Dividing perennials


Wed. May. 4, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Dividing perennials

Now’s the time to divide your perennials.  (Divide spring bloomers in Fall) GENERALLY speaking, perennials can be divided every 3 years.  Hostas are one of these plants!  The plants below were too large for division.  Divide when the plants are peaking up about 4 inches or so.

hostas

I divided these hosta multiple times when I lived there and moved some out to wooded gardens.  A garden fork is your best friend for digging up plants.  You  … [Continue reading]

Who is in that cocoon?


Tue. May. 3, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Who is in that cocoon?

Discovered on April 19th, 2022 hanging on my ‘Candy Corn’ spirea… WHO is this?

Since the season is so late there were no leaves on the shrubs so the cocoon was very visible. I reached out to my listeners and found that it is, hopefully, the Hyalophlora Cecropia moth. In fact, I had several share their OWN stories of these moths.

This moth grows to 6 INCHES! It comes from a family of  … [Continue reading]

May Day and it’s origins


Mon. May. 2, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: May Day and it’s origins

Happy May Day! Okay so it was yesterday but why not get a little history about May Day anyway! 

There are multiple iterations of celebrations that include industrial workers, witches, flowers and more. In France, the King was given a Lily-of-the-valley as a lucky charm. He decided to offer one each year to the Ladies of the Court.

The Druids celebrated Beltane, the beginning of pastoral summer when livestock was led out to  … [Continue reading]

Arbor Day, diversity and the Musclewood tree


Fri. Apr. 29, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Arbor Day, diversity and the Musclewood tree

Arbor Day celebrates 150 years today! Planting, nurturing and celebrating TREES!

As we celebrate, we also should remember the demise of the American Elm tree due to disease and decades later we remain in the midst of the end of the Ash tree due to Emerald Ash Borer.

So, on this day, let’s also remember, the best defense is diversity.  More and more cities are offering multiple choices for planting  … [Continue reading]

The best time to fertilize your lawn


Thu. Apr. 28, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: The best time to fertilize your lawn

So most of you know I’m not a big lawn fan, however, I know many who are. So, this one’s for you… should you fertilize your lawn now? NO.

The BEST times to fertilize your lawn are late summer and fall.  This is contrary to the traditional springtime application.

Early spring applications of nitrogen cause a surge of top growth in the plants, which makes the lawn look nice in  … [Continue reading]

Lawn care – weed killing


Wed. Apr. 27, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Lawn care – weed killing

The forsythia is said to foretell the coming of crabgrass. Where I live we’re not seeing the blooms yet. We’re late!

Soil temperature is the real way to tell when crabgrass will germinate…  I learned this from Jenny at Gertens and I share her video below. In the meantime, she talked about the GDD Tracker from Michigan State University. Plug in your zipcode and what you’re looking for and you get results!

Based  … [Continue reading]

Mycelium – the Information Superhighway


Tue. Apr. 26, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Mycelium – the Information Superhighway

It’s an information superhighway that speeds up interactions between a large, diverse population of individuals. It allows individuals to communicate and help each other out. But it also allows them to commit new forms of crime. You thought I was talking about the internet, not so, I’m talking about mycelium! 

No, it’s not a disease although it can spread disease. Mycelium are the thin threads of fungi (or mushrooms) that link roots of  … [Continue reading]

More 2022 plant introductions


Mon. Apr. 25, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: More 2022 plant introductions

Oh what a wait we’ve had this year to get out in our gardens, to see the early spring flowers show themselves…

However, with hopefulness, I’m sharing some fun 2022 plant introductions.

There’s a new panicle hydrangea out this year called Little Lime Punch. It’s like Lime Punch but the flowers progress from lime to white, light pink, and rich Hawaiian Punch red!

It reblooms throughout the summer so you’ll see these four  … [Continue reading]

Earth Day 2022


Fri. Apr. 22, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Earth Day 2022

Today is Earth day. Northern Gardener magazine had an insert last month with the 7 ways to Garden Greener. Today seemed a PERFECT day to share some of those ideas.

  • Nourish your soil with what’s on your property. Don’t haul those leaves, spread them on your garden beds for mulch. Compost your other plant debris!
  • Pick Perennials. Once established they use less water and fertilizer than annuals.
  • Put your plants where they want to be.
 … [Continue reading]

Organic matters


Thu. Apr. 21, 2022

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Organic matters

 I talked about soil and rain barrels and composting last week. But what about organic matters? What is it? Does it matter? How much organic matter matters? Can it be too much? According to the University of MN Extension, the answer is actually… YES.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is the portion of soil that is composed of living and dead things in various states of decomposition, such as plant roots and microbes.

Organic (carbon-based) materials that  … [Continue reading]