June Gardening Tips

Surprise lily greenery is dying back; I will plant zinnias shortly. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

June Gardening Chores

It was a long wet spring this year with a late bump of winter. So I am once again behind getting some of my gardening chores done. I garden in USDA Hardiness zone 5.

1.         Plant a new supply of vegetables every 2 weeks to give yourself a new crop through the season. Early spring crops are done but there is still time for tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins and annual herbs.

2.       Keep asparagus beds weeded and let the green top ferns grow until they go brown; do not cut. That’s what gives roots energy to produce asparagus stalks again next year.

3.        When mulching, leave 2-4 inches clear from the plant stem and the mulch ring no larger than 5 inches deep. More than that and you are smothering the plant itself.

4.        Leave spring bulb greenery to die off naturally. I gently remove the yellow leaves if they bug me and plant summer perennials to cover them in the meantime.

5.         Japanese beetles show up this month so hand pick and drop in a bucket of water with a few drops of dishwashing soap to drown them. Pick early in the morning when they are sluggish. Also treat your lawn with nematodes and milky spores, both will gradually help eliminate grubs. Add geraniums and tansies to your flower beds, they are natural Japanese beetle repellants.

6.         Trim lilacs immediately after they end flowering so growth the rest of this year will provide blooms next year.

7.         Get flower pots planted. Water the soil first, let drain, then add your flowers for better adjustment.

8.         Plant annual flower seeds such as zinnias, sunflowers, forget-me-nots, cosmos, marigolds and herbs. Some herbs can be moved inside later for winter use.

10.       When planting wildflowers, mark the beds where seeds have been added. Some wildflowers may take 2 years to germinate.

If you don’t have land for a garden, plant tomatoes in pots. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

11.       For those of you with grass, don’t cut more than 1/3 of the grass down at one time.  For spots where grass doesn’t grow, plant flowers.

2.       When adding perennials, focus on native plants. Once established, they will require less water and care than non-natives and they will be food for native pollinators.

13.        Pinch mums once a week to encourage them to grow bushy for fall flowering. I take the pinched off pieces, gently push them into the ground and encourage more plants to grow.

14.        Feed roses and other plants compost to give them a good source of energy. Roses should be fed once a month. A quick pick me up is to dig your banana peels, egg shells and coffee grounds in around roses.

15.         Take photos of your garden. Use the same photo spots you used in spring so you can see the changes from one season to the next.

16.         Also make sure to have a nice seating area in your garden so you can stop and smell the flowers!

Charlotte

Memorial Garden Benches

This is my grandmother’s memorial bench on the north side of my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins0

Memorial Garden Benches

There are many ways people remember friends and relatives who have died. The US hoiiday Memorial Day at the end of May is a time to honor those who died in military service. There are also monuments on cemeteries, plaques on buildings and a number of other ways people memorialize lost ones.

I’m not originally from Missouri; I chose to live here. When I lose relatives, they are scattered around the country, getting buried in family plots associated with their connections in those places.

As I lost my few relatives, I started to keep their memories alive by adding garden benches in their honor.

Originally these benches were different colors. A couple of years ago I decided to paint them all bluebird blue so they could be easily spotted throughout the limestone hillside garden.

The first bench I added was in honor of my grandmother, who played a very special place in my life. She was a librarian among other careers and hosted lovely tea parties when I visited. She has a bench at the north side of my property where she can watch sunsets and enjoy the garden unfolding. She would have enjoyed doing both at the same time.

When I visit that part of the garden, I think of her as I sit on the bench and enjoy a sunset. Or watch something new growing.

I still have the first gardening book I ever received. It was from my grandmother and spurred me into gardening.

My uncle’s garden bench next to the goldfish pond, he loved to fish. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Her son, my Uncle Dave, was the closest thing I had to a father. This kind, quiet man with a twinkle in his eye was an Old School gentleman. He lived in an apartment in San Francisco with two cats after his wife died.

He loved to fish so it was very simple to add this bench in front of my goldfish pond in his honor.

When he was no longer able to fish, one year I took him a small fishing rod with a catnip toy at the end of it. Maybe he couldn’t reel in salmon any more, I told him , but I thought he might get lucky with a cat fish.

I can still remember his laughing when one of his cats jumped on the catnip lure.

My mother’s memorial bench at the top of the hill facing south. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My uncle’s sister, my mother, loved my garden. Whenever she would visit she would greet me warmly and the first chance she had she would walk the garden.

I placed her memorial bench on the top at the south side so she could get a full view of the bay window gardens and apiary. I am developing a nearby flower bed where I will move some of the Iris I have from her garden. Iris where her favorite US flowers.

I like having these memorial garden benches so easily accessible. I can’t help but think of the people who they represent and they help keep their memories alive and close to my heart.

Charlotte

Yard of the Month

It’s a meeting of the signs, the latest being from the Rolla Horticulture Club, left. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Yard of the Month

I was so tickled to have my Missouri limestone hillside garden voted May 2020 Yard of the Month. The honor came from our Horticulture Club, established in 1934. They have invited me to a summer meeting for years to talk about subjects close to my heart. For the record, we have never discussed their yearly awards May-August.

Now getting a special garden designation can bring out the best, and worst, in gardeners. When I was the daily newspaper publisher I used to get requests from gardeners campaigning to have their garden selected. One lady even brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers thinking I had some influence with the selection, which I didn’t. All I did was get their stories and photos published.

So here’s the story that was published for the May 2020 Yard of the Month Selection:

When Charlotte Ekker Wiggins first moved to her forested lot in 1982 to build a house, her neighbors told her nothing would grow. Today Bluebird Gardens, named for the local winged residents, is a Certified Wildlife Habitat, Monarch Way station and apiary. It is also Rolla Floriculture Club’s May 2020 Garden of the Month.

How would you describe your one acre hillside garden?

It is basically a giant cutting garden. Lots of flowering and edible trees, shrubs, perennials and native tenants, the frogs are the noisiest. It can be a very busy place. No grass. My goal was to have enough flowers that I could cut and still have my garden look like nothing was missing.

What do you primarily grow?

Typical of a Missouri garden, I’m sitting on limestone so I grow mostly rocks. My favorite gardening tool is a pickax. I’m also on an incline. Once or twice a year I head to the hill bottom and escort wayward strawberries and other plants back to their flower beds. I use a variety of strawberries such as Ozark Beauty, Everbearing and June Bearing as border plants.

I also have some of my mother’s favorite Blue Bearded Irises; daffodils I gave my brother 15 years ago for his Virginia garden now back home for a vacation, and my sister in law’s New York hostas, which are edible. Herbs and vegetables are intermingled with flowers, that’s how the pollinators easily find them. I also hope it’s a little more camouflage from visiting deer.

For years I have also had a pot garden, growing herbs and vegetables in pots. The pots make it easier to place them in flower beds for pollination and to move herbs inside for winter.

Native Eastern Redbuds circle my house and apiary in spring. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

How do you use native trees, shrubs and flowers?

When I first started this garden, I incorporated existing native trees and flowers. I built garden paths around native Eastern Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) and just a few days ago moved a lovely patch of Germander (Teucrium canadense) away from foot traffic. If it’s already happily growing here I see no reason to toss it.

I also added dozens of native seedlings from Eastern Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus)

to Beautyberry bushes (Callicarpa americana L.) Emerald Ash Borer-damaged Elm trees are getting replaced with native Pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba).

 What do you do about weeds?

After a considerable amount of research, I have banished the word “weed” from my vocabulary. I have found most “weeds” growing in my garden are herbs that at one time had medicinal and culinary value. Some still do, we’ve just forgotten about them or pulled them without checking what they were. They grow on their own and add value, what’s not to love. Did you know chicory coffee tastes like chocolate?

How do you keep your garden healthy?

I compost and mulch, two critical steps to make hillside flower bed top soil and keep it fed and happy. Many people don’t realize soil is a living ecosystem all on its own. I also use a variety of ground covers and ground ivy to retain soil from Periwinkle (Vinca minor) to Creeping Charlie (Glecome Hederacia).  

Complimentary plants help to minimize bug damage. If you find it on your plate you know it’s a good garden mate. Basil is an excellent bug deterrent around tomatoes.

My garden is also full of birdhouses for natural pest control. I have resident Pileated Woodpeckers, hummingbirds and a variety of other birds taking up residency including Summer Tanangers, also known as the “bee eaters.” The birdhouses provide homes to other pollinators including paper wasps and the periodic tree frog or two.

One of my honeybees visiting a nearby blooming Bearded Iris. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

You also have a bee garden?

I already had native bee houses and wanted to give my 30 plus dwarf fruit trees a little help. About 10 years ago I added two bee hives and now have an apiary, run a bee club, write beekeeping books, lecture on keeping bees and planting for pollinators. Bees pollinate the dwarf fruit trees and increase flower production and fruit yield. One out of every three bites of food we eat are courtesy of honey bees. That is, if I can get to the fruit before the squirrels and other wildlife do. And then there’s the added bonus of delicious, quite local honey.

What advice would you give beginning gardeners?

Take a basic soils class; understand that soil is an amazing interdependent ecosystem that is the foundation to, and of all of our plants. Once you understand soils, keep learning. The master gardeners offer an excellent core course. The core course will teach you the basics of gardening, then your volunteer time will give you exposure to other more experienced gardeners and ideas.

Before you plant anything, have your soil tested through University of Missouri Extension. They not only will tell you what kind of soil you have but how to amend it for what you want to grow.

 As you daydream about your garden, start with native trees, shrubs and lots of flowers; no turf grass. The natives already have an interdependent relationship with the soil, bugs and birds. They will also grow more readily although you do need to water them in their first year. If you want a green carpet look, opt for micro clovers that grow low and still feed pollinators. For more on why bugs matter and how you can develop a healthy garden, see my April 2019 TEDx talk: https://tinyurl.com/yae5a4qr

Charlotte is an advanced master gardener and provisional master beekeeping instructor. 

The Rolla Floriculture Club was established in 1934. The Yards of the Month are chosen May-August. They are floral gardens inside Rolla city limits chosen at the discretion of rotating club members. Aesthetic appeal in the front yard is the biggest factor; getting to know the story behind the plant choices is a bonus. Edible gardens were recently made eligible as long as they are in the front yard and there is both a floral aspect and aesthetic value.

That’s the end of the story. I will add one more thing. This garden inspired my now 22-year old custom gift business Bluebird Gardens. If you are a customer you’ve noticed a distinct floral theme in our handmade quilts. still take walks to be inspired by color combinations and garden gift ideas.

Thank you Rolla Horticulture Club for the honor!

Charlotte

Starting a Pot Garden

This year’s pot garden with snap peas, in back, then a variety of lettuce, basil on the front left and radishes front right. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Starting a Pot Garden

If you are getting the bug to garden, here’s a quick and easy way to get started and learn the basics: pot gardening. No, no that kind of pot. I’m talking about gardening in pots.

I have had a pot garden for a couple of decades now, primarily to provide tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce and fresh herbs. Since I started, I also now have a number of fruit trees from key limes to a pomegranate.

There are a couple of considerations when starting a pot garden:

One is providing your plants enough soil to support their growth and fruit production; and

How do you plan to keep the soil moist. Soil is 25% water so it’s important to keep it hydrated so it can keep your plants alive.

Pot Garden Pot Size

For cool spring crops like lettuce and spinach, you can use smaller pots. Depending on how much lettuce and spinach you plan to grow, the crops sit almost on the top of the soil.

As you graduate to deeper rooted plants such as tomatoes, you will need more soil surface to feed the deep roots. 5 gallon paint buckets with holes in the bottom make excellent tomato pots.

Pot Garden Irrigation

Wood chips in pot bottom and plastic bottle with holes. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The other consideration is how do you plan to keep the pots watered. I include plastic bottles with holes all over them in the center of the pots. That way when I water I know the plant roots sitting towards the bottom of the pot will get hydrated.

I also line the bottom of my pots with broken up wood limbs and wood chips. The wood will naturally retain water and help keep the soil moist. You can also use new cut up diapers and old socks to form wicks to hold in water.

Also plan on having dishes of some sort under your pots to slow down water loss.

Where to Place Pots

I keep my pots on little rolling plant stands so that I can easily move them to get their sun requirements. The larger the pot, the more help I need to move them.

Other Pot Gardens

As our soils get exhausted from overuse and lack of refreshing, it can become more difficult to get anything to grow. I wrote a 5-year plan for our local community garden to help them improve their soil but it was not implemented.

Today community garden users depend on large pots to grow their vegetables and flowers.

Our community garden is one large pot garden. (*Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To keep your pot garden healthy, compost kitchen scraps and incorporate them into your pot soil before planting. Compost provides soil residents food to keep them healthy. In turn, those soil microorganisms will feed the plants that feed you. Yes, it’s all interconnected!

Time to get my tomatoes in their pots! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Once you have your pots set up, it’s time to add seeds or plants. My first tomato, a cherry variety is in and now enjoying rain water.

Charlotte

Zippy Zinnias

A bouquet of last fall’s zinnias brightening my kitchen. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Zippy Zinnias

If you are just starting to garden and putting in some vegetables, don’t forget these easy to grow flowers, zinnias. Zinnias are an excellent pollinator magnet, bringing in bees to find your vegetables and increasing your yield.

You will find zinnias in a variety of sizes and colors where you find most seed packets. I like the miniature ones for pot gardens and the single taller ones for regular garden spots. Pick the ones that are single, those are the ones that will attract bees.

Zinnias are native to Mexico and now cover a region stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America.

Zinnias were named after the German Botanist Johann Zinn who first discovered them in Mexico and described the plants as being small and weedy. Zinnias are in the Asteraceae plant family which is referred to as the daisy or sunflower family.

They were brought to Europe in the 1750s and have since been bred and cultivated to include a vast palate of bloom types and colors. The earliest zinnia cultivars were reintroduced to the United States in the 1790s with double flower forms appearing in the mid-1800s. There was a renewed interest in zinnias during the 1920s when the first dahlia-flowered cultivars ‘Giant Dahlia’ and ‘California Giant’ were introduced. These cultivars have large, flat-flower heads and come in a multitude of colors.

Zinnias as they grow in a garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

There are single, semi-double, or double flower forms. Single-flowered zinnias are the ones to select if you’re trying to attract pollinators to your garden; the central flower is visible and produces viable nectar and pollen for visiting bees and butterflies.

Semi-double zinnias have several rows of petals with the central flower barely visible.

Double-flowered zinnias have been bred to where all of the visible floral structure produces petals. These can create quite the show in the landscape with the amount of color that is packed onto one stem.

There are several other types including beehive, button, and cactus type zinnias. The most common species grown are Zinnia elegans and Zinnia angustifolia. Zinnia elegans is grown primarily for cut flowers and can grow up to four feet tall and have single or double flowers in the colors of salmon, gold, yellow, white, red, rose, cherry, pink, lavender, purple, orange, and light green. These flowers can be solid or multicolored and range in size from one to seven inches in diameter. Common cultivars of this species include ‘State Fair’, ‘Lilliput’, and ‘Magellan’. Zinnia angustifolia has small, single, golden-orange flowers and have narrower foliage than Z. elegans.

The Lilliput cultivars are excellent for pot gardens and borders. The California Giants and Cactus will grow in most soils and bring a spot of color to any garden spot.

Once they finish the growing season, they may self-seed if the winter is mild. The seeds can also be collected and dried for sowing again the following year.

Zinnia seeds shared with my beginning beekeeping students last winter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you plant only one flower this year, plant zinnias. They are very easy to grow and will make you want to plant more!

Charlotte

Dame's Rocket

Dame’s Rocket blooming in my southern apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Dame’s Rocket’

Just about the time my old-fashioned lilacs have me hooked on their lovely scent filing up my rooms, Dame’s Rocket comes along to extend that delight. These similar looking perennials have bundles of small flowers that are highly fragrant.

Dame’s Rocket flowers have a similar appearance to lilacs. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I forget where I found my first starts but I do have them in my garden, growing in more shady spots. And I recently found out they should not be welcome.

According to Applied Ecological Services, “Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) is a tall, short-lived perennial, which produces white, pink or purple flowers in the spring. In recent years, Dame’s rocket has gone rogue, moving from yards and garden plantings into the adjoining landscapes.

An abundant seed producer, Dame’s rocket is dispersed with the aid of mammals. When the seed-bearing pods ripen, they pepper seed onto the coats of a wide variety of wildlife, allowing for extensive seed spreading.  As a result, the plant is rapidly infiltrating waterways, wetland margins, farm fence rows and tree lines, and even colonizing natural areas of prairie, savanna, stream course and many types of meadows and wetland margins.

Dame’s rocket seems to be following explosive growth patterns similar to its close relatives in the mustard family, garlic mustard, yellow rocket, hedge mustard and wild radish, all highly invasive species that have infested agricultural lands and native woodlands, savannas and grasslands across the country. Very high-quality landscapes, including state natural areas, are not immune from the invasion, nor are agricultural lands.

Dame’s Rocket appears to have allelopathic tendencies (the ability to produce chemicals that prevent or reduce the growth of other plants) similar to garlic mustard. Observations in floodplain forests have shown nearly continuous development of Dame’s Rocket along with an equally dense growth of garlic mustard—both plants are able to quickly form dense monocultures within a few years of colonization.”

Three invasive plants: Bush white honeysuckle, Dame’s Rocket and Yellow Rocket. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

So similar to some other pretty invasive species, from yellow rocket to bush honeysuckle, this is now a plant I need to decide whether I keep or tear out. Luckily it does not grow very fast on my limestone hillside so I may put off deciding for another year.

A vase full of Dame’s Rocket fills my den with their lovely fragrance. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

In the meantime, my solution to not distributing more Dame’s Rocket seeds is to cut off the flower heads when they are still in bloom and enjoy them inside. It’s a cold overcast early May day, it’s a nice way to enjoy their beauty and minimize their damage.

It took them only an hour to fill my cozy den with their lovely scent!

Charlotte

Dead Head New Strawberries

Strawberry flowers getting cut short of fruiting. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Dead Head New Strawberries

It usually takes one little self-talk, maybe two, before I can make myself do this but I know it’s for the best.

I should also confess I use strawberry plants a lot; as border plants as well as in their own beds. I like the idea of walking down a path, leaning over and grabbing a couple of strawberries.

Planting new strawberry plants, though, requires a little patience. The plants will spend their first year getting their roots established. If they are allowed to flower and then fruit, the strawberry fruits will tend to be small because of the energy it takes to fruit.

If you look at brand new and first year strawberry plants, the flowers tend to be small.

First year strawberry plants tend to produce small flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Which means the fruit, the actual strawberry, will also be small.

Ergo the need for a little self pep talk. You need to snip off those tiny flowers, Charlotte. Yes, I know. You will have larger strawberries next year if you do. Yes, I know but these look so good, what can it hurt to leave a few and get more strawberries this year…..and so it goes.

But when I spot strawberry plants from earlier year plantings, the argument is won. Those older strawberry plants have large flowers, promising big fruit.

Second year strawberry plants have larger flowers and fruit. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Strawberries are also heavy feeders, meaning they take a lot of energy out of the soil. Planted in beds, it is recommended to move the plants every 3 years and give the soil time to recover.

If you snip off the flowers, the plants won’t drain all of the soil resources and will produce larger fruits. They can also stay in an area longer especially if you add compost yearly.

Charlotte

Growing Iris

Some of the blue Iris from my mother’s favorite iris beds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Growing Iris

When I think of Mother’s Day flowers I think of peonies and iris, usually combined. Where I garden in USDA Hardiness zone 5B, peonies and iris tend to bloom in and around the traditional Mother’s Day holiday. The second weekend in May also tends to be the last hard frost day where I live. In other words, two great reasons to give Mom flowers for Mother’s Day.

There are more than 200 different Iris varieties. The ones most people ask me about are the Bearded Iris, like the ones in the photo.

If you don’t know if you have your Iris planted correctly, this is a good time to look at the green flags that represent leaves and monitor if you see any buds popping up.

White iris from a friend’s garden getting ready to bloom. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If your Iris is blooming, that means you have it planted in the right conditions for both soil and light requirements.

If not, check how much light your Iris are getting, most prefer full sun.

Secondly, check how deep you planted the rhizomes. Iris flowers and leaves grow from basically a thick root that needs to sit on top of soil. The roots like to be below but the rhizome itself needs to sit at soil level.

Iris rhizomes need to be sitting on top of soil with roots nicely covered. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you can’t see your rhizomes you have your Iris planted too deeply.

To correct, carefully dig up the rhizomes after a good rain and re-plant with the rhizomes sitting on top. If you planted them too deep they won’t bloom this year so move them as soon as you can. That will give roots extra time to get established and hopefully bloom next year.

Another group of Bearded Iris in bloom in my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Aren’t these stunning? My mother used to call Iris the equivalent of North American orchids. We grew up in South America with a backyard full of orchids so that was a familiar reference.

One last thing about the name “Iris.” In Greek, the word stands for rainbow, a wonderful association with this lovely family of blooming plants.

The blue bearded Iris in the top photo, by the way, are descendants of ones I brought to Missouri from my mother’s favorite Iris bed. She was given the Iris for Mother’s Day many decades ago, then moved them when she moved to northern Illinois.

I like to think her spirit is still enjoying these flowers.

Charlotte

Leaf Curl Disease

Leaf curl disease on one of my dwarf peach trees. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Leaf Curl Disease

Leaf curl (Taphrina deformans) is one of the most common disease problems found in backyard orchards. This is my first year to find leaf curl on one of my dwarf peaches, one of my earliest blooming spring trees.

Leaf curl symptoms appear in spring as reddish puckered areas on developing leaves. These areas become thick causing leaves to curl and distort. They start as small red bumps on leaf edges, then spread through the leaves.

Disease fungi overwinter as spores (conidia) underneath bark, around buds and in other protected areas. Early in the growing season, during cool, wet spring weather, the spores infect new leaves as they emerge from the buds.

Later, the fungus produces great numbers of new spores which are splashed or blown from tree to tree. The fungus can impact fruit production.

To treat, there are several options. I chose to remove all leaves and deeply bury them so they won’t infect other trees.

I monitor daily and remove any new signs of the fungus on the leaves.

There are a number of recommended fungicide sprays that are recommended for fall use. We’ll see by then if this is not currently contained.

No more leaf curl on the dwarf peach tree leaves a month later. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

After a month of monitoring, this peach tree looks free of the fungi and none have appeared on nearby fruit trees.

Monitoring plants so you can catch issues early is the best way to not have to use dangerous harmful chemicals.

And oh, I washed my hands.

Charlotte

May Gardening Chores

Spring rains are encouraging growth on my Missouri limestone hill. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

May Gardening Chores

My Missouri limestone hillside garden is throwing me off my game this year. The old-fashioned lilacs bloomed a good month ahead of previous year’s time frames; my lemon-scented jonquils have bloomed for close to six weeks now and my bees are looking like late May colonies instead of the end of April.

I garden in USDA Hardiness zone 5b although we didn’t have much of a winter. The soil never froze, allowing some plants to get an extra early start on their growth spurts. We still may have a late frost, we had a hard frost just last week. Where I live in mid-Missouri, the last frost date is usually around Mother’s Day. If your spring crops didn’t make it, try again; there still should be time for at least one sowing of lettuce, spinach and radish seeds.

And onions, it is always a good time to plant onions. I grow several crops throughout the growing season. Onion sets planted around roses make good bug deterrents and are fun to harvest as long as you remember to leave a couple on bug patrol. And can find your roses!

The forecast is that we will have a wet May so take the opportunity to get tree seedlings planted. You can find excellent Missouri native tree seedlings at George O. White State Forest Nursery in Licking. They have expanded their ordering window to Monday, April 27, 2020. Find their order form online, order even if its marked sold out, they will get back to you with what is left in their inventory.

This is also a good time to divide and move perennials. Be careful of disturbing newly emerging, self-sowing annuals. Learn to distinguish the sprouts of bachelor buttons and other carefree annuals so they can regrow all on their own.

Mark daffodils you want to dig up and move later this fall.

Let daffodil greenery turn yellow and die before removing. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

As daffodils and tulips continue to fade, don’t mow the leaves down with the lawn mower until they turn yellow. The bulbs turn sun into sugar stored in their bulbs. If you cut down the greenery too early, they will gradually become smaller and you will not have any more blooms. If you don’t like the fading greenery, plant something to hide it like daylilies.

See ants on your blooming peonies? Gently shake them off if you want to bring cut flowers inside, otherwise leave them alone.

If you don’t compost, this is a good month to start. Place a small grocery bag in your freezer and add kitchen scraps. When full, take outside and bury in a garden corner. As you get into the habit of saving kitchen scraps, it will be easier to then make your own compost area or buy one, then start adding leaves and grass clippings to the kitchen scraps, some water, and mix. After a few weeks, you will have black compost ready to add to your flowerbeds.

Summer plants started inside in containers can start to spend a few hours a day outside on warm, sunny days before you transplant them into your outside garden.

Shop for natives to add for mid to late summer flowers. Good choices include Purple Coneflowers, Black eyed Susan, New England Asters and any plants with low water requirements.

If you don’t have grass planted, plant clover instead. If you do, consider how to minimize the golf course-look greenery and add more varieties of blooming flowers through the growing season. Better yet, start a vegetable plot in your front yard, they can look amazing. Add flowers like zinnias to encourage pollinators.

Charlotte

Wisteria Fences

Wisteria blooms are lovely and often associated with southern porches. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Wisteria Fences

Over the years I have dreamed of having a blooming wisteria growing over - well, anything. I grew one at my former house but we left before I saw much growth.

When I was visiting Turin, Italy, we enjoyed a gelato under a huge arbor covered by centuries old wisterias with huge trunks the size of my oak trees. The flowers also remind me of bluebonnets.

Then I started to see articles about wisterias being invasive and unwelcome. The invasive problem is not an issue on my limestone hillside, the lack of top soil slows down a lot of rapid root growth. The fact that they were not welcome in landscapes gave me pause. I have two of them sitting in pots in my nursery, waiting for their permanent home.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, Wisteria is a long-lived vining plant with cascades of blue to purple flowers that look spectacular hanging from a pergola or archway in spring and early summer. This vine is a fast and aggressive grower—often reaching 30+ feet long—and is known to grow quite heavy. 

Wisteria vines will work their way into any crook or cranny they can reach, so it’s advised to not plant them too near to your home.

Wisteria flowers are beautifully fragrant, providing a feast for the senses. After flowering, a brown, bean-like pod stays on the plant until winter. Blooms only appear on new growth.

All parts of the wisteria plant contain substances called lectin and wisterin, which are toxic to pets, livestock, and humans. These toxins can cause anything from nausea and diarrhea to death if consumed in large amounts.

As I was driving away from a friend’s house, I spotted these wisterias, only they have been trained as a living fence.

Trained as they grow, wisteria can work well as a fencing hedge. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Wisteria can easily be shaped, something someone in this neighborhood has carefully worked on over the years.

There are a couple different species. Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) and Japanese wisteria (Wisteria floribunda) are not native to North America and are considered invasive species in some states. The native wisteria species, American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) and Kentucky wisteria (Wisteria macrostachya), are great alternatives to the Asian species. That reminds me, I need to check which ones I have in the nursery.

Asian wisteria are aggressive growers with fuzzy seed pods, while North American wisteria are not quite as aggressive in their growing habits and have smooth seed pods and fruits, as well as more-or-less cylindrical, bean-shaped seeds. Another difference is that American and Kentucky wisteria’s flowers appear after the plant has leafed out in the late spring, whereas the Chinese wisteria’s blooms appear before its foliage.

Plant in the spring or fall in full sun. Though wisteria will grow in partial shade, it probably won’t flower.

Plant wisteria in fertile, moist, but well-draining soil. If your soil is in poor condition, add compost; otherwise, wisteria will grow in most soils.

The recommendation is to choose a site away from other plants, as wisteria grows quickly and can easily overtake its neighbors.

Wisteria is also known for growing onto (and into) nearby structures, such as houses, garages, sheds, and so on. 

The trunks don’t grow straight but then they don’t have to. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The bottom of these wisteria bushes have strong trunks, a result of trimming back the growing vines.

The trunks grow very artistically in the center. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I love the idea that there is yet another practical way to incorporate this beautiful flower into a garden.

And one more look at the lovely wisteria flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

I haven’t decided yet what to do with my two potted wisterias, I’m still thinking I want them growing over a pergula of some sort. But using them as fencing is sure a nice second choice!

Charlotte

Forsythia Starts

Forsythias are a favorite spring flower and for good reason! (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Forsythia Starts

Where I live in mid-Missouri, forsythias in bloom are a favorite, and sure sign, of spring. Along with the yellow hues of daffodils, I think of forsythias as being spring gold.

Forsythias are a genus of deciduous flowering shrubs that belong to the olive family. They are known for their long branches that fill with brilliant yellow blooms early in the spring. Forsythia flowers precede their leaves, which means you get a good look at the blooms with no foliage.

Forsythias are very easy to propagate through cuttings. I have to trim mine every other year or so and instead of throwing those cuttings away, I start new plants.

To get new forsythias, start with soft green cuttings. The old growth will be on grayish stems; the newer growth is on the part of the bush we usually cut off.

To plant, make a hole in the moist ground where you want a new forsythia to grow. Recut the end of the cutting to under a growth node, where you see little bumps on the stems. You want those growth nodes under the ground.

I plant several close together in case one or more don’t make it. Keep it watered. The nice thing about doing this in spring is that nature usually takes care of the watering. Monitor, though, to make sure the cuttings are kept moist.

Forsythia branches gently pushed into the ground and watered. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now the hard part, the wait.

I monitor the cuttings for moisture but try not to frequently check where the stem hits the ground.

Three weeks after I planted the first forsythia cuttings, signs of success: green leaves growing from some of the cuttings.

Three weeks later, there is new growth from the planted forsythia branches. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now I need to ensure this and other cuttings stay hydrated this year. The cuttings will spend most of their first year developing underground roots, which is why moisture is important.

Once the roots are established, forsythia bushes can usually take care of themselves.

I add forsythia cuttings under trees. They also work well as fencing and as a garden focal point.

If you trim some bushes in early spring to bring inside for color, you can also plant those cuttings outside once the blooms are finished.

Yes, it’s just that simple!

Charlotte

Beautiful Eastern Redbud Trees

One of my honey bees visits an Eastern Redbud tree in my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Beautiful Eastern Redbud Trees

Cercis canadensis, or Missouri’s Eastern Redbud trees, grow naturally on my Missouri limestone hillside garden. From when they start blooming in March through early May, they surround my garden in a lovely haze of pink.

When I first moved to this site in 1982, it took several years to get a sense of what was already blooming. One of the obvious residents were Eastern Redbuds. Instead of clearing them, I started to stake them so they grew a little straighter and worked around them. Now several decades later, these lovely understory trees announce the arrival of spring.

Some years, Eastern Redbuds phase into their heart-shaped leaves before flowering dogwoods start their show. This year, both Eastern Redbuds and flowering dogwoods are once again blooming at the same time.

After blooming, Eastern Redbuds grow charming heart-shaped leaves.

In addition to adding beauty to my garden, Eastern Redbud trees are excellent bee food.

Eastern Redbuds surround my side house deck and apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Eastern redbud bark is reddish brown to gray, thin and smooth when young. Older trees have long grooves and short, thin, blocky plates.

Twigs are slender, smooth, brown to gray, often zigzag, pith white.

Fruits are pods 3–4 inches long, about ½ inch wide, tapering at the ends, leathery, reddish brown; seeds several, egg-shaped, flattened, 1/8–1/4 inch long. Pods often abundant, appearing September–October and persisting.

At maturity Eastern Redbuds can grow to 40 feet tall; 35 feet wide. On a limestone hillside, though, it can take them several decades to get that tall and wide.

When I think of spring pink, I think of Eastern Redbud trees. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Eastern Redbuds can have skinny trunks and be more susceptible to wind and storm damage. I would still plant them in a garden, they are well worth the effort. Well, unless they grow naturally. Then they are still worth the effort to stake and help grow straight.

Charlotte

Missouri's Wild Violets

Wild Missouri violets in a hillside lawn. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Missouri’s Wild Violets

These lovely native Missouri spring wildflowers seem to be either hated or loved. I love them, all 20 Missouri species in the genus Viola. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden. leaf shape and hairiness, habitat, and other details are necessary clues to determining exact species.

My love of violets started with this ceramic container. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My love of violets started with a white ceramic container I now use to hold make up pencils. Maybe it started before then but this ceramic container is a favorite. I also didn’t know when I first starting collecting Missouri wild violets for my garden that there were 20 different species. Now that I do, the more the merrier!

Two different Missouri wild violets both growing along a path. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Violets are one of the few natives that offer a color close to blue. Blue is one of the most scarce colors in nature so having a plant that pretty much takes care of itself year to year is a favorite in my book.

Violets and Ajuga make a nice spring color combination. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

In addition to growing in shade, Missouri wild violets also work well as border plants, helping to define my hillside garden paths.

And the flowers are edible, high in Vitamin C. Love to add them to a salad, they add an unexpected splash of delicious color.

Charlotte

Hummingbird Food

Hummingbird feeder filled and ready to welcome scout hummingbirds back to north america. (Photo by Charlotte ekker Wiggins)

Homemade Hummingbird Food

It’s time in mid-Missouri to put your hummingbird feeders out to attract the scout birds returning from Central and South America, where they spend our winters.

It’s very easy to make homemade hummingbird food. It used to be one part sugar to 4 parts hot water. More accurately, though, it should be equal weight to weight so the correct formula is one part sugar to 3 parts hot water.

The trick is to use hot water, not boiling water. You also should allow the sugar to get incorporated into the water and cool off before placing in the hummingbird feeder.

No need to add red dye. The hummingbirds will find the feeder without the added color.

Hummingbird feeder ready to welcome returning hummingbirds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

If you make your hummingbird syrup with lukewarm water, you will get the cloudy syrup I have in my hummingbird feeder in the photo. That’s ok, I’m out of practice so I will do better next time with hotter water.

Now if your hummingbird syrup starts looking cloudy after being outside, it’s time to replace the sugar syrup.

Regularly wash your hummingbird feeder either in a light mixture of Dawn dishwashing soap or one part vinegar to two parts water. Scrub all of the parts to remove mold. Don’t use other soaps or they could contaminate your feeder.

You will have to replace, and clean it more often as the temperature gets warmer.

Of all of the songbirds in the garden, hummingbirds are one of my favorite. Besides being beautiful and fun to watch, hummingbirds are also pollinators, helping plants reproduce.

Welcome back!

Charlotte

How to Dead Head Flowers

This daffodil flower has faded and is now making seeds. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

How to Dead Head Flowers

Of all of the maintenance chores in a garden, dead heading flowers is one of my favorites. It not only easily makes a garden spot pretty again but it helps plants keep their energy focused on making more flowers.

Flowers like daffodils save their energy in their bulbs. Once they bloom, they make seeds which take up a lot of energy. By removing the seed heads, that energy stays stored in the bulbs for blooming next year.

The same concept applies to other flowers including wildflowers from asters to zinnias. To know when to remove the spent flowers, watch the blooms until they start to shrivel. It’s easy to see. Not only do the flowers get smaller but the green knob behind the flowers starts to grow. That’s where the seeds are growing.

As daffodils wilt, that’s a good time to remove the flower heads. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To remove the seed heads, pop them off the top of the stalk by bending it over and quickly snapping it off.

You can start by cutting them with pruners if you prefer. Doing it by hand will be quicker and just as clean.

Pinched off flower heads ready for the composter. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Some other flowers may require the pruners so you don’t damage the main plant. Roses, for example, can be hard to remove the flowers by hand. The same concept applies. The green knob behind the flower is were the seeds are formed so the flowers and green knob need to be removed.

I can prune roses by hand. Peonies, on the other hand, have thicker stems and need pruners.

Once you start dead heading, you will discover which ones you can do by hand and which ones require pruners.

The removed flower heads can be composted or left in the flower bed. They will shrivel up and get incorporated into the soil.

Charlotte

Daffodil After Care

Daffodils blooming among my soil-hugging Blue Vinca. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Daffodil After Care

Daffodils are a garden favorites and for good reason. They are easy to plant; they come back year after year and, with a little good care, will bloom for many years to come. I’m talking decades here.

If you have ever come across abandoned farmsteads, you usually can find the main farm house by following the daffodils. These small, old-fashioned yellow trumpet-faced flowers announced the advent of spring and were usually planted close to home.

There is another reason why they survived for so long. Their green leaves, or stalks, were not cut down after they bloomed. The leaves are solar collectors, turning sunlight into sugar that is stored in the underground bulbs. That stored energy generates the next year’s flowers. Now do you think you might know why your daffodils aren’t blooming?

I keep bunches of daffodils together for garden color. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cutting Daffodils

One of my favorite all time things to do with daffodils is to cut and share them. To maintain their obvious garden presence, I look for daffodils that have fallen to the ground to cut. Some have bent stems, others are just too leggy and can’t hold the flower heads up any more. Those to me are the daffodils that get to come inside, leaving a strong daffodil presence still in the garden.

Downed daffodils get cut for inside flower bouquets. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

One of my garden walks on the south side. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Daffodil After Care

As I am walking the garden to cut daffodils, I also dead head the ones that are fading. Daffodils don’t all bloom at once. The tiny yellow ones are the first to bloom, followed by a wide variety of colors and shapes that get different starts depending on how much sun they have, how much rain, the quality of the soil.

When buying daffodil bulbs, get early, mid and late bloomers to extend your daffodil blooming season. While you are at it, also get a bag of bone meal to add to the bottom of the planting hole. Bone meal is a natural fertilizer and excellent daffodil food. A tiny handful per planting hole is all you need to provide the bulbs phosphate to ensure blooms next year. I also scatter a couple of bags of bone meal over the garden before a good rainfall after they finish blooming.

Now here is one of my clumps of white daffodils that are fading.

A clump of fading white daffodils next to a yellow daffodil bunch. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

To save what energy they have left, I cut off the fading flower heads leaving the green stems intact. Use clippers to cleanly cut off the flower head.

I also leave the fading flowers in the ground to compost back into the soil. Not always, though. Sometimes I collect the flower heads and add them to the compost bin, just depends on how fastidious I’m feeling.

I don’t cut the nearby yellow daffodils, those stay to keep color in that garden spot.

The daffodil clump trimmed, leaving the fresh flowers. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

The ground cover around the daffodils is Vinca. To keep my soil on this hillside, Vinca has been an excellent plant to hold in the soil. The blue flowers also look lovely among the yellow and white spring daffodils.

It can take over so if you add Vinca, keep it contained by pulling out the plants by their roots.

My refreshed bouquet of cut daffodils now keeping me company inside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

My newest bouquet of mixed daffodils now keeping me company. Do cut and bring some inside, they are wonderful signs of spring and hope!

Charlotte

April Gardening Chores

The south garden close to the Bluebird Gardens apiary. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

April Gardening Chores

It’s “daffodil land” days in my Missouri garden. This is the name one of my former neighbors gave to my limestone hillside garden currently populated by a number of these wonderful bulbs.

Spring came in almost a month early this year so my USDA Hardiness zone 5B chores are getting an earlier start.

Clean out composters and add to flower beds and fruit trees. Mix with existing soil for now; you will mulch this later. Leave a good bucket of finished compost as starter for the next compost batch and start adding leaves, grass clippings if you have them, kitchen scraps and water. Don’t forget to mix.

Put up your birdhouses if you haven’t already. Songbirds are natural pest control and add so much interest to our gardens. 60% of all bird species depend on insects for their food.

Prune lilacs immediately after they bloom. If you wait until later in the season, you will be cutting off next year’s blooms.

Continue to sow lettuce, spinach and radish seeds every 10 days or so for fresh spring salads in your pot garden. Call it your garden in pots, if you prefer.

If you like to grow peas, this is the last month to plant sugar snap peas and snow peas, they prefer cooler weather conditions. To keep their roots happy, mulch with cardboard to keep them cool, then add a layer of wood chips.

As daffodils and tulips continue to grow and bloom, sprinkle compost around them to keep the bulbs well fed.

As the flowers fade, remove them by snipping off the flower heads. Leave the greenery until it turns yellow; the green leaves help the bulbs store energy for next season’s blooms. Don’t mow the leaves down with the lawn mower until they turn yellow or the bulbs will gradually become smaller and you will not have any more blooms next spring.

If you have a vegetable garden area, this is a good time to add cardboard to kill off any growth prior to summer planting. Don't till, the prevailing thought now is that tilling damages the soil ecosystem. Kill the plants you don’t want, make holes to plant the ones you do, or make trenches to plant seeds, and cover. Easy peasy. Who doesn’t like easy gardening??

Start your summer plants inside in containers you can transplant outside later; tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini.

Don’t forget companion plants to reduce crop damage; basil is a good bug deterrent for a lot of plants and grows easily from seed.

Plant for pollinators as well. I love zinnias and so do butterflies and bees. Native plants such as New England Asters, yarrow and purple coneflowers are good choices for pollinators because they have long blooming seasons. For another good annual, try sunflower seeds. Birds will love the seeds in the fall.

Enjoy the beauty of Missouri’s native trees including Eastern redbuds and the state tree, flowering dogwoods. Better yet, plant a few more native trees along with compact dwarf fruit trees. Although planting native flowers is still good for pollinators, trees provide better, and more reliable, pollen sources for bees. The smaller fruit trees are good pollen sources as well and, when pollinated by bees, will also give you easily accessible fruit to pick.

Charlotte

Home Pot Garden

One of my past pot gardens growing on my back deck. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Home Pot Garden

Some people are calling the resurgence in gardening Victory Gardening 2.0, a reference to the gardens US citizens grew during World War II. I think “Pot Garden” is more appropriate. These pot gardens can grow almost anywhere and still provide fresh produce and herbs.

I have grown a pot garden on my southern facing deck for many years and here are my tips to getting started, with the help of the National Gardening Bureau:

1. Know your hardiness zone, which is an average over 13 years of the coldest temperatures where you live,. This will determine what you can grow. I am in USDA Hardiness zone 5B. If you don’t know your growing zone, enter your zip code here to find your zone.

2. What do you and your family like to eat? No point in growing something no one will touch. Make a list of what your family likes to eat and research their harvest times. Right now snow peas, lettuce, radishes, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower are good to grow, they prefer the cooler spring temperatures.

   Also consider growing favorite herbs you use in cooking, there’s nothing better than fresh herbs out of your own garden.

Herbs are excellent to grow in pots and great to add to cooking. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

More on Setting up a Home Pot Garden

3. Seeds or Starts? If this is your first foray into gardening, get plant starts, those will grow faster and encourage you to plant more. Seeds will work as long as you read the packages and plant at the appropriate time.

4. Know Your Soil. If you are sowing, or adding starts, to soil, make sure you know what kind of soil you have, your local Extension office can run a test and tell you. One test costs $15.

5. Plan where you will grow. If you are making a pot garden that’s easy. If you are growing directly into soil it helps to have an area planned.

6. Grow both vegetables and flowers. Flowers attract pollinators that will make your vegetables healthier and more abundant. Mix vegetables and flowers, don’t plan them separately.

7. Start Composting. If you don’t already compost, start composting. You will repurpose kitchen scraps and help keep your garden soil healthy.

Keep gardening tools handy, here I have children’s tools close by. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

8. Punch holes in plastic bottles and bury them in your pots to help keep plant roots hydrated.

9. Stake plants. Some plants like tomatoes and peppers will need support to grow. Find straight garden sticks and consider tomato cages for vining plants like peas.

10. Monitor for pests. Check under leaves; remove by hand. Some garden pests like rabbits and deer will tend to stay away from pot gardens.

Pot gardens are not only easy to establish but work well through the growing season and don’t require a lot of space. Good luck and have fun!

Charlotte

Cover Planting

Lambs Ears will cover the daffodils as they die back. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Cover Planting

it’s my term “cover planting,” the practice of planting plants so that they cover other plants that die back. In gardening circles, it’s touted as vertical gardening but most people equate that to vines and things that grow on structures.

To cover plant, you have to know how one plant grows before deciding what other plants you can add. Not all plants are compatible and some can take nourishment away from others. The key is to know how the plant roots grow. You want shallow-rooted plants around the deeper ones so they are not competing for space and nutrients.

Here are a few combinations that have worked well for me:

Planting daffodils in flower bed fronts can cover other plants. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Missouri’s native orange daylilies make for good cover at the front of flower beds. Their greenery starts filing in when daffodils and other spring bulbs die back. After flowering, the daylily greenery continues into winter.

And not just orange daylilies, any day lilies will work for lining the front of a flower bed.

Herbs are also wonderful cover plants. They also tend to be shallow-rooted so they don’t compete with other plants close by.

Another favorite plant to add is Joy Autumn Sedum. This hardy perennial is pretty in its various stages, from rosettes in spring to fall flowers. Their roots grow shallow so they don’t compete with other plants. Here I use them to cover daffodils.

Joy Autumn Sedum grows over dying daffodil greenery. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Think short plants over larger ones. Wild violets add a nice pop of color around short-flowering plants. By summer, the violet leaves are big enough to cover over a bare area.

You get the idea.

What other plant combinations would you use?

Charlotte