The Daily Gardener

Did you know that lilies enjoy being planted in part shade?   They don't really like to be baked in full sun.   If you plant them in a little bit of shade, it will allow your plant to experience less stress and thus it will elongate its stem.   Lilies that are grown in full sun tend to be shorter and more stout. In nature, lilies grow in dappled light at the edges of woods and meadows.

When is the best time to divide? To prune? To transplant?   In general, the answer I most often give is that the best time to do anything is when you're standing there with a shovel, or a knife, or a spade in your hand.   We are all so busy. Our gardens can get away from us.   Our good intentions, of getting to things at a later date, can evaporate faster than water on a hot July day.   Thus the saying, "There is no time like the present."

There is nothing that can beat eating fresh food from the garden.   It seems every meal around here has fresh basil lettuce from the garden and little cherry tomatoes.   Today, I was at my favorite olive oil store and they sell this little gizmo called the Zip Slicer.   You load it up with your cherry tomatoes or grapes, and then you slice them all in one quick motion.   It's fantastic if you eat tomatoes and grapes a lot. It cuts down on the prep time

Irises are in full bloom right now. Although, there are around 300 species of iris, Bearded Iris and Siberian Iris are two of the most common types of irises grown. Iris takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow. During the Middle Ages, irises were linked to the French monarchy, and the Fleur-de-lis is now a national symbol of France.    

Have you heard of the Little Free Library that some thoughtful people put up out by their sidewalks?  Well, a few weeks ago, I saw a post by Hylton Jolliffe about his Little Free Herbary... Takes obvious inspiration from the little free library movement and it aims to help us share and connect with neighbors and others who might need herbs for cooking, medicinal remedies, fragrances etc.

Do you change the oil in your window boxes and containers every spring?   You really don't need to - I don't. Here's what I do:   I remove about a quarter to a third of the soil in my containers and I put it in my potting soil bin.   Then, I add a little perlite and compost to the original container and that's it.   Any extra potting soil that I have leftover in my bin, I use for new containers.

Are you planning to grow Sunflowers this year?   Five years ago, Hans-Peter Schiffer toppled the Guinness World Record for third year in a row - growing a sunflower that was 30'1" tall!    Over at the Facebook group for the show, you can check out a time lapse video of sunflowers growing from seed to seed heads; just search for The Daily Gardener Community the next time you're in Facebook and request to join.

My aunt Debbie in Des Moines sent me some fantastic pictures of a great portable elevated plantar idea.   She was at Lowes and they had taken two old Weber grills and had spray-painted them different colors.  Then, they turned them into planters. In between the two of them they placed a bench.   What a great idea. Fantastic idea a great way to repurpose old grills turn them into elevated bed that you could use for annuals - which is what they did.

Fragrance in the garden...   The most fragrant blossoms include:   - Cheddar pinks (a member of the carnation family) - Lavender - Peony - Gardenia - Honeysuckle - Hyacinth - Lilac - Mock Orange - Daphne - Bee balm

Here's another idea for your garden journal:   Flip to the back and save two pages.   On one page write "Successes", and on the other "Failures".   In the garden, we learn equally from both.  

My neighbor, up at our cabin, has this amazing copse of lilacs.   We've become good friends and he invited me to take some cuttings of his lilac as a gesture of goodwill.   (He also give me all of his jack-in-the-pulpit - but that's another story.)

I ran across a fascinating old journal as I was researching this show - what I especially loved about it was the layout.     If you want to copy it here's what you do:   - Dedicate a page of your journal to each type of plant in your garden. - Make some notes about the characteristics of the plant. (Maybe what you like about it as well) - Then leave room to chart the major events with the plant.   For instance, after describing Kalmia Angustifolia, it says this...

I made another trip to the garden center today; that's my fourth of this week.   The reason I keep going back, is they're clearancing out the annuals already.   When it comes to my garden budget, I try to be as frugal as possible with my spending on annuals.   I'm not too picky when it comes to the types of annuals,I generally just try to find purples, pinks and whites.   Today, I was getting annuals in the large pots for just $3 apiece. I was standing there filling up my cart while everyone...

Is your garden new to you this year?   Recently at a garden center, I ran into a woman who had just moved. She was tentatively buying just a few plants - curious to see what would work in her new space.    One of the things we ended up talking about was the micro-climate she had enjoyed living in an inner-ring suburb of the twin cities - one with milder temperatures thanks to the heat island from the buildings but also helped greatly by the older, dense tree canopy.

Ground cover roses.   I had someone ask me about them recently. They are fantastic for a rose that has a low spreading habit. But, they are really not a classic ground cover in terms of their ability to crowd out weeds.   I used to grow this rose called "The Fairy" which is a pink rose - it blooms all summer long. It's a ground cover rose and it would amble over this brick garden wall that I had, and I absolutely loved it...