Garden Tips

Before heading up north for the weekend, I spent some time in the garden using a few tips I have learned over the years. One tip a lady on the Frankenmuth Garden Walk taught me several years ago. I have been using it ever since. I cut a long strip of fishing wire and tie it around those tall, prone to fall, perennials to keep the flowers upright. I use it on balloon flower, asters and delphiniums among other plants. The plants stay upright and the fishing wire is practically invisible.

Another thing I did was pinch a few of the really tall growing plants back a bit. These plants are the asters, chrysanthemums and salvia. This helps keep them compact and bushy so they don’t fall all over the place. They don't bloom as early, but one can always use some color in September.

Some of my vegetable seedlings get old margarine containers with holes cut out of the bottoms as collars to protect them from cut worms. I spray paint the containers so they look nice. They work pretty well for broccoli, tomatoes and peppers that I start indoors from seed.



Yesterday I spent a great deal of time in my mother’s garden laying down newspapers (several sheets thick) and spreading mulch on top of it. This keeps the weeds at bay, a necessary chore for me if I want to maintain two gardens 90 miles apart. It looks pretty nice as well.




June is underway here in mid-Michigan and I have coral bells, foxglove and irises in bloom. Plenty of color to keep me happy. Soon I hope to have all the seedlings I started in the ground or given away. Of course at the farmer’s market I splurged on an edible chrysanthemum ( you can eat the leaves and flowers) and Sweet Annie and an unusual variegated morning glory. Oh well. What is gardener? Someone with plants on the deck that need to get into the ground.