What I Planted-Native Flower Garden

Last fall, I planted a little Wildflower Garden, as a part of my plan to have more native plants and flowers in my own yard. I wanted to help the butterflies and hummingbirds, have less maintenance, and more enjoyment in a more complimentary landscape to our Ozarks environment here. Here is one variety that I planted:

The Glade Coneflower: Others that I planted were Butterfly Plant, Blazing Star, Purple Coneflower, Missouri Coneflower, Milkweed, and a couple of others. I bought the plants dormant last fall from Missouri Wildflower Nursery  and I am happy to report I can already see some signs of life occuring in the dormant plants!  They should really start up in this next little warm up we are going to get here in South Missouri!  I will post more pics soon, although there really isn't much to see, yet. But I have this vision....... :)

Have a great day. ~JB was here.

Trends-Fairy Gardens

I was fascinated with the beautiful miniature gardens that were on exhibit at the garden show in Springfield, Missouri recently.  I could see it being a fun hobby to give us who are gardening enthusiasts a "garden fix" in the winter and also could be a nice thing for someone who just likes to collect, or is even unable to garden in "life size". Having had the stomach flu this winter, I can definitely see how that would help lift your spirits. :)

We enter the Fairy Garden, with the Fairy Mushrooms, or are those toadstools? :) 

Your Fairy Garden in the little Fairy World....with a Fairy Pond, and the resident Fairy, and Fairy Creatures. Love.  

  Little Fairy Benches, Fairy Tables, Fairy Furniture....so cute.

 If your inner fairy has a really rustic personality, look at these chairs, tables, and fairy arbors! 

All of which you could situate in the little Fairy Garden Box, if you wished. :)

I have a brochure somewhere, that has some resources. I don't know if that will ever be located. LOL So I will leave you with a link that will show you some beautiful possibilities.

 Fairy Garden Collectibles-the pictures and inspiration alone are worth the visit. Enjoy your week! ~JB was here

So much Gardening to Share....

Hello Friends!  I have been so incredibly busy that it's been a couple of months since I posted! It's to the busy pre-garden season again already and there's so much I want to share. I went to our local garden show in Springfield, Missouri last week, and in lieu of a wordy post, I'm going to share, in pictures, what I saw in beautiful plants and trends!  I'm going to just jump right in here and get blogging again! :)

Beautiful Succulents were everywhere!  I don't think I've ever seen so many.....and they are really by reputation an easy to care for plant. Just like everything else, there are new varieties all the time, but here is one of the classics for you.

Tropicals were the RAGE. Everywhere you looked, I swear!  What better to relieve a winter weary mind, anyway, right? :)

Yep, that's right. More Tropicals. They relieve our eyes as well with a welcome punch of color, shapes and texture!

And speaking of shapes and texture, under the column of just, weird, is this staghorn fern!  I don't think it would be for me, but it was.......interesting.

 

Under the column of Trends, let's put these adorable Fairy Gardens. They had whole rows of furniture and classes marketed around this collectible hobby. I think I might be able to do one less expensively than the brand name stuff but it does look cute and fun to do!  Might bring one a lot of indoor joy in the off season, or even all year long!

And before I leave you, because it is going to take TWO installments to show you everything, it looks like, let's look at the Ultimate Garden Cottage, in the Ozarks Forest. I love this:

That twisty tree thingy to the right is a torsioned or twisted filbert I think they called it. This was the absolute cutest garden shed, and it had a bunch of tools inside (of course).  The proprietor is Wildwood Gardens at Rogersville, Missouri. I liked this exhibit the best of any there. The gentleman there said that they built it to disassemble by removing the right side and then it can be tipped on its side I believe he said and pass under bridges and underpasses easily. Clearly a wonderful concept and exhibit that took a lot of care and work to execute! Join me again this week and I'll show you a few more views from last week!  Take care until then- ~JB was here.

To Sprout a Wildflower Seed Do This~

Germination of Wildflower Seed (Coneflower)

Did you know that many wildflower seeds including the purple Coneflower, need a process known as "stratification" before they can sprout? The Purple Coneflower, or Echinacea Purpurea, is one such example.

If you plant the seeds in the fall, you don't have to do anything special. You just start by making sure you have a clean slate, in other words, you need to be sure you have killed or otherwise removed any existing vegetation. Sow the seeds on surface, preferrably in the late fall or early winter. Don't cover the seeds, just press them in or better yet, let the impending winter weather do that for you, just like in the wild. To control weeds the first season,cut the flowers and the weeds back to a height of six inches each time they reach a foot.

If you are planting seeds in the spring, and you do not have four to six weeks left before the last frost, here's what to do. To stratify the seeds, place them with an equal or larger volume of soiless planting medium or sand, in a plastic bag. Add water to make moist but NOT wet. Leave them at room temperature for 24 hours. Then check your moisture and add sand or a little more water if needed. Label the bag and place in the refrigerator for 4-6 weeks. Maintain the seeds as moist but not too wet or dry during the time they are cooled. Then-you are ready to plant as described above!

This is a series of Coneflower images from my garden that I cropped square,textured and made into a collage. I find their forms very graceful, yet strong. I like how long the blooms last, and that they are an attractant to summer visitors such as butterflies. The Coneflower is an enjoyable native plant to Missouri that I plan to have many more of in my garden/lawn in the future.

I hope if you stopped by you are having an amazing day wherever you garden. :)

~JB was here.

My Birdfeeder Setup

My birdfeeder setup is really simple. I need something that doesn't spoil easily, so I use the upright column feeders, that, by the way, are (supposed to be) squirrel-proof. I think that is mostly true. I stopped seeing so much seed wasted when I started using them, a very good thing, and I never have seen a squirrel hanging on one. I keep them on a pretty light limb, too so that maybe they'll fall off if they try. I'm a little mean that way. :)

Here's my setup.

Have a nice weekend! I have found that my germination posts seem to be pretty in demand so I'm going to do another post perhaps this weekend, regarding wildflower seed and stratification. Stay tuned!

~JB was here