Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Native plants are well-suited to the growing conditions in your area and are often great nesting habitat, a food source, or a host plant for the wildlife around you. By adding native plants to your garden, you can create wildlife habitat that helps pollinators like bees and butterflies, attracts hummingbirds and songbirds, and provides cover for many small mammals. Learn about native plants and how to grow them in your garden.
Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) is a favorite of native plant gardeners for many reasons. If you're looking for a shrub that is hardy, produces beautiful flowers, can grow in the shade, and has lovely fall colors, look no further. Here are just a few of the reasons why I love this shrub: #1 The large white flowers (in the …
Continue Reading about 3 Top Reasons to Love the Oakleaf Hydrangea Shrub
Having a variety of trees that bloom or produce fruit at different times of the year with a mixture of both deciduous trees and evergreens can offer good habitat for wildlife and birds. Arbor Day is a reminder to all of us of the benefits of trees and this day encourages us to add some trees to our backyard landscape. A little Arbor Day …
Continue Reading about Trees for Your Southern Landscape: A Walk through the Forest in Your Backyard
You've probably seen the bright yellow-gold blooms of goldenrod along roadsides, in ditches, or fields. This plant is prevalent throughout most of the U.S., except in some northwestern states. It's a plant with a lot of wildlife benefits. Native Range There are about 120 different species of goldenrod and most of them are native to the U.S. …
Continue Reading about Goldenrod (Solidago spp.) Benefits Wildlife
Native plants are adapted to the soil, temperature, rainfall, and fauna in the area in which they grow. As a result, they provide some benefits to the gardener and local wildlife that non-native plants bought from your local garden store may not. I like the look of native plants in my garden. I tend to mix them in with exotic plants and I end up …
Continue Reading about Top 5 benefits of gardening with native plants
If you want an iris that has a lot of color but is very low maintenance, maybe the Louisiana iris if for you. The wide variety of colors and shapes in these irises make them very popular. This is a favorite of mine and I find the unique flowers gorgeous. The leaves are attractive, providing texture in the garden long after the blooms are gone. …
The little purple-blue flowers of common blue violet are blooming all over my grass under the trees, where it stays moist for long periods of time. I always try to mow around them as much as I can so that I can enjoy the wildflowers. They bloom in early spring into early summer, from April to June and sometimes July. Common Blue Violet Plant …
