Park Seed’s Flower Day

So, yesterday Mom & I went to Flower Day at Park Seed in Hodges, SC (near Greenwood). I was very excited when I found out that Mom & I were going to go together. My mom, who gardened with us when we were children, is a great gardener and great mother. Further, she is a SC Master Gardener and she teaches Jr Master Gardener classes as well as 4-H events. Mom & I went down and explored the experimental gardens and got to see new plants such as SunPatiens (think Impatiens that like sun, but with different numbers of petals); they were very pretty and available in a variety of colors. Mom & I spent 5hrs at Park Seed exploring and looking at plants. I got to visit some of their shade gardens to get ideas for our property since we do have 10 fully mature pecan trees on our property … hence Lots of shade! I loved the lamb's ear that they had growing in the shade gardens; it had lush large soft leaves. We also bought a Vibe-full of plants to bring home and add to our own gardens. I’ve been reading a lot about cottage gardens lately and planning some for our house since it is an older house (built in the 30’s) and I find the cottage gardens particularly attractive! For the cottage garden, I got coneflowers, coneflower seed, lavender seed, blanket flower seed, salvia, and astilbe. I also got some butterfly weeds to attract butterflies for pollination as well as a new rose (I Finally got a Peace rose … I’m super excited!) For the shade gardens, I got some blue mouse ears hostas (yes, those of you who know me know I LOVE hostas) and ‘brownies’ heuchera (coral bells) to add some more color to the shade gardens. I also got a few more plants, but I won’t bore you with all the details! But, needless to say, Mom & I had such fun that we’re planning on going again next year and hopefully we’ll be able to go to the Master Gardener preview day since I’ll hopefully have my Master Gardener’s license by then.

Happy Berry Farm Date

So ... it's official ... it's Summer!! Yesterday morning we went and had a 'date morning' and picked 5lbs of blueberries at the Happy Berry Farm. It was a lot of fun, we got some exercise, and best of all ....we have 5lbs of blueberries to eat and share. It's father's day today and we had both Burl's and my fathers over for lunch today ... and we had ice cream with fresh diced peaches and/or blueberries for dessert. So, not only was our trip productive, but yummy as well ... and we got to send a pound of blueberries home with Burl's parents, my parents, and my grandmother as well. It's nice to be able to have fresh blueberries And be able to share them with family. :)

Bunnies bothering your garden?

I still haven't figured out what was eating my garden last year (the groundhog living under the shed, random bunnies, or wild turkey), but it hasn't been the problem this year (yet... crosses fingers!) that it was last year. I lost all of my cucumbers (both veggies and plants) as well as later in the season all the watermelons & pumpkins (both veggies & plants again). So this year, we moved the garden up next to the house, but I'd been reading about plants that were good for keeping bunnies at bay. So, if you have bunny problems, you might think about planting some of these plants (Thanks Better Homes & Gardens for the list!):
Full Sun Plants:
--Allium (6" to 6' pending variety, perennial)
--Anise Hyssop (2'-4', perennial)
--Baptisia (5', perennial)
--Bee Balm (1'-3', perennial)
--Cat Mint (1'-2', perennial)
--Daffodils (1', perennial)
--Daylillies (2'-6', perennial)
--Foxglove (2'-6', perennial; can also be planted in part shade)

And for Shade or Part Shade, you have Astilbe (1'-3', perennial) as well as daffodils will also grow in the shade.

Granted, if we're talking about near your plant & veggie garden, most plants will be full sun as the best place for your garden is full sun. Granted, the first two summers, we planted our garden in part sun as I didn't want to put it in the front yard; we found a good compromise by placing it along the side of our house though which is mostly full sun and at worst part sun, but still not directly where passing cars will view it. So, we found the best of both worlds!

One note of caution, however. Be careful with foxglove (digitalis) if you have small children or curious dogs as it can be highly toxic. Digitalis is used for making digitoxin (Digitalin), a heart medication but ingesting the plant may cause unwanted effects in a small child or pet, sometimes leading to death. Once our puppy grows up a bit, we may plant foxglove as it has beautiful flowers, but for now, I think its best to not be in our yard as our pup has chewed on most of the flowers (except the roses) in our yard in the 2wks we've had her! Also, if you do grow foxglove, you may want to leave the seed heads in the fall to attract birds (the seeds aren't poisonous to the birds and it makes a great autumn treat for them!)

It's going to be a beautiful weekend here in upstate SC this weekend and I'm hoping to get some of the plants that are still potted into the ground in one of my newer beds. This requires re-tilling the ground (which hopefully it will dry out today so I can do that as well as preparing a few places where there were trees when we moved in a couple of years ago (which getting tree roots out of this area has been challenging ... we even tried using the truck to pull them out after we'd dug and used the ax on them 2 yrs ago). So, we'll be trying again soon and hopefully with better luck!

Happy gardening to all, and don't forget to call your dad (or have them over for a cookout as we're doing) this Sunday for Father's day!

Fragrant Plants for Zone 7

So, I've been working on expanding some of my gardens this year. These are some Zone 7 recommended plants:
--Dianthus (perennial)
--Sweet Pea (1'-3' dwarf or 4'-6'; some are perennial)
--Lavender (perennial)
--Sweet Alyssum (annual)
--Garden Phlox (3'-4'; perennial)
--Roses (perennial)
--Lilac (grows up to 20' tall; perennial)

Most of the perennials I have in a garden at the house. I love perennials & bulbs; they may not be as showy as annuals, but they come back year after year so you can depend on them. I have a rose garden, which is one of my favorite spots in the yard ... it has 5 roses around the border and is filled with dahlias. This spring, I planted an orange phlox variety (bare root) this spring ... I haven't seen it grow yet, but I'm not willing to give up on it after the peonies all sprung up this year even though I only saw two of them have any leaves last year and they were planted bare root as well!) So, my bare roots are teaching me patience. This is the first year I've planted sweet peas. I was actually surprised to see them come up after the seeds got 'misplaced' when my greenhouse toppled this spring ... but I found 6 small sweet pea plants chilling out in a couple of my gladiolus pots; So, I've relocated them to their own pots, and we'll see how they grow! :) From the list of perennials, I don't have dianthus or lilac yet. I plan on planting dianthus from seed next spring and the lilac I don't have a place large enough for so it will just have to wait! As for sweet alyssum, it's not my favorite of the annuals so it probably won't find a place in my garden, but that's simply personal preference ... maybe it can find a place in yours?

Off to read more about heirloom gardens tonight ... I'm sure I'll blog about those at some point...

Slugs ... Ewww!!!

So for those who don't know, I have a dog named Saber who I lovingly refer to as "a pet rock". He's quite lazy, which isn't really surprising since he was bred to be a lap dog (He's a Havanese). Anyway, when he came in one evening with a slug crawling up the back of his leg (giving affirmation to his longstanding nickname!), I decided that it might be time to find a better way to control the slugs in our yard. I had been picking them off and salting them, which kills them. But as most of you know, the slugs you see are only a small portion of the problem! Neither my husband or I drink beer so I started looking for another alternative. Reading in a book my in-laws sent my husband and I, I found out that an alternative to beer for slug baiting is Coca-cola! Now while they mention Coke by name, I'm sure that the off brands will work just as well as they say it is the acid in the soda that kills the slugs and that they're attracted to the sweet soda smell. So, I'm going to try this. One way they recommend doing this is by cleaning yogurt cups, cutting 1"x2" holes in the sides and placing the cup in a hole such that the holes are 1/8" above the ground. They recommend placing a terra cotta saucer over top to give some shade to the area as slugs prefer shade. So, I'm going to try this and I'll let you know how it works. And if it doesn't work, I might have to find some beer & more salt to use :-O Happy Slug Hunting!

Berry Season!

So as strawberry season starts to wind down (you can still get fresh farm-picked strawberries or pick them yourselves for about 2-3 more weeks), it means the beginning of blackberry & blueberry seasons! Blackberry picking season opens today at one my favorite picking venues The Happy Berry Farm in Six Mile, SC. And even better than blackberries are blueberries, whose season is predicted to open in two weeks on June 18th!!

Now, you can grow your own blueberries, but it will take a few years till your plants get big enough to have enough for two people, let alone a family. We have 9blueberry plants in our yard, which are growing but we will still visit Happy Berry this summer for more blueberries. We have 4 different cultivars of blueberries including Sunshine Blue, Tif Blue, and Tophat (can't remember off the top of my head the 4th). Blueberries are relatively easy to grow in full sun in zones 3/4-7/8, depending on the variety. There are some dwarf/semi-dwarf varieties (eg Sunshine Blue and Dwarf Northland) that only grow to be 3-4ft and can be container plants as well as full size ones. Full size blueberry plants grow to be 6-8ft tall at maturity.

A great summertime treat is fresh blueberries sitting on the front porch in the summer time with some sweet tea or lemonade is a great evening treat! Also, a great summer date is going out to a local berry farm with your significant other and picking berries together ... its a fun, cheap date that's not dinner & a movie. Can't wait to get picking! :)

What are some Zone 7 shade loving plants?

This is a question that I've gotten several times over the last few months ... so I thought I'd post my response here. Our shade garden has 3 azaleas, 2 heuchera (coral bells) and two different varieties of hosta. It also has lilly-of-the-valley, which is lovely, white, and dainty in the spring as well as a hydrangea.

Enjoy!

Shade Loving Plants (filtered light (e.g. under a tree) or against a northern or eastern wall)

• Ajuga
• Astilbe (Red, white, lavender, pink)
• Aucuba (Evergreen shrub; appx. 4ft x 4ft)
• Azaleas (full shade to full sun)
• Beareded Irises (Full shade to full sun)
• Begonias
• Bleeding Heart
• Brazillian Fireworks (Porphyrocoma; Annual)
• Brunnera (most varieties will grow in zone 7)
• Camellia (large shrub growing up to 12 ft tall, but ½ as wide)
• Coleus
• Caladiums (annuals unless dug up and brought in for the winter)
• Coral Bells (Heuchera; Shade/Part Shade))
• English Primrose
• Ferns
• Forget-Me-Nots (6-8” tall w/ small blue flowers)
• Hardy Cyclamen
• Hardy PerennialLillis
• Helleborus (Lenten Rose; blooms late winter)
• Heuchera (Coral Bells)
• Hosta
• Hydrangea (can be planted in full sun to full shade in SC)
• Impatiens (annuals)
• Holly (multiple varieties)
• Hydrangeas (will grow in full shade to full sun)
• Ivy (Be sure to put this in a sunk container or get a non-invasive variety)
• Lavender (Delphinium; grows in full shade to part shade; Zone 3-7)
• Lavatera (Annual)
• Lilly-of-the-valley
• Liriope (Be sure to put this in a sunk container or get a non-invasive variety)
• Madagascar Jasmine (Stephanotis; climbing vine w/ white flowers)
• Mountain Laurel (flowering shrub)
• Pachysandra (ground cover; needs boundaries due to underground runners)
• Pittosporum (evergreen shrub or small tree; says zone 8-10, but will grow in SC in shade)
• Polka Dot Plants (hypoeses pyllostachya; annual if left outdoors; perennial if dug up in winter)
• Rhododendron (Deep shade to part sun; flowering shrub)
• Viburnum (large evergreen shrub – grows 6-12ft tall)
• Violets

Periwinkle (Vinca) will also grow in full shade, but due to its invasive nature (you can get vinca that is not as invasive), I left it off the list. If you would like invasive vinca, feel free to visit my yard :) We have lots that was planted before we arrived!