gardeningkristi.bsky.social
Transforming a lawn in the Philly 'burbs into an edible landscape & insect habitat. Growing new gardeners.
https://gardeningkristi.substack.com/
771 posts
676 followers
325 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
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He really does.
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That's what I'll be doing tomorrow. Drizzle to light rain, go for gardening. Pouring? Pause gardening. It would be convenient if nature could arrange rain between 11:00 pm and 3:00 am only to not interfere with my garden time. Or, if it must rain during the day, limit rain to weekdays I'm working.
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Not having to spend two stressful hours every day driving in traffic has improved my mood!
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You might want to split your plot into quadrants so you can still plant a lot while you're clay busting.
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I have heavy clay soil, but it's loaded with rocks right under the surface. I had to dig them out to get a planting trowel or auger in the ground. I've had to be patient and top dress every year with compost and wood chips to improve the clay. If you can use Daikon, it should speed up the process.
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I have Rattlesnake Master in my garden for the first time this year. I planted it from plugs last fall. I hope it flowers this year. They're so unusual looking!
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I love those red zinnias!
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They're great, both the greens and the roots. And they'll break your ground.
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I've never seen one here, but I hear them at night several times per year, howling. It's so special. I saw one in Bryn Mawr, PA, a few years ago, early in the morning. A closer suburb of Philadelphia than where I live now.
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More about my neighborhood coyotes.
www.natlands.org/news/calloft...
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They are popular in my garden, too. A few years back I had P. muticum and M. punctata next to each other and I got more of my favorite wasps on the M. punctata. That bed was too wet for both plants, so I moved them to high ground. They are both popular. P. muticum appeals to a wider audience, IMO.
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Yeah, it's a beast. And each of my clumps spread every year, too, and it requires a Chelsea Chop at some point if I don't want it to flop all over the shorties I have planted around it. But it's so beautiful and the insects adore it.
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In my gardens it's the most prolific volunteer, even after I intentionally cut off the spent flowers to try and save myself from all the hoeing in mid-summer and allow space for less prolific seeders. I swear each individual tiny flower must bear 500 seeds. There are sooo maaaany.
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OMG, me too! And like colors for the day of the week? 😄
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I'm sure every gardener is guilty of posting their favorite insect on their favorite plant. I post more Monarchs on L. Ligulistylus than Milkweed. But I'm guilty of over posting Sphex species wasps on M. punctata. I just do social media. My fangirling over M. punctata isn't messing up your data. 😉
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I am aware of #vegetablegardening #gardening #organic-gardening #nativeplants and #bugsky I also use the 🌱 emoji to get added to the Mid-Atlantic region garden feed. I hope others answer your question. I've been curious about more, too.
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What's wrong with A. syriaca? It spreads? It's the center for all life in my large patio garden. The shoots are easy to pull out. It's not an issue for me. I have regrets about the Smooth Aster, though. I cut off the spent flower stems and I still have 800,000 volunteers. That can fuck right off.
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That's tough. I'm sorry.
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It looks like Penstemon digitalis to me. I grow that here in my gardens.
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My favorite, too, and the only one I've grown for years.
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That's a wonderful name! Long live Butter Bean!
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Garlic scape butter makes delicious garlic bread. It's an easy way to dress steamed vegetables, rice, quinoa, or noodles. 🌱 #vegetablegardening #organic-gardening
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What a beautiful cat! 😻
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Thank you! I am proud of what I have accomplished in 7 growing seasons here. There's more to go.
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My first in the Philly Burbs was June 6th, in my garden. 🦋
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Lovely! They are favorites in my garden, too.
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Give them a plant name: Bean, Squash, Tomato, Pepper, Mustard, etc. or maybe a tool name, like Shovel, Rake, or Pruner. Maybe a cute name like Twerp, Twinkle, or Tweet. 😊
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How fun!
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Could be worse. An old boss of mine was convinced to take in a Border Collie by his veterinarian son. Someone abandoned it and didn't want it back. One day he went home from work to find it had eaten the leg from a dining chair. 😬
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I think it depends on the dog. My childhood dog, some sort of a mutt that looked like Benji but gray and black, never chewed or shredded anything.
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It's like me talking to religious members of my family.
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If you're lucky, you will never lose the awe. 😊
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Love them! 😻
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There's this cool thing happening outside, just about everywhere. I think it's called plants. Have you heard of it? 😄
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I take the same approach. I do use mostly native plants, but I have a lot of food growing here all the time and I have plants like lavender, veronica, heartsease, and lots of annual flowers in my garden as well because I love them. A garden can do more than one thing! ♥️
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biocontrol.entomology.cornell.edu/predators/Ch...
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xerces.org/blog/plantin...
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Bonus if you're a vegetable seed saver these bags can be used to isolate perfect, self-compatible flowers to ensure true to type seed in the resulting fruit.
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Zebra Swallowtail, larval host plant, Pawpaw! I guessed you were posting from Appalachia just by the presence of that butterfly. They're beautiful.
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Lovely harvest!
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🤣🤣🤣🤣
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🤣🤣🤣 once, aged ago, I was in the process of washing a mountain of freshly harvested lettuce, and my husband asked if I could buy lettuce the next time I went shopping. They're cute. 😊