Long days of summer are here! We also celebrate National Pollinator Week. We care about a pollinator-friendly environment. Here are three concrete ways we can make choices to benefit pollinators: Provide food for pollinators. Include a variety of tree or shrub, perennial and annual flowers you have seen attracting butterflies and bees in your yard … Continue reading
Filed under Perennials and Grasses …
Dependable Perennials– Peony and Columbine
In spring, greenhouses feature the latest new flowering plants and gardeners are eager to plant them. If the new introductions are perennials, perhaps they will grow again next year in local environmental conditions. What a comfort though, to see perennials emerge from dregs of winter in one’s own yard, years in a row. What a … Continue reading
Dibbles And Bits
Dandelions are everywhere in early spring. “My great grandfather brought dandelions with him from Denmark,” Paul Harens of Yankton remarked. “They were for greens.” Why one would bring dandelion seeds to grow– the plant scourge of some lawns today? Dandelions are members of the large Asteraceae family. The genus Taraxacum is native to North America, … Continue reading
Transplants Ready to Plant Soon
Transplants are ready to go in the garden here at Plant Exchange! It’s mid-May and the average frost date has passed, so in the next couple of weeks, the transplants here are ready for the flowerbeds, gardens, and containers. Flowers and vegetables were started from seeds and germinated under florescent lights indoors. When the plants … Continue reading
Lauritzen Gardens Dinosaurs and Plants
Plants and dinosaurs were well connected in ancient times in our mid – region of the now United States. Fossil evidence shows us that dinosaurs ate plants or dined on plant-eaters. Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska, has an exhibit that shows realistic dinosaurs and living plants they likely ate. “Dinosaur UpROAR” exhibit, until May 12th, … Continue reading
Landscape Designer’s Yard
How people make their yards one-of-a-kind, is amazing. At a regional Garden Writers Association tour held in western Michigan last summer, Cami Geschwendt, a professional landscape designer, showed her private suburban yard. Trees, perennials, flowers and sculptures are dominant elements in her design. Let’s take a peek: Among the pansies, a sculpture container wears a … Continue reading
Days of Solitude
One of the features of the Northern Plains is days of solitude. I started a stroll around the yard, feeling the burden of a snowy day. There lay the outline of yarrow in snow I had hadn’t noticed all winter. Silent birdhouse by one of the deer trails. Snow is heavy on the spruce, but … Continue reading
Plant Bits
It’s a cold day in the Dakotas, but a great day to do catch up reading here at Plant Exchange Blog. These are some garden-related topics on attracting more butterflies in the yard, like this monarch on Agastache. Also there’s an item on free leaf mulch, attracting more kinds of birds and a possible perennial … Continue reading
Elements of a Welcoming Home Entrance
How do we create more inviting front entrances for our homes? Let’s tour the front entrance of Andy and Jen Holst to see how they applied their creativity to making their front entrance welcoming. Their yard was a part of the Master Gardener garden tour last summer. Their yard in Yankton has an intimate front … Continue reading
Lewis & Clark Recreation Area Pollinator Plots and Tree Update
Now is a fine time to plan flowers for pollinators. Maybe the hobby wildflower grower will find some tips here. At Lewis & Clark Recreation Area, two 3-acre pollinator plots are at the entrance to the state park. This past early July, the plots were filled with native wildflowers and native grasses. In this mid-summer … Continue reading
