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Welcome to My Jungle 2023

Purple coneflowers

Captivating coneflowers

Coneflowers (Echinacea spp.) make a beautiful addition to any garden and are relatively easy to establish and grow.  Even better, most coneflowers are excellent pollinator plants as well as providers of food for goldfinches and other seed-eating birds after the blooms have faded. Early...
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The gardeners guide book.

Reflecting on winter garden challenges

‘The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants’ by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox just came out and I already want the authors to start working on volume two just to expand from the 148 grasses, sedges, and flowers of the North American tallgrass prairie covered in this guide.  The bulk of this book is a...
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A blue poppy flower.

Know your garden and choose plants wisely

Looking through garden plant images often leads me to reminiscence about the plants no longer in my garden and what each death has taught me. Many plant species have died at my hands after being planted in unsuitable conditions because my desire to have them overrode some very real limitations in...
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A crocus 'Yellow Mammoth', winter aconite, netted iris, grape hyacinth and scilla flower.

Spring is just around the corner

It’s amaing how the little things can give us such joy, like seeing the first bee of the season, or a Carolina wren tearing out last year’s nest in order to rebuild it anew. But as a gardener, seeing the first blooms of the year completes that’s sense of renewal for me. My go-tos for early bloom...
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Tree removal is easier when trees are dormant

Sometimes a tree becomes a hazard This is the time of year I prefer to take down any trees that have died or become a hazard in the garden. I say “prefer” because sometimes you don’t have the luxury of waiting. I experienced this last year when a large tree lodged over as a result of heavy rains...
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Expect a higher price with a "new" label

Nothing in a nursery catalog catches my attention more than the word “new.” This term is usually applied to a plant that is new to the U.S. market, either as a new release from breeders, a wild plant recently brought into cultivation, or a plant already established on the overseas markets. And,...
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