The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Hip, Hip, Hurrah. Fall is in the air with wonderful times at tail gate parties, football games, Halloween, and county fairs. Fall is also a great time to be planning for our flower gardens with winter annuals such as pansies, and other winter annuals. However, certain perennials will be more showy in the spring if we plant them now so they will form a bigger root ball, thus a stronger, healthier plant. Let's look at the following suggestions: 1. Cone flower which is readily available now at...
The lazy, hazy days of summer are coming to a close, and fall is upon us. Where has this year gone? With much anticipation for football season, Labor Day, county fairs, Halloween, back to school, and cooler temperatures, we turn to the garden with our creative juices flowing. Some of us like to have perhaps a theme either in our choices of color, or in the plants we choose. For instance, red, white and blue for Labor Day, or deciding to redo a bed with nothing but herbs or perennials. One good...
I heard some neighborhood children talking about school books and school uniforms and thought, "where has the summer gone"? Really. When the school bells ring, the summer is technically over and so early. And what do our flower beds tell us about their state of affairs? Most are mature with tall zinnias, cleome, phlox, cosmos and salvias in large drifts, just begging to be cut for flower arrangements. If there have been any deaths, all we need to do is re-sow the zinnia, cosmos and cleome; fill...
Well, Happy Fourth of July and here's to all the festivities, family and food. As I have said in past articles, we as Americans should go out of our way to show our patriotism. I am proud to be a United States citizen and try to do my part to express this sentiment in quiet ways, such as planting a red, white and blue flower bed for everyone to see. I display the flag out in front of my home, and always have family and friends over for an old fashioned barbeque where dessert is a sheet cake...
June not only is the month for brides and weddings, but the first month of summer. Children are out of school, families take trips to the beach and our new graduates find themselves floating on cloud "9". For those of us who are not caught up in all this joy and celebration, we can spend free time sprucing up the garden scene, adding swathes of colorful flowers across our home landscape. This month is a great time to complete our summer garden schemes made in the dead of winter. Or if you are...
What has happened to this year? It is almost half gone and what else is half gone are all the winter annuals we have enjoyed since at least November or December. We need to begin planning this month for summer replacements for these flowers. The nurseries and garden centers have suddenly brought in huge inventories of flowering plants and shrubs. Also, there are great selections for our herb lovers, who want a head start by purchasing plants rather than waiting to germinate seed. Let's talk...
As we have heard all of our lives, "April showers bring May flowers", and hope this will ring true as I have enjoyed the low water bills from the City. If anyone tries to pull off an April Fools' Day prank, just go along with it and add that you are a fool for flowers. The garden chores should not be mounting if we have kept weeding on a periodic schedule; however, there are some of us who just turned our backs for a few weeks, and wake up to find the soil covered with winter weeds. Luckily the...
March comes marching in with the wind, where there may still be a slight chill, but one senses winter is over. By mid-March we can confidently plant begonias, certainly geraniums plus impatiens, while getting ready to say goodbye to pansies and dianthus with the next 6 weeks. Everything seems to be happening at once: the grass suddenly needs mowing, regular watering is needed, fertilizing is now a task, and weeding becomes a priority. It would be nice if family members would lend a hand. My...
February, in the gardening world, is a transition month from winter to spring. February is also a month of great expectation for things to come in the next garden cycle. But most of us associate this month as the month of love with cupid's arrows finding their mark on Valentine's day. It is this month that many have high expectations that this is the years they will create the best garden ever. Of course, garden beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think we can all agree with Fielding...
First of all let me wish all of my readers a Happy Happy New Year. This country has been through a lot, but I have always been of the mind, that if lemons come your way, do not despair, make lemonade. In spite of the prophets of gloom and doom, 2013 will soar with hope, new ideas, new inventions and a new commitment to making our world a better place to live. And that include beautiful gardens. January is the month of hope of things to come. A group wanted to visit my garden in the dead of winte...
The magazines shout that Christmas is near with colorful photos of tables groaning with turkeys, hams, casseroles, and fabulous desserts. Holidays in America and in the South do revolve around food and drink. And speaking of food, these make great gifts to neighbors, friends, and family. One such food gift would be Pesto which can be put in jars and the tops wrapped in gold foil with ribbons to match The recipe is simple, adding about 2 cups of fresh basil and blended in the blender with a good...
We are now more than a month into Fall and one of the busiest times of the year. Fall reminds me of family and friends with loads of fellowship thrown in. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. It is a time that family gathers at my farm in Dallas County for a wonderful reunion with between 17 and 20 souls, and all ages represented from one year old to those retired. It is a cherished time for outdoor treasure hunts, croquet tournaments, and just sitting around a fire pit under twinkling...
We have always heard in politics of an "October surprise". What can we come up with for a surprise on the garden scene? Whether you have a public garden, which I name as flower beds which can viewed by the public, or a private garden secluded behind a wall or privacy fence, there is always something we can do to gain this notoriety. Some ideas which gardeners have used that are somewhat whimsical and out of the ordinary are as follows: 1. Use hay bales in the back of the bed to raise up a group...
We are heading into the home stretch of 2016, and September can be a spectacular month for the garden. Many flower beds have that tired, fatigued and worn out appearance. And rightfully so, since the summer garden has been producing since late May. Between the stifling heat and daily rains which have left some areas soggy, the annuals need a facelift. Many annuals such as coleus, zinnias, and cleome, can be pruned back and with some liquid fertilizer, are ready for the second act in late...
With the summer slipping away from us, and school days about to begin, there is still plenty of time to refresh out gardens. Some of the summer blooming annuals and perennials will need cutting back such as Begonias, Cone flower, scabiosa, most daisies, Coreopsis, Canna lilies, Lilies of the Nile and Cleome, to name of few. Some will get a new lease on life and shoot up more bloom heads and bloom until end of September or later. If you have Dragon Wing Begonias and they have gotten real tall,...
I do not know about you, but the Zika virus has me nervous. And the first thing I want to do is to fumigate my yard, besides emptying any and all standing water. This means for me that I have to check after my sprinkler system comes on daily for water that may have collected in magnolia leaves and other receptacles. I was reading an article published in a gardening magazine, that we should be very careful when spraying insecticides in our urban yards. The United Sates bee populations have...
June is the month for graduations, weddings, family vacations, trips to the lake or to the beach or to the mountains. In other words, June may be the most fun month of the year. Maybe June is my favorite month because of my birthday. It seems that the older I get, the more time I allot to celebrate my birthday and it is truly getting to where I may be celebrating the whole month. We have had such glorious weather, that the weeding, planting and trimming tasks have been a pleasure. We all know...
Not too long ago, I became intrigued by May poles with all the ribbons, colorful flowers, and small children dancing around weaving the wide bands of ribbon into a basket like pattern. I read several articles on the history of May poles, and found in a magazine a step by step process for accomplishing the result. At a mechanic's shop, I was given a 8 foot long iron pipe with a 2 inch opening and took this potential pole home as if I had been given the crown jewels. My family was very inquisitive...
When the earth renews itself with a patina of pale greens, wherever one looks there is evidence of exuberant energy, and what we are viewing is nature establishing her glory. Gardens can be the sum total of our expressions of beauty, love and joy. What are we waiting for, so lets get started with April plantings so that April showers can bring May flowers. Much is heard today about organic foods, and many have asked me about organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are natural substances which...
What a month we have before us, with the Ides of March, Easter and the first day of Spring right upon us. In March our neighborhoods shimmer with spring flowering trees and shrubs along with bulbs bursting with such sweet fragrances. Hurrah for Spring. We also associate spring with spring cleaning in our homes. Well, we can also include spring cleaning in our flower beds. This will include raking away old soggy mulch, broken dead twigs, and sticks. If the last cold snap killed other plant...
The month of February reminds me of the phrase, a prelude to the future, your garden that is. With the hope of spring coming on March 22nd, we have turned the corner on winter. We can turn our dreams, hopes and wishes into realty if we start making plans now. Go out to the flower beds, and visualize your garden. This is always easy if your beds present a clean slate. After the hard freeze we had the end of January, there will be dead plant material drooping around the beds. Clean this out...
My, my how time flies. It seems only yesterday that I was waxing on about the January 2015 garden. This year, according to all of the weather procrastinators, we will be experiencing mild temperatures which may be record setting. However, do not let down your guard, because we will get some freezing weather which mandates protecting some of the more tender plants. If we still have begonias, or even impatiens, this is the category which will need a night time tarp while taking it off during the...
December conjures up such pleasant ideas, scenes and scents, that it is difficult to enumerate them all. Ideas of the past and present that include new uses of ribbons, greenery and ornaments. Mistletoe which used to be just hung with a single ribbon has now become this huge ball of glittery circles and strands of ribbon to the extent that one can hardly recognize the mistletoe with in. And perhaps forgotten in the shuffle, is that if someone stands beneath, then a kiss should be planted on...
November in the South can be summed up as "a good weather" month. The weather is good for going to ball games, hiking, traveling to places far and near and best of all, for gardening. Anything I have ever planted in this month, whether annuals or perennials, have thrived. Not too hot and not too cold, and in the words of the Three Little Bears, "just right". I have searched through the gardening centers and have noticed the Johnny Jump Ups (violas), pansies, and different varieties of dianthus...
Hoorah for fall, as it is now upon us. When we think of fall, we visualize strong color. Our garden color scheme can be jazzed up with yellows, golds, purples, and oranges through several plants other than mums. Find purple in lantana, along with yellows and gold. Lantanas do well in the fall and have few requirements besides sun and are drought resistant. Just plant, water in really well, add a tad of fertilizer and watch them take off. Marigolds, both the dwarf and tall size, have a rich...