How to Prune Your Spirea

I get so many great tips from Garden Gate Magazine. I have been a subscriber since the very first issue - I'm not telling how long ago that was! One of my favorite parts of the book is the reader tips. You know, gardeners have the best ideas!

I also subscribe to their e-mail list and I receive even more tips that way. I just had to share this good advice for pruning spirea. I like mine to be natural but you may prefer a rounded bush. There are directions for both ways here.

Here is my Little Princess Spirea that is peeking out from behind the Hosta in my front yard (it is the lime green shrub). This particular variety will be covered with hot pink flowers in a few days and will bloom all summer if I deadhead it.  Follow the link below for pruning directions.

 

http://www.gardengatenotes.com/2013/05/14/pruning-spirea/?utm_source=GardenGateNotes&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7079

Growing Mint in Containers

If you want mint for your garden there are a few rules you need to know.

Rule #1. Grow in in containers
Rule #2: Never let it escape from the container
Rule #3: If it does escape - pull it up immediately!

Do you get the point? Mint of all sorts are invasive! BUT... they are also wonderful additions to your herb collection too. The container above is Chocolate Mint with an Apple Mint in the foreground. I must  admit I broke the rules with the apple mint. This particular location has heavy clay soil and I wanted a tall plant to disguise my pond filter. The heavy clay keeps it from spreading as profusely as it would in good garden soil and it is easy to pull up shoots that wander from the location. I have a friend who wanted mint to plant in her yard. I warned her that it would take over. She said that she didn't care, she lived way out in the country with no close neighbors and she loved the smell of mint when she mowed the yard.

sweet mint

Here is Sweet Mint just peeking out from it's winter sleep. This container is on my deck. It's close enough to the kitchen to clip fresh for my iced tea, potato dishes, salad and lamb - even sweet peas are good with mint.








New for me this year is Moroccan Mint that I bought to sell at Mimi's Greenhouse Plant Sales this year. Of course I'm putting some in my new herb containers to propagate for next year and enjoy this year myself!

Moroccan Mint

Another new one is this pretty Grapefruit Mint. I have another Grapefruit Mint that is fuzzy like the Apple Mint in the top picture. This one has a nice purple tinged leaf and a yummy  flavor - not quite as tangy as the Lemon Mint that has long been one of my favorites.

I personally think mint is worth the trouble of keeping it contained - so good in recipes, wonderful to brush by it in the garden and enjoy the fragrance and attractive foliage and flowers too.

Mosquito Trap

My son, Zack found this good idea for getting rid of backyard mosquitoes and I think it will really work. I bet there is a reason why all the electronic traps are black! Read below:

Items needed:

1 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of yeast 
2-liter plastic bottle

HOW:
1. Cut the plastic bottle in half.
2. Mix brown sugar with hot water. Let cool. When cold, pour in the bottom half of the bottle.
3. Add the yeast. No need to mix. It creates carbon dioxide, which attracts mosquitoes.
4. Place the funnel part, upside down, into the other half of the bottle, taping them together if desired.
5. Wrap the bottle with something black, leaving the top uncovered, and place it outside in an area away from your normal gathering area. (Mosquitoes are also drawn to the color black.)

Change the solution every 2 weeks for continuous control.

Growing Your Own Garlic in Containers

I finally found Garlic cloves for planting and decided to turn some of my garden tubs into a garlic garden. I planted 36 Early Italian Garlic bulbs in two containers like the ones below. I found the bulbs from Burpee Seed site and I was real happy with my purchase. Good planting and harvesting instructions came with the cloves. The tubs in the photo were planted about 10 days ago and you can see how they have grown. I will let them grow until they turn brown just like onions do when they are ready to harvest. I'll braid the stems and hang in the pantry for winter use.

Backyard Camillias

I've written about my Camilla's before but this year they have outdone themselves. I honestly don't know why they have all bloomed so beautifully this time. I didn't do anything different and our winter was average. My early pink one bloomed in late December and the one above has been blooming since the end of February and it is nearly the end of April now. It is very happy in it's shady, moist location  -near central heat and air unit and gets condensation from that.

This pink and red stripe had two very different blooms on the same bush. Most all were true to type but I had one solid red near the bottom.

Look at the big fat bud on this red bush. It's blooms are even beautiful when they fall to the ground!

Camellia flowers stay a long time in a cut arrangement too. Look how pretty this one is.

All my Camellias are winter hardy varieties that can take our cold temps here in the upper south. It got down below 20 degrees this winter. They are all planted in sheltered places or under large trees and I leave the fallen leaves as ground cover until late spring. I think that gives them a little extra winter protection. I'm trying to propagate some from stem cuttings. I'll report on how that goes when I see the results.