A new day and a New Year! Each year, I write my annual I’m Gonnas. Since so many people shun resolutions, I tamed my “resolutions” to I’m Gonnas as promises to myself. I do find new beginnings make it easier!

2022 I’M GONNAS!

1) Eradicate all the Mexican petunias, Rulleia, Ruellia simplex.

2) Eradicate all the blue salvia, Salvia guaranitica, even 'Black and Blue'. Unless it is the back 40 (ft.)

3) Eradicate lesser Celandine aka Fig Buttercup. Ficaria verna. This invasive is taking over our spring woodlands and has somehow shown up in the Bee Better Teaching Garden. I will take no prisoners. Fig buttercup is an herbaceous invasive plant native to Europe. N. Africa, and West Asia. It is aggressively colonizing floodplain and natural ecosystems within the Triangle area and NC. The aggressive nature of this plant disrupts the ecological balance of natural ecosystems and displaces existing native spring wildflowers and native plant communities. In the home landscape, Fig Butternut is a problematic spring weed that can take over one lawns, streams, and floodplains. The Bee Better Teaching Garden is none of these, yet we have it. Please be on the lookout for it and dig deep with a soil knife to remove the entire plant.

4) Add more spring wildflower ephemerals, such as trillium, Trillium spp., Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica., yellow trout lilies, Erythronium americanum. bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, rue anemone, Thalictrum thalictroides, and more.

5) Be better at harvesting and using my fruits!

6). Be completely gluten-free. Starting in 2020, I started to be 90%. I realize I can do this!

7) Continue to be dairy-free in 2022; I realize I can do this! Oat milk helps.

8) No potato chips. This will be hard!

9) More spinach. This will be easy.

10) No red meat. Starting in 2021, I started to be 90%. I realize I can do this! My daughter made me a Beyond Burger meat loaf. It was delicious! I don’t typically substitute. Say for example, I never use artificial sugars; I’d rather give up sugar. I drink my coffee black, but I didn’t always. I use to add sugar, decades ago, about the time the artificial sweeteners showed up. I decided then to give it up, but I still added half and half. To me, it was like drinking a treat. One day, I ran out, and said from that day forward, I will not eat something I’m addicted to. It took a good four months for me to accept black coffee, to the point I could enjoy it, but I did it! Now, if something should ever happen to my coffee supply, that’s a different story. I will whine from here to Guatemala.

I’m excited about beginning a new year. If I slip, all will not be lost. I like to keep my promises!

Cutting back blue salvia, Salvia guaranitica stems, and pulling roots out of the ground. I will only allow this salvia in the back 40 (ft) where they do their own thing, help the native bees, but will not require any tidying up.

Dug up the clump of evergreen Solomon's seal, Disporopsis pernyi, from the back 40 (ft.). They were hidden by the hedge.

Raked up hundreds of chestnuts that fell in the south side of the Mixed Border. If you are ever in this predicament, I suggest wearing good, thick, leather gloves.

Dig up dozens of hellebores that have taken over. Some will go to the beach, but only the named ones from Pine Knot Hellebore Farm.

Potted up a small camellia to plant at the beach.

What does January do for you?

I’m spending my January rearranging the Bee Better Teaching Garden.

The Back 40 (ft) is just about where I want it to be plant-wise. Most likely, I’ll add another camellia or two. The idea of that space’s use is to be maintenance-free. It wasn’t always that way. As I age and now with The COTtAGE, I will be gone a lot more. Age is the real factor, tho. It’s not that I can’t keep up as much as it is I’m bringing the garden closer in, viewed mostly from indoors and the back porch. In that freed-up time, I want to write more.

Gazebo Corner shares sides with my neighbor on the North and neighbor on the East. The focal point is the gazebo with both Confederate jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides and a sprawling Lady Banks rose, Rosa banksiae covering the roof and spilling to the ground. The jasmine never thrived as I hoped it would. So around 20010 I added the Ladys’ Banks, and it thrived there!

January picture coming soon.

The Epimedium Patch is located on the southeast section of the garden near the Lady Banks rose growing over the gazebo, Epimedium x rubrum. I’ve been working on this patch for far too long. I cleared out the other plantings, which I again, put in to fill in while the epicedium filled in. Well, it didn’t. So now it is ready for me to add more

.

The Wildflower Patch is located on the Southside of the back porch. It’s in deep shade. It is just that—a little patch. I have several Cyclamen coum. Before now, I was filling it with other plants from the garden, but the focus was lost. There is a low bird bubbler foundation there I made several years ago, and keeping the bed low with coum will be perfect. I also have several Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica. I wish this would spread, but so far, after at least seven years, the tiny patch han’ys grown at all! I need to read up more on this.

The Wildflower Patch Extension is just east within The Wildflower Patch, under the towering yew, Taxus spp. I’ll transplant many of my wild gingers, Asarum spp. and Trillium spp. to go here where they will be noticed.

The Southside is where the hardy kiwi grow. Also, there is a pyracantha planted along a fence trellis Also there are blackberries; some will be shared and others move to the new blackberry patch, surrounding the chimney swift tower. I recently transplanted a rather large, Cornelian cherry, Cornus mas from the Mixed Border to this area. I hope it makes it. Otherwise, I didn’t give it enough room to grow and would have to take it down anyway.

The Ostrich Fern Garden is to the east of the fountain where there is an open area. Over the years, I’ve tried to give this shaded area a focus, but nothing spoke to me. In the meantime, several years ago, I planted several ostrich ferns, Matteuccia struthiopteris around the fountain, and they are now spreading. So I am helping them along, by transplanting these new additions to the new Ostrich Fern Garden for my new focus. Once it’s filled in, I’m sure I’ll be pleased.

The Front Fountain Garden is an oasis bed, receiving water from the fountain splash. In a circle around the fountain edge are ostrich ferns, other ferns, an elephant ear, Colocasia spp., and a patch of Juncus effusus., Ruella spp. also moved in and it will be removed as soon as it rears its pretty head!

The Food Forest is in the front garden on the south side. Imagine your forest system producing food, with the majority of elements in that system being productive.

By understanding how nature designs forest systems so they are self-maintaining and self-replicating, we can model that system with productive species to produce food in the most sustainable way. There would be a minimum amount of input and the maximum amount of output.

Food Forest Expansion was created from a spot closer to the house. In the past, there were hardy chrysanthemums; a fuchsia pink. they were lovely but were stretching to reach the light. And they were high maintenance, like the genus is, requiring a cut back by half around July 4th. Then a complete cut back after frost. There is a specialist bee that sups nectar and protein from the flowers, but I still have plenty of this genus around the garden.

This new extension Food Forest space will bo-exist with a winter crop of lettuce, a summer display of zinnias, and perennial food from the alpine strawberries. I finished this bed before the snow on 1-23-22, and seeded in Parris Island Romaine lettuce, I also ordered six packages of ‘Mignonette’ Alpine strawberry seeds. Most will go to the Bee Better Teaching Garden; others to the beach. I’m not likely to get fruit this year, but I’m not in such a hurry as a senior citizen. You’d think it would be the opposite, but not true for me. And yes, it even surprised me! In the meantime, I also order six seed packages of ‘Cha-Cha-Cha- butterfly zinnias. Again, some will go to the beach, but most will be for the Bee Better Teaching garden. Both types were purchases from Renee’s Garden.

The Front Beds plus The Parterre Last year, I move most of my bearded iris to the center parterre under the ‘Transcendent’ apple tree. I also transplanted the majority of the snowdrops, Galanthus spp. I’m rethinking tat. I can’t see them from my front door or the street. As such, they will be moved to a more visible location—The Wildflower Patch Extension. When complete, I will be able to see them from the back porch where I plan to spend the rest of my days.

The Raspberry Patch. I have been so fortunate to have been given a start of raspberries. Most likely they are the southland variety. They are everbearing and very tasty. In January I cut back the canes.

The Pollinator Garden is located on the Northside that still receives intense afternoon sun.

The Blackberry Patch has had many incarnations, from a herb garden, a perennial square, various foods. When an Eagle Scout wanted to build a chimney swift tower, the best place for it was right in the middle of this bed. Now within the bed are two guava shrubs, a Marseilles. and a semi-circle of thornless blackberries.

The North Side

The Girl’s Garden includes the chicken run and coop. Arum popped up near the crape myrtle tree. this invasive had to go. Also along the girl’s run is winter hazel, Corylopsis spp. Although native to Japan, it has only slowly spreads. In truth, I’ve had this shrub for at least 15 years, and it is just now started to clump near the Mother plant. I plant to dig it up and take the Joslin Garden.

The Wildlife Pond is near the Coop and the Garden House, in an area where I like to sit. It was a spur of the money decision, when my son was looking for something to do. He was all gun-ho dining the pond in the tight spot I selected. It didn’t take long for his enthusiasm to peter out. I was then faced with another unfinished project I needed to complete. I got it dug and lined, but I still haven’t finished it. I need to add flagstone around the edges. But because the pond is so tight, there isn’t much room to work with. It is my goal to get this finished this winter!

The Mixed Border is just off the back porch. Well, technically, the Mixed Border is North (left in this pic) of the stone steps through the garden. On the right of the steps (the south side) are now trees, cleared of invasives and even perennials I like. I’ve moved plants around so the area doesn’t look cluttered. In addition, on the left side of the steps, I took out cluttered perennials to make more room for the pathway. There is a nightlight that needs to be moved further into the bed. I’ll get to that soon

To read more of my writings, click HERE!

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SUSTAINABLE GARDENING STEWARDSHIP: 

There are many definitions of sustainable gardening, and through my decades as a sustainable gardener, I’ve summed it up to mean…wait for it…a garden that sustains itself and the life within! By that I mean, doing less, so much less, that it can take away the stress and much of the labor, bringing back the joy of gardening and bettering the environment.

Sustainable gardening is a concept of using gardening practices that cause no harm to the Earth and its inhabitants while working in a way to enhance it. But there is more. To me, sustainable gardening is to have within all the aspects to sustain life. For example, to have a butterfly garden, it’s not enough to just have pretty nectar-rich flowers. For a butterfly garden to be fully sustainable, plants are required to sustain all aspects of the butterfly’s life cycle. That means providing host plants, specific plants that area butterflies need to lay their eggs. So yes, you will have holes in your leaves; that’s the goal!

Simply put, sustainable gardening is designing your garden to sustain itself and allows us to secure our future to make the Earth better than we found it. Think of it as organic gardening taken a step further.

Design becomes an important aspect for a garden to sustain itself, as well as providing the plants necessary to fully sustain wildlife in all respects of their lifecycle. You could just plant plants that are regionally native and provide exactly what nature does. No supplemental water, no cutbacks, no added mulch, and no pesticides or herbicide. Yet, many want more from their gardens, so we add plant diversity. What is key is the placement of these plants.

SOIL

FERTILIZING SUSTAINABLY

WATERING SUSTAINABLY

WATERWISE

WILDLIFE

CREATING A WILDLIFE HABITAT AT HOME

FOOD:

Our bird friends don’t need supplemental feed if you have a diverse garden. but we begin to heat up, keep up the feeder so you can watch your feathered friends from the inside of the home..

One of the best all-around seeds for birds is the black-oil sunflower. This seed has a high meat-to-shell ratio, it is high in fat, and it is sized perfectly for many seed eaters, including black-capped chickadees, cardinals, mourning doves, finches, juncos, jays, woodpeckers, and sparrows.

COVER:

Wildlife welcomes cover, year-round.

WATER:

As the berries in our area ripen, the birds are having a feast. Keep your birdbaths filled with freshwater, changing out at least every four days to break the mosquito larvae cycle.

PLACES TO RAISE THEIR YOUNG:

Plant diversity is key!

BIRDCARE:

Do you deadhead? Click HERE to learn more.

Check out this really nice bird identification and preferred foods for each bird from The Cornell Lab! Click HERE!

Are you familiar with how we can bring the birds back? Click HERE for starters.

As long as you are enjoying seeing the birds from your window, continue to Feed The Birds!

I also fill wire suet cages with native grasses.

HUMMINGBIRD UPDATE:

The males left last month. Females will leave in a month or two afterward. To learn how to attract hummingbirds to your garden, click HERE.

INVASIVE PLANTS:

Invasive Plants:

By definition, did you know there is a different meaning between invasive plants vs. aggressive plants? A simple definition, invasive plants are introduced species, not native to our area, and show a tendency to spread out of control. Aggressive plants are those native to our area, and some can easily take over. We in. The Bee Better Teaching Garden keep an eye on both!

Clover

We don’t all think of clover as a weed. I certainly don’t! Do you think white clover is a weed? Think again. if you are one of the ones who want it gone in your turf, click HERE.

Poke Weed

You may know pokeweed as American pokeweed, poke sallet, or dragonberries. All parts of the plant are poisonous, except when the foliage is about the height of a spread hand. Then it can be boiled with two water changes and eaten like cooked spinach.

The berries are highly desired by birds in the fall, and this helps the spread of pokeweed as they drop the seeds—everywhere! After consuming the berry, the seeds are spread by birds and frequently are found around the driplines of trees, shrubs, and along fencerows, and a massive amount around the plant.

If left too big, they can be hard to remove since they have a deep taproot. Try to note and remove seedlings early for an easier pull.

Pokeweed shoots can be composted in cold piles if berries are not present. Roots should not be added to cold piles, either. We cold compost in the Bee Better Naturally Teaching Garden. Cold composting is essentially letting a pile build and decompose.. It requires less effort from the gardener, yet the decomposition takes substantially longer—a year or more. We have a designated area behind some shrubs where we pile our biomass to slowly break down.

I thought you might be interested in learning how the dreaded Bradford pear had its beginning.

Annual bluegrass, Poa annua

Lesser Celandine or Fig Buttercup, Ficaria verna

Chickweed, Stellaria media

Creeping Charlie, Glechoma hederacea

Greenbriar, Smilax rotundifolia

Henbit: Lamium amplexicaule

Hairy Bittercress, Cardamine hirsura

Marsh Pennywort, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides

GOOD BUGS:

Fun Facts About Fireflies!

An Introduction of Green Lacewings

Lady Beatles

Mysteries of the Dragonfly and Damselfly

#LeaveTheLeaves

Carolina Praying Mantis

BUTTERFLY UPDATE:

I’ve seen a few, but this oh-so-nice spring, they are slow to arrive full force. Recently, I registered the Bee Better Teaching Garden with the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail. Have you looked into this?

We offer Caterpillar Support to those who are in need of butterfly caterpillars rescued.  If you have butterfly caterpillars and are running out of host plants, or if you don’t want your plant defoliated, just email me at helenyoest at gmail.com. We can arrange for you to drop them off, and I will raise and release them.

Host Butterfly Plants

Bronze fennel is the host butterfly plant for the Eastern black swallowtail butterfly. The caterpillars feed on the fennel until time for the metamorphosis.

In our area, we don’t tend to see Eastern black swallowtails until a little later in the summer. But they will come. It’s not too late to plant their host plants. While they like fennel best, the caterpillars will also feed on curly parsley, dill, and carrot tops. To purchase the full list of host plants for butterflies within our Raleigh and Ecosystem 231, click HERE.

MONARCH UPDATE:

It is possible to see monarchs in the Raleigh area in the early summer, but we are more likely to see a bunch of them in the fall as they migrate south again. Have you planted your milkweed?

BAD BUGS:

Mosquitoes are out, these are buggers one never gets used to. Controlling mosquitoes with traps has been most helpful. To learn more, click HERE!

Tent Caterpillars

Leaf Miner Flies

Mosquito Control—Is there Such a Thing?

Naturally Controlling Japanese Beetles

Bagworms

Do yourself a favor and never look into the “eye” of a bagworm. Bagworms have got to be the most disgusting-looking pests ever — to me anyway.

Bagworms can be treated by removing them by hand and dropping them into a bucket of soapy water. If the bagworm infestation isn’t within easy reach, they can be sprayed with Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt for short.

Bt is a microbial insecticide that’s commonly used to control various caterpillars such as the red-headed azalea caterpillar along with many other caterpillars, as well as those nasty bagworms. But remember, it will kill our moth and butterfly larvae, as well!

Black Widowed Spider, Latrodectus mactanse

Cicada Killer, Sphecius specious

Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica

Be sure to check them FIRST to see if they have any tanchid fly eggs on their shoulders. If they do, let them go and the flies will hatch out and consume them from the inside — and produce more flies to dispatch more Japanese beetles. If you see those opaque white dots — one or two or three or more — let them go.”

Brown Recluse Spider Loxosceles reclusa

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SPECIFICALLY…

CAMELLIAS

LAWNS

ROSES

TREES: Check out the latest advice from Leaf & Limb!

Why Dead Wood is Good Wood!

The Art of Espalier

SHRUBS:

The best time to prune flowering shrubs is right after they bloom.

ANNUALS:

I don’t tend to plant annuals, but I’m big on direct sowing. Zinnia’s are my go-to seeds. There are tall ones, shorter ones, and even ground cover types. Some look like show mums others like pinwheels, and those that like daisies you will want to pluck to see of you if your love, loves you.

PERENNIALS:

Coneflowers

Rohdea japonica is sending up new shoots. Now is a good time to cut back old leaves. Same with cast-iron plant, Aspidistra elatior. Cut back dead leaves to welcome fresh foliage.

BULBS:

Divide irises: Did you have success with your new iris planted this year or in the fall? If not, it could be due to several factors: too much shade, too much fertilizer, too deep a planting, or crowding. Now is a good time to correct any of these problems by lifting and relocating or repositioning to a more favorable location.

Plant the iris high with the rhizomes along the surface of the dirt. They can be covered finely and lightly with mulch, but not soil. Make sure you can either see the rhizomes or have the ability to brush away the mulch exposing the root. With the exception of the Louisiana variety, irises need six- to eight- hours of sunlight to bloom and require good drainage. If you have a damp, partial sun location in your garden, plant a Louisiana iris.

Camellias

Caladiums

VINES: 

Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia. I find most people absolutely hate Virginia Creeper for the aggressiveness. I happen to find it extremely beneficial for birds in the fall. Did you know Virginia Creeper is a native?

Unfortunately, too many gardeners confuse it with poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, which is also a native and feeds birds. I get it. I’m highly allergic to poison ivy and have eradicated it from my property. I remember when I did so, I wasn’t allergic before but became so during its removal. The good/bad news was I did it all in one day, so I was affected even before the symptoms showed up! Otherwise, I may have stopped short of getting rid of it all, and being fearful my entire life in the garden! I had a rash from head to toe!!! It was then, in 1997, that I started wearing long sleeves and pants whenever gardening.

Crossvine, Bignonia capreolata; Lady Banks rose, Rosa banksiae; Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens.

POND:

EDIBLE FOODS and FOOD FOREST:

Bee Better Teaching Garden grows at least 30 different fruits. Learn about our Food Forest HERE!

HERBS:

How-To Harvest and Dry Herbs

What’s looking good now in the Bee Better Teaching Garden:

Parsley, Petroselinum crispum-

Rue, Ruta graveolens

Thyme, Thymus vulgaris

Oregano, Origanum vulgare

Rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus, formally Rosmarinus Officinalis.

In the Food Forest, the rosemary has spider mites.

Without looking at this plant with a hand lens, it’s impossible to be sure, but this type of mottled leaves is typical of the damage done by either a sucking insect or spider mites. The leaves ended up stippled and paled with such infestations because the insect or mite pierce the leaf repeatedly as they feed, which kills the cells in the leaf. Initially, the leaves look stippled, but over time the entire leaf can die.

Leafhoppers, lacewings, and whitefly are three insects that suck plant juices and cause similar damage. If you look closely, or with a hand lens, and see webs, it’s likely spider mites are the cause. 

Since most people want to eat their herbs, you, of course, don’t want to use systemic or other chemical insecticides. Also, mites aren’t killed by some insecticides. You could use one of the insecticide/miticides made from neem or cinnamon, however. Another good practice in such situations is to spray the plant with a hard stream of water once a week.

PERENNIALS:

Coneflowers

Salvias

Foxgloves

Phlox

CHICKENS:

SNAKES: Wondering what snake is in your backyard? Click HERE for an easy id.

Glossary

Until soon,

Helen

#WeCanAllBeeBetter!