The garden in our old house was half shady and some of my daylilies did not do well. They survived and bloomed but never seemed to thrive. We moved to Kalamazoo in southwestern Michigan after that. Our back yard was almost all sun all the time. We moved some of our plants with us, including … [Read more...]
Planning the 2019 Garden – Annual Flowers for Cutting and Containers
Today I ordered seeds to start indoors, verbena, marigolds, zinnias and cutting ageratum, and last week picked out a couple phlox perennial plants. The zinnias are for the back cutting garden. There should be some Benary Giants seeds left from last year but I ordered a new packet just in … [Read more...]
Frosty Nights Mean Dead Annuals and Damaged Mums
The last several years we've had long, trailing falls with temperatures s-l-o-w-l-y dipping lower and lower, and flower-killing hard freezes only in late October or even early November. This year we had our first frost October 13. The grass was frosted the next morning and the zinnias were dead. … [Read more...]
Planting a Perennial Grass Garden – Clean Up Steps
We had a mess in our back yard with weeds and left over black dirt and gravel that covered up the perfect spot for my perennial grass garden. It is the bunch of dead plants and dirt and an old tarp right in front of the fence on the right. Since it's good to share here are close … [Read more...]
Garden in Mid April 2017: Weeds, Leaves and Flowers!
Tick tock, tick tock. Time is moving. Spring is advancing. Flowers are ready to bloom and I'm Not Ready! Last fall I decided to leave the debris and summer stalks in situ and deal with them in the spring. Well...now it's spring and I've got 3 garden beds full of stalks and leaves and spring … [Read more...]
Cleaning Up an Old Yard Mess – Perennial Grass to the Rescue!
When we put in our garden we got large deliveries of black dirt and gravel; unfortunately I forgot to put tarps down under either of these and we still have small piles of dirt and gravel out back. We also got extra edging pieces and I kept thinking we'd do something with them - and they are still … [Read more...]
What Will Next Summer’s Garden Be?
The flower and seed catalogs are strewn across my coffee table in the living room and stacked on top my desk in the office. I've already ordered three perennials from American Meadows. Gaillardia comes in bright, cheerful yellows and red, happily blooms all summer and is hardy here. Its only … [Read more...]
Warm January Weather Melts the Snow and Shows the Mess
It's been unusually warm the last few days, 40s Wednesday - Friday, mid-50s today, 50 tomorrow, before we get back to our normal high 20s/low 30s. This is Michigan after all, and no matter what the groundhog sees on February 2, spring is at least a couple months away. The sun felt so good this … [Read more...]
Garden Updates this Fall: Hope for a Glorious Garden in 2017!
My Sweet Williams were beautiful this summer. This early June photo shows rose, pink, purple, red, white and bicolor flowers all spilling over on tall plants perfect for picking. I love Sweet Williams and planted two big beds, one in the main perennial garden and one in the back strip along … [Read more...]
Changes in the Garden – What Didn’t Work in 2016
This spring I changed one garden bed, moving peonies (aka attempting to move peony roots almost two feet square) and planting more summer-blooming gold/red perennials together in the now-open space. We purchased several plants both locally and mail order and I had high hopes they would thrive … [Read more...]