EASY DOES IT OUTSIDE
BY GLADYS JEURINK
Do you have a
hard time remembering what to do and when to do it for your plants?
There are a number of plants both for the yard and the house that prefer
a little neglect!!!
Practically all
newly transplanted ones as well as baby seedlings need attention to get
started. Native plants who are accustomed to changeable Nebraska weather
adjust the easiest in your yard.
These are the plants I put along the driveway or between the
sidewalk and the street-sometimes called the “hell strip”. Some prefer
good soil but little attention while others prefer poor soil or they
refuse to bloom. An example
of this is the NASTURTIUM (Tropaeslum species). With fertilizer they will grow lots of leaves
but few flowers and too much water encourages root rot.
They don’t like to be transplanted so start seeds where you want
them. Some climb after you get them started or they will crawl around as
a ground cover, or droop down in hanging containers.
Plant their seeds in full sun. To
help start them nick the seeds so water can get in.
Some people like the leaves in salads, others like to pickle the
buds or use the petals to spiff up their salads.
Aphids like them but lady bugs like to eat aphids!!!
If you have a
hot, dry place such as the west side of a brick garage and a few rocks
you have an ideal home for hen and chickens. They
have fat leaves to store water and were grown on roofs to resist fire.
They can be moved at any time but must
not have water standing on their roots.
Arrange your rocks and pour gravely soil over the rocks to plant
them in to insure drainage.
Most are hardy to zone 4 and prefer sun or partial shade and may have
red edges, some with white hairs (the cobweb like). The blooms are
rather tall and may flop so I quite often cut them off.
The mother plant may die after flowering but will be surrounded
by “chickens”. One of my favorite slides is a big, full sized barrel of
soil with many holes from which
HENS AND CHICKENS grow.
Be cautious
where you start GRAPE HYACINTHS!!! They are little and easy to plant, they are not
expensive, and a bright color very early in the spring, and they will
fill your space with little effort.
A number of years ago I planted 25 bulbs.
Now I may have a thousand. The bulbs divide into thick clumps and
they must also seed, as I find them far from the original clumps.
At least twice in these years, I have spaded their territory and
turned them over. No matter, there is that blue patch every spring.
They die back after flowering but appear again in late fall.
Probably the only bad thing you could do is to keep their feet
wet.
A big shrub I
have for the no-work category is the
AMERICAN CRANBERRY VIBURNUM (Viburnum
trilobum). It needs a lot of space but little work, and will grow in
light shade or full sun.
Storms have been hard on mine as parts of trees broke it off.
No matter it responded by growing many more stems.
It is covered with white, flat flower clusters in spring that are
followed by red berries for the birds.
Reaching 12 feet high and wide, I cut it to the ground and its
answer was to get thicker and taller and more berries. Growing just
south of the patio, it protects the patio from the street, and since my
bird feeders are on the patio, it produces many perches and hiding
places for Juncos, and sparrows.
In summer a fall blooming
CLEMATIS climbs on and around its top branches.
I have never watered it, sprayed for bugs, or fertilized.
What more could you ask?
LARKSPUR (Consolida
ambigua) is an annual that reseeds itself every year after you have
planted it once. It likes
full sun and reseeds itself in late fall.
No amount of
MAGIC LILIES (Lycoris
squamigera) is also known as Naked Lady, and Surprise Lily because
they come up suddenly in late summer with no leaves just tall blooms
about 2 feet long after you have forgotten you planted them. Actually
what happened, in early spring some
JONQUIL looking foliage came up and never did bloom and then
suddenly dropped dead. That was the foliage.
This makes it very easy to dig into them during their dormant
time. If you can, mark where they were planted so you don’t destroy the
bulbs. They like slightly acid to nearly neutral pH and will do well in
either sun or partial shade.
Just plant and let them alone.
They don’t like to be moved so will pout for a year or two if you
do. I see many clumps around
Actually there
are many plants for the lazy gardener. Look for them at your favorite
garden center. Copyright 2013 |