The Bruce Company Blog

You can give your garden borders and containers a quick update by replacing those tired looking Impatiens and Geraniums with plants that will thrive in the cooler temperatures to come. Brown Eyed Susans, annual Grasses and Amaranths can do double duty.  

Growers are introducing lots of new, and old, varieties. Designers are reworking standard tools in ergonomic ways. And information is so readily available. Many of us have planted vegetable gardens or have made room in our landscapes for fruiting plants.

The brightest of the stars in the Big Dog constellation is Sirius, the Dog Star. In the mid-summer, it can be seen rising and setting with the sun. This conjunction caused the ancients to believe that Sirius’ heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather.

When you’re at the Garden Center choosing summer-flowering perennials and annuals for your yard, there are probably many factors that affect your decision. The size of the plants at maturity. The color and time of bloom. Perhaps whether or not the plants will re-flower. These are all qualities that we take into consideration. But let’s throw one more factor into the mix. Do the flowers that you plant attract birds?

Many of the native prairie plants will be starting to flower soon. Besides being drought tolerant, they attract birds and butterflies. To get a feel for the natural beauty and diversity of prairie flowers and grasses visit one of the local prairies in the Arboretum or Schumacher Prairie just east of Waunakee.

Mid-summer is an especially nice time to start a garden journal. Our to-do lists have shortened and everything is just so beautiful. It’s helpful to make notes of particular diseases or pests that may haunt your yard year after year.

Although June usually ushers in the gentler garden, the kaleidoscopic colors of May might linger with us a bit longer. The Extension agents in Madison reported that we are more than 100 Growing Degree Days below average. Lots of plants are behind, so try to be a little patient when evaluating viability.

Brightly colored butterflies are a welcome visitor to any garden. We value them for their usefulness as pollinators, as well as for their beauty. Attracting them involves planting shrubs and perennials that serve the needs of all life stages of the butterfly, providing places to lay eggs, food plants for the caterpillars and the adults, and spots to form chrysalides.

The beauty of any garden isn’t in the eye of the beholder. It’s in the eye of the garden’s creator. As I stroll through my neighborhood or drive from one place to another, I am often amazed by what constitutes a garden. And I don’t mean this in a manner that is judging good ideas from bad ones, but from the point of view that any place that a gardener has arranged began with a kernel of an idea and a desire to share it with passers-by.

Late May is usually a gardener’s favorite time of year! Every yard looks a bit like Munchkinland in technicolor. This spring’s weather has certainly delayed almost everything. So we find ourselves looking forward to a stellar June.