100 Sunny Cottage Garden Perennials
How many perennials do you need for the cottage garden? Well, that really depends on your layout, design, and the size of land you are working with. I have a small backyard garden area, roughly 15 feet by 30 feet, in which I have around 70 species of perennials, shrubs, and grasses. And this is […]
Plants for a Mediterranean Garden
Choosing plants for a Mediterranean garden is a hard thing to do if you live in wet parts of the US. But here in Kansas, many things that would go great in a Mediterranean garden would be great here too. I have never desired to try this style of gardening, but as it turns out, […]
Garden Phlox – August Plant of the Month
Garden phlox is our August Plant of the Month for 2022. When I was younger and just getting into gardening (around age 6), I remember my grandma showing my the beautiful garden phlox she had in her cottage garden. As I grew, I originally saw it as a weedy plant that would not stay where […]
Planting for Pollinators – June and July
What to plant, what to plant? If you are preparing for a succession crop of flowers for pollinators, then June and July might be your biggest months. There are a plethora of plants to pick from. As we have discussed before, pollinators can include bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, bugs, ant, wasps. hummingbirds, and even […]
Purple Flowers of the Mint Family
Purple flowers are very popular among insect pollinators. Especially those of the mint family. The 5 plants from the mint family that are landscape and garden favorites are as follows: hummingbird mint (agastache species), Catmint (Nepeta species), Perennial Salvia (Salvia species), Russian Sage (Salvia yangii), and Lavender (Lavendula species). Looking closely at the flowers and […]
Watch Out For That Plant! Aggressive Plants in the Garden
Gardeners and plantsmen alike have a knack for getting plants in our gardens to grow well, sometimes too well. We all have those plants that looked so great at first-blooming in their pots and looking so contained. Then we set them in our garden beds, expecting them to stay where planted, only to find them […]
May Tips & Tricks
Lawn • Apply slow release nitrogen fertilizer to bluegrass and tall fescue to promote summer growth if watering during the summer. Lower maintenance lawns skip this application. If there are broadleaf weeds you can spot treat with a spray or use a fertilizer that includes a weed killer. Rain or irrigation within 24 hours of […]
Six Perennials for Tough Conditions
Summer is here and the heat is on! Over the course of the last two summers I have noticed the good and the bad of perennials in my gardens. I don’t have an irrigation system, and I rarely water after planting, even when it gets hot. My plants seem to perform in the heat, really […]
August
Lawn • If you see grub damage, apply a grub killer. Merit and Mach 2 are grub preventers and many not be effective on late in-star grubs. The grub killer must be watered in within 24 hours or effective-ness drops. It’s beginning to look a lot like crabgrass. Did you treat in early April? If […]
