Check out our *NEW* Bog!

07-13-2016

... Yes, I didn't say "blog", I said "bog"!

Here, it looks like a garden spot to mud wrestle, but actually, it's a very wet area (year-round) where we've decided to provide a location to educate our community on purposes and benefits of utilizing a BOG in your own garden! We are so excited to finally have the area planted with some wonderful water-loving plants.
bog
bäɡ,bôɡ/
noun
noun: bog; plural noun: bogs; noun: the bog
  1. 1.
    wet muddy ground too soft to support a heavy body.
    "the island is a wilderness of bog"
    synonyms: marsh, swamp, muskeg, mire, quagmire, morass, slough, fen, wetland, bogland
    "the bogs were alive with chirring insects and croaking frogs"
  • 2.
    BRITISHinformal
    a bathroom.
    • verb
    verb: bog; 3rd person present: bogs; past tense: bogged; past participle: bogged; gerund or present participle: bogging
    1. 1.
      cause (a vehicle, person, or animal) to become stuck in mud or wet ground.
      "the car became bogged down on the beach road"
      • (of a person or process) be unable to make progress.
        "you must not get bogged down in detail"
    Origin
    Middle English: from Irish or Scottish Gaelic bogach, from bog ‘soft.’
    Translate bog toChoose languageAfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianBurmeseCatalanCebuanoChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanKurdishKyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianLuxembourgishMacedonianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianNepaliNorwegianNyanjaPashtoPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSamoanScottish GaelicSerbianShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTajikTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduUzbekVietnameseWelshWestern FrisianXhosaYiddishYorubaZulu
    Use over time for: bog

    Come VIEW our newest garden exhibit on the hillside above the butterfly habitat!

    Create a Beautiful Bog Garden

    Some fabulous plants will only grow in soil that is permanently moist, and even if you don't have a boggy area in your garden, it's quite easy to create one.
    Colorful Flowers in a Pond Atmosphere

    When to Start: Anytime
    At Its Best: Summer
    Time to Complete: 2 days

    Dig Out Border

    Next to your pond or other suitable area, use a garden hose to make a curved and natural outline for your bog garden. Dig it out to a depth of about 24 inches and set the soil aside. Although you want the soil in your bog garden to be moist, it shouldn't be completely saturated or it will lack oxygen, which is vital for healthy plant roots.

    Plant Up

    Position your bog plants, still in their pots, and when you're happy with the design, plant them so that they are at the same level as in their pots, or slightly deeper. Mulch with organic matter. Keep well watered until the plants are fully established.

    Bog Plants from Nursery Pots

    Good Morning Gardeners!

    07-13-2016

    We found this little guy in the garden this morning! Clary Gardens is teaming with wildlife - Come see for yourself! :)

    The Most Fragrant Roses for Your Garden

    07-11-2016

    • Fill your garden with sweet scents and beautiful blooms with these amazingly fragrant flowers:

    • Honey Perfume

      This award-winning floribunda rose bears beautiful 4-inch-wide, strongly fragrant, apricot-yellow blooms that appear in clusters. It's compact, too, and offers good resistance to powdery mildew and rose rust.

      Size: To 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide

      Zones: 5-9

    • Fragrant Plum

      Noteworthy for its color (lavender blushing to smoky purple at the edges) and its sweet scent (rich and plum-like), 'Fragrant Plum' is a hybrid tea that bears almost perfectly shaped flowers that look stunning in a vase.

      Size: To 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide

      Zones: 5-9

    • Radiant Perfume

      This grandiflora rose's name says it all! The big, golden-yellow blooms bear a wonderfully intense citrus scent. Thanks to their long stems, the flowers are perfect for cutting and adding sunshine indoors.

      Size: To 5 feet tall and wide

      Zones: 5-9

    READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE!

    Japanese Beetles - Know the Enemy

    07-11-2016

    Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica) don't get the publicity they deserve. They're a success story. They can spell Armageddon for some of the most popular plant varieties maintained in backyard gardens, and once entrenched in a neighborhood, are almost impossible to eradicate completely. That doesn't mean you should give up trying, though. Japanese beetles are formidable foes, but they do have their kryptonite. The problem is there are lots of them, and most successful methods for eliminating them take planning. Think of it as warfare. The best campaigns use well-planned strategies that take time and consistent effort to pull off. Once you accept that one bucket of soapy water or a single spray session with a bottle of insecticide isn't going to do it, regardless of your level of gardening skill, it's easier to sign on for the long term fight. Is it painful? Sure. There will be losses. The good news is diligent effort pays off.

    They Come from New Jersey?

    Don't think you're being targeted by an unfair universe intent on turning your rose bushes into lace doilies. In the U.S. Japanese beetles are so pesky because they have fewer natural predator controls than indigenous species. These pests are Japanese imports (in case you thought the name meant something else), stowaways that made landfall in New Jersey around 1916. In their native land, they aren't nearly the problem they are here. They've been migrating west, gobbling up a smorgasbord of domestic and exotic plant species. Today they're active in 30 states, so at least you're not alone in your frustration and grief over plant losses. JB's are known to feed on at least 275 different plant species, and the annual cost to the turf industry alone is over $460 million. Many of their favorite meals are also popular garden plants.

    They like it wet

    It isn't all bad news. Weather can have an impact on how active Japanese beetles will be in a given year. They are less abundant during hot, dry summers, and reproduce in fewer numbers, so there's some residual bounty in drought years. The flip side is they love warm, wet weather. If you've had a soggy summer, expect problems again next year if you don't do something to control their numbers.

    They live underground most of the time
    Japanese beetle eggs


    By summer's end, it may seem as though you've been battling Japanese beetles forever, but they're actually only active for six to eight weeks. After that, the adults will have laid their eggs and died. Those eggs in your lawn and flowerbeds turn into grubs that will feed on grass and other plant roots over the autumn and winter, and emerge next spring. How much time do they spend in the soil? That would be around 10 months a year.

    Mark your calendar

    Depending on where you're located, Japanese beetles will surface sometime between Mid-May and mid-July. A good rule of thumb is the farther south you are, the sooner you're landscape is likely to warm up and trigger their appearance. They're pretty predictable, emerging around the same time in an area year after year. If you started seeing them the second week in June, you can plan for next year's assault around the second week in June.

    READ MORE HERE...

    SAFEGUARD SAFELY AGAINST ZIKA

    07-11-2016

    PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR HABITAT THIS SUMMER

    A dragonfly gobbles an Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. Photo by Eric Stavale, Flickr
    A dragonfly gobbles an Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. Photo by Eric Stavale, Flickr

    Two weeks into the unofficial start of summer, the mercury is rising across much of the country — along with widespread fear about the mosquito-borne Zika virus. As of this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed more than 690 Zika cases in the continental United States — including more than 200 pregnant women — as well as a long-suspected link between the virus and severe fetal abnormalities.

    In April, CDC released a revised U.S. range map for the primary mosquito vector of Zika, Aedes aegypti, showing that the species ranges farther north than previously known — up to Northern California in the West and Connecticut in the East and in 30 states compared with just 12 on previous maps. The same month, a lab in Mexico reported it had for the first time detected the virus in another mosquito species: Aedes albopictus. This notorious daytime-biting Asian tiger mosquito has been plaguing gardeners and other outdoor enthusiasts for years and is already common across much of the country.

    Aedes aegypti, the primary Zika virus vector, feeds on human blood. Photo by James Gathany.

    Aedes aegypti, the primary Zika virus vector, feeds on human blood. Photo by James Gathany, Flickr

    So far, no Zika-carrying mosquito of either species has been detected on the U.S. mainland. Victims either got the disease elsewhere or, less frequently, from having sex with infected partners. But officials warn that as more travelers return from virus-infested countries during mosquito season, there is a good chance for “local transmission” before summer is over.

    READ MORE HERE...


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