Life's a Wildflower Garden!

FINALLY! Signs of spring are here. One of my favorite things about this time of year is watching wildflowers peeking through their cover. 

What exactly is a wildflower? The generally understood definition is a flowering plant growing naturally in its native environment. Typically, a wildflower is not a hybrid or selected cultivar. Nature created wildflowers in a multitude of forms, sizes and colors. 

Planting and enjoying wildflowers. You don't have to go hiking in the Smokies to enjoy wildflowers in East Tennessee. It's perfectly okay to give Mother Nature a little help by sowing your own wildflowers. I like to use the patchwork appro
 ch to selecting my wildflower planting locations. A little patch here and a little patch there. Choose natural sunny spots comingled with existing sparsely growing vegetation. Select a wildflower seed mix suitable for your climate and sow the seeds after a killing frost in the fall or after the last chance of a freeze in the spring. Make sure your seed makes contact with the soil by walking or tamping the ground. If possible keep the soil damp for the first several weeks to help with germination and to sustain the young seedlings until they can establish an adequate roo system.

Enjoy! Part of the fun with wildflowers is that they will keep you guessing. They will not all bloom the first year. In fact, you never know what's going bloom from year to year. Some wildflower such as Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) have two-year lifecycles, growing only leaves one year, and blooming, going to seed and dying the second. The other wonderful surprise is where wildflowers show up from year to year. You never know. They are constantly reseeding and spreading their seeds to new locations. It's never too late to start enjoying this wonderful symbol of spring. Life's a wildflower garden...dig it!

So you have your garden all planned out for spring and you are ready to plant annuals, herbs and vegetables, some new plants or even a few new trees. Sounds like a great start for a tasty and attractive growing season! Well, before the favorable spring rains slow to a trickle in the summer, think about your back up plan for watering. A great suggestion is to install rain barrels. These are large containers that capture rainwater at the end of your downspout, offering a simple, efficient, low-cost method for you to collect and recycle water. They usually range from 50 to 80 gallons and have a spigot for filling watering cans and a connection for a soaker or garden hose.

Rain barrels will help you save on your watering costs because they provide free irrigation for your garden. In fact, just a quarter-inch of rain falling on the average home yields about 200 gallons of water, so a barrel can literally be filled within a matter of minutes during a good rain.

Another benefit is that they reduce harmful runoff into our watershed, and the water is better for your plants. Tap water contains inorganic ions and fluoride compounds that accumulate in the soil over time and potentially harm plant roots and microorganisms in the soil. Rainwater does not contain the same additives found in tap water. It benefits plants in your garden by cleaning the soil of salt buildup, thereby promoting an environment conducive to root development. All in all rain barrels are yet another great way to stay green this summer.