This year spring has come in like waves on the beach, in and out, in and out. Days in the 70-80s followed by days in the 40-50s, sun followed by rain. We always have variable spring weather, but it's not common to have 80 degree days in early May or 40 degree days in late May. My flowers have … [Read more...]
Springtime Clean Up, Weed, Fertilize and Get Ready for Flowers!
It's spring time, busy time, garden time. I love it! I'm getting about 10 new perennials next week (read about them here) and need to make the garden ready for flower power. Main jobs: tidy up, weed, move a few plants to get color bursts and fertilize. Last fall I made a long list of all the … [Read more...]
Busy Week in the Garden! Pansy Planting
It's been warm here and I've been busy in the garden weeding and planting. First part of the week I weeded the gardens - got rid of all the bits of grass that snuck into the perennial beds out back and raked out most of the leaves in front - and have it all ready for flowers. First up were the … [Read more...]
Daffodils, Peaches and Late Snows, Freezing Weather
We had a mild winter here in Michigan with very little snow cover and only a few days below 10 above. Plus March was unusually mild; we normally have one or two March days in the 50s or even low 60s but this year we had 50+ for several days. Trees are budding and spring is coming! That changed … [Read more...]
Heather So Tough and So Pretty – Blooming in Snow All Winter
One of the puzzling landscape features we inherited with this house is a big round garden-ish spot in the middle of the drive. It is divided in half, with black lava rocks on a mounded area and granite rocks on a flatter half. I suspect there used to be more plants as the ones there now are a bit … [Read more...]
Top 10 Gardening Challenges for 2016
My garden has several problems that I need to figure out, plus the usual challenges we face every summer. #10 One of my personal problems is that I feel terrible when I discard a living plant. Last year my iris struggled with pests and took over the best garden spots. When I cleared the plants … [Read more...]
Beyond Mums – More Beautiful Flowers for Fall
When you think of fall, do you see gardens bursting with chrysanthemum blooms? Mums are beautiful, bringing us golds, russets, pinks, purple and white, but we can make our gardens even better by adding a few other flowers. This plant here is Eupatorium Wayside, vigorous and hardy. It's about 18 … [Read more...]
New Flowers for My 2016 Garden – Pink, Orange, Blue and Gold
Yesterday I placed my first 2016 garden order, this one from Bluestone Perennials, in time to use their winter coupons. You too can use them before January 20, 2016. (Note all photos below are links from the Bluestone website.) Last summer my phlox were pretty, but scattered in my garden and … [Read more...]
Iris Plants and the Icky Iris Borer
I like iris flowers just fine, although we have too many plants and not enough different varieties. What I don't like is how the plants look when they finish blooming. Ugh. Several plants were especially bad, with brown leaves and spots and soft rhizomes. I remembered iris get … [Read more...]
Grass Wars – Removing Prairie Grass From My Garden
If you've read my Bunny Wars posts about the depredations from our rabbit friends you might think we are besieged by critters. We are. There are a gazillion chipmunks, ground squirrels, big squirrels and rabbits in our yard. These fauna threats can do great damage but they are small potatoes … [Read more...]