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Marsh marigolds for the wild or garden
Marsh Marigolds If you are driving through the Northeastern part of the country on an early spring day you may notice Marsh marigolds, Calthra palustris, growing along the roads and in the wetlands....
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What to plant in April, zones 5-6
April is National Lawn and Garden Month as well as Keep America Beautiful month. Gardeners should be thinking about what they will be planting this month to keep America beautiful. April is the...
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Plants for butterfly gardens
Plants for Butterfly GardensGardeners generally love butterflies (well except for the few who actually damage our garden plants) and want to attract more butterflies to the garden. There are some...
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Calendula for cool weather gardens
Calendula is a good plant for late spring color in the garden. It enjoys cool weather and will handle several rounds of frost. Calendula is also an excellent plant to spice up the late summer and fall...
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Dividing perennials in the spring
Early spring is an excellent time to divide and thin some perennial plants. Plants recover from transplanting much easier in cool, damp weather. Dividing your perennials is often necessary to keep...
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Plant tulips for a colorful spring
TulipsTulips are a sign that spring has arrived. If you want to tiptoe through the tulips in your own colorful tulip patch, or just admire their beauty, tulips are easy to grow. Tulips bloom from...
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Controlling moles without myths
Controlling moles without mythsControlling moles is not impossible once you learn the correct way to do it, even though it may not be the easy job some folk remedies promise. There are hundreds of...
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Spring weeds you can safely eat
Back several generations ago people were running out of stored food as spring approached and the gardens hadn’t started to produce yet. They hadn’t had fresh food in months and out of season foods...
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Five best annual flowers to grow from seed
Annual flowers live for one year. Many modern gardeners don’t want to bother with the ones that generally are started from seed, but instead buy things like petunias to fill in spots in the garden...
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Growing trilliums
Trilliums are beginning to bloom in some of our woodlands and gardens in May. This lovely native was once common on the edges of woodlands but is no longer found in many places. Trilliums are a...
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Flowering Quince for the garden
The lovely flowering quince we grow in our gardens is a member of the Chaenomeles genus. These spring bloomers are grown for their pretty flowers. They sometimes make fruit but are primarily...
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Toads in the garden
If you are of a certain age you’ll probably remember when after a rain toads covered the lawn, sidewalks and roads in the spring and summer, hopping everywhere. Toads were once numerous and common but...
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Ready, set, grow on Memorial weekend
All across the country gardeners will be out in full force this weekend. For zone 5-6 gardeners Memorial weekend is THE weekend to plant. They’ll be planting vegetable gardens, filling porch pots and...
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Growing mayapples in the garden
The Mayapple, or May pop (Podophyllum peltatum) is a wildflower that makes an excellent plant for woodland gardens and shady areas. In late April and May (in zones 5-6), the large leaves emerge like...
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Garden microclimates- what they are and how to use them
Most gardeners are aware of what planting zone they are in. (If you don’t know your planting zone please go to this article to learn about them. Knowing your planting zone lets you select plants that...
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Growing the cranesbill geraniums
What many gardeners call a geranium is actually a pelargonium, a non-hardy plant commonly planted for summer color. True geraniums are also found in the garden, they are mostly hardy perennial or...
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How to grow Bristly Locust, an underused native shrub
If you want a shrub or small tree that will turn heads when it’s in bloom and that’s very easy to grow why not try a Bristly Locust, (Robinia hispida)? This lovely plant is unusual...
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The gardeners guide to a good burial
Gardeners are probably more tuned into the cycle of life than people that don’t garden. Gardeners know that every living thing returns to the soil after it ceases to live where it then decomposes and...
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Gardeners guide to creating family cemeteries
Drive through rural Michigan and you will frequently notice small cemeteries along the country roads. They are old township cemeteries and family cemeteries. Family burial grounds were once common and...
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Finding heirloom plants in old cemeteries
Hundreds of small, old cemeteries, some private, some public, dot Michigan’s rural areas. Some are abandoned, some still well cared for. Larger, older cemeteries exist in many cities. Many cemeteries,...
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