GARDEN 5-8

By superadmin | May 8, 2025 |

“If you’ve never experienced the joy of accomplishing more than you can imagine, plant a garden.” Robert Brault

Spring is moving on way too fast. My fern leaf peony has already bloomed and the others are in the tight bud stage. I still have some pretty tulips, but some are done. Iris is all buds and a few starting to bloom. I don’t have my hanging pots filled yet or my big pot or porch pots, but a morning run is in the near future for a visit to the local green house. I still don’t have my wing wall bed cleaned out yet. I dug out all of my grape hyacinth and threw them away. I am sure that there will be more as it is impossible to get all of the teeny tiny bulbs that are bunched around the main bulb. But I have declared war on them and plan to keep up the fight. They are pretty, but ever so invasive. I have them in the middle of my iris, daylilies and scattered in the yard. Enough is enough.

We sure are enjoying the oriole’s this year. I had 5 fighting for the jelly treat at one time. I don’t think I have ever had more that a pair before. The males are somewhat of a bully. They try to keep all the others away. I not only have the oriole’s, but have a pair of smaller tan birds that like the jelly treat as well. I’m not sure what they are but might be one of the thrush family. I noticed a speckled breast on one of them. I have a couple of hummers, but not a lot of activity out of them yet. The little Carolina wren is active in the back yard, haven’t notice her going to the iron tea kittle yet. I do enjoy hearing her sing as I go about my yard work. Barn swallows are back in their nest under the bay window for the third year. They may get disturbed this year as we are getting ready to do some work on that end of the house. Hope they return after the shake up. They are so fun to watch during their flight looking to catch bugs. I enjoy them following me around on the lawn mower as I shake up the bugs for them. It doesn’t take much to entertain this country girl.

We hear so much about planting flowers and shrubs for pollinators in our gardens. Nearly every time the article will suggest a butterfly bush. Do think twice before you do as they can be very invasive. Like so many of the beautiful plants that we have gained from outside the U.S.A., this is another one that is beautiful, attracts butterflies, but is a threat to our native plants. In order to let gardeners have their cake and eat it too, sterile varieties have been developed (meaning they don’t produce viable seed. If your heart is set on a butterfly bush, look for varieties such as ‘Lo and Behold’ and ‘Flutterby Grande’.

If you already have a butterfly bush, one way to help keep it from spreading is to dead head the spent blooms. I had a couple butterfly bushes a couple of years ago. I was never comfortable with them after learning about them being invasive, so I cut them down and treated the stump with Tordon. I will not be buying the new variety either as even though they say that it don’t produce viable seed, I think we were told the same story with the Bradford pear. Now the Bradford pear is showing up everywhere. There are so many native plants to use for the pollinators, just do your homework first, before you purchase something that is not native. So many of the fancy, non native plants are not an attraction to the native pollinators and we do need to put the pollinators first or we many find out too late that they are gone. If we don’t attract pollinators, we will not have fruit or vegetables that produce us with food. Look how few honey bees we have now compared to time past.

We will be thinking about sweet corn before long and the common pest is the corn earworm. The adult is an inch long tan moth that lays yellow eggs on leaf undersides in the spring. The caterpillar larva has alternating light and dark stripes that can be either green, pink or brown. The first generation feeds on the leaves. Eggs of later generations are laid on corn silk and feed on the silk and the kernels at the tip of the ear just inside the husk. A helpful control is to squirt half a medicine dropper of mineral oil into the tip of each ear of corn after the silks have wilted and have begun to turn brown. Do not apply the mineral oil earlier as it can interfere with pollination. Plow the garden in the fall to kill over wintering pupae. I learned this idea from a gardener at a Master Gardner tour in Jefferson City one year. He grew veggies for some of the elite restaurants in the city. Now if I could keep the raccoons out, I might have so roasting ears to harvest.

I planted my kale that I had started indoors a couple of weeks ago only to have a critter to eat them off. It had to be a smallish critter as I have a fence around it that was to keep the dog from digging as she had already done in my lettuce bed. We don’t have any other garden planted as it has been too wet to till. My tomato plants are saying they need planted and I hope for a better crop than last year as I want to can tomato juice. We have been hitting the stash from 2023 pretty hard hear lately. Home made tomato sure hits the spot when one is under the weather following the crud that has been going around. Very thankful for what we do have. I did plant 2 hills of cucumber to grow up on the cattle panel fence at the end of the garden and noticed that both hills have sprouted. Hope nothing happens to them and they produce a good crop as we really like fresh cucumbers in salads and just sliced to go with a meal. Especially during the warmer season as a cucumber is refreshing on a hot day and makes for a good snack as well.

I have really enjoyed my dogwood tree this year. It did not bloom last year do to the last freeze, but it has made up for it this year. I have to make a special walk to see it as it is among the big white pines, but when I do, I am reminded that this is only one of Gods great pieces of the beauty that is given us. All you have to do is look around and you will see Gods handy work as it is everywhere. Get outside and enjoy the beauty of spring and thank God for allowing us to enjoy it.

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