Beard’ scallions
Plants under one foot
‘Peter Pan’ scarlet dwarf zinnia
‘Romance’ red verbena
Orange Row
4- to 6-foot plants for back row
‘Large Flowered Mix’ ornamental sunflowers
Orange tithonia
‘Golden Jubilee’ tomato
‘Mandarin Cross’ tomato
2- to 3-foot plants
‘X-20’ marigold
Safflower
Apricot statice
1- to 2-foot plants
‘Golden Belle’ pepper
‘Tequila Sunrise’ chile pepper
‘Habanero’ peppers
Plants under one foot
‘Orange Gem’ marigolds
‘Gold Nugget’ marigolds
Yellow Row
4- to 6-foot plants for back rows
‘Giganteus’ sunflower
‘Teddy Bear’ sunflower
‘Taxi’ tomato
‘Yellow Pear’ tomato
‘Yellow Currant’ tomato
‘X-15’ marigold
2- to 3-foot plants
‘Sunburst’ summer squash
‘Gold Rush’ zucchini
1- to 2-foot plants
‘Pencil Pod Wax’ snap beans
‘Gypsy’ bell pepper
‘Burpee’s Golden’ beets
Plants under one foot
‘Lemon Gem’ marigold
‘Yellow Sophia’ marigold Golden sage
Green Row
4- to 6-foot plants
‘Italian White’ sunflowers
‘Bells of Ireland’
2- to 3-foot plants
Kochia
‘Envy’ green zinnia
‘Burpee Hybrid’ zucchini
‘California Wonder’ bell pepper
‘Jalapeno’ chile pepper
1- to 2-foot plants
‘Burpee’s Tender Pod’ bush snap beans
Plants under one foot
‘Spicy Globe’ dwarf basil
French thyme
‘Extra-curled Dwarf’ parsley
Chamomile
Purple Row
4- to 6-feet plants
‘Hopi Blue’ corn
‘Purple Striped-leaf’ ornamental corn
‘Sicilian Purple’ artichoke
2- to 3-foot plants
Purple zinnia
Deep blue statice
‘Royalty Purple Pod’ bush snap beans
‘Rosa Bianco’ eggplant
‘Dusky’ eggplant
1- to 2-foot plants
‘Victoria’ blue salvia
‘Opal’ purple basil
Plants under one foot
‘Buddy’ dwarf purple gomphrena
‘Crystal Palace’ blue lobelia
‘Blue Mink’ ageratum
The Rainbow Oz Garden
Many, many years ago I removed the front lawn and planted a vegetable garden in my sunny front yard. I had become weary of trying to grow sun-loving plants in a shady area. As a landscape designer I knew I could make my garden lovely enough for a formal suburban neighborhood; judging from everyone’s reaction I succeeded. A fallout from front yard gardening I had not anticipated was that neighborhood children would come to visit and want to be involved. After a few years we were having lots of fun together and I found myself moving away from formal vegetable gardens and leaning more toward what “my kids” wanted. One year, that meant lots of flowers for drying; another summer we planted huge pumpkins. From one year to another I found myself growing more of their favorite rainbow-colored vegetables. Eventually I decided that while I had already grown a rainbow garden at Hidden Villa, it had been a summer garden. This time I would fill my rainbow garden with cool-season vegetables and grow them during the winter. Thanks to “my kids,” my garden style really loosened up. I thought, “Why not plan the garden with a Wizard of Oz theme and design it around a yellow brick road?” Well, that idea met with enthusiastic hoorays. All the kids on the street from ages three to ninety deemed it a spectacular idea.
I designed a graceful, curving path through my front garden; my crew installed a brick path and painted it a bright, bright yellow. Getting in the spirit of the project my daughter-in-law Julie Creasy and assistant Gudi Riter started sewing costumes. Dorothy and the Scarecrow were stuffed with straw and dressed delightfully. My friend and the artist who drew the line drawings in this book, Marcy Hawthorne, painted Dorothy’s face. Barbara Burkhart assembled the Tin Man from five-gallon nursery containers, hand trowels, a hose nozzle, and a plastic watering can; she sprayed him with
