A reader shares a tip about seed-starting with benefits anytime you plant this season. An article on design for outdoor container gardens has a practical bent. An overlooked ironwood tree is highlighted. All subjects in the June 2023 Fine Gardening magazine are available for browsing at the Yankton Community Library. We bring our twist to today’s Plant Exchange Blog. >>>Tiny seeds can be hard … Continue reading
Filed under Container Gardens …
Pruning a Jade Plant
The jade plant is a common houseplant worldwide. The attractive succulent needs little care. It requires little water in summer and even less in winter indoors. In this region, the jade plant can thrive in hot, full sun on a south-facing deck in summer and receives an hour or so of the sun in the … Continue reading
Watering Indoor Plants
In a two-week-before frenzy to add color to a family celebration, I repotted a flowering tropical plant into a pot without holes in the bottom. (With a drill not handy, I will remedy that later.) I watered the plant extra, figuring it would be forgotten in the rush. Days later, noting some bloom drop and … Continue reading
Dibbles and Bits
With additional snow cover locally, the USDA average last frost date (April 27th- May 3rd in this region) is not top of mind. Before planting, we consider spring drought preparations, a drought-tolerant bee balm, and what’s left at the low water mark. Drought may continue into spring in this area, and lawn grass displays a lack … Continue reading
Create a Sustainable Yard
A blanket of snow covers our yard. Before winter dormancy ends and the spring rush begins, there is time to think about parts of the yard to reinforce, add to, or change. A February 2023 Fine Gardening magazine feature shows how a professional might access their yard. It stirred some thoughts about my own yard. … Continue reading
Try Strawflowers Again
Strawflowers (Xerocurysum bracteatum), also called Paper Daisies or Golden Everlasting, are a commonly found summer annual that blooms from summer to frost in this region. Colors include red, orange, pink, purple, yellow, white, and others. The herb is rather avoided by chewing mammals. Native to Australia and a perennial there in about USDA Hardiness 8-11, strawflowers … Continue reading
Palms From the Land of Milk and Honey
Palms are trees that grow in the full sun of warm and dry or humid climates, such as the Middle East, northern Africa, the European Mediterranean, Mexico, California, Florida, and Arizona. Not here on the Northern Plains. Waving palm fronds at a Palm Sunday church service and eating dates in a Christmas fruitcake is a … Continue reading
Cole Crops for Cool Weather
What can grow at this time of year when it is 29 degrees F. today with wind from the north? As Fall deteriorates, cool weather becomes harder to ignore. But gardeners often gamble and plant a few seeds for the mild shoulder season that we have had so far. Cole crops, varieties related to cabbage … Continue reading
Time for a Change in Vegetable and Flower Gardening Methods?
Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village archeological remains from a thousand years ago in this Northern Plains region show evidence of Three Sisters vegetable gardening methods, saved seeds, and corn cob fossils about three or four inches in length. Immigrants to the Northern Plains in the late 1800s saw that some Native Americans who grew produce used … Continue reading
More Happy Days of Summer with Sunflowers
Some of the best parts of summer are when there are few days left. Lots of sunflowers, symbols of happy days, grow here. In our region of the United States, archeologists have found evidence of corn, bean, squash, sunflower and amaranth cultivation about 1000 A.D. Sunflowers can be found planted in a field in this … Continue reading
Plant Exchange Blog 