Garden Experiments
For the love of gardening and wildlife habitat
Have you ever plucked a honeysuckle flower, turned it around, and gently sucked the nectar from the tube-shaped back of the flower? If you grew up in the southeastern U.S., I bet you did. That taste of super-sweet honey nectar always makes me think of summer nights spent chasing fireflies and summer days spent running wild and free. Imagine …
Continue Reading about Japanese Honeysuckle vs Native Honeysuckle Vine
Spring comes early in Mississippi. While my friends who live in states to the north continue to fight through snow and ice, I start to see the fresh green of new plant growth emerge from my lawn in mid to late-March. The early arrival of spring weather is one of my favorite things about living in Mississippi – the early respite from the cold, …
Continue Reading about Lyreleaf Sage – Mississippi Wildflower
The weather this late spring and first days of summer have been hot, wet, and sometimes in between. It may be a little hard on us humans, but my garden seems to be enjoying it well enough. June is the month for Asiatic lilies, hibiscus, zinnias, and echinacea. These flowers have been blooming their little hearts out. These are some of my …
The early spring flowers have come and gone and now we're into warmer temperatures and lots of rain! Things in my garden have been growing quickly and starting to put on quite a show. These are some of my favorite photos I took during the month of May 2017 from my garden. Hope you enjoy them! You can click on an image below to see a larger size …
Right when the balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, is about to bloom, it does its best impression of a balloon. It's so good at it, I have to work really hard to keep myself from trying to squeeze it and make it pop! In addition to having a really fun bud stage, this is a hard-working perennial. I love a plant you can put in the ground and …
Continue Reading about The Flower That Thinks It’s a Balloon
As I go about my daily routine each morning, I usually have a few minutes to check out my garden before I head to the office. One of my favorite spots in my yard is the 3 feet of ground surrounding my mailbox. The soil here is terrible and I didn't do anything to amend it, but I insisted on putting some plants here so that I wouldn't have to …
