How-to Create Garden Art in Five Easy Step

Gardens, like your home’s interior or adding the perfect piece of jewelry to a stunning outfit, are enhanced with accents. 

Making your own accents, a story I wrote for Country Gardens magazine in 2016, adds your personal wit and whimsy to your garden style and are easy to do. Armed with a little know-how, you will be emptying cupboards or heading off to the flea market to find items to make your own garden art. 

How about a little teapot for your formal rose garden? Roses and tea are a nice combination, don’t you think? Of course, there are butterflies for your butterfly garden, candles to light paths during an evening soiree, or even a 

1. Found object from flea market or cupboard.

1. Half-inch or 3/4-inch copper tubing from the plumbing section of a hardware store.

2. Copper tubing cap to fit the tubing you bought (1/2 or 3/4 inch).

3. Tubing cutter.

4. Weather-resistant adhesive.

Five easy pieces! The pictured example also uses a $4 candle.

Let glue set for 24 hours.

1. 
   How to do it

   1. Ensure that the accent is clean and dry, with all tags removed.

   2. With the accent upside down and on a level surface, apply a heavy dollop of weather-resistant adhesive such as E6000 to the bottom of the object and set the copper cap into the adhesive. Let dry for at least 24 hours.Cut the copper tubing with a tubing cutter to the desired length, plus about 6 inches to go beneath the surface of the soil. I buy 10-foot sections to get several stakes from each, at the exact heights I need.

   3. Insert copper tubing into the cap.

   4. Place in the garden.

   The cap on the accents not only allows the accent to be attached to the stake, it also allows the accents to be traded out -– candles at night, flower vase during the day, for example. For better stabilization, hammer a section of rebar into the ground and then place the copper tubing over it.

   When placing accents in your garden, remember that the garden accent is just that – an accent. Ultimately, the whole garden is the work of art. The garden accent serves as a small part of the bigger picture. 

   Most garden accents are best placed where they're only whispering for attention. Tuck the accent in among the flowers and shrubs. Garden accents speak best when whispering in the shadows of the foliage and flowers.

Fun Facts About the Lady Beetle

Could it be ladybugs are the first insect caught by our children? I can't remember my first love, but I'm sure it was a tie between fireflies and ladybugs. 

Did you know ladybugs are actually beetles? I suppose ladybugs became the appropriate epithet since it sounds cuter than lady beetle!

Lady beetles are in the Coccinellidae family of insects, with more than 450 different lady beetles in North America. Many serve as predators of aphids, butterflies, moths, and skipper eggs, and other soft-bodied insects. We must understand that all Nature's children have to eat, and butterfly and skipper eggs are fair game for those of us who love these winged wonders.

Did you know there are more colors of the ladybugs than red with black spots? In addition to red, they can also be yellow, orange, brown, pink, or even all black, although I've never seen an all-black one.

The spots and bright colors on ladybugs are not for looks alone. Beyond their warning colors, ladybugs have another line of defense: They emit foul-smelling and foul-tasting blood from their leg joints when startled, and ladybugs taste terrible. I know for a fact they do! One flew in my mouth once. Yuck! The yellow liquid is toxic to many ladybug predators such as birds and small mammals, but not all insects. Assassin bugs stink bugs, and spiders—eat ladybugs.

The multicolored Asian lady beetle Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) was introduced from Asia both purposefully for classical biological control of arthropod pests and accidentally into the United States many times during the twentieth century.

Overwintering Strategies

Lady beetles have different overwintering strategies, depending on the species. Some go into diapause as adults, others overwinter as larvae, and some migrate to warmer regions.

The multicolored Asian ladybug females overwinter in protected areas such as cracks in cliffs, logs, structures, etc., and become active in spring. Once eggs are laid, development to adulthood can take over a month in cool conditions. During this time, each larva consumes approximately 300 aphids. These Asian ladybugs are the ones you'll find trying to live inside your home during the winter. Once inside, they live off of their own body, causing most of your ladybug guests to die from dehydration unless you remove them. And the act of removal typically kills them anyway. 

LIFECYCLE

The lifecycle of a ladybug—egg to mature adult—takes four to eight weeks.

Eggs

In spring, females lay clusters of eggs near the prey, such as aphids, which provides food for both the adults and hatching larvae. After a female lays her eggs, they will hatch in between three and ten days, depending on the temperature. 

Once mated, the female lays between ten-50 eggs on a plant with plenty of food to eat once hatched, usually a plant infested with aphids or mealybugs. Throughout the spring and early summer, one female ladybug can lay up to 1,000 eggs. Eggs are yellow to orange, shaped like spindles, and usually laid in clusters.

Larvae

Larvae are often described as miniature alligators, and they really do! The coloring is typically blue-black with orange markings.

After approximately five to eight days, adults will emerge, and empty pupal cases often remain behind.

Female ladybugs lay as many as 1,000 tiny gold-colored eggs during a single season, but not all of them make it to adulthood. While they prefer to lay their eggs on leaves covered with aphids, the ladybugs may eat the eggs and larvae when prey is in short supply.

Chrysalis

The larva will live and grow for about a month before it enters the pupal stage, which lasts about 15 days.

Adult

As adults, most ladybugs live one year and can eat 5,000 aphids in their lifetime. Adults may live two to three years in favorable conditions. They also go through diapause or hibernate (up to nine months) to survive winter's cold temperatures below 55 degrees.

The seven-spotted lady beetle, Coccinella septempunctata, originally native to Europe) and convergent lady beetle, Hippodamia convergens, is native to North America) are two of the more common in the Southeast. 

Regardless of species, most adults are brightly colored (orange or red), exhibit various spot patterns (or have no spots), and are approximately 1/4 inch in diameter.

Soon we will be welcoming our lady friends, whether if you refer to them as bugs or beetles. 

The Kirsch Garden—Color, Two Ways!

How would you like to have this view every morning while you sip your morning coffee? I know I enjoy it each and every time. The Kirsches do so every day, even in the rain!

“I love color”, Mike Kirsch tells me, again and again. I know; we’ve been friends since 1974. A couple of years back, I did a post on his affection for color. Not much has changed, except there are more colorful plants. Mike said, “If you write about my garden, make sure it’s about color.” Well, here you go, Mike, but you have to go with my take on the importance of color. 

Trailing ice plant, Lampranthus spectacles

I get it. I love, love, love color, too!. I love it on me (I’m wearing bright yellow now), on my bright red and lime-green beach cottage, my red car, and purple guest cottage. Colors rock!

There is more to color than meets the eye. When you walk the Kirsch garden, it’s like a wonderland of birds, bees, and butterflies. Did you know, each of these critters has a preference for specific colors, with many overlapping? 

Two female hummingbirds staking their territory

For the birds, red and pink are favored by hummingbirds. Orioles and hummingbirds prefer orange. As I said, there is overlap. Goldfinches, warblers, and hummingbirds favor yellow. Bluebirds and jays are attracted to blue.

Goldfinch

What about the bee—both the European honey bee and any of our hundreds of native bees? Flowers lure pollinators in several ways, with color as their main attractant. Bees are drawn to yellow, blue, and white and cannot see red. When you spot a bee burrowing deeply into a red or pink flower, the center of the flower is most likely yellow.

These pollinators are being reduced in alarming rates of habitat loss through urbanization and the overuse of pesticides.

Honey bees are losing ground to the parasitic mite, among other threats. More than 90 percent of all plants need a pollinator to distribute pollen to set fruit and seeds. 

For butterflies, plant type and color are essential. Adult butterflies are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink, and purple blossoms that are flat-topped or clustered and have short flower tubes. Your key butterfly nectar source plants should receive full sun from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.

While bees buzz their way from flower to flower, butterflies glide and flit back and forth as if they know they are putting on a show.

Feeding time in the pond.

I found this dragonfly near the pond.

Here’s my old friend, watering is containers. 90% of all is plantings are in pots, so he has more control over they when looking good or now.

Woodland Sunflowers, Helianthus divaricatus. This one was new to me, so I took a cutting. Seems to be rooting well.

The bottom line is whether you like color and filled your garden with a diverse palette or explicitly planted for wildlife as I do. The results are the same. You will be welcoming a diverse range of birds, bees, and butterflies for all to enjoy.

The Joslin Garden—Wait, What?!? Spring or Fall—The Week of August 2, 2021

UPDATE AND GOOD NEWS!

Soon, our blog posts will be written directly on the City of Oaks Foundation website. I was happy to learn they too are on the platform, Squarespace. Sooo much easier than Word Press. I used Word Press for 15 years, and change to Squarespace three years ago, and never wanted to go back. So glad I won’t have to go back to an old platform.

While I wanted to document the work we are doing in The Joslin Garden, I always thought it best if the City had these posts on their own site. It wasn’t possible at the time.

In the meantime, I volunteered to use my personal blog, although these writings are specific to The Joslin Garden. It was getting confusing to my many thousands of readers. Although many did find it interesting since it was very much maintenance and conservation-focused; although my writings are more geared towards sustainability. Soon the readers of Bee Better Naturally will only see my maintenance guide for the month and other worthy posts. I didn’t mind the City getting traction from my years of award-winning blog writing, and other writing as well, but I really wanted to build an audience for the City.

Now when the blog turnover occurs, you will still get these interesting posts on how we are reviving the conservation, pollinator, mostly native, wildlife habitat. We are doing good things.

MONDAY

Even though it was in the upper 80s today, the weather was just lovely. Weeded the path to the back porch. and mulched.

Found weeds didn’t sleep in the new Pollinator Garden. I removed these and checked the mulch. It was thin. I want at least three inches down, so I added more mulch.

Regunivated the gardenia.

Leaf & Limb stopped by today to treat the camellia tea scale.

I was finally ready to revisit the Formal Garden. I started in Quadrant One. Last week, I weeded half so I could stage mulch there until I could finish weeding and then spread. I still didn’t finish the weeding. Oh well…

TUESDAY

Rain, what rain? I had a plan B ready when the luscious rain came. As I left work, a drizzle started, and didn’t get much more than the rest of the day.

Finally, Q-one has been weeded. The lower lever weeds will need to scratch out, but I got the big stuff. I was surprised to even see lower weeds since there was no sun penetration due to the thickness of the weeds. How many weeds were there? I filled 11 yard wast cans, stuffed! To my credit, I did the worse quadrant first. I always do the hardest task of the day first to get it done and donw!

There was an area next to the compost bins that looked like a dirt/brick junk pile. Well, that is exactly what it was. It bugged me. All clean now.

Took down a dead dogwood branch. I would have left it for a snag, but the tree trunk was left to serve as the snag.

When I started, January 6th of this year, the climbing rose, Rosa 'Climbing Cecile Brunner', had been cut back since one of the two arbors needed replacement. I believe this was made by none other than the Gardeners of Wake County, Now it has grown, the canes are starting to reach the other side. While they weren’t long enough to hand over the other side, they were hanging enough to prickle me as I tried to walk under.

With those budding reaching canes, I brought some twine to train to the other side. Now I can walk underneath safely.

WEDNESDAY

Started working on the first half of the ten cubic yards of composted leaf mulch at the street. I should get the rest spread tomorrow.

Our fall bulb order went in for 300 Golden Earring, a blend of six varieties. All are yellow. Most have an orange accent. These are excellent for naturalizing, and terrific massed. I plan to place them along the street. As I continue to work to enhance the visitors’ experience, I want to make it pleasant for the neighbors as they walk with friends or their dogs.

Soon, I need to design the Formal Garden and order plugs from North Creek. I know of a few plants that we must have, and they will all be natives. This is the fun part!

My supervisor, Neal Wisenbaker, had a phone 1 to 1. It went well. We plan to do these bi-monthly.

THURSDAY

Do you know the circus acts that spin several plates in the air? That is how I felt today. Thank goodness, Aillene was able to volunteer, and I put her on the bed below the back porch. I felt guilty. There were so many gnarly weeds. To Aillene’s credit, she did manage to rid half of the dense, mass of weeds.

I thought I would be able to finish spreading the remaining five cubic yards of composted leaf mulch at the street, but the Formal Garden took all my time. These beds need renovation. I don’t want to just plant and hope for the best. Since Quadrant 1 was 99% weeds, we now have a blank slate. The plan? Early this week, I removed the large weeds. Today, I broke up the soil with the first cut of a shovel. I was able to do a quarter of Quadrant 1. Next step, I sat on my haunches to scratch with my scratcher, a.k.a three-prong hand cultivator. The smaller weeds were then removed, as well as roots that were leftover from the larger weeds. But there is more! Once looking good, I then took a hard rake, a.k.a. a hard rake ;) to smooth the soil, and remove any remains of plant materials. Even I was surprised how long that took, and I’ve don’t do this kind of reno dozens of times. There went my day.

I also set up a project for Nell Joslin who will volunteer either Friday or Saturday. We need to remove the weeds at the street as well as notch an edge at the curb to hold the mulch in place.

Next week I’ll take a soil sample to see what we are really dealing with!

It’s important to say, but I’m not happy about it. We need another truckload of composted mulch.

There have been whispers that I might get an intern. What GREAT training this will be for an upcoming horticulture student!

Until soon,

Helen Yoest (M.S. Environmental Science)

The Joslin Gardeh’s Program Coordinator

The Joslin Garden—Mulch Madness—Week of July 26, 2021

MONDAY

Well, let’s just say, I earned my keep today! I was charged! Today was the last day with the use of the dump truck, and I wanted to maximize my time with it. Friday, I picked the first load of composted leaf mulch to see if we could get an assist from the Gardeners of Wake County. More on that when I get some downtime.

Sadly, you will have to take my word for it. My iPhone was disabled. I was dark for three days. I didn’t miss a thing unless Jeff Bezos called to say I won two seats on the Blue Origin. If so, my husband will never forgive me. We both want to go zero-G. It turns out, the phone in my back pocket kept entering my password to the point, I had to restore it. The rest is so boring, I'll spare you. I will say, Apple at Crabtree saved me!

It was mulch Monday. While I asked for five cubic yards, it was a dump truck full. After I had 1/2 removed, I dumpted since it was too compacted to really work with well. Once dumped, it looked to still be five cubic yards. Then again, as I move mulch, the pile seems to grow with every load!! So while it might not seem like I did much, I worked straight seven hours. And now I’m writing about what happened this Monday. It was hot, but oh, so rewarding.

TUESDAY

Today, I can breathe….

I didn’t realize how fast and furious I’ve been working since January. Today, after yesterday’s heroics, the mulch, for the most part, has been staged.

I decided, I’m not in a race, but will now put one foot at a time to finish weeding and covering with mulch. It will take the rest of the week.

Those Rascally Rabbits. Today, I made an organic solution to deter rabbits and deer. It will take a couple of days in the sun to be ripe.

• 1-gallon jug. I used two 1/2 gallon vessels and both will be used in a gallon sprayer.

• 5 cloves

• 1 teaspoon crushed red peppers

• 1-gallon water

• 1 tablespoon dish soap

  I just hammeedr the bulb or some type of heavy masher. Then I pull away the papery skin and use the putty knife or some flat service to mash the cloves further.

  The garlic went into the containers where they could cook in the sun for a couple of days.

  Add readied garlic water to a sprayer, and a squeeze a dish soap. Dawn is the best to use as a surfactant, and finally added a teaspoon of crushed red peppers. It really works.

Starting at the lamp post, I weeded and mulched. The bed was overgrown with soapwort, Saponaria officinalis. No thank you. It reseeds everywhere. This is the first impressions bed; I want to make it a good one!

Soapwort, Saponaria officinalis

I then moved on to the left entrance bed. Still more soapwort, but I left it along here. It’s in the shade and not as invasive. As I find plants for this area, I will be removing it. Too bad it has a pretty flower.

Today, we also had a gardeners meeting via Zoom. I learned a few things.

WEDNESDAY

As I was on my haunches, atop of steaming hot pile of mulch, Art stopped by. Just seeing his kind and friendly face cooled me down. Art is busy for the next three weeks. We’ll miss him and the help he provides.

I continued weeding and spreading mulch at the entrance paths. I have about another hour in this area before I can move on.

Doing my best to have the mulch moved from off the driveway by tomorrow. I think I got this. Tomorrow’s focus is to just move the mulch to staging areas. I’m also storing mulch in garden carts.

Stopped by the greenhouse today. Picked up a few more plants. My least full load. Mind you, Kim wasn’t there and I could really remember what all I asked to be tagged. haha. I got what I could remember.

THURSDAY

Nell worked on getting the rest of the soapwort removed from the entrance bed. Plus some other weeding. We will get these weeds. The mulch will help tremendously!

Aillene planted, again, the most recent run to the City greenhouse. This should be the last batch until we can purchase fall perennials.

I finished the mulch! I only have myself to thank/blame. Despite the heat, making it even hotter when dealing with steamy mulch, I got it moved!. The first load is either down or staged. Next week, I’ll dedicate my time to removing more weeds and spreading mulch. The Formal Garden needs me. I removed enough weeds in each quadrant so I could stage in those areas. It was senseless for us to keep weeding and not being able to top with mulch.

We still have to address the truckload at the street. This will be best handled with many hands. I’m thinking of the Gardeners of Wake County Saturday visit in August. While we don’t have anything of importance planted there, we will. We need to get the irrigation fixed, but in the meantime, the mulch will outline where the new bed will go. I see lots of daffodils in The Joslin Garden’s future!

Are you wondering where the pictures are? Since the reboot, I have had another problem with my iPhone.I’m unable to email me pics from my phone! But I still want you to know what I accomplished today. So, visualize this. I’m shooting off fireworks, at high. noon on a sunny day. You can’t see them, but know they are there.

First off, I knew, after decades of laying the City’s composted leaf mulch, there were more than five cubic yards of mulch in that truck. When Drew and Neal stopped by, I asked, “How many cubic yards does that Ford, Super Duty, 450 hold?” They both agreed to about ten cubic yards. I knew it! There was no way I was off my game in estimating the amount, but particularly, I was thinking I was off my game! How could that be? I can put a yard down an hour. My son laughed when I told him by rate since he can do two in an hour. Did I mention he is at the coast where land is flat?!? Ha! And he is a fit 20-year-old? Anyhoo, I got the ten yards down this week; half weeded and laid, the other half staged.

READY FOR SOME FIREWORKS!

Driveway Entrance bed

Weeded, planted, and mulched. This bed is looking mighty fine! Do you see the Poppers, Snaps, and Snakes going off? No not that kind of snake, although I did see our resident black snake today!

Entrance Bed left side as you enter

Entrance Bed right side as you enter

That’s all, folks!!!

Until soon,

Helen. Yoest M.S. Environmental Science

The Joslin Garden Program Coordinator

The Joslin Garden—Native Insect Habitats—Bug Bungalows—July 23, 2021

A bug bungalow is a winter habitat for beneficial insects, but I like to think they are also part garden art. You may know them by many names—insect hotel, hostel, or hideout, or one of the many given charming names. But nothing is charming about the massive habitat loss around our city, state, country, and even in our own back yards. Each of us can do our part for habitat restoration!

By building bug bungalows, you're contributing towards a better environment. While they do attract insects, which is the goal, bug bungalows will also become a conversation starter. For your family and friends, the garden becomes a center of education. The Joslin Garden is having this critical conversation! 

Too often, fall gardeners cut back spent summer stalks to tidy up. While it's best to leave these stalks up during the winter to provide habitat for beneficial insects, not everyone embraces this look. Or, if you live in an HOA community, the rules will not likely allow it.

In The Joslin Garden, we'll practice a special kind of tidying, allowing us to cut back enough for visual appeal while still leaving enough to provide winter nesting sites. It's a good compromise. Leaving six- to seven inches tall of pity and hollow-stem stalks is still enough for nesting. You can still do your part and not be fined by your HOA!

While ready-made insect hotels are available to buy, it's great fun making your own bespoke bungalow. Using what's on hand—salvaged or recycled materials—begin to build the walls and roof for shelter, and then think inside the box!

We were lucky to have a head start with bee boxes built as an Eagle Scout project for the Bee Better Naturally non-profit. We donated three boxes to The Joslin Garden.  

The simplest structure is a wooden box, opened at one end, and stuffed with the material where beneficial insects can bed down. Bug bungalows also need to be watertight, so residents stay dry after every downpour. Extra or found tiles, felt, or corrugated roofing are some of the options for weatherproofing. Our Eagle Scout boxes are already watertight!

Bug bungalows can be small like ours and scattered throughout the property or created as one central high-rise built from palettes or other buildable, stackable materials. 

I've seen these, and they do work very well! However, I've spoken with Doug Tallamy, Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and most notably, to me, as the author of Bringing Nature Home, published in 2009, among other publications. To paraphrase my interview with Dr. Tallamy, he said, These massive high-rise Air Bee and Bees are cool and great for educational purposes. However, the nesting sites are also vulnerable to massive loss if the structure and the nesting insects within are affected if a neighbor uses a mosquito control spray company that drifts onto your property…and it will. 

For educational purposes, The Joslin Garden will do just that; we will also build an Air Bee and Bee made from pallets, and insects will come! Chris has already obtained several pallets to build our own. I think this is a marvelous idea. We will place it soon, and each Thursday, the volunteers and I will begin to add to it! 

Professor Tallamy also started an organization called Home Grown National Park. This non-profit organization is a grassroots call-to-action to restore biodiversity, one garden at a time, by planting native plants.

The Joslin Garden is now on the map! Perhaps you're interested in committing your home garden or organization by agreeing to plant more native plants and get on the map. My home garden is on the map! Are you next?

YOU NEED MORE THAN A BOX

You also need a garden or at least a space with plenty of flowering native plants. Your area has to be receptive to attract beneficial insects, and no pesticide spraying can occur on your property!

Here are three plant types your garden needs to attract beneficial insects:

Nectar provides beneficial insects with sugar. A few excellent sources are carrots, fennel, zinnia, coneflowers, and a host of others. Once planted, enjoy all the visitors to sup your flowers.

Pollen provides protein for the good guys. To begin, plant pollen-rich asters, Asteraceae spp., goldenrod, Solidago spp., and coneflowers, Echinacea spp., and so many more.

Trap plants to attract insects, on which beneficial insects feed, including nasturtiums, Tropaeolum spp., Shasta daisies, Leucanthemum × superbum, and even milkweed, Asclepias spp. Aphids love milkweed. But then again, you're already growing milkweed for the monarch butterflies, right?!?  

PROVIDING NESTING NEEDS

By providing a variety of plant materials—sticks, leaves, straw, bark, and more—within your bug bungalow—you'll encourage all sorts of garden friends to lodge. 

How can you be sure that you're only providing shelter for beneficial insects? Well, you can't. That's the rub. Undesirable insects, such as earwigs, Forficula auricularia, may move in too. Some may even eat their neighbors! You can't control what happens within your Bug Bungalow—just trust that if you provide enough space for the good guys, you can create balance in the garden.

It's also very important to protect the hotels from the worst of the winter weather. Heavy rain will get into the wood and cause it to rot. It can also break down the mud walls that the mason bees have created to secure their eggs inside.

If your spot is not sheltered from the rain, move the bungalow in late autumn or early winter to somewhere more protected. The ones at The Joslin Garden will have protection. Please don't bring the insect hotel inside your house over winter! The insects need to be kept cool since they are hibernating! Store it in a shed or under a ledge, and put it back in early spring.

ATTRACTING LADYBUGS, Coccinellidae spp.

One of our Bug Bungalows filled with plant material to attract ladybugs,

Ladybugs like to overwinter as large groups in between dry plant material. Twigs packed together to give the ladybugs plenty of room to squeeze in and wait for warmer days. Next spring, when the insects wake, they'll lay eggs near their food source, like aphids and mites, and will then be poised to clean your plants of these unwanted insects. 

Pinecones are also a great plant material to use to attract ladybugs. 

Another ladybug bungalow located next to our wood pile.

Looking for an easy craft for your kids? See what you can do with pinecones and chicken wire!

PICTURE COMING

What to do

1. Cut a large square of chicken wire. The size depends on how big you want to build your ladybug lounge 

2. Make a pile of pinecones in the middle, and lift up the edges to make an enclosure around them

3. Fold in or cut out the excess

4. Tie the chicken wire into a ball, add a string to hang the bungalow in a sheltered spot in the garden

ATTRACTING NATIVE BEES—Nesting Suggestions

Placed in a sunny location, the contents in this bee box will be built as the summer goes on. Both pity and hollow stems will be cut to size and added as found.

Did you know that seventy percent of our native bees are ground dwellers? None of these bees will need an above-ground plant material wintering site. They'll dig a little hole in the soil for winter hibernation. However, many solitary bees like to nest in hollow stems for the winter. 

The circles made in these leaves are from the leafcutter bee. The cut leaf fragments are used to form nest cells. Leafcutter bees nest in soft, rotted wood, or in the stems of large, pithy plants, such as roses.

Contrary to the term, solitary, female solitary bees often pack several bees in a stem before closing off the opening with some mud (mason bee) or leaves (leafcutter bee) and then having a good snooze until spring. Solitary bees aren't social within hives like the European honey bee, having residents of upwards of 50,000 bees!

Drilled wood: Solitary bees and wasps are attracted to holes drilled into the wood as they offer the perfect place to lay their eggs in peace. Drill holes of different sizes, between 0.2-inch and 0.4-inch diameter, offering spaces for different species. Leafcutter bees, Megachilidae spp., and small bumblebees Apidae spp.  For mason bees, Osmia spp., a good average size is 5/16th of an inch diameter.

PICTURE COMING

Bamboo canes/Paper straws: Hollow stems such as bamboo canes, or even new paper straws provide nesting holes for solitary bees. The female will lay their eggs then seal up the hole using mud or leaf litter.

ATTRACTING LACEWINGS—Nesting Suggestions 

Lacewing eggs. Photo Credit Nathalie Beauchamp

Dried materials: Dried materials like hay, pine straw, dried grass, rolled-up cardboard, and even paper egg cartons make up the suitable materials for a cozy lacewing, Chrysoperla, spp., hangout. 

If you want to fill an ample space, create smaller bunches held together with twine or elastic bands. Straw also works as a gap filler when combined with other materials.

While lacewings may be beautifully intricate to look at, they are indeed the gardener's best friend, devouring aphids and other pests such as scale and many types of caterpillar and mites. You and your family can even make lacewing nesting sites with an open-ended plastic bottle stuffed with straw or cardboard to prevent it from turning soggy. A GREAT craft for children!

ATTRACTING GROUND BEETLES  and HOVERFLIES—Nesting Suggestions

Ground beetles Carabidae spp., and hoverflies, Syrphidae spp.,—twigs, sticks, and stems. Bundled together, sticks and twigs of different sizes offer welcome lodgings for ground beetles. These beetles chomp away at many pests that hinder our crops, including aphids and carrot root fly larvae. Hoverflies are flower pollinators and pest patrollers, and are attracted to the same types of materials—the larvae have an insatiable appetite for aphids while the adults feed on nectar as they pollinate flowers. Paper towel insert and toilet tissue rolls are perfect for making small tubes suitable for insects and solitary bees. Or roll up a length of corrugated cardboard – the tiny tubes are ideal for little critters!

WANT MORE THAN A BOX?

Rotting logs: Perfect for wood-boring beetles whose larvae will feast on the decaying wood. Place logs in an area, so the logs stay nice and damp and mix with other decaying plant matter to attract centipedes, devouring slugs. Other woodland litter insects such as millipedes and woodlice also provide a welcome food source for birds. Remember cover and snags are valuable wildlife protectors.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

It's all very well building a handsomely equipped bug bungalow, but it must also be placed in a prime position to become the destination of choice. 

Set up your bungalow in a sheltered area of the garden away from the prevailing wind. In the Raleigh area, according to the state climate office, prevailing winds are generally from the southwest for ten months of the year and from the northeast during September and October.

Most insects prefer slightly damp conditions, but solitary bees demand the sunniest aspect possible to help them get out and about on a cold day. Knowing this also makes a good argument for having multiple bungalows for the various insect types since their needs are not all the same.

For the quickest results attracting residents to your bungalow, locate your nesting site close to an existing insect hotspot: a hedge, bank of nectar-rich flowers, or a pond.

Hang the bug bungalow four- to five feet above ground. Instead of putting a nail into a tree, use a rope or strap to hold instead. 

Until soon,

Helen Yoest (M.S. Environmental Science)

The Joslin Garden Program Coordinator

The Joslin Garden—Great Things Are Coming!—July 19, 2021

LOOK Mom!!! I have my own dumptruck!!

Not sure how this will go over with Nell, but we shall see. At a minimum, we will fill the truck this week and over the weekend when the Gardeners of Wake County work. Once I dump next week, I’ll pick up leaf mulch to cover our recently weeded beds.

I’ve been working on an important piece about creating insect habitats. I thought I would have been done last week, I kept going down a rabbit hole to make the article more in-depth. I do that. When it’s up, I hope you find it helpful. It will be up Friday!

TUESDAY

Lounging at the lake

I’m off today!

WEDNESDAY

I met with my supervisor, Neal Wisenbaker, an excellent manager if you ask me, and I spent years as a VP of Science and Engineering, so I know a little something about good managers. We set the stage of how were are going forward. We couldn’t be more in tune with what we hope for The Joslin Garden.

Our goal is to show The Joslin Garden to be the City’s organic example with no herbicide, fungicide, pesticides, or any other -cide killing chemical. The weeding will be done by Helen-cide where all weeding will be by hand-pulled (I respect hand weeding) coupled with a good cover of composted leaf mulch from the City of Raleigh. I use the same mulch in my home garden. I know its power!

My coffee walked was to see what was needed this week. Checked out the garden since I’ve been away. It’s a short week for me in the garden, but I’ve been busy with other things.

Greenhouse booty!

Like good neighbors, we will be using the dumpstruck so we don’t have to have containers at the street until District 4 picks up on Friday. As such, I moved the cans and tarps to store up hill by the compost bins.

Speaking of our compost bins, Art was able to help out and I put him on turning compost Bin 2. We can start using it now. Each Monday, I will turn Bin 2 so we can start adding herbaceous debris.

To go with the Bug Bungalow, I added materials to the Eagle Scout donations boxes we found our Bug Bungalows. BRAG alert! My son was an Eagle Scout <3

Aillene planted Greenhouse Booty. We had a lot, and I’m so grateful she was able to help out. I was crazy busy with other things.

After making the Bug Bungalows, I didn’t want to weed anymore until I had mulch to cover it. Once the weeds are gone, the sunlight penetrates, and germination is overwhelming me. Instead, I made some shortcuts.

There was a small triangle reaching a couple of extra steps. What! Yes, I. move quickly through the gardens, even a couple of steps matter. Once this area is crossed, there is a huge triangle on one side of the new Pollinator Garden that would save me 15 steps!!! That’s from one side to the other. I made s shortcut.

The Joslin Garden benefited from my years of designing NC State Fair demonstration gardens. Side note, this year I’ll have two demo gardens. One is Garden Party and the other Throw Me Some Shade—Are you really wearing THAT!?!

FRIDAY

Bug Bungalow!

I went with Plan B. Since I have the dump truck, I first figured we would fill it with the Saturday’s debris gathered from the Gardeners of Wake County. Chris had the brilliant idea was to dump today and get the mulch. Then, perhaps, we might have help from the volunteers to wheel it to me as I spread. So that’s the plan!

Until soon,

Helen Yoest (M.S. Environmental Science)

The Joslin Garden, Program Coordinator

The Joslin Garden—Reduce, Reuse, Refuse—The Week of July 11, 2021

MONDAY

Let’s start with this informative post about our near area birds. Click HERE!

Mosquitoes are active. Need bug spray. Fortunately for me, Chris just bought some for himself an let me use his. Worked beautifully! Now I have my own. Aillene wasn’t bothered.

As I walked the gardens today, I wondered if I’ve made any progress at all. I have, of course, but the beds are exploding and they need weeding out. Tomorrow is my last day in the garden this week, so I’ll see what I can do. Also, Aillene will be volunteering tomorrow. We’ll see what we can do!

Now that we are part of the City of Raleigh Parks, we get to shop the greenhouse, as you saw last week. First up today—planting. I also moved the too-many daylilies around and transplanted a few goldenrods from one bed with too much shade to the pollinator garden with lots of sun.. We could get more plants from the City’s Greenhouse, but I would prefer to seek an increase in diversity. Instead of more of the same, we need different plants to serve a broader wildlife appeal.

Pollinator garden planted

While amending the garden beds, it was clear plants fell into three groups: Re-duce, Re-use, Re-fuse. I started with the entrance to the Formal Garden on the left. The bed must be shadier than when Mary and Bill Joslin still gardened here.

RE-DUCE—Daylilies!

I need to ask Nell about the daylilies, Hemerocallis spp. I’m sure they have multiplied over time. Nell has moved dozens down toward the street, I rearranged many along the edge of the Pollinator Garden, and Chris suggested we pot them up for the plant sale in the spring. I’m now wondering if we should have a pop-up sale just of daylilies! Come one, call all…for a small donation to The City of Oaks Foundation!

RE-USE—Goldenrod!

The Goldenrod, Solidago spp. in the left entrance was reaching for the sun. Goldenrod is a great plant, especially for those late-fall pollinators needing to tank up for hibernation or migration. Goldenrod is very-nectar rich and a must-have in a fall garden. Much of it was moved to the Pollinator Garden.

RE-FUSE—Jewels-of-Opar, Talinum paniculatum

Aillene and I were lamenting about all the Jewels-of-Opar. It is highly invasive and has a deep root making it difficult to remove. We decided someone added it to the garden because of its name. The common name was borrowed from the title of the novel Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I will admit, I was once smitten by it, but then eradicated it from my home garden. This subshrub looks so ethereal and lush looking all at the same time. But each of those tips of the sprays is a seed that spreads from here to Kingdom Come.

IN OTHER NEWS

I had a visitor again.

Copperhead snake. Did you know Opossums are resistant to the venom of our more common venomous snakes and they can feed on copperheads, rattlesnakes, and cottonmouth snakes with minimal risk of injury or death from the venom?

This week, I’ll be writing a post on creating native bee nesting sites. We will start by filling these cool boxes leftover from an Eagle Scout project created for Bee Better Naturally.

Three native bee boxes can be used individually or nestled together.

TUESDAY

I took a break from weeding to address the HVAC. There’s a problem here. Typically for ideal air flow, a three-feet clear air zone around the unit is recommended. Otherwise the air stays warm without fresh air at the intake, and the unit works harder than it needs to.

Ouch! Well, it had to be done. I need to talk with Nell about removing the rest of the shrub. It’s nothing special. What would really be nice is an enclosed fence, with three feet surround. Hmmm, our Gardeners of Wake County are handy ?!?!?!?

Aillene was able to help out today for a couple of hours. Her job today? Planting the remainder of plants. The Rose Garden benefited from this. Aillene added crinum and lantana. We need to address the deer damage, and will next week, I hope.

The Rose Garden

WEDNESDAY

Off today!

THURSDAY

Art came by and worked on some of the assignments given to him last week. Chris continued to work in the vegetable garden and then watered the Pollinator Garden a bit. As you can imagine, the Pollinator Garden is full of new plantings and transplants, and regular watering is a must.

FRIDAY

Worked on a native bee post for next week.

BIRDS

Goldfinch on Rudbeckia sp.

INSECTS

No monarchs, but we have the European honey bee, Apis mellifera and it looks like a bumble bee, Bombus sp.

Native bee on Agastache put in on Tuesday!

Did you know most of today's earthworms originated from Europe by traveling in the rootstocks of plants? Worms make soil and are natural soil tillers. They can eat their weight in dirt each day. One acre of soil may contain up to one million worms.

We had lots of earthworms in The Joslin Garden. While Aillene and I were chatting, she mentioned a new earthworm in town! The hammerhead earthworm. I don’t want to run into one of these. It’s bad enough when an area gardener friend of mine, Suzanne Edney, found the Asian jumping earthworm in her garden. So far I’ve not seen any invasions at home or in The Joslin Garden.

Chris got this great shot of a resident squirrel who lazily flopped on a post while we worked. He finally scampered a way when we were done!

Until soon,

Helen Yoest

The Joslin Garden Program Coordinator

The Joslin Garden—Rescuing Pipevine Swallowtails—7-9-21

The rescued CATs from Abbiy’s garden.

One of the much-loved parts of summer is watching butterflies alight on nectar-rich flowers to sup. Through a network of like-minded friends, we are able to help each other out when in need. I’m often contacted around September, when milkweed, Asclepias spp., is in short supply, due to the excess needed with all the monarchs returning to Mexico. We are in their flight path. In early summer, it’s all about the pipevine swallowtails. I’ve never asked for help with the Eastern black swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes. Most of us butterfly gardeners always seem to have enough host plants, those in the carrot family. In our area, in general, we tend to see the most butterfly activity starting in mid-July through October.

Abby L. doing the rescue pass-off!

My friend, Abby L., always has female Dutchman’s pipe butterflies, Battus philenor, lays her eggs in March, even when a frost is expected. In fact, we tested their tolerance one year when we were expecting a heavy frost. They did fine. For the last four years, when Abby was out of the host plant, I’ve taken as many as I could to support in my garden, but I’ve never had the luck Abby has. I’ve still not seen a pipevine swallowtail in my garden! This year, I shared with The Joslin Garden!

Battus is a New World genus of butterflies that are usually found around pipevine plants, Aristolochia spp.. The caterpillars feed off the poisonous pipevines, resulting in a foul taste that wards off predators.

The flower of the Dutchman’s pipe ground hugging vine found in my garden, Abbie’s garden, and my own. Aristolochia not sure of the species.

Male and female pipevine swallowtail!

Battus philenor, the pipevine swallowtail can be found in North American and through Central America. This butterfly is black with iridescent-blue hindwings. On the right, where more blue is noticed, is the female. They are found in many different habitats but are most commonly found in forests. Abby’s garden is forest-like. Maybe mine isn’t so much, but sort of. The Joslin Garden is definitely a wonderful forest, and there is a vast amount of pipevine!

They are known for sequestering acids from the plants they feed on in order to defend themselves from predators by being poisonous when consumed.

Life cycle

EGG

The eggs of the pipevine swallowtail vary in color from red to orange. They are small and are laid on host plant stems or foliage. A distinctive feature of these eggs which is shared by all Aristolochia butterflies is that the outer layer of the egg is covered by a firm and nourishing excretion laid in vertical stripes along the outside. The egg appears bumpy due to the excretion forming large beads along with the bands. The female pipevine swallowtail deposits this excretion from a gland above the ovipositor during the egg-laying process.

LARVAE

Pipevine swallowtail larvae feed on plants within the genus Aristolochia. These are commonly known as pipevine plants, which is where the butterfly gets its common name. This plant genus is known to have active aristolochic acids, which pipevine swallowtail larvae sequester and use for defensive properties.

Larvae spend almost all their time eating the leaves of their host plants. Once they completely remove edible matter from one plant they move to the next one. They eat in groups at first but as food sources deplete, they become more solitary as they move on in search of fresh host plants.

CHRYSALIS/PUPAE

Pipevine swallowtail adults use nectar-producing plants as hosts, and thus there are many plants that fit their needs. These butterflies frequent thistle, Cirsium spp., flowers, the pink and purple flowers of the Phlox species, and ironweed of Vernonia species.

The pipevine swallowtail pupae are colored green or brown. They are about two inches in length. These pupae differ from other swallowtail butterfly pupae in that the sides of their pupae bodies widen into a sort of a winged appearance, with distinctive purplish edges along the sides of these extensions.

Pipevine swallowtail pupation takes place many feet off the ground on tree trunks or other suitable spots. Pupation is rare on green surfaces. Pupation begins when the larva releases silk to form a support structure so that the chrysalis can hang safely. In colder climates, it will spend the winter as a pupa, but in warmer climates, pupation only lasts a few weeks. Prior to emerging as an adult, the wing markings of the butterfly can be seen through the chrysalis.

ADULT

Pipevine swallowtail adults have a wingspan from three to five inches. The dorsal wings of an adult male are black with vibrant blue iridescence on the hind wings. Female iridescence is duller in appearance. Bright orange spots are visible on the back end of the ventral wings.

The adult pipevine swallowtail male spends most of his time feeding and searching for mates. Males have also been observed to take moisture and nutrients from mud, a behavior that is motivated by the presence of other males.

Females spend their time feeding, being courted by males, and reproducing. Immediately after emerging from the chrysalis, adult butterflies spend time near the pupa case and dry their wings and remove pupal waste products from their bodies. The butterflies are seen during the spring and summer months.

The Joslin Garden—New Beginnings following the Golden Gate Bridge Maintenance Plan—The Week of July 4, 2021

TUESDAY

The Golden Gate Bridge

Today brought new beginnings for me and The Joslin Garden! Starting today, The Joslin Garden will be the sole City garden in my care. My part-time (32 hours per week) will be my full-time job. It will be a combination of garden maintenance, writing the weekly post and plant profiles, creating a plant database, and anything else that needs to be done.

MY ARRIVAL

At 7:00 AM I arrived at the sound of one of the resident owls. The other birds were finishing their morning choir. I was alone. No one was with me or watching me, but my work habit has always been, work like someone is watching! It’s a work ethic that has served me well, and the City recognized it. I appreciate that so much!

Still, it was kind of a funny feeling to be so alone; yet I love working alone. I had a moment when I missed my work-mates and checking in at Central Business Division. It’s a great group to work with, but The Joslin Garden is a prize for me. It takes a unique set of skills to do what I’ll be doing, and I happen to have each and every one of them. Then again, I kind of wrote the job description ;)

I am the first gardener employed since the City acquired The Joslin Garden, and I have a fancy new title, Program Coordinator. I’ll be doing what I started on January 6, 2021, but at the pace of four days a week.

Given the rate I have been generating yard waste, I’m not sure we will have enough yard waste cans or tarps to handle all we generate in a week. . As it is, I could fill a dump truck for each Friday’s pick-up, and that was only working on Thursdays! Mind you, Thursday is volunteer day, So I didn’t generate all that amount of waste on my own. Now I’m not sure what’s going to happen. Today alone, all alone, I gathered a dump truckload. Yikes! But this won’t always be the case.

As we move forward, I’m visualizing two maintenance plans—The Golden Gate Bridge Plan (GGBP) and The General Garden Maintenance Plan (GGMP. )Both plans will occur simultaneously, but not necessarily each and every visit. For the most part, volunteers will work on The Garden Gate Bridge Plan, and Nell, Alliene, and I will work on The General Garden Maintenance Plan.

THE Golden Gate Bridge MAINTENANCE PLAN (GGBP OF)

What?!?! Why the Golden Gate Bridge? What’s that got to do with garden maintenance?

Did you know the Golden Gate Bridge is continually painted? I find this interesting. Starting from one end, the painters paint across the bridge to the other end. Once finished, in about a year, the painters start over. Painting the Bridge is an ongoing task and a primary maintenance job. That is how I see The Joslin Garden as the BIG picture plan of Nature and the Conservancy areas. We will start at the street, which we have already, and work our way around the natural areas of the garden. This will likely take a year, and then we will need to start again. These tend to be BIG projects like the time we had The Samet Corporation volunteer apply mulch to our paths. We need more. Maybe they will want to return! Our friends with the Gardeners of Wake County will also be part of this plan.

I would be remiss not to mention volunteer Art. Art has been a steady worker and willing to take on these kinds of tasks. We are currently limbing up. Art and I have been working on this. As of today, though, this work will become part of the GGB plan. Art will continue with this along with other volunteers, when available. In my head, I have a list of cool projects, but I’ve not written them down yet.

Today, I continued from last week to create the new Perennial Garden. Tomorrow, I get to go plant shopping at the City’s greenhouse. Yippee!

Morning light on the hardy begonia, front view Begonia grandis

Morning light on the hardy begonia, back view Begonia grandis

I need mulch. I also need a sprayer, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Neal, my supervisor, is on vaca now, so when he returns, I need to figure how to get supplies. I’ll start with 4 cubic yards of the City’s composted leaf mulch, dumped at the top of the driveway. A Thursday morning would be best.

Resident rabbit.

Rabbits are taking over the garden, and they have a particular love for pentas, Pentas lanceolata. Did you know you can make your own rabbit and deer repellent? Start by filling a one-gallon container, such as a milk jug, with water. Crush five garlic cloves and add to the water. Add a teaspoon of crushed red peppers and 1 tablespoon of dish soap, to use as a surfactant.. This will allow the mixture to stick to the leaves. Shake the container very well and then place it outdoors in the direct sun for two days.

I was remiss to get an after shot. Nell, I promise the foliage is at least gone. Let’s see about cutting up the logs!

Ah yes, even our native trees can be weedy. What you see in the photo above is the absolute BIGGEST fallen redbud, Cercis sp. There were two grown together even. Those are the sprouts growing from where it had been trimmed time and time again. Ultimately, we want this tree removed, but need a BIG chainsaw to make short work of this. Some day!

I managed to dig up some nice porcelain vine, Ampelopsis brevipedunculata, roots. This vine is my absolute nemesis. These shoots will be removed as we find them.

WEDNESDAY

I arrived at the sound of a cicada welcoming me. The resident birds were finishing their choir. I knew it was going to be a hot one, and it was.

As I had my coffee, deciding where to start, I choose to start in the most visible garden. I deemed that the garden to the left of the home entrance.

I could name all the weeds I removed on the left, but I don’t want to relive it. View facing the driveway.

I cleared out all the weeds, on the left, but it was hard to tell in the picture, so I didn’t include it. View at entrance.

On my list for next week is to cut back and remove the garden phlox, Phlox paniculata spp. Most of these will go in the new Perennial Garden. They are serving as a ground cover now where the light is low; further down the path, the phlox is more upright where more sun shines.

After this weeding was done, I went shopping at the City’s greenhouse. I filled my CRV. #OhWhatFun!

I met with Sarah (or is it Sara; I must find out.) I think we are kindred spirts since we both have an environmental background) at City’s greenhouse to pick up plants to fill the new bed. I need more. Yep. I need more, but my SUV will only hold so much at a time. I’m making the Greenhouse happy, finding homes for plants that need a home. Once I returned, I placed the new additions where I wanted them planted. I ran out of time today to plant, but hopefully, I’ll make a dent tomorrow in planting before Tropical Depression Elsa arrives.

My new pollinator garden, yes, it is MINE! haha. This is the first garden in my sole care. Before, I was a helper to Anna, my work mate. I miss her already.

THURSDAY

I started my day at 6:00 AM as I wanted to get as much done as could before Elsa arrived. I got a good dent on planting, but there is still a lot to do. Once it started pouring, I when to my home office to write this post. Then the power went out. A power line went out a block from me. I’m not sure if a car hit the pole, or what, but the pole was laying across the street.

As the opportunist as I am, I went back to the City’s greenhouse to get more plants. I’ll drop by tomorrow once Elsa lets me. Hi Jenna and Kim! When you are starting with nothing, you can use it all! I will also begin an educational piece to publish separately on Friday.

With the power still out, I crossed my fingers that my old stand-by Herghty’s would have power. They did, so I’m here watching the rain come down, writing today and tomorrow’s posts.

Hereghty’s is near and dear to me. Not far from my house. I would spend everyday there writing my first book, Gardening With Confidence. It was a best seller!

FRIDAY

Important work going on today!

INSECTS

Tiger swallowtail, female. Common host plants for the female Tiger Swallowtail to lay her eggs include, the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, wild black cherry, Prunus serotina, and sweet bay Magnolia, Magnolia virginiana.

Apheloria tigana. Yellow and black flat backed millipede

The yellow and black flat-backed millipede, Apheloria tigana, is one of my favorite insects. I guess because, when handled, it smells like almonds. I love the smell of almonds. I guess you could say, it’s an insect with benefits! What you are really smelling is hydrogen cyanide, which, in low concentrations, smells like almond extract.

Until soon,

Helen Yoest (M.S.)

Joslin Garden Program Coordinator

Do You Deadhead? Do You Boogie?

Most gardeners understand there is a reason for deadheading, right? If I asked you, you’ll most likely say it’s because if the plant isn’t deadheaded, its energy goes towards seed set, and it will no longer continue to bloom as it should or could. And you’d be right. 

SEEDS FOR THE BIRDS

Before we get into the ways of deadheading, I want to ask you: is growing more flowers your only goal? Could there be other benefits than just flowers? Of course there are. Read on!

What if you want more flowers and seeds for the birds? This is where you learn the deadheading boogie dance. OK, I made that up, but it makes sense. If you want more blooms and birds, only deadhead half of the seed-heads. 

Did you know Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, delay nesting until there are enough seed available to feed their young is available? Goldfinches are one of the few birds that are strictly vegetarian. Personally, I find goldfinch feeding on seed just as beautiful, if not more, than the flower itself. 

GENERAL DEADHEADING

Perennials/Shrubs

Asters, Asteraceae spp.—Typically, there are so many long-lasting flowers, I tend to give this a pass. 

Bee Balm, Monarda spp.—Deadhead to the next bud. When the flowers have finished fleshing out, cut to the ground, you’ll get another flowering round of this old fashion favorite. 

There are several composite flowers where deadheading procedures are the same to produce regrowth: Black-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia spp., blanket flower, Gaillardia spp., coneflowers, Echinacea spp. When I see the next bud forming below, I deadhead to just above that new bud.

Daylilies, Hemerocallis spp.—As the name suggests, daylilies last but a day. They will fall off themselves after a day or two, but to really tidy up the plant, go ahead and pull them off after a day. I have friends who like to spend their evenings, often with a toddy in hand, cutting that day’s bloom before morning arrives. That way, the day starts fresh!

Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea—With flowers that bloom from bottom, up like Foxglove, Gladiolus, Liatris, it’s best to deadhead when only 25% of flowers remain. 

Hollyhocks, Alcea spp.—Anyone who has ever grown this great plant knows hollyhocks are known for the fungal disease rust. I found that once the flowers are spent, cut it way back, leaves and all. You will get a new flush of flowers, and the rust tends to be at bay by then. Hollyhocks are also the lost butterfly plant for the Painted Lady butterfly. 

Iris spp.—You’ll want to cut back these spent stalks not just to get fresh flowers but also to make the plant look better. 

Joe-Pye weed, Eutrochium purpureum—As for Joe-Pye weed, I don’t tend to deadhead. The flowers are fluffy, look good, and don’t tend to make more once they finish blooming. Joe-Pye weed is also the host plant for 47 caterpillars, primarily moths, producing good food for brooding birds. 

Garden Phlox, Phlox paniculata—Seed-eating birds love the seed.

Rose, Rosa spp.—If you grow roses, you know how to deadhead; if you are a new rosarian, cut spent bloom back to a five-leaflet petiole, cutting at an angle, just above a leaflet facing outward. 

Before deadheading

After

Sage, Salvia officinalis—Don’t let this one sneak up on you. Keep deadheaded, and this salvia will bloom all summer. 

Blue salvia, Salvia guaranitica—Blue Salvia will bloom all summer regardless of deadheading. In a big patch, do tend to cut half of the plants back by half. This will delay blooming and will keep a stouter plant.

Shasta Daisy—I know people who don’t deadhead Shastas until all the flowers are all spent. Then they shear for the next flush. I don’t do this and find it difficult to accept. I like to groom my plants lovingly and don’t like the harsh effects of shearing.

Tickseed—There are too many flowers to deadhead. You’ll extend the bloom, but the goldfinch loves these seeds. 

Annuals/Biennials 

Cleome, Cleome hassleriana—I love this old-fashioned spider plant until I don’t. Once they go to seed, the “arms” look gangly, and I find them to be very unattractive. As soon as I collect seeds for next year, I pull them up and compost.

Coleus, Coleus scutellarioides—Coleus are grown for the foliage. The bees like the flowers, but most of us will snip back the flowers to highlight the leaves. 

Campanulas, Campanula spp.—This baby spreads so much, no need to deadhead. They will make more.

Cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus—These spring beauties will last a long time if deadheaded to the next node. 

Hardy Geraniums, Geranium bohemicum—This is another one I don’t tend to deadhead because there are so many long-lasting flowers. 

Larkspur, Delphinium spp.—I’m greedy where Larkspur is concerned. I let them all go to seed so I can collect the seed for next year. They will self-sow, but I like collecting them to move around and share. Once this is done, I pull and compost.

Marigolds, Tagetes spp.—For marigolds, I deadhead the first half of summer to let them flush, then stop the second half so I can collect seed. 

Petunias spp.—I do deadhead petunias, but I also have a trick where I cut back hard the week before I go on vacation. That why I have an entirely new flush when I return!

Snapdragons, Antirrhinum spp.—Deadheading will increase your floral display.

Zinnia spp.—Zinnias can be deadheaded a few times but will ultimately get gangly. Deadhead a couple of times, and when the plant starts to look ratty, cut back to the ground. Depending on the time of year, it may or may not flush back. 

Good luck, and experiment. Deadheading allows us to get more from our flowers!

The Joslin Garden—The Making of a Pollinator Garden—July 1, 2021

Let me just start by saying, July (June & August, as well) is about the worst time to make a garden bed. But I did it anyway. You might remember, last week during #pollinator week, I commandeered a space that was a hot mess. There were a few great plants there, but they couldn’t be found through all the weeds.

New beds for pollinators—before weeding

The existing plants kept included daylilies, Hemerocallis spp.; Stock’s Aster, Aster Stokesia ‘Peachie's Pick’, hybrid blue salvia, Salvia patens, Jerusalem sage, Phlomis fruticosa, and lantana, Lantana camera; not sure which one it is…yet.

Through the heat today, Nell and I finished weeding a wider area of the soon-to-be bed.

Today was planting day!

From the City greenhouse, we added, garden phlox, Phlox ‘Minnie Pearl’; goldenrod, Solidago x ‘Little Lemon’; Sedum ‘Vera Jamison’; coneflower, Echinacea ‘Cayenne Spirt’; and an aster??

Shared from The Bee Better Teaching Garden, I brought several bee balm, Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’.

Propagated from The Bee Better Teaching Garden, butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa; and ornamental onion, Allium hybrid‘Millenium’.

We’ll start with the above, and later move many of the daylilies to line the bed instead of being bunched up in primarily one area.

Also within the bed was this azalea, below. I needed help identifying it. I knew it was in the genus Rhododendron, thinking it was an azalea of some sort, but I was unfamiliar with it. And now know it as a Rhododendron Indicum but which one? With such tiny leaves, I would never have thought that! At this time, I’m still researching a cultivar, if there is one.

VOLUNTEER ART

In the meantime, Art continued limbing up. Next week, I’ll be sure to get pictures of our new vistas!

VOLUNTEER AILLENE

Aillene’s speciality is deadheading. A great skill to have. As I looked for a project for her to focus on, I decided the next best thing to deadheading was dead-stemming. Maybe there really isn’t such a thing, but when a large southern azalea, Rhododendron indica is accidentally sheared into a meatless meatball that is what it would take to reshape. It was a regrettable mishap, but it will grow back.

Note the beautiful azalea in the middle of the pathway.

Oops! Azalea after the mishap!

Aillene was maticulus and focused, and was able to shape the azalea to grow back into a more natural, pre-shearing state.

On a side note, starting next week, I will be taking the leadership roll of Program Coordinator of The Joslin Garden. This is such a great honor! We will continue with our weekly post, and will have additional educational pieces.

Helen Yoest

Environmental Scientist, M.S.

The Joslin Garden—Pollinator Planning—June 24, 2021

Happy Pollinator Week!

To celebrate, The Joslin Garden is creating a new pollinator bed, situated next to the veggie garden!

Since I’ve only been working the Garden since the first of the year, and then only one day a week, I’m not sure what will come up and where. I started weeding a garden bed near the veggie garden, and Nell said, “Everything can go except the daylilies, Hemerocallis spp. I didn’t even see any daylilies, there were so many weeds obstructing the view.

HELEN

Location of The Joslin Garden’s new pollinator garden .

This hot mess was made up of two primary weeds, Senna spp. and a wild inch plant, also known as the wandering Jew plant. I prefer inch plant but added the second common name for identification purposes since wondering Jew is a more commonly known common name. In either case, it’s in the genus, Tradescantia spp., and it was so thick, I was able to pull out as handfuls at a time, and I have man-size hands. I wear a large man’s glove! Same with Senna; it reseeds everywhere. I have to control it in my own garden as well.

Pollinator garden after weeding!

Stay tuned for the additions we add.

ART

Art continued with limbing up low-hanging branches. I did a little, but Art did a lot!

NELL

Let’s hear to for Nell!!! God bless her, she is still hunting down 4 O’Clocks, Mirabilis multiflora. They have invaded the garden. Nell will get them though, given she is so focused, she will eradicate this invasive. It may take a year, but as we improve the garden with more natives, and loosing invasive, we shall meet our goal.

Nell worn out from her battle with 4 O'Clocks.

INSECTS FOUND TODAY
Yes, I am a bug nut. I didn’t get pics of all that we found, but we do have two nice insect examples of what we found in the garden today.

Red Paper Wasp, Polistes Carolina, rolling a pollen ball.

Two-lined spittle bug, Prosapia bicincta,

I was hesitant to add this, but when I was weeding the new pollinator garden, I interrupted an adult-size copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix. Did you know black snakes, Pantherophis obsoletus, eat copperheads? You do now! We have a resident black snake, but it looks like he/she is not doing their job!

Until soon,

Helen Yoest

Evviromental Scientist, M.S.

The Joslin Garden—Joslin Wide Open—June 17 & 19, 2021

Progress!!! It is starting to be visible now. To those who regularly walk the gardens, we’d like to hear from you! We have been opening the street view, which we have written about. This week, Art and I limbed up some trees to let in more light. We want to plant more native pollinators plants.

When I stopped by today (Saturday) to see the progress the Gardeners of Wake County made during their monthly volunteer get-together this morning, I was so impressed! Wow, oh wow! What a fine job they do helping us with garden maintenance—even construction-type projects.

This month, the volunteers finished putting one of the arbors (they brought the materials) and set the post for the other. Chris thought he would be able to complete the project in the next couple of weeks.

New arbor built by volunteers from the Gardeners of Wake Cointy

Chris and I walked the property Thursday to see what projects the GWC could help us with. This smartweed, Polygonum sp. was one. I’m not so sure why it’s called smartweed. Knotweed is another name for it.

One of the big areas we wanted to address with the volunteers was the front side garden below.

The volunteers worked in this area to clear it ourt and transplant daylilies and ferns to other parts of the garden.

Transplanted daylilies

Transplanted ferns.

Below is the triangle in the back. Slowly Nell and I have been adding plants there. So far, we have added iris and Phlox ‘Minnie Pearl’. The GWC weeded it and also moved some peonies to this area.

Beyond what Art and I did Thursday opening up The Joslin Garden, we had a tree come down and it took a large shrub with it.

The Gardeners of Wake County move a lot of the fallen tree but didn’t have time to remove it all. I asked my husband, David, to let us volunteer to take down the rest.

And here it is…

Until soon,

Helen Yoest

Environmental Scientist. M.S.

The Joslin Garden—Sawing in a Rain Forest—June 10, 2021

The Joslin Garden is like a chameleon. There are so many moods. Last week it was all about the mountains. This week, arriving under an overcast sky, just past dawn, the air was thick. The trees were laden with raindrops, and with each breeze, those drops fell like walking a rainforest!

With coffee in hand, I began my day walking the property to see what today’s focus would be. I was alone. It felt nice. I was inspired to saw more. First, I noticed the coleus Nell planted last week. What a difference this made!

I planted the annual salvias from last week, along with six of the ten one-gallon-sized coleuses we had. This was not easy going. The four remaining pots will have to wait. At least I dug a bit to set the pots in so they didn't fall over and miss any of the rain we hope to get.

While I was digging, I realized I wanted to make a bigger impact. That was going to involve a saw. I did what I could from my limited reach, but it is still a dump truck full. (Neal, please beg my forgiveness to your crew in advance.)

Aillene was here to help me today. The vitex, (Vitex agnus-castus) caught our eye. As we looked around, we found that everyone of them were misshapen, with truncated ends, better known as ugly scars, and multiple waterspouts per limb. We started with one that was clearly visible from the street. This made since, of course, since were a digging the new view!

Chris worked in the veggie garden, mostly planting marigolds. Nell did her work before our regular Thursday volunteer time, planting coleus, elephant ears, Colocasia spp, and I also saw evidence of more four O’Clock tubers, Mirabilis spp., no doubt dug up by Nell.

Oh, and before I forget, I saw that dear again. She was coming from the park across the street where it splits East and West Lake Dr. With so much building going on in Raleigh; these poor creatures have to go somewhere.

I also picked up big sticks that came down in the heavy rain we had, as well as coppicing several street spireia. What’s coppicing? Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management that exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down.

Spirea before coppicing to the ground.

It was a good day. Note to Nell, next week let’s talk about the vitex!

Until soon,

Helen Yoests

Environmental Scientist

The Joslin Garden—Stalking the Wild...Nandina—6-4-2021

An unknown, late-blooming azaleas along the driveway!

The night before, we had two inches of rain, thankfully. We've been told by those that know 2021 has been the driest spring on record, and everything around us suggested the same. We welcomed the rain. Nell and I touched base first thing in the morning to see if we should give it a try, given we were expecting more rain. Nell was right in that the rain wouldn't likely arrive before the afternoon. She was right!

A mossy view along the path…

As I arrived, the dampness lingered, branches hung low. A choir of birdsong filled the air. The feeling of a wild jungle came to mind, or at the very least, the Blue Ridge Mountains, as it often does when I walk the property. At any moment, I expected to see a black bear roaming, as there have been so many reports lately.

Nell, Chris, Aillene, and I were the crew for this fine day. We missed Art, but he'll be back from his summer friend and family visits soon.

HELEN

With saw in hand, I started my day with a journey of stalking the wild nandina, Nandina Domestica. Euell Gibbons may not have approved since nandina is not edible, but I did channel Mr. Gibbons, and I was stalking nandina to rid everyone I found!

A Nandina barrier

I think I got all but three. Nell and I decided these nandinia were intentionally planted since it appeared they were a barrier to keep someone from accidentally falling off the edge of the steps leading down to the front of the house. Eventually, we will find a better barrier, but we can live with these for now.

Stump of Ugly Agnus cut last week. Now you see it…

The ugly agnus, Elaeagnus spp. was cut flush to the ground where Nell then covered with cardboard and mulch.

…now it’s gone!

As I journey through the garden, I found where a maple, Acer spp., fell. Someone cut it enough to get off the path. I'm not sure who that was, but I'll assume it was the Gardeners of Wake County who volunteered last week.

I traded my Euell Gibbons hat for a lumberjack's attire. My attention for the remainder of that morning was on the maple. While I finished, it wore me out!

Annual placements.

At lunch, I got caffeinated and decided to go to the City's Greenhouse to see what annuals were available. With a car full of Coleus spp., marigolds, Tagetes spp., Salvias spp,, elephant ears, Colocasia spp. I went back to The Joslin Garden to placed incase Nell or Art felt like doing a little planting.

More annual placements. There are other areas, but this should give you an idea!

I just checked my steps. I clocked in at 15,989! (What's that noise? That's sound is me patting myself on my back!)

AILLENE

Aillene likes to do a devoted task. So this week, I assigned her the chore of removing the monkey grass, Liriope muscari. I call it a chore because it really was. As Aillene said, these 50-pound clumps needed a new home." And they did find one…In someone else's garden!

These clumps were not in a pattern and didn't appear to serve a purpose. One of the clumps surrounded a young dogwood, Cornus spp. tree. Once the Liriope was removed, the tree became visible and lovely. 

Aillene working the clumps!

After a lifetime of working with plants, I still find it amazing the difference it makes when changing a focal point. In this case, the monkey grass was the only plant one saw. Once removed, the negative space and the tree became center stage. This was hard work; I hope Aillene comes back! I think/know she will, but I'll plan for something easier next week. Thank you, Aillene!

CHRIS

Chris continued his focus on the veggie garden. After weeding the bed last week, he planted and added compost. Again, this was an arduous chore, but at least I'm not to blame haha. Chris took this chore upon himself! Thank you, Chris!

NELL

Nell moved around in her efforts this week. She may or may not have found the last four o'clocks, Mirabilis spp. If we see any sign of them emerging, we'll work on it!!! Thank you, Nell!

Nell tends to find her on tasks, for which I'm grateful. Everything needs to be done, but we are making progress. We got a nice note from Art, who walks the property daily as is exercise, saying, "I had a great walk through the garden late Tuesday and again yesterday. Our work is making a difference." Indeed it is; many hands make light work. Thank you, Nell!

P. S.

As we gather each week, we have built such a community with each other. While, yes, Ailene and Art are volunteers, we are also making a deep friendship. I'm honored to call them friends. <3

We would love and welcome new volunteers. If you would like to join our group, just say the word! Groups can join HERE and individuals can join HERE.

(What’s that noise? That’s me clapping and cheering for our volunteers! It’s often difficult, but always fun!)

Until soon,

Helen Yoest

Environmental Scientist

The Joslin Garden—Volunteer Work Days—5-22 & 5-27-2021

Saturday, 5-22-2021—The Gardeners of Wake County

Each month, members The Gardeners of Wake County volunteer their time to help out in The Joslin Garden. We are very fortunate they chose us as part of their civic contribution. This is a very hard-working group, and we are so appreciative.

Daylilies, Hemerocallis spp.. For a while now, Nell Joslin wanted to spread the collection of daylilies around, but our sunny locations were limited. Now that we cleared out the bear’s claw hellebores from this area, thank you volunteer Art, there were still seedlings everywhere. With bright ideas, I asked the City of Raleigh District 4 team if they could weed whack them away. Sure enough, Andy made short work of it. This coupled with opening up the street-view from the removal of non-native shrubs, the forest floor is visible from the street. Nell and I think the view is beautiful. We hope you do too!

Street-view overlooking from where the nandina blocked the view.

Another view from the street!

The volunteers weeded the Veggie Garden. Trust me when I say, it was a hot mess of weeds before this wonderful group arrived.

The old rickety trellis. Nell and I didn’t even know it was a problem, until Aillene stood near it to talk with us, and realized it moved! Out it went. Thanks again, Gardeners of Wake County. And can you believe they are building us a new one to install next month? #FeelingGrateful The volunteers also identified another that needing replacing, and took care of that one too!

The holes will be used again. In the meantime, we have them cautioned off.

Thursday, 5-27-2021—Nell, Art, & Aillene

Pentas added along the front entrance.

A large elaeagnus, Elaeagnus angustifolia, was removed from the street-side, opening up the street-view even more. Next week, my mission is to identify every elaeagnus and nandina location and cut to the ground. We will have to cover it with cardboard and mulch. I don’t even want to see them anymore.

Nell continued to dig up Four O’Clocks, Mirabilis spp. They have invaded our beds!

What a wonderful, productive week. Nell and I can’t wait until next time when were can continue with our weekly progress!

Helen Yoest

Environmental Scientist