What I Learned Today – Stachys – another kind of corn

A good friend and wonderful gardener told me last weekend that she cuts off the flower stalks from Lamb’s Ears – Stachys byzantina!  I was a bit aghast, but she said she found the flowers a distraction when the main attraction was the soft fuzzy leaves that form a woolly groundcover.  Turns out she’s not […]

What I Learned Today – Beetle Bath

I’ve been finding these beetles making waves in my bird bath this past week.  Sometimes doing the back stroke, sometimes the dog paddle, occasionally a pair of them would be doing some sort of synchronized dance, preparing for the beetle Olympics, no doubt. At first I was alarmed, thinking some horrible invasive species had arrived […]

Ephemeral in The County

On Saturday I noticed a few of these dainty yellow flowers opening by the driveway.  Come Sunday afternoon the leaf littered floor of the entire tree line was covered with Trout Lily.  Just like that. Other native spring ephemerals just in bloom include a flower I used to call woodland Geranium.  I kinda knew it […]

What I Learned Today – Berlandiera lyrata

Did you know there is a National Chocolate Soufflé Day?   The Colorado Native Plant Society did!  It was yesterday, in fact, and to celebrate they tweeted about Berlandiera lyrata, also known as the Chocolate Flower.  It looks like a lovely perennial, native to the west and southwest U.S. and hardy to zone 4.  Tolerates drought […]

What I Learned Today – Blue Eggs

  I don’t keep chickens.  Yet.  My neighbours do, and my other neighbours used to, and I love eating the fresh eggs they’ve provided me over the years.  I love the rich yellow yolks and the flavour so different from supermarket eggs, and I really, really love the different colours in a basket of farm fresh […]

What I learned today – Dipsacus & Cynoglossum

I follow quite a few gardening related blogs, websites and social media feeds and I’m constantly learning new techniques, questioning the validity of horticultural practice and discovering new plants and products.  I love it when something pops up unexpectedly, or an answer to a question I had never thought to ask suddenly appears. On Sunday […]