GET GROWING!
A SONG FOR GARDENERS
Image credit: LADYBUG.
By LADYBUG
As my peonies and iris bloom this month, as the lilacs fill the air with a heady perfume, and as the seasons segue from spring through summer to fall, I meet old friends in my garden.
Dorothy, my neighbour, friend and gardening guru gave me clumps of peonies and iris, from plants that were several decades old as she had transplanted them from her previous home. Also columbines that display their pretty blooms in spring, coreopsis that flowers in summer and Chinese lanterns that provide a jolt of bright orange in fall.
Linda and I first became friends as we chatted in the schoolyard while waiting for our respective sons to emerge from the kindergarten classroom. Starting with the small bunch of violets she brought for me one day, she gave me a host of plants from her garden. Phlox, snow-on-the-mountain (the annual euphorbia marginata) and snow-in-summer (cerastium tomentosum). She gave me Rose of Sharon seedlings and branches of oleander to root. She gave me what I thought was a pink chrysanthemum but she said was Michaelmas daisy and actually an aster. From her mother’s cottage, this, too, was from old plants.
All of them have done well. Including the annual snow-on-the-mountain that seeds prolifically and thus behaves like a perennial, sure to show up in corners in my garden where it was not planted. They settled into their new home when we moved some years ago and continue to grow and thrive.
Both Dorothy and Linda passed away several years ago but their flowers live on in my garden.
There’s an old Hindi song, Badal jaye agar mali, chaman hota nahi khali. It means that a garden has a life of its own beyond the gardener, that a gardener is but a custodian who looks after the space through the seasons.
I find myself thinking of that song often when I am among my old friends in the garden.
Image credit: LADYBUG.
HERB GARDENS ATTRACT BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES
From NEWS CANADA
Herbs are used as fresh seasoning in food and drinks and for medicinal care but did you know that certain herbs also attract bees, hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden?
Seeking nectar, they are attracted to a variety of mint plants including chocolate, orange, pineapple and even mojito mint.
All mint plants have great culinary uses; chocolate mint is used in desserts such as sorbets and cakes and pineapple mint is used in fruit salads or for a glaze on ham. Middle Eastern salads and Thai dishes are complemented by orange mint. And mojito mint is the key ingredient in the popular beverage.
“Most people think mint is just mint and don’t realize the great variety in this herb family,” says Jeff Howe, the president of Bonnie Plants Canada. “Growing your own selection of mints provides a novice or seasoned gardener an opportunity to try a wide range of recipes for food and drinks.”
A container planted in full sun or partial shade with a variety of mint plants, can be a great conversation piece with the added environmental bonus of drawing bees and butterflies to your patio or balcony.
Mint plants are available in biodegradable pots and must be watered regularly for best results. There are additional tips online on how to care for mint plants at www.bonnieplants.ca.