the canning queen of the concrete desert

An inseparable part of British summer time, the Wimbledon Championship is on between 29.06 – 17.07. With more than 450,000 spectators attending each year, and 19 grass courts, it is a massive event, yet it still retains its Victorian atmosphere and image.

When it comes to overall enhancement of your garden on a more strategic level, your best solution will arguably be a landscaping one. Sure, throwing in some pretty plants in the back yard is certainly necessary, but you can hardly beat the blend of emotions, sizes and shapes that a fully executed landscaping project gives to the home-owners.

How you manage garden pests and diseases is a personal choice, and there are many management philosophies. Two of the most common methodologies are integrated pest management (IPM) and organic pest management. IPM was developed in the 1970s as a response to conventional gardening practices that relied heavily on pesticides. In contrast to those practices, IPM promoted sanitation, the use of disease- and pest-resistant plant varieties, and monitoring pest populations.

It looks like a good year for ‘Blossom Dearie’ and no more so than with Syringa the various Lilacs in the varied shades of lilac and white.

I have previously posted about snapdragons in 2011, 2016 and  2015

Britain is known for introducing us the best of the best — think Princess Diana, Harry Potter and fish and chips. Now we can thank the UK for bringing us a fantastic sun safety idea: the 3-hour-gardening rule.

No other plant native to South Carolina has such fragrant and beautiful spring blooms and stunning fall color as the witch-alders. Fothergilla was named after Dr. John Fothergill, an English physician and gardener who funded the travels of John Bartram through the Carolinas in the 1700’s. These beautiful shrubs have been planted in both American and English gardens for over 200 years, including gardens of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, is a popular celebration in the United States, due to the number of Americans, 10.5%, with Irish heritage. One million Irish emigrated to North America, Australia, or other parts of Great Britain in the mid-1800s because of the potato disease now known as late blight. Late blight, caused by the water mold, Phytophthora infestans, destroyed the Irish potato crops in 1845 through 1849 and caused the Irish Potato Famine. Another one million people died from hunger or disease.

The box tree moth, Cydalima perspectalis, is a non-native moth that has recently been found in a nursery in South Carolina. Native to eastern Asia, the box tree moth has been present in Canada since November 2018. From August 2020 through May 2021, infested boxwood (Buxus sp.) plants were inadvertently shipped from a grower in Canada to several nurseries in the U.S.; a retail nursery in South Carolina received infested plants in May 2021. As of June 1, 2021, the South Carolina detection is being treated as a regulatory incident, and this pest is not thought to have escaped into the landscape. Clemson’s Department of Plant Industry is investigating plant shipments into and out of the South Carolina nursery to determine if infested material may have been inadvertently sold to homeowners and will be monitoring in and around the nursery to ensure this moth has not escaped. If populations are found, a survey and eradication effort will follow.

In the hot summer months, do you love sitting outside watching the fireflies (or lightning bugs) flash in the landscape? If you do, then there is something important you need to know related to fall gardening. If you are a neat and tidy gardener and like to get all those messy leaves off your garden, think again. Once you’ve bagged up all those leaves neatly and put them by the side of the road, you’ve probably removed all the juvenile fireflies from your yard too! So next year, no fireflies to watch.

“Laissez les bons temps rouler” is Cajun French for “Let the good times roll.” With the start of Mardi Gras, everyone will begin hearing that phrase quite often. Another favorite Mardi Gras tradition is the King Cake. But what is it, and why do they put plastic babies in there?

South Carolina gardeners often get excited towards the end of February when temperatures climb into the 60s and 70s but know spring is still a month away. As tempting as it is, it is understood February is too early to get started.