Top 5 Plants for Pollinators – September
September is here and right around the bend is autumn. September is a month after my own heart, with my birthday and my siblings’ birthdays. We always had a huge party for the three of us, usually on Labor Day weekend. Summer was waning, but their was still a feel of excitement in the air […]
Top Perennials for Bees & Butterflies – August
August is here with the dog days of summer. The cicadas are singing their wings off in the trees each night, but the pollinators are in full force across the summertime perennials. I have seen the many more monarchs in the past week than in the the previous months combined. With all these pollinators buzzing […]
Top Plants for Bees/Butterflies: June-July
Seems everywhere I go these days I hear about pollinator gardens, bee-friendly plants, and bee gardens. Everyone is finally getting into planting for bees and butterflies and not just to make their home look nice. Although it is easy to do both, have a nice looking landscape and have pollinator friendly gardens. So what pants […]
Blooms For Butterflies
It is late summer and butterflies are beginning their descent to more suitable wintering sites. Many butterflies move northward in the spring from overwintering sites and then the following generations return southward in the fall. Some of these species include Monarchs, Painted Lady’s, Sulphurs, Question Marks, Buckeyes, and Skippers. As these butterflies migrate southward, it […]
Cutting Garden Favorites for Mother’s Day
With Mother’s Day coming this weekend I started to think about the different flowers I could put into a floral display for my mother and my wife. My cutting garden is not ready yet, but I can easily find flowers among the other beds. There are not many flowers open for Mother’s Day, but the […]
Plants for Miniature Gardens
Miniature gardens (often referred to as fairy gardens) are a very popular method of introducing gardening to those who do not have the space or time for large scale landscape, as well as helping to spark the imaginations of a generation of children who do not have the resources available elsewhere. Miniature gardens need small […]
Delightful Switchgrass
As far as Kansas native grasses go, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is one of the most recognized and most utilized. Little bluestem is the Kansas state grass, but switchgrass is much more used in landscapes. Switchgrass can be used for screening, specimens, massings, and is even utilized as a crop for the bio-fuel industry. This native […]
Winter Blooms
I asked my teenage daughter what she would want to read about if she were a gardener and her first response was: “What blooms in winter?” What does bloom in winter? In Kansas and areas north, very little to nothing at all. Winter is defined as a period of time between solstices, from December 20 […]
Groundcovers for the Garden
Groundcovers are one of the most important plants groups in the garden. They play a crucial role in retaining soil on slopes, they can fill large areas of shady ground where grass will not grow, and they can provide an unbroken expanse of color that helps tie garden areas together. There are two main types […]
