Forest which is a really well-known reputable   Nursery in the Raleigh area and they grow Chamas  that is their specialty you can order online so  

You can go to Chamilia Forest I will link that for  you um so you can order online but every couple   of times during the year they have open houses  so my mom and I went to an open house in early  

Early spring and filled up my car and these did  not get planted till a year later yes I know so   they were looking rough so we put them down here  along the creek Bank used lots of beautiful land  

And sea compost on them and y’all I’m just going  to be honest I’m just happy there are a lot I’m   happy they’re alive and I’m happy that we have  got some little flower buds on them because as  

Far as I’m concerned that is a great success now  something has been chewing on a couple of these so   I will have to investigate but that’s the thing  about Chamas is if you can get them established  

In those first year two three years then you’re  going to be good to go it’s like they seem to be   the roughest as far as hardest to get them going  in those initial years right they they sleep they  

Creep and then they finally they start to LEAP so  if you have Chamas just be patient the one thing   the couple advices that I have with growing  Chamas is one make sure your sun conditions   are right uh there are full sun Chamas so a lot  of the Chamas from Southern Living that October  

Magic series is full sun like I have my white shis  in full sun October magic Ruby full full sun and   they are thriving and doing great if I were to  put these japonicas in full sun they would fry  

And dye in one season so make sure that your the  condition the sun conditions for the plant match   where you put them as far as these go right here  they get lots of Beautiful Morning Sun because  

The sun comes up right behind me but then it  sets Behind These trees so about 11 12:00 in   the in the day these are already in the shade  so they get enough Sun but they’re not getting  

Fried so just make sure that the conditions that  the plant needs is what you’re having uh in your   garden so doing that next organic material this  area right here is nothing but just awful thick  

Red clay soil so we did use a lot of good compost  we added some into the hole we mixed it in with   that native soil and then we top dressed I really  do need to come back through and top dress again  

Obviously the leaves have um are very thick and  have fallen a lot right here but you can see this   this is still um some of that great land and sea  so what I want to do is come back and I’m going  

To pull back some of the leaves put that land and  SE back and then I will apply some new land and SE   rather and then I’m going to put the leaves back  because that kind of holds in the moisture um so  

I’m going to do that and then as far as feeding  your Chamas Chamas are acid loving plants they   absolutely love acidic conditions so the one  of the best things fertilizers for me to use   is Holly tone so Holly tone of course is from  our friends at espoma for those acid loving  

Plants obviously Hol love it um Chamas aelas  gardinas and it has it listed on the bag what   great plants um love that Holly tone it tends to  be a lot of those Evergreens really enjoy um that  

More acidic fertilizer so I will do it coming out  of winter going into spring so some let’s say you   know March right sometime in March and then I will  probably do it again uh about eight weeks later so  

That could be sometime in May so if I can feed  them twice when they’re really going into that   growing season temperatures are warming up um and  so that will help get them fed that’s especially   important when you’re trying to get them going  if you have really established Chamas then you  

Know you don’t really have to do anything to them  they are happy they are good to go and they will   be loaded with flowers that come either fall or  winter um so that is the plan uh for these but I  

Like I said I’m just happy that they’re alive that  they have flower buds on them that in my book is a   great success and I am thinking long term with  these am I thinking that these are going to be  

You know full and thick and gorgeous for this  may wedding no I just want them to be healthy   and alive and producing more flowers and more  leaves every single season and then we will be  

Uh we’ll be very happy and good to go now um I am  going to show you a whole another area um because   this is an area that we are going to develop  this winter uh we started on it last year so  

We have this beautiful flower bed that reaches  it you know flows along the creek Bank these   are all aelas these were aelas that came from my  mama when we uh built our house 20 years ago and  

They really have been neglected now if your aelas  look like this they’re kind of the yellow um don’t   worry about it that could be just temperature you  know aelas this is when they absolutely look their  

Worst but they will uh be flushed back out and so  this is what we’re going to do is clean this area   up this area has been really neglected for years  now and with the wedding happening uh in may all  

Of the wedding guests will they will leave the  nursery and they’re going to walk all this way   to the backyard this has been an area that we  have wanted to develop um and just maintain  

I mean for years and years I mean that’s why we  planted we’ve got all like I said the different   aelas in here we’ve got nice macril hydrangeas in  here and you can see we also have lots of sticks  

We have lots of lots of weeds but look at these uh  these hbor back there those are all Linton roses   these are the kind of the old timey ones that  will naturalize and reced themselves and then  

Yes y’all it is a hot mess I am fully aware of  that but it’s going to be gorgeous we’re going   to we’re going to make it pretty all of these that  you see up here all of these kind of sticks dare  

I say those are Japanese and nemies and when they  are blooming they are absolutely stunning it is a   great kind of a ground cover the only problem that  we have with this is of course that we’re us not  

M maintaining this area is that we get kind of  those invasive briers so we’ve got some briers   in here that can get really aggressive and um so  we’ve got to get in there and get those cleaned  

Up but I plan on leaving the enmies because they  are just absolutely beautiful and then of course   we have um more microfill hydranges this is a  grass we’re going to pull this grass out because   it just got randomly either planted there or it  became a volunteer I’m not sure but it just does  

Not fit so that’s going to come out and then of  course our limelight hydrangea that is probably   14 years old and it is just absolutely ginormous  so we will come back in here and give it a nice  

Prune um so that way it’ll be beautiful and nice  and thick for next year but just to give you an   idea so this is where I pruned it last year right  so last February I pruned it and then this is all  

New growth this year that was the flower ain’t  that crazy I mean that’s the thing about these   limelights and that’s why we don’t prune them back  more than a half because if you can look down here  

Look how I mean it is like a tree this whole thing  is just a massive root system trunk system um the   root system is large but the trunk um but just  really really thick I mean that’s that’s probably  

An inch diameter um and so that’s why we say don’t  prune them back too severe every year so that way   they can get nice and strong all right my friends  energy level completely gone I’m done for the day  

Now uh but hopefully you have found this helpful  things to do in your yard there’s always something   to be done in the garden even if you’re covered  in six feet of snow you know what my favorite  

Part of winter is as far as the garden goes is  dreaming and planning for next year so if you   can’t physically get out in your garden because of  either weather conditions or physical limitations   start dreaming start planning start thinking what  am I going to do it doesn’t matter if you have you  

Know Acres of property or you have a patio or  a balcony and you have a couple of containers   it is still so much fun to dream and plan about  what you can do next growing season so as always  

We so appreciate you thank you for GR with  Greek side we’ll see you in the next video bye friends