One of the activities common to all gardeners of the region this season is weeding. Dan Friedenbach combats weeds with extraordinary means in this abandoned community garden plot. The water-permeable weed barrier, held in place with plastic stakes, will block sunlight from weeds beneath, warm the soil of the sweet potato plants in spring, and … Continue reading
Dibbles And Bits
Today’s Plant Exchange Blog features short plant-related topics that may be of interest to people who like plants. A way to get a standout container garden by combining ordinary plants from the local greenhouse, is to select plants, not only for color and texture, but also for contrast. Contrast light and dark plants such as … Continue reading
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day– July 15th
Welcome to Plant Exchange Blog on the Northern Plains. We feature plants that grow here and the people who like them. In our USDA Zone 4 – 5a region, we’d had more intermittent rain than in past years and a cool spring. Our adaptive plants are nearly caught up to the slow warming soil. Annual … Continue reading
Walk in the Country Vegetable Garden
Join us in a walk in our country vegetable and tomato garden. This is Plant Exchange Blog where we feature plants of the Northern Plains and people who grow them. We started our garden the second week of June in a cool, wet spring. Tree leaves that were spread over the garden to cover it … Continue reading
Don’t Forget Desserts!
Welcome to recipes for locally grown vegetables and fruits of summer at Plant Exchange Blog. Chef Staci Pederson is executive chef at the Hy-Vee Food Store in Yankton, South Dakota. She uses her own recipes and presentation flair with vegetables and fruits in season to “Celebrate Desserts”. Today she shares simple backyard desserts with us … Continue reading
Sweet as Nectar
One way to be pollinator-friendly in our neighborhood is to select plants for our own yard that supply pollinators with nectar and pollen. So many native pollinators are at work on a sunny early summer day in the Northern Plains. Bees of all sizes are busy yet stay mostly in the background. This is true … Continue reading
Thoughts About Garden Photos
Paul Harens is a retired Yankton High School language arts and social studies teacher who now has time to learn more about photography. His interest in plants goes back to childhood and he combines gardening and preserving what he sees. Harens is self-taught but also learns from others in the Yankton Area Photography Club. His … Continue reading
Celebrate Summer with Pollinators
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
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
