Gardening

Below are links to articles posted in Gardening.

Brewing Compost Tea on the Cheap

“Wow, a picture of a bucket in a garage, nice blog you run Chris.”
In all seriousness, this is my compost tea brewing system. It isn’t pretty, but it only cost me about $15, $5 if you discount things I already had.
Compost tea is a great product. What it is is compost seeped in water […]

Hardy Perennial Hibiscus

The flower form of hibiscus is very common to the tropics, blooms typically 4-6 inches across that are brightly colored and form on shrubs. Many people in more northernly climes also grow them as patio plants.
But did you know you could plant hibiscus plants with flowers twice the size in the ground in your garden […]

Edible Ornamentals

When planning your garden design do not forget that you can use vegetables in your ornamental beds.
Yes, I said it, vegetables in your ornamental beds. For some reason people see an ornamental bed as featuring eye-pleasing designs with organic layouts and nice flowers. Whereas a vegetable garden needs to have straight orderly rows like a […]

Butterfly Bush

I’ve blogged about butterfly bushes, or Buddleia, before, but I felt the need to do so again today.
You see, I went outside and noticed no less than 10 large monarch butterflies on one of my bushes. I tried my best to get a picture of them all but it wasn’t working well, the best […]

Black Spot on My Roses

I’m no stranger to fungal infections on roses, it seems every year in late summer I get powdery mildew, it usually doesn’t cause too big a problem though and does hit all my roses.
This year, I’ve not been so lucky. I had a massive attack of black spot that affected almost every rose bush I […]

My New Tanyosho Pine

I went to Rome in June, read all about it here. I fell in love with the beautiful stone pines that dotted the landscape. They are a very graceful pine with no understory branches and an upside down pyramid flat-top upperstory. Unfortunately they are not hardy where I live in Michigan.
Well, a few […]

Deadhead your Daylilies to Make More Blooms

For me, July is prime daylily month, and July is now over. That means it is deadheading time.
Truth be told I deadhead constantly as I wander around the garden but this post is meant to remind others to do it, not myself.
You see, many popular daylily varieties, possibly ones in your garden right […]

Sambucus nigra. “Black Lace” Elderberry

Sambucus nigra. “Black Lace” is a hot new elderberry cultivar that was available in very limited release in 2006. I first saw it in Wayside Garden’s fall catalogue last fall. When I went to order one it was already sold out.
I finally got on their waiting list late this Spring when they started […]

My Favorite Daylilies

Daylilies are my favorite flowers. They are hardy, relatively disease resistant (depending on area), nearly carefree, and come in a wide variety of shapes, colors, and sizes.
There are though thousands and thousands of named varieties of daylilies, so to help you find some good ones here are my favorites:
FAVORITE OVERALL: All Fired Up
This is a […]

Roses from Cuttings, or Roses from Grafts

Most roses sold are hybrids, which means they will not grow true from seed. So to propagate such roses there are two main methods used, cuttings & grafts. Which is better? Well, let me tell you a story.
I have a ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ climbing rose planted near an arbor on the north side of […]

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