Christmas Wonderland In Your Garden

We're about to have our first freeze tonight, but my flowers and garden are pretty well done. We always pick all the tomatoes right before the last freeze and put them down in the basement to finish ripening. We've actually had them last until Christmas several years.
Now it's time to turn my attention to decorating my yard and garden for the holidays. Outdoor Christmas decorations come in about every style you can imagine. I especially like the big Christmas Inflatables, but there are lots of lighted decorations, nativities and even solar lights to decorate your yard. Another great way to make your gardens look dressed up for the holidays is by using great holiday garden decor. Now is the time to start shopping and planning your holiday garden display.

Time to Dress Your Garden For Fall

We had some extremely hot days ending July and starting August. Flowers are starting to fade and the mums are getting ready to bloom. It's time to add some new elements to your garden to dress it up for fall. Dress Your Garden For Fall has some great tips for adding unique texture and color to your garden to keep it looking great right into winter.

I'm starting to think about planting some bulbs for those beautiful early spring flowers. There are some really gorgeous new tulips varieties and other bulbs that I think I need to get started shopping for. Next spring I'll really be glad I got that done!

Hot Summer Days

As July draws to a close, things are really getting hot here in the middle of the country. Some of my flowers are giving up on blooming (and the grasshoppers are getting fat on the rest). My beautiful pink primroses are basically stalks standing bare. I'm busy deadheading and pruning back some of the spring plants, but the purple cone flowers and black eyed susans are flourishing in the heat. The daylilies add bright spots of orange and the old fashioned tiger lilies add a big burst of orange with black spots. I love the way the garden transitions from one view to another as the season progresses. If I keep the faded flowers deadheaded - which I have to admit, I get rather lazy about - then there is a continual show of colors right into fall.
Besides the mums and ornamental grasses which will soon be ready for their show, I'm thinking of other ways to dress of my garden for fall. I think some colorful plants in containers with dried wheat or sorghum heads or even some interesting branches might make some great ways to dress up things when the summer flowers are finished. I'll add some pics when I get them together.

Welcome Guests With Flowers in Recycled Pots

I'm an incurable collector of junk pile finds and I love to find ways to incorporate them into my garden. The top arrangement is made up of an old rusty rake that I found and hung a welcome sign on the tines. I found the old rusty galvanized bucket in a ravine in the neighbors pasture and carried it home to use as a planter. I set it on the step going up to the front door.





This planter is by the back door. Don't know what the rusty old pot was used for - I found it several years ago. It doesn't have a bottom, but I just dug it down into the earth a little and I usually plant moss rose in it every year. I found the old hoe tool with a short handle here on the farm, and it was a simple matter to paint "Welcome" on it and stick it down into the planter. The rusty hen doorstop was a gift from a friend and adds a little charm to the arrangement.


Of course, these rustic arrangements fit right in with a 140 year old farmhouse, but they would look good in just about any garden. It's fun to come up with some pretty ways to show off your flowers in "recycled" containers.

My Mulberry Tree

I have a big, old mulberry tree in my yard. Not only does this tree make a great place for a shade garden, but with a bench addition, it's a great place to enjoy all the birds that nest in this tree. Among my favorites are the Western Kingbirds, a Mockingbird, and Orioles. Of course, the usual sparrows and blackbirds love the tree too. I also spot a lot of Bluebirds perched on the branches looking for insects.

The only bad thing about this tree is all the mulberries dropping all over the place right now! They are yummy and the birds love them, but there's more than enough for all as evidenced by the mess all over the ground. Don't dare sit on the bench without brushing them off of it!

Since the ground under this tree tends to be dry, I have to find shade plants that tolerate the dry conditions. I started some creeping myrtle a few years ago and it is filling in nicely. A couple of Coral Bells look really great this year and I plant some annuals in pots for added color. The annuals seem to do better in pots where I can keep them watered more regularly and the tree can't steal the moisture!

To read more about my mulberry tree check out my Squidoo Lens called Under The Mulberry Tree . There's more facts about the birds and a great Cherry/Mulberry Crisp Recipe.

Simple Water Gardening

Well, between the Kansas Tornado and then a trip to Kansas City to help my sister prepare for my neice's wedding, my prairie garden has been a bit neglected. The beauty of a garden planted with native plants is that it really doesn't take much care and other then a few weeds (not native beauties!) needing to be removed, it's really looking good. Of course, a wetter than usual start to summer has helped, too.

I've added a few simple water features to my garden and the one to the right is right outside my front door where I can hear the sound of the fountain inside the house. This was a really simple feature to set up. I found a long flat rock that fits across the back of the pot and holds the turtle spitter. In order to make a place for the plants to stand and hold some rocks I set a concrete block on its end in the pot and then used the front cage from an old fan that didn't work anymore (I'm an avid recyclyer, did I tell you?) and laid it face down on the concrete block. It's just a simple matter to place rocks inside the fan cage to cover it and to help anchor the plants.

The plants were pretty simple, also. I purchased a small chameleon plant and the other two reed-like plants were dug up from around the edges of our farm pond. Now, I know not everyone has a farm pond to dig up plants from, but if you live in an area where there is water and you would have access to water plants this is a great way to put plants in your feature. I put a small clump in a clay pot with some rocks or gravel in the bottom. When it's time to put up your feature for the winter, you can just dispose of the plants and save the pots for next year. You can also purchase water plants if you like.

You can overwinter your water plants if you have the space for a flat, under the bed type plastic storage container. I place it in a sunny window and set the plants into it and keep about 3" to 4" of water in it all winter long.

I also like to add a couple of goldfish to my water feature to help keep algae down and besides the grandkids love to feed them when they are here.

Use your imagination and look around for things you can use to set up your own water feature and enjoy the sound of the water during the hot summer months to come.

Kansas Gardening-with Wind, Hail and Tornado

"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his spendor was dressed like one of these."
Luke 12:27


Yesterday was one of those gardener's nightmares. The wind blew about 30-40 mph out of the south all day. I'm glad I'm going native on a lot of my plantings. Even though they were bent over and whipped all day long, they just pop back up and keep on blooming!


Last night the storms rolled through. I took this picture of the sky around 8:30 or 9:00. It was like the clouds were rolling in long separate rolls out ahead of the storm. The first tornado warning came about 10:30 - right after I had gone to bed. It wasn't in the form of sirens - no such thing out here! - it was a call from mother-in-law saying the sirens were going off in Abilene. That got my attention!


Spent the next couple of hours going from window to window and door to door with the radio going, listening to all the sightings from all around us. When it started hailing, I started praying. We only had a little pea sized hail and as bad as that sounded, I would have hated to listen to the baseball sized hail reported around us!


I look around this morning and can honestly say that I need to count my blessings. We had no damage here on our farm - even my delicate flowers look pretty much ok.


I wish I could say the same for other areas. We are about 12 miles from Chapman, Kansas and that small town was nearly destroyed last night. I grew up in this county, went to school at Chapman High School, my kids and a lot of my nieces and nephews attended that school. I haven't been able to go there yet, but they say the High School is heavily damaged, the Middle School is gone and many other familiar places are destroyed. So far no one that I know was among the injured.


Yes, I am blessed. We'll be heading to Chapman later today to see what we can do to help. Please keep all the people who have lost their homes in your prayers today. Thanks for letting me vent and share today.

"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble, He cares for those who trust in him." Nahum 1:7

Creating a Prairie Garden

The largest single ecosystem on the North American continent was the prairie. Nestled between the lush forests along the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, and stretching from southern Texas to southern Canada, America's prairie was a virtual sea of grasses sometimes taller than a horse. Closer to the ground, a carpet of wildflowers of every color and shape blossomed. Under it all was the rich, black soil that settler farmers tilled and planted into wheat, corn, beans and other crops. The eastern part of the range had more moisture and supported taller grass and a large range of colored flowers. As the region moved west less rain fell and there was more mixed grasses and less flowers. Only about 1% of the continent's original prairie still exists. There are many efforts underway to reestablish and protect prairie habitats.

I live just about right in the middle of that great grassland. Other than the fenced in pastures and the fact that you can still see for miles and miles in any direction, it is hard to imagine what it must have looked like 200 years ago.

I have a lot of traditional flowers in my gardens - things planted by past generations that have adapted well to the prairie and seem as though they were probably always here. Things like the peonies which are blooming magnificently right now, the iris, the tulips and daffodils, and annuals like petunias and zinnias.

However, sometimes it can be a challenge to keep some of those plants protected from the wind and watered enough and so a few years ago, I started collecting and planting native flowers in my gardens. The purple coneflowers nearly take over as well as the pink Missouri primroses. I have started a False Indigo plant that I dug up from our pasture along with a pretty little grass with little white flowers called, simply, white eyed grass. Some wood sorrel started a couple of years ago has started filling in nicely and last year I found and planted a beardstongue which is just starting to bloom. Even some patches of Little Bluestem Grass planted amongst the flowers adds to the beauty of it.

Below are some pictures I've been taking of some of the flowers I have blooming this year. I have identified most of these through the website http://www.kswildflowers.org/ This is a great resource as the flowers as listed by color as well as by name, so it makes it pretty easy to find and identify flowers that I find.

Beardstongue - dug up last year while it was blooming. I was really happy when it came up and bloomed so well this year.

Pink Primroses - always beautiful and very prolific - actually can be rather invasive, but I just fight them back into the areas where I want them and they don't seem to mind - just keep blooming for weeks.

This plant is called Moth Mullin. I found a few of them blooming in the pasture when I was checking calves last spring. Couldn't resist the pretty little white flowers with purple centers. They shoot up about 2'-3' tall and the flowers are about 1" across. It starts blooming at the bottom and the buds above open later - rather like a hollyhock. I found out that this one reseeds itself quite well and have had to be a little ruthless about taking out seedlings so that it doesn't choke out everything else. Growing in the pasture, they are contained by native grasses, etc., but in the garden where they could have free range, they come up everywhere! They're worth the extra work now that they are blooming.

Growing Grandma's Iris

I really love iris. I have always had a few iris in any garden that I have had anywhere. A lot of them were the old fashioned kind that were planted many years ago by some former gardener and they are still coming up and blooming every year. I like the idea that my iris will continue to live and give people enjoyment long after I am gone.
I now live in a farmhouse that my husband's grandparents had lived in. When I moved here, all the old flower beds were gone and nothing of his grandmother's flowers had survived. Or so we thought. It seems that she had once had some really beautiful irises growing out by the road, but after having been neglected and mowed off for many years none of them were left.
A few years ago, the local phone company laid all new lines (so we could have DSL internet) and had dug trenches along the ditches all down our road. One day, the next spring as I was mowing along the ditch, I looked down and there were little iris plants coming up! Well, of course, I stopped the mower and dug up those little plants. I transplanted them into my flower beds and these lush yellow iris in the pictures are the result of that project.
I love the fact that these hardy little rhizomes had lain deeply buried in the ground for years surviving until they were brought to the surface by the trencher. Every year when they start to bloom I think, "These are for you, Grandma!" Even though I never had the chance to know her, I think she would be pleased!

Tips for Growing Clematis

I've always thought I live in a pretty harsh environment here on the prairie to grow clematis successfully. However, some gardeners have good success with them, so I have planted several in different areas of my garden. Although, I have lost a few, I do have a few that are finally starting to grow well. I have collected 6 tips for growing success with clematis.

1. Start with the soil. Clematis prefer slightly alkaline soil, so do a soil test. If your area is on the acid side your clematis will benefit from the addition of some lime. Dig a nice deep (18") and wide hole. Work in a lot of moisture holding compost. Set the young plants deeply, so that the first two leaf nodes will be underground. This will encourage the plants to send up more stems and you'll have a thicker plant.

2. Mulch. They always say "Head in the sun, feet in the shade" when it comes to clematis. Is that true? Well, yes and no. They do need cool, moist roots, but a 4-inch layer of mulch will do just as well as shade. Keep the mulch about 8" away from the stems, though, to prevent stem rot.

3. Make the cut. When pruning make the cut just above 2 strong buds. These buds will quickly develop into new vines. Make sure when you purchase a clematis you know what variety it is and what the pruning needs are for that particular variety are. Some need to be cut back to within a foot of the ground and others just need the tips pruned.

4. Watch closely for disease. Clematis wilt will cause a portion of your vine to wilt very quickly. It is caused by a fungus that enters the stem just above the soil line. The only cure is to cut the wilted stem off at the ground and dispose of it in the trash. There are treatments that you can use to prevent wilt from spreading. Also, some varieties of more resistant to wilt, but if you plant your clematis deeply and watch them carefully, you may never have the problem.

5. Feed a balanced diet. Clematis like to be well fed, but don't overfeed. A good plan would be to feed once a year, right after pruning with an all-purpose, granulated fertilizer, such as a 10-10-10.

6. Choose the right trellis. Clematis do not twin around a object. They climb by twisting petioles, or leaf stems. If your structure is too large, the leaf can't wrap around it. Anything over 3/4" in diameter is too large. However, nylon fishing line is a great way to get clematis to climb a pole or post. Tie a small knot every foot or so to keep the vine from sliding down the line.

If you follow these tips, you'll soon be enjoying those big spectacular flowers that you see in pictures in your own garden.

Check out the selection of clematis at http://www.myprairiegardenhome.com/ and get started adding a beautiful climbing addition to your flower garden.

Hens & Chicks

If you asked me what my favorite plant collection is, I would have to say the Hens & Chicks. There are so many different varieties to choose from and they are so great to tuck into sunny places and just let them go. They don't require much water, basically planting them is about as easy as laying them on the ground. The other fun thing about Hens & Chicks is their versatility. They look really great scattered around some rocks in your garden. They really are fun, though, to find different and unique containers to put them in. The Hens & Chicks in the picture are some that I planted in an old Folgers Coffee can that I found rusting near an old homestead. They would completely have the can covered except that I pluck a few off every year and stick them into something else. A piece of aged wood or drift wood with a hollow spot in it looks great with some Hens & Chicks pouring over it. I have a rock that I found that was hollow inside and turned over with some mini Hens & Chicks growing in it makes a cute addition to another garden. I especially like putting them into old enamal ware pans and bowls.

I recently was given a big old concrete turtle planter. My project this summer is to fill it up with Hens & Chicks to give its "shell" an interesting texture. I'll have to share some photos when I get that accomplished.

If you haven't tried any Hens & Chicks yet, pick some up. They come in a huge variety of sizes, colors and textures. Mixing several together makes a very interesting display. Use your imagination and be sure and let me know if you've found some unique ways to display them in your garden.

Shady Summer Escape

Springtime in the garden is about the best time of all. The weather is balmy and perfect, things are growing rapidly, the cold days of winter are nearly forgotten and the heat of summer is a long way off. Or is it? I was thinking that now is probably the time to think about making a nice shady retreat in one of the shady areas of my yard. The first thing to think about would be seating. Do I want a nice bench or a couple of chairs with a little table between them? Look around to see what you might have - or now might be a good excuse to buy some more garden furniture!

I think a definite "must have" will be a water feature of some type. The sound of trickling water would be very cooling and soothing. Anything from a table top fountain to a little pond would work. Or even set up a whiskey barrel water feature. There's no limit to what you could do. Just fit it to your space.

Plants, of course, will be the next thing. I would start with some favorite shade loving perennials. A trick I use is to plant the perennials and then fill in the spaces with some bright annuals. Not only will the annuals add color and fill in until the perennials start to grow and spread, but you can change your color scheme from year to year also.

Well, now that I have that all thought out, I think it's time to get busy and make it happen!

Birdhouses

From Ugly Gourd to Bird Home

I started a new garden project last year - growing birdhouse gourds. These gourds are really easy to grow, but they do grow on large vines so make sure you have adequate space for them to spread out. When the vines died after the first frost last fall, I harvested the gourds and stored them in a single layer on loose straw in a corner of our barn. Then I just forgot about them until this spring. The gourds will cure and dry over the winter and by spring you should be able to hear the seeds rattling inside them when you shake the gourd.

Now begins the fun part! All that nasty, moldy skin on the outside needs to come off. I found the easiest method is to soak the gourds in warm water (you'll have to weigh them down to keep them covered with water) for about an hour. Using a metal scraper (dull knife) and a metal pot scrubber, clean off all of the loose material you can. The gourd will be stained and spotted, but that is perfectly normal. If there are some bumps or rough spots, these can be sanded smooth or left "as is" if you prefer.

After the gourd is completely dried, use a hole bit on your electric drill to place the opening in the gourd. I also use a small bit to drill 3 or 4 drainage holes in the bottom of the gourd.

Your gourd is ready to decorate in any way you want. They are also beautiful just left natural and they are very durable and will last for many years.

I have posted some pictures of gourds I have decorated in a slide show. I sell these gourds on Ebay or give them as gifts.

Spring at Last!!

Now that spring has finally arrived, its time to start working on my flower gardens again. Not that I call it "work" - more like a labor of love. My gardens were started from scratch 6 years ago and I thought the day would never come when I would have so much color to enjoy. I guess patience really is the key. And good planning....I have gone to Plan B several times along the way, and am thinking of some changes now that need to be made. Like the creeping phlox that has grown completely over the stepping stones my grandkids made. Do I move the stepping stones or tear out some of the phlox? Not a good time to decide since the phlox are blooming in glourious lavendar clumps right now!