Dear $$firstname$$,

Crystal Rennicke

After a harsh winter, it’s nice to finally be spending evenings and weekends out on the patio rather than cooped up inside the house. And while my outdoor to-do list keeps growing, I fully intend on spending these first warm days just soaking up the season. I hope you are doing the same in your backyard.

This month, we’re excited to announce a new contest, that allows all Club members to be eligible to win a garden shed from Lifetime Products valued at $1,199! To learn more about Lifetime Products, click here.

If you received this newsletter from us, you’re automatically entered in the contest, but feel free to forward this to your friends so they can sign up and enter the contest as well! If this newsletter was forwarded to you, please use this link to sign up for yourself.

Happy Spring!
--Crystal

READ ON TO DISCOVER...

• Plant of the Month
• Yard Smarts
• Question of the Month
• Plant Power!
• May Regional Checklist
• Frugal Gardener Tip of the Month
• Current Needs

Submit Your Story

Plant of the Month

Allium
This gardeners’ favorite is loved for its showy and fragrant spring show.

Botanical name: Allium species
Bloom time: Late spring to fall.
Hardiness: Zones 2 to 8.
Flower colors: White, purple, blue, pink and yellow.
Size: 6 inches to 5 feet tall; 12 to 18 inches or more wide.
Light needs: Full sun; some varieties tolerate partial shade.
Growing tip: Plant bulbs in fall at a depth two to three times their vertical diameter, but no deeper than 4 inches.
Recommendations: Giant allium (Allium giganteum) grows 3 to 4 feet tall with a striking 6-inch purple flower head. Drumstick chives (Allium spaerocephalon) produce small, tightly packed purple flower heads on 3-foot stems. Ornamental onion (Allium seneceus ‘Glaucum’) features grayish green foliage with 1-inch pink or purple flowers on a plant 6 inches tall.

top

Yard Smarts

Flour Power
To visualize what your bulb, flower or vegetable garden will look like, use this method. Take a clean plastic beverage bottle with a pull-up “sipper” opening, and fill it halfway with white flour. Squeeze a bit of flour wherever you intend to place your plants. You’ll see at a glance exactly how many you need to buy—and where to dig. So quick and easy! —Mrs. Eugene Marg, Winona, Minnesota

top

Question of the Month

Family Flower
Q: My grandmother gave me the seeds to this pretty plant. What is it? –Shari Lemke, Waterloo, Wisconsin

Melinda: Known as Texas plume or scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis rubra), this biennial makes a nice addition to a naturalized planting area or perennial garden.

During its first year, the plant grows only 3 inches tall and produces no flowers. The next year, however, it stretches toward the sky and reaches a height of 6 feet. The long orange-red flower spikes provide color throughout summer.

Grow in full sun and well-drained soil for the best results. Because it’s a biennial—flowering only in its second year—sow seeds several years in a row to ensure colorful blooming plants each summer.

See more of Melinda’s answers

top

Plant Power!

Many gardeners feel adding specific plants to their gardens helps ward off uninvited guests. If you find yourself with creepy company that just won’t leave, try adding some of these plants:

Aphids: Anise, catnip, chives, coriander, eucalyptus, fennel, garlic, larkspur, marigold, mint, mustard, nasturtium, onion, oregano, petunia, sunflower
Cucumber beetles: Catnip, marigold, nasturtium, radish, rue, tansy
Cutworms: Spiny amaranth
Japanese beetles: Ageratum, arborvitae, artemisia, ash, begonia, boxwood, caladium, catnip, chives, cockscomb, garlic, hydrangea, juniper, pansy, tansy, white geranium, yew
Mosquitoes: Basil, garlic, geranium, pennyroyal
Slugs and snails: Artemisia, fennel, garlic, rosemary
Spider mites: Coriander
Squash bugs: Catnip, mint, nasturtium, petunia, radish, tansy
Tomato hornworms: Borage, dill, marigold, opal basil, petunia, pot marigold
Whiteflies: Basil, marigold, mint, nasturtium, oregano, peppermint, thyme, wormwood

For more about garden pests, click here.

top

May Regional Checklist

Late spring is a busy, yet joyful and exciting time for gardeners. The soil has warmed up, spring rains help relieve you of watering chores and plants are exuberant in their growth. To manage all this activity, you have to be proactive. Effort put forth now means less work later…allowing you time to enjoy the bounty of the coming summer.

• Northeast
• Northwest
• Southwest
• Central
• Southeast

top

Frugal Gardener Tip of the Month

Practical Plant Markers
One day, while I was starting my seeds, I began frantically looking for plant markers. I soon discovered I had nothing to use. All I could come up with was about 100 bread tags and twist ties. That’s when I came up with this simple idea to make my own tags with them. –Allana Erb, Derbert, Nova Scotia

top

Current Needs

We are searching for tried-and-true tips from longtime gardening friends and relatives. Remember to send along a photo of the gardener you admire! Click here.

Step Back to the Victory Era!

The editors of Reminisce magazine bring you Reminisce Through the Decades: The 1940s, a 6-hour-plus, three-DVD set of real-life stories from the ’40s! For more information, go to www.reminisce.com.

top