Last season I planted a Temple of Bloom seven son and a Steady Eddy Viburnum solely based on Stacey talking about them on this show. I am so happy with both of these and can't wait for them to " grow up".
That's so wonderful! They truly are awesome plants. I have a Temple of Bloom and had never had so many pollinators in my garden until adding it, I love it! 🥰🤗
I remember once; crab grass was starting to slowly but surely take over my lawn. Back in the day when information wasn’t at you finger tips, so I hadn’t read anything about how to eliminate it, but I just used some common sense and got on on my knees “when I could do that, ” and removed about 10 crab spreading crowns. It left quite a dent in the soil. As a result, I added soil almost to soil level, spread grass seed and covered with a light compost, to protect the seed from birds and provide moisture. The moral of the story is, WoW! The lawn looked beautiful the next year. It sure gave me a new appreciation for removing the crab grass, then spread grass seed and cover with compost to restore your lawn.
Awww...this makes me so happy! I've wanted a Pussywillow for years and I just FINALLY planted one in my yard last week! This makes me even happier about my decision now! 😊
Hi again from Kentucky! Lol I just wanted to say PW has really really knocked it out of the park in 2025!!! I watched the other day the preview of the plants and OH MY GOODNESS!!! All the new plants and the TREES!! WOW!!! I just wanted to put it out there! Yall making me get a 2nd job I want so many!! Hahaaa ❤❤❤
Loved hearing about the bees. I do have a seven Son Flower shrub and love it! I am going to be looking for a Linden tree and a weeping Willow now after hearing this. I have a ton of Native bees and their favorites in my yard are Caryopteris and African Blue Basil.
Love your show! I used Espoma weed preventer which is corn gluten. It works very well and greens up the lawn too. However, if you need to overseed the lawn the weed preventer will prevent the grass seed from germinating. The deutzia looks lovely another plant I need in my garden. Happy Spring!!
I like the idea if you have a hill to plant Yuki Snowflake, Stacey. Would be beautiful! Those Snow drop flowers are sweet, early bloomers on another note. Fun play on words Always, Lim-a-Ric! Thank you to Mike for all the Buzz about the trees & bees! Now for the birds and flowers, Jewel Akens (song) lol. (talk about aging Me) Yummm 🐝, cute, Stacey! Epsoma is my way to go for any of my gardens needs 🙌💚🌱🌿 and Proven Winners plants of all types, ofcourse! 🥰
Stacy, Im very curious to learn about your grass eviction! Ive been toying with the idea of removing our front yard grass to create a more flower based area. How are you getting rid of grass? What are you replacing it with? Im trying to create a beautiful spot on a budget. Thanks for your input. Love the show!
I am having a landscape company remove the grass and re-grade the yard then covering almost everything in at least 3" of mulch. I'll be expanding some existing beds, putting in another patio/seating area, and a couple of vegetable beds. Basically, I'm using it as an opportunity to totally rethink the use of the space and go from turf to more plants that support insects, birds, and humans.
I like the super supertunia plant especially the purple one on the lower left of the screen,like Rick said it's beautiful, hope I can get some this spring
I’m one of the OG spilling planter people. 😂 I moved to CO in 2002 and I had annual spilling whiskey barrels in my backyard with copious amounts of petunias. Those were my garden favorites every year. I’ve been thinking of recreating those spillers in my current south-central Texas yard but I need to know what plants will thrive in this miserable hot/dry climate.
Thank you for addressing butterfly houses. I had the same experience, no butterflies resided in mine because wasps took over the house that I couldn't take the roof off to clean out. So did I understand you right that the wasps that build their nests in the butterfly houses and eaves of my house should be killed and their nest knocked down and destroyed? Recently I've knocked down the nest but didnt use hot shot to kill the adults. So they are not beneficial insects?
I have two deutzia snowflake and they are great. They are absolutely full of branches, which gives me all the blooms, but I’m not I’m not sure if I should be thinning them out. The info (and you) say prune for shape after flowering or give it a rejuvenate prune. It is only a couple years old so too early for a major prune I think, but should I take out some of the branches to stop them overlapping and clogging themselves or are they happy cuddling up that way? Thanks.
No need to prune those branches away! It's best to just leave them for now while they're still growing and maturing - in a few years you can prune them to help shape the plants more but they're just fine growing more dense like you've mentioned ☺
While it is dependent on the growing conditions, Lemony Lace has an average growth rate, it will take the first year to get established in its new home and then in years 2-3 you'll start to see more vigorous growth ☺
Kodiak Black doesn't need regular pruning but benefits from a rejuvenation pruning every 3-5 years. For a rejuvenation prune, you'll want to cut the plant back down to a few inches off the base. It blooms on new wood so it's best to prune in spring. ☺
Chardonnay Pearls is a gorgeous plant as well! You can always ask your local garden center about plants you're interested in and see if they're able to get any in stock at their nursery too ☺
Ahhhh lawn. 20 years ago when I had an infant and toddler I only used corn gluten to kill crab grass and milorgsnite to feed. Worked for me. They didn’t crawl in the lawn but it kept poisons off the shoes and animal paws. And lawn gives you another important natural feeling. Grounding. Plant your bare feet on the lawn for 30 minutes a day and it will ground you. Read up it’s a real thing. Don’t get rid of your lawn. It does more than just give you aesthetic pleasure.
Hi Stacey and Rick. I am desperate for your advice. How can I eradicate lesser celendine? I used 3% glycosphate in a tough brush control formula. I added less water for a stronger solution, added a couple drops of dish soap in early spring last year. This year it is all back, please help! Thanks!
Glossy-leafed plants like lesser celandine (aka ranunculus, buttercup, or Ficaria verna, formerly known as Ranunculus ficaria) are difficult to control through most chemicals because the wax coating on the leaves that makes them so thick and glossy makes it difficult for the chemicals to penetrate. If you still have that same herbicide, I would recommend that you mow/cut down the plants and then apply it immediately after - that will help the chemical penetrate into the plant much better. If you are trying a different herbicide, I would look for something dicamba-based - that has worked before for me on difficult-to-manage plants like ditch lilies and spiderwort. As a note to other viewers: herbicides are not necessarily the best way to manage weed problems, and shouldn't be your first thought. However, when it comes to invasive plants that are difficult to manage, the most thorough, effective method is the best choice. That's part of the IPM approach that we discuss on the show frequently.
You can cover Bigleaf hydrangeas in the winter to help protect the flower buds, we have a video on how to do that - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vHKkDeFbUv8.html ☺
Sweet Alyssum is hardy in USDA zones 9-11, so it won't survive in cooler zones when the temps begin to dip below 4-5 degrees Celsius, but it does work nicely as a summertime annual!
Using a high nitrogen, high iron fertilizer is something that weeds don't like so by using fertilizer you will find you have a lot less weeds to take care of.
Tulip trees are messy I have 5 on my lot and spend spring ,summer,fall ,and even winter if its windy cleaning up after them and the pollen is sticky and drips everywhere the tree grows so tall you never see the flowers unless they fall all over the ground. Might be pretty from a second story balcony way off in the distance but not in your garden . Horrible tree .
Thank you for addressing butterfly houses. I had the same experience, no butterflies resided in mine because wasps took over the house that I couldn't take the roof off to clean out. So did I understand you right that the wasps that build their nests in the butterfly houses and eaves of my house should be killed and their nest knocked down and destroyed? Recently I've knocked down the nest but didnt use hot shot to kill the adults. So they are not beneficial insects?
Great question! European paper wasps are not beneficial insects, that is correct. However, there are a lot of native lookalikes that are benign or beneficial. For me, the easiest way to identify them is their nests, which are easy to spot and distinctive, so I just knock those down and step on them. I have not bothered to chase down the adults. We have links for more resources in our show notes as well, gardeningsimplifiedonair.com/episode-83-spring-things/ ☺