Gardening New Year's Resolutions

It's been a while since I posted on here.  Once the cold weather starts to creep in and I can no longer be outside gardening I go into my winter slump.  I am also extremely busy at work in the fall, so that keeps me away as well.  So I hope no one was worried about me, I'm still here!   I do post more often on my Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/cheeseheadgardening 

So the new year is coming upon us, time to start thinking about resolutions.  I've been thinking about my garden resolutions.  I don't want to be to unrealistic.  I really could thin out my hosta collection, but am I really going to do that??????  NO.  So this year I am going to try to commit to starting some of my seeds earlier.  If you follow my blog or my Facebook page you know I LOVE Japanese morning glories.  The problem is that they usually start blooming for me late summer about the time I go back to work.  So I want to start them inside early this year so I can enjoy them earlier in the summer.

What are your gardening resolutions?

Late fall is great time to trim smoke bush

Smoke Bushes are very popular with the most popular being the Royal Purple Smoke Bush.   They add a great purple color to any landscape.  The Smoke Bush I planted by my garage annoys my husband to no end.  I told him when I planted it that it would only grow to be about 5 feet.  Well little did I know that every summer it would grow to over 9 feet tall.  So to please him I have to let him get out the loppers once a year for a massive hair cut.  I have found the best time to trim the Smoke Bush is in late fall.  When trimmed in late fall the Smoke Bush will still flower in spring.  Then it grows another 5 feet over the summer and the whole cycle begins again.

Smoke Bush can be cut almost to the ground in late fall.

Tiger Lily Stem Bulbils

Looking to add tiger lilies to your garden?  Well an easy way to is to find a friend who has tiger lilies and is willing to give you some of the stem bulbils.  Bulbils are usually mature in fall.  If you can see roots starting to form at the bottom of the bulbils then they can be harvested.  In Wisconsin you can take them right off the plant and plant them into the ground (about an inch or so).  You can also put them in a paper bag and place them in the refrigerator for about a month.  Then you can start them inside for spring planting.  The plants I have started from bulbils usually take about 3 years before they actually produce a flower.

What's blooming 9-5-2013

Shrub Rose

Helianthus

Ligularia

Brown-eyed susan

Helenium

Hibiscus

Black-eyed susan

anemone

Morning Glory

Milkweed Aphids

I was walking by my swamp milkweed plants the other day and noticed them covered in something yellow.  Upon closer inspection I saw the yellow "dots" moving, and realized that I had milkweed aphids.  

Rather than use chemicals to get rid of them, I prefer to spray them with the water hose.  It knocks them off the plant, but keeps any monarch eggs safe.  I have also used a cotton swab to remove them from the plants.  If the aphids keep returning you can also take a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to them.  It is tedious but kills them on contact.

Tuesday Night's Storm

Tuesday night our area was hit pretty hard by a storm.  We lost power at our house for about 36 hours, but there are still people without power today (Friday) as I write this.  We did not have any storm damage at our house.  We thought a big branch broke off of our tree, but it turned out it was a branch from a neighbor's tree who lives two houses away.  It was eventually confirmed that 5 tornadoes came through our area that night.  Thankfully their were no fatalities from the storm.  I can honestly say I have never seen lightning like it before in my life.  It was continuous, like a flashbulb just kept going off over and over again.

What to do on a rainy day? Road Trip!

It's been pretty cold and rainy here in Wisconsin.  So since I couldn't work in the yard, I decided to go on a road trip on Friday.  It was quite the road trip.

I started out at Solaris Farms in Reedsville.  It's peak daylily season right now, and if you are a daylily lover it's a can't miss!  Over 3000 different daylilies available.  Plus it's great just to be standing in the middle of thousands of blooming daylily.

Next we made our way down to Heritage Flower Farm in Mukwanago.  I had never been there before, but had mail ordered plants from them in the past.  They have tons of heirloom and native plants available (perennial, annual, and trees/shrubs).  It rained the whole time we were there but it was worth it!

While at Heritage it was recommended that we check out Mileager's.  Mileager's was a huge garden center with annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, miniature garden accessories, and so much more.  There is even a cafe in case you get hungry.

Heritage Flower Farm

Heritage Flower Farm

Mileager's

Mileager's

Mileager's

Small peek at Solaris Farms

Solaris Farms

Making a Moss Garden

Last week I decided to try to make a little moss garden.  I have seen them in various gardens and I really like the looks of them.  Fortunately I have mosses growing in various locations throughout my yard, so finding the moss was easy.  If you don't have moss there are online nurseries that sell mosses, and I have seen some at local nurseries too.

First I start with a container. I filled it with compost, and then went to gather my mosses.

Then I placed the mosses throughout the container and added a miniature hosta and a rock.

I also decided to add a miniature pail with a sedum in it to my pot.  Then I made sure to water it very well, and put it in a very shady location until the moss took hold.

And the creature eating my hosta scapes is........

I came home from a weekend up in Crivitz, Wi only to discover that my hosta scapes were eaten all over the yard.  Front yard, back yard, side yard....it didn't seem to matter.  Of course this is the summer I decided I was going to be very diligent about collecting hosta seeds and planting them in the winter.  I was even hand pollenating certain hostas I thought would make good combos.  So much for that plan.  I knew by the height and how the scapes were eaten that it was a deer.  Not everyone believed me.  I do sort of live in the city.  I had a seen a doe in our yard earlier in the spring, and it's not uncommon to see a deer in our area.  One year a big buck walked right down the middle of our road without a care in the world.   There also used to be a nice sized woods not to far away, but last year a landscaping company decided to cut down the entire woods and grind it up into mulch.

So my dad came over and set up a trail camera for me, so I could catch the culprit in action.

Here are pictures of the deer damage to the hostas.

Here is one of the culprits caught on the trail camera.

Guess it's time to get out the Liquid Fence or the Bobex if I don't want them eating more than just the scapes.

Orienpet Lily 'Garden Pleasure'

If there is one lily in my garden that is garnering a lot of attention it is the orienpet lily 'Garden Pleasure'.  Before it even bloomed people were asking me about it.  So why is it getting so much attention?  It's because it has grown over 7 feet tall.  Orienpet lilies are a combination of a Oriental and a Trumpet lily.  So not only are they beautiful, but they also have a great scent.  Mine is growing in a location against the house that always seems to have spotty sunlight, so I can never get a really good picture of it.  So you'll have to use your imagination a little when viewing the pictures.

Bloom Day Post - Juy 10th, 2012

Martagon Lilies

Spiderman Daylily

Early blooming helenium

Turks Cap Lilies

Kisses Like Wine Daylily

Web of Intrigue daylily