If you are inclined to think about protecting your plants with chemical warfare, I invite you to have a paradigm shift to biological warfare. Get nature on your side. You have heard all the reasons not to spray ad nauseum: • it harms the environment• it kills caterpillars which are baby bird food• it kills butterflies• it is hazardous to our health• it is hazardous to pets• nag, nag, nag, nag, nag! But what are you supposed to do when trying to sleep in bed at night? You can almost hear the little monsters (you know the monster in Alien was based on insects!) chomping away at your plants?!I say, invite in their enemies, something that will chomp away at them! Biological warfare is the way to go—plant mountain mint. Yes, pollinators love it, but more importantly, “beneficial insects” love it. “Beneficial” is a blanket term to cover all the…
Bottlebrush Buckeye – What’s Blooming Now
Bottlebrush Buckeye is a glorious native shrub for the landscape. They are stunning in flower, particularly when used in mass or on a tall bank. Blooming in that gap period between the spring flush and the fall asters bottlebrush helps fill the need for a food source for pollinators during the hot summer months when there are fewer plants in flower. Right now, these shrubs are abuzz with bees; you might also see butterflies, particularly eastern swallowtails, and if you are observant enough, you might see a hummingbird darting among the flowers. The blossoms are creamy-white and look like candelabras that are 6 to 24” long panicles that start blooming from the bottom, gradually opening flowers until reaching the top. This is a sun to part-shade plant for moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soil, but be prepared to give it room; it grows 6-10 feet and forms thickets that can grow…
June 2022 Meeting
JUNE — A nature advocate and wildlife photographer and a Hall County Master Gardener, Karin Hicks spoke on “Creating a Hedgerow for Wildlife.” She shared her adventures with creating a hedge row that met the standards of her HOA. Using a variety of plants with natives being the backbone, she created layers of plants to support wildlife and create privacy. Due to the mixed nature of a hedgerow loosing one plant won’t create a gap tooth look that happens if one plants a uniform hedge using one type of plant such as Leyland Cyprus or Boxwoods. Karin shared her plant list which is a good starting point. Use sites such as NWF.ORG plant list function, GNPS.ORG for plant descriptions, and Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder, www.missouribotanicalgarden.org, to read about plant needs and native status. For more information on hedge rows check out: What is a Hedgerow and Why You Should…