Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Wildflower Wednesday Debut

Hello one and all,
This post is essentially my first public post, since I'll be linking it up to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday.  My garden is very much in the infant stages, but I did manage to plop in a few natives, whose seedheads I'll feature here.
Clustered Mountain Mint (purchased from the Pineland Alliance fundraiser) and Lucy
 This blog is mostly to help me keep track. Two years ago we spent most of the summer ripping out Ivy, Poison Ivy, Green Brier, Wisteria, ando some creeping evergreens. What I did plant I soon forgot. Last spring I eagerly anticipated my first Coneflower bloom, but I wasn't sure which of my two plants it was. Every morning I watched the plants grow, googling what the seedlings looked like, only to find myself starring at a False Foxglove Beardtongue and an Anise Hyssop.
Anise hyssop facing the driveway large enough for a fleet of limousines
Now I keep a journal of what I plant and am writing this blog because I need help. I'm looking for advice on growing organically, mostly natives here in the Mid-Atlantic area along with some veggies. I also need plenty of advice on making things structurally attractive and, well, doing it as cheaply as possible. I have trees I can't identify, sand in some places, a bog in another, a large steep hill covered in invasives, and a husband that must be dissuaded from chemicals. Help! The winter has been spent researching a plenty, in hopes of avoiding any costly and time consuming mistakes, but more advice is always needed.
Lucy helping with the research, Monty Don's The Complete Gardener 
So anybody have any advice? Anybody from the South Jersey area? Anybody reading this?

10 comments:

  1. Pamela, Welcome to blogging and gardening. You have an adventure ahead of you! I am so excited for you. Are you a member of your state's native plant society? That's a good place to start. It helped me when I was trying to figure out what was what and what to plant. Also, do you know about Garden Blogger's Fling? We are meeting in DC this year and it's great fun. http://gardenbloggersfling.blogspot.com/p/2018-dcva.html

    Happy Wildflower Wednesday, gail

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    1. Holy Cthulhu, I have a reply. Thank you Gail for the welcome. I've actually been to a few of the meetings already for our local Native Plant society chapter.

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  2. I am not a Jersey native, nor do I have any design chops, but it sounds like you have some delightful landscape variety when it comes to native plants! I am in a clay zone -- wet soggy clay or hard dry clay, it's tough. I envy your sandy well-drained soil, perfect for lovely natives I have been drooling over such as Delphinium exaltatum - Tall Blue Larkspur, Asclepias tuberosa - Butterflyweed, Callirhoe involucrata - Purple Poppy Mallow, Lupinus perennis - Wild Lupine, Ruellia humilis - Wild Petunia, Linum lewisii - Blue Flax, Monarda punctata - Dotted Mint and more. Ceanothus americanus - New Jersey Tea is a beautiful butterfly shrub. I don't know a lot about bog plants, but a boggy area means you have an amazing potential for attracting wildlife. I'm a beginner myself, but there are a few introductory books that I really like: The Green Garden, by Ellen Sousa; Taming Wildflowers, by Miriam Goldberger; and 100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants by Lorraine Johnson. Good luck with your garden and have fun!

    Oh, and I have stumbled across this site in my obsessive native plant internet trawling - might be good one for you: http://www.jerseyyards.org/

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    1. Thank you for the great book recommendations, and a reminder I need to cage my New Jersey Tea; something apparently finds it rather tasty.

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  3. A natural bog? Oh what a glorious opportunity.

    Maybe this garden is near or similar to yours?
    http://federaltwist.com/

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    1. I know! I think it's what blinded me to the leaky roof, cockroaches, and generally gross conditions of the house.

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  4. this post is his own garden
    http://federaltwist.com/in-praise-of-weather-again-2/

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  5. Best wishes to you as your garden takes shape!

    I grow several Pycnanthemum (mountain mint) species in Tennessee. I think P. muticum (clustered mountain mint or short-toothed mountain mint) is my favorite. Good choice!

    And anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) is a fantastic plant for attracting bees to the flowers and birds (goldfinches in my garden) to the seeds. Plus I usually get some volunteer seedlings from each anise hyssop.

    My advice - experiment! Research is great and invaluable, but you can't beat hands-on experimentation for figuring out what you like and what works in your garden.

    Oh - and work with the conditions you already have rather than try and change/amend them. There's a mantra in native gardening - Don't Fight the Site! :)

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    1. PS - I see you already have my site (GardenofAaron) linked in your sidebar. Wow! I'm honored :) I'll add yours to my blogroll too so I can keep track of your gardening adventures!

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    2. Plus working with what ya got is a heck of a lot cheaper than trying to amend it, lol.

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