Beyond the Cheddar Curtain
An attempt to create a woodland haven in southeastern Wisconsin with forays into native woodland and prairie plantings, veggies, fruits/berries and beautiful perennials that the owners, neighbors and wildlife can enjoy.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
The Fight Against Fungus Gnats
Back in early spring I bought some potting soil and "refreshed" the soil in my houseplants while repotting them. It wasn't long before the house was invaded with clouds of little gray bugs, barely visible unless they were found floating in a cup of water or in our food. They were everywhere!
I tried yellow glue traps, vinegar traps, soaking the soil with NEEM oil, soaking the soil with a systemic insecticide, and finally, in desparation, bagging every single one of my house plants for two months. The glue traps caught thousands, the NEEM oil killed hundreds of larvae, and bagging my plants gave us two months of gnat-free food and drink.
Yet, still gnats have survived. I just opened the bags on a couple of plants to see if the bagging worked and now gnats are zipping around. Yes, there aren't many but there will be. There will be. If someone has a technique that works, I'm all ears.
Saturday, August 1, 2020
The sweet smell of summer
|
Tall Garden Phlox has taken over the front beds of my house and are starting to make inroads into the other areas of my yard as well. For years I neglected deadheading the phlox I inherited from the previous owners, and since they aren't very fussy about where they will grow, they now outnumber any of the other perennials in my yard (not including the weeds, of course!)
Now I religiously deadhead them but I do it with regret because phlox are really into "loving thy neighbor" and over the years my palette of phlox blooms went from a medium purple to a wild mix of lavender blue, white, white/pink, pink, bright pink, a range of heights, and slightly different flower shapes and sizes. All because I added a 'David,' 'Red Riding Hood', and several 'Laura' phlox after I found out how fragrant phlox are. Now I look forward to seeing what any new phlox plant will look like when it blooms.
And the fragrance once they do bloom is lovely! I really love walking out my front door and having that vanilla wall of smell envelope me. Nice!
The other thing I love about phlox is that the butterflies, sphinx moths and hummingbirds love them too. I can sit and watch all the pretty fluttery critters out there working over the flowers right outside my picture window.
What I don't love is the powdery mildew that goes along with phlox, but we had pretty consistent rain here this summer so the plants didn't really get water-stressed thus I didn't see much mildew. 'David' is my latest blooming phlox so I will get to enjoy the show well into mid-September. Yay!
All of these white phlox are self-seeded |
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Blue Bloomers
Double Daff Surprise! |
Creeping Jacobs Ladder is a good companion for hostas and pollinators love them, but gotta warn you they reseed like crazy |
"Sound" daffodils are back from the brink |
Second, I found two types of daffs blooming this spring that I thought had disappeared from the yard years ago. A very pleasant surprise indeed!
It wasn't all happy surprises though. One unpleasant discovery I made is that the garlic mustard situation in my backyard has seriously deteriorated. I really need to kick butt this season and regularly patrol and remove those horrible, horrible plants.
So, on to the subject of today's post. Despite the stingy amount of rain we've gotten the last couple of months, some of my spring bloomers are looking fabulous...Virginia Bluebells and Creeping Jacobs Ladder, both Wisconsin natives, have blue blooms and don't seem to be struggling as much as some others. Throw in some pulmonaria and there's just a lot of blue happening right now in my garden.
There's a lot of pollinator action happening too. It turns out that I'm not the only one who likes blue.
Although I only see hummingbirds and the big kind of bumblebee visiting my pulmonaria, EVERYONE loves creeping Jacob's Ladder! Big bees, little bees, big and small flying insects that I don't recognize, and even ants. I sat down for a bit to watch the show and the bumblebees were so covered in pollen you could hardly see their legs. There was just a swarm of flying critters working over the plants. I don't see that kind of pollinator activity except in the late fall when the sedums and native goldenrods are blooming.
Deer leave these ephemeral Wisconsin natives alone (at least in my yard) |
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Thinking About My Favorite Hostas Today
Gold Heart Bleeding Heart, Olive Bailey Langdon Hosta, Sagae Hostas, and Epimedium |
Sum and Substance in late summer in a bed that badly needs some maintenance |
Krossa Regal is a tough plant that survived where my beloved japanese maple tragically could not |
Dream Queen is another hosta I really like but it's a very slow growing diva. |
Guess which one is Gold Standard? |
Dream Queen and Wolverine's variegation looks pretty different once summer's in full swing |
Friday, February 7, 2020
Small Project, Big Change
I've been spending some time this winter thinking about what to tackle in my yard this coming growing season. One item on my list is further refining my front foundation beds. I have really struggled to figure out what I want from the plantings in front of our house and that lack of an overall vision for the space has definitely slowed my progress.
Yet, over the years, I've done some stuff that didn't require much thought: chopping down the overgrown, straggly yews, pulling out the diseased European viburnums that always looked like they were on the verge of death but never actually died, killing off all the aggressive spreaders that choked out everything in their path, and replacing them with less weedy-looking plants. I've also been working to improve the soil so the plants are healthier and happier.
In other words, I'm making progress. Slowly. The beds aren't "right" yet and I still don't have a master plan, but each year my tweaks make my front foundation a little better.
Since I've put in that paver path at the back of my foundation beds, I've realized that turning that space into something pleasing is not impossible and I'm looking forward to the next steps in that process.
Thursday, January 16, 2020
I love the UW Extension Office!
The crotons were easy enough to identify but I wasn't sure what a couple of my other plants were. Enter my heroes, the volunteers manning the UW Extension horticultural helpline.
Give these fine folks a call with all your gardening drama and they will have all kinds of helpful suggestions. You can even send them an email with your plant photos and they can help identify what you have. Their knowledge is amazing!
How do I overwinter my coleus? They can help! What is causing the holes on my leaves? They can help! Is my plant a dumbcane or dieffenbachia? They can help! Each county in Wisconsin has an extension office. It's free to contact yours. I sent my extension office an email and got the answers needed to keep these guys happy.
The verdict: Dieffenbachia |
I neglected to consider where I would put my outside plants once winter came. Oops! |