Getting Wild in the Garden! Cultivation & Cultivars, know your native plants!

My name is Edna and I am a Wild Gardener. 

Wild gardening to me means you mix in as many native plants as you do cultivars. According to Wiki, "a cultivar is a plant or grouping of plants selected for desirable characteristics that can be maintained by propagation." They usually don't belong in the area, humans have replaced native plants with cultivars. Wild gardening is to preserve the native wild landscape and nature. I have golden rod, milkweed and dead nettles growing in my flower beds. The dead nettles are also being used as ground cover and as a natural fertilizer called green manure. {More on green manure later!}

milkweed plants

Make room in your garden for some native species, for those plants that support the natural order around you. Some butterflies and animals have died out because we chose to interrupt nature and plant our own cultivars. They had nowhere to go and nothing they could eat. Most people remember how many butterflies we had in our youth, now they are a rare sight, mostly because we,  in our ignorance, did away with their habitat and food sources by drying up ponds and planting grass. 

Where do you think all the frogs, dragonflies have gone? 

Don't think of native plants and grass as weeds or dry up a natural pond in your yard, embrace the natural surroundings, and find a way to incorporate into your garden.  Natural plants need a place to call home, butterflies need a home to make a family. 
Plant some native milkweed, let the bees have their goldenrod, then lean back and enjoy the sounds of nature. 

{garden photos by me, please share with links}

The day after Mothers day...

 My sisters, brothers and I feel we won the lotto of mothers. Mine is both loving and stern when needed. She has kicked my butt when needed and kick started my brain. She gave me my love of books and knowledge.  She taught me to work hard and to be empathetic, compassionate, and when not to be anyone's fool. My sisters, brothers and I knew if we told her something she would back us up to the hilt. She is kind, with a sense of humor and wit like no one else. She sets the standard. She erects the foundation on which we all stand. I know she got it from her mother and I hope I get that chance to pass it down or out...I love you Mama!

 

Immortality Iris....The story of forever.

I am a plant addict. There, I said it. No intervention needed! 

I love the smell of freshly cut grass, deep down to the brown, red & black earth and the feel of it between my fingers. I love hearing stories about plants. There is lore and fact, and sometimes they intermingle. I love sitting out in my garden, listening to the birds sing; viewing it as art, like, a great masterpiece, and the work yet undone. 

The story of iris flowers began when Egypt conquered Syria, King Thutmose III of Egypt was a gardener and a warrior as well. He assured that the iris flower would be on his monuments, Temple of Amon at Karnak, as well as in the gardens of Egypt, they all bear the iris design, and are the symbol for life renewed. 

The white iris was created by Dr. Lloyd Zurbrigg, circa 1991,  which is known today as the Immortality Iris, which blooms in the Spring and in the Fall, which is unusual for an iris. It's has been called a true remembrance of this remarkable man.  I love to think of it as a little chunk of his own immortality.

Read more:

  {This photo was taken two weeks later}

I have been promised the re-blooming will go on for perhaps as long as 6 weeks! 

History of the Iris Flower | Garden Guides

Click this link for more! 

And this is just the beginning...My Not So Secret Garden

Change of plan...

This Blog is going to change.  I will be creating a web-blog! So hold on to your seats!