Share the joy37 34 How many times have I seen ‘Zulu Prince’ Cape daisy at the back of a seed catalog and thought, “Hmm, I should try that sometime”? But I always pass it up. Well, this year I tried it, and it’s a great little annual. I ordered this plant as Venidium fastuosum from Pinetree Garden Seeds, but after digging around on… Read more →
Share the joy59 8 By growing borage (Borago officinalis), I’ve been feeding butterflies all along and didn’t realize it. I love Portland, but I’ve been lamenting its scarcity of butterflies since moving here two years ago. Back in the Ohio Valley, I raised monarchs, viceroys, tiger swallowtails, zebra swallowtails (my favorite), giant swallowtails, spicebush swallowtails, pipevine swallowtails, red-spotted purples, and American ladies… Read more →
Share the joy4 5 *UPDATE* 09/08/16 Unfortunately, ‘Golden Foam’ set a million seeds, of which about 110% germinated in my garden (and lawn). I will be pulling seedlings for the rest of my days. Plant this thing at your own risk.—AC *UPDATE* 04/08/17 ‘Golden Foam’ is my kudzu. I hate it with a white-hot passion. What really troubles me is that… Read more →
Share the joy14 Did you know that common orange daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) flowers are edible? They’re good, too—mild-tasting with a hint of sweetness. And they make the prettiest salad toppers. I am NOT talking about any other kind of plant called a “lily,” such as lily-of-the-valley or Easter lilies, which are poisonous (to people and to cats). As for the edibility of… Read more →
Share the joy30 “I’d like to visit the swamp.” My parents thought this an odd request when I visited my home state of Minnesota last week, but I’d recently learned that I’d grown up literally next door to one of the most unique plant communities in the world, and I had never appreciated it. So I set out to rediscover the… Read more →
Share the joy66 12 So the other day I noticed my Tonto crape myrtle had this crusty white stuff on it. Not powdery mildew, which sometimes appears later in the year on crape myrtles. Mildew looks like white film on the leaf’s surface. Mine had white stuff on the tips of the leaves. My first thought was woolly aphids or cottony scale,… Read more →
Share the joy51 Your backyard should be your sanctuary, your playground, your own intimate connection to natural beauty and the rhythms of life. When we bought our current house a year ago, it wasn’t any of those things. Years of neglect had left the backyard in a sorry state. The lawn was lumpy and compacted. The only tree, a 50-plus… Read more →
Share the joy25 A proliferation of plant patents, trademarks, and brands in recent years has turned plant shopping into a rather confusing experience. Plants now have goofy names. Have you noticed that the Knock Out rose is also called ‘Radrazz’? Or that Endless Summer hydrangea also answers to the name of ‘Bailmer’? Tags now warn menacingly, “UNLICENSED PROPAGATION PROHIBITED.” And the… Read more →
Share the joy24 Like any activity with a long history, gardening has its share of traditions. Some of these are sound practices, while others should have been thrown on the compost heap long ago. Seed-starting is one gardening project that seems especially steeped in lore. And with good reason—the whole process of turning a dead-looking speck of dust into a vibrant,… Read more →
Share the joy189 46 If you’ve noticed that there don’t seem to be as many monarch butterflies around in the summer as there used to be, it’s not your imagination. Largely due to habitat loss, the monarch population has dwindled. I’ve learned that Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops are likely the biggest culprit, causing me to question my earlier, overly rosy opinion on GM crops. These… Read more →
