Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Floral Friday

Do you like my new sign?


Let's be honest - I don't want to weed during non-drinking hours either! Here's a selection of what's growing in my garden this week! I love this iris that is blooming along my driveway. Just look at the detail of the petals!




Pansies and heliotrope are some of my annuals in the blue pots.

I really like this Proven Winners Cleome Senorita Rosalita that I bought at my local
garden center. I never have luck growing cleome from seed so this year I splurged
and bought five already large plants to put in my front garden.

This "Bloom Bash" variety of Hollywood Hibiscus from J. Berry Nursery that I'm trailing is gorgeous!
There are three different flowers on this plant, and this is the yellow version. 

Another dainty columbine in the back garden.

The hummingbird loves this honeysuckle I'm growing along my shed. This one is Major Wheeler I believe.
The peony flowers are all in bud and should be ready to open for next week!

Here's what was blooming in my garden last week.

What is blooming in your garden this week?
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Tea Talk: Blooming beauties and nuisance critters


It's time for some Tea Talk in the Garden! So much has happened since I last heard from Angie at the The Freckled Rose, my virtual letter exchange pen pal! Help yourself to the freshly brewed tea and (maybe even a fresh sweet or two!) and join the conversation in the comments section below. We're so happy to have you join us!

To read Angie's last letter to me, click on the postcard below.


My reply


Dear Angie,

So much has happened since your last letter! When you last wrote, the snow was still covering the ground and freezing temperatures were wrecking havoc on daffodil blossoms. So much has changed since a month ago. As I sit here to write you, my window is open and the breeze is bringing in lilac-scented air and the robin's song. It's hard to believe that the cold, nasty weather of winter that refused to leave us is now officially gone. Outside my tree peonies are blooming, my honeysuckle and wisteria vines are about to burst into flower, and the last of the tulips have sashayed their way through the garden. Onto the next performance, they seem to say, as the columbines and irises take the stage. I truly feel that spring is my favorite season, because every day there's further progress in the garden.

The tree peony is blooming in my garden this week!
I am so glad you had success in starting seeds under lights! I do not know what I would do without my grow lights. Even though I had all three tiers filled with seedlings, I'm still stressing about the seeds I haven't started yet. I felt better when seeds I direct sowed outside took a little bit longer to emerge from the soil this year - it makes me feel as if I am not as behind as my mind tells me I am!

Speaking of the late start, what a wacky spring we've had here in central Connecticut! Every time I thought the weather would stay warm, we had another cold night. I can't tell you how many nights I moved plants back and forth from the garage to the patio and back to the garage again. I had almost lost all hope of my sweet pea seeds sprouting after I planted them in early April outside and didn't see a trace of them. But then late last week, they started to poke through the soil. So when I begin to stress, at least Mother Nature shows that gardeners just need to be patient and wait until the time is right. And maybe with the crazy weather I am not as far behind as I had originally feared.

Our area hummingbirds have finally returned as well, almost four weeks behind schedule. I'm so excited to be growing Hollywood Hibiscus from J. Berry Nursery* and calibrachoas such as the Superbells line from Proven Winners* - both will attract the ruby throated hummingbird in my area! I like to grow cupheas and salvias as well to attract the birds closer to my living room window, so I can spy them from inside. (Here are some other plants hummingbirds are attracted to in the garden.)

A baby groundhog photographed in my garden last year.
As for critter drama, I've been dealing with a groundhog living under my shed once again this year. After coming home from work one afternoon and finding my baby lettuce plants chewed to the stubs, the Looney Tunes calamity ensued (minus the giant anvil, of course). I began to create a (crazy) blockade to keep the groundhog out of my garden. At first, to discourage him (or her?) from living under my shed, I put up fencing - but I mistakenly didn't dig the chicken wire down into the ground. The groundhog just tunneled right underneath it. I continued to try to dissuade the groundhog from returning to the spot under the shed, with attempts of barricading the entrance with a cinderblock, blocking it with stakes in the ground, and by even dumping Max Rabbit's discarded litterbox on the entrance. Nothing changed its mind. Apparently the living space under my shed has great value in the groundhog community (just great!). I didn't want to resort to trapping (even though I do have a HavaHart trap) since there is not a nearby place to drop the groundhog off. Did you know that a groundhog - if removed - needs to be relocated at least 2.5 miles away (and sometimes people even suggest as many as 5 miles away), or they will find their way back? They are awfully stubborn! I haven't tried to fix the fencing to block the shed because I know he/she is in there, and I'd feel awful if something tragic actually did happen if they were locked in and couldn't get out. So my final attempt - which seems to be working so far - was creating a 6 foot tall chicken wire fence (which this time, I did bury into the ground) that prohibits the groundhog from accessing my back garden, but it does allow him/her to sneak behind the fence into the wooded area behind my property. So far, so good! I'm hoping after this nesting season is over - and I can confirm that the groundhog is indeed gone - to fully repair the opening under the shed so it can no longer be accessed. (Apparently this is in mid-July through September.) What a saga! I really do love animals but come on guys, give me a break already!
Check out how long this milkweed root is!
I would be remiss if I alluded that has been the only craziness. This year I want to really increase my odds of hosting monarch caterpillars in my garden, and I've been trying to raise milkweed seeds like crazy! I scattered SO many in the garden last fall so they could be stratified naturally outside. There's been little luck in that department, which was leaving me so frustrated. I constantly sent photos of random seedlings I hadn't seen before in the garden to my friend Diane who works at an organic gardening center near my town named Natureworks (she's the area monarch butterfly expert). Each time I was disappointed to learn I had some other plant instead of the milkweed. (Most of the time it was pokeweed that I was misidentifying, which must have been sowed by the birds. Funny how stratifying seeds works for them!) Then last Saturday, Diane said I could come to her garden and dig up some baby milkweed seedlings that had settled into her vegetable garden. You know you have a great gardening friend when she offers to help you out like that! So we gingerly dug up baby milkweed plants, but sometimes what looked like a baby wasn't an infant at all - instead, in one instance, I unearthed a milkweed plant with a root system that was as long as my arm span! It was crazy - at least three feet long! I am happy to report that the seedlings seem to have transplanted well into my front garden. Keep your fingers crossed so it continues to be the case!

The robin's nest in my garden.
Anyway, with the drama aside, I really want to focus on growing more plants for pollinators this year. Are you doing the same? I have even left the dandelions alone this year since they are such an important food source for the earliest emerging bees. I cringe when the lady down the street sprays hers with RoundUp. Luckily, she's far enough away from my garden, but I still worry how it effects the bees that enter here. I do not use pesticides in my garden, and as if rewarding me, a robin family has taken up residence in the front honeysuckle vine. They're expecting twins!

I can't wait to hear what is happening in your garden this spring! Is there anything new and exciting you are growing? Talk to you soon!

Jen



* Both J Berry Nursery and Proven Winners have kindly provided me with sample plants to trial in my zone 6b garden this growing season. 
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Floral Friday

Here's what's blooming in (or visiting) my garden this week!

This dragonfly landed on my fig tree while I was working outside.

He's either enjoying the sun or stalking a bug.

My gorgeous yellow tree peony (variety unknown).

I love this "Lime Sorbet" columbine among the "Black Barlow" columbine.

Another shot of the tree peony with my geum out front. 

These high-bush blueberry flowers are just so pretty!

One of my roses.

Milkweed transplanted from my friend's garden.

Geum in the garden. 

I like this photo because the viola looks like it is winking. These flowers remind me of "Alice in Wonderland" so much!

Another variety of columbine in the back garden. 

Columbine. 

What's blooming in your garden this week?
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Floral Friday: Welcome, May

It mostly rained this week and was cooler than normal, but the flowers in my front and back garden still continued to dazzle. What really stole the show this week were the parrot tulips. I've been getting tons of compliments on them through my shares on Twitter and Instagram. (Now the neighbors see the reason behind my madness when I dug up the front lawn last November.) Here are some of the garden highlights from this week.

The robins have once again chosen the honeysuckle vine out front to build a nest in!
This photo was taken with my iPhone (which was pure luck since I couldn't even see the screen when I took
the photo), and was originally shared on my Instagram account.

Who loves spring phlox? I do, I do! I believe this is phlox divaricata, but I am unsure of the variety.
This was was originally shared on my Instagram account.

I need more Virginia bluebells in my garden. It looks great here with the trillium.

I've planted more pansies out in the shade garden this year.

The bleeding heart is starting to bloom.

Native celandine.

Pansies by the back door.

This is the first year where I may actually get figs!

"El Nino" tulips - I need more of these next year. I love the color!

"Flaming Parrot" tulip in front of the phlox divaricata, which came out extremely blue on the day I took the photo.

"Flaming Parrot" tulip.

"Flaming parrot" tulip.

My Deja Bloom Azalea! This variety is "Orchid Showers" which I've been growing
in my garden, thanks to J. Berry Nursery. I'm so glad it survived our wacky, cold winter.

What is growing in your garden this week?
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The Gardener's May Calendar - 2016


I sat down to write this month's garden chores and I already got that sense of panic in my chest. There's so much to do. There's so little time. I have a full-time job and I go to school part-time. I volunteer on the weekends.

When, oh when, will I actually have time to garden?

Does this sound like you, too? Maybe you're not going to school part-time but you have children to take care of at home. Or an elderly parent. Let's face it - today's gardeners have a lot on their plates, and having a beautiful garden shouldn't be regulated as a chore or an activity there is rarely time for.

That's why I decided to restructure the way I write garden chores. There are now three categories: Main priority; This would be nice; and If all the stars align. That way if you are pressed for your time, the main garden priorities are taken care of.

Let's begin!


  • Assessing the damage: Once again, I noticed my hydrangeas and butterfly bushes did not fair well over the winter due to our deep cold spell. This is the second year in a row this has happened for me, which means I should probably consider switching my hydrangeas out for varieties that bloom on new wood only. Any hydrangeas that make buds on old wood will likely not flower again this year. To check that the stems really are dead, scratch the stems and see if it is green underneath. If not, cut it off. I'll be trimming mine back to the ground. And don't even ask me about my beach plums. They look dreadful.
  • Be careful with trimming. Make sure that there are no bird nests being damaged when you prune. Look out for tiny ones, like hummingbird nests (as shown in this photo shared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Facebook).
  • Start seeds! I start warm season flowers like zinnias, tithonia, calendula, cosmos and marigolds now. Flowering vines such as morning glories can also be started (soak the seeds overnight). It's time to harden off the seedlings that have been growing indoors.
  • Invasives: Be on the lookout for invasive plants in your garden before they take hold. For me, that means I need to watch for garlic mustard, European celandine and wineberries. Usually they pop up around my compost pile, situated in the back corner of my property. Here is a resource for invasives in the Northeast region of the U.S.
  • Bulbs: Trim off spent blossoms so the bulbs do not waste time in producing seeds. Do not remove the leaves - this is the plant's source of energy for next year. Even though they become unsightly, leave them in place until they wither away.
  • Fertilizer: It's time to fertilize fruit trees and roses. You can fertilize container plants "weakly at half strength since it leaches out of containers quickly.
  • I smash the stems of lilacs
    to make them lastlonger in the vase.
  • Enjoy the blooms: Cut your flowers and bring them indoors. When I was a kid, my grandfather would cut his lilacs for Mother's Day and put them in vases for my mother to take home. Now whenever I see them in bloom, I think of him and her and that lovely Mother's Day tradition. The trick to keeping them from wilting is to smash the ends of the stems with a hammer so the water can be drawn up. This can also be done with pruners if you don't have a hammer at the ready. Instead of lilacs maybe you grow tulips or daffodils. Whatever it is, bring some inside to enjoy the show.


  • Hummingbirds: Lure them to your garden by setting up feeders and offering plants they like. For options read this story I wrote with suggested plants from one of my local plant nurseries. For food in the feeders, I boil 4 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar together, then let it cool before I put it outside. Make sure you are good about changing the solution so it doesn't grow black mold and poison the hummingbirds.
  • Pest Control: If you have ant problems, try using diatomaceous earth. When the bugs walk through it, it gets stuck to them and causes them to dehydrate and die. It's way safer than baited ant traps. Be sure to apply it on a day without a lot of wind since you shouldn't breathe it in.

  • Mulch: Order it in bulk! Who wants to drive home bags of mulch anyway? It's usually cheaper when you have it delivered. And stay away from the dyed colored mulch. That is so not earth-friendly.


Onward!

I live in Central Connecticut and garden in Zone 6b.
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