Late August is a telltale time for revealing what kind of shopping habits gardeners have.  If they do most if not all of their shopping and planting in April and May then it will quickly become obvious that their yards are fizzling out no matter how much Miracle-Gro they are using.

Echinaceas or what we commonly call cone flowers have been around forever and have been used as a staple in perennial borders where there is full sun and good drainage.  They bloom for a long time, attract bees and butterflies, make an excellent cut flower and provide seeds for birds in the fall and winter.

There has never been any question in my mind as to why gardeners come to garden centers in April and May.  They are starved for color and ready to get their fingers back into the soil.  But July is a different matter.  Here are my top ten reasons for gardeners to visit garden centers this month.

I have mentioned in past columns that July is an excellent month to prune our gardens.  I am not talking about major slash and burn type pruning (which should be done first thing in the spring if at all) but rather the nip and tuck, clip and snip, make a little room for your neighbor type of pruning. 

This coming Saturday July 12th at 10am here at the nursery we will be offering a one hour class on attracting birds and butterflies into our gardens.  Come and learn all about the kinds of plants and other elements of a garden that will bring in these creatures and increase the enjoyment of gardening.

By July most of us have finished our planting and it is time to maintain what we have and do a little editing and tweaking. 

Nothing says summer to me more than flowering perennials in my wife's garden.  While the spring blooms of the peonies and delphiniums have long faded the summer performers are starting to take center stage.  Two that I always look forward to are...

Now that the summer weather has arrived it never fails that someone will ask the perennial question:  “Can I still plant now or should I wait until the fall?”  For the record, we can plant any time of the year...

This is my annual column on proper watering habits and it is interesting to me that last year I wrote this same column the second week of JULY.  Hopefully that means that we are going to have a long and hot summer. Here’s the lowdown on proper watering... 

June is the month I try to finish all the tasks that I thought I was going to complete in March, April and May (funny how that works).  If you find you need a break from all these chores then come join me for...