As many of you know, I often profess my extreme dislike for rabbits which manifests itself in many ways. Verbally ("little bastard" is a go-to), physically with many a shoe launched out the door at all hours of the day and, when my dog Stella was still with me, the frequently snarled "Get that rabbit." She was a keen huntress. I'm sharing this in an effort to purge myself of the guilt I suddenly carry after what I witnessed last weekend. Let me preface this by writing that my garden is crawling with rabbits as a result of the raised deck in my neighbor's yard that serves as a sort of flop house for all the horny rabbits who pop in, scratch an itch or two or twelve, and leave me to deal with the darling little critters that result from their promiscuity. It's a problem. We've had ...
Add Butterfly Host Plants to Support Caterpillars
May and June have been for working in the garden, not writing about it. At least until now. Quite frankly, I'm exhausted and despite feeling overwhelmed at times with all the plants that need homes and the general maintenance (weeding, watering and plain 'ole fussing), there's been one thing that's slowed me down. Caterpillars. My daughter and I planted fernleaf dill and cucumbers from seed in May. Since toddlerhood, cucumbers have been my youngest daughter's favorite veg and so it's been her job to plant it every year. Only this year we added fernleaf dill nearby with the hope that the black swallowtail butterfly will find it. With this in mind, we planted enough for us and enough for them. It's been a sort of plant it and forget it thing. With so many other things to tend to like the ...
May in the Garden: A Mix of Beauty and Brawn
May has been a blur with all the clean-up and gear changing that comes with extreme temperature fluctuations, torrential rain, and the relentless march of weeds through every bed. It seems like the moment I pull a weed, three more grow in its place. Kinda like when you pull a grey hair. So I stop pulling altogether, the hairs not the weeds, and I can only imagine what that would look like if I did the same in the garden. Nonetheless, the garden is shaping up and plenty of plants are having their moment. I often imagine how beautiful it would be if it all just popped at once and remained so all season long. But then if it did, the novelty would wear off and there would be nothing to anticipate. I like knowing that no matter what, something in my garden on any given day is going to grab ...
Cedar Apple Rust: Gelatinous Blobs Dripping from the Junipers
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse with all this doom and gloom I've been sharing with you about the demise of some of the trees in my garden. And I'm sorry to tell you, the drama continues! The Chicago area has gotten over six inches of rain in the last four days, with more to come, revealing something I've never seen in my garden or anywhere else for that matter. You know how you know of something or someone? That's how I regarded cedar apple rust fungus (Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginianae). I know what it is and would much rather have book knowledge of it as opposed to the up close and personal kind I'm getting on every single juniper in my garden. There are only four, and they're all peppered with orange gelatinous bits of goo that look like some nasty little garden troll blew ...
New Raised Cedar Beds and a Hog Panel Trellis
You've probably done this too. Put something off until next year, making due with it and hoping it'll give you just one more year before you're forced to spring for a replacement. This was the case with the raised bed my husband built 12 years ago. I've grown a lot of veg in that bed and over the years we've learned how we would build it differently, and even better, next time. Only this time, I never would have guessed I'd sing the praises of a hog panel. Back then, I didn't even know what a hog panel was! At four feet wide and 16 feet long, the old bed was just too long. The pressure from so much soil against the boards forced them to bow. Complicating the issue, at least for me since I'm mathematically challenged and can't fathom how my husband works his magic, is the ridiculous ...
Verticillium Wilt: The Soilborne Disease Claiming Victim(s)
For nearly 17 years, my garden flew under the radar of disease until last year when it was obvious something was wrong with my redbud tree (Cercis canadensis). One of the main branches didn't flower or leaf out. While I remained hopeful, the reality was that I sort of knew what was happening but didn't want to admit it to myself. It was kind of like saying Beetlejuice! three times. Only this was even harder, this was real and attacking my favorite tree. I sawed out the affected branch and waited for another spring, hoping it might bounce back but it didn't. It got worse. Verticillium wilt has consumed two-thirds of the tree and right now, only the branch closest to the gate has flowers. The rest is dead. So I'm enjoying that last branch while at the same time lamenting the loss of the ...
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