Spring Gardening: 15 Minutes to a Beautiful Garden

March is a great time for your Midwest garden. The problem is, most gardeners are all caution when it comes to Spring planting, telling you it's too early for your tomatoes.. (Of course it is, silly.)  But tomorrow is the first day of Spring!  So, even if it's only for 15 minutes a day, you can get out and get started.  (You know you want to.) 


The Lawn
Now is the time to reseed the yard, especially if you use a seed product that has crabgrass preventer.  The warm-ish days and plentiful moisture make it perfect for germinating grass, especially if you can manage to keep the kids -- and the dog -- out of the yard for a week or so.  (Rainy, chilly weather can make that easier than you think.  Perfect time for cooking lessons, if you ask me. Mmmm.... soup.)

 

The Vegetable Patch
There's a reason spring onions have that name.  These are mine.  Looks like a jumble of half-green mess, doesn't it?  Give them a month, and they'll look (and taste!) far different.  Some crops, like Spinach and peas, actually germinate best in cold soil.  So, the freeze/thaw cycle that works its magic on local sugar Maples can be a great sign that the time is nearing to plant.  I usually wait until the tail end of the Maple sugaring season, then get my Spinach and peas in the ground.


The Herb Garden
Love to cook?  Tend to your herbs, especially the ones you planted close to the house or in that magical microclimate close to your furnace vent.  At our place, our parsley and oregano are already showing fresh shoots.  (And yes, I've cooked with them in the past week!)  Cut back woody perennials like sage and rosemary, being sure to save/dry/use what you trim back.

The Flower Beds
Even if you didn't plant bulbs last fall (See, Mom?  My daffodils and tulips really are already out of the ground!) you can plant some bulbs now.  Glads and Asiatic Lilies planted now will provide you with tall, beautiful blooms in June.  Pansies in pots that you can handily pull closer to the house on cold nights can give your front porch early color.  After a long winter, isn't that what every gardener needs?

Whatever little ways you can edge your way out into the garden will help you celebrate the start of Spring.  Because what's better for the soul than nurturing brand new life?  And these tiny jobs -- like planting your peas! -- are perfect for getting your kids into the garden, a little at a time.

Keep in mind that the lovely brown, leafy, grassy mulch you put on your beds last year is a cozy blanket for everything growing.  If you tend your plants, be sure to tuck them in when you're done.  By the time those daffodils bloom, though, you'll be safe to open the garden, with just a turned-over bucket or floating plastic row cover to keep late frost away.

So get out there!  It's the perfect time for a little sunshine.  Soothes the soul.

- Midwest Mom

Going Green: Blooms & Bloomin' Pests

I planted this lily when I was pregnant with my youngest daughter. Just shy of three years later, it has finally bloomed! Whenever I look at it, I think of the miracle of her.

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Midsummer is such a fun time in our garden. Spring and early Summer plants are setting seeds before Fall arrives. Tomatoes and peppers are fruiting heavily. The green beans are ready for a third picking and already blooming for a fourth. And the eggplant, cucumbers, pumpkins, and cantaloupe are all flowering profusely. I am so glad I decided to plant more than just tomatoes this year. We are enjoying the abundance that comes from vegetable gardening in the Midwest.

Of special note is the success of our herb garden. I have always grown oregano, parsley, and basil, because I use them heavily in our home cooking. Last year, I planted lemon thyme, rosemary and peppermint as a way to branch out. What success!

The peppermint, especially, has been thriving and is in bloom. Although I have to tend it carefully to make sure it doesn't steal garden space from other plants, I love the look and smell of it in the garden. I have even caught the children stealing nibbles of the minty leaves.

Elsewhere in the garden, we are enjoying carpets of black- and brown-eyed Susans. Large sunflowers and smaller 'wild' sunflowers are providing the birds with plenty to eat. Since yellow is my favorite color, I find the display delightful.

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There is, however, a pest I've been battling for at least a month. The dreaded Japanese Beetle has made a home in our garden -- again! Each year, I wage war with this creepy, seemingly indestructible bug. Fortunately, I find that my hatred (I know it's a strong word, but fitting) of this pest is overcoming my tendency to be totally creeped out by it.

I typically have used Japanese Beetle "bug bags" out to lure these beasts to their doom. In theory, the citronella-smelling bait attracts these horny devils into a bag, trapping them because they're either too stupid to fly out or too distracted by the teeming beetle orgy that eventually takes place. Personally, I don't care which it is... as long as they don't keep eating my plants.

I have noticed, however, that there are certain plants the Japanese beetles find irresistible. In my garden, it is the zinnias, evening primrose, and apple tree that have sustained the most damage. Lately, I have had success going from plant to plant knocking beetles into a cup of water and then pouring the fiends into the bug bag. I go around in the morning and evening, and I usually can collect 18-25 of the disgusting things in the cup before I'm done. It has helped to minimize the damage.

You may wonder why I don't just spray with an insecticide. I'll tell you -- chemicals are stupid. They don't know the difference between the super-creepy Japanese Beetle and the 20+ beneficial pollinators that help our plants be more productive. When a commercial- or home-gardener decides to let a spray do the work, they are choosing to kill bees, butterflies, and other fantastic insects like walking sticks and leaf-hoppers, and even spiders, praying mantis and other hunters. Garden chemicals can also easily leech into groundwater. I suspect they may be, if not the cause, certainly a contributing factor in our nation's honeybee problem, Colony Collapse Disorder.

Even against a pernicious pest like the Japanese Beetle, I don't believe chemicals are the answer. So, for now I'll keep doing the circuit with my cup of water. It's a good excuse to get out in the garden on a daily basis...

.. even if it is pretty creepy.

Midwest Mom