We are a one-of-a-kind botanical oasis and water gardens venue located in Northern Michigan. Our passion for everything plants has brought us to open a plant nursery on site! Every year we bring another section of our gardens to life through converting overgrown flower beds into native meadows, reconstructing old ponds, and constructing different elements that make our gardens a magical place. This channel is where we get to share our experiences with you! Explore our different tutorials, follow along as we convert each space into something fresh that we can enjoy alongside the rest of our native ecosystem. Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions on new videos, and any add comments you have along the way!
Shouldnt you have watered it before you laid the cardboard and mulch? The problem with cardboard is it prevent air to the roots would it not have been better to incorporate it shredded in the hole to retain moisture?
Those used to grow like vines up everyone's chainlink fences when I was a kid in Kansas. We used to crack them open and release the seeds and silk into the always blowing Kansas wind. As I told you in previous comments, I have no Milkweed seeds this year due to aphids. HOWEVER...an hour ago, I received one of those seed container cases you mentioned one or two videos back. I got the 48 container version (42 small + 6 large containers.) They included a bunch of stuff not listed in the description (collapsible funnel, seed sorter tray, adjustable covered seed dispenser, labels, and seed envelopes.) Very sturdy, yet compact. An excellent buy for $23! THANKS Anna!!!
I used to play with those pods as a kid walking home from school never knew what the plant was lol Thank you as always for the countless hours of informative videos you put out for us! Hopefully next year is the year you hit 100k, you deserve it for sure! You look beautiful as always momma ❤️
One thing I had a problem witth - love and use those trays and 6-packs. But its hard to get too much water out of the traay. They make a slotted tray which fits in the no holes try so you can take them out in the slotted tray, and drain the no holes one. I tend to over water and almost drowned my cosmos! I am starting my first cone flowers this winter, you have good advise, thanks
This was amazingly helpful! Thank you for doing this! Starting my native cottage garden & I was lost on how to start planting everything-now I feel like I have a footing!
This is exactly the video I needed. I have a habanero plant that’s a little over two years old and never given me peppers, only flowers that would fall off. It was suggested to me about pollination but I wasn’t sure how to do it. Thank you for the video.
I'm so glad you found it! I was having the same issue with my indoor pepper plants. Hand pollination was so easy and it solved my issues, I hope the same is true for you!
Will you be offering progress photos following the planting and growing activities? Something along the lines where it covers a timeline for the next 12 to 24 months, and is presented as a beginning to end video. Could cover 1 or 2 growing seasons. The photos would always be taken from the same POV.
Oh absolutely, I love posting updates on the plots I plant. For most native plots we tend to see full results in the 3rd year, so I'll be posting a few updates a year until then!
It's everywhere! Cedar mulch is our go-to - undyed & shredded. Cedar tends to take a lot longer to break down as well, so you'll get a few more years out of it before you have to replace it.
I searched for "drought resistant" and "ground cover plant" and this video popped up. Guess I'll be buying some wooly thyme to save the bald spot on my yard. Thank you ma'am!
I use this seed collection kit amzn.to/4dctinC - but really there's a lot of options for storing seeds over the winter. I do recommend against the paper envelopes, only because that still leaves them susceptible to water damage via humidity. Any plastic container (old medicine bottles work great!) or glass container will safely hold your seeds. Keep in a cool-ish area and out of the sunlight. They'll be good to go in the spring! Just keep in mind that milkweed does like a cold stratification period, so you will want to plan ahead for that.
This is the third video i've seen in this subject this morning and it is definitely the best. thank you. you cleared up the primacane/ floricane thing. the other guys confused me hugely.
Thank you so much, I love reading comments like this! When I first got into gardening I felt confused on a lot of the terms, so I try to make that a priority when doing my own gardening videos now :) Thank you for watching!
Thank you, I appreciate it! I don't use a script so sometimes it turns out good and sometimes... not so much haha. But I'm glad this one was a good one!
Hahaha I'm so glad someone finally called me out on this! I have NO idea why but most of my herbaceous perennials and garden plants are male, but my shrubs and flowering trees are allll female 😂 I don't script my videos so that's just how it comes out haha. Hope all your 'she' plants are doing great this year!
Excellent video! I also watched the starting seedlings and the bucket system. I am curious, with this particular system do I put transplant the starts the same as you did in the bucket video? - ie using the clay pebbles in the the basket making sure the water touches the rockwool? Again - great videos and channel! Thank you
I typically transplant the starts using that method unless it's a plant that has a really strong root system right off the bat (like a green bean plant). If I can, I'll separate these out from the rock wool and just put them right in the clay pebbles. The rockwool is fantastic for seed starting, but I do run into algae issues when it's left in the system. It's a manageable issue, but if I can get the rockwool out ahead of time it just saves me the hassle down the road.
Hello Anna! Thank you for the pear tree video! I am looking for a video on how to grow a pear tree from a seed. I have a problem with growing them. I need help! How did you do that?
Hi there! so this tree was started as a stock tree that actually had different varieties grafted onto it as limbs (so I didn't start this one on my own!). I have to admit I don't usually start fruit trees from seed, it's just such a long waiting period until they produce fruit! Often upwards of 7 years. If you don't want to buy a full pear tree but maybe don't want to wait so long to grow it from seed, you could also consider purchasing a bare root tree - this is a young sapling that is usually in dormancy, but it has a full root structure and will start to produce leaves once its in the ground. If you're committed to growing a epar tree from seed, this article here has a section at the end of it pertaining to growing pear trees from seed: brightlanegardens.com/grow-a-pear-tree-michigan/
Very helpful. Will be checking my butterfly milk weed for seed pods. Are u supposed to deadhead the flower head portion? Does that promote more blooms? Does it affect seed pod development?
Great question! Deadheading CAN help butterfly weed produce a second set of blooms, but it actually reduces the amount of seeds you'll be able to harvest. Oftentimes the second blooms do not produce seed heads or the seed heads are too immature to harvest. On the flip side, if you're wanting to control the reproduction of your butterfly weed plants you can deadhead to prevent them from spreading seeds into other areas of your landscaping.
Gracias por tus comentarios, no pensé en esto al producir mis videos. En el futuro, hablaré más despacio y agregaré algunos subtítulos útiles para que sea más fácil de entender. ¡Aprecio tu comentario!
No seeds☹ My swamp milkweed grew from seed this year (followed your cold strat video guide). Flowered and then died WAAAYYY back. Aphids decimated it. The ladybug beetles couldn't keep up with the bazillion aphids. I hosed them off but they returned within hours. I didn't use any insecticide as I was hoping for monarch caterpillars to live on this plant. Major fail. New growth is sprouting, but I'm going to kill it off this fall. I will try again next spring with more seeds.
We had a HORRIBLE year for aphids this year too - they got my milkweed, butterfly weed, and sooo many of my sumac bushes! We had a really mild winter this past winter so I suspect that had a lot to do with the aphid population this year. Neem oil is my go-to for aphids, but it will kill the monarch caterpillars if ingested. A few other tricks I've used before - coffee (in a spray, not in grounds) or black tea sprayed around the plant and on the leaves. Also campanion planting with marigolds, lavender, or mint (in a container! mint will take over your garden in the ground) have been known to deter aphids. Let's definitely hope for a better year next year!
@@BrightLaneGardens All of my garden is in raised beds or terra cotta pots. I have mint and lavender (started from cold strat seeds) in pots. I will group them around the swamp milkweed (also in terra cotta pot) next spring. Thanks for these suggestions, Anna!!
THANKS Anna! The Echinacea that i planted from seed in April (After watching your cold strat video and doing a cold strat) are just now blooming. This is September, in Kansas (6b)!!! My neighbors Echinacea have already bloomed and the seed heads are dry. It's crazy this year.
Wonderful I'm so glad you're getting blooms already this year! Not all 1st year echinaceas will bloom during that first summer so this is a treat! Don't be too discouraged if your seed heads seem small this year, they'll be FULL of seeds next year! Congrats on your success!
Great video. So at the end of the video, are you actually saying you can perform this process in the Fall? I am in Livonia MIchigan, and I was under the impression that pruning and shaping of boxwoods should only be done in the Spring. Also, should I fertilize the box woods and mulch?
Great questions! So in general, you can prune most shrubs during dormancy. So early spring or late fall will both work! Early spring might be beneficial if you get heavy snowfall since you can prune off any limbs that were damaged over the winter. A fresh trim in the spring will also give you a great shape to start the season off with - so truly whatever season works best for you is fine for boxwoods! I do fertilize my boxwoods with the same fertilizer I use on my evergreen shrubs (usually Holly tone). But choose a granular, slow release fertilizer to avoid burning the plant. I actually recommend against mulching because the branches on no woods already grow so low and thick that adding additional organic material on top of the soil might increase your risk of mold or rot. Since boxwoods grow in nice and thick, you really don’t need mulch to help the soil retain moisture anyway, so I would avoid mulching :)
Had to actually Google what that was. That's just how I talk I suppose :) perhaps muting and turning on captions might help your experience in the future!
Great question! I have no issues chelsea chopping my hollow stemmed plants (bee balm for example is hollow stemmed, I don't notice any issues with water collection or infection or anything like that). As far as plants that you should not chelsea chop - I avoid chopping any woody stemmed plants (save that for late fall/early spring pruning), some of my bulb/rhizome plants like iris's and alliums, and anything that has an early bloom time before June 1st as chelsea chopping may prevent those plants from blooming at all. Other than that, I've had success with so many others! Also any plant that I've chelsea chopped and maybe didn't love the result has still managed to return the following year, so worst case scenario is you just wreck your blooms for a season :)
Thank you so much for this video, I am getting started a tree project to start selling my own tree and donating seeds to a conservation group I work with in the Panhandle of Texas. I was daunted by the cold stratification, but your coffee filter method definitely seems like an absolutely wonderful method for me to get started on this project. Thanks again!!!
I was SO intimidated by cold stratification at first, even as a nursery owner! But starting out with some of the easier varieties (like coneflower) can really help build your confidence. It's so easy once you get your process down. I'm glad you're giving it a try and wish you great success!
