Sometimes you just have to hide the ugly. In perfect world, gardens wouldn’t have any ugly, but don’t be deceived by all those gorgeous garden photos, we all have ugly somewhere. Whether its the compost bin, gardening paraphernalia, a neighbor’s yard, or the place your spouse stores junk. We all know its there.
So hide it! Here is the camper we wanted to hide. Not exactly a great backdrop for my zinnias, is it?
Now you hardly see the camper. It was lots more work than I anticipated, and LOTS more fun.
One of the doors got its own spot.
So how did we do it?
Mike and I collected old doors from garage sales, antique markets, and yes, other people’s garbage. I had leftover outside paint in the basement. Home Depot had small containers of outside paint literally named “Oops” that were really cheap. I bought a bunch. I had plenty of inspiration from Pinterest. Best of all, I had friends who could paint. Some who would even be considered artists.
But first the prep work. Fortunately, I have bonded with our power washer. We are old friends and spent a lot of time together cleaning the doors.
Other old friends were even more important along the way. I learned from Huck Finn that having someone else paint your fence was a good thing. So when it came to painting my doors, I threw a Huck Finn Party. I had already painted base coats on the doors as needed…that’s about the extent of my painting “gift”. But think of the artist friends in your life and do them a favor by letting them get all creative on your doors.
My job that day? I did paint one panel. Impressive, isn’t it?
I did have one other job – I kept everyone well fed.
Was it really fun? You better believe it. Look at those smiles.
Installing the doors
We let everything dry, really, really dry. Then Mike applied several coats of exterior grade polyurethane.
Installation was a big deal. The doors are tall. They are heavy. And in a storm, they would act like sails if not securely supported. This is another case of “not my gift”. Fortunately I could again rely on someone else. My husband, Mike, gets this kind of task. He excelled!
4x4s are attached to the back of the door, and 4×4 post anchors hold them in the ground. The doors survived a recent windstorm (quite a nasty one I might add.) They are also removable. After all, we will want to move the camper, and we will want to store the doors inside for the winter.
Inspiring? Yes. Doable? Yes. A project for the meek? Not so much!
Central States Dahlia Society just put out a great list of pests that attack dahlias, and more importantly, how to get rid of said pests. We’re talking about bugs, deer, and rabbits.
Bugs: We’ve seen some of these on our dahlias over the years, and really don’t find dahlias any more susceptible to bugs than other garden plants. So if FOB (Fear of Bugs) is stopping you from growing dahlias, don’t succumb!
Thrips ‒ Slender pests with fringed wings, thrips damage plants by puncturing the leaves and sucking out the juices.
Although thrips rarely kill dahlias, they can affect the appearance by causing stippled leaves, leaf drop and stunted growth. They can also spread virus from one plant to another. Pesticides aren’t usually helpful because the pests move from plant to plant so quickly.
How to get rid of thrips The strategy in the battle to get rid of thrips is to use yellow sticky traps. Park Seed & Harris Seed has them.
Spider mites ‒ About the size of a tiny speck of sand, tiny spider mites are difficult to see with the naked eye. You can locate the pests with a magnifying glass, but a magnifying glass usually isn’t necessary because you will notice telltale strands of thin webbing on the leaves. Spider mites are often more apparent during dry, dusty weather.
How to get rid of spider mites Set the water to a high pressure and try to target the underside of the leaves in particular. This should help to wash spider mites away. (You should do this often in dry weather.)
Spray underside of leaves with homemade rosemary oil or Neem oil.
Spray underside of leaves with dishwashing soap or insecticidal soap.
Aphids – How to get rid of them Dilute in water, 1 tablespoon lemon dish soap in 1 gallon of water & spray on your plants.
You can also use insecticidal soap or Neem Oil that you diluted with water & add some dishwashing liquid too.
Put up a hummingbird feeder. Ruby-throated hummingbirds feed on aphids & thrips.
Slugs and snails are capable of doing tremendous damage to dahlias and other plants. However, they are easy to spot; they chew large holes in leaves, and they leave slimy, mucous tracks wherever they go.
Slugs look like an exceptionally fat worm with two snail-like eyestalks.
How to get rid of snails & slugs Put out slug bait immediately after planting and at least every two weeks thereafter.
Fill some small containers with beer and bury them in the soil, so they are level with the surface. Slugs are attracted to the smell & crawl in and drown.
Buy commercial slug & snail rid pesticide, Sluggo Plus. You will have to sprinkle this on the surface several times, especially in damp weather.
Kill slugs with cornmeal, It’s a lot cheaper, but may not attract as many slugs. Put a tablespoon or two of cornmeal in a jar and lay it on its side. Keep the cornmeal dry, and it will kill slugs by expanding inside them.
Earwigs – How to get rid of them Use oil traps. Fill a tin can with leftover vegetable oil. They will crawl into it and drown.
Trap them with a rolled up newspaper or a short length of old garden hose.
Sluggo Plus also gets rid of Earwigs.
Grasshoppers While not a major pest of dahlias, grasshoppers do occasionally feed on the plant’s leaves.
How to get rid of grasshoppers Use a garlic spray. Fill a spray bottle with one part garlic solution and three parts water. Once ready, spray the solution onto the leaves of affected plants. Be sure to spray the undersides of the leaves as well.
Caterpillars– (the larval stages of moths and butterflies) Caterpillars leave no slime, but like slugs, they chew holes in the leaves. They often roll themselves up in leaves, and rolled, curled foliage is a dead giveaway that caterpillars have been feasting on your dahlias.
How to get rid of caterpillars Use SAFER caterpillar killer. WalMart has it.
Cucumber beetles The larvae tend to gnaw on the roots of your plants, and the adults chew on the foliage. Even worse, they spread plant disease.
How to get rid of cucumber beetles Use Safer Brand Yard and Garden Spray to get rid of them.
How to get rid of Japanese beetles Unfortunately, the most effective way of getting rid of Japanese beetles is to hand pick them off of plants. It’s time consuming, but it works, especially if you are diligent. When you pick them off, put them in a solution of 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing detergent and water, which will cause them to drown.
Wirewormsare the larva of click beetles and develop from eggs laid in the soil. After they tunnel into bulbs, they hollow out the plants stem, causing it to fall over.
Leaf miner, any of a number of insect larvae that live and feed within a leaf, which causes white lines on your dahlia leaves.
Use Permethrin Sprays to get rid of the larva.
Those cute deer and rabbits.
How to get rid of rabbits or deer Purchase Irish Spring bars of soap. Cut the bars into 1” cubes. Put the soap into cheese cloth or netting & hang the soap from bamboo sticks about 6” from the ground for rabbits & higher for deer.
Mix ¼ cup of milk with four drops of lemon dish soap. Place the mixture in a spray bottle, and fill the rest with water. Spray the mixture on garden plants every 10 days and after rain to keep deer away.
Put a tablespoon of cayenne pepper in a sprinkling can, fill it with water and sprinkle it on your plants. If it rains, be sure to repeat this process.
What do you do when you have too many dahlias? Yes, I know it’s hard to believe there is such a thing. My usual outlets for selling Mike’s dahlias are the Elk Grove Garden Club sale and speaking engagements at garden clubs. None of that has happened since this whole COVID thing started, but our dahlias didn’t know that and they continued to send up sprouts. Jim and Marily Jedd, also members of Central States Dahlia Society, had extras too. So we had a Driveway Dahlia Sale and raised $205, all going to COVID relief. Woohoo!
I started to get rid of horribly invasive Star of Bethlehem last year. And by started, I do believe I started what is going to be a multi-year project. This nasty little plant is such a deceiver. The leaves look like my scilla. They look like my grape hyacinths. It looks innocent. It looks tiny and cute with its diminutive white flowers in May. Even its name seems promising, after all, a star of Bethlehem led the wise men to Baby Jesus.
No. No. No. Its a monster! See what its doing to my iris!
That is just part of one of the areas that is being taken over. Here is more of it, where I have been digging today. Bucket after bucket of dirt coming out, digging out a good 8″ deep.
You may be thinking I’m going a bit overboard. Nope. That little sneak was in-between all of the ground cover sedum you see below. Once I am sure I have the sedum 100% separated from the Star of Bethlehem…oh I was just kidding. There is no such thing as 100% separated. I will do the best I can, then grow the sedum in a large pot and continue removing the “nasty” till its all gone or until I sacrifice the sedum as collateral damage.
So, if you are thinking you can control it, think again. When May comes and they start blooming like the photo on the left, you will be tempted to say “oh, so cute”. Replace that visual with an image of hundreds and hundreds of bulbs like those on the right ravaging your garden.
Sure, it’s tempting to call a gardening article this time of year something like “Putting the Garden to Bed” or “Autumn Cleanup”, but I’m going to instead go with a theme of “Winter Interest”. I’m going to show you one of my tricks to prepare the garden to be interesting even when summer breezes turn into the gales of November and worse.
No, it’s not leaving your scarecrows outside inordinately long. These two were both unfortunately and unusually decorative after our non-traditional Halloween snow.
Halloween snow scarecrows
My garden looks good in winter too. Granted, I define “good” differently in summer than in winter, changing my expectations, but also stacking the deck in my favor. For example, my bird bath makes a lovely fairy garden in the summer, as you can see. Here, my shy fairy opted not to be photographed.
Fairy garden in my bird bath
Then, as temperatures cool, the tender plants come inside, as do any figures. Yep, still no fairy.
Fairy garden ready for winter
But wait, there’s more. Here is Mike moving a fence behind the bird bath to draw more attention to this area that will be a focal point over the winter.
Fairy garden and fence ready for winter
I truly am done with outside gardening for the year. Chicagoland winters make that decision for me. My tools are cleaned up and in the basement till spring and my wagon is moving to the shed. But I’ll still be looking out the window enjoying my garden!
“Nature bestows her own, richest gifts And, with lavish hands, she works in shifts…” ~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham
Dahlia growers know that autumn is a time of great abundance in the garden. While other gardens are winding down, the dahlia garden is gearing up. But it’s not just dahlias as you’ll soon see.
The dahlia garden in early September
Many dahlias will have multiple blooms on one stem. The purple one below, Thomas Edison, is proof positive. Angelina Francesca to the left is putting on quite the show as well.
Angelina Francesca (left), me (middle), Thomas Edison (right)
The zinnias are still going strong, and they really attract the butterflies. We have seen several varieties and they are always out there. The no-care zinnias are a step towards our lower maintenance garden. No, the dahlias aren’t going, but the zinnias are pretty much plop ’em in and walk away. The butterfly show was constant all summer.
Monarch butterfly on zinnias
Other flowers are more at the point of looking like Jurassic Park. Cleome is one of the few invasives I allow to grow in my garden. How can I resist when they look like this? Its kinda like once you have cleome, you always have cleome. Fortunately, the leaves have a unique look in the early spring and they can be edited by pulling out the extras. No digging required.
Garden girl and cleome
We even had a lotus bloom in our pond on Saturday. I think that was just God showing off that if he was only going to give us two lotus blooms all summer, and they last just a few days, one of the blooms was going to be on the day we host Dinner in the Garden for our Willow Creek Church friends. This picture is actually day two, cuz I want to focus on the pistil – yep that yellow salt-shaker looking part. (Consider that your new word for the day.)
Amazing lotus – day 2
The ornamental kale is starting to have a presence. We try to buy ours in the spring when you can buy them in cost-effective flats just like other annuals. (Consider that your money-saving tip for the day.) Be sure sure get the ornamental version, not the edible one. I learned that the hard way,
Ornamental kale
Here’s another show-stopper that can be reasonably priced. Caladiums are high-priced at the garden center and don’t always transplant well. We buy the tubers at Costco in the spring and plant them after frost. It takes them a while to do anything at all, then boom! Ours thrive with morning sun and afternoon shade.
Caladiums
Sweet autumn clematis is a standard for autumn gardens. Be sure to give it growing room and a strong support. We cut ours down to the ground in spring and it still takes over the fence. The mirror stays up all summer and comes in for the winter. Its resin and survives just fine.
Sweet autumn clematis
Ok, one more, just one more. This is turtlehead from my shade garden. Well, actually it’s from Pam’s shade garden, and now lives happily in mine. Soon it will be blooming all the way down the stem.
Turtlehead
We’re enjoying the cooler weather and this time of less work in the garden. Hope you are too.
I knew the Asiatic lilies would be blooming soon, but even after having them for several years, I was amazed when they came through with such coordinated timing. After all, there were just a very few blooming in the last few days, then today they totally exploded with color.
Here’s the back 40, as we call it. Yes, that implies there is a front 40, and even an outback.
Looking a little closer, you can see there are SOOO many blooms.
Let’s get up really close and personal with that one so you can drool a bit.
Our garden wasn’t always a pseudo-botanical garden. There was a time when our 1/2 acre lot had nothing but bad grass and some evergreens. We’ve come a long way, baby! A turning point for this time of year was when our garden was loverly but mostly green, while John and Lucky’s garden was magnificient. My gosh, it was the Asiatic lilies. Go ahead, look at the rest of the pictures and be jealous. Then go shopping and exercise your patience for a few years till they multiply and amaze you too.
These are a little shorter, at about 4′.
There are a lot of different heights, so be sure to pay attention. Apparently I didn’t, so these little guys are less than 2′ tall and need to move to the front of the border.
Its time to take the advice of a wise ancient Chinese proverb “If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily.”
“Lettuce” Begin – A perfect pun for what needs to be done – begin growing lettuce. I planted our lettuce seeds in two coal buckets yesterday. They are outside on our deck where bunnies can’t reach them. Lettuce is a cold weather crop. Start it now so its ready before it bolts and tastes bad. Wait too long and the tender juicy greens will not like the heat, and you really really won’t like most lettuces.
I planted ours in the same coal buckets that I just grew tulips in. I planted the tulips in the autumn and left them in the garage. No water, no sun, nothing. Mike noticed them sprouting in late February and we took the hint that they would prefer the warmth and sun of a window in our kitchen. The tulips said thank you by blooming beautifully. The bulbs are still in the coal bucket and I’ll plant them outside when the lettuce is done.
“Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.”
~Gustave Mehler
