It pains me to see customers spending hundreds of dollars on new plants and simultaneously refusing to spend a few more on a bag or two of compost and a box of starter fertilizer. These two items are not unnecessary “add-ons” that the retailer is just trying to add to the sale, they are critical components of a successful transplanting process - or as I like to refer to them as “plant insurance”. Unless you have phenomenal soil, you should always add compost and starter fertilizers when you are planting new plants. Here is why…
Sometimes I feel like the world is spinning out of control. There is all the fear over… If you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, I think I have the solution for you: spend more time in the garden! The sunshine will do you good, working in the dirt will help you build up immunities, breathing the fresh air will clear your lungs, and just communing with nature will clear your mind. Here are some things you can do while you are decompressing from all that life is currently throwing you…
Okay, I confess that one of the first things I do in the morning is to turn on my phone/computer and check my news feeds - mostly to see what might have happened over the last 8 hours I was sleeping. It’s pretty ridiculous when you think about it, but that seems to be the norm. It has been estimated that adults spend 11 hours a day looking at screens and check their phones every 10 minutes. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, tweens log in 4.5 hours a day and teens spend almost 7 hours. Imagine how much happier and healthier we all might be if we spent that much time in the garden….
During the months of May and June one of the all-time favorite plants of local gardeners, the peony, is bursting into bloom. There are many excellent peonies available to utilize in our landscapes; including herbaceous cottage types in all sorts of colors (and varying fragrances) and larger growing tree peonies too. I would never scold anyone for growing either of these types (since I do as well), but I want to bring attention to another fabulous peony option… what is known as the intersectional or Itoh Peony.