Perennials for Butterfly Habitats
Perennials can be the backbone of anyone’s garden – they certainly are for mine. I choose perennials that bloom in succession, support native insect populations, are pretty, and attract lots of butterflies! Despite living in Zone 5 in Northeast Kansas, where the weather is constantly changing, I have a very diverse garden. So what are […]
Kansas Gardener’s Garden June-July
Here is the second part to the garden tour. enjoy the photos and comments! Above you can see my driveway Border Garden. I had to put in this fence to keep visitors from parking too close to the edge of the drop off where the culvert it. I added some of my favorite rustic […]
Kansas Gardener’s Garden April-May
This year, my garden did so well that I had to break my tour of it into 4 separate posts. Up first is April through May. I cannot remember a wetter May than what we had this year – 26 inches of rain! Most of the plants handled it by putting on tons of lush, […]
6 Flowers for Summer Shade
July in Kansas often starts out rainy, then turns hot and dry as summer heats up. This is the time of year where we expect big things from our full sun flowers -black eyed Susan, coneflowers, hydrangeas, alliums – but little from the shade garden except wilting leaves. However there are a number of great […]
Bluestar for the Garden
Selecting perennials for the garden can be a difficult task given the number of species and the amazing number of cultivars per species. It would be easy to be a collector of certain species, there are over 1200 daylily varieties alone! In several species: echinacea, hosta, iris, peony, dahlia, and others; there may be over […]
More Daylilies?
I know it seems crazy to think about adding more daylilies to your garden, but for me, it is not a stretch. Back in 2000 when I first thought about becoming a landscape designer, I constantly studied plant materials and their use in American landscapes. Here is what I noticed: Americans have a love affair […]
April Gardening Tips
Tips and Tricks to Make Your Year Great – April Apply and water in pre-emergent herbicide on turf Apply pre-emergent herbicide granules to rocked landscape beds Divide hostas, daylilies, sedum, phlox, coreopsis, daisies, and red hot poker and share with your gardening friends! (Tip: Iris should be divided in July; peonies should be done in […]
Year in Review: Insect Pests
2018 was quite the year for insect pests. We saw a huge increase in Japanese beetle numbers, as well as a large population of grasshoppers. Lets discuss these and other insects seen this year. While my viewing area is limited to Northeast Kansas and Southeast Nebraska, this seems to be a hotbed for insect […]
Prepping for Feathered Friends
As winter looms in the background, many of us gardeners who have cleaned our landscapes of wilted hostas, frozen daylilies, and dead annuals look forward to the influx of feathered friends that come to our landscapes in winter in search of food, water, and a safe place to spend the cold months. If you live […]
