May is National Asparagus Month

May is asparagus month, so I thought I'd re-post one of my favorite plant profile videos for one of my favorite foods! What's not to love about Asparagus? It is perennial and so easy to grow -- practically set-it-and-forget-it! It tastes great raw or cooked. And, most interesting of all, it makes your pee smell funky -- at least mine does after consuming it. 

Here is how to grow asparagus along with a few extra fun facts about this unique edible plant. (BTW, if you have any favorite asparagus recipes, please share them in the comments below.) 

Nothing says, "SPRING!" like fresh asparagus. With no real work on my part, I am able to get a decent harvest of asparagus from my community garden plot. The only thing this perennial vegetable really requires is patience.

Having to hold off on harvesting for three years from the initial planting date was a real test of my will power, but the wait is worth it. They are so tender fresh from the garden that they only need a quick blanching to prepare them.

To plant them, buy asparagus crowns (roots) via mail-order or from your local garden center. Plant them in a trench about 6 to 12 inches deep and a foot wide in a sunny spot in your garden. Add in some organic compost when re-filling the hole and then keep the area well-mulched.

Let the plants go through their growth cycle for two years without picking any so they gain strength and get well-established. In the third year, you can finally selectively harvest some spears by grasping them near the ground to bend them and they will naturally snap off at their weakest point.

At the beginning of May, stop harvesting and let the asparagus spears grow. They need the tall foliage and recovery time to send energy back down to the developing roots. You will need to tie-up the long asparagus fronds in the summer with a bungee cord or string as they like to flop over.

 In the fall, the plant forms little red seed pods or "berries," The asparagus seeds can be collected, dried, and planted the next spring. Towards the end of autumn, the foliage starts to turn brown --cut it back and compost it. Then mulch the bed with an organic material like straw.

I let strawberries encroach in my asparagus bed as their surface-runners don't really interfere much with the asparagus roots, but you really should keep it weeded and free of other interloping plants.

By the way, “white” asparagus is the same plant as the regular green one. It is just deprived of sunshine so it can’t produce chlorophyll and turn green. To grow white asparagus, bury the spears in mounds -- adding a few inches of soil a little at time, leaving the very tips showing. Harvest by digging them out and cutting off the top growth.

Asparagus - You Can Grow That!

The profile video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine.

Visuals by Khloe Quill
Audio by Kathy Jentz

 

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This post is part of the #GardenBloggersChallenge sponsored by Gardencomm for the month of May. You are invited to join in and can see more details at https://info.gardencomm.org/bloggerschallenge

My favorite flower colors are…

My favorite flower colors are shades of purple and green. I especially love it when those two colors are combined in one bloom. Here are a few examples from my garden:

Clematis ‘Taiga’

Hardy Hibiscus ‘French Cabaret Purple’

Rose 'The Bishop'

Bearded Iris - variety unknown

Campanula - variety unknown

Datura Hybrid  'Double Purple'

What are your favorite flower colors?

This post is part of the #GardenBloggersChallenge sponsored by Gardencomm for the month of May. You are invited to join in and can see more details at https://info.gardencomm.org/

Dahlia Bloom Days

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, autumn is here and the leaves are falling and coating everything. We've had a few very cold days, but also a few very warm ones. We've also had some good rains.

This bloom day I thought I would share one of the Dahlias that is blooming now. I cut it and popped it in a bud vase to enjoy by my kitchen sink. Thank you to a garden friend who dropped off a box full of dahlia tubers earlier this year. He had over-ordered and I reaped the benefits. I threw them into containers, garden beds, and also over at the community garden plot. They have done well and I hope to dig and save some of the tubers successfully to grow next year.

In the garden also blooming today, I have blooming: Zinnias, Celosia, Gomphrena, Brazilian Verbena, Goldenrod, Toadlily, various Asters, Mums, Pansies/Viola, Impatiens, Fuchsia, Marigolds, Alyssum, Tithonia, Tall Sedum, PJM Rhododendron, and much more!

Be sure to follow @WDCgardener on Instagram for lots of pics of what is blooming in our garden and area gardens that we visit.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

A Golden Bloom Day

 

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, summer has been unusually wet - but I'm not complaining! Even though July was insanely hot, I have not had to drag the hoses out nor top off my water garden yet. This last week brought in mercifully cooler temps and so I'm finally able to get out and beat back some of the rampant weeds.

In bloom now in my garden are many flowers with golden hues including Black-eyed Susans, the aptly named Goldenrod, yellow Echinacea, and Cup Plant. My favorite though is Bronze Fennel (pictured above). It is like a halo of golden flowers that is the perfect backdrop to many other garden plants and the pollinators love it too!

In the garden also blooming today, I have blooming: Hydrangeas, reblooming Lilacs and Azaleas, Waterlilies, Lotus, Pickerel Weed, Trumpet Creeper vine, Zinnias, Celosia, and much more!

Be sure to follow @WDCgardener on Instagram for lots of pics of what is blooming in our garden and area gardens that we visit.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

Fenton Friday: National Strawberry Month

 

May is National Strawberry Month, so I ran out today to check on my berries and sure enough a handful were ripe! Of course, I ate some right then and there - but didn't bring in a few to have with my morning cereal tomorrow.

Elsewhere in the plot, the asparagus has ended and I am letting the remaining stalks grow up to renew itself for next year. The garlic looks really robust and the arugula has bolted and turned into a small shrub!

The chamomile and yarrow are blooming. The top growth of both the carrots and potatoes are progressing well. The blackberries are forming in good number. I may even have enough at once for a pie or crumble this year! Finally, the peas are setting flower and I hope to have at least a few purple pods to sample before the summer heat scorches the vines.

It is going to be a scorcher of a weekend here in the Mid-Atlantic and is already quite hot and humid today, so I am holding off planting anything new for a bit.

What are you growing and eating this week from your edible garden?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 11th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.

This post is part of the #GardenBloggersChallenge sponsored by Gardencomm for the month of May. You are invited to join in and can see more details at gardencomm.org

Bloom Day: Just Rosy

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, spring has been a long, cool one so far -- very English-like -- so I thought to was appropriate to share my favorite English Rose in my garden, it is the David Austin 'Olivia'.  It is a shrub rose and the flowers are medium-sized. It currently has more blooms than it ever has before in my garden. I cut a small bouquet for my mom and have a few small bouquets all around my house for myself. I love looking at it, but more than that I love the fragrance -- a classic light rose-fruity scent.

In the garden also today, I have blooming: Weigela (several kinds), Peonies, Clematis, Bearded Iris, Columbine, and much more!

Be sure to follow @WDCgardener on Instagram for daily pics of what is blooming in our garden and area gardens that we visit.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

This post is also part of the #GardenBloggersChallenge sponsored by Gardencomm for the month of May. You are invited to join in and can see more details at gardencomm.org

Bloom Day: Spanish Bluebells

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, spring has definitely sprung! It feels like EVERYTHING is blooming at once. We had a warm spell this week and that brought a bunch of the things bursting in bloom. 

In the garden today, I have blooming: Flowering Almond, Spanish Bluebells, Heather, Hellebores, mid/late-season Daffodils, Tulips, Grape Hyacinths, Lilacs, Leucojum, Epimedium, Primrose, Redbud tree, Weeping 'Higan' Cherry tree, Confederate Jasmine vine, Pansies, Viola, Stock, Alyssum, Brunnera, Phlox, Trillium, Euphorbia, Pushkinia, Golden Ragwort, PJM Rhodidendron, Azalea, Vinca, and much more!

Be sure to follow @WDCgardener on Instagram for daily pics of what is blooming in our garden and area gardens that we visit.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

Marching into Bloom Day

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners around the world with blogs share a few flower photos from our gardens.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, we had had a very harsh winter. January was our coldest and snowiest in years. We had a tantalizing taste of a few warm days and we are back now to the typical March of cycles of cold temps and blustery winds followed by glimpses of  spring. Today is a lovely spring-like day.

Blooming in my garden today, I have Winter Jasmine, Witch Hazels, Heather, and Hellebores. The Forsythia flowers are opening and the buds on my Flowering Plum are just about ready to burst. Early bulbs flowering now include Snowdrops, Crocus, Winter Aconite, and early-season Daffodils like 'Tete-a-Tete'  and 'February Gold'. In outside containers, I have Primroses, Alyssum, and Pansies.

The Saucer Magnolia (pictured above) is looking particularly lovely. The early blooms that opened on it last week got zapped by ice and snow over the weekend, turning them to brown rags, but those flowers still in bud at that point are opening up just fine now.

Be sure to follow @WDCgardener on Instagram for daily pics of what is blooming in my garden and other area gardens that we visit.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

Autumn Daffodils for Bloom Day

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, the past month has been generally hot, but we had some moderate days and a taste of fall, so the garden is starting to feel like it is rounding the corner soon from lush, jungle exuberance to shaggy autumn decline.

For this month's Bloom Day. I thought I'd share a picture of the Autumn Daffodils in my garden. It is also known as fall daffodil, winter daffodil, or yellow autumn crocus. The Latin name is Sternbergia lutea. Despite the bright-yellow color, it really does look more like a tall crocus, than a daffodil to me.

I bought the bulbs at Green Spring Gardens Fall Plant Sale a few years ago from a woman who dug a bucket-full up from her farm. They were already sprouting and I don't recall many flowers that first year. When I read up on them, I saw they were used often in rock gardens and want perfect drainage, so I planted them in a location with great drainage next to my driveway and a hypertufa trough. Each year they multiply a little bit, in a few years I may be able to dig and transplant or share as few bulbs.

In the rest of the garden today, I have blooming: Gomphrena, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Goldenrod, Celosia, Tall Phlox, Japanese Anemone, Butterfly Bush, Tall Verbena, Petunias, Rose of Sharon, Butterfly Bush, Zinnias, Cosmos, Fuchsia, Bacopa, Impatiens, etc.

Be sure to follow @WDCgardener on Instagram for daily pics of what is blooming in the garden and area gardens that I visit.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

A Sizzling Hot Bloom Day

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day Garden Blogger's Bloom Dayagain! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. Here is the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, the past month has been a HOT one. How hot? We are approaching a record # of 90+ degree days in a row - today we are at Day 20.

MONARDA FISTULOSA - BEE BALM

I realized that many of you might be visiting this blog just once a month for Bloom Day and not have seen our weekly Plant Profile videos/articles. Most all of these are flowering plants and much of the footage is shot in my own home garden, especially in this time of COVID and limited access to local public gardens. Our latest one is on Monarda, which is blooming away in my unforgiving and unwatered hellstrip pollinator garden. These are locally focused for the Mid-Atantic USA and are also seasonal -- profiling plants of interest in the garden at that time. You can view them here: https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/search/label/plant%20profile.

What is blooming in YOUR garden today?

Colorful Combinations on Bloom Day

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. Here is the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, the past month has been a roller coaster - from no sign of rain for days to deluges of several inches at once and temps ranging from scorching hot to quite chilly again this morning. It has been pretty unpredictable.

This month, I thought I'd share two favorite combinations blooming in my garden now. Both were unplanned and both involve daylilies. The first (pictured above) is the common ditch daylily and chicory. I have both "weeds" planted along my back fence line and sidewalk media strip. They are hemmed in on all sides so cannot escape cultivation. Every year, they both open their flowers without fail at the exact same time -- I think they know just how well orange and blue set each other off.

The second combination is a daylily cultivar whose name I'm wracking my brain for, but alas, cannot recall. I planted it right against the Lavender 'Phenomenal' near my small water garden. The violet tones in the middle of the daylily really pick up the lavender wands around it -- trust me, it is much better in person than I can capture with my iPhone camera here.


What is blooming in YOUR garden today?

Power Circle Activated!

For the past few years, I have been helming a "power circle" for a small group of garden bloggers -- all members of the Garden Communicators International (used to be called Garden Writers Association). We have monthly phone calls on various topics ranging from marketing tips to content ideas. The group is winding up to a close now, so I'll miss our regular gatherings. I still plan to stay in touch through GardenComm and by visting their blogs regularly. I thought I would share the other members' blogs and highlight a bit about them.

Amy Whitney blogs at Small Garden News and she is the Southeast USA. Her blog concentrates on organic food gardening and she has two books that you will want to check out -- one on Fall Garden Planning and the other is a Garden Planner and Notebook.

Duane Pancoast blogs at The Geriatric Gardener. He covers issues surrounding aging in the garden. He just published a book on that same topic and you should be able to order that soon.

Gail Pabst co-writes her No Farm Needed blog with her daughter. Check out their online store which features their pressed flower crafts from flowers that they both grow.

Gerald Simcoe's web site is GeraldSimcoe.com. He studied horticulture at Longwood Gardens, but now spends his time painting. Check out his floral still lifes -- from flowers grown in his own garden.

Keri Byrum's blog is Miss Smarty Plants. She was in Florida for awhile, but is back in Iowa on a farm. She specializes in growing hops for local breweries and has great information on raising backyard chickens.

Marianne Willburn writes at Small Town Gardener and you may know her from her two recent guest appearances on the GardenDC podcast. You may also know her book Big Dreams, Small Garden, which we reviewed in the magazine a few years ago. She is a DC-area local -- living in Lovettsville, VA.

Sunshine Yellow for Bloom Day

Cupflower

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. 

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, we have had a HOT June-July and lots of flooding rains -- a pattern that seems to be set in place for the rest of the summer.

In my garden, I have many mid-summer blooms, so I thought I'd narrow the focus to just the yellow ones this month. I am not a big fan of the color except as an occasional accent. I don't seek it out in plants I acquire, but it makes its way into my garden nevertheless.

Aside from the yellow perennial flowers picture here, I also have yellow annuals in the garden including marigolds, sunflowers, and lantana.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

Goldenrod

Black-eyed Susan

Rudbeckia laciniata aka Green-headed Coneflower or Cutleaf Coneflower

Daylily

Bloom Day Fleur de Lys

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. 

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, we had a soggy and cool spring, so my garden is happy--though I've had little chance to get out there and maintain or enjoy it!

In my garden, I have a multitude of blooms, but I thought I'd focus on just the Irises this time. Most are bearded types. None have names as they were all pass-along plants that I got from other gardeners -- either at plant swaps or in direct trades. Likewise, the one patch of Siberian Iris I have is from a garden club friend.

One Iris that I forgot to take a photo of was the Yellow Flag Iris in my pond, also a pass-along plant. It is considered invasive, but on my urban corner location it isn't going anywhere (plus I snip the seedheads off before they can ripen).

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

Bloom Day: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

two lilacs - one pink, one purple

Move over, Santa! Spring is in full swing and every bird is singing with joy! If I weren't tied to this desk, doing our April issue layout, I'd be outside twirling away madly like Maria in the Austrian hills.


It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. 

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, we had a few bad wind/thunderstorms this past week, but today it is sunny and calm,

In my garden, I have a multitude of blooms. Here is my list of what is in flower today:

- Carolina Jasmine
- Corydalis - yellow and purple
- Redbud Tree
- Lilacs
- Primroses
- Violas
- Snapdragons
- Rhododendrons
- Forsythia (ending)
- Weeping Cherry Tree (ending)
- Alyssum
- Epimedium 'Pink Champagne' and 'Sulfur'
- Leucojum 
- Azalea (just opening)
- Hellebores - various
- Daffodils - various
- Tulips - various
- Muscari (Grape Hyacinth) 
and more....

I cut a bunch of 3 big Lilac bouquets and plan to do more this week.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?

Redbud - straight native species

Last fall I planted this "river" down my front slope

Spring has Sprung for Bloom Day

It is Garden Blogger's Bloom Day again! On the 15th of each month, we gardeners with blogs share a few bloom photos from our gardens. 

Here in the Mid-Atlantic USA (USDA zone 7) on the DC-MD border, we had an especially nasty winter until two days ago, when spring sprung out and the birds sang and bulbs burst into bloom!

In my garden, I have a multitude of blooms. Here is my list of what is in flower today:

- Winter Jasmine
- Pieris Japonica
- Mahonia
- Hellebores - various
- Daffodils 'February Gold' and 'Tete a Tete'
- Snowdrops - various
- Crocus - various

I cut a bunch of sweet-smelling daffs to enjoy at my desk while I lay out the next issue of the magazine.

So what is blooming today in YOUR garden?