'Bees Jubilee' clematis - Type 2 My first memory of clematis is from early childhood. My mom grew one, which I now know was Jackmanii but as a kid thought of as just a bunch of enormous, pretty purple flowers, on the side of our home at the entrance to the backyard. She fanned the clematis across a white plastic trellis and it grew taller and fuller every year. We moved when I was 12 and I recall wishing we had dug it up to take with us. I still have yet to see a prettier Jackmanii than the one she grew all those years ago. Today, my love affair with this sturdy vine continues and several varieties thrive in my small garden. Even though they're all clematis, all are not treated the same when it comes to pruning. So if you're wondering why yours isn't flowering or why blooms only ...
Hyacinth Bean Vine: A Budget Friendly Problem Solver
What's the first thing you see when you look at this picture? Yeah, me too. When the air conditioner pooped out a few years ago, we had this beast installed. The HVAC guy talked about the efficiency of the unit and how much money we'd be saving. And all I could think about was that I was going to have to dig up the entire area to make room for this monstrosity. I knew it was going to be big, just not THAT big. I couldn't stand the sight of the thing until I figured out how to camouflage it, on a budget of course. Hyacinth bean vine saved my garden. That sounds so dramatic but it's effectiveness for hiding ugly things was equally as dramatic. And I did it with a handful of beans! I could have let the vines connect at the top to completely enclose the air conditioner but I didn't want ...
How Do Insects Survive in a Garden Surrounded By Fear?
For years I've feared my garden was nothing more than a siren's song. A place full of beautifully enticing things birds and insects can't resist. And, in recent years, the place they've unwittingly come to die. My neighborhood has about 300 homes. Fire blight ridden Callery pear trees line the parkway and most of the ash trees that populated the other streets 15 years ago have been leveled due to emerald ash bore. It's not pretty. But wait, it gets worse. About eight years ago, many of the homeowners jumped on a "good deal" set up by another homeowner that involved the mass annihilation of insects. It's incredible what fear and lack of knowledge can do. This lethal cocktail fueled a Facebook neighborhood sign-up list for quarterly insecticide application on houses, fences, swing sets. ...
The Easiest Flower Seeds to Direct Sow
Verbena bonariensis sounds like an infection of the worst kind but this very serious sounding name refers to a cluster of purple flowers set atop thin wispy stems. It returns every year throughout my garden and is a beacon for pollinators like this hummingbird moth. Direct sowing flower seeds is about the easiest and most budget friendly way to get a mass of flowers all season long with very little effort. It's incredible just how much you get from a tiny $3 pouch of seeds. And I think it's a great way for a new gardener to get their feet wet or the experienced one who's looking to fill an empty spot. Direct sowing simply means that, instead of starting seeds indoors weeks in advance of putting them out in the garden, you spread the seed in the garden according to the package ...
Easy Plant Tag Organization for the Not-So-Organized
Plant tags have a way of accumulating like laundry, Japanese beetles and chin hair. All must be dealt with, but I'd rather deal with the tag thing. Winter is the time of year I attempt to organize the chaos I created indoors while creating last year's garden. There's nothing else garden-related to do besides organize and dream of the plethora of plants that will find their way into the garden. They will inevitably come with more tags which I'll deal with next year. So for now, I'm working on plant tags from 2019. It's during the growing season that these end up everywhere. My workbench, coat pockets, kitchen countertop, bathroom vanity. You name it, it probably has a tag on it. For the longest time, before I finally decided to corral the plant tags into some kind of order, they simply ...
Tough Plants for a Driveway Garden
Every once in a while, I surprise myself. As I was looking back at last year's garden, I found this shot of my driveway garden and thought, "Hey, that's pretty good!" I don't do that as often as I should. The driveway garden is a miserably hot place and since I'm not the most reliable waterer, the plants are forced to fend for themselves. It's a test of sorts. One that involves extreme neglect worsened by heat radiating off an asphalt driveway and the high expectations of a crazed gardener. Aside from the spring clean-up and the occasional weeding, this garden is on its own. Totally. In addition to the elements, it's survived the bumps and bruises of all kinds of athletic balls, floor hockey games and the occasional kid. In many ways, it's a lot like me. Like most gardens, it's evolved ...
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