Shade Gardening
Last week’s temperatures reminded us of what a Midwest summer heat wave feels like. Everyone out in the Nursery was looking for some relief in a shady spot. Whenever we walk past a shady garden, it immediately cools us down, even as the temperatures and humidity soar....
Mid-Summer Gardening
Have we talked about garden journaling lately? Mid-summer is an especially nice time to start. Everything is just so beautiful that you’ll want to remember it and it’s helpful to make notes of particular diseases or pests that may haunt your yard year after year....
Butterfly Garden ABCs
Brightly colored butterflies are a welcome visitor to any landscape. But gardeners value them for their usefulness as pollinators, as well as for their beauty.
Controlling Japanese Beetles
It’s June and many a gardeners’ most hated day of the entire summer will soon be here-the annual emergence of the dreaded Japanese Beetles. Many of our favorite garden plants are their favorites, too. Lindens, Hibiscus and Beans are often top targets. And we can’t...
Early Summer Gardening
Once we hit June, the kaleidoscopic colors of spring begin to give way to the more subtle greens of summer. Now is the time to experience your garden with senses other than sight. You can find the beauty of June by using your ears, nose and fingers. Grasses dance in...
Urban Wildscaping
Wildscaping is simply a landscape that has been designed to provide habitat for wildlife. These gardens offer a healthy community that is based on natural relationships between plants and animals.
Early Summer Gardening Tips
Late May and early June are a gardener’s favorite time of year! Every garden looks a bit like Munchkinland in technicolor. The spring weather has certainly been very interesting. The ups. The downs. We’re hoping that Mother nature is listening to the long-range...
Late to Emerge Perennials
Gardeners are not folks who enjoy being cooped up in the house. And when the spring weather finally breaks, and plants begin to emerge from dormancy, it’s understandable that we are eager to greet every new shoot and admire every swelling bud. But, we can also be...
The Color Green
I remember an intriguing photo in a garden magazine from years ago. The bed in the picture was filled with Hosta. And nothing else. Chartreuse varieties. Variegated ones. Foliage heavily ribbed and quilted. Heart-shaped leaves and those that were lance-shaped. Now...
Protecting Your Garden and Flowers
“Don’t knock the weather. Nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change.” Kim Hubbard’s words are certainly ringing true this spring. The roller coaster temperatures have had gardeners vacillating between the urge to get tomatoes in the...
