Cat's Breeches, Native Wildflower

Ballhead Waterleaf, Cat's Breeches, Dwarf Waterleaf - Hydrophyllum capitatum

Many years ago, we brought home a few local wild flowers and planted them in our garden. All but one eventually died out and that one “Cat’s Breeches” has not only thrived but has continued to reproduce. It migrated from the flower bed after a few years and now grows in a partly shady spot next to the house. The blueish clusters of flowers are delicate and are soft to the touch. The deeply lobed, dark green leaves make a lovely backdrop for the flowers but do partially hide the flowers at times. I look forward to enjoying these little flower treasures every spring. If you want to learn more about native wildflowers just follow this link: http://uswildflowers.com/

Flowers for the Table

I love to have cut flowers in the house whenever it's possible. They add so much pleasure with both their beauty and fragrances. In order to use daffodils in mixed bouquets you need to let them soak overnight in their own vase of warm water and do not re-cut the stems after the soaking. Daffodils exude a thick substance (Calcium Oxalate crystals) from their stems that will clog up the stems of any other flowers you put with them prior to a good soaking. (These crystals prevent other flowers in the same vase from absorbing water, causing them to wilt.) To help your flowers last longer add a tablespoon of bleach to the water in your vase. In a small vase a few drops will do. Add fresh water daily. If you have flowers that are not quite open and you want to make them open faster use warm water to quicken them; cold water will slow them down. Little vases around the house brighten up your day too, so don't forget the smaller flowers like Grape Hyacinth, vinca and such.

Spinach

As usual the weather is questionable this time of year. I planted spinach in a windowsill planter back in February and graduated it to the unheated greenhouse for a month then to the outdoors. It was beautiful and ready to pick but then the slugs had a feast on the nice fresh leaves! Now they will need some clean up before the plants go into the garden. I am very pleased with the results of planting the seed indoors in a planter and will start it in the house again next spring. 

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a very old plant. Its medicinal uses and horticulture have been recorded in history since ancient China.  Rhubarb likes to have fertile, well drained soil, so a couple of weeks ago I top dressed it some compost and steer manure to help it along. When you harvest the stalks, be sure to toss the leaves of the rhubarb plant into your compost, as they contain oxalic acid (in other words... don't eat the leaves!). It won't hurt the compost a bit.  Harvest by grasping each leafstalk near the base and pulling it slightly to one side. Stalks can also be cut with a knife. To help keep the plants moist and their roots cool, in the heat of the summer, I like to put an inch or two of straw around the plants.  As the leaves/stalks die back pick them off and compost them.  Mine is starting to come up now and I can hardly wait for enough to cook with! Personally, I like it in Rhubarb Cake.

Using Sugar for weed control ~ by Charlotte B.

     I LOVE those little wild violets, but they are a weed, I guess, because they like poor soil.
     When I started using sugar to nourish the beneficial microbes, my wild violets were one of the first weeds to go.
     I had some growing between the stones in a path, so I didn't put sugar there EVER. This year, my violets in the walk didn't come up. They were skimpier last year, but this year there were none. Guess the microbes made it up the path. LOL
     The only “weeds” that still grow in my yard are the trees the birds and wind seed in. Trees love rich soil, so of course they come up and grow faster, but all the broad leaf weeds and grassy weeds, just don’t come up anymore.
     Even the poison ivy doesn't come up in the alley since I put sugar out there for a couple of years.
Just apply sugar (plain table sugar) at the rate of 1 pound per 250 sq.ft, and water it in well, and DON’T use any chemicals on your lawn. The chemicals kill all the beneficial microbes and insects. ALL chemicals, fertilizers, insecticides, weed killers, fungicides, ALL of them.
    They kill off the food supply of toads, lizards and grass snakes that will keep your lawn freer of harmful insects than all the insecticides on the market will, and they work CHEAP!!!

If you would like more information on organic gardening, write me any time.
Charlotte (Organic Gardener for 10 years)

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Lawns-725/eradicating-wild-violets.htm

For more information go to this forums page.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/yarddoctor/

Dark Knight Caryopteris

Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Dark Knight' (Perennial to 3 feet) (Zone 6) Deep blue flowers from June - September. 

This is clearly a favorite of the bees! Even in the early mornings you can find bees on this beautiful shrub and from time to time a humming bird will come calling as well. It does reseed so you can give plants to friends! It makes a nice cut flower for your table, mine is always so heavy with flowers there are plenty to use daily. I prune this shrub back heavily every couple of years to keep it out of my walkway. It doesn't seem to be bothered by pests and when the spirea next to it is full of aphids it never is! These picture were taken in early September of 2012.

Wild Iris

We have wild iris (also known as grass iris) all over our area. They can be found in sunny, moist locations in meadows, along roadsides and streams. The mountain meadows have such a wide variety of wild flowers that it's difficult to pick which one I like the best. The easiest way to decide is to like what ever flowers happen to be in bloom when I'm there!

Crocus

Wild Violets

These little violets are so pretty along my pathway and in my yard. The first time I saw a yard that was covered with the lavender violets I wanted my yard to look just like that! I am hoping that they will spread all over the front yard. It wasn't until I took a close look that I noticed the white violets had lavender veining. That's new! What a nice surprise!