It’s not every day that I get to teach a class here at the nursery.  I am surrounded by very capable employees who have years of experience and are well qualified to instruct our customers.  However, this coming Saturday the 11th of October here at the nursery at 10 am I will be back in the front of the class dispensing gardening wisdom to the masses one gardener at a time. 

It is official. As of the 24th of this month the days are now shorter than the nights and will continue to be so for the next six months. While that might sound depressing the fact is that Mother Nature doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.

Any gardener that is worth his salt is aware of the importance of bees in the garden.  They are our chief pollinators along with wasps and flies, some moths and butterflies and even hummingbirds and bats.  In the early season one can observe our native mason bees and bumble bees working over early blooming shrubs and bulbs and perennials.

Let’s face it, for the most part the lawn is the man’s domain.  It is literally his “turf” and when left alone he can spend endless hours mowing, edging, aerating, dethatching, feeding, reseeding, watering and weeding not to mention the time it takes to keep his trusty John Deere steed in good running condition.

The fall season is a great opportunity to get some hardy veggies started before it gets too cold.  Crops planted now will root in and get established before any hard frosts might cause damage. 

It’s hard to believe that I am talking about fall when it is still high summer and there is a good one to two months left of decent weather. 

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.