Monarda for miles

There's one plant that I question having in my garden every year, and that's Monarda or bee balm. I once grew three different types, but am now down to just one: 'Marshall's Delight'.

Its bee-attracting blooms are what save it ever year, because it has some problems. The first is that it spreads quite vigorously, but that doesn't bother me -- I deal with vigorous plants all the time. The second problem is that it is guaranteed to have powdery mildew every year.

Read more »

Read more...

What caught my eye this morning

A casual walk around the garden this morning, enjoying the damp quiet, no real goal.

Here's what I found, what caught my eye.

Read more »

Read more...

Kosmik, round 2

It's almost universally agreed -- but not unanimously so -- that the Kosmik Kactus that I saw last winter at Home Depot were an abomination. Those dyed cactus and succulents just looked too wild, and their colorful tones would soon fade. Would their owners lose interest and let the plants suffer, or get rid of them entirely?

Well, I hate to say it, but after seeing today's post you're going to wish for the older-style Kosmiks I think.

Read more »

Read more...

Tour!

As you may know, this past Sunday my garden was one of 46 on the St. Louis Sustainable Backyard Tour. The 75-100 visitors who saw my yard had lots of questions and hopefully liked what they saw.

Today I'll try to recreate their experience for you, taking you on the path around my yard that most people took. There are many photos in today's post, so let's jump in! People usually started with the walkway garden, as it is the first thing they saw.

Read more »

Read more...

Defining the south beds

The south side of my house has always been a challenge to plant. Hard-packed clay soil, a fairly steep slope, sun-baked in summer but full shade in winter. With the addition of my cactus beds over the last two years though, it's become much better. Maybe even special.

It's not yet finished though, because one of the mounded beds I created to help improve drainage was lacking. It just didn't look as good as it could. If you've ever tried to photograph a mound of soil you probably know what I mean -- you just can't make it look good. It's not interesting enough.

Read more »

Read more...

Surprise, part 2

It was a long weekend of gardening for me. I spending many hours on Saturday getting things ready for Sunday's tour, then it was a long, humid day showing the garden yesterday. We had 75-100 people visit, and it was fun!

I'm just a little bit tired of the garden right now (and tired in general) so a long post is not what you get today. Instead you get to see the cactus blooms that I almost missed!

Read more »

Read more...

Nice, surprise

A few nice things for Friday, starting with California poppy blooms!

I'm really excited about these, because it's rare that I actually get these to germinate and bloom. I sprinkle a couple of seed packets every year, but this is the first that I've gotten more than one plant out of them.

Read more »

Read more...

Pond update

These things happen gradually, but the pond is starting to look quite nice again. The water has cleared up somewhat and I can see the fish again -- it turns out that the heron did not eat all of the big fish, as I've seen two of them hanging around under the lily pads.

As you may remember, observing the pond is one of my biggest time wasters favorite things to do in the garden, as I can be in the middle of some other task and end up watching fish for ten minutes. Want to take a look?

Read more »

Read more...

Quick, like a Band-Aid

I'm talking about my veggie beds, where I always let crops linger too long. I really should remove things as soon as I'm finished harvesting, but I let them stay, hoping for extended production. In this specific case I'm talking about my kale, which I planted last autumn, overwintered, and was rewarded with a springtime bounty.

Kale is fantastic in the spring, and overwintered plants get huge so fast. With no pests around (other than possibly some aphids) you get loads of pristine leaves too! But eventually the time comes when the plants start to fizzle and must be removed.

Read more »

Read more...