Innehållsförteckning för January/February 2024 från Garden Gate

Snow and ice aren’t always welcome visitors, but they sure can be pretty! My weather app is one of the first things I check every morning. Then I know how to dress, whether I should close the windows and can plan my day: Can the pots by the back door go one more day without water? Should I plan to shovel snow after dinner? As a gardener, you’re probably a weather watcher too. There are so many variables that make growing a garden a gamble. Knowing what kind of precipitation, wind and temperatures we can expect help us make a plan and improve our odds. When you know that high winds are coming, you can be sure to tie up your tomatoes so they won’t topple (learn 5 staking methods…

As the buzz of busy bees gave way to the rustle of fallen leaves in my autumn garden, the last of the bumblebee stragglers hit up fading mountain mint blooms. Day by day, fewer sparkly green sweat bees and dwarf carpenter bees nectared on the asters, eventually vanishing along with the fluffy field thistle seeds. Despite appearances, the bees never really left us. While we snuggle under blankets indoors, bees of many shapes and sizes hide under leafy covers of their own. Seventy percent of the nearly 4,000 native bee species in North America build nests on or below the surface, and many of their progeny spend winter ensconced in soil, emerging as adult bees just in time to catch favorite blooms. The rest are cavity nesters, spending winter in…

Northern Highbush Blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum Homegrown blueberries not only taste delicious, but they make beautiful garden plants too, with brilliant fall foliage in shades of red, orange, yellow or purple. It may take a few years for the plants to produce a harvest, but it’s well worth the wait! WHERE IT WORKS BEST A North American native, highbush blueberry can be used as an informal hedge or as a backdrop for perennials and annuals. Grow this shrub in an edible garden, in a mixed border or try one in a container if you have limited space. HOW TO GROW IT Highbush blueberry grows best in full sun with well-drained acid soil (pH 4.5-5.0) in USDA zones 3 to 8. In fall, apply finely ground elemental sulfur or peat moss to…

Pineapple weed Matricaria discoidea What it looks like Crush this annual and you get a sweet scent similar to pineapple. A low rosette quickly grows into a bushy shrub-like form up to 18 inches tall. The finely divided foliage is similar to the herb chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile). But the scent and the unusual flowers are a good way to tell the difference. Pineapple weed flowers are ½- to ¼-inch-tall cones at the tips of branches and can be produced summer into fall. Unlike chamomile, the cones have no petals surrounding them. Another reason for the common name, these petalless flowers resemble tiny pineapples. After the flowers are pollinated, they ripen to brown before crumbling to release tiny brown seeds. Where to find it Found across much of North America, but…

Instead of ringing in the new year with champagne and balloons, why not treat yourself to a few new plants that you can enjoy through the growing season? There are a lot of interesting introductions to get excited about this year. WHAT’S NEW? This year’s standouts include vibrant new color choices and double-flowering varieties of old favorites, as well as interesting foliage variations and compact plant sizes. Don’t forget to check out our drawing for some of these new varieties below. Now let’s take a look at a few of our favorites. Enter for a Chance to Win Free Plants! Enter drawings for new plants from Bailey Nurseries and Proven Winners! Details and entry forms at GGMagExtra.com. SHRUB Standout Dramatic dark foliage and pretty pink blooms make this bigleaf hydrangea…

I may have said this before (or several times), but I really love a good battery-powered garden tool. I no longer regret an impulse purchase of 300 spring bulbs—I can plant them in about an hour with my trusty bulb auger drill. Spring garden cleanup doesn’t scare me—my beloved hand-held shears and I knock it out in no time. Lithium batteries are more powerful than ever, and not only are they used in large garden tools like lawnmowers, but also in small hand tools. With a power upgrade from a manual tool, you can zip through all kinds of garden work that is otherwise tedious and slow. Batterypowered versions of hand-held tools are godsends for folks with arthritis or limited hand strength, and they can prevent injury during tasks that…

An upside down idea Kayla Ropp, OR To avoid damaging the roots of her seedlings, Kayla plants seeds in upside-down drinking cups. Cut the bottoms off the cups, fill them with potting mix and place them upside down in a plastic storage tote. When it’s time to plant or repot, just hold the cup over the planting hole and slightly squeeze the cup to release the plant. As long as the leaves and stem are still small enough to fit through the hole, the soil and the seedling will transplant unharmed. A cool craft Donna Van Horn, IA Here’s a clever way to revamp an old box fan into a spinning ornament for the garden: Donna thought the blade assembly resembled a flower so she removed it, spray painted it…

Unless you are lucky enough to live where it’s warm year round, when winter starts to drag on, it may feel as if the garden is awash in dreary, monochromatic browns and grays. Time to close your eyes and dream of summer—a colorful season when foliage is vibrant, flowers are blooming and pollinators are active. If you need a bit of summer inspiration, here are three colorful low-maintenance combos that will also attract wildlife. Who wouldn’t dream of that? Rooting for Butterflies Even if you aren’t a Denver Broncos fan, you’ll cheer for this eye-popping color combination. And butterflies will applaud it too. Heat-tolerant ‘Blue Butterfly’ Siberian larkspur will draw in many pollinators until late summer. Cut the bloom stalks to the ground when they are finished to keep plants…

The vibrant blooms and aromatic foliage of bee balm add a splash of color and scent across perennial gardens from early summer to fall. In addition, deer and rabbits won’t eat it, butterflies, hummingbirds and bees love its flowers, and this North American native can easily adapt to various soil and climate conditions. GARDEN BUZZUnique whorls of shaggy-headed flowers are typically 2 to 3 inches wide and bloom for up to 6 weeks. Blooms burst forth in a spectacular array of red, purple, pink or white. And the foliage blends the scents of mint and basil and is as functional as it is fragrant. BEYOND BEAUTY Bee balm is more than just visually enchanting: It also offers medicinal and edible benefits. Native Americans have long recognized its antiseptic properties, using…

Botanical Names Boise sand verbena Abronia mellifera var. pahoveorum Cutleaf coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata Giant purple sage Salvia pachyphylla Globe amaranth Gomphrena globosa Hopflower oregano Origanum libanoticum Hyacinth bean Lablab purpureus Munro’s globemallowSphaeralcea munroana Oregon sunshine Eriophyllum lanatum Red yuccaHesperaloe parviflora Sulphur-flowerbuckwheat Eriogonum umbellatum Looking for some new garden design ideas or some practical tips to step up your horticultural game? Stop by a public garden! While these destination gardens tucked into communities throughout North America generate lots of inspiration, they also produce important horticultural research and educate people of all ages about the natural world. Here are four gardens across the country that we think are worth a visit. Idaho Botanical Garden Boise, Idaho Here’s a great place to visit if you’re looking for water-wise garden ideas. Founded in 1984…

Q My new river birch (Betula nigra) trees are doing fine except there are lots of sprouts at the base. What should I do? Edith Voznec Haviland, SC A The sprouts, or suckers, at the soil line are a reaction to the stress of being transplanted. Remove them as you see them. When they’re young and tender, they can often be pulled. Older suckers will need to be cut using a sharp knife, pruning shears or a small saw. Cut as close to the trunk or root as possible; stubs left behind will regrow more suckers. As the trees become established, you should find that the suckering stops. In general, it’s best not to prune river birches in spring because they tend to “bleed” sap then. However, you’ll want to…

1 | 20-Row Seed Flat Want to start a lot of seeds but have limited space under lights or on the germination mat? Try this seed-starting flat and sow 20 different plants, each in their own 10-by-1-inch-wide row. It’s perfect for sprouting seedlings indoors before transplanting them to larger pots as they grow. You can easily move a row of seedlings without disturbing others in the flat. Johnny’s Selected Seeds, johnnyseeds.com 877-564-6697 ($20.40 for 5 flats) 2 | GRO-MOR® Mini Hand Wand Seeder Tiny seeds can be tricky to plant — they’re tough to see, hard to pick up and can stick together. Use this hand seeder to suck up individual seeds and puff them out onto the soil exactly where you want them. It comes with five interchangeable tips to…

When you encounter the lightly fragrant, bell-shaped, lemon-yellow blooms of cowslip, it’s like witnessing the first sunlit dance of spring. Cowslip’s flowers create a radiant spectacle from April to May, bringing in a symphony of bees and butterflies humming their appreciation for the early spring nectar. DOWN TO THE ROOTS Cowslip naturally graces meadows and open woodland settings. It grows best in part shade, where it can be placed under the canopy of taller trees and shrubs while being shielded from the harsh afternoon sun. It prefers moist, well-drained soil, but it’s intolerant of standing water, which can cause root rot. When planting cowslip, set it so the crown is slightly above the soil line to avoid potential rot issues. A 1- to 2-inch layer of mulch keeps plants evenly…