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Curated News

Why Front Gardens Matter | The Guardian | Clare Coulson 

Iris Chores Before Fall

When your irises finish blooming, cut off the dead flower stalks, but not leaves. Irises use their swords, the green leaves, to nourish rhizomes for the following year.

Since they are semi-dormant, you can divide them now if necessary. Replant them as soon as possible and remember to cut off about two-thirds of the foliage to compensate for root loss. Cut the leaves into a fan shape and enjoy more irises next year.

How to Create a Peter Rabbit Garden

Of course, Peter Rabbit is the creation of Beatrix Potter, who was a noted botanist and mycologist. (A mycologist studies fungi).

Now, to make your Peter Rabbit Garden, we will draw inspiration from Beatrix Potter's garden at Hill Top Farm.

In making your Peter Rabbit garden, you could add a little wooden fence or a low stone wall around the perimeter.

Inside, use the herbs and perennials featured in the books:

Herbs include Mint, Chamomile, Lavender, Parsley, Sage, Thyme, Rosemary, Lemon Balm, and Tansy.

Edibles include Lettuce, Beets, Radish, Rhubarb, Onions, and Strawberries.

Then add Pansies, Roses, and Pinks.

Botanical History On This Day

1810 Thomas Nuttall arrived at Mackinac Island by birch-bark canoe and became the first botanist to document its flora, recording ~60 species, including the dwarf lake iris, later named Michigan’s state wildflower.

1874 Edith Coleman, the Australian naturalist and orchid sleuth, was born; her observations of pseudo-copulation in orchids made her a renowned popular scientist and the first woman to win the Australian Natural History Medallion.

1890 Vincent van Gogh died two days after his final wounding; decades later, his Sunflowers would blaze through auction records, a testament to nature’s radiance on canvas.

1924 Beatrix Potter wrote to young Dulcie describing her garden of box-edged beds, moss roses, currants, peas, phlox, and bellflowers—then snowdrops to charm the winter orchard.

2016 Ryan Gainey, the self-taught Southern plantsman and romantic designer, died tragically while trying to save his beloved terriers; his garden rooms in Decatur embodied his credo to “create beauty.”

Unearthed Words

Odes to summer’s shining “star of earth”—the tomato—by Pablo Neruda and Janice Northerns. Tomato Reveries

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Shrubs & Hedges by Eva Monheim

Buy the book on Amazon: Shrubs & Hedges by Eva Monheim

Today's Botanic Spark

1951 Charles C. Deam vs. Honeysuckle — Indiana’s great botanist wrote back tartly about invasive honeysuckle: “I have never heard a good word for it… all that I can say affirmatively is that it is no good for anything.”

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And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.