Here's the thing about Virginia Creeper, it gets you in trouble with your neighbors. My garden is the epicenter of the neighborhood plantdemic. How can I deny its origin when a portion of my fence is covered with it? It's like saying you never took the cookie when your mouth is covered with crumbs. My neighbor and sarcastic gardening friend, Jim, approached me earlier this year with a leaf in hand and a smirk on his face. The conversation went like this... Jim: Recognize this? (As he rolls the stem between his fingers, spinning the leaf in my face.) Me: Go home Jim. Jim: Yeah, I thought so. He lives across the street from me and discovered several vines growing in his backyard garden which is about 60 yards away from the point of origin, also known as my garden. I ...
It Ain’t Over Till the Fat Lady Says “Asters”
I did it again. Bought more plants, that is. A few days ago, I was declaring my relief that the gardening season was coming to an end. All it took were the words "Buy One, Get One" and "Asters" and I was out the door, driving an hour south to one of my favorite places on Earth, Woldhuis Farms Sunrise Greenhouse, to grab eight asters for the price of four. I called first to make sure they had the variety I wanted. Quantity was limited, she said, which evoked an urgency on par with the flood of emotion likely felt by Imelda Marcos, wife of ousted Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, when she learned her shoe shopping days were over (at the time, she had over 1,000 pairs of shoes in her closet). So I went. Fast. At just $3.99/ plant, I scored eight Wood's Blue asters for $16, a far cry ...
September is for Dividing Bearded Iris, Finally
Why can't things be more like a Ronco Rotisserie? You know the kind. "Set it and forget it." Simply set the timer, walk away, and hours later your masterpiece, in this case a chicken, is juicy and ready to eat. The garden equivalent for a weary gardener would be one where every plant in your garden is planted (the set it part) and it stays beautiful for decades without any more work from you (the forget it part). It's September and that's where my mind is right now. I'm tired and ready for fall. And unlike the rotisserie, that expression certanly doesn't apply to gardening, unless maybe you're a yew or giant redwood. But September can't pass without one more necessary task. Since I've put it off for too many years, it's time to divide the bearded irises. If you're new to irises, it's ...
Perennial Hibiscus: Bridging the Gap Between Summer and Fall
I discovered perennial hibiscus almost two decades ago when I spotted Lady Baltimore's enormous pink blooms from across the parking lot of a local home improvement store. I wasn't looking for her, she just found me as most plants do. That happens a lot. At the time, I knew nothing about perennial hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos) other than I had to have this tropical looking beauty in my garden. She met her end that next spring when I assumed she was dead and dug her out, only to discover hibiscus is late to rise and often doesn't show signs of life until well into May here in my zone 5 garden. Oops. Perennial hibiscus resumes growth in the spring when soil temperatures reach 70 degrees F and is hardy in zones 4-9. For gardeners in colder climates, this might mean that your plant doesn't ...
What To Do With So Many Jalapenos?
I'm not going to pretend to be a canning pro. If you're looking for advice on that, please look elsewhere. For me, canning is a problem solver and, this early in the game, an experiment. I have more homegrown vegetables than I know what to do with! We should all have such problems, right? But, more specifically, I have more jalapenos than we can possibly eat. Unlike the cherry tomatoes they pop in their mouthes passing through the kitchen, the kids aren't reaching for the jalapenos. My husband, however, is a different story. You say "hot pepper" and he starts salivating much like I do when I hear "chocolate." He's a heat addict and until recently, would eat them like one would a banana. His tolerance blows my mind and I grew the jalapenos just for him. The problem is, his stomach ...
Vegetables Have Beautiful Flowers, Too
I'm not sure why this hasn't occurred to me until now, perhaps it's because I'm spending so much more time in the vegetable garden. Truth is, and I'm embarrassed to admit it, I've never really paid much attention to flowers in the vegetable garden. At least not until this year. I've been so focused on the end result - juicy tomatoes, hot jalapenos and crisp cucumbers - that the flowers just seemed more like a means to an end more than something to admire like one would a zinnia or dahlia. I'm in love with this space, made new by the raised beds we built to replace the old ones. Connected by a hog panel arched between the two beds that's now covered in bean blossoms and twisting vines, it feels like a gateway into another world where I get the pleasure of observing the changes that ...
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