Monthly Archives: May 2017

Gardening For Your Health

What are you doing to stay healthy? Maybe you work out daily or at least once a week. My sister plays tennis, bikes, and walks too. A co-worker uses Zoom to take an exercise class every Saturday and eats a well balanced and nourishing diet.

For myself, walking, eating right, and generally staying as active as possible are my goals. Of course there’s more to staying  healthy than just physical exercise, and gardening  can provide mental as well as physical rewards. If  I’m upset about something,  I get outside and immerse myself in gardening tasks, and I’m able to relax as my mind focuses on the plants and the environment around me.

Working  the soil, planting a garden, taking the time to observe changes as plants grow, these are all activities that are healthy for our bodies as well as our minds. Our children should be allowed to play and get dirty as well; introduce them to plants and gardening by letting them plant their very own small space with a few vegetables or some bright flowers. Help them tend it and you’ll be nourishing your relationships too.

We all lead incredibly busy lives, but more and more time is being spent looking at our phones, tablets, and laptops, inevitably resulting in less movement and more sitting and staring, completely unaware of our surroundings or people. Take a break from the devices for awhile and get outside again. You’ll be glad you did.

By Kris Blevons

 

 

Larkspur and Poppies – The Better Late Than Never Garden in May

Village Living, our neighborhood newspaper, did a nice story on pollinator gardening that ran in an April issue. It was a very good and informative article, but I fretted that the picture was of me weeding, and not very exciting. What a difference a month makes!

The bachelor buttons are putting on their annual show, tough plants that come back year after year to dazzle with their varied shades of blue, lavender, pink, and white flowers. I throw out more seed each January (I’m too busy during the holidays to sow it any earlier.) of select blooms from the previous year’s garden.

I’m pleased with the larkspur this year and marvel how it is a constant now, though I add more seed of it as well, not quite trusting that it will reappear each year. In May, on a warm morning, I walk through the small space, marveling at the abundance of bloom.

The  ‘Indian Summer’ rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan’s) have returned and are blooming. This is exciting, as I wasn’t sure if they’d be cold hardy in this open area. They’ve not only returned, but have sown themselves in another spot as well. Excellent, I think.

 

 

 

I move on, strolling around the corner of the back bed beside the compost bin. There’s a verbena blooming that I didn’t plant – I’d noticed it for the first time last year, and here it is again, a lovely lavender flower carpeting the ground beneath the blooming bachelor buttons.

I glance to my right and see a white snapdragon, clinging to the edge of the compost bin, a virtual annual espalier, only surviving the city worker’s weedeaters by hugging the weathered wood. We’re having to take the old compost bin out, it’s looking pretty ramshackle, and folks are beginning to throw trash in it.  So many survivors have seeded themselves around it, and I’ll miss the surprises it offered.

I know that soon the onslaught of heat will be too much for these winter beauties and they’ll begin to flag.  I already see signs of summer’s encroachment; sunflowers and zinnias have sprouted and grown from dormant seeds that have taken advantage of spring sun and warm soil.

I stroll and strive to savor every moment.  Motionless, I watch honeybees move from poppy to poppy, blurring my eyes to better see the morning sun shining through the beds of blue and pink. Gardens are transient and I know in another month (because this garden is  “better late than never”) when the seeds for the summer garden are finally sown, this early morning vision will be a distant, beautiful memory.

By Kris Blevons

 

 

 

 

 

Tropicals That Steal The Show – Plumbago and Thryallis

Thryallis, coleus and pentas…

May and June are prime months for tropical plants to enter the garden picture, as  temperatures during the day (and night) are finally warm enough for these tender flowering beauties.

The most common and widely grown is a native of South Africa, Plumbago auriculata,  a shrubby white or blue bloomer that’s typically used in container plantings in sun to part sun.  If you haven’t tried it and prefer either color in your garden or planters, it’s a lovely and tough addition. An occasional light clip and fertilizer to keep new growth and buds coming are all it requires.

Another of my favorites  of the last few years in container plantings, and pictured here, is Thryallis, Galphimia glauca, a floriferous yellow tropical that also blooms through the summer and is quite carefree. A native of tropical areas extending from Mexico to Guatemala in Central America, it likes it hot and soil that’s not soggy but well drained; take care to not overwater.

Since it will get quite robust by the end of the season, place it in a large container or bed and let it go. It will be at its best in full, hot sun, ideally in a spot that’s protected from a lot of wind. Finally some good  news for any of you that deal with deer issues – they don’t like it and won’t touch it  (Though we won’t  make any promises!).

We have plumbago and thryallis in stock now if you’d like either of these tropical beauties to brighten your summer garden. They won’t disappoint!

By Kris Blevons