L is for Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Aroboretum on Sunday, May 12, 2013. Lilacs are the only plant at the Arboretum that gets its own Day. Not only will there be music and dancing, family activities and vendors, Lilac Sunday is the only day that picknicking is allowed at the Arnold Arboetum. I have attended and it is a fabulous event. The Arboretum, as usual will be open from 10 am to 4 pm. It is best…
K is for Kids at the End of the Road Farm. There are always projects and chores. Rory is collecting food for the worms. He and his cousins built our worm bin for vermicomposting, and have helped keep the worms fed when they are here. We've had the worms for five years now. Sometimes we have special events like riding lesssons at Birch Glen Stables. All the boys got lessons, and most of them were enjoyed. I like getting…
J is for Juniper which is essential for the making of gin. Read all in The Drunken Botanist. Author Amy Stewart, author of of other tell-all tales of plants and insects, Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, and Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects recently published her new book The Drunken Botanist: The Plants that Make the World's Great Drinks. Her description of juniper includes a kind…
I is for Invasive Iris on the A to Z Blogger Challenge. Ihe iris in question here is the yellow flag, Iris pseudacorus, which I planted at the edge of our Frog Pond nearly 20 years ago. It didn't actually succeed there, which is amazing, but before it died it sent seeds up to our Sunken Garden which is very wet. I have been trying to destroy this plant for years, letting the little grandsons loose with clippers…
H is for Hemerocallis on the A to Z Challenge. Hemerocallis means 'beautiful for a day' and in English it means Daylily. We gardeners have been very happy for the daylily which is such a trouble free plant. It loves the sun, but is not particular about soil, although it is always wise to put in a daylily, or any plant with a good helping of compost. They are also quite tolerant of drought. This is a plant…
G is for Garden Projects for Kids: 101 ways to get kids outside, dirty, and having fun by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher of LIfe Lab in Santa Cruz, California. Surely, my regular readers would not expect me to get through a whole month of posts without including a book or two. And this book from Timber Press is a doozy. Garden Project for Kids is not only about growing veggies, but about other designing the garden so…
With snow on the ground in Heath it is hard to believe that spring is here and gardening season has begun. I have seedlings planted and sitting on my new heat mat in the guest room, but not a shoot in sight. Yet. Since this spring is somewhat delayed there is still time to think about planting a small vegetable garden, even if you have never had one before. Or maybe you wish you had a flowery place…
F is for Fertilizer on the A to Z Blogger Challenge - and Fertilizer means another three more letters, N-P-K. If you look at bags or bottles of fertilizer you will see three numbers on the label, like 5-10-5. This is a statement about the ratio of the three major nutrients that plants need. N is for Nitrogen, P is for Phosphorus and K is for Potash (otherwise known as Potassium). Each of these elements is important for different…
E is for Echinacea, possibly the most used medicinal herb/flower in the world. Recently the Daily Mail in England did an article on the efficacy of echinacea as a cold remedy. And the University of Maryland has a lot of information about the medicinal properties of echinacea here But even if you are not interesting in growing echinacea, otherwise known as coneflower , is a wonderful plant for the perennial border. For years I only knew it in…
D is for Dandelion and the Dandelion is the Common Weed of the commonweeder blog. I consider the dandelion an important element in my Flowery Mead. The Extension Service might call my lawn a typical weedy patch, but I take a different view. The Flowery Mead also sports many violets which I just learned are important in supporting certain butterflies, clover, ground ivy and hawkweeds. While many despise the dandelion, they do have many uses. My Swedish grandfather…