Great native plants for a butterfly garden

Here are some perennial flowers that work well in a butterfly garden.  When designing a butterfly garden your goal is not only to attract butterflies but also to attract caterpillars.  You want some nectar plants and host plants.  The host plants will make it comfortable for the butterflies to lay their eggs.

Bedding Phlox         

        



Common Yarrow

Beebalm

Butterfly Milkweed

Columbine

Indian Blanket Flower

Joe Pye Weed

Butterfly Bush

Purple Coneflower

Tickseed Coreopsis








All of the uniqueness that attracts you to the flowers, will also attract the butterflies like, color, shape, and size.  Interspersed with the flowers you can add culinary herbs like dill, fennel, and mint. And if you have enough space throw in some fruit trees like fig and peach.  Many varties of those trees are self-fertile so you don't have to worry about getting a male and female tree.  The best time to plant your butterfly garden will be in the spring, unless you promise to water diligently everyday, you can plant now. 

(remember that many of these suggestions are for North Carolina, if you have questions about other areas of the country, just ask, I will do my best to answer them)

Happy Gardening!

Composting- From your home to your yard

High Holidays are over and we are back!!! Hi everyone!

Composting is simple - or at least it should be.

Whether you live in the country or city, composting is essential to keeping our environment healthy.  By composting, you are not putting extra things, like food scraps and paper into the landfill, incinerator or recycling plant.

When someone says, "I compost", it means that they are making sure that all their eggs shells, coffee grounds, banana peels, apple cores, veggie edges, uneaten food (no meat or cheese - keep your compost pile kosher), computer paper, newspaper (anything without a wax cover), leaves, grass clippings are going into a container that will stay moist in a shady area so the organic materials can breakdown and make soil.  Soil is the final goal.  And because you didn't put anything inorganic into the pile, it will turn out to be a rich brown soil that your plants will love.

This is our in- home compost container that we bought on www.gardensupply.com.  It has a carbon filter in the lid which we change every 3 months.  The carbon filter keeps the stink down.   And because the container isn't huge, we have to empty it often, also helping to avoid a smelly kitchen.  We spent a little extra money and got a nice ceramic one.  We spend so much time in the kitchen, that we don't want to look at something we think is ugly.

We empty the ceramic container into our huge compost pile in the backyard.   (see the one above - not exactly like ours but close) All this is is chicken wire and some garden stakes.  Instead of the square one shown here, ours is a circle.  Here are all the pluses to the one we have:
- easy to turn the material with a pitch fork (important to keep air flow through the pile)

- easy to empty our small container
- easy to get to
- because we maintain it, it doesn't smell
- tall enough that animals can't get into it.

You can also use other neat things for your outside compost container, like these (pictures are from www.gardensupply.com)

These are more expensive examples of compost containers.  Whatever you are making your compost in, just make sure it is easy for you!! 






The biggest thing I tell people when they are deciding if they are going to compost is to make sure that it is in an easy to reach spot.  Just make this process easy and fun and you will be rewarded.

Any questions???

tomorrow

Hello all!  Sorry we haven't written in a while.  We are in the midst of High Holidays (Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur).... but we have not forgotten about all of our beloved readers

The things that are to come for the blog are:

1) how to start a compost pile/bin/rolly thing
2) planting onions

And don't forget to plant your collards!!!
Happy Gardening

Thinning Radishes

Here you can see that the radishes have come up close to each other.  For them to have enough room to make a bulb below ground, you have to thin them.

If there are 4 plants growing in the line, I pull the middle two.


What do I do with all the seedlings I pulled? See the next picture.

When I am pulling them, I try to do it gently so I can pull up as much of the root as possible.  This will help the sensitive seedlings re-root themselves.

I always leave room next to the rows so I can do this replanting.


             Any questions?  I do love those questions......

The Cooperative Extension Office

Good Morning!  I went for a splendid walk this morning with Jake and it was COOL outside.  It felt great.
I thought that I would get into the garden this morning since I was awake at 6:15am, but instead I went for a long walk.  I will write more later about thinning out veggies, because Mother Nature KNOWS that I need to.

In the meantime, if you don't know you should know about the Cooperative Extension Office in Durham (if you are not from here - you should take time to find yours).  They are a wealth of knowledge.

Here is the website for the gardening:
http://durham.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=lawngarden

There are so many great classes going on like, September 11 there is a class called:  Planning and Planting a Cool Season Garden this Fall.  I love it!!!

I hope you all have a great day and wonderful LONG weekend (if you are so lucky to get Monday off).

Structural plans for a greenhouse or MORE

http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/Extension/ExtPubs/PlanList97.htm

You have to check out this link. There are specific plans for building things like a toolshed, a greenhouse or a cattle holding chute.

Here in Durham if you are putting an exterior structure on your property, and it is over a certain size, you need to have drawings to get a permit.  This link will help with that!!!

Here is the link for the City of Durham planning department to find out more information about building structures on your property:  http://www.durhamnc.gov/departments/planning/

ENJOY!