My goal for our garden has been to have color from earliest spring to latest autumn. To achieve that late fall goal I have started planting a few annuals to fill in when the perennials are finished and I especially like those annuals that can survive a light freeze. I have found that marigolds, salvia […]
Garden Notes
Fall Garden Clean-up
In October, I start garden maintenence for fall. I remove spent annuals, cut back a lot of perennials and do a major clean-up to remove pests. Perennials that reseed are always on my clean-up list. A few volunteers are fine, but some plants produce a cast of thousands and the next year, they are simply […]
Rodents in Paradise
Since moving to the suburbs, we have noticed a lot more animal pests in our yard. Squirrels dig up and eat tulips bulbs, rabbits decimate small shrubs during the winter and mice tunnel into the vegetable garden and will eat just about anything that grows. It is a constant battle to keep the rodents away […]
Verbena Bonariensis (Tall Verbena)
I first saw this plant in my neighbor’s garden. The landscape designer she hired had planted it in her front perennial bed which also included a variety of roses. Her verbena was situated in the center of the new garden and it grew taller than the rest of the plants. It looked great with the […]
Pruning Spirea and Barberry
A question came in from Sandy Heikkila located in Ontonagon, Upper Pennisula Michigan. She wanted to know when to prune her spirea and barberry shrubs. Answer: The best time for cutting back both shrubs is early spring before new growth begins. According to the University of Minnesota, spring pruning is standard for any shrub grown […]
Hardy Mums – Really?
We live in a Milwaukee suburb and our area is supposed to be a planting zone 4. I cannot tell you the number of hardy chrysanthemums I have planted over the years. They were all supposed to be hardy in our climate but many times the darn things bloomed that first year and then died. […]