Recently in Signs of Spring in Missouri Category

If there's one Missouri wildflower that says spring to me, it's wild columbines. Don't they look like old-fashioned granny's bonnets?

I first came close to columbines on a Colorado vacation to Estes Park. Hummingbirds were all over the flowers so I decided I needed to buy seeds and grow columbines in my garden.

A few years later, after several unsuccessful attempts to raise columbines by seed, a friend gave me a start of Missouri's wildflower version.

These lovely red flowers with yellow accents look almost ethereal in early morning sunshine.

Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, about
Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill.

Years ago, I first saw Blue-eyed Grass by the side of my gravel country road.

Thinking I needed new glasses, I went back a few days later trying to find the lovely blue flowers, only to come across clumps of what looked like grass.

Once I identified the flower in my Missouri Wildflowers book and understood it was actually a tiny iris, it was much easier to spot them.

Several weekends ago, I got a call from a neighbor.

"Come quickly," the male voice  said, "it only opens when its sunny."

As I walked up to Lyle Purcell's front door, I noticed beautiful yellow flowers that looked like long-stemmed dandelions.

"That's Krigia biflora or false dandelion," Purcell said. "I don't know why but they've settled here on their own, probably brought in by birds."

The yellow flowers were lovely and a testament to why planting native wildllowers are a good idea, even if the gardener is a bird.

Although Lyle doesn't have bird feeders around, Lyle's garden is a bird haven. In addition to planting plants that attract birds, he keeps his garden chemical-free to attract insects, which are nature's bird take out.

Lyle started planting his garden for wildlife long before it was a trend. He included wild columbines, one of my personal favorites, and native Missouri red buckeye.

Planted several decades ago, Lyle said he had to search for the plants and ended up buying them out of state.

Luckily today, native Missouri wildflower plants, and seeds, are now offered at local nurseries.

Besides being accustomed to our changing weather, native wildflowers easily settle themselves into a garden with very little care.

 It was fun to walk through Lyle's garden and see where False Dandelion. wild columbines and violets, another personal favorite, where popping up.

"Columbines have been out for a couple of weeks but I only saw my first hummingbird early May," Lyle said.

It does seem hummingbirds arrived a little later this year from their winter migration to Brazil.

After reading a book about perennials that are low in maintenance, Lyle said he also planted a lovely patch of blue across the path from the almost tree-size red buckeye.

I've always liked the idea of planting a tree to celebrate a special occasion.

Several years ago, I was given a pink dogwood tree as a birthday gift and planted it  close to the entrance of my house.

Pink dogwood trees are another sign of spring in Missouri; they bloom mid to late April, after white wild dogwood trees start to bloom and offer pretty fall color and winter berries for the birds - a tree for all seasons.

As pink dogwood trees bloom, their flowers have a lovely rich blush along the edge.

Have you been tempted to put in a garden but put off doing it because of all the work?

I'm talking about a small  garden, with raised beds and elevated structures so plants grow vertically.

This is the second year for my toy Missouri vegetable garden, featuring several 3x3 feet square, and 2x8 and 3x8 painted cedar, raised bed forms in a 15x15 foot, relatively flat area.

The benefit of using raised beds is the plots are easier to manage - the soil tends to stay in raised bed forms, a challenge gardening on a hill - and they don't require big gardening equipment.

A small hand-tiller picked up for $1 at an auction helps me keep soil loose, mix in compost. and is easy on my back.

I do follow some basic farming practices: I add compost every season; I don't plant the same vegetables in the same spot,  and although I appreciate chemicals can be useful, I depend on a healthy supply of onions and marigolds to do guard duty. I also plant herbs in left-over concrete blocks, which helps to control their usually vigorous growth.

Morning glories are growing over this topiary cat seemingly about to munch on a bunch of chives.

My toy garden nicely feeds two and gives me a chance to reconnect to how food grows and experiment; last year, I tested several ways to keep deer out;  99 cent a yard bridal veil finally saved over-munched broccoli and cauliflower.

From the number of turtles walking around, this year I'll find out how high turtles can climb to get into a raised strawberry bed.

So far, I've shared fresh salads with lettuce mixtures, radishes, onions and herbs; peas are blooming, and if it ever stops raining, the planted summer garden will get started with green beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, pumpkins, strawberries and raspberries.

Old birdhouses make whimsical planters; I'm growing marigolds in this half of the buried birdhouse, zinnias in the other half.

Make sure to add a seating area so you can rest, and a rain barrel to collect water for later use.

Raised garden beds don't have to be anything big, and it's amazing how much produce you can get out of a little spot of good soil and a handful of seeds.















Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill

One of the larger but harmless garden bees is the carpenter bee.

About as big as a bumble bee, these large, black solitary bees flit from flower to flower with acrobatic grace, moving quickly, and sometimes dizzily, until they find a place to light.

This carpenter bee spies a nice grove of Missouri wildflowers Virginia Cowslip, or Bluebells.

I'm guessing these lovely wildflowers would look like trees to a carpenter bee...

Marble-sized hail pellets were striking my house close to midnight May 12,2011 as winds ripped through trees, shredding leaves and deck plants.

What didn't occur to me at the time was this late spring storm was also killing some of my honeybees.

My friend Leona called this our "blackberry winter," one of a number of late spring cold spells we get in mid-Missouri before danger of frost is gone.

Blackberry winter refers to the spring period when blackberries are in bloom, usually mid to late April through May.

Here's how my deck looked Friday morning, after the storm.

The hail storm also killed some of my "mutt" honeybees raised by Don Moore, St. James, who hybridizes and sells then to new backyard beekeepers like me. It's always best to buy, and raise, local honeybees.

Honeybees are tidy housekeepers, flying outside instead of using the hive as a bathroom. 

Gertrude hive, facing southwest with a tree about 4 feet from the entrance, only lost a few honeybees. I imagine these honeybees were on their way in or out of the hive when the storm hit.

This is the lower "porch" in front of the hive after the storm:

One of my dearest friends loves to cook but freaks when her vegetables don't behave.

One late night, I got  a frantic call about white onions "going to town" in her refrigerator crisper.

I thought at first she was upset because they didn't invite her, only to be reminded if I wanted a delivery of any of her fabulous cooking, I had "better tell these onions to stop."

It's okay, I thought, I'm a certified professional, although for the life of me I don't remember anyone in our Phelps County Master Gardener classes last year covering errant onions.

Misbehavin' blackberries, maybe.

I decided to first break the "good" news.

If she ever wanted a cold-frame-like environment to grow early spring crops, or a bulb garden, sounded like her refrigerator crisper was the perfect spot to do it.

Amazing how silence on the other end of a phone call can sound so - well, you know.

Then I reminded her of Andrew the Onion, a Vadalia onion surviving 9 months in an empty refrigerator, then traveling from San Francisco to Missouri through two airport pat downs.
 
Andrew ended up in my first raised vegetable garden last year, blooming beautifully.



You're telling me I can't cut these suckers up, she said, I have to plant them?

Well, they're using their stored energy in the bulb to grow.

 Why not plant them in a container garden or next to roses.

Onions will keep bugs away from roses, and be quite beautiful when they bloom.

And if you were buying fancy ones, you'd be delightedly waiting for them to grow and bloom, then  calling them your darling alliums.

They'll also make a great elegant garnish with any dish you're making - hint, hint!





Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill

It's hard not to notice the lovely flower garden outside Dr. Jim Bass's office off Hauck Drive in Rolla, Missouri.

What you may not know is half the raised garden - the part closest to Dr. Bass's office - is a treasure trove of old-fashioned medicinal plants.

Planted four years ago as one of Ina Bicknell's Phelps County Master Gardener projects, the garden is a combination of medicinal herbs, native wildflowers and fun annuals "for a spot of color."

Ina said she had fun researching the background of plants and herbs used a century ago to treat diseases, such as lavender for flatulence, fainting and nervousness.

That's quite a combination, I told Ina.

"Sometimes the plants were so bad for you, you forgot how bad you felt because you weren't nervous any more," Ina said.

Starting at the corner of the garden closest to Dr. Bass's office door, flanked with one of my favorite perennials, ever-so-soft Lamb's Ear "for decoration:"

Feverfew, used for fevers and chills, which probably gave the plant it's name.

Chamomile, used for nervousness, a weak stomach and hair rinse.
 
Suppose there was a connection? I'm thinking if I drank my hair rinse, my stomach wouldn't feel very well, either!

Creeping Thyme, a cure for baby colic and headaches. Now there's definitely a connection there.

Catmint, an anti-spasmodic, sometimes confused with catnip. Trust me, cats know the difference.

Oriental poppies, getting ready to bloom, represent opiate painkillers.

Digitalis, growing in the center, was used for heart problems.

On the other side of the garden, several different-colored Columbines, although poisonous, are a reminder that at one time, they were used to treat the equally deadly plague.
 
Don't you wonder how they figured out if it actually worked?

Around the corner from varied color Columbines, in front of petunias,  is a row of strawberries "popular with Dr. Bass's staff and patients who come in with juice on their mouths," who Ina said sometimes sneak out to "pick a berry or two."

Patients waiting for doctor's appointments also sometimes ask if they can wait outside so they can sit on the brick edge and enjoy the garden.

A bunch of onions towards the center are a tribute to helping babies with croup and snake bites.

Nearby is sage, one of my favorite seasoning herbs, once thought to treat coughs, colds and stomach worms.

Ina said her biggest challenge with this charming garden is keeping "chewing gum and cigarette butts" from taking over.

She keeps the garden looking good by adding compost and mulch, then periodically weeding.

Raised on a farm, Ina said working soil is in her blood. She's also the creative hand behind the lovely Native Plant garden that welcomes visitors to Rolla's Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center.

Ina said anyone can plant a theme garden.
 
"Start with a subject close to your heart and get planting!"











Charlotte

Gardening to Distraction on a MO