Soon, we will be looking for quality plants for our home gardens. Last summer, I sought red petunias that would attract the hummingbirds that have nested nearby for the past three years. The season before, I was disappointed that the birds avoided the sale petunias I had chosen, but luckily, they visited other flowers on … Continue reading
Filed under Landscape Design …
Garden Artistry with Plants
Gardening in summer is an opportunity for creative expression. A synergy where the plants are arranged so that the whole is greater than the individuals placed there. We may show our innovative ideas in a garden, in a planter, or in attention to a single plant. An example of landscape art is available to the … Continue reading
Dibbles and Bits
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
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
McCrory Gardens Welcomes Fall
McCrory Gardens in Brookings, South Dakota, has been in bloom for visitors this season since the tulips of spring. But in October, the native prairie flowers and maturing grasses define the 25 acres of botanical gardens in the vision of Harvey Dunn’s painting (1950), “The Prairie is My Garden.” Dunn’s painting of the South Dakota … Continue reading
Planned, Wild, and Free
Many herbaceous and woody perennials are growing again. It’s a time to celebrate plants that have broken dormancy in the fall and winter drought conditions. Likely, we will find gaps in the flowerbeds, and local greenhouses have many options. Don Engebretson, design writer for the Northern Gardener magazine, is quoted in an article in the June issue … Continue reading
Trees for the Prairie
Greenhouses burst with alluring annuals for our gardens. If these flowers were wearable, we might consider them jewelry, and the trees that anchor our yards as fundamental as the black dress. Trees and shrubs add a vertical shape to the area above the annuals and perennials in a yard. Trees can be the welcoming presence … Continue reading
Goals for the Garden Season
Before the daffodils bloom and the first turn of the soil, I consider a shortlist of what I aim for this gardening season. Add More Native Plants They are more adapted to the environment and thrive year to year, require less watering once established, and are more likely to benefit pollinators and other wildlife. More … Continue reading
Dream a Garden Space
February can be the creative start to your personalized garden space. The cozy indoors with lots of photos of your landscape or a stack of gardening magazines with pictures that show aspects of spaces you are attracted to is a place to begin. Collect images that show your space as it is and the look … Continue reading
Midwest Plant Breeder Hans Hansen
Flowers and foliage in yards and public spaces have been beautiful this season! Where do the new bright colors and variety of leaf patterns originate? At Plant Exchange, we’ll focus on one plant breeder who may have introduced a yellow False Indigo, Hosta, coral Monarda, pink Phlox, or red hibiscus you have seen growing nearby. … Continue reading
Plant Exchange Blog 