BEFORE AND AFTER
As The Gardening Tutor, I offer three main gardening services: Consulting, Tutoring and Gardener. Determining which service or services best fits your project is one of the very first steps we will discuss together. Each service is described in brief below, followed with project photos. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.
- Mary
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Annette and Jim H.
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Consulting and Tutoring
I've taken out my lawn and now have a blank slate.
I want to learn how to create and maintain
a garden myself, but I need help!
See more about this project here
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Pruning 101
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Tutoring
How to prune an overgrown
Jasminum polyanthum (Pink Jasmine)
Do you have a ‘monster vine’?
In just a few years some vines can take over.
Not all vines can be cut back to bare trunks but
Jasminum polyanthum can be reined in with
what’s called ‘rejuvenation pruning’.
See more about this project here
Tutoring
Help, how do I prune this plant correctly?
It's taking over my yard!
See more about this project here
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Mulching 101
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Tutoring
How can I make this garden area look better?
I've been told that mulch can help my plants thrive
as well as make the garden space look nicer.
See more about this project here
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Mary’s Demonstration Garden
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Consulting
Ideas for color in the garden.
See more about this project here
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Tim G.
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Consulting and Gardener
I am a do-it-myselfer but don't know where to start!
I need a designer to consult with me
so that I can create my dream garden.
Oh, and I will need someone to help maintain
my beautiful plants once we are done.
See more about this project here
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Tutoring
The following are some of the steps taken with Mary Frost, The Gardening Tutor, to achieve this drought tolerant, deer resistant garden in Santa Rosa:
- First consultation to discuss what client wanted to achieve and decide on using consultation, tutoring or both for the project .
- Second meeting at The Gardening Tutor Deomonstration Garden to see mature plants and learn some fundamentals of design.
- Third meeting at Client's house: Lesson on how to visulize design using cuttings and props to show color and proportion. More about design fundamentals. Also, a lesson on drip irrigation and planting zones.
- Personal shopping day at the nurseries. Lesson on how to choose healthy plants. Also, how to decide on the number of plants needed.
- Meeting to place plants and further tutoring.
- Planting day lesson: placing plants, facing plants, proper planting on a slope, how to protect young plants from critters.
- Drip irrigation lesson: placement of emitters, upkeep of system.
- Mulching day: best practices for applying thick layer of mulch.
- Six month follow-up tutoring: how to prune and care for each plant.
Tutoring
Before
How to prune an overgrown Jasminum polyanthum (Pink Jasmine)
Do you have a 'monster vine'?
In just a few years some vines can take over.
Not all vines can be cut back to bare trunks but
Jasminum polyanthum can be reined in with
what's called 'rejuvenation pruning'.
Before
Jasminum polyanthum growth pulling down the lattice trellis.
After
If left alone and not pruned every few years this vine would keep growing in girth and break the trellis completely.
After
After pruning, cutting out the vine from the trellis and repairing damage to the trellis.
What is left is the desired main 'trunk'. A week or so later come back and finger prune (rub off with your fingers) some of the extra growth that the pruning has invigorated (leaving new growth that is growing in the desired direction). If you leave all the new growth you will soon have a big blob of a vine instead of a well directed, stylish focal point for the garden.
After
Yes, it's bare alright. Don't worry, Jasminum polyanthum will quickly grow back.
After
A few months later new growth is filling in. Flowers will follow in the spring.
There is no way to keep ahead of the tendrils growing in and out of the lattice, but you can keep the leaders that want to grow straight out along the ground cut back (flush with the main stems). Also, after flowering prune here and there to keep the vine from looking like a blob.
Tutoring
Buddleja Davidii Pruning (Butterfly Bush)
Before
After
First Cut
After
Final Pruning
4 weeks later
Butterfly Bush flowers best on new growth!
Tools used
(yes that's a sawsall in there)
Tutoring
Proper mulching technique.
Mary’s Demonstration Garden
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Consulting
At the demonstration garden Mary create’s examples of design techniques to show clients. The intention is to inspire clients to personalize their own gardens, think outside the box perhaps, not necessarily to duplicate the example.
The hot Asian orange color of this fence adds some spice and really makes the plant colors pop! From inside the house, this fence color compliments the more subdued peach and pumpkin color palette of the livingroom, making the room feel bigger!
White: Original color
Peach: first choice, too pastel
Asian Orange: Hot!
‘Marie Boisselot’ Clematis on hogwire trellis.
A desire to, “actually want to be outside reading the paper” inspired this client to tackle a big project. A little motivation from The Gardening Tutor along the way helped to keep up the momentum!
This is phase one of a three phase project. As a talented “do-it-yourselfer”, Tim installed all of the stone elements and the pergola himself! The design consultations helped Tim understand many elements of landscape design, including the best use of scale and the most inviting size for the walking paths. Here are some of the steps taken with Mary throughout the project:
- Design consultations
- Motivation consultations
- Personal shopper consultations:
Shopping for stone elements, soil products, plant containers and planting material
- Hired The Gardening Tutor hauling service to pick up and deliver soil products and containers
- Hired The Gardening Tutor gardening service for custom pruning and periodic upkeep of the garden
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