My garden is mostly filled with perennials, but I scatter in a few annuals to brighten up the yard later in the year. This year I added a few marigold plants and dahlias to the garden in front of our house. They were not very noticeable during June and July when the perennials were at […]
Archive for the ‘Gardening tips’ Category
Dahlias for Fall Color
I remember my Mom growing dahlias when I was small. She planted them in the spring, they began to bloom in July and usually they bloomed until frost. At that point, she dug them out, cut off the foliage and put the tuber clumps into sand in the root cellar. When spring arrived and it […]
Planting for Privacy
When we first purchased our home, I was very excited to have a yard with a large concrete patio space in the back and I could visualize having friends over for summer parties. However, when we hosted our first outdoor event, I realized that we were entertaining in a “fishbowl”. Our house was built on […]
Date Night for Beetles
I have a lot of Japanese beetles in my yard and I have been using the beetle traps to catch them. I am astounded at how many beetles there are in my neighborhood. Recently I read an article that said you could hand pick beetles and put them into soapy water to kill them. Since […]
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 […]
Beating the Bullies — Lasagna Gardening
As a long time gardener, I have a love/hate relationship with plants that are too successful and in fact become weeds. I have a long list of those pests that start out so sweetly and in fact need a bit of help getting established. Then, when my back is turned they flip into pest mode […]