Many varieties of versatile
coleus add pops of red, maroon
and purple throughout the
landscape and in window boxes.
Natural elements such as rocks
serve as edging and save on the
budget, leaving more to spend
on statuary, obelisks and
garden decor.
Malinowski caught the gardening bug from her
family, but she fell deeper in love when she took a
landscape architecture class her senior year in
college. (“If I’d taken it earlier, I would have totally
changed my major!” she says.)
68 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l
MARCH 2020
With this much planting space, you have to be budget-conscious and Malinowski
has several strategies. She overwinters coleus indoors, taking cuttings and rooting
them in glasses of water. By springtime, she’ll have almost 100 baby coleus ready
to move around the yard.
“To buy them in the spring, they’re $5 apiece,” she says. “Last year I rooted sev-
enty, so seventy times five — I tell myself that’s how much money I didn’t spend!”
She also keeps an eye out for new shoots (called volunteers) from perennials and
moves them to fill other spots. The ones that spring up in the walkway are her
renegades.
“You have to learn to identify seedlings and be careful not to mulch around plants
where you’re expecting volunteers; the mulch will smother them,” she says. “I also
like to divide perennials. It’s like getting free plants. I have a lot of those as staples
everywhere; it gives the garden a nice cohesive look.”
Gardening is in Malinowski’s DNA. Both sets of grandparents had huge gardens
where she played as a child, and her aunts were gardening enthusiasts, too. Her
garden still grows offspring from plants her family gifted her.
“I have phlox that came from my grandmother’s house and they’ve reseeded
themselves all over the place,” she says.
Malinowski is passing on her knowledge to the next generation of gardening
enthusiasts, as well.
“People have gotten in trouble for weeding things that weren’t weeds,” she says.
“And I’m trying to teach my granddaughters which flowers they can pick. You pick
a lily, that’s not coming back.”