South Dakota State University Extension Hosts “Garden Hour Webinar” online this season. For the free, hour long gardening show for our region, go to www.extension.sdstate.edu website. Choose the “Events” tab and see more information and the registration for Garden Hour Webinar. Featured to discuss the current season in the garden will be horticulturist Dr. Rhoda Burrows, tree … Continue reading
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Regional Plant-Related Event
Loess Hills Wild OnesHealing the Earth one yard at a time. Sioux City, IA area We’ll meet at Fowler Forest near Smithland at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 7, to check out spring ephemerals: Celebrate Iowa Wildflower Month with us! Walk through the woodland to see the diversity of spring wildflowers. The trail is easy and well-maintained, and we’ll meander up the … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day-March 15th
Oh, beautiful shamrock, with deep-hued, three-parted leaves. You’re a bit of a sham, a look-alike to Irish clover shamrocks. Native to southern South America, the perennial Purple Shamrocks (Oxalis triangularis) may be grown outdoors in light shade above USDA Hardiness Zone 8. As a potted houseplant, a group of the small Oxalis bulb-like corms each … Continue reading
Thoughts on How We Landscape
A few green daffodil leaf blades point skyward in a protected area in our region. Early for flowers and pollinators, but now is an excellent time to consider how our backyards are a part of national wildlife conservation. Professor Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist at the University of Delaware, has a strong message for gardeners in … Continue reading
Winter Water Changes
Fall color and leaf drop might seem like nature’s final curtain call before seeds sprout in spring. But one of the natural winter changes that happen here on the Northern Plains by the Missouri River for all to see involves the water itself. The Missouri River here is dammed and enlarged to a lake more … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day–January 15th
Welcome to the Northern Plains. Snow covers or outlines plants outdoors, but indoor houseplants bloom with a bit of extra light in a room heated for comfort. Potted Camellia japonica evergreen shrub has bloomed now and then since November. The flower has a faint spicy fragrance, and each bloom lasts several days. Shiny leaves add a background … Continue reading
Garden Winners
Who doesn’t want flower or vegetable plants that grow well with abundant foliage and flowers? When they are grown in your region of the country and compared to similar plants and still have stand-out qualities, that’s a winner. All-America Selections is a national non-profit plant trialing organization that acquaints the public with new cultivars. Impartial gardening … Continue reading
Gardener’s Time Off
What does a gardener do with unstructured time in winter? Some of the garden-related topics for enjoyment with a practical twist that this gardener might choose to include checking plants in the nursery, reading missed articles from favorite gardening magazines, and previewing seed catalogs for new ideas and introductions. Here is the nursery under the … Continue reading
For the Birds
From early December on, seeds, berries, and insects become harder to find after the growing season. Some bird enthusiasts provide supplemental feeder food that draws them closer for observation. Sometimes turkeys are the clean-up crew. While having coffee on the deck last summer, a motionless hummingbird perched on a plant container trellis for a moment. … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving
We share from Mary Oliver Devotions, her poem, “The Sunflowers,” in celebration of Thanksgiving for your enjoyment. The Sunflowers By Mary Oliver Come with me Into the field of sunflowers. Their faces are burnished disks, their dry spines creak like ship masts, their green leaves, so heavy and many, fill all day with the sticky sugars … Continue reading
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