Category Archives: Native Planting

Disability Pride: Gardening Edition

A women sitting on a deck in front of a group of potted plants. She is wearing a straw hat, tshirt that reads "ankylosing spondylitis is not a dinosaur," and holding a cane.
Hanging out with the cucumbers, potatoes, pineapples, lemons, and my trusty cane and soil knife.

July is Disability Pride Month, and so I thought I’d share a little bit about what it’s like gardening while under the influence of disabilities. I have fibromyalgia, and ankylosing spondylitis (which is basically a cousin of Rheumatoid Arthritis, except it’s harder to pronounce and no one has ever heard of it). These are both auto immune diseases, and, on an average day, they impact my mobility in some way, cause pain, and fatigue.

Some days are fairly normal. My body decides if my to do list for the day is laughable, and we go from there. Other days, it’s a challenge to get out of bed at all. It’s not really predictable which kind of day we’re going to have until I wake up.

Gardening can be quite a physical activity. There’s hoses to wrangle, soil to move around, sod to dig up, unruly invasive plants that need to be removed, and weeds to pull. Lately, managing any of these activities is bound to cause a creative string of expletives to hurl out of my mouth. Sorry, neighbors.

A corner garden, set in front of a fence. There are tall grasses and bushes, with colorful flowers along the ground.
Planted just this spring, the new pollinator garden is already thriving. There’s verbena, blanketflowers, chokecherry, phlox, goldenrod, coreopsis, arrowwood viburnum, nepeta, switchgrass, columbines, lavender, wild bergamot, coneflower, and black-eyed susans.

Despite this, I do still have a rather nice garden, if I do say so myself. I’ve learned a thing or two over the years. Here’s some of my tricks:

  1. The Art of Low Maintenance Gardening
    I simply cannot physically accomplish all that I dream about in the garden. So, I need plants that work with me, not against. Things that require daily watering, lots of fertilizer, trimming/dead-heading, and other assorted fussing are just not going to cut it. I’ve taken to planting a lot of native plants in the garden, not just because they are critical to helping the wildlife in the area, but also because they are designed to thrive in our climate. We have cold winters, hot summers, and lots of wild swings in temperature. Precipitation levels seem to vary between drought or flooding. And, our soil content is filled with lots of clay. If I planted a lot of things meant for a more mild climate, they would not thrive, and I’ve be wasting a lot of money, time, and energy tending to them, and ultimately, replacing them, once they died. If you’re interested in learning more about planting native plants to your region, check out the Native Plants Finder section on the Homegrown National Park site.
  2. Native Plants: Yes, I’m Still Talking About Those
    Another reason I plant natives, is that they are a vital part of a healthy ecosystem. Native plants lure in native insects. And once you have an established yard full of beneficial insects, you will likely not see out-of-control pest problems from invasive insects like Japanese beetles. Native plants support insects and birds that help control unwanted pests. We don’t use any pesticides in our yard, and still manage to grow heaps of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers to enjoy. Additionally, many natives don’t suffer from pest problems. There may be aphids around, and some holes munched into leaves here and there, but plants aren’t being eaten to the point where they are destroyed.
  3. Potted Plants: A Great Ally
    Many of the crops I do grow live in containers and raised beds, close to the house. If I am having difficulties walking, the likelihood of me traipsing around the yard with a hose and my cane is going to be low. I keep anything that requires more water in pots on the deck, right by the back door. The deck is shaded part of the day, I can move pots around fairly easily, and I can use a watering can from the kitchen instead of dealing with the hose. A lot of the herbs and vegetables I grow really thrive in container life. I’ve had a lot of success with grow bags and potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, thyme, chives, pumpkins, melons, nasturtium, and fennel. Plus, I’m able to see everything from my perch on the living room couch. I may not always have the energy to go outside, but I’m still able to enjoy all the flowers on the deck.
  4. The Tools of the Trade
    A few tools have become necessary for any campaign into the garden. I garden with gloves and gardening sleeves, which help keep me cool, and protect me from hives (I’m allergic to most plants, because the universe has a weird sense of humor). Thankfully, I’ve reached the age where I don’t care as much about my appearance, and I’ve added a trusty straw hat to my gardening ensemble. Finally, I recommend some knee pads.

    Once I’m outfitted, my absolute MUST HAVE tool in the garden is my trusty soil knife. I’ve used this thing for two years now, and I still can’t believe how handy it is. My soil knife cuts through our tough clay soil like butter. It slices through deep roots. It digs holes for planting. It’s my favorite hand tool, and I absolutely recommend one to every gardener. Another much have tool is a nice set of hand pruners. Keep them sharpened, and they will treat you well even on the worst arthritis days.
  5. Just Be, and Watch the Bees
    There are days when I just am not able to physically accomplish what I’d like in the garden, but I try not to dwell on those disappointments. I’m not always successful, and I do rely on my partner to help out quite a bit. However, I try to spend as much time as I can simply outdoors, existing in the garden. I plop down a chair, or sit in the grass, and watch the garden grow. Dealing with depression and anxiety is a struggle, but I find so much hope and peace in the garden.

    There’s always something a little magical going on. The plants are moving in the wind, there’s pollinators out working the flowers, and birds gathering materials for nests. It’s easy to get caught up in all of my own crap, and being in the garden helps me refocus and think about the little joys of life instead. I find so much satisfaction in knowing that I built everything in the garden, and helped give such a great home to all the wildlife there now. And, watching the crops grow, and being able to harvest them to use in our dinners is such an exciting process. I’ve been gardening for years, but every year, being able to walk outside and pick a fresh vegetable off the vine of one of the plants is a delicious reward.

Eventually, all of us will be disabled, in one way or another. We may not be able to garden in the way we expected, but I think there’s options out there for everyone. Whether you have a lone pot on the windowsill, or acres of flowers, green spaces are healing and, I believe, necessary. To all of my fellow disabled gardeners out there, keep making the world a more beautiful space! Happy gardening!

Tall purple stalks of flowers in front of a green backdrop of leaves
July means the prairie blazingstar is in bloom! These beautiful natives have flowers like tiny fireworks, and the are always covered in hungry pollinators.

Up in Smoke

The native plants have been exploding with color and life this month. These swamp milkweed, coreopsis, oakleaf hydrangea, speedwell, blanketflowers, and penstemon have been a favorite of the bees.

It’s been a minute since I checked in, and what an auspicious time we’ve had in the garden this year. May was filled with some of the worst drought conditions we’ve ever seen in Central Ohio, followed by such toxic air pollution from wildfires this month, that everyone is being advised to stay indoors. Hoping the areas in desperate need of rain see some soon. We’re expecting storms over the next few days, and then, hopefully, I can get outside to play in the garden some more.

The late spring is usually filled with a flurry of activity in the garden, but I’ve been spending most of my time indoors. The cottonwood trees spent, what felt like an eternity enacting warfare against everyone’s allergies. Then, we had a pretty big heat wave, with the aforementioned drought. We installed a rain barrel this year, right before the skies dried up. Then, rain did hit, and we had a few days with 2+ inches of rain. The weather can’t decide what extreme feat it’s going to dish out, it seems.

I think we’ve all become armchair climate scientists lately. I know I’ve learned more about air quality than I ever expected to. The skies have smelled like burning plastic, and it’s been very hazy. Can’t wait to get out in the garden again when it’s safe!

Despite this, I did manage to get everything I wanted in the ground this spring. The raised beds are full of crops again this year. I harvested a bumper crop of garlic scapes, and then bulbs. The lettuce, spinach, asparagus, and strawberries also did well, before the heat really set in. Right now, there’s: potatoes, peas, loofahs, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkins, squash, tomatillos, leeks, two types of tomatoes, three types of peppers, onions, two types of beans, dill, two varieties of basil, parsley, oregano, fennel, three kinds of mint, nasturtiums, pineapples, lemon, bay laurel, rosemary, five kinds of thyme, chamomile, and beets growing (and a partridge in a pear tree). The beets bolted in the heat, but everything else is looking well. I should be harvesting the onions quite soon, and all the herbs have been enjoyable in various dinners.

I tried to focus on expanding the native plantings this year, and so far, all of those plants are looking quite happy as well. They truly are built to withstand everything we experience here, from our clay soil, to our scorching summers, and freezing winters. A few of the plants I put in several seasons ago have bloomed for the first time, and watching the pollinators out enjoying it all feels like a true accomplishment.

The strawberries were quite tasty this year, and we’ve enjoyed lots of daisies, elderberry flowers, coreopsis, and fresh basil.

Aside from all the moths, bees, and other pollen-lovers, it’s been very interesting watching the ecosystems in the garden at work. Our weather recently has been pretty wet and hot, and most gardeners I talk to have been spotting huge groups of aphids. But, with the aphids, come insects higher up the food chain who like to dine on them. In the morning, I’d walk around, and see tiny red aphids covering the fennel and goldenrod plants. But, by the afternoon, they would all be hoovered up from the resident ladybug and firefly populations. We don’t use any pesticides in our yard, and just don’t see many problems from unwanted insects. It’s hard to believe the answer is really so simple, but letting nature do its thing truly works.

A majority of the plants in the garden are native, and this is absolutely the bedrock of a healthy yard. I don’t mean to sound preachy, but I can’t say enough about the importance of planting things that are meant to live in your yard. That’s not saying there isn’t room room some of our beloved plants from other areas around the globe (so long as they aren’t invasive), but making space for plants that are designed to thrive and support local food webs keeps things much healthier. It’s exhausting and expensive trying to maintain plants that aren’t meant for your soil conditions, weather, precipitation levels, or geographic location. I’ll always have crops, and a handful of other non-native plants on hand. However, I’ve seen, first hand, the benefits of natives. I’ve fallen in love with their beauty, and have experienced so many amazing wildlife encounters because they are in our yard.

So, that’s what’s been going on around these parts so far this gardening season. Who knows what’s on the horizon for these next few summer months. Hope you are all staying safe and that your gardens are also bringing some needed joy this season. Happy gardening!

The Aphid Patrol are back on the job! There’s been quite of few aphids out and about in the garden, much to the delight of the resident lady bug population. Lady bugs are able to eat between 50 and 60 aphids per day. I’ll check plants in the morning, and by the evening, all the aphids are completely gone. Just another great reminder to let nature do it’s thing. If I sprayed pesticides, all the ladybugs would be wiped out. And the birds, insects, and frogs that depend on eating ladybugs would be gone, too.

High Temps and Low Productivity

Leave a reply
The monarch butterflies showed up a few weeks ago, and have been floating around the garden every afternoon.

August is almost over, and while we certainly have another month or two before the season ends, my gardening motivation is waning. The summer has been especially hot and wet, which has definitely caused some ups and downs for the production levels this year. That, combined with some visits from a particularly unruly masked bandit visitor has definitely impacted my oomph.

The season started out pretty well. We had a bountiful crop of asparagus, sugar snap peas, and then the garlic and onions were ready to be harvested. It was my first year growing peas and onions, and they each exceeded expectations. After that, we had a very nice crop of carrots and lettuce. The carrots thrived under the shade of some leeks and zinnias, which seemed to protect them from all the summer heat.

Slightly less happy were our potatoes, though we still managed a decent crop. And now, I’m harvesting green beans, peppers, and tomatoes. The tomatoes, especially, are having a tough year. They don’t love excessive rain showers, or temps in the 90s, both of which we’ve had in spades since May. They caught blight a few weeks ago, and are looking very scraggly and sad. Tomatoes tend to drive me a little crazy. Our weather isn’t really the best for growing them, but they are such a popular plant. Daydreaming Me would like a greenhouse someday, so I can truly control their water intake and keep them from catching blossom end rot, blight, or one of the billion other issues that impact them.

Another plant that didn’t grow as well as I’d hoped were our cucumbers. I did manage to harvest a few to enjoy in some G&T’s, but the plants caught bacterial wilt from an onslaught of cucumber beetles. It was my first time growing these, so next year, I’ll try some natural methods to contain the beetles before they do in the entire harvest.

We’ve had lots of insect visitors this year, like these carpenter bees, soldier beetles, american snout butterflies, hummingbird moths, ailanthus webworm moths, american bumblebees, and damselflies.

That wasn’t the end of the crop woes for the season. In addition to the cucumber beetles, we had a wily raccoon start throwing parties in the garden every evening. This little trash panda has really pushed all my buttons. He tips over pots on the deck, rearranges the rocks around the pond (???), broke into and ate all the black swallowtail caterpillars and chrysalises in the butterfly enclosure, and he ate all the watermelons and cantaloupes, in addition to biting the ends off a few peppers and munching on all the sugar pie pumpkin flowers. Everyone needs to eat, but he really took the wind out of my sails this summer. I’m still feeling salty about the butterflies (though I’ve spotted a bunch more caterpillars out in the parsley patch- which the raccoon has ignored, thus far), and I’m sad to not get to try any of our melons. I’ll have to step up my game next year, and try caging the plants they seem to enjoy.

So, crop-wise, it’s felt like a bit of a wash this year. As usual, though, our flowers are really crushing it. All the native plants have been thriving in the weather, and we’ve had a lovely display every day. Right now, the new england asters are starting to bloom, and their gorgeous purple flowers pop even more against the yellows of the goldenrod, which is also beginning to bloom. The pollinators are out in force all over those, as well as the joe pye weed, echinacea, black-eyed susan’s, blanket flowers, cappuccino rudbeckia, obedient plants, and sunflowers. And, while not native, the zinnias this year are also blowing me away. I grew a few rows of them in one of the raised beds, and they are covered in pollinators and birds every day. Every morning, a group of goldfinches swoops in and rips the petals off, revealing the seeds which they dine on. And, in the evenings, we see hummingbirds flocking to the zinnias, nasturtiums, and native coral honeysuckle vines.

There’s been plenty of other pleasant visitors to the yard this season. I’ve spotted hummingbird moths, lots of different bees, like the native (and endangered) american bumble bee, ladybugs, and other pollinators, like black swallowtail butterflies, monarch butterflies (now on the endangered species list), soldier beetles, american snout butterflies, and ailanthus webworm moths. The webworm moths don’t have the cutest name, but they are really pretty, with orange, white, and black markings. I’ve never seen them before, and it was exciting to spot them on the joe pye weed this year.

It always feels like such a win to spot new (to me) insects and pollinators enjoying the native plants I’ve set up in the garden. I know, every time I step outside and take a tour, that I’ll see something interesting and beautiful. Hopefully, your own gardens are having an interesting and beautiful season as well. Happy gardening!

There’s a lot in bloom and looking snazzy this week: zinnias, black-eyes susan’s, pokeberries, marigolds, joe pye weed, lantanas, cappuccino rudbeckias, autumn joe sedum, and northern sea oats.


Break Out the Binoculars: I Think I See Autumn!

1 Reply
September is THE time for new england aster and goldenrod. Our yard is a blaze of yellows and purples.

We’re about a week into September, and it’s been deliciously nice out: sunny and in the 70s for almost a week now. Usually, our Septembers here in Central Ohio are pretty toasty still. We likely won’t have any frost for another month, but it does finally feel like autumn is in sight. The leaves on the cottonwoods are starting to turn a golden green, the hum of the cicadas is waning, and the days are starting later, with the sun setting earlier each night. They are little signs, but for a fall-lover like myself, the utopia of a Midwest Fall is almost here. I can feel it!

Out in the garden, our sedums are really starting to bloom. The salmon pinks of the autumn joy sedum, and the magentas of the autumn fire stonecrops are bursting, and absolutely covered in bees, stocking up on these last flowers of the season. The aster, goldenrods, blanket flowers, and black-eyed susan’s are still flowering away, and some of my favorite native grasses, like little blue stem and switchgrass, are starting to throw up seeds, the long green grasses lighting up with deep oranges and reds.

The tallgrass prairies at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park are a wash a brilliant colors, with pollinators dancing around every petal.

We took a trip out to the largest metro park in the state, Battelle Darby Creek, to check out all the gorgeous tall grass prairie plants in bloom. There were more bees and monarch butterflies than I could count, hopping all over the goldenrods, ironweed, prairie dock, tall coreopsis, and tickseed sunflowers. And the tall peaks of the big bluestem grasses were softly floating along in the breeze. It was a gorgeous afternoon. The park is a big spot for bird-watching, and we always see lots of interesting wildlife there. Though, the largest stars have to be their herd of bison, which we saw lounging around in a muddy watering hole. The herd had a few babies this summer, and they were keeping close to their mothers as they all bathed in the afternoon sunshine.

Another local park, Prairie Oaks, is a sea of gorgeous big blue stem, swaying in the late summer breeze.

Visiting that park is always an inspiration for the garden. I know I’ve spoken in the past about how 40% of the US was once covered in prairies, and now only about 1% of that remains. Since learning about the importance of prairies for the ecosystem, I’ve changed my whole thought process in my garden. I garden because enjoy the process of doing so, and the beauty of living amongst the plants, but my garden exists to help give a space to the creatures around me so desperately in need of a home, and food. It’s why I use no pesticides in my yard, and why we added a pond, don’t mow every week, and have removed quite a lot of our lawn to make more room for flower beds. Wildlife really matters to me.

And, since much of the area where I now live, in Central Ohio, was once a prairie, called Darby Plains, I have aimed to include many plants in my garden that would have once lived here before the area was filled with farms and housing developments. At some point, I need to sit down and make a list of everything that I have growing here, but it’s quite a mix of natives, perennials that I just really like (such as my beloved peonies), the vegetable and herb gardens, and pots of annuals. All of these plants play an important role in the garden. The non-natives, like the sunflowers, basil (which I let flower after I’d harvested my share), and the stonecrop all provide food for the local pollinators, squirrels, and birds. Variety isn’t just the spice of life for us humans- insects and animals like a range of food options as well.

Our autumn joy sedum is absolutely covered in bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. It’s an amazing perennial garden, requiring very little maintenance or watering.

Aside from helping to provide habitat for the locals, and something nice to look at for myself, many of the plants I grow serve another purpose: I can harvest them for use in dyeing fabrics and fibers. So many common plants and trees in our yards can be used to make colorful dyes, like marigolds, dandelions, acorns and oak leaves, walnuts, and sunflowers. If you’re interested in learning more, I highly recommend the book Harvesting Color by Rebecca Burgess, or by simply picking my brain for a bit.

I added quite a few little blue stem plants to the gardens this year. It’s a native grass, and a perfect addition to the beds. It stays fairly small in height, about 2-3′, and in the late summer, the blades of grass throw up pretty seeds that sway in the wind, with green blades of grass that turn fiery red for the fall and winter seasons.

Currently in the yard, I have queen anne’s lace, madder root, goldenrod, pokeberries, marigolds, sunflowers, coreopsis, echinacea, tickseed, hardy hibiscus, walnuts, maple trees, and I’m sure I’m forgetting others… Anyway, I’ll harvest a few bits of each to ply with here as the weather continues to cool. Adding different metals and materials to the dye bath changes the pH of the water, which changes the colors of everything. It’s fun to play with- the colors you expect aren’t usually what you end up with on your fabrics. For example, queen anne’s lace, with its white flowers and green stems, gives off a lot of yellows, oranges, and browns, depending on the pH of the water. Things get rather “science-y” pretty quickly, (I think that’s the technical term), but it can be a lot of fun to experiment.

Also, I like the idea of using natural colors, from plants that I grew, to dye yarn that I’ve spun up myself, to then knit or weave into an item that I can wear. The whole process feels a bit magical to me, and is one I look forward to at the end of each summer, and throughout the fall.

These black hopi sunflowers are beloved by myself and the pollinators. Once they finish flowering, I’ll use some of them for dyeing, and leave the rest for the birds to snack on.

The cooler weather has also sparked some motivation for me to finally get out and do a bit of weeding and clean up. As I mentioned, we’re probably a ways off from our next frost, but a few of the annuals in the deck pots were looking quite shaggy. So, I went out and cleaned up the deck a bit. I took out the spent zinnias and added them to the compost pile, and I planted out the last of the little blue stem grasses I’d started growing from seed earlier this year. Late summer/fall is a great time to plant perennials and native plants and seeds. I wouldn’t start any bulbs quite yet, but I did add a few purple prairie clover plants to the newest front bed, and I plan to add in a few more grasses out back, like native switch grass, and more big blue stem along the fence.

I also cleaned up a few of the sunflowers, that were finished blooming, and had been knocked over by the high winds and 4″ of rain we had from Hurricane Ida at the start of last week. I removed the flower heads, and set them out for the birds to enjoy, and the plants were tossed under our deck for the critters around the pond. The stalks will hollow out as it cools, and solitary bees use them for their homes.

I was standing on the deck the other day, when I saw this morning glory vine in one of the shade beds. I have no idea how it got there, but I removed the thing to a pot on the deck. These vines take over FAST, and can be hard to get rid of, but the flowers are quite nice. So, if I can control it in a pot, that seems the best possible scenario.

Things are warming up just a bit this week, but it’s only going to be in the low 80s, so I plan to get out to move around a few perennials in the back yard, and continue The Great Tomato Harvest of 2021. The larger Druzba tomatoes I’d planted are not quite doing as well as I’d hoped, but the little San Marzano’s have exceeded expectations. I should have enough here soon to start canning tomato paste. I finally harvested the last of the potatoes and carrots, and the green beans are still prolific, to say the least. I’m looking into planting some cover crops in the beds this fall… maybe some hairy vetch (which totally does not sound like a thing someone would want to possess) to help add nutrients back into the soil and keep the weeds out this fall. I’ve never actually messed about with cover crops, since I use our compost for the veggie beds, but I may see try it out this year to see what all the fuss is about. I can nearly always be talked into planting something, after all.

Anyway, hope things in your garden are thriving and that you’re having nice weather to get out and enjoy the fruits of your labor. The next month or two (in my area) is the last burst of outdoor gardening for the year, and I’m excited to get out to play before the frosts hit. Happy gardening!

Tales From The Monarchs

Leave a reply
There’s quite a lot blooming in the garden, like these lettuce flowers, coral honeysuckle, goldenrod, new england aster, black-eyed susan’s, blanketflowers, cranesbill, autumn joy sedum, sea oats, and sunflowers

Lately, I feel like I’ve almost been more excited by the visitors we’ve had in the garden than the plants and trees that live there all the time. Maybe that’s because it’s been too hot to really enjoy the yard for more than the five minute bursts I’ve had, racing out to harvest tomatoes before retreating into the sweet sanctuary of the air conditioning. It feels like it’s been months since I’ve been able to sit outside, and properly experience everything that’s growing. I miss lizarding out on the deck.

The entire summer has felt blazing hot and miserable with very few breaks. I’m not handling the weather terribly well, though, a little warm air shouldn’t make me complain when so much of the country is battling devastating wildfires and hurricanes. Even the tornadoes that we usually see haven’t occurred here this year, which is odd, now that I think about it. And, while we’ve had some flooding and drought conditions, our crops and plants are mostly hanging in there.

Our loofah vines are starting to flower. I planted the seeds back in June, and the vines grew very quickly. The flowers, once pollinated, will start growing loofahs, that I’ll dry and be able to use in the shower. Score!

Anyway, enough wallowing. As I mentioned, we’ve had quite a lot of wildlife visiting and moving into the garden lately. All but one of the monarch butterflies, which I didn’t expect to see until just about now, have already hatched. We’ve had an even mix of males and females, and I was able to release them all, happy and healthy. They will likely go off to make the next generation of monarchs, and that group may be the one that starts the migration back south before fall temperatures drop off here in Ohio this fall.

It’s such a joy to meet them when they break free of their chrysalises. It usually takes a few hours for the butterflies wings to fully stretch out and dry, and then they will fly off to the woods. We have quite a few late summer flowers around for them to enjoy, natives like new england aster and goldenrod, and other perennials like autumn joy sedum. Most of the garden is still blooming away, but it’s important to have plants that bloom into fall for the monarchs and other pollinators.

Marcus the Monarch hatched last Friday, and spent some time on the sedum before flying off in pursuit of lady monarchs.

A visitor that I’ve enjoyed a little less have been the squash bugs on our pumpkin vines. The bugs look a little like stink bugs once they’ve grown up, and they will take out squash, pumpkins, and cucumber vines if left unchecked. The bugs usually arrive in June, and will spend the summer on the underside of squash plant leaves, where they will lay tiny little brown eggs, which hatch in around 10 days.

Once the bugs hatch, they start munching on the plant leaves, sucking out the sap, which causes the leaves to yellow, brown, and then die. While the babies, called nymphs, will die after a frost, the adult squash bugs are able to shelter and make it through the winter temperatures, to lay the next years generation of villains.

On the left are some squash bug eggs on the underside of a dead pumpkin leaf. The right picture shows a group of the little nymphs, munching on the pumpkins before I let forth a battle cry and started spraying them with soapy water.

So, they aren’t great guests to have around. Fortunately, they are very easy to spot, and take care of, without having to resort to pesticides which would also kill off the good bugs that eat them and, of course, would cover your yummy veggies in poison. If you do happen to spot some on your plants, remove any dead or dying leaves and other debris. And a simple spray bottle, filled with liquid dish soap and water will kill the bugs on contact. Now, your plants will be free of squash bugs and squeaky clean.

The monarchs chrysalis is actually clear, so when they are about ready to hatch, it’s really easy to tell!

Out in the rest of the garden, I managed to spot a little black swallowtail caterpillar on the carrot leaves. I moved it into the butterfly house with some fennel and the monarch chrysalises. I was so excited to spot this one- usually by this time of year, I don’t see many swallowtails floating around the yard, but they’ve been out and about more now than earlier this summer. The carrot crop I planted was the swallowtails favorite crop to lay eggs on this year. I’ll have to plant more again next year, for the butterflies, and for us. Those carrots were quite tasty!

Our newest black swallowtail caterpillar

Next to the raised beds, the wildlife pond is still doing its thing. I introduced you to Stanley the Frog in my last post, and now, we have a second frog, that we’re naming Stan Lee. (The names are a play on a 30 Rock reference that’s so obscure it’s hardly worth mentioning). Anyway, Stanley and Stan Lee hang out together on the rocks around the pond in the late afternoons, and are helping control the local mosquito population. I hear them singing ballads in the evenings. While they hop into the water, hiding under the plants and brush nearly every time I try to take a picture, I’m hoping to identify their species. They look an awful lot like northern green frogs, but they don’t sound like them. I’m stumped, but determined to figure out what they are!

We’re supposed to have some more rain in the coming week, with slightly cooler weather. I hope to get outside a bit to do a little work. A few beds could do with some weeding, and I’d like to pick up some stone to finish edging our newest bed in the front yard. I also have a few more seeds I’d like to start: some prairie dropseed grass for said front bed, as well as some purple prairie clover. Hopefully life cooperates!

Happy gardening!

The female monarchs, especially, are super vibrant and colorful. I feel lucky that we’ve been able to help this group of butterflies safely make it to adulthood.

And suddenly, rain!

Leave a reply
The reds and oranges of these coral honeysuckle, nasturtiums, marigolds, and zinnia just scream summertime, to me.

It’s a rainy morning today. Actually, it’s looking like the whole week may be pretty rainy. After the extreme heat and thunderstorms we had last week, things are pretty water-logged, but at least I don’t have to go out to water, or weed. By this time of year, my motivation to do much of anything in the garden has waned. In my defense, most of my energy outdoors is spent picking veggies and herbs now-a-days, and by the time I have everything washed, blanched, peeled, diced, dried, and into the freezer or pantry, I’m pretty spent. The green beans and paste tomatoes, especially, are really demanding this month. Whose idea was it to plant so many this year anyway?!?

Our hungry little monarch caterpillars are going to town on the milkweed as they finish growing.

Up on the deck, our monarch caterpillars are starting to move into the next phase of their little lives. Yesterday, two of them formed their chrysalises, and the remaining cats are very close to leveling up as well. They really mowed down the milkweed plant I had in the butterfly house with them (as expected), but it’s always such a wonder to watch them grow up as quickly as they do.

Some of the lettuce in the garden bolted in the heat, but I let it keep going so it would flower for the pollinators. Aren’t the dainty little flowers pretty?!

The plants on the deck seem to be enjoying the heat and humidity this year. We have a third pumpkin growing beneath a lounge chair, and the rest of the flowers and herbs are still looking happy. Our ‘ever-bearing’ strawberries have started producing fruit for the second time this year, and they are even tastier than the first batch back in June. The three pineapple plants I started this year are also looking well. It’s still wild to me that you can bring a pineapple home from the grocery store, pop off the top, peel back a few leaves, and then plant the thing to grow a new pineapple. The process takes a bit of time, but still, I’m growing pineapples in Ohio. That’s pretty awesome.

The wee, baby pumpkin, hiding under my lounge chair on the deck.

Out in the rest of the garden, the summer season is definitely not nearing its end, but things are starting to shift. The cottonwood trees won’t start turning gold for another month, but the late summer flowers are starting to take over. Our goldenrods, joe pye weed, and new england aster have finally reached their full height (which is taller than I am), and the aster is starting to flower. The blanketflowers and some of the smaller grasses, like little blue stem provide a gorgeous fiery red and orange contrast to the tall, green plants behind them. I love the effect of having these prairie plant gems around the garden, and each provide important resources to the pollinators which are out and about in the late summer season.

Carnivorous plants seem like something that belongs in the jungle someplace, but these pitcher plants are actually native to our area. I started growing this one in our pond and it’s been happily munching away on mosquitoes as it grows in the water.

In garden-adjacent news this week, I am finally applying to become a Master Gardener. This program is something I’ve been interested in since I first heard about it, but the timing never worked out quite right. This year, I’m going to go for it. The program starts over the winter, with 50 hours of coursework covering a variety of horticultural topics, like botany and plant pathology. I’m really excited to learn more about the science of plants, soil, and the critters around the garden. After the classes are finished, the real work begins, with 50 hours of service at different community garden locations around the county. Once I have my certificate and become official, there will be more volunteer opportunities and I’ll be able to inflict (or share, depending on the audience) my new-found knowledge with others.

A few days ago, one of the cooper’s hawks that lives in the woods behind our house stopped by onto the deck for a visit and dinner. The whole yard went eerily still as this big lady sent all the other birds into hiding.

I’m really looking forward to process, and to learning how to better serve the life growing in my own yard, as well as being able to help out in the gardens around the city. Gardening has become my favorite past time (when the heat index isn’t over 100 degrees), and I’m itching to learn more. Also, maybe if I’m distracted by the coursework this winter, I’ll have less downtime to plant too many seedlings. Anything could happen, right?

Hope that, if it’s summertime in your area right now, things are growing well. Happy gardening!

The Rise of the Monarchs

Leave a reply
Some of the pretty summertime native plants and wildflowers are in bloom this week: swamp milkweed, anise hyssop, queen anne’s lace, new england aster, coreopsis, black-eyed susans, joe pye weed, and cranesbill

Happy August, everyone! August is usually our hottest month here in Central Ohio, but it’s hard to imagine it getting much warmer and humid than it was in July. We finally had some rain the other day, and the thunderstorms cooled things off a bit. I sprang into action to weed, tie up veggies, and deadhead a few of the annuals. I know these nicer temps won’t last long.

The daily green bean haul is getting out of control!

We had some exciting news last week in the garden. A friend who also helps to raise monarch butterflies had a bumper crop this year, and needed some assistance. She gave us ten little eggs, which have now all hatched. They start life as the most wee little creatures, but seem to double in size just about every day.

Monarchs life cycles kind of happen like clockwork. The heat and humidity will slightly impact the speed at which they grow, but for the most part, it’s pretty easy to track how long each will take to move from an egg, to a butterfly. Once the eggs hatch, the monarch caterpillars start munching on milkweed leaves. Milkweed contains a toxin that is poisonous for most animals (and humans) to eat, but monarchs contain a special protein in their bodies that keeps them safe. The caterpillars only eat milkweed plants, and this is why it’s vitally important to provide them access to native milkweed species in your garden (if you live in an area where you have monarchs!).

A few of the newly-hatched monarch caterpillars. They are hard to spot when they are this small!

As the caterpillars dine on the milkweed leaves, they grow, and quickly! As they bulk up, they shed their outer layer every few days, by molting. They will do this five times, growing larger and larger. Their antennae become longer, and their white, black, and yellow stripes really come in brightly. They have pretty cute little black feet, too, all the way down their bodies. Once they’ve made it to their fifth instar, (their fifth molt) the caterpillars are ready to form a chrysalis.

The caterpillars can crawl quite a ways to find the spot they’d like to utilize for this next step. Since we keep ours in a mesh butterfly house, they typically crawl up to the top of the enclosure, and then they form a little silk net to hang from. They shed a final time, and then form their chrysalis, which looks lime green with gold rings. While in this stage, which usually takes a few weeks, the caterpillars actually liquify inside of the chrysalis and then transform into butterflies. The shell of the chrysalis is clear, so as the butterflies form, you can actually see them inside. When they are close to emerging, you’ll be able to see the pretty black, white, and orange colors, and you’ll know it’s just about time!

This past week finally saw some much-needed rain. The pokeberries, pumpkins, bay laurel, cornflowers, hardy hibiscus, and lettuce were definitely pleased!

Once the butterflies bust out of their shells, they hang from their feet and pump hemolymph (a substance like blood) into their wings to stretch them out and once their wings dry off, which takes a few hours, they are ready to fly away for a snack and to make more butterflies. It’s a fascinating process to watch and one that I feel lucky to enjoy every summer.

In addition to our pollinating friends, we’ve recently received quite a few visits from a far more wily critter: a racoon. Based on the number of vegetables and fruit this little trash panda has been consuming, I’m shocked that he’s even able to scale our 6′ privacy fence. Every few days, he waddles up onto the porch for a night of wild partying and debauchery. He seems to have developed a taste for our peppers, ginger, and strawberries, and he’s not at all impressed by my arrangement of the deck pots. After each of his visits, I have to right the deck pots, and move them back into position.

The poor pumpkin carnage

I’d taken all of this pretty well, up to this point. I like that my garden doesn’t just belong to me, and I enjoy sharing it will the local wildlife. However, last week, the little bandit took things a step too far! We have a few pumpkins growing in the little patch on the deck, and our little friend decided to partake of the smallest one. On the plus side, at least we know they must be tasty little pumpkins! I hope to get a picture of the raccoon at some point. He must have quite the bowling ball belly going on with all the treats he’s been enjoying this summer.

Our freshly-ripening pumpkin- keep off, little friend!

As summertime charges on up in our hemisphere, I hope your garden is looking well, and that you have some time this week to sit back and enjoy it all! Happy Gardening!

A Whole New World, Garden Edition

Leave a reply
The deep red hardy hibiscus plant is in bloom again! I love it against the pink echinacea and light purple anise hyssop.

I was away from the garden for a bit, and when I returned, it felt like a whole new space. So many flowers were in bloom, and the near constant rain we had helped add a ton of growth to all the plants. The gardens are looking pretty jungle-ish now, all sprawling with lots of green leaves and summertime color.

The hostas, garden phlox, sunflowers, bergamot, cranesbill geraniums, blanket flowers, penstemon, zinnias, borage, cornflowers, day lilies, and coneflowers are still blooming their little heads off, and the blazing star, joe pye weed, jacob’s ladder, hardy hibiscus, and black-eyed susan’s are now also flowering. Mid-summer in the garden seems to be the time for bold, bright color. Even our amaryllis bulb is about to flower again! It lives in doors all winter, usually blooming a little after New Years’ Day, and I plant it out in the summertime to recharge. I can’t believe it’s about to flower for the second time this year. I must be doing something right!

Met this little grasshopper while watering the pumpkin patch.

With all the flowers blooming away happily, lots of pollinators have been visiting each day. The gardens are packed with happy bees, butterflies, moths, and other pollinators. The black swallowtail caterpillar I rescued from some carrots a few weeks ago made its chrysalis and hatched yesterday. She has gorgeous black wings, tipped with yellow, orange, and blue. I found a second caterpillar on the carrots over the weekend and escorted it into the butterfly enclosure to grow up safely as well. The monarchs should also be visiting the yard soon. I’m keeping an eye on all the milkweed plants for eggs and caterpillars. They always find their way here!

The newly-hatched Black Swallowtail Butterfly <3

In food news, it’s been a bumper crop for all of our herbs. I’m continuing to harvest chives, chamomile, mint, basil, oregano, parsley, dill, fennel, thyme, lavender, and rosemary every week. Some of the herbs are dried, and some I freeze. Many of the things I use most, like basil, I’ll probably bring indoors once it cools off this fall to keep growing. Being able to enjoy fresh herbs year-round is a treat.

Our sugar pie pumpkins are growing! I am SO excited!

When I left, the pumpkin plants were flowering and the vines were winding their way around the deck. They are now taking over the chaise lounge and grill, and we have three baby pumpkins growing! The pumpkins are already about 5″ tall, and still green. I am day-dreaming about the pumpkin pies the husband will be making us to enjoy this fall and through the winter. It seems a bit odd to be thinking about fall crops when it’s in the 90s outside, but at least something enjoys this hot summer weather we’re having!

Somewhere under the green beans lives a trellis. These pole beans are growing wild in the heat and rain! The lettuce growing next to the beans is also a bit unruly. We can’t eat the stuff quickly enough!

Out in the raised beds, I picked our first tomato this weekend! It was one of the san marzano paste tomatoes. The sweet italian pepper plants have also been going wild- I’m pulling off peppers a few times a week now, and dicing and freezing them for use in the family salsa we make up and can each fall. This weekend, I also harvested our garlic, which is now drying in the pantry. The lettuce we have is growing larger than I’ve ever had lettuce grow before- it’s absolutely delicious, and has made for some excellent salads.

The jacob’s ladder flower is in bloom! She lives in the shade, by the wildlife pond. I love her dainty, pale purple flowers.

I also pulled up our first carrots and a leek. The rest could use a little more growing time to bulk up, but the first ones look quite tasty and will be used in some salads this week. It was really nice at the grocery store, just breezing through the produce section- everything I’d normally buy, we have growing in the garden!

Harvest Day! I pulled up the garlic, a tomato, some peppers, red potatoes, a few wee carrots, and a leek. Yum!

Finally, I harvested the first of our red potatoes this week. That was really exciting. It’s my first year growing potatoes, and wow, I will definitely be doing that again next year. What an easy, no maintenance crop. I popped the starters in a grow bag about four months ago, and that was it. I didn’t water them much, no fertilizer, no pruning or trellising… nothing to it, just some dirt and sunshine! To harvest, I just dumped out the bag on a mat, and grabbed my spuds. The first bag had a nice little bounty, and I have three more bags to go through this week. I washed them off, and set them in the pantry to store. Can’t wait to try them out!

The black-eyed susan’s are always so cheery, and the bees love them!

This week looks to be another hot one, but things are drying out a bit. I have some weeding and pruning to do to tame the jungle a bit. I may fertilize the tomatoes and peppers again here and I’d like to do a little clean-up around the pond (the creeping charlie is starting to creep a little too much). It may be about time to harvest the bulk of the basil for some pesto-making as well. That, or I’ll just sit down next to the anise hyssop and bergamot to listen to the bees for awhile.

Hope your week is enjoyable and relaxing. Happy gardening!

The zinnias, blazing star, cranesbill geraniums, hostas, and garden phlox are putting on a real show!

The Art of Summertime

Leave a reply
The deck is really looking extra colorful lately, since the zinnias, german chamomile, calendula, and lantanas are in bloom.

It’s almost July, which doesn’t seem possible. I started this blog in January, when the gardens were sleepy and cold. Things couldn’t look, or feel, more different outside right now. The summer heat and humidity continues, and the garden is full of life. The yard is a blaze of color, with bees and other insects working hard. The bees seem to take a break in the midday heat, but in the mornings and evenings, they are pollinating away, bouncing around from flower to flower. I’ve spent some time this past week just sitting in the grass watching them. It’s fascinating and peaceful observing them “at the office.”

The bees are really enjoying the echinacea this summer.

We had a few days with nice, cool weather earlier last week. The husband helped me dig out the rest of the sod for our final project of the season: the new pollinator bed in the front yard. Once the lawn was out, I planted up all the flowers and grasses that I’d been growing on the back porch and mulched the space up. I am pretty pleased with the final results. There’s little bluestem, prairie dropseed, prairie blazing star, prairie smoke, nepeta, two types of thyme, candytuft, and some daisies. The space will have color and interest all year long, and provide shelter and food for the local pollinators. Most of the plants I put in are native to our area, and everything in there is a perennial, so the bed will continue to grow and thrive without much of any work from me.

I plan to add a little rock border, and then the new bed will be all set. Sayonara, sod!

In the back yard, all of our crops are filling in nicely. The lettuce is about finished for the season (it just gets too hot here in the summertime, and it bolts), but the other veggies seem to be enjoying summertime. Our peppers, tomatoes, carrots, beans, pumpkins, leeks, potatoes, parsnips, and garlic seem to be growing well. Actually, I was able to harvest a few garlic scapes this weekend, which I am really excited to eat. All of the herbs are looking nice, too. I’ve been harvesting parsley, chives, oregano, mint, and basil every week, and each are still growing strong.

Found this little lady cruising around in the kitchen, so I escorted her outside.

Out in the wildlife pond, the cheap little solar fountain I’d bought decided to stop working. I replaced it with a bubbler under the water, and so far, I’m liking that even better. It really moves the water around, and hopefully the sound will attract more birds to the space. There’s lots of spiders around now, probably enjoying the bugs that pop by for a drink. I saw some really pretty green orchard spiders, hanging under their webs. Spiders kind of give me the heebie jeebies, but I respect their work ethic, and, as someone who also likes to weave, I am pretty enamored with their gorgeous webs.

The new little bubbler, gurgling about under the sticks and stumps.

I’ve been keeping an eye out each day for some of my favorite butterflies, the black swallowtails. I’d seen a few flying around, but hadn’t found any eggs yet. This morning, while watering the veggies, I happened to spot a tiny little black swallowtail caterpillar! I quickly escorted it into our mesh butterfly house on the deck, with some dill to eat. The butterfly house lives outside, and the caterpillars I move into it are protected from predators. They grow up fairly quickly, especially in warm weather. I’ll track this ones progress as it grows up and then forms a chrysalis before transforming into a butterfly. The whole process usually only takes a few weeks, and is definitely the highlight of my summer.

This black swallowtail caterpillar will grow into a much larger caterpillar, with green and yellow stripes, before forming its chrysalis.

It’s ironic- the garden looks great and so much is in bloom right now, but there’s very little work to be done, for me, at least. The plants and flowers have grown to keep weeds out (mostly), and I don’t have any more planting to do at the moment (though I’m sure I’ll come up with something). It’s warm and sunny, but I can relax. And, actually, that’s kind of the point. I do really enjoy the planting and the work- I’m a process person. However, being able to slow down for a bit to watch the flowers grow, and all the birds, insects and critters that I share the yard with, is a real treat. Hopefully you are able to take some time out this week to sit back as well. Happy gardening!

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Summertime

Leave a reply
The swamp milkweed is in bloom: my absolute favorite smelling flower. It’s light and sweet and an absolute pollinator magnet.

We’ve officially made it to summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere. While I love and adore all of the flowers this time of year, and watching the bees and other pollinators buzzing around the yard, summer is not my most favorite season. The heat and humidity make me cranky, and the planting is about wrapped up for the season, so my excuses to buy more flowers are harder to come by.

Luckily, I managed to squeak in a pit stop by the garden center last week to grab a few stray goodies for the new hellstrip bed out in the front yard, and for a corner out back that needed a little something. I grabbed a hollyhock for some height, and a few more verbena, anise hyssop, nepeta, and thyme for the pollinators to enjoy. The bees found the hyssop and thyme before the plants even made it into the ground, so I would say my selections were a success!

Some of my recent acquisitions: nepeta, growflow lemonade thyme, verbena, and anise hyssop

Out front, digging continues on the new hellstrip bed. I think the project is going to be a little smaller than I’d originally intended, at least, for now. A combination of rain showers, hot days, and arthritis joined forces to keep me from getting out there to dig things out last month like I’d planned. The husband helped me rip out most of the sod last week, and tomorrow, once the heat breaks, we plan to finish the bed. I have lots of plants waiting to go in: the little bluestem, prairie dropseed, prairie blazing star, and some thyme that I grew from seed, as well as the aforementioned plants I nabbed last week, and some creeping thyme and prairie smoke that I picked up awhile ago. Those poor plants need to get into the ground already!

The rest of the garden seems to be thriving. We’ve had a lot more in bloom since my last post. The hostas opened up, the borage and milkweed are all blooming (and smelling heavenly, I might add), the nasturtiums, bee balm, anise hyssop, verbena, and echinacea (coneflowers) are all blooming like wild, and the lanceleaf coreopsis, tickseed, cranesbill, marigolds, blanketflowers, and creek sedge continue to flower away. That’s not nearly everything in bloom at the moment, but it’s a nice highlight of what’s going on today.

I harvested our shallots last week! They are inside now, drying, but I’m dreaming of enjoying them in some beef burgundy. Mmm…

The bachelors button flowers that I grew from seed look to be about ready to start flowering this week, as do the zinnias. It’s amazing how much they’ve taken off in the past week or so. I feel like they all put on about a foot of growth. Out in the raised beds, the bush beans and climbing beans are all Hulking Out. The climbers have runners taking over their trellis. I would say we may see some beans growing here before too long. The tomatoes are still recovering from the over-watering they received the other week when it stormed, but most of the plants have fruit growing already. And, our pepper plants are stuffed full of flowers and peppers already. I’m so excited to see what they taste like- I’ve never grown Sweet Italian Peppers before.

Baby peppers!

Since I can’t seem to help myself, I started some hopi sunflower and loofah seeds the other week. The loofah seed hulls are notoriously tough, so I soaked them for about a week and clipped the outsides of the seeds with nail trimmers. Once they started to sprout, I planted them in a pot on the deck. They seem extremely happy in the heat and sunshine, and are growing quickly. I’ll have to get a support in the pot for them here to make sure they have something to climb, and to eventually, hold up the loofahs that will grow. I am probably more excited than any one person ought to be to ditch the plastic mesh poufs I use in the shower for some homegrown loofah sponges.

Everything else on the deck has been flowering and growing away happily. I’ve been harvesting basil weekly, and am enjoying the weird (for Ohio) plants that I started this year, the pineapple, ginger, banana tree, and lemon tree that I nabbed last season. The deck crops are also thriving, and we’ll be harvesting potatoes here in a month (ish). The sugar pie pumpkin seeds I planted took off immediately, and I’m slowly winding the vines up the railing along the deck. We had planned to do some work on the deck this summer, but with wood prices being so high (when you can find the materials at all), I think that project will be one to deal with next year. So, the pumpkins, madder root, and pokeberries can hide the wonky deck railing for another season. If you can’t fix it, hide it. That’s the expression, right?

Butterfly weed, coreopsis, swamp milkweed, verbena, cranesbill, and hostas

Before I sign off for the week, I wanted to put a PSA out there for everyone with bird feeders and bird baths. An illness has hit our local bird populations in Ohio, and, I’d assume, surrounding states. It’s seriously harming the birds, damaging their eyesight and ability to fly. The US Geological Survey reports that blue jays, starlings, robins, and grackles seem to be the most impacted, but the disease may be harming other birds, as well. Scientists aren’t yet sure what this disease is, but we’re all being advised to take down our bird feeders to keep the disease from spreading. Additionally, make sure to clean our your bird baths with a solution of 10% bleach to 9 parts water, while wearing gloves. If you happen to see any sick birds, contact your nearest wildlife rehab center. In Central Ohio, that would be the Ohio Wildlife Center at 614-793-9453. Hopefully we can all help keep this awful disease from spreading and it goes away soon.

Have a nice week! I give you permission to sit back and enjoy these first few days of summer, instead of crawling around your beds, weeding. Happy gardening!