Downtown Home and Garden is AWESOME!

This is where I get all my daffodils and bulbs from! Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor Michigan totally rocks. I feel bad that not everyone can have such an awesome garden center to visit-
They are friendly and cheerful and they sell what a gardener needs...not all that other stuff. Plus Mark opened a food cart courtyard in back where you can jet in and grab a snack while you are between weeding gigs. AND after work in the summer you can go grab a beer at his new beer garden! Giving business a good name in Ann Arbor! Thanks you guys!
This spring I am planning on planting a lot of asiatic bulbs. I have been having issues lately with my coneflowers and I need that shot of pink in the summer! So here is to hoping that lilies will help. If you have deer issues...build a fence...or surround with plants they don't like...I have been experimenting with this...still in fledgling faze.

Sadogardenist

I get so excited to get to work in peoples garden in the spring.

I am like a mad woman running around raking leaves and twigs, cleaning up all the edges, scraping mulch out of the grass, thatching the grass, bundling wood, cleaning out stinky ponds. It can be embarrassing if one of my clients tries to talk to me…I'll be shouting in excitement!

I think to myself about all the different kinds of amendments I need to put down on this or that. What needs pruning, what must wait, why did something turn brown, what did I plant here last year. What did I move and can’t wait for people to notice and get excited about…
Dragging piles of debris to compost piles or bagging and hauling…Seeing all the other service people out and about…saying hello!

And then the next day I am in such excruciating pain.My boyfriend is in lawn care and we are always sharing pain management tips. Like should you Ben Gay before or after dinner, which stretch is best for that niggling pain behind your shoulder blade...etc. etc. Pain is a big part of gardening as I am getting older. But it is absolutely worth it!
Check out my other blog at Cool Garden Things Blog

Lantana

Once again, I am still pretty much a novice, so bare with me in such things. Today I would like to talk about my second favorite plant: Lantana.

I don't know the latin name, which of course my father would totally berate me for, but I think I am a better gardener than him, so there ya go. He is of course a scientist and beats me in that department for sure. But it's not a competition, so where was I?

Ah, Lantana...I met this plant in Florida where I was not immediately impressed...But in Michigan where the summers are hot and alternating between humid and dry...I was suddenly looking at Lantana with brand new eyes.

This annual (in Michigan it is an annual) is a great plant for Michigan because it can handle all day sun, and partial sun. It can handle very hot weather and fairly cool weather. It can handle some neglect in the watering department and prefers to not be over watered-but to it's credit can handle too much water too. It blooms from spring all the way to fall and then has attractive-BUT HIGHLY POISONOUS-purple berries.

I prefer the non mounding forms as I feel they are more prolific bloomers...my favorite has been the red and purple varieties.

I like to combine the red and orange flowering lantana with purple potatoe vine and some blue salvia and maybe some fountain grass for a long blooming, low maintenance and classy garden combo. Add a gazing ball and all your friends will be having major garden envy.