I was asked what is a herbaceous perennial. I found out about this word years ago when Iowa State University had a herbaceous perennial workshop. I just love saying the word, and doesn't it sound so professional like you know what you are talking about. Anyway, here is the meaning of herbaceous
Definition: When a plant is called herbaceous, it means that the stems are soft or succulent and green, as opposed to brown and woody. Generally soft, green, herbaceous growth will die back to the ground in cold, winter climates. The roots of the perennial plant are alive and well, and new growth will emerge in the spring.
taken from https://www.thespruce.com/herbaceous-perennial-plants-
What's a pest and who's a friend?
Encouraging friends into the garden
The rule of thumb, but as usual there are exceptions, it it's a friend if it scuttles away quickly, it's an enemy if it's slow and sluggish. EXCEPTIONS: earthworms' move slowly but are friends good friends, They bring soil to the surface, help to oxygenate it and generally assist in mixing up the nutrients as moles do, but as their holes are bigger we're less forgiving.
Earwigs move quickly, but they are herbivorous and eat your plants, especially dahlias. A useful way of trapping them is to put a little straw in a small flower pot or jam jar and invert it on the top of the pole supporting your plant. Earwigs will nestle down in the straw and you can dispose of them next morning as the mood takes you. That at least is the theory. It does work, but insects sometimes seem to have animal cunning and they won't all fight each other for the privilege of being first in the trap.
Apart from bird and earthworks, your special friends in the garden are centipedes, spiders, ladybirds, lacewings, black beetles, hoverflies and toads, which uncomplainingly devote nearly all their time to stripping your garden of soil and plant pests such as aphids. If you're lucky enough to have a good population of these friends, you wont often need to bother the garden centre for pesticides.
Toads ( we are very fortunate to have toads live in our greenhouses, so this is a good friend for us too) are also good news, since they do sterling work in the decimating of the pest population. The way to encourage them is to have a pond in your garden, but if you don't want the bother of a pond a nice boggy and damp place will do since, like Eeyore, toads find this a good habitat. But if you have a pond with steep side, do make sure there's ladder or ramp or them to climb out. They can't gorge on your slugs and snails if they're stuck at the bottom with the water lilies.
Encourage friendly insects into your garden by attracting the better class of insect is, of course, to grow the plants they like best. There are lists of these in many gardening books, but they include alyssum, anemone, arabis, campanula erigeron, eryngium, gazania, geranium, geum, gypsophila, helianthus, liatris, nicotania, papover, rudbeckia, salvia, scabious, stachys and veronica. So again more food for thought for our insect friends.
This was taken from Tips from the Old Gardeners, by Duncan Crosbie
till next time, this is Becky Litterer, Becky's Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa
Definition: When a plant is called herbaceous, it means that the stems are soft or succulent and green, as opposed to brown and woody. Generally soft, green, herbaceous growth will die back to the ground in cold, winter climates. The roots of the perennial plant are alive and well, and new growth will emerge in the spring.
taken from https://www.thespruce.com/herbaceous-perennial-plants-
What's a pest and who's a friend?
Encouraging friends into the garden
The rule of thumb, but as usual there are exceptions, it it's a friend if it scuttles away quickly, it's an enemy if it's slow and sluggish. EXCEPTIONS: earthworms' move slowly but are friends good friends, They bring soil to the surface, help to oxygenate it and generally assist in mixing up the nutrients as moles do, but as their holes are bigger we're less forgiving.
Earwigs move quickly, but they are herbivorous and eat your plants, especially dahlias. A useful way of trapping them is to put a little straw in a small flower pot or jam jar and invert it on the top of the pole supporting your plant. Earwigs will nestle down in the straw and you can dispose of them next morning as the mood takes you. That at least is the theory. It does work, but insects sometimes seem to have animal cunning and they won't all fight each other for the privilege of being first in the trap.
Apart from bird and earthworks, your special friends in the garden are centipedes, spiders, ladybirds, lacewings, black beetles, hoverflies and toads, which uncomplainingly devote nearly all their time to stripping your garden of soil and plant pests such as aphids. If you're lucky enough to have a good population of these friends, you wont often need to bother the garden centre for pesticides.
Toads ( we are very fortunate to have toads live in our greenhouses, so this is a good friend for us too) are also good news, since they do sterling work in the decimating of the pest population. The way to encourage them is to have a pond in your garden, but if you don't want the bother of a pond a nice boggy and damp place will do since, like Eeyore, toads find this a good habitat. But if you have a pond with steep side, do make sure there's ladder or ramp or them to climb out. They can't gorge on your slugs and snails if they're stuck at the bottom with the water lilies.
Encourage friendly insects into your garden by attracting the better class of insect is, of course, to grow the plants they like best. There are lists of these in many gardening books, but they include alyssum, anemone, arabis, campanula erigeron, eryngium, gazania, geranium, geum, gypsophila, helianthus, liatris, nicotania, papover, rudbeckia, salvia, scabious, stachys and veronica. So again more food for thought for our insect friends.
This was taken from Tips from the Old Gardeners, by Duncan Crosbie
till next time, this is Becky Litterer, Becky's Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa
