Up Close and Personal with Peggy Hoelting

1011 N. Woodlawn

Kirkwood, Missouri

63122

314-965-3070

MailSCG@aol.com

I must have gotten the gardening gene from my ancestors. My father farmed corn, soybeans and cattle. In fact, farming was a way of life for most of my ancestors. Of course I didn’t discover my "passion" until I was well into my 30s. I was a new home owner with a garden of my own.

I was working long hours at my job in retailing. I found myself immersed in the garden on the weekends. I ventured outside in the morning, letting the day slip away until the mosquitoes reminded me that darkness was approaching. After 20 years in retailing, it was time for a change. After much soul searching, I realized my passion was for plants.

I enrolled in Botany 101 at Meramec Community College. After just a few classes, I was hooked. School as an adult was fascinating. I could apply my life experiences and was surrounded by classmates who lived my dream. They were professional landscapers, turf heads and master gardeners who took notes with soil still under their fingernails. I felt like a human sponge soaking up all the information I could find. After my second semester of horticulture classes, I needed to get some hands-on experience. I started doing garden maintenance for family and friends, and soon I was contracting for small-scale landscaping jobs. My new career was launched.

And then came Sugar Creek. I remember being particularly fascinated by Phlox paniculata (Summer Phlox). Massive clusters of fragrant flowers that bloom all summer. Does it get better than this? The day I walked into Sugar Creek and saw not one or two varieties of Phlox paniculata, but 30 or 40 varieties, once again, I knew I was hooked. I had to work at Sugar Creek! What a great place to further my education while getting paid.

I worked at Sugar Creek for the next three years and continued my garden maintenance and landscaping business. Maintaining plants for my customers gave me hands-on knowledge. I learned things the hard way: which plants bunnies love to eat; which plants can’t tolerate the heat; which plants are truly "low maintenance." Now that I’m working full-time at Sugar Creek, I’ve given up my gardening business. I’m still learning something new every day. My co-workers (plants nerds every one) are a great source of information. Our customers are knowledgeable and love to talk about plants.

Favorite annuals: I love to use annuals to take the summer color in my garden up a notch (Live hard, die young as they say). Don’t be afraid to try a couple of new ones each season; you’ll be in for some wonderful surprises. Cleome is a big beautiful show stopper. Tithonia, another big one, has deep orange flowers that attract butterflies en masse. Black pearl ornamental pepper has amazing fruit all season, pineapple sage, lemon grass, basil of every flavor, size and color (have you tried lime basil yet?). Pop these into your perennial beds for lots of summer fun.

Favorite perennials: Oh, how do I choose?! So many plants, so little space. Summer phlox of course. Penstemon ‘Huskers Red’, Stachys ‘Hummelo’, Lungwort (Pulmonaria) -- those spotted leaves are always a crowd pleaser, Dianthus ‘Firewitch’ so bright and inviting in the spring, Black-Eyed Susan -- a summer garden staple, Foam Flower (Tiarella) easy to grow. And let’s not forget perennial herbs...rosemary, parsley, thyme, oregano, santolina and chives (oh my) are a must!

Favorite shrubs: Talk about low maintenance. Plant ‘em and forget ‘em (not quite, but almost).

Every garden should have at least one of the following: Blue Mist Shrub(Caryopteris) -- intense blue flowers in late summer; Crape Myrtle -- upright form, blooms late summer, great fall color; ‘Knock Out’ shrub rose -- blooms spring to fall, (need I say more?); Oak Leaf Hydrangea ‘Snow Queen’ -- lush creamy white, fragrant flowers, cinnamon peeling bark; Beauty Berry (Callicarpa) -- cascades of glorious berries in fall; and Japanese Kerria -- loads of bright yellow flowers all season long, bright green stems in winter.

Advice to Beginners: 1) Get your soil right up front. Load in the Cotton Burr Compost and organic material. Start your own compost pile. This is the most important thing you can do up front for a successful, low maintenance garden. 2) Choose plants carefully. Get the right plant for the right place, ask the experts and read plant tags. 3) Fertilize. Start in early spring with compost and triple super phosphate, which stimulates root growth in spring and bigger, better blooms later on. Follow up with Osmocote time-released fertilizer pellets when you plant and Liquid Bloom Booster for all annuals and heavy blooming perennials in summer. Wind your garden down in fall with a final top dressing of cotton burr compost, the best natural, organic fertilizer you can buy. If you have higher maintenance plants such as roses or plants that get powdery mildew or attract Japanese beetles, Bayer 3-in-One is a must. This product not only fertilizes, but helps to prevent diseases and keeps bad insects away.