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Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Shady spot secrets
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| Ligularia "The Rocket" likes moist, shady soil. |
Whispering Hills' own perennial expert, Shelley Isenhart, will name a few of your more colorful shade options in her talk on July 15. If you live in northwest Chicagoland, RSVP to the talk here (you'll have to log in to Facebook first).
If you don't live in the area, you'll miss Shelley's smiling face, which is a shame. However, she's agreed to share some of her shade secrets in this blog post.
Successful gardening is all about having the right plant in the right environment. Many people get the first part right - they'll make sure they know whether the plant they're buying will do well in the shade or sun. But that's usually about as far as they go, and if the plant doesn't do well it's usually seen as a problem with the plant.
Not all shade is a healthy environment for every shade plant. For example, some varieties of the perennial ligularia like not just shade but moist soil, so if it's planted in dry shade it won't do well. A quick probe of the soil in your shade spot before you head to the garden center can save you a lot of frustration.
Plants for dry shade
-Hosta
-Lamium (Groundcover)
-Polygonatum (Solomon's Seal)
-Pulmonaria (Lungwort)
-Ligularia
-Fern
-Bleeding Hearts
-Brunnera
-Astilbe
Sign up for Shelley's talk for more tips on shade gardening, or if you can't make it, give us a call at 847-658-5610 with any questions. Stay cool!
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Antioxidants and the black chokeberry
The message on most of these advertisements is simple: "Buy this product because it has antioxidants, and antioxidants are good for you."
But how true is it? The cause of this antioxidant craze dates back to the 1990s, according to a publication by Harvard's School of Public Health:
"Antioxidants came to public attention in the 1990s, when scientists began
to understand that free radical damage was involved in the early
stages of artery-clogging atherosclerosis and may contribute to cancer,
vision loss, and a host of other chronic conditions. Some studies
showed that people with low intakes of antioxidant-rich fruits and
vegetables were at greater risk for developing these chronic conditions
than were people who ate plenty of these fruits and vegetables."
The publication goes on to conclude that despite the rampant claims to the contrary by food and pharmaceutical companies, there is very little scientific evidence linking greater antioxidant consumption with the prevention of various types of diseases.
One thing we do know, however, is that people who eat a high amount of fruits and vegetables, which contain a high amount of antioxidants, are more resistant to various types of diseases than those who don't eat as much.
One plant that has seen a lot of attention recently thanks to the frenzy over antioxidants is Aronia melanocarpa, better known as the black chokeberry. The black chokeberry is a lovely shrub that sports white flowers and small, black fruit that has some of the highest antioxidant counts found in nature.
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| Black chokeberry jam |
Whispering Hills carries two kinds of black chokeberry this season: the Black Viking and Black Iroquois Beauty. Both will produce high yields of the delicious berries for you and the songbirds to enjoy, as well as provide a nice-looking hedge for your landscape.
Though new research is still in the process of confirming the radical health benefits of antioxidants, it is well-known that a good supply of them from chokeberries and other dark-colored berries is an important part of any diet.
Get your antioxidants from your backyard. Try the chokeberry!
For more reliable information on antioxidants, check out this article published by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Relax, it's just slime mold
If you see this on your mulch, don't scream. It may look extremely disgusting, but it's actually a harmless, fungus-type growth known as slime mold. The popular name for one variety, based on its appearance (what else?), is "Dog Vomit."
From University of Illinois extension educator Sandra Martin:
"Slime molds are not true fungus but can appear on the top of mulch.
Slime molds are often bright yellow, but can also be white, gray, brown
or red. They can vary from a few inches in diameter to a foot across.
They are not decomposing the mulch, but are living off the bacteria and
other critters in the mulch."
Slime molds like the "Dog's Vomit" kind are not parasitic and so pose no danger to your plants or family.
The easiest way to remove slime mold is to simply shovel it out of the bed. You can even leave it there if you don't feel like dealing with it, as it will lose its color, turn into a powdery form (spores) and disappear within one week. Watering slime mold will disperse the spores into a cloud, so unless you want the neighbor kids to suck in a big dose of spores, don't shoot it with the hose.
For more information on slime molds visit this page at the University of Illinois Extension or call the experts at Whispering Hills: 847-658-5610.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
10 tips for a victorious vegetable garden
Few things make more sense than planting your own vegetable garden. Cheap, high quality vegetables spring up just a few feet from your door, and gardening is a healthy and educational experience for the whole family.
The trouble is vegetable gardens take time and effort to maintain, and not all of us have the time. But the financial impact, as well as the fun factor, ensures you'll be well-compensated for the time spent with your hands in the dirt. Take these 10 tips from Whispering Hills and the University of Illinois Extension and start building your own backyard farm stand.
#1 LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
It's a cliche for a reason. Just as location is important in everything else you do, a successful vegetable garden starts with the right plot. Make sure your veggies aren't close to trees or shrubs that will compete for resources, and make sure the garden fits in with your landscape design. Do we have to tell you that vegetables need a ton of sunlight? If possible, plant your garden close to a water source as well.
#2 MAP IT
Make a list of the vegetables you want to plant and look up growing tips for each kind. The University of Illinois' horticulture extension has a handy chart to help you with this. Sketch out which vegetables will go where before you just go buying all kinds of plants at the store.
#3 MAKE YOUR BED
This is the most important part of a vegetable garden. Proper soil for a garden is soft, loose, nutrient-rich and well-drained. Northern Illinois soil does not naturally have those properties. It is hard and full of clay, so be sure to mix in an adequate amount of topsoil and a nutrient-rich amendment (like mushroom compost, Bumper Crop, or material from your own home compost pile) to prime your bed before planting.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Local love: Where were your plants grown?
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| Was your Colorado Spruce actually grown in Colorado? |
Plants, however, aren't blessed with (cursed with?) the ability to speak, so you'll have a harder time figuring out if that arborvitae in your yard came from down the road or Tennessee. However, if the plant took a long time to thrive, that might be an indication that it wasn't grown in northern Illinois soil.
It's not just big box stores that sell non-local plant material; many area garden centers sacrifice quality when they bring in cheaper plants from areas with longer growing seasons.
Not only are locally grown plants already adjusted to the soil in your yard, they also have a shorter trip from the grower to the market. That means the growers can time their shipments accurately and deliver the plants when they are just about to hit their peak bloom.
Locally grown plants typically look better in your yard, but it's not all about you, you know. The growers obviously benefit, too, and when you buy their plants you help keep their fields from becoming another Wal-Mart. And we have enough Wal-Marts in our area.
How can you tell if the plant you're buying is grown locally? The root ball will be much smaller than ones on their non-local kin. The soil on a locally grown plant will be dark in color and have a high clay content, whereas non-local soils will likely be a lighter, reddish color (Tennessee) or have a high sand content (Michigan).
If you'd rather not worry about whether a plant you're thinking of buying was grown locally, just come to Whispering Hills. Nearly all of our plant material is locally grown, coming from such places as Harvard, Marengo, and Poplar Grove.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Spring cleanup checklist
Spring yard cleanup checklist
-Remove old mulch, leaves, and wood chips from your flower beds and give them a nutrient boost by raking the remaining mulch into the soil.
-Edge the perimeter of your garden bed and sidewalks. This will prevent grass from growing over the cement and give the landscape a clean look.
-Apply a 3-inch layer of new mulch to the garden bed and around tree trunks to help retain moisture and keep the roots warm.
-Fall and winter have given your plants ample growing time, so you may need to prune back perennial shrubs and grasses that were pruned back in the fall. Use pruning shears or loppers, depending on the branch diameter. DO NOT prune spring flowering shrubs. For more information on when to prune and how plants react to pruning, visit North Carolina State University's Pruning Factsheet.
Sound like too much work? Let the professional staff at Whispering Hills do your spring cleanup for you. Call 847-658-5610 for scheduling and pricing details.
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