Welcome to Hamlen's
Helping Hand!
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4th Newsletter of 2009

Computer Landscape Design Seminar
Wondering how to landscape your home? Have the expertise of a landscape designer help you turn your dream design into a workable plan. This 30 minute session is only $25.

When: 06/27 - 10AM
Where: Hamlen's Garden Center
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The 1818 Rachel Hamlen homestead is looking for a new owner! Rachel’s lovely vintage home on St. Albans Road would be the perfect location and fit for a family, a cozy B&B, or an ice cream parlor/café restaurant. Interested? Give Dave a call at Hamlen’s (802) 868-4255.

Address: 165 ST. Albans Rd., Swanton, VT. 05488

What a gorgeous—rainy, but gorgeous—spring we have enjoyed! The brilliant green hues of spring foliage have deepened into their lush greener shades just in time to herald in the first days of summer. And what an art show of color, form, and detail Mother Nature has provided! Even the vast species of wildlife and birds know its time to show off their young and with call and song ad their unique symphony of life to our world.

Ah, it would be great if the soft, cool, breezy days of spring would linger. But, go they must and as we advance into June, now is a great time to finish planting that vegetable garden and place a few more purple, pink, or red Petunias in a garden pot or planter. Also, take a look around your yard—maybe this is the summer to do some new landscaping—plant that Weeping Willow, Red Jade Crabapple, Blue Chip Juniper,
or the Autumn Blaze Maple.

This is the perfect time to stop by Hamlen’s and talk to us about your landscaping and gardening ideas. Find out which native plants provide food and nectar for hummingbirds and migrating Monarch butterflies. Find those plants that are deer and critter resistant. Yes, those bunnies are cute but not when they are munching on your Pansies

With the summer months come the heat and possible water restrictions but this does not mean that your yard or gardens have to suffer. This doesn’t mean that the colorful and lush gardens of spring planting need to turn into a gravel or desert cactus stone accentuated landscape.

For example, herbs are some of the most fragrant and colorful plants you could imagine and can tough it out in that hot summer sun. There are dozens of varieties of Thyme and Sage that provide wonderful ground cover in sunny areas to serve as borders to sidewalks and driveways.

The folks at Hamlen’s can help you select just the right variety of plants, shrubs, and trees according to height, leaf texture, appearance, and soil composition to help you create an inviting outdoor environment.

Think you have a tough site to accommodate? Then take a look at the following tough site categories. There is just the right tough plant, tree, and/or shrub to match that tough site. So, look at your tough site challenge as an opportunity to introduce a new addition to your yard or garden. Enjoy your June planting! We look forward to seeing you at Hamlen’s.

Salt Tolerant Plants
Adam’s Needle Yellow Birch Sweet Birch Horse Chestnut Black Locust Honey Locust	Mulberry Red Oak White Oak Russian Olive Austrian Pine White Poplar	Rugosa Rose Colorado Blue Spruce Tamarack Weeping Willow

Plants for Dry Sites

Achillea Cerise Queen Achillea Moonshine Artemisia Silver Mound Summit Ash Wilton Blue Rug American Bittersweet Green Mountain Boxwood Green Velvet Boxwood Compact Burning Bush Asclepias tuberose Butterfly Flower Northern Catalpa Nepeta Walkers Low Catmint Autumn Magic Black Chokeberry Coralburst Crab Indian Magic Crabapple Indian Summer Crabapple Kelsey Crabapple Liset Crabapple Pink Spires Crabapple Prairifire Crabapple Red Jade Crabapple Red Splendor Crabapple Sargent Crabapple Festuca glauca Elijah Blue Fescue Baptisia australis False Indigo Greenspire Linden Hackberry Dwarf Bush Honeysuckle Goldflame Honeysuckle Engelmann Ivy Boston Ivy

Blue Chip Juniper Blue Prince Juniper Calamagrostis Karl Foester Grass Stachys Lamb’s Ear Ivory Silk Japanese Tree Lilac Autumn Blaze Maple Fothergilla Mount Airy Chaparral Weeping Mulberry Diabolo Ninebark Summer Wine Ninebark White Oak Bur Oak Northern Red Oak Walker Peaschrub Weeping Peascrub Siberian Peashrub Peony Duchesse de Nemours Peony Felix Crousse Peony Sarah Bernhardt Potentilla Abbotswood Potentilla Goldfinger Potentilla Mango Tango Potentilla Pink Beauty Spiraea Renaissance Perovskia Russian Sage Rudbeckia Goldsturm Sedum Autumn Joy Gro-Low Fragrant Sumac Trumpetvine Mohican Viburnim

Plants for Moist Sites
River Birch Ivory Halo Dogwood Autumn Blaze Maple Swamp White Oak	Laurel Leaf Willow Winterberry Jim Dandy Male Winterberry Red Sprite Winterberry

Plants for Deer Resistance
Artemisia Silver Mound Buddleia Black Knight Butterfly Bush Forsythia Northern Gold Peony Felix Supreme Peony Sarah Bernhardt Russian Sage Nordine Smokebush	Spiraea Little Princess Spiraea Magic Carpet Spiraea Bridalwreath Spiraea Anthony Waterer Spiraea Renaissance Trumpetvine

In Pine, Louisiana, every year about this season, Hummingbirds pass through the Alfano’s backyard on their migration route known as Hummingbird Lane. Mrs. Alfano for days makes sure that these feather-light creatures have fresh sugar water. One morning, she placed the red dish of sugar water in her hand; and as these photos taken by her husband attest, one after one the Hummingbirds lighted for a drink before they continued on their long journey.

Q. What does one penny say to the other penny?
A. Let’s get together and make some cents.

A kindergarten pupil told his teacher he’d found a cat, but it was dead. ‘How do you know that cat was dead?’ she asked her pupil. ‘Because I pissed in its ear and it didn’t move,’ answered the child innocently. ‘You did WHAT???’ the teacher exclaimed in surprise. ‘You know,’ explained the boy, ‘I leaned over and went ‘Pssst!’ and it didn’t move.’

Excellence is not an act. It is a habit
-Aristotle

By facing our challenges, we discover our potential.
– The Nature of Success, Mac Anderson, Founder of Successories

It is one of the most beautiful compensations in life . . .
we can never help another without helping ourselves.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson