Category: Summer flowers

The bird seed is blooming

Thanks to the bird feeder in my flower bed, I have another healthy crop of some type of sunflower. The plants were about 2 feet tall in mid-June and now are about 7 feet tall and have multiple blooms per stem.

Good thing the bird feeder is at the back on the flower bed, which runs along my driveway. The sunflowers are a nice backdrop for my other plants but would be overwhelming if growing elsewhere in the bed. They even dwarf my massive ornamental "grass."

Last year was the first time I didn't weed by the feeder. I decided I would see what all those little seedlings really were after pulling them up year after year. Up popped the sunflowers and another kind of plant with yellow flowers. I let them all go to seed last fall and figured the birds enjoyed some meals.

Although yellow isn't exactly in my garden color scheme, there's something really cheery about sunflowers.

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Category: Summer flowers

Bargain plant, big payoff

I'm a bargain plant shopper. A few brown leaves, faded flowers or scraggly growth doesn't put me off, although black spot on potted roses is a deal-breaker.

My best"find" last year was a perennial called penstemon, husker red. I had never heard of it, but I bought it because its reddish foilage would look good against the house. The little plastic tag (one of the few plant tags that I actually still have) said the plant known also as 'beardtongue' produced white flowers and was easy to grow. Perfect.

It has turned out to be a wonderful addition to my yard. I planted three of them in a tight triangle formation in a narrow space between the house and brick walkway. I guess they like full sun and dry soil because the flowers were beautiful and the leaves look great.

And I like it that it was Michigan grown, in a Hudsonville nursery.

Now I'm hoping hummingbirds will discover the plants.

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Category: Garden Photo Contest

Mary Finkel is Week Nine winner in Garden Photo Contest

Kudos to Mary Finkel of Bloomfield Hills, Week Nine winner in our Garden Photo Contest.

Finkel became a green thumb later in life and thoroughly enjoys time spent in her garden. This summer she created a charming garden for her granddaughter, Sofia, seen here, complete with a weeping cherry tree and a variety of annuals and perennials.

Finkel is partial to pink, red and white petunias and vincas, not unlike the flowers on Sofia's sundress.

She wins a copy of "P. Allen Smith's Living in the Garden Home: Connecting the Seasons with Containers, Crafts and Celebrations" (Clarkson Potter, $32.50).

For your chance at a prize, enter your photos of your beautiful blooms, backyard and gardens with your full name at detnews.com/gardenphotos. Each week we'll select an entry from the ReaderPix Garden Gallery to feature in Homestyle. Prizes will be awarded weekly, leading up to a grand prize winner in September. When you submit a photo, be sure to include your name and a brief description of the photo.

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Category: Herb gardening

A sweet surprise perks up the garden

My new herb garden has many levels, and I've been trying to pay attention to all of them. The very front of the garden was a particular challenge, because there isn't much room and the soil abuts the concrete driveway, so the roots may meet some competition.

I considered various groundcovers, but something for which I had been seeking a spot popped into my head: alpine strawberries.

I have a fond memory of a small municipal garden somewhere up north in which they mixed annual and perennials and tucked in a few alpine strawberries. They made a nice groundcover and the little berries were such a colorful little surprise. I hope to replicate that in our yard.

Not having a better idea at the moment, I lined the front of the herb garden with a half-dozen plants and they are settling in quite well; they've flowered and produced a few fruits. It may not be a hospitable enough environment for them long-term; the real test will be whether they come back next year.

I certainly hope they do, by one of my garden philosophies is "nothing ventured, nothing gained," and if you plant something in the wrong spot, what's the worst that can happen? It dies and you try something else. Gardens always give you a second, third, fourth chance.

Category: Garden Photo Contest

Kay Scheidt's 'Our Welcome Garden' is a winner

Congratulations to Kay Scheidt of Bloomfield Hills, Week Eight winner of our Garden Photo Contest.

Scheidt captioned her photo "Our Welcome Garden." The lush landscape lines the walk to her charming front entrance.

Our Welcome Garden

"The garden contains hydrangea, double knock-out roses, astilbe, Michigan daylilies, hostas, pink begonias and marigolds," she said. "The window boxes were added for color and depth."

Scheidt wins a copy of "Gardens, City Life and Culture" (Harvard University Press, $25.95), edited by Michel Conan and Chen Whangheng.

For your chance at a prize, enter your photos of your beautiful blooms, backyard and gardens with your full name at detnews.com/gardenphotos. Each week we'll select an entry from the ReaderPix Garden Gallery to feature in Homestyle. Prizes will be awarded weekly, leading up to a grand prize winner in September. When you submit a photo, be sure to include your name and a brief description of the photo.

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Category: Summer flowers

Oakleaf Hydrangeas are awesome this year!

Are you familiar with the Oak Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)? I'm really impressed by the number of flowers mine has this year -- and, of course, quite happy as well.

This year's growing conditions have certainly produced many, many such awesome displays of flowering. I thought you might enjoy this one pictured at right. The best part of the plant (aside from the flowering and large oak-shaped leaves) is that it will have beautiful fall color as well to extend garden beauty beyond just the weeks of bloom.

If you're not familiar with this plant, it's one you may want to get to know better! You can share your pictures of your favorite plants in the Garden Photo Gallery and join the fun.

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Category: Summer flowers

Keeping the spirea in line

During the first spring I was in my house, it was a wonderful surprise to find bushes alongside the foundation overflowing with boughs of white blooms. When I moved in the August before, they just looked like more bushes to have to trim in the summer.

After some investigation, I found out the bushes were bridal spirea. Through trial and error, I've developed a system for trimming them that perserves the flowers for the next spring as well as keeps their size in check.

Here's my system:

Once the bushes hit about 4 feet tall (and when I can no longer find the water spigot behind them) I use the hedge trimmer and cut them down to about knee height soon after they're done blooming. Then I use the loppers and cut out the really old, nonproducing growth. I also use the lopers and make the branch stumps different heights, with about 3 or 4 inches variance between the highest and lowest ones. That way they don't look like they all got a bad 1950s-type brush cut. Plus the neighbors then think I really know what I'm doing.

The trim job sounds drastic and, trust me, it looks drastic, but it works. The spirea gradually leaf out and come spring, I have smaller bushes with those graceful arches full of blossoms.

I make sure I give the bushes a balanced dose of fertilizer in the summer, then again in about March, before they leaf out.

I repeat the process when the bushes seem to start swallowing the house.

Have any tips? Let me know.

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Category: Herb gardening

Herbs add spice to life, garden

I got the herb garden of my dreams this spring when Bob built a raised bed to match our new patio.

I loaded it up with parsley, 3 kinds of basil, dill, oregano and cilantro. I parked sage and chives in the ground around it and the little shelf in front holds thyme, rosemary and some edible flowers (nasturtium and calendula). And I took a chance and planted three types of mint to the right of the bed, in a spot that I don't care too much if it goes crazy (someone can remind me I said that in the event of a future mint invasion.)

Aside from sun and water, herbs are not very needy. I occasionally sacrifice some dill or parsley to hungry caterpillars but that's a small price to pay for butterflies.

There's nothing like stepping outside your back door and harvesting a handful of parsley for a pasta dish, or mixing up a chicken marinade with rosemary and oregano. Chives go with eggs, potatoes and salads and I can't wait to make tabbouli with the mint and parsley. Herbs are pricy at the grocery store (much less so at the farmers market) but it's so economical to grow your own and you don't have to plan ahead. I can pick a recipe on a whim and know I've got the herbal arsenal to make it happen.

This year, in addition to Genovese basil, I found some Neapolitan basil plants (courtesy of the wonderful Renaissance Acres Organic Herb Farm in Whitmore Lake; you can also find them on Saturdays at the Ann Arbor farmers market.

The leaves are a little ruffly and they have a subtle flavor difference. I've tossed them in some dishes like this weekend's summer squash-zucchini ribbons salad and on a panini but I'm really eager to taste it in pesto.

Cilantro has a tendency to bolt quickly, especially in the heat, so I replant it about every month. If I let some plants go to seed, they'll drop to the ground and germinate and give me fall cilantro -- just in time to join the tomatoes and tomatillos in a salsa.

Whatever your garden space, I highly recommend herbs, whether you plant them in the ground or in pots or some kind of mixed container. I put tarragon and French thyme in pots (then I can overwinter them in a sunny window) and a whiskey barrel with flat-leaf parsley, basil and thyme.

Watch for more ideas and recipes for using herbs, but I've found that if you have them on hand, you get quite creative with them. And as with everything else, there's nothing like homegrown flavor.

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Category: Garden Photo Contest

Judy Garrett is Week 7 winner in Garden Photo Contest

Let's hear it for Judy Garrett of Rochester Hills, Week Seven winner in our Garden Photo Contest.

Garrett captured her photo, "I Love My Arbor!"

She says, "Last year we (she and garden partner/husband Dave) put an arbor in the front yard. A friend suggested New Dawn climbing roses, and after one year it looks beautiful! All the rain this spring has made it flourish. Daylilies, clematis, yellow marigolds, red geraniums and hanging baskets of impatiens add to the glow of color in the front yard. The pink daylilies and yucca will bloom soon. My goal is to add interest to the garden with a variety of color at different heights."

Garrett wins a copy of "The Gardener's Palette" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $17.95) by Pierre Nessmann with photographs by Brigitte and Philippe Perdereau.

For your chance at a prize, enter your photos of your beautiful blooms, backyard and gardens with your full name at detnews.com/gardenphotos. Each week we'll select an entry from the ReaderPix Garden Gallery to feature in Homestyle. Prizes will be awarded weekly, leading up to a grand prize winner in September. When you submit a photo, be sure to include your name and a brief description of the photo.

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Category: Summer flowers

Endless summer indeed with hydrangeas

One of the first perennials I ever purchased was a hydrangea. I don't recall anything about it, but I was a gardening newbie, so I grabbed up the familiar-sounding plant. The mislabeled plant turned out to be a white spirea, and a totally uninspiring one at that, so I moved on and forgot about hydrangeas.

Until last summer, when Bordine Nursery gave us a "free" "Endless Summer" hydrangea. They didn't charge us for the plant, but since it came as a gift for spending so darn much money there, I can't really call it free and clear.

So we came home with a ton of things to plant, including one surprise and we had no idea where to put it. We tucked it by the back door, which was sorely in need of a specimen plant, thinking we could move it if a better idea came along.

It has thrived there. It began with blue blooms but those turned pink in our alkaline soil (if we want blue blooms, we can certainly treat the plant with aluminum sulfate, but it's a really nice pink and frankly, there's enough to do what with weeding, deadheading and trying to get rid of all the grass on our property to think about manipulating a plant to change its color.)

It blooms for a long time and rebloomed after some deadheading. The blossoms don't weigh down the plant, so it keeps a nice upright habit, and the brilliant green foliage is handsome. I left the mopheads on last fall and they looked nice through most of the winter. I pruned it in the spring and it's begun happily blooming again. Insects don't bug it; if it gets a little wilty it responds quickly to water; and it can bloom on new and old wood. I highly recommend it.

It makes me happy every time I walk by it, and you can't ask for much more from a plant than that.