All the Dirt on Gardening

Bottlebrush Buckeye Even though we have 2.5 acres, we have created smaller garden spaces close to the house where we have planted PawPaw, Japanese Maple and Witch Hazel elder that have been successful in our soil.  We've also planted small, short-living, trees such as Crabapple, Walkingstick, and Redbud that are small enough but tend to last 10 years or so.  Many shrubs can also be pruned into small trees to make a hedgerow more interesting. These include Smoketree, Burning Bush, Flowering Almond, Tea Rose Trees, and all the weeping trees (peach, willow, honeylocust),  I can recommend PineRidge Gardens in Arkansas for perusing a catalog of native woody plants. Go to one of MaryAnn's open nursery days and get advice. She knows everything. Hawthorn berries Maple trees: Acer negundo  ‘Flamingo’  25 ft Acer palmatum   (Japanese maple) 4-25 ft  Acer tataricum ginnala   (Amur maple) 20 ft  Buckeye (we have these 2 varieties that...

For a reliable, beautiful. native, garden friendly vine, it's hard to beat Coral Honeysuckle. Honeysuckle is one of those plants that gardeners either love or consider a weed to be fought against at all costs. Most of the time, the fight is against the Japanese or Asian species because it has made such a pest of itself throughout all the temperate gardening zones.   Japanese, Korean or Chinese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, is spread when birds eat the black seeds that form in the fall. Once it takes hold, it can spread widely (and wildly), choking out all the native plants and tripping hikers. But there are over 200 species of honeysuckle and some of them are  useful on fences, in wooded areas, on stream banks and slopes. Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, has many common names, including: Evergreen Honeysuckle, Trumpet Honeysuckle, Woodbine, Scarlet Trumpet, Red Honeysuckle, and Red Woodbine. This one is an American native, twining, vine that grows w...

The large area in this photo is left to fill with wildflowers for pollinators every year.  When you walk through it your feet disturb solitary bees, bumble bees, butterflies, moths, wasps and other little flying flowers that are grateful for the pollen on sunny mornings and afternoons.  We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood where the neighbors pay little attention to our yard. No complaints about our un-mown side yard.  No one sprays broadleaf weeds or insects out here, allowing us to have this sweet pleasure.  Last year when there were few pollinators for some reason, and the yard didn't seem alive to us. When we sit outside in the afternoon we see dozens of butterflies flitting around. Makes life worth living and gardening worth the effort. I hope your yard and garden are full of flying flowers.