Everything About Gardening

THE NATIVE PLANT CENTER HOSTS GARDEN OPEN DAY, TOUR, NURSERY BENEFIT EVENT

The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College in Valhalla will participate in the Garden Conservancy Open Days on Sunday, July 31 from 12-4 p.m. Volunteer guides will lead visitors through The Lady Bird Johnson Demonstration Garden, Stone Cottage Display, and Rain Gardens with plants primarily indigenous to the northeastern United States. Experts will answer questions about your home landscape. In particular, Jay Archer from John Jay Landscape Development will be present in the Stone Cottage Garden from 1-4 p.m. to discuss sustainable gardening practices.

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Attractive Blossoms For WeddingsGreen Cymbidum Orchids appear in many eye-catching tones of green. They may range from light green to dark green and they can have red, green, yellow, white or pink centers. They’re awesome because despite being green they still look like a blossom and are not likely to get mistaken for leaves. Regardless of whether you’re looking for a cut flower or a great orchid shrub, Green Cymbidum Orchids are perfect specimens to suit your needs.These types of orchids make fantastic flowers for weddings or for proms. They make excellent and long lasting wedding bouquets and can also be ideal for boutonnieres. The great point concerning them is they can last a extremely long amount of time as a cut flower. With the appropriate care they might last a few weeks, so you can purchase them a few days early when you have a special occasion approaching.Stems of these flowers can be as much as 23 inches long and you will usually see eight to 12 flowers on each stalk. Plus some cymbidiums can offer fragrances which smell like sandalwood or even citrus. They are also referred to as “boat orchids”, sadly I have no idea how they received this name.These types of flowers typically blossom in the course of the winter months, but needless to say if you can manipulate their particular growing conditions it is possible to encourage them to bloom whenever you want them to blossom. When left upon the plant, these kinds of blooms can last up to 10 weeks. Thus if you have a green thumb you might want to think about cultivating them, instead of purchasing them as a cut flower to place in a flower vase. Green cymbidium orchids used to be very popular in victorian era Europe, since they were able to tolerate cool european winters far better than many other varieties of orchid. They can endure temperatures as little as 45 degrees, but I wouldn’t push things too much if I were you.

Gardening would be a great deal simpler without interference from garden pests. Most garden pests are small, but they sure are a big hassle. The the majority of common garden pests are insects, of course and it is a curious thing that these insects tend to prosper in circumstances that are not quite right for flowers. Most garden pests do not actually live on the plants themselves, they live in rotting rubbish nearby or in saturated soil and go to the plant to feed. Some insects live in the roots if the earth is too wet.

So, one of the first things to do is to try to lessen the number of harmful insects in your garden. You can go a long way down this route by clearing away any old decaying rubbish and decayed wood. Make sure that your soil is well drained and keep cats out of your garden by squirting them with a water pistol until they get the idea.

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Ask the master gardeners

Q: What is a moon garden?

A: A moon garden is a garden that is pleasant to look at by day, but in the evening, in the moonlight, takes on an enchanted look.

Moon gardens do not have to be any specific size or shape, as long as you choose the right plants. Usually the plants in a moon garden have white or silver foliage or white flowers that reflect the moonlight.

Examples of such plants include lambs ear , dusty miller , Russian sage , candytuft , white chrysanthemums , white and pale pink peonies , the fragrant August lily , moon flowers , and my favorite, pussytoes . This last one is similar to dusty miller but lower growing and native to our area.

To make your moon garden more appealing, add flowering plants that have color or a scent.

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The fastest growing shrubs for privacy are not necessarily going to be the most attractive ones. There are ways of having fast-growing shrubs without letting them take over your garden.

Ask yourself whether you need privacy only in summer, or whether you need it all year round. If you are only outside in the summer months you can use deciduous privacy shrubs. If you need winter privacy in your garden then you will have to buy evergreen privacy shrubs.

Consider your privacy screen as a three stage project:

• Year one – Plant fast growing shrubs that will quickly grow too much and need to be cut back. Plant slower growing shrubs in front of these fast growing ones. S

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It wouldnt be a proper July 4th weekend without a step into my big field to pick wild raspberries. The catbirds like them, too!

Ive had some landscaping done, so Ill probably have fewer than last year .

To freeze the berries, I lay them out on a sheet pan and stick the whole thing in the freezer.

Once they freeze, its easy to pack them away in plastic freezer bags. If you freeze them individually, you to tend to avoid having a big ball of frozen raspberry-flavored mush.