Gardenig in state Michigan. Tips & Guides

Brigitta Stewart, the owner of the small mail-order nursery Arrowhead Alpines in Michigan, has a garden full of tiny treasures, many of them very rare—special plants that you don’t see in many gardens.

We’re visiting with Dale Dailey today.

If you’ve watched the cooking competition show Top Chef in the past decade, you’ve probably seen Kristen Kish. The Korean-born, Michigan-raised chef won her season in Seattle in 2012. Since then, she’s appeared regularly as a guest judge and, most recently, landed the role of Top Chef’s new host. Taking over for the original host, Padma Lakshmi, after 19 seasons, Kish has some big shoes to fill. But her long-running history with the hit reality series, along with starring on the celebrity cooking competition show Fast Foodies, and hosting cooking series such as Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend and Restaurants at the End of the World, for which she also serves as a producer, have her primed as a great new face of the show.

On a September day in 2023, community members gathered at the Keep Growing Detroit Farm to witness the formal announcement of the city’s first director of urban agriculture. Tepfirah Rushdan, who had long been involved in Detroit’s farming scene as a farmer, educator and advocate, was a natural fit for the position.

Although it would be nearly impossible for any plant lover to choose just one favorite, here are a few of the standouts that look especially good in my Zone 6 Michigan garden at the peak of the growing season.

The Blueberry is a native American fruit harvested from wild plants since the country was settled. About 1910 the late Dr. F. V. Coville of the United States Department of Agriculture began the domestication of the High-bush Blueberry. A breeding program based on selected wild types has produced through the years a number of varieties vastly superior to their wild ancestors. Considerable research on cultural problems has developed a body of knowledge on which a highly profitable and extensive commercial industry is growing rapidly.

Orange wildflowers, ranging from the Butterfly Weed’s peachy tones to the California Poppy’s fiery shades, play a crucial role in attracting pollinators, creating a thriving ecosystem in your backyard.

Alright, one last wishlist post from me, your GPOD editor… This time I’m looking past flowers to foliage that I want to add to the garden. Everyone knows that foliage is the heart of a well-designed garden as it lasts so much longer than flowers. BUT I’m very guilty of being seduced by pretty flowers, so I need to really focus on stepping up my foliage game this year.

Hi GPODers, your editor Joseph here again today with more plants from my spring shopping wishlist. And today I’m sharing some things I’m eyeing to add – or reaquire – for my shade garden.

There’s a Christmas tree hack working its way through TikTok and promising to make your tree grow healthier and happier but, as is the case with many rumors online, there's not much truth to it.

When I moved to Michigan 13 years ago, I was ­excited by the endless plant possibilities afforded by my new Zone 6 location. Compared to the secluded 5-acre garden I had left behind in southern Minnesota, however, my newly purchased corner lot surrounded by houses and neighbors felt like a fishbowl.

In Deep Borders Let You Have It All, Hans Hansen writes, “When I moved to Michigan 13 years ago, I was excited by the endless plant possibilities afforded by my new Zone 6 location. Compared to the secluded 5-acre garden I had left behind in southern Minnesota, however, my newly purchased corner lot surrounded by houses and neighbors felt like a fishbowl.

As these beautiful creatures flutter through the Great Lake State’s varied habitats, they bring a splash of color and melody to the gardens. Let’s discover Blue Birds in Michigan!

Welcome back to Deb Jedynak’s garden in Holland, Michigan, where she loves pushing zones and getting creative with containers and designs.

Hello! This is Deb Jedynak, a Master Gardener living in Zone 6b, Holland, Michigan. Although autumn has crept in to allow summer to fade away, I’m still planting in the garden. The soil stays warm for a while longer, and it’s the best time to plant bulbs, perennials, shrubs, and trees. I can already visualize my constantly evolving garden next spring. The foliage and flowers were abundant in 2023, and journaling my successes makes it easier to plan for next season. The winter months are weeks away, and it’s the best time to consider planting opportunities and researching which perennials and shrubs thrive best in my zone. Since I live just steps from Lake Michigan, I’m figuring out ways to create a microclimate where I can push the growing zone for abelia, beautyberry, and azalea, three shrubs I’ve just added this year. My whimsical garden featured vegetables in raised beds, a hopscotch topiary garden, a 12-foot rowboat filled with perennials, seating areas, a firepit, a plant ladder, arbors, various containers, and decor that I’ve thrifted. There’s always something to look at as you stroll the paths that wind around the flower beds. The transitions are intentional, and I don’t get too attached to my plants as I move them around or eliminate the nonperformers altogether. The idea is to have fun in the garden, and these photos show you my most memorable moments!

In this article, we will discuss Endangered Flowers in Michigan and the important steps that must be taken to preserve them.

Landscape plants in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan are plentiful. Choosing the best shrubs, trees, and perennials can be overwhelming. Here are some of the best options for upper Midwest gardens based on attractiveness, ease of maintenance and appropriateness for the climate.

Today’s photos are from Joseph in Indiana.

We’re in Holland, Michigan, today visiting Terri Holden’s beautiful garden.

Today we’re in Nella’s Michigan garden.

Today we’re visiting Wendy’s garden in Cleveland Township in northern Michigan.

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Dr Federica Brandizzi of Michigan State University is the Principal Investigator for the Life Beyond Earth: Effect of Spaceflight on Seeds with Improved Nutritional Value study, an experiment headed for the Moon on NASA’s Artemis I mission. In this short video, she explains why she’s sending plant seeds into space.

Everyone loves falafel—it’s a year-round staple, and the frozen options at Trader Joe’s make it incredibly easy to prepare. But today, you should probably rid your freezer shelves of any Trader Joe’s falafel: In the company’s third food recall this week, on July 28 Trader Joe’s recalled its fan-favorite Fully Cooked Falafel after being informed by the supplier that rocks were found in the food.

WHO VISITED: We met Twitter friends like @GardenGuyKenn (all the way from Michigan) and other blog-commenters like Bobster (all the way from Rhode Island) and Leslie (from Connecticut) and Ailsa and Patti, from Ottawa, Ontario.We met Joyce from Iowa and Michelle from Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania (31 miles from Wilkes-Barre, apparently) and Sandra from Clarks Summit (also Pennsylvania, 8 miles from Scranton) and Julie from Reston, Virginia, and Stephanie from Bainbridge Island, Washington, and Stephanie from Seattle (both Stephanies, both from prime garden country…a coincidence?). Someone signed in as being from Scotland, but can that be so? And all of you, thank you, whether from a mile down the road or a country or ocean away…or whether you just visited our virtual tour yesterday.Some of t

“Susan,” I hollered, “I need a hand…literally.” And so as she got him ready for his photo op, extracting him from the bromeliad he was hiding in (the one that used to outside, not inside, the kitchen door), I ran for the camera.He was hard to key out in the guidebooks, frankly (a step I always take when I meet a new frogboy). He was tiny like a spring peeper, but lacked the typical dark X pattern on his back that they have. And he was too small (and in the wrong ‘hood by many, many miles) to be anything else, or so it seemed.But finally, thanks to the University of Michigan’s Museum of Zoology

In a December 20, 2010 release, new observations by the university’s astronomers were said to “add weight to the theory that the most massive stars in the universe could form essentially anywhere, including in near isolation; they don’t need a large stellar cluster nursery.”It’s a charming little (vast?) story, and written so that we laypersons can understand it—including a big-fish-small-pond analogy, and more. Have a read.AuthorKatrina Kenison says this on solitude:So the next time someone tells me I should get out more and mingle, I’m using this tongue-in-cheek retort:No, thanks; I’m busy burning bright in isolation. :)You?(1904 drawing of the Aurora Bor

The Red-Spotted Newt starts his life in the water, hatched from one of 300-400 eggs his mother lays, becoming a tadpole-like larvae, gills and all. After several months he sheds them and becomes terrestrial, and is called an eft (the term for the red juvenile stage). This stage lasts a couple of years or up to seven, according to some references, before the next metamorphosis in the salamander’s life occurs and he once again changes colors…and habitats…returning to the water. Now I know why some of the salamanders swimming in my garden ponds are slightly different from others: some are tadpoles, some adults back from their years on land.  The University of Michigan says these creatures can live 12-15 years!Of course as with everything in nature, there are exceptions: populations that skip the red eft stage (in some coastal areas) and others that never undergo the second metamorphosis back into the water. I think my pals are cut from the classic mold, but I am not a scientist.In all this reading sinc

Blossom end rot, which (just as it sounds) is a rotting of the fruit that begins as a watery spot on the blossom end, also affects peppers and eggplants. It’s a physiologic disorder—not something caused by a virus or fungus or bacteria, like so many other tomato ailments, but rather by physical stressors that prevent the fruit from taking up enough Calcium to come to ripeness in prime condition.The watery spot transitions to a dry, sunken lesion (it looks as good as it sounds, above, served up on a non-silver spoon).Why the deficiency of Calcium, though? What did I do wrong? Various factors can bring it about, including soil that suddenly goes dry (as in a fierce heatwave), excessive fluctuations in soil moisture, over-application of high-Nitrogen fertilizers (not guilty!), roo

That’s what I have learned so far from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology’s Animal Diversity Web, another of my favorite hunting grounds for information about the natural world’s creatures. Their portrait of the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander explains that this species respires through its moist skin–meaning dry times are hard times–and cannot tolerate extreme acid conditions (such as a pH of about 3.7 or lower).No wonder these slender little salamanders are always tucked in under my pots, since they are a favorite food of various mammals, snakes and even some birds. Hideouts! Everybody has to eat something, so as for what they eat themselves: Snails are on the diet, apparently (along with various insects, mites and spiders, worms, millipedes and more), so I wonder how long the new relationship depicted above in my photo would have lasted.“They forage by thrusting out their tongue in a quick, forward motion and cap

I HAVE SEEN FEWER JAPANESE BEETLES so far this season, one of the only side benefits of a dry spring and summer, since eggs and young grubs fare worse in dry turf. Permanent beetle decline would be a great thing, so I’m thrilled to read of advances in infecting beetles with a pathogen called Ovavesicula that may someday lead to better chemical-free control throughout the pest’s range.The latest bright moment: Entomologist Dr. David Smitley and others at Michigan State University are actually having a Japanese Beetle Biocontrol Field Day July 28, where gardeners can take home infected beetles to release in their yards where they will in turn infect other beetles. I first read about it here.How the pathogen works: Infected beetles grubs don’t survive the winters as well (populations were reduced 25 to

Joseph and I are two peas in a pod, you see, but also apples and oranges. Joseph, who gardens in Michigan, and I are both seed-catalog madpeople—but we’re mostly mad about different catalogs, and different items.Back on the first of December, I wrote to Joseph, author of “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener,” to ask him if in, say, a month he’d be ready to talk about the latest catalogs.Silly me.“I just finished puttin

Since 1993, Scott has run Old House Gardens, the only American resource devoted exclusively to heirloom bulbs, many available nowhere else–older varieties that have been handed down for their enduring value and interest.After a degree from Columbia, Scott returned to Michigan to teach school and bought an 1870s fixer-upper house in Ann Arbor that led to an epiphany when he realized some of the plants outside it were hand-me-downs of gardeners past. He pursued a masters in historic preservation, worked as a landscape historian, and has taught landscape history at Eastern Michigan University.And most important for this discussion: Having that whole catalog of b

“Of all the kinds of pickle I make,” says Nancy, “they are my favorite. They are very sweet, I admit, but I think that’s why they are eaten with simply bread and butter, to balance out the sweetness.” (I had them that way for lunch Saturday. My first pickle sandwich ever was perfect, with a slice of goat cheddar and a few cherry tomatoes on the side.)Nancy’s copy of the original recipe came from her mother, who typed it out and then added handwritten comments in the margins.  (That’s her recipe card, above; click on it to enlarge.)“Mom got it from our over-the-back-fence neighbor in Michigan,” Nancy recalls.  “Viola Whitacre and her husband, Archie, lived in the house behind ours. Archie was the gardener; Viola kept the house and was t

Since 1993, Scott has published a catalog (and more lately of course a website) from his headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that represents the only American resource devoted exclusively to heirlooms bulbs, many available nowhere else.After a degree from Columbia, Scott returned to Michigan to teach school, and bought an 1870s fixer-upper house that he says led to an epiphany, when he realized some of the plants outside it were history-filled hand-me-downs of gardeners past. He pursued a master’s degree in his

COUNT THIS among things I didn’t know: Some bees visiting flowers are not actually doing the job of pollinating, but are in fact “pollen thieves.” A study from the University of Stirling in the UK, reported in Science Daily, reveals the details.yummy imperfection: alana chernila on ‘splendid table’IT WAS THRILLING to hear the familiar voice of friend and cookbook author Alana Chernila on NPR, specifically on “The Splendid Table,” talking about best intentions for cooking, and living. Plus: Get recipes for Alana’s popovers (they’ll transform an