Continued from page 5

Blue rocks from
Indonesia peppered

along the grounds

room window seat.
Their 140-foot-long driveway is flanked by
a rose and dahlia garden. "Carpet roses take
very little upkeep:' Silver says. "They're a new
breed that doesn't attract Japanese beetles. I
landscaped all the way up the drive over 30
years."
That landscaping includes towering catal-
pa trees, which "Chad and I collect. They're
old-fashioned trees that no one cared about
for a long time. The leaves are beautiful and
they have these flowers that look like little
orchids. The garden stores are starting to
carry them again."
Last year, she began a Japanese garden
near the kitchen door not far from the
Japanese fragrant viburnum and an ever-
green that she calls "the bad hair day tree.
I don't know its name but it's very happy
there:' she says.
Silver puts in about 800 bulbs each fall,
which is what you have to do, she says, "if
you want a really good showing every year.
I go when they put them on sale and I buy
them all. I keep planting all the way up to
Thanksgiving. As long as I can get a spade in

Soil Testing

From Aprd 1-23, participating gardening centers throughout Oakland
County will box and transfer your soil sample for analysis at Michigan
State Universky.

To aglect a sod sample:

.

1. Usibg a spade or trowel and a clean plastic pad, collect 10 random
Ei sars from one type of landscape area — such as your lawn,
flower , or vegetable garden.

:. Remove a slice of sod extencHng to the bottom of the plant roots
3 inches deep for lawn, 7 inches deep for flat ers and veg.etabies.,
Don't include roots thatch or other plant material in the sample.

Each small sod sample should be about Vi cup. Aix the 10 samples
together in the pail..

4.. One cup of the well-mixed soil is needed for the test. if the soil is
wet,. place it in a plastic bag that will then go inside the box.

T. Take soil samples to one of the participating retailers. it will

cost you $14 per sample, which includes organic matter testing.
Retailers will have the test "boxes" delivered to the testing lab,
You can expect the soil test report to be mailed to you in time for
the planting season,

Participating retailers include; Auburn Oaks Nursery in Rochester
Hilts, Boa dine Nursery in Clarkston and Rochester Hills, Eagle
Landscaping & Supply in Southfield, English Gardens — all loca
tions, Four Seasons Garden Center in Oak Park, Garden Central
in Berkley, Glenda's Garden Center in Novi, Goldner Walsh
Nursery in Pontiac, Jacobsen's Garden Town in Lake Orion, Oxford
Farm/Garden Center, Shades of Green in Rochester Hills, Telly's
Greenhouse a Garden Center in Troy, Uncle Luke's Feed Store, Troy.

For more information, &mail msue63@msu.edu or call
(248) 858-0880, ext, 5..

6

HOME & GARDEN MARCH 30

I 2006

the ground."
Each fall she takes as many plants as she
can inside. "I can't stand to throw any plants
away. I put them in pots and bring them in
for the winter. They go into shock and their
leaves are everywhere.
"If I could, I would have one of every spe-
cies that grows in Michigan:' she says.
Digging in her own yard is not enough
for Silver. An adjunct study skills teacher
at Wayne County Community College, she
also works part time during the summer for
Whitney Jackson's boutique landscape com-
pany, Art and Gardens in Birmingham. They
met at the master garden class.
"She's my prime weeder:' says Jackson,
who concentrates on two Bloomfield Hills
estates with formal patterned gardens. "She

has such a wonderful spirit and she's such a
joy. I'm very lucky to have her with me.
"Her own gardens reflect her:' Jackson
says. "They're very detailed yet put together
in a very free-spirited way" She is particu-
larly amused by the Silvers' "shoe tree" — a
spruce tree growing through a hale,in the
back porch to which an assortment of shoes
are nailed.
"There's always a tongue-in-cheek kind
of atmosphere in Josette's gardens:' Jackson
says.
As you might have guessed, it's the creativ-
ity that Silver loves most about gardening.
"Gardening is sort of like getting dressed
on a Saturday night for something special,
Silver says. "It's just trial and error. Nature is
just awesome."

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