Monday – More Garden Tips
This is one I have tried and it appeared to work but it could have just been by chance. I heard from a fellow gardener at the last meeting that you can keep yellow jackets away with cucumbers!
Slice cucumbers and put them out on a table away from where you are eating at a picnic outside. Or at cookout in your yard.
Supposedly, the yellow jackets don’t like the smell of cucumbers and stay away. Maybe I should spritz on a little Cucumber Melon body spray too?
When I look at my splayed Sedum “Autumn Joy” I promise myself that next year when they start sprouting, I will faithfully pinch again and again so that I will have a nice sturdy and strong plant. Those blooms are so pretty and last so long, attracting all the bees, and I need to keep them looking nice.
Remember to pinch your upright sedums….a lot!
Sales are occurring now at many nurseries and Big Box stores. You can pick up a lot of good deals at this time. It is good weather to plant something in this cooler time period and let it get a good start on rooting into the ground in the falls rains. Trees and shrubs are good to plant now, but you may pick up some good deals on perennials too.
You are probably familiar from shopping at these places throughout the year. I have visiting some Big Name Nurseries where their plants are neglected and dried up, and I was surprised. I expect that at the Big Box store where it is not necessarily a gardener-type person tending those plants. But I do expect the Big Name nursery plants to look like they have been tended by someone knowledgeable. Some good buys are to be found in some surprising places.
Larkspur is a beautiful blue annual flower which is very like a perennial delphinium. These plants are easy to grow and will reseed each year. You can get them established and have cut flowers during the spring and summer blooming period. These can be sown now, believe or not, and you will have plants next spring. They can be grown in a container or scatter the seeds where you want them to be next year. These don’t really like to be transplanted.
So scatter some seeds in a good spot. They come in light and dark blue, white and pink, so you have many choices. They are a taller plant , some more than two feet tall or taller. You will love them come spring.
A great little paper envelope to save your seeds in would be that little envelope that a tea bag come in, right? Just gently take the bag out without tearing ( I always cut off the string anyway). If you need to, you can tape the sides back together. The paper is easy to write the seed name and color and any other info you may need.
Those tiny boxes that the tea come in can also be a cute little “filing cabinet.” Maybe annuals in one and perennials in the other?
Remember, you need to store seeds in paper. Do not seal them in snack bags or anything that would make them hold moisture and mold!