Add Fragrance To Your Garden
As I mentioned last week, I am determined to recreate an heirloom flower bed. Not finding heirloom seeds in stores here, I spent much of the past week browsing through and making lists of potential purchases from online heirloom seed company catalogs. Although my initial sheet had over thirty varieties on it, I was able …
Invite An Insect: Lady Beetles
An insatiable predator, the familiar lady bug is one of the gardeners best friends. In it’s relatively short lifetime, a single lady bug can devour up to 5,000 aphids. Throughout their life cycles the over 400 species of lady bugs here in the United States also voraciously consume whiteflies, scale insects and mealybugs. Lady …
Remembering Grandma’s Garden
My husband and I just returned from a ten day vacation in Virginia. The weather was perfect the whole time we traveled; spring was emerging and everywhere we visited the surroundings were bursting with color. Since we both love American history almost as much as we love gardening, both Monticello and Colonial …
Out the Kitchen Window
I regularly volunteer at our library’s used book sales. It’s fun sharing recommendations with fellow readers and I find that many readers tend to be gardeners as well. In my mind, that’s the perfect combination of characteristics! This past weekend I was chatting with a young couple who had just bought their very first …
Invite An Insect: Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Whether you are planting to attract butterflies, bees or a host of other native pollinators, finding out which specific plants are the best to include can be complicated. In order to help you design your pollinator garden, I have pulled together a list of some beneficial insects and their related plants. Look for “INVITE AN …
The Not So Secret Lives of Bees
Originally published in September 2018, our two part series on native and non-native bees adds important information to our current discussion of native pollinators. Two years ago, when we moved into this house, I planted the beginnings of a butterfly garden. Last summer it didn’t amount to much — the perennials were small and it …
Preparing for Pollinators
With all the Buzz about pollinators in the news lately (sorry, just couldn’t resist it), I thought that this might be a good time to think about adding a pollinator garden to the landscape. For the past few years, flower and gardening magazines, websites and even home improvement television shows …
Plant A Patch: Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis)
For a glimpse of spring during those last, long days of winter, plant a patch of Lenten rose. Clusters of the cup-shaped flowers will rise above the snow to delight the eye and lighten the mood. Lenten rose prefers a protected location in partial to full shade and rich, well-drained soil. Cut back flower …
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