All the Dirt on Gardening

Woody perennials for attracting and feeding butterflies will come back for years to bring the flying flowers into your garden. Pine Ridge Gardens in London Arkansas has a handy chart on their website that explains what to plant for whom. Click on the link to see the entire list of plants you can order to enhance your chance of raising butterflies this summer. Woody plants for food for caterpillars with each plant's botanical and common name Amorpha fruitcosa Lead plant Dogface, Gray hairstreak Aronia melanocarpa Black chokeberry Striped hairstreak Asimina triloba Paw Paw Zebra swallowtail Aristolochia macrophylla Bigleaf pipevinePipevine swallowtail Aristolochia tomentosa Dutchman's pipevine Pipevine swallowtail Carpinus caroliniana Ironwood, musclewood Red spotted purple, tiger swallowtail, marine blue Carya illinoiensis Wild pecan Gray hairstreak Carya ovata Shagbark hickory Banded hairstreak Ceanothus ovatus Inland NJ Tea duskywing Celtis tenufolia Dwarf hackberry Question ...

Susie Lawrence is well known by most people who shop at the Muskogee Farmer's Market. For the past 14 years, Lawrence has been there selling cut flowers, herbs and vegetables that she grows from seed at her greenhouse in Braggs. Lawrence offered her advice for gardeners who want the advantages of growing from seed for their own gardens. "Get a how-to seed starting book, such as 'Park's Success with Seed' by Ann Reilly or the newest edition by Karen Park Jennings," Lawrence said. "Park's Success with Seed" 1978 edition sells online for around $5. The 2006 revised edition costs $25. "Success With Seed" has its own Web site http://www.successwithseed.org/ . The photographs and information in the 2006 book are duplicated there. On the left side of the site's main page, click on links to find out which seeds require pre-soaking, are easy to grow, are for containers, shady spots, etc. Park's blog at http://gardenblog.typepad.com/ h...

Monarch Watch is restocked on their Monarch Butterfly Waystation Kits. You don't have to become an official stop for migrating Monarchs in order to plant the seeds and enjoy the view. Use the discount coupon code 2008SEED to get 15% off Monarch Waystation Seed Kits. Each Kit includes 12 seeds of 12 plants. Six of the plants are for adult butterfly nectar and the other six are to feed caterpillars. These host plants are where the adults lay eggs and are the plants the caterpillar stage Monarchs eat in order to grow into butterflies. MILKWEEDS are both host and nectar plants. Aphids love them, so put them in full sun. The information from Monarch Watch on the contents of the seed packs: BUTTERFLY WEED (Asclepias tuberosa) Perennial; Height: 1 to 2 feet; Blooms summer/fall. Attractive prairie plant with orange clusters of dainty flowers. Attracts butterflies. This drought-tolerant plant blooms from June to September. Host plant for monarch and queen larvae. For best germination rates...

Photo: Comfrey in last year's garden Last summer, Ball Horticulture announced Circle of Life plants and pots for the green conscious gardeners among us. At the link provided, Ball even has links to sustainable gardening. According to the press release, Ball partnered with Summit Plastic Company to make rice hull pots in six sizes from 3.5 inches to a "trade" gallon. This is great news in an industry that has a hard time disposing of seedling trays, plastic pots, plastic bags, etc. none of which we can take to a recycling center for earth friendly disposal. Fun Time Happy Garden Explosion blog says Target is marketing a similar product under a different name. Enviroarc is making not only garden pots but dinner ware out of bamboo pulp waste. The pots come in pretty colors, assorted shapes and sizes. According to the Sustainable is Good blog, even the giant, Bonnie Plants who supplies Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. puts some of its transplants in biodegradable...

Lurching Toward Spring, in my book, is this series of warm days that make plants optimistic and break ground, followed by 25-degree nights that shock them back into realilty. Jump back, it is not spring yet. Most days that go above 55-degrees you will find me outside doing something, though not always much. If you can get outside this week with the temperatures going up to 60-F on Thursday, here are a few things to do. Remove winter cover from shrubs, bulbs and beds. Plant dormant shrubs and trees. Divide and re-plant day lilies. Feed trees in 2-inch deep holes around the drip line. Mulch trees and shrubs with manure for spring growth. Fertilize shrubs and evergreens now. Use evergreen or azalea type food for evergreens. Water in dry fertilizers. Prune summer flowering shrubs now but not spring flowering ones. Remove the larger, center stems and branches, dead stuff, broken limbs, etc. Clean out small branches that prevent sun from reaching the roots. Prune back your honeysuckle, cro...

Linda Orton, president of the Mid-South Hydrangea Society sent out a great newsletter this month. I wish they were closer because their quarterly meetings always look so enticing. The Mid-South Hydrangea Society is located in Memphis Tennessee. Their quarterly newsletter is worth at least $10 a year and members get to attend the members-only annual tour. This year's tour is June 7 th and I can't wait to go. Orton said she had resolved in 2007 to limit her plant purchases to only those that would fit into her garden. (Don't we all make that promise to ourselves every year?) The newsletter covered an international hydrangea tour and a pruning chart from Walter Reeves' website. If you have any pruning still to do (;-) check out his guidelines at this link for what to prune month by month. Another version is at this link . They are both Adobe pdf . If you want to join, contact membership chair, Linda Lanier at hydrangealady@comcast.com . A thousand vermicompost worms a...

MARCH 1, Saturday, 3:00, Tulsa Garden Center, 2435 S. Peoria AveTopic of Burrell's talk: "Design Ideas and Plant Combinations for Winter Gardens" MARCH 2, Sunday, 2:30, OKC Zoo Educational Building, 5101 Northeast 50 StreetTopic of Burrell's talk: "New and Underutilized Perennials" Both talks are sponsored by the Oklahoma Horticultural Society ( http://www.okhort.org ), are free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and book signing. Oklahomans are in for a treat. Noted naturalist, perennial expert and author C. Colston Burrell is speaking in Tulsa on March 1 and in Oklahoma City on March 2. In a telephone interview, Burrell said he is looking forward to his first trip to Oklahoma. "The topic of my talk in Tulsa is adding structure and beauty to your winter garden," Burrell said. "Winter's garden starts with the leaves changing colors and seed pods forming on flowering plants. It is a matter of looking, seeing, then fin...