10 Goals for Spring

Due to all that is going on in the world, I made a list of goals I’d like to keep in mind when gardening this year to stay positive. These are just some self motivating things you can say or do to help deal with stress or when you forget to enjoy the world around you.

My Spring Happiness Garden Goals:

1. Plant as many sunflowers, wildflowers & other pollinator attracting plants as possible.
2. Plant lots of veggies!
3. Find a pollinator once a day and observe it’s beauty.
4. Create a fairy garden and let those fairies fly.
5. Enjoy the good weather while it lasts!
6. Step out into the sunshine for at least 30 minutes a day.
7. Enjoy all the colorful flowers!
8. Work outside as much as possible.
9. Watch everything grow!
10. Don’t stress about planting in any order or for any reason. Just plant, grow, and be happy!

Dandelions

Dandelions are one of natures most important flowers. They provide one of the first foods in Spring to many pollinating creatures such as bees and other animals. Dandelions are also considered an herb and are an edible plant. The leaves can be cooked or made into a tea, which provide a number of health benefits.* I can’t stress enough how important bees are. They need to eat too after all, so that in return our fruits and vegetables can be pollinated.

So take a minute to remember, herbicides and pesticides are the worst thing you can do for your yard. Dandelions are sometimes considered a “pest” and a “weed” because they grow in the cracks of driveways and pathways.

A very simple way to get rid of them without using herbicides is to hand pull them. A little work goes a long way. There is no need to spray chemicals, which harm the environment, humans, and can kill important pollinators, such as bees. Plus, they look so beautiful blooming en masse in fields of grass.

As we move from Winter to Spring, I just want to remind everyone of the importance these beautiful flowers have on our environment. Every year I watch dandelions bloom in the field in my backyard and every year I revel in the beauty and sight of these underappreciated flowers. Dandelions can bring a little sunshine into anyone’s life, so enjoy them while they bloom.

 

*Always consult a professional before picking/eating wild plants you’re not familiar with. Some may be dangerous if ingested.

Hummingbirds

I saw a hummingbird today, which is really exciting because I don’t have any feeders out. My mom has spotted a hummingbird twice before around our garden. My suspicion is the nice, red, juicy tomatoes we have. We have a lot of yellow and orange marigolds and nasturtiums around, but very little red flowers. Hummingbirds are attracted to red colors. I’m guessing that the tomatoes are attracting them and that’s cool with me. It’s a rare site and awesome to see a hummingbird hanging around the garden.

Just A Little Rant About Monarchs

I’m a little peeved. I was driving down my street a couple of weeks ago and noticed all the beautiful wildflowers and grass was cut all along the sides of the street. This may be insignificant to most people, but to me, it’s a really big deal because of all the milkweed and flowers growing there. It’s extremely important to have milkweed around because Monarch butterflies use them to lay eggs and it’s the only food source for the caterpillars after they hatch. Monarchs are not only pollinators, they are also an indicator species, which help gauge the health of the environment around them and us.

There are a number of reasons why towns and cities cut down roadside weeds, however, I think it’s extremely unnecessary in some cases, especially on a quite street like mine. Weeds are cut down to improve visibility, drainage, or to get rid of invasive weeds. There is a whole list of reasons. The problem is cutting down beneficial weeds, like milkweed, which is extremely important to the environment. Milkweed grows on a lot of roadsides in my area. In my opinion, the weeds on my street weren’t  extremely overgrown and could have been cut a month from now, when it gets cooler and there aren’t as many bugs around. My town hasn’t touched them since mid Spring, if I recall correctly.

Right now, it’s especially important to conserve areas with milkweed and wildflowers because late summer and early fall is migration time for Monarchs and a time when other beneficial insects start preparing for winter. So far, I’ve only seen one Monarch this summer and that’s really sad. They’ve been declining and it’s so important to keep them around.

I follow the NRDC (National Resource Defense Council) on Facebook. They have some really important info on environmental issues, endangered species, and a whole list of other important causes.My info and updates about Monarchs comes mostly from them.   Below is a couple of helpful links and info on Monarchs:

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/sylvia-fallon/keep-calm-and-plant-milkweed

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/peter-lehner/fight-save-butterflies

http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Library/Invertebrates/Monarch-Butterfly.aspx

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/60392.html

Buzzing Bees

I’ve spotted a ton of honey bees all around my flowers and vegetable garden this summer. They’ve helped me with a great deal of pollination and I now have some awesome vegetables because of their hard work. Bees are so important to have and I’m happy about the amount of bees I have around my garden.

I have a special place in my heart for the little buzzers. I grew up with a fascination for bees and wasps. They’ve always intrigued me and I’ve never been afraid of them. I have a great respect for bees. They hold so much power in their tiny bodies and do such a great service to human kind. They are definitely an underappreciated insect.

Blooms of Summer

When summer starts, the flowers come out! These are all the beautiful mid summer blooms around my yard.

Vegetable and Fruit Blooms:

Strawberry

Strawberry

Onion

Nasturtium

Cucumber

Nasturtium

Sweet Pea

Borage

Sweet Pea

Garlic

Everything Else:

Poppies

Poppy

?

Wood Sorrel

?

?

Chicory

Chicory

Clover

Poppy

Marigold

Marigold

Sorrel

I have some sorrel growing near my dads garlic field and around our property. It’s a wild edible plant my parents grew up with in Ukraine. When I was a kid, we had it growing in our garden wild and now we have it growing here wild. My mom always called it bunny food, because it’s what rabbits like to eat in the wild.

Sorrel is an edible herb. There are many different types of sorrel and many different uses for it. It grows all over the place here in the northeast United States. It can also be a weed, growing around your garden.

We have sheep sorrel and common wood sorrel. Wood sorrel leaves resemble clover leaves and have yellow or white blooms. Sheep sorrel have reddish/yellow blooms and the leaves resemble a sword.  The leaves of both are a wonderful addition to any salad or soup. The leaves have a nice lemony sour flavor without being too harsh like a lemon. You can eat it raw or cook with it. It’s always a nice snack for me when I’m walking around my yard.

Common Wood Sorrel Flower

Common Wood Sorrel

Common Wood Sorrel

Sheep Sorrel

Venus Fly Trap

A couple of years ago, I obtained a very cool Venus fly trap. I had no idea what I was doing with it and had never really tried to keep one alive. Surprisingly, it survived for about 2 or 3 years. All I did was replant the fly trap into a tomato container with some sphagnum moss and then tossed it into a glass fish bowl. I added some distilled water once in a while and it thrived. It even bloomed and gave me these beautiful white flowers.

 

It’s interesting how certain plants thrive in certain environments. Sometimes giving your plant a little bit of a cold shoulder can do it some good. I recently bought another Venus fly trap and tried to give it a little bit more TLC. Well, it didn’t turn out so good. It died within two weeks. Granted, my first one lived in a sun room and everything survived in there. It had a good, sunny, happy, nutrient deficient bowl. This recent one had similar surroundings, minus the intense sunlight.

Later, I found out that Miracle Grow Sphagnum Peat Moss is horrible to use if you want to keep a Venus fly trap alive. They hate nutrients and Miracle Grow adds fertilizer to their moss, which I would’ve known if I had looked at the ingredients. I purchased the moss before for a different plant and had it laying around. It was a good idea at the time. Lesson learned. Keep it simple and don’t use Miracle Grow for Venus fly traps. They like the simple life and so do I!

Spring Flowers Bring Summer Showers

This year, my title for this post makes sense. We didn’t have too much rain this Spring in the northeast, but now that it’s summer, it’s been raining a fair amount. Rain is always good for a gardener!

These are some of the really beautiful late Spring flowers which have bloomed in my front yard. Some were already here and some I planted. I don’t know the names of a few, but they are beautiful regardless. I love the violas wildly and randomly growing all over my front yard. They are so beautiful and add lots of nice color to the green grass. They were growing wild when we moved in last year and it’s so great they’ve returned!

Petunia

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Clematis

Petunia

?

Red Petunia and ?

?

Petunia

Fuchsia

Viola

 

Glitter Rose

A while ago I posted about some roses I got from a wedding. This is a glitter rose I created. It’s a cool craft project if you have some roses to dry. You can use it for decoration for a party, decor in your house, or as a cool gift. It’s very easy and not too messy.

What you need: Glue, sponge brush, glitter and of course a dry rose.

Dry the rose for about a week, upside down, out of direct sunlight. I tied a string to the end of the stem and hung it off of a metal shelf.

Take the sponge and add some glue. You don’t have to slather the entire rose in glue; just enough to give it a cool effect. This glue dries clear, so you don’t see the white after it’s dry.

I chose colors similar to the rose, but you can use your imagination and use any color you want.

I added some green for the stem. Don’t worry about getting the colors mixed at the bottom of the rose. It gives it a cool look when they’re mixed.

To preserve glitter, I always use a paper under my glitter area. This way you don’t waste or make a huge glittery mess on your table or wherever you make your crafts. It’s also easier to get the glitter back in the bottle this way.

And the finished product! I left the end of the stem clean so I could tape the bottom to something to let it dry. I used the shelf above my craft table. If you want to, you can cut that end off after it dries.