I grew up on a farm in northern Wisconsin and my Dad passed along a lot of plant wisdom learned from years of farming. One I remember very clearly was that you needed to rotate your crops in order to get the best harvest. The theory was that the soil would be depleted of nutrients […]
Garden Notes
Bargains at the Orphan Table
A few years ago when I was just starting to plant my perennial garden, I was concerned about the cost of buying so many plants at once. Luckily one of my garden friends told me about the orphan table. She said that in early autumn, many garden centers have great prices on perennials that have […]
Alpine Lamb’s Ear
I have a lot of the traditional Lamb’s Ear plants (Stachys byzantina) and Stachys Helen Von Stein) in my garden that I grow for the texture and silvery color of their leaves. They look great on the edge of the perennial bed and their velvety leaves add some nice variety to the border. Lamb’s Ear […]
Daisy Dilema – Solved
Shasta Daisies have long been a favorite in my summer garden. I love their cheery blooms and generally pick a few to augment my flower arrangements. Reasonably easy to grow, shasta daisies don’t seem to be bothered by a lot of pests and are tolerant of different soil conditions. My only complaint has been that […]
Nobody Likes a Dirty House!
For the last few years we have been on a mission to garden more organically and use fewer chemicals to control pests. We’ve spent a lot of time and effort trying to attract birds into our yard in the hope that they would be our first line of defense. We’ve put up bird houses, nesting […]
Strawberry Squash Dance
It really bothers me to harvest an early crop and then have nothing in that space until the next year. So a few years ago when my strawberry crop was finished in early July, I decided to try planting butternut squash right on top of the strawberries. Now, I was not sure if there would […]