Echinacea Purpurea plants, also known as cone flowers are actually something lacking in my garden. My mother has some beautiful plants that look just like the one pictured, the purple cone flower, known for the medicinal properties of enhancing the immune system. (I use Echinacea and Golden Seal often for different infections, and during season changes to keep myself healthy.)
The plants are not hard to grow, and there is no excuse for them not being in my garden, so as I sit here with some snow outside and temperatures of 18 degrees, I dream of planting some in my garden when the warm weather comes.
I am so focused on the medicinal properties, especially of Echinacea Purpurea, that it took a visit to coneflowers.com to make me realize that there are many varieties and beautiful colors to these plants. Vibrant oranges, purples, pinks, yellows, reds and a variety of different petal shapes.
Generally the plants are not hard to grow, and though I prefer heirloom plants when possible, the hybrid varieties available are more suited to some gardens, or containers, as heirloom plants tend to get very large. I noticed that there were hybrid Cone Flowers from some of the top growers.
I hope you are enjoying this time of year when we dream and plan our gardens, do you have Cone Flowers in your garden?
I love animals, and think Deer are among the most beautiful and gentle looking creatures there are. We see them frequently around this area as it is very wooded, as well as bears, raccoons, squirrels, and you name it, we have it!
My tulips are beginning to put out their buds, and when they flower I’ll be doing what I can to keep our cute but rascally squirrels from eating the flowers.
Deer are not a big problem for me unless they are making their way down to our lake during a drought, I believe I shared a story on this blog once before about how they came down from the woods on the way to the water and ate every one of my beautiful orange triple-flower Day Lilies. That was a major but rare disappointment, at least here on our property. But deer can be real pests in many gardens…I have watched them grazing in yards and gardens very early in the morning when driving, while the homeowner/gardeners are still sleeping and unaware.
They are beautiful, but also do their part spreading Deer ticks that cause Lymes Disease, a disease that started here in NJ if memory serves me correctly? Definitely somewhere nearby in the Northeast. It is quite common here, as are the ticks, I’ve found them on myself and my dog on a number of occasions.
“Deer Off”® is an organic/natural repellent that you can safely spray on your plants and in the gardening area to keep Deer away, after all that work, a deer repellent like this will save you from waking up to a great disappointment like the people that I just mentioned must have found.
havahart.com has a wonderful Havahart® Deer Off ® II Battery-Powered Sprayer that has a patented Dual Deterrent System™ formula that provides both scent and taste barriers to repel deer, rabbits, and squirrels…so not only will it take care of the Deer, but those squirrels I was telling you about that like to eat my tulip flowers.
This post is to let you know that the plant exchange page has been updated for the 2009 season. Old inactive contributors have been removed, and new contributors are needed and appreciated. You can offer plants, or any garden, herb or plant-related item that you wish.
If you are not interested in offering your plants or other items for trade, but would prefer to offer them for a price, there are instructions on how to do this.
When you offer something for exchange or sale, not only will it be posted on the “Swap, Sell” page, but a post will be written to the blog about what you are offering, and information about you if you wish.
You will also find the story of how this exchange got started quite a few years ago at the bottom of the Swap, Sell Here page.
What a cold Spring day it is today here in northern NJ, but that isn’t stopping the high tree pollen count as the trees begin to bud, and the growth of my tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, crocuses and other assorted spring bulbs. Many of my perennial herbs are coming up as well.Today I want to share with you a list of plants and herbs in my garden that come up faithfully year after year, and are hard to kill. If there is a blog post with more information about the plants, such as how to grow or medicinal properties if they are herbs, you can get to it by clicking your mouse on the name of the herb or plant:
Sage - This is a perennial, that means that you plant it once, and it comes up each year. In fact, in spite of the cold, when I removed the pile of leaves I had over this one a week or so ago, most of the leaves from last season were still on the plant…and this is after a COLD winter. You do have to replace this one as over time it gets “woody”, I tend to cut it back quite a bit for as long as I can and see if it will put out new shoots. This is a wonderful medicinal AND culinary herb
Lily of the Valley - This comes up every spring, it is a little early right now where I live, but in only a matter of weeks the plants will put up their shoots. I have the pink variety, which is somewhat less common than the white, so each year I sell batches of it on eBay in the spring to thin it down to the nice patch you’ll see in the picture if you visit the link. It will be interesting to see how it has spread it’s runners over the winter and how many plants will be available to sell. I love this plant, the smell of the flowers is just wonderful.
Day Lilies (Daylilies) -In our front yard the shaft to our water well comes up out of the ground and is capped, around it I have planted Daylilies, the double orange variety, and made a garden in the area. These bloom later in the summer, and are just beautiful.
Comfrey - This one grows in the same garden as the Daylilies, and can become rather large and shrub-like. It has pretty purple flowers. It has the reputation for being a hard one to get rid of if you don’t want it somewhere, because even the smallest piece of a root left behind will form a new plant. I chose to put the Comfrey in the same garden as the Daylilies because the soil is not the best and it takes a bit of work to take over the garden, so I haven’t had a lot of trouble. I haven’t done a post devoted to Comfrey yet, working through the alphabet backwards for the most part as you can see in the upper right, but will one day.
Oregano - This favorite culinary herb is so easy to grow, and I have an abundance of it each year. I do snip the ends to keep it from flowering for part of the summer, then later in the summer, let it go to flower as the bees just love the flowers, and happy bees are so good for my garden as well as surrounding gardens.
Mints - The mint plants are best put in a somewhat contained area, I let them spread and just pull up and use or give away what wanders out of the area it should be in the spring. I love putting mint into my iced tea while brewing…just clean it well (small bugs like my mint too), then roll the leaves on the stem together between your palms (hands) to release the fragrant and flavorful oils, then put in your steeping tea. I sweeten mine with another herb called Stevia
Catnip - another one like Oregano and Mint…in fact all of these plants are “related”, part of the same family, so have similar growing patterns.
Lemon Balm - Another like the above, have had these coming up in my garden for so many years now I’ve lost count.
Chives - A wonderful culinary herb to add onion flavor to anything. I use the greens throughout the spring and summer…they are already out of the ground. Here’s a minor caution for you, each year mine gets pretty purple flowers on it. My first year with the plants, I clipped the flower tops off when they died, then clipped a bunch of the chives to take in to cut into my salad…not realizing that the flower stems are terribly hard, and inedible. Be sure when you remove the flowers to take them from the base of the stem so you don’t make the same mistake.
Strawberries - I have these in an old antique ceramic-coated wash basin on our deck. These amazing plants had leaves from last season that remained for much of the winter, and are already putting out their new leaves. Very hearty, and I look forward to a better crop of berries as we have more sun on the deck since they removed a couple of trees to install our new septic system.
These are just a few of the things that grow on my property, maybe you can share some of your favorites in a comment.
I post regularly to this blog, but today, this post was done as one of the lessons in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.
What a winter it has been, but the sun is shining brightly today, in fact it’s just at the right spot to be shining down on me through the skylight as I sit here on the couch with my laptop, and it feels delightful. We have had a long, cold winter, one of those winters that makes me wish that I had become involved in more winter sports as I was growing up.
The bulbs are all out of the ground now, and crucuses are all blooming. Purples, whites and yellows. So are my grape hyacinths. I removed the leaves from my herb and vegetable garden, and began to consider whether to move that to the back to a new spot that was formed by the installation of our new septic system last year. All of the herbs except the mint and lemon balm are showing, as is the rhubarb, the snow and cold have either enhanced the beauty and healthy look of the plants, or it is enhanced by the contrast after the winter.
On the “inside” front, it’s time to begin our annual war against the carpenter ants. They are making their appearance now that the weather is warm, we will have to do something soon to eliminate them, but today, it’s just get them as I see them, one by one. I don’t know whether we have more of them because we are in a log home, or others suffer with them just as much, you tell me, but even they are a sign of Spring in their own pesty little way.
I hope you are enjoying your gardens! What are you planting this year? How are your gardens growing?
Here is a picture of some of the crocuses, no, didn’t get the leaves raked off this garden yet:-)
Michelle Obama is going to be planting a garden at the White House, and from what I hear, it is going to be a garden with vegetables, herbs, and perhaps some fruit. The garden will be near the fountain on the south lawn, and children from a local DC school will join her to break ground today.
Where will the organic herbs and vegetables be used from the garden? In the White House kitchen, of course.
Over the past couple of years, our town has formed a sustainable gardening group, and have taken a plot of unused land in our Township, and turned it into something useful and beautiful. There is also a beautiful “island” of flowers in the middle of the traffic light interchange in the middle of our town that adds color to an otherwise uninteresting spot year round…beautiful flowers in the spring, summer and fall, and decorative cabbage and winter pansies during the colder months.
Project Orange Thumb grant is a program that encourages and provides the resources for this type of activity by offering tools and funding to start new projects similar to the ones I have shared, or to improve and enhance community gardening projects that are already established.
Please visit the Project Orange Thumb grant link, read all the details, and apply. Pass this information along to gardening friends in your community. Think of your garden clubs, groups like the ones I mentioned above, school grounds (a great educational opportunity in horticulture), parks, land that is unused but has potential to be something beautiful, there are many ideas…look around you and the town or city where you live. The application deadline is February 17, 2009.
Grand recipients will receive $1000 in green goods and $1500 in Fiskars gardening tools.
For six years, Fiskars’ Project Orange ThumbSM has provided over 100 community groups with over $300,000 to create and develop their own special community gardens.
Echinacea Purpurea plants, also known as cone flowers are actually something lacking in my garden. My mother has some beautiful plants that look just like the one pictured, the purple cone flower, known for the medicinal properties of enhancing the immune system. (I use Echinacea and Golden Seal often for different infections, and during season changes to keep myself healthy.)
I love animals, and think Deer are among the most beautiful and gentle looking creatures there are. We see them frequently around this area as it is very wooded, as well as bears, raccoons, squirrels, and you name it, we have it!
Over the past couple of years, our town has formed a sustainable gardening group, and have taken a plot of unused land in our Township, and turned it into something useful and beautiful. There is also a beautiful “island” of flowers in the middle of the traffic light interchange in the middle of our town that adds color to an otherwise uninteresting spot year round…beautiful flowers in the spring, summer and fall, and decorative cabbage and winter pansies during the colder months.
