Category Archives: Pollinators

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

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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.


Hot Garden Summer

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The black swallowtail butterflies are back!

It’s been a minute, so I thought I’d give an update on how the garden is progressing this summer. Since setting things up this spring, I haven’t done a ton of gardening these past few weeks. I don’t plant things that require much maintenance, and also, it’s summer, which means, it’s too hot to even think about doing outdoorsy things. Our June temperatures were higher than average, with less rainfall than normal, which continued into July. In mid-June, we experienced the highest dew point ever recorded in Central Ohio, and the heat index was over 110 degrees F. After a few weeks with little in the way of rainfall, this past week, we had several days with flooding rains, breaking records for the wettest day ever recorded.

Switching from drought conditions to flash floods, with above-average temperatures, would typically do quite a number on a garden, but things are actually doing pretty well here in the yard. Our backyard is situated on a slope, so we didn’t end up with a flooded basement, and the plants weren’t totally drowned. I have been watering almost daily up until this past week, and the crops all seem to have weathered the wild weather so far. We haven’t had a ton in the way of harvest yet, but things are coming along.

Potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, and a baby lemon

The snow peas did very well, and I finished harvesting them last month. Our next batch of lettuce took off in the past week, and I’ve been clipping leaves every day. The parsley, basil, oregano, dill, nasturtiums, and mint have also been ready to harvest. I usually go snip a few leaves every week.

We have a few peppers starting to grow, but the majority of the summer crops (tomatillos, tomatoes, watermelons, cantaloupe, beans, and cucumbers) are just flowering at the moment. The potatoes and onions should be ready in the next week here, though. And, excitingly, we have our first lemon growing on the lemon tree! The tree was packed with flowers a few weeks ago, which smelled divine. Only one has made it to fruit stage, so far. I probably go look at it five times a day. I have a lot of emotional investment in this wee lemon. I want some home-grown citrus!

When I’m not stalking my lone lemon, I’ve been glued to the wild bergamot which started blooming the other week. The flowers are native to Ohio, with gorgeous pale-pink flowers that look like fireworks. This plant (also known as bee balm) is a must for a pollinator garden in the Midwest. The flowers are covered in bees and butterflies!

Also in bloom right now are the giant purple hyssop, black-eyed susans, echinacea, prairie blazing star, coreopsis, blanket flowers, and milkweed. All of these are pollinator magnets, hosting caterpillars, and providing food for bees, butterflies, beetles, hummingbirds, moths, and others. I love walking around the yard, watching the bees enjoying all the flowers. And all these native plants add so much color to the garden.

One of the borders, with lavender, coreopsis, echinacea, bee balm, and blanket flowers in bloom.

Hopefully your garden is also bursting with activity right now (more in the way of flowers and pollinators, not so much you, having to do things!). Happy gardening!

It’s Almost Fall

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Black eyed susans, mums, and new england aster: some of my favorite fall flowers

While this weekend was toasty and hot, and I spent most of it hiding indoors, fall will be here in two more days! The weather is supposed to cool off quite a bit this week, with high temps falling from the upper 80s to the 60s. I believe I’ve mentioned my obsession with autumn before, am I am over the moon with excitement for some cool days to get out in the garden. We’re still probably a few weeks away from our first frost, but the trees behind our house are definitely yellowing. The sycamores and cottonwoods are filling with golden leaves. Soon, the fiery oranges and reds of the oaks and maples will be here. I cannot wait!

The sun is rising later and later each morning. Here’s a recent view of the backyard.

Things are wrapping up in the raised beds. I harvested the last of the leeks this weekend (potato leek soup is on the menu!), and we’re nearing the end of the tomatoes. I’m planning to de-thaw all the tomatoes I already harvested/peeled/diced/froze this year to cook up some tomato paste for the salsa my family cans each October.

Also on the agenda this week will be to plant out the vetch seeds I bought as a cover crop in the raised beds. The hairy vetch (seriously, that plant needs a major rebranding) will keep the weeds out of the beds until it’s time to plant again, and the crop helps to add nitrogen back to the soil, as well as helping to keep the dirt from eroding (which is not a large concern in a raised bed, but a good thing to know for general planting). So, next spring, when it’s time to plant again, in addition to the compost I’ll add to the beds, the vetch will have been working on giving the soil a great boost. The next round of plants will have plenty to eat. Happy soil = happy plants!

The last of this years’ leek harvest

In addition to the raised beds, I have some clean up work to do with the deck pots. Quite a few will be coming back in doors for the winter, like our lemon tree, pineapples, and loofah vine. But some, like the marigolds, will be composted and I’ll clean up the pots to add back to the pile under the potting bench for next year. I had more potted plants on the deck this year than ever before, and was pretty pleased with the end result. A few did not perform as expected, like the cannas. I bought the cannas last year, and they grew a few feet tall and flowered. I overwintered the tubers in the garage, and planted them outside this spring once it warmed up again. They both grew, but are much shorter, and only one re-flowered. I may simply put the entire pot into the garage, and not take the plants down to the roots this year to see if that helps them grow better next year.

One of our canna plants finally flowered. I love these tropical flowers!

Out in the rest of the flower beds, fall is definitely on its way. The late summer/early fall plants are all looking quite snazzy, and I’m taking stock of which perennials I’d like to split next spring. As usual, the lamb’s ear are out of control, and could be divided multiple times. I mentioned last week about expanding the borders to make room for more plants… I think I may start working on that this fall. As long as the ground isn’t frozen, there’s really no reason to wait. Finally, I have a tree that I need to move. This spring, a maple tree started growing next to the compost pile, quite close to the house. It’s a terrible spot for a tree, and while it’s relatively small still, I’d like to move it to the front yard. That will be a great spot for the maple to grow up and I know there aren’t any gas or electric lines that I need to worry about having had 8-1-1 out to mark things last winter.

I’m growing four pineapples. The oldest (second from the right) was started in the winter, and the newest (farthest on the left) got going about a month ago. They look pretty scraggly at first, but quickly settle in and start growing. Next year, we should have pineapples to enjoy!

That will all pretty much wrap up my fall gardening chores. I used to do a lot more cleanup- cutting back most of the perennials to the ground, but now I’ve learned to let them be for the wildlife. It’s not too tough a sell: put off your work until the spring and relax! Also, the locals will truly be grateful. The debris from our perennials helps house and feed insects, birds, and other wildlife. Winters are tough on all these populations with resources scarce. So, leaving some flowers heads and plant stalks for the birds to enjoy really makes a huge difference. Plus, a lot of these plants are really pretty in winter. The soft browns of the grasses and plants look quite pretty against a backdrop of snow.

Stan Lee the Frog has been out every afternoon, enjoying the warm rocks around the pond.

Anyways, that’s my plan for the rest of the year here. The next few weeks should be pretty nice around the garden: cooler days, with lots of sunshine to sit out and watch the bees buzzing around the aster. I’m excited to start canning up all the veggies I grew this year, and to just enjoy all the sights and smells of fall as the weather turns. Hope things in your garden are slowing down so you can relax and enjoy all of your hard work. Happy gardening!

Our native plants and other perennials have been Grand Central Station for the pollinators lately: more bee species than I can count, wasps, moths, and butterflies. I feel like I see something new every time I’m outside!

Looking Back and Making Notes

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I’m loving all the color in the garden at this time of year from the sedum, false indigo, blanket flowers, and the aster.

We’re about a week out now from the official start of fall, but summer is still doing its thing. It’s back into the 90s, with higher humidity, and it’s been a minute since we’ve seen any rain. I ought to be out watering in the mornings, but at this point in the season, my motivation is seriously waning. Most of the crops I planted have either been harvested already, or they are having their last hurrah.

I’ll haul quite a few of the deck pots back into the house once it does finally start frosting at night again, but some of the annuals, like the german chamomile and the zinnias, just had this one season, and I’ll compost the plants once the cold air wipes them out. A few things, like the basil, I let flower, and once they throw out seeds, I’ll harvest those, dry them, and save them to plant next springtime.

The marigolds around the tomato beds are looking quite happy.

I’m trying to keep my Seed Starting Plant Spreadsheet up to date with notes about how everything did, and which varieties I’d like to try out next year. For the most part, I’m pleased with everything that I planted, but there were a few duds. The san marzano paste tomatoes have been growing like mad all season, and every day, dozens more seem to ripen for harvest. But the larger druzba tomatoes that I’d tried never really seemed happy. I did harvest a few, but most of the ripened tomatoes were split. We had an awfully hot summer, with temps about 10-15 degrees higher than they really like, and there was more rain than usual, with flooding rains happening often. Next year, I think I’ll try a different variety and see if they fare a little better.

Most of the native seeds I tried out using the winter sowing method (seeds planted in milk jugs and left outside all winter) did really well. The prairie blazing star, little blue stem, and swamp milkweed, especially took off and were able to join their brethren out in the flower beds. I plan to try this method out again for seeds that need a cold, stratification period. Mother Nature does all the work, and no grow lights or watering are required (unless it’s seriously dry where you live).

Our dahlias are finally starting to flower, and there’s been lots of activity around the garden, with sulfur butterflies dancing around the aster and bees galore buzzing around the sedum.

Another top performer were the herbs that I’d planted. For example, the borage, basil, thyme, and parsley, to paraphrase Tom Petty, “grew up tall, and they grew up right.” The parsley can withstand a bit of cold, so I’ll let that keep growing in the deck pots and the raised bed. The thyme should be a perennial in our area, so I’ll plant out what growing in pots now, so it can continue to grow. Some may end up in the kitchen for easy harvesting throughout the winter. I’m envisioning some delicious roasted chicken dishes on cool nights, starring fresh sprigs of thyme… mmmm…

In addition to the aforementioned plants, I’m really pleased with how well the flowers did that I’d started from seed, like the “Happy Days Marigolds,” and the “Berry Basket Zinnias.” They were easy to start growing, and took off quickly in the cold frame this spring. I plan to grow both again next year. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds have been enjoying the zinnias almost as much as I have, and any plant that gets that much attention from pollinators is a winner in my book.

Late summer and early fall is a great time to check out the local population of black walnut trees. Their gorgeous leaves start to lighten and then turn to gold.

The rest of the garden seems to be doing pretty well still. Our aster and goldenrod are really the stars right now, flower-wise. I’m seeing lots of different moth, butterfly, and bee species on each daily. Next year, I’m thinking about widening the plant border a bit that wraps around the entire back yard. This way, I’ll be able to fit a few more plants in between the tall asters and goldenrods and the grass. I feel like some more perennials, like black-eyed susans, coneflowers, little blue stem, anise hyssop, and sedum would do well. I have all of these in the garden already, and the pollinators love these species. Also, they each provide some interest all year long, so even in the winter, they will offer something nice to look at, in addition to providing more food for the birds to enjoy.

Another expansion project that would actually be wise to start here shortly is the pollinator bed that I’d planned to add in this year on the side of the house. I have a wildflower seed mix that I want to plant, and prepping the bed now so I can drop those seeds this fall would be very well timed. With so much grass to remove, a nice way to tackle this space will be by covering the grass with some cardboard and dirt, through a method called Lasagna Layering. The carboard and dirt block out the light, killing the grass. And by keeping the area wet, the organisms that grow in the compost will help break down the cardboard, leaving me with soil for the plants. Plus, by not actually doing any digging, I won’t be disrupting the organisms and critters that currently live in the soil. I’ll go into more detail about the benefits of “no dig” planting in another post, but as someone with arthritis, I know I feel gleeful any time I am encouraged not to dig a hole in the ground.

Anyway, that’s all I have for today. Hope that your garden is thriving, and you enjoy the end of the season of summer. Happy gardening!

The cranesbill, maidenhair ferns, and pokeberries are all looking happy in the shade gardens this year.

Break Out the Binoculars: I Think I See Autumn!

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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

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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.