High Plains History; Iris Bulbs

this hard winter was mated bit easier a homestead with the addition of two parts of enroll us that have been blooming in our kitchen since november for years i've been telling myself that i would give these giant bulbs and they were appropriately gargantuan blossoms a try last october i gave into the spiel the respected plants men who promised multiple dinner plate sized blooms of exquisite color that would brighten my holidays and cheer the dreary days that followed being unable to resist such horticultural hoopla i bought an armload of the cantaloupe sized bulbs and i brought them harm planted won gates' arrest as early gifts that will hopefully deliver on christmas day i thought my mentors accounting instructions submerging the bottom half of the ballgame waste potting soil that apart just a teensy bit bigger than its inhabitants i get lots of mourning son and a little water and watched as it grew like jackson beanstalk to a height of two and a half feet the first time stock opened huge red saucers a week before thanksgiving much to the delight

of my visiting mother in law who began making lists of new york neighbors who needed an amaryllis actually she calls the amarillo globe from kansas the second gulp stockett peeped through the ballplayers when i brought home the second armored most destined for friends and relatives in the big apple and i kept watching that promised seven flowers and potted out a couple of weeks before christmas this one was slow on the uptake but how could i complain is the first time was into its second set emblems and sending a third stock forth through the terrible el nino winter these bulbs fulfilled the miraculous claims of their vendor giving me a splash of color and proof that the snow and ice with some day and and that green things would once again roll my two mr ellis gave me a total of twenty one gorgeous blondes and just today i tried to find a withering stock they deserve a long rest with the summer

season and the outdoor garden following the plant's men's advice i'll cut them back and bring them in during september get a little fertilizer and then get ready for another explosion of holiday cheer during the winter months the bolts that were taken back to new york had become a topic of my weekly phone conversations with my mother in law she's reported on totaled limbs sizes and colors for everyone in the brooklyn neighborhood who is now the proud owner of one of those wonderful mr bellows from kansas i've tried to explain that the name of the plant is and rollers and enroll out is a city in texas all to no avail she celebrates her nineteenth birthday later this month and i'm planning to be there to help her planned her amarillo in the backyard and speaking of mr alice i'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the real antidote to the airwaves of high plains public radio i'd like to thank you for helping our radio garden grow and i'm looking forward to making some

new garden in france in the future the ear of el nino has definitely fulfill the promises of dread that were forecast last spring and summer almost nightly reports of tornadoes snowstorms mudslides hurricanes and floods of disastrous proportion that dominated the news both home and abroad the economy economic forecasts are equally filled with doom and gloom as we told that the weather conditions will have a profound effect on world markets food prices and the availability of everything from fish to fruit we in the midwest have no right to complain about the weather when we see pictures of harm sliding into the pacific ocean or worse yet crimes that are heaps of splintered lumbering twisted metal in florida and georgia however this winter has been a test of will and patience for those of us on the plains that have dug out of ten foot snow drifts in october and injured record breaking cold temperatures in march for me the first indication that the winner would be hard came with a full force blizzard the third week of october freezing the leaves on the trees and fall

flowers in bloom and pummeling our shelter about trace the rows of evergreens did their job stopping the snow and piling it up before it reached the house but they suffered for it split trunks twisted and broken limbs and trees literally leveled by the weight of the heavyweights sent me there once beautiful tree rose a grim reminder of nature's abundance of power and lack of prediction this storm caught me with my guard down and was followed by a series of snow's blows and cold weather because power breaks natural gas for his abs impassable dirt roads and never enough time to get ready for the next onslaught this continued through the holidays and although it was nice to have a christmas card sitting outside my window on christmas morning i found myself thinking that our neighbors who wintered in warmer climates must have had some inside information that i missed out on the new year dawns with decent weather followed by a couple of months of normal winter and i

began to think that life would go on after all and that there would eventually be a spring but that was before the dreaded march they came in like a lion and continued apace in war through not one but two major blizzards with a walloping ice storm sandwiched in between are trees or twice again inundated with piles of snow ravenous rabbits moved in from the surroundings double feels and proceeded to strip all the lower branches of anything that even looks like it might still be connected to a temperate the nesting barn owls who weathered the first onslaught of five foot snow drifts and sixty miles an hour winds were forced to abandon their eggs when the ice storm engulfed the nest collapse the size of the nesting platform and snapped off the surrounding support branches they mourn their loss by circling their once happy home and rooting for an afternoon and then the female took office and needed time alone leaving the mail to face the second story that struck like a fist downing the power lines outside the house and teaching as yet

another lesson in layered clothing fashions and reading by lamplight as a record these trials and tribulations we've had almost a week of sunshine the snow is melting nicely i started the process of adding a new row of trees to the shoulder belt and crocus are blooming about a greenhouse i keep looking over my shoulder with a sense of uneasiness and the weather report says a mass of clouds as moving and later in the week i think i'll go out and bring in and a lot of work just in case we get el nino one more time one of my favorite taste of springtime is fresh cut asparagus eaten raw while standing in the middle of the asparagus bed on a cool spring morning the taste of the tender shoots as that of new grass garnished by early due with just a hint of damp earth asparagus tastes like springs smiles the only way they could get is to steam and just long enough for the color to turn a brilliant

crunchy green i've met people who say they hate asparagus and upon further investigation every one of them you cant asparagus during their childhood the soft and squishy spears andy make and sickly yellow with that indescribably tough stringy stamp were slumped onto a plate in front of them and they have suffered for years from this bad childhood vegetable experience freshly harvested asparagus served rotten salads they came to light and fluffy quiche or just hatched with moist heat and then eaten as is or with a butter cream sauce is sheer perfection the only thing better might be fresh picked corn on the cob consumed in the same manner that there's a height of summer treat will reserve for another broadcast today i'll sing the praises of asparagus harvested properly by cutting beneath the soil level with a slight angle cut from a shark paring knife then leave stashed away in my garden so it's always there when needed you see as bess needs to be cut

almost daily in order to catch the spears at their peak and keep the plants producing i kept fat juicy spears from their first appearance around the last march through april and well into may when the stars begin to slim down the size of a pencil i stop counting and let the plants rest as they put up their three fifth leafy firms that serve as a backdrop for my roses an herb garden if you can't control yourself and cut into the summer you're decreasing it take for the following spring just like two about asparagus needs time to grow some foliage and nourish its roots apply for the coming year if your debt is not established for some time then you've probably had the old fashioned mary or martha washington varieties that require male and female plan in order to produce during the summer cut back the red beret female firms as they carry the seed that form tiny asparagus plans taking many years to develop to production he plays will spend lots of energy producing as seats rather than

putting energy development which is where next year's crop will come from if you've invested in the new all male varieties annual have this problem although i'm not sure these beds are producing as well as the plant geneticists had hoped the great plains has a good site for growing asparagus and commercial farms are beginning to be developed asparagus likes a slightly alco and so allen has a tendency to develop resting damp soggy areas are drier climate is ideal although you need a deepwater your dad if you want prize winning results keep the dead we did an altered after production drops off in the fall if ernie foliage will turn bright yellow i leave the foliage in the dead to the winter for color and to collect snow for added moisture in the spring i hurry out to cut back the old stocks and rake the day before the first spears peek through do this early because a week of unseasonable warm weather in early march will have your bed up and running without being cleaned out and then you have a mess on your hands as you try to clear last years leaving so that

damaging this year's pickings and anything about asparagus growing on the high plains the crop is usually count on before the appearance of the first grasshopper of summer there's a relatively past fried vegetable asparagus debts grow for a long time most lasting well over ten years my bed is sixteen years old and still producing the beginning to slow down a bit i think that a site for a new bed now begin a three year process of establishing a this fall although an established date is low maintenance the real word comes at the beginning were so preparation drenching him back filling but more about that next week good gardeners think toward the future while remembering the past although nothing can ensure the success of growing a living thing lack of planning and preparation will almost certainly insure failure establishing an asparagus writing project that requires some forethought and hard work but if you enjoy the delicacy of fresh picked asparagus

encouraging give it a try begin by selecting a site that allows a lot of sun and can be set aside for a number of years to house the bed as their dispatches take a while to get going but that we pay you with produce for ten or twenty years depending upon the care you get in return the shape of your bed can vary depending upon the station have to work with you could plant short multiple rose or one long string you can use the fermi fall into the backing the summer flowers or you can etch a vegetable garden i know as they started an asparagus hungry gardner who planted the area between is back fence in the alley where every year dead winds up be sure to allow ample work space on either side of the row and says she'll likely spend more time tending and cutting asparagus in the spring consider lying in some paving stones and boards to mark your paths this way you can still get into the area after heavy rain because during the harvest season you need to cut every day or two keep that they're producing once you selected your site be prepared to do the heavy labor part of the project you'll need to prepare the

soil by getting rid of any grass or weeds then digging trench rose twelve inches wide and twelve inches deep work so conditioners such as compost manure phosphate ore limestone if needed and the bottom of the trench this part is very important because you're building a bid for the future and his lives easier and more effective to have the soil nutrients down to the roots will be rather than trying to add fertilizer from the top after your death is established poor the rich knew he worked so well into a little rich about two inches high that runs down the middle of your trench and now say your asparagus rats that you've bought from a reputable nursery are catalogued on top of the little rich so that the crown straddle the bridge and the lady roots hanging down on either side and spread out on the trench bottom they look kind of like big spiders marching down the trench spaced eighteen inches apart now put two inches of compost the soil over the rats water well and wait a couple of weeks now begin the process

of filling in the trench by adding an inch or so of soil every two weeks followed by a good wondering what you want to do here is key to growing tips just above the soil and he gradually filling the trench so you have to keep a slightly different schedule but you're encouraging slow strong growth of the root system which is the name of the game for any get asparagus bad what's the trenches failed mulch with strong leaves the newer compost for the winter in the spring watch for your first asparagus spears and then do just that watch them don't cut them this is the hardest part of growing asparagus the plants need a first year to continue to develop stronger that's the second year you can cut for about two weeks and then stop the third year you're dead has established and you can cut for six to eight weeks without weakening for their production we may make out the stocks below this alliance of the stockwell dry out at the plant will send up another sheet now i know that some of the new garden books say that you only have to dig a

trench four inches deep and you can begin cutting as soon as the spheres appear and you don't have to limit the calving time the second year this is the pepsi generation of gardeners talking they have short attention spans and very little patience i learned to set in an asparagus bit from a thirty year old gardening book aimed at calming living flower children who believed in meditation and didn't seem to her ear worry about much of anything i found at a garage sale shortly after trying my hand at my first kansas garden and i must say that it's a wealth of common sense an old fashioned ideas that come in handy countless times i can attest to this slower hard work method of raising asparagus because my current data supplied everyone i know and a few passing strangers for the past sixteen years last summer i put in a large perennial bag and filled it with a variety of flowers that attract butterflies it was an unqualified success not only in the beauty of the planted flowers but in the abundance of flying flowers it brought to my door clouds

of colorful wings would flip and hover at times totally covering the actual blossoms the butterflies began to make their appearance in early summer and increasing numbers throughout the season ending with a glorious show of bright yellow pews that seem to engulf the purple astor's a fall this year i wait impatiently for the start of the growing season and the return of the swallow tails painted ladies monarchs and countless other varieties that i cannot yet identify i've bought a butterfly education that they receive the nectar feeder as a christmas gift now if we can only get the weather that we need i should be ready for any number of guests at my butterfly bed and breakfast establishing a butterfly garden is not difficult but as with all gardening projects it requires some planning butterflies need four things for survival son water native plants and caterpillar feed plants sanford basking in mourning is essential because butterflies cannot fly well with a body

temperature below eighty five degrees cloudy days or shady garden seldom see much butterfly activity a small many areas in your garden will provide the water and mineral nutrients the insects need they'll get around this campsite in a display appropriately called puddling and set the nutrients in moisture from the ground native plants need to be chosen with early mid season in late blooming times in mind in order to provide a constant supply of food a list of the top ten major plans include many common high plains gardens how many of the following do you already have in your garden black eyed seasons joke i read li actress which is also called blazing star gay feather corey ops is pence is pastor lantana purple cauliflower butterfly dish and last but certainly not least on the butterfly is a butterfly weed now we turn to the part of the butterfly garden and it

sometimes turns people against it the caterpillar fig plants you say in order to continue to have butterflies you must feed the caterpillars sometimes can't tell the difference between partially plan to defeat them and parsley plan to defeat us my answer to this dilemma is playing parts of parsley so there's enough for everyone either probably traces of caterpillar chow include dale fennel alfalfa and queen anne's lace and remember that you have to give in order to get to establish a priorities between having butterflies to enjoy your garden where deal to enjoy your pickles you can buy fresh to let the market that you have to grow your own bona fides besides i found that the caterpillars never eat all of anything before moving on to the next phase of their life cycle they may strip the stocks but it's amazing how quickly the foliage renews itself so it's a moving changing color to your garden this year with flying flowers and please capture their beauty frozen in a camera lens not pinned in a mounting box the growing interest in butterflies and a

decreasing amount of natural habitat serves as a warning that we need to keep them living in our lives the jury is still out on the status of yarrow is a flowering perennial of the decimal herb were just a plain old week one gardens trash is another gardeners treasure and i suppose your viewpoint yarrow is dependent upon what he regarded as a hearty background tumor or an invasive sharp smelling problem and your flower bed i personally like the plant although it does keep me on my toes lefton watched for couple of seasons they can easily become a spreading mass left and picked the continuous blossoms can spread seeds all over the garden there will each become a healthy basis for more your plants but if you spend a bit of time pulling the extending runners at the base of the plan or if you keep the spent blooms care before they scatter seed europe and become a mainstay of your cranial bed and a great way

to hold soil and filling empty spaces in your landscape plans the history of this plant is amazing it's one of the oldest known herbs having been identified in fossils found a neanderthal burial caves its roots go back to the beginnings of the chain when fifty dried your own stocks were used in casting this ancient chinese method of answering questions about the future it is commonly believed that the botanical name for euro and kelly yeah no follow him was derived during the trojan war when kelly's used it to stop the bleeding of his soldiers once in sixteenth century europe the plan was called no was played because of its repeated ability to stop it as plates yaro has a long history in our country with its use by many american indian tribes as well as the shaker colonies during the new england witch hunts your was attributed to aiding witchcraft incantations burning and the common names of devil's nettle or devil's playthings

if you would like an accurate your garden's history that plant my cd are returning in the springtime although originally sporting white blames the new jaros are quite colorful with pinks yellows goals and a wonderful clear red color called paprika there are pastel mixes and one that i added to my collection is sheer called siri screen euro is a forgiving planned to invest in full sun but never complaining unless this planet in a body soggy swamp it's relatively pest free and attracts many beneficial insects plan to dig and replant every three years or so in order to keep it from taking over and also to keep the centers from dying out it blooms throughout the summer and keeping the blues dead headed will keep the blossoms coming without the seats kerry warned of earlier yergin be divided and fall or spring as a matter of fact i'm getting ready to cut down the size of two massive concert why euro and brings them to add to our public radio garden one last history note on euro the saxons packed yarrow

into amulets that they wore for protection of just about everything from various illnesses to attacks by robbers or the late night barking of dogs so if you're planning a visit to the garden city area and would like to read yourselves of things that go bump or bark in the night give me a call at this station will arrange a pickup time and i'll provide the url starts you'll meet ed dirt water and a little bit of labor in order to have your own version of the herb at the kellys i don't understand why more people on the high plains don't plant buffalo grass it's a tough native of the short grass prairie goes with a minimum of water and is reasonably tolerant of traffic it also tolerates wind and fire spread spicy runner and forms a thick saddam that they will eventually choke out weeds it's a hot wet grass that likes the sun and get as a girl short and thick so it doesn't need frequent mowing

ok you're saying that's the good news now give me the bat site well to be perfectly honest i can find much bad news about buffalo grass lawns your complaint i've heard concerns dorman season color you see in the winter buffalo grass turns a soft beige color a prairie sand here that to me anyway look sort of natural for the flatlands are rolling swells of the great plains i must admit that it seems much more feasible than frozen squares of dull green that she read through our dry and dreary winters and once warm spring weather arrives just a sip from a rain shower will start buffalo grass creeping up let's face it folks our water supplies are dwindling impending doom and disaster for entire region is predicted on a regular basis and the naysayers of all the facts and figures and commonplace experiences to back them up agriculture is trying its best to find more efficient ways very gaping and we homeowners need to take their cue from them and begin to replace water guzzling landscapes with more conservative plants trees and lawns buffalo grass is a

good way to get out when you want to watch or water bills drop as a trouble free law on grounds you can establish your own patch of prairie saw it in two ways by planting seeds are transplanting plugs in nineteen eighty three we began the process of planning a large area that was previously filled with lots of weeds and remnants of an alfalfa field because we were on a limited landscape budget and we had so much area to cover we planted and stripes and sections about ten to fifteen feet wide with open areas in between each spring for three years we hadn't more strips as the previous trips became established to began to grow toward each other we used water sprinklers and hoses to give the scenes a couple of good drinks when thunder showers refused to help us out and once they were sprouted we kept the weeds know i also did as much hand waiting as i could find time for at the end of a three years of planning we had a thriving on in the plant and straps and the empty spaces between the beginning to fill in nicely and now we have the luxury of

being able to the transplant plugs of buffalo as we dig out new flower beds put in sidewalks or trim up the vegetable garden and just on that kid you putting along has lots of work hauling hoses retrieving many sprinklers pulling and boeing wage as a major commitment and buffalo grass seed is not an expensive but the payoff comes in the future when you save money and water and gain leisure time away from a lawnmower during the summer your lawn will be a nice healthy green and if you must have a green that rivals kentucky bluegrass pastures just give your prairie patch a half into water during dry times in green and as you watch you can find baffling grassy and most good garden centers where you can go to the source schreiber this season healy kansas has been supplying the area with buffalo grass seed for many years if you're looking at planning a major area you might check them out for bulk purchase prices if you're looking for plugs there's a great mail order

nursery in santa fe new mexico that will ship flats of seventy plugs along with detailed planning instructions you can transplant in spring or fall sharper they say they'd like to see you get the seed in the ground before the end of may for something special think about adding short grass prairie wildflowers to proceed next project a feeling among a transplant plugs and then when your lawn has become an established part of a landscape like that can gaze upon your wide open spaces and imagine that you can hear the wagon wheels rolling across the prairie on their way to the great divide my grandmother called them flags they're also known as the poor man's orchid because of the shape and colors of the blooms and because of a resilient nature's they're abundant are dry and windswept plains i'm talking about the iris of course one of the most popular flour choices for gardeners who want a bank of spring color

with a minimum investment of time and effort these tough guys of the garden can be counted on to send that spiky foliage with the firsthand of warm weather and unless they're not backed by a drastic temperature drop the prison blues' and they just in time for mother's day and usually lasting three memorial day weekend i had i was in my garden for many years and too many movies i've got a few rhizomes into a bucket of red oklahoma dirt driven him home to kansas forgotten about them for a couple of weeks and tried to drive it apparently lifeless i response into a space in my garden border and after giving them a good drink of water voila they bounce back to life and rewards me the following year with spring blossoms and summer foliage in this manner i've outfitted many areas of my yard with remembrances of other people's gardens my grandmother's pale blues the traditional media days down from the yard of a family friend and a bright yellow retrieved with permission from an abandoned farmstead but some of my most spectacular cast

members in the annual irish show come from dewayne and marilyn hayes to garden city iris enthusiastic who remember me each fall with a bag of rice sounds that never fail to present incredible colors the following year during a recent visit a garden some advice about spring housecleaning chores and the iris bed as well as general information about these remarkable plants they haze garden sports over two hundred pirates in every color imaginable with the exception of the elusive true red or black so far iris breeders have not been able to produce these two colors although they're close to success of the black friday's i risk any single colored by colored of irrigated become in varying heights from tall to dwarf bearded iris are the most common and showy although the popularity of fragrant iris water iris and the delicate japanese irises growing if you have an existing bed springs the time to clean away old foliage that was common practice of taking a one more to an iris bed after bland was discouraged as the plants need the foliage throughout the

summer and fall to develop rise and growth for the coming year after spring cleaning for lies with allied application of alone nitrogen fertilizer plus a bit of bone meal would this spring tonic into the soil about six inches away from the plant and water and about two weeks after blames for a snap of the old blues stock in order to keep seed pods from forming and sapping the energy of the plant the second feeling at this time when sure happy healthy iris in the future reid looming in the fall as possible but requires constant fertilizer and wider applications throughout the summer if you opt for only spring poems enjoy the bright green foliage through the summer and then dig into vital days in late july are just one dividing amazing plants keep only healthy new rhizomes and cut the foliage back to a fan shape a couple of inches above the trooper is right boris and rocked the only real problems when you might encounter when growing virus and these problems are usually rare and western kansas

so this spring enjoy the many iris beds in our communities and over memorial day weekend look for flags flying in the breeze but the stars and stripes for it and that would a cultural kind i recently returned from a trip to the big apple included a great three day retreat into the wild winds of new jersey my husband and i rented a car found their way from brooklyn to the garden state parkway and motored down to cape may on the tip of the new jersey nets a war with the atlantic ocean on one side of the delaware river on the other this tiny hamlet known for its victorian architecture and migratory bird inside seemed ideal for vacation respite from the plains of kansas and a skyscraper canyons of new york cape may certainly men are expectations from birth birds and buildings and it also provided a bonus of presenting some of the most glorious gardens i had seen the flower show began on a drive down with the masses of flowering dogwoods red birds and believed red oaks

and maples that line the roadsides at one of our stops i was told that we were too early for the mount laurel blends a brilliant pink but lilacs and flowering plum shrub took up the slack and left me breathless i kept thinking of my struggles that come to get a flowering crab apple and bradford peer to bloom without getting nipped by frost so they can enjoy a few brief days of spring fall into before the winter getaway in the garden state huge clouds of color seem to grow wild along the highway becoming a visual driving hazard for out of state prairie people who sometimes take pride in ditches of purple him dead and wild mustard in desperation pretending that their wildflowers and said we we're writing came a just in time to watch the preparations for the annual tulip festival and although the public gardens of flowering bolts were impressive i was drawn to the hundreds of windowed boxes filled with the most brilliant pansies i'd ever seen these beauties went beyond your basic purple yellow and white they stretched to the edge of the palate with salmons pinks lavender is oranges and misty reds

their nineteenth century appeal was still a parent and well placed among the gardens of the victorian homes katie mae boasts hundreds of us that he turn of the century structures that have become a mainstay of the tourist industry the bed and breakfast inn each multi storey houses fronted by carefully tended garden usually made up of pastas lavender is another spectacular fall which plants that no doubt love the sea air and the assets a whale the splashes of color for the tulips pansies azaleas and hydrangea were perfect marriage of the fancy decorating on the old homes called painted ladies in the trade and painted they were it seemed that at least one house in each block was being given its spring spruce up construction workers house painters landscapers and innkeepers make up most of the locals many of whom live off the beachcombers and birders in the summer months and then go on their armies or vacations in florida in the winter katie mae boasts of its title queen of the seaside resorts as well it should during its two hundred year history the tiny tip first non escape by

one has weathered the storms of the ocean and the tourist trade it has chosen to bypass shopping malls theme parks and gambling casinos it prohibits much automobile traffic encouraging use a bicycle trails for power and ferries for seeing the beaches birds and gardens that make this part one of the best in the garden state the point of the protests i mean on the high plains chinese gardens part one and that natural gardeners they have an instinctive curiosity about growing things until they're taught by squeamish adults they seem to accept crawly things like worms and bugs with nary a shelter or yak

and they take to do it like a fish takes to water i love gardening has come in part from a family they depended upon the soil for sustenance from early infancy i was carried to the edge of the field and placed on a quilt at the end of a row as everyone ireland have to work pulled cotton balls chopped weeds are picked produce i sometimes lean lifestyle never wanted for the luxury of fresh summer fruits and vegetables are homegrown food prep by for the cold time and there was always time and energy for a flower bed to bring brightness and a sense of fancy to an otherwise astaire and practical landscape i always enjoy showing children my garden and they only seemed to respond with an honest interested most of the things they see perhaps that's because i believe that it should have its own personality and that often the quirky traits of the grower are reflected in the growing e they fought my garden is filled with a jumble of things not just plants

in a few weeks but things treasury's i've acquired mike's highways and friendships with stops i get a visitor to my garden will pass by an old west you know can that supports a sundial and grave too is poetry there find her face looking back at them from a victorian gazing globe that was rescued from the musty back shelves of an old seed store scheduled for the demolition crew a one of a kind a metal sculpture did and one and one is that the places or on other kind of metal sculpture depicting abstract ghosts batson grinning jackal lantern serves as a centerpiece for the pumpkin patch and bright colored ceramics abound from bird baths and clay pots to plant markers and floral patterned stepping stones somewhat planned creations and arizona rejects from this cute for killing firings my goodness furnished with benches for resting and hay bales

for anchoring banners your kites and particularly festive days seasonal architecture might include a child sized been buying tp made with bamboo support paul's or when to retreat belt of sunflower also the morning glory rough and i'm always on the lookout for wonderfully odd garden ornaments a lawn sprinklers preferably the older the better i'm not sure i like the sudden rush of commercial knockoffs in the garden get it catalogs although i must admit that i bought a brand new frog sprinkler that is a great hit with the younger set i studied landscape designs and grinding magazines and know what they should start with when planning a new space plants with color and texture variances complimentary in contests and shapes and a gentle neatness that would make martha stewart proud but they don't things begin to appear along the leafy greens perhaps an all male egg basket for my grandmother's now defunct chicken house or an inherited handmade plants stand

for hanging plants that also supports a bird feeder and some really neat indian bells cat masque i found at pier one guiding personality traits marianne i remember my grandmother growing walls of flowering vines on old bed springs and finding planters and everything from cat feeder buckets to look separate years to say my garden as eclectic is an understatement but it's definitely a place of personality it's also a place where i spent a lot of time it's as much a part of my home is the kitchen with a ceramic studio is an extension of me and my world and it showcases gifts of friendship and the art world the rusty barnyard pieces and many of the plants that grow there i did it again it is an extension of me in my world and it showcases gifts of friendship and the artwork arrested barn yards pieces and many of the plants that grow there i think children recognize my

garden as a place i like to share they never leave empty handed next week we'll talk about some wonders of the plant world that are guaranteed kid favorites going on the high plains children's gardens part to one of the best ways to interest children in gardening is to unlock their natural sense of wonder when introducing them to the plant world if you can show them something unexpected chances are they'll keep coming back for more kids visit my garden afoul of the pumpkin patch jackal lantern second a fine enough and have a visit early in the season a scrape their names on the young pumpkins turning of a pumpkin and finding their names grown into the side of it never ceases to amaze my young visitors into that has become a yearly ritual sort of like an ardent easter egg hunt although the strawberry that is appreciated by i'll write for it is there for the sampling i found that most kids who say they hate the vegetables will be tiny cherry tomatoes are up he

straight from the garden and ask for more and here is impresses them i began to explore the smells of rosemary lavender baseball and lemon balm the maker's taste and fennel and ted turner hit with some well others love to tantalize my cats with crushed catnip we take some injury it's four i want them accompanied with a warning about planning a part so it doesn't take over the neighborhood two favorites for you and simplify them text i usually ask my audience to pick them out by their wonderfully descriptive common names their families have no problem finding the status of every lambs ears and the scientists believing until the lambs years were once used as bandages they are mistakes and the soft for he leaves for bookmarks or like steinbeck's linney just to hold in touch the same divide them is immediately recognized when they tell him to look for her mother hanna the us

cemented by their little tricks is just forgetting plants are great for beginning writers says they possess the required sense of wonder about the stamina to withstand some of neglect when the swimming pool beckons and the flowerbeds forgotten they hesitated transplanting being happy to live in a flower pot when to sell if needed sometimes i take my guest outside the garden and we searched the wild plant that has become a weed in the ditches around a place the papery husks of chinese lantern a great woman singing about the house or to use an invasive cut flowers don't write a zero and very fragile so they usually don't last long and little hands locally or perhaps really in the eye of a different beholder they may see it rarely and spread like wildfire in victorian times a child's garden of verses or growing plants was much more common today the rash of time and organize summer activities no matter how beneficial of that something's by the wayside gardening teaches important life skills at any age it develops

patience of a god for natural resources a healthy respect for physical labor of love of the land and that pre requisite sense of wonder that is so necessary for living life to the fullest no just watch what happens oh yes this senior citizen they're there i remember as a kid watching the building of a huge

grain elevator and so we did a lot in the construction site has a daily on my walk across the tracks and down main street and to the big red brick cube that was the old great school they can't recall a thing about the daytime construction what i remember was the nights when the lights strung around the concrete silos and the noise of former carpenters and concrete ports around our house and came in through every open window that hot summer what's the crews began to raise their towering tubes they never stopped until they were done and the activity in our little kansas town was breathtaking and heart stopping and surely every bit as exciting as life in the big city i had a deja vu experience a couple of years ago when mobile oil decided to drill a second gas well on our family farm ground right behind our house once again the lights much brighter this time rory motors clanking hammering and shouted commands invaded our night sky isn't usually

peaceful prairie and once again after two brief time the hubbub was gone and oh how i missed it i don't know what it is about night work on the plains that find a tremendously exciting and i know that at least once a year i can count on that dawn to dusk and then some routine when the combine to roll in the wheat fields in this part of the country has an energy level that would challenge the fast lane of any new yorker or last century now despite the dust the heat the flies the breakdowns and the fear of hail storms i don't know too many residents in the great plains that don't look forward to the big city bustle that invades our landscape for a few weeks in june july even with all the new advances in farming technology it still takes a heap of folks doing amount of hard work to pull off this great grain gathering and if people think meals on wheels originated in the urban environment they'd never talk to a farm wife who

brings meals to the fields all the while keeping groceries in the house clean clothes in the closets and her green card ready and waiting i don't know why but no other crop seems to strike me with a sense of harvest urgency maybe it's because most everything else around these parts has gathered in the fall when it's cooler and it seems to be slowing down a bit maybe a corn crop isn't quite as fragile once it begins to mature so it has more time but whatever the reason one of my favorite times of year is fast approaching and will be just as fleet and its departure as you listen today many of you in the panhandle's will probably be winding down and the folks to the north still have some time to prepare as far as will start cutting within the week and then iron knight skyline will be a blaze with moving lights and clouds of dust it will be marching rows of magnificent machines as far as the eye can see

but don't blink is this it the high plains has a production of high plains public radio it's written hosted by skip dancing we invite your comments and suggestions as well as information about high plains current events and activities please write to growing on the high plains to ten or seven street garden city kansas six seven eight i mean no i do

i guess it's given seem like you can't come in and get out of the hot sun set is growing on the sidelines of this summer's tours to a wonderful pairing of a roman collar which it's been enjoyed by both human and insect visitors would be blown that planted here again has become one of the stars of the garden looking for all the world like july fourth fireworks with its brilliant spiky bursts of hot pink blossoms set against purple stocks of surrounding lavender and clouds of white yellow blooms it's offered me daily affirmation that the trials and tribulations of gardening do result and wonderful visual pay tax and if the balloons are not enough reason to stop and sit a

while the city's east now of the dark green foliage offers further inducement in fact the leaders of the planned offer the makings of an herbal teas steeped in our nation's history the bomb also known as melissa manana or burger months is native to north america and was used by the indian tribes of new york state for medicinal purposes and as the basis for a pleasant minty called oswego the indians introduced to europe to white settlers who in turn said seeds of the bomb to england and the european continent during the period of the boston tea party oswego t became quite popular as a substitute for imported black tea to make your own t harvest the leaves of the bomb before the plant flowers well the tender young lee's have a light minty taste later harvesting results in a strong and slightly bitter taste to the t stood police in the stands and let it dry and warm she plays for no more than three days to monitoring period and hot sun will discolor the leaves and setup their flavor

stood idly is in an airtight jar and place it out of sunlight for a longer shelf life fresh be blown leaves and blossoms can also be used as garnish for fruit salads ice t's in yogurt being a member of the mint family with his familiar square stands and strong road system it will split in your garden if given half a chance before you might want to plan to contain the area when an underground plastic pot in order to maintain control or better yet dig it up every three years despite the old center reply one of the outside clumsily the rest of france against the name does speak for itself since i've seen so bumblebees investigating the plane however these really seem to prefer this ancient lavender nearby and leave the bee balm for the butterflies simply adore it this senior

citizen it's mainly steam to impress jackson won glowing outlook for messenger stock it can cover a two foot span of just a few days in the earthen conforming to the contours of walkways it establishes footholds that becomes strangle holds for my vegetables i don't know its botanical name but the common name is spurge aptly rhyming with purge and church and scourge this summer it is the bane of my gardening existence weeds are usually defined as any plant growing in the wrong place i guess a week is to a defined in the eye of the beholder and my birthday lines are weeds although some people must disagrees and seed catalogues offer anyone foolish enough to want introduced trouble

under their gardens a chance to do so people who need a kick start of winter claim that dandelion greens or a spring tonic and then a dandelion salad is just the thing to get the blood pumping and the body jumping later in the summer they supposedly pick the flowers and make dandelion wine now i've tasted that didn't leave a dandelion and smell the acrid owner of the flower which usually causes multiple sneezes i can imagine drinking wine made from this noxious weed although i did treasury bradbury's famous short story named for the dubious summertime nectar and every flower gone wild and weedy is called loosestrife although it can be ordered from some water guard in plant sources it's facing shipping bans in many states because it quickly gets out of control or running any low lying place and choking out any plan that gets in its way colorado is having its share of problems with no strife and an unusually wet years i've seen

huge drifts of the tall pink or purple blooms in the ditches and low spots of western kansas lots of grasses become ways because of this credibility ten years ago i was a baby buffalo grass and now i'm pulling out a flower beds each summer i do battle with johnson grass and usually resort to spring with roundup it's a week with a double edged sword says it spreads by large and prolific seed heads or by the tiniest bit of reprise some left in the soil people further south a given up on controlling johnson passengers bail it call it hey as far as i know this purge is not being cultivated by anyone like buying to read it just grows out on so thank goodness that unlike blind read it's an annual and fairly easy to pull him dispose of gardening gloves are helpful when attacking a patch of sports since the stands who's a sticky bitter sap each morning i pulled the wily we'd

listening to the pleasurable sounds of ritz ripping away from the soil quickly filling a wheelbarrow with spurge corpses and then throwing them on the burn pile and watching with satisfaction as the summer dries their bombs each afternoon more storage plant spring up and began to crochet there's circular pattern i'll finally win with the help of a hard freeze will be a hollow victory of nick summers seems will be resting sleeping don't play and

justice kagan ceded cities says there now and the sweetest of el nino years with blizzards electrical storms august heat in mid may and a record breaking drought i have yet to pick a single green being clear in the center they bloomed profusely among the booms burned into crumbles and one hundred and ten degree days of late june they didn't have a chance to produce a baby blue jeans but i'm happy to say that they now have weakened and this morning i saw a miniscule pods that were once again bring summers crunchy taste to our table i usually get for full pickings beginning of may june and spaced about five days apart

in the plans take a deep breath and rest for awhile before resuming with another fall harvest never trickled down to a manageable amount of beans just right for single meals are big parts of vegetable soup in august in september the band's entire getting tired and i'll often start leaving beans on and letting them grow shells size that idiotic their life my green beans will put on a gross and depending on the weather will give one glorious burst of productivity before the first ferries forces them to call it quits and join the rest of the garden on the compost heap green beans are one of the most dependable crops are grown high plains they're forgetting of the tamper tantrums of kansas whether surviving the short spring sudden summer heat and blasting wins and much better style than peace he's a prisoner to be requiring cruel whether spring rains and supports against them in other planks to rose appease every year we never seem to have enough to preserve a giveaway i shouldn't fickle spring weather shortens the life of peace making their gifts are the more appreciated and

precious green beans on the other hand are usually so plentiful there sometimes taken for granted if left alone for a few days so multiply and grow to a standing sizes much like zucchini i picked my beans when they're under size ten years when you're an crunchy that's why i had to go i'm a version to serve your around and they're picking only an often i avoid an onslaught of a bushel of beans that are on the tough and stringy side for years i've planted a seed company snow is slender and clusters and high as dan's for easy pickings they love living in kansas and sell them are troubled by rest or spider bites soil statement that yates and continue to enjoy picking beans and the cruel mornings with my cats for company and mounting debt serenading me the basketball feels faster and the rose will seem shorter as my fingers seek out the smooth green pods my mind searches the past

and looks to the future i make major decisions why not sure is to be done and sometimes hidden among the fresh green foliage of five lost perspectives your day planner on the desk and come up to the demerits if you really want to put your life in order hosted by statements and we welcome that some suggestions please write two to ten mets seven string garden city kansas six seven or six six seventy seven air again

this agency and at the drive through canada and commonly cloudy skies and spitting little reminders of rain began immediately upon crossing the texas border into perry ten previous downpours created and named rivers that rushed in tolerance across highway three further south and across a white canadian river bridge we kind of to the lush green that borders the dry riverbed and began to climb up and up till we rounded abandoned look down on perfect mesas and rocky planet terms that told us we were in another country the long stretch to pamper went by in a heartbeat with desert scenery ranchland signposts and wide open spaces where the

sky goes on forever businesses will repeat it on an even grander scale plant later that evening we drove through pellet your opinion south of amarillo the thousands jack rabbits and irrigation sprinklers of kansas sites of deer wild turkey and meandering creeks that wound through the cliffs and canyons the floor of the canyon was new to me and i found myself with a hundred questions concerning plant origins and ids that looks like a jumper or maybe a seat or the salt cedar they're less likely to wallow and what's that really lazy delicate find a job at next to the plant was a little berries i wish i knew everything is my companions and i had traveled as many miles to make friends and meet people who like s enjoy high plains public radio the next morning after a delicious coffee roasters i set out for a day of meeting and greeting at my first up i found my west texas plant guerrero in the prison of john ladd wonderful place

called high plains natural gardens first find a five thousand block of river road just south of the loop and then look for the coyote fans of tightly lest see your posts standing shoulder to shoulder along the front of the nursery behind this fence was a wondrous world of pawns waterfalls brought about russia by jimmy see a landscaping rocks labs from mexico intricately carved totem poles of pottery from guadalajara and greenhouses and shade houses filled with special plants for special places like many of us who have learned to let flatland an open sky junk into west texas by way of other highways he had studied art in new york and london but after reading about called edible plants of the rocky mountains he couldn't escape his destiny was growing things john joined a native plant club and again by working for other growers he and his wife melissa created high plains national guard its last january and since then they've been working to develop an industry

that specializes in plants well suited for hot and semi arid lands scape name of perennials wildflowers and prairie grass mixtures and drought tolerant shrubs and trees are spread throughout the one point two acres that used to be the old bridge field nursery in amarillo organic recycling are encouraged including john's landscape designs into his domain when definitely gets the feeling that if you love and protect the earth you will love and protect your back he identified many of the plant mysteries that i had seen the night before well in both botanical in common names of his time and often showing me a potted version is nursery that he had grown from native cedar cuttings the exotic unexciting names of desert will new mexico private server buffalo barry and honey mesquite dance like sugar palms in my head as i wait impatiently for cool or planting weather i spent

three days in west texas and enjoyed every minute the openness of the landscape is mirrored in the open hearts and hands that welcomed me and nourished well for my return and when they do return it will be in the truck the better to load up tenement halls and so the relief map mahogany and then attacks as treasures from john ladd and his plans for new talent it is cities

i'm scott simon six foot seven oh no this senior citizen

jesus is considered these this senior citizen they say until sometime in september although they're sometimes noisy and their children like to antagonize their cats i must say that i hate to see them leave after all they look from dawn to dusk get all the room meals do their own laundry and provide lots of entertainment company for me

while i'm in the garden or reading on the deck i'm talking of course about our resident her window aristocrat barn swallows these wonderful birds are welcome summer visitors who pay their rent by radio plays of bugs this year we've had an abundance of swallows three couples who have each produced to nest for the birds for a total of over thirty swallows circling and flying and scooping up flies grasshoppers the mosquitoes they hear it unable to walk garden and no without using insect repellents i'm sure the birds have a lot to do with it and therefore we always spread the welcome mat as the swallows return year after year some people complain that swallows insist on nesting over their doors and at their droppings make messes of the doorways in portuguese my answer to that is to give them their accommodations elsewhere three years ago after watching several pairs of swallows attends mass construction on glass windows and in windy and protected areas we put up alleges an out of the way places this simple affairs a small square of

plywood with a one by bottom frame mailed into the house but the swallows think their mansions and metaphors building sides taken each spring because well as result nests and because the ledges offer homeowners insurance for the somewhat fragile that cone in no time they're moved in and raising a family we have one store bought swell honesty box and it's become a two story dwelling with one nest in a box another perched on the roof our house is tall with lots of nooks and crannies and corners that invite the birds replace the ledges where we can get good views of the nests from windows and decks and the birds have become part of the family tolerating are watching an even giving us of freewheeling aerial displays for evening entertainment swallows a colonial birds so there's little squabbling for territory in fact they have great family values the parents usually catch two broods of the season in western kansas these take place in early june in mid july mom and dad both build a nest of you the young but mom does most of the

incubation the first fledgling is help out with caring for the second batch of siblings you can tell the junior swallows from their parents by the tail feathers the winter birds have shorter tales of apparent sport splendidly long deeply forked feathers in the summer gathering of feeding it nesting sites last year we had a few days in september when hundreds of swallows wheeled and soared above our house they loosely formed flocks head back to winter in south america when wanting in september will awake to silence and although they're gone it's a seasonal thing usually telling of cold weather on the way the nest sits empty to increase and snow and wind except for an occasional flicker who looks for some leftover insect party amidst the adobe opponents and then in late spring or be working up in the garden or burning off some brush piles when i'll hear a familiar spikes like like this and squeeze a toy aisle look up to see a peer of glossy blue black wings and rusty colored underside making him

dive bomb attack on the attack as if to say i'm back to its age old enemy and all know that we all made it through another year and that summer has truly arrived it's scary well it's a collection of radio sweden hosted by students in the event your comments and questions please send them to two timber sevens

garden city kansas six seventy four cents an hour this agency says it's in the nineteen sixties my

life's work over the past three years i've visited gardens and gardeners and the far reaches of our broadcast area as well as across the country that recently i found a goldmine of plants and information growing right in my own front yard i was introduced to rob and calderon and how wonderful array of day lilies and suffice it to say that my garden will take on to come next spring robin begin her new career in nineteen ninety two when she attended a regional trip to shreveport with gardening friends along the way they stopped in texas to let the dailies and robin was hooked what began as a hobby quickly became a passion and she now has seven hundred and thirty varieties of hybrid daily center planting beds in garden city and reason to have the vacant lots she rinsed how's the most of her varieties she showed me some of the special blooms are the qualities that make a day lilies so dear to so many but those are in every shade of yellow cream always had read in fact the only

coal is missing from a daily palette are blue and pure white new trends include ruffled blue rooms miniatures mess with edged pedals or sent her eyes of contrast in colors read looming varieties singles doubles spiders and paul at polls meaning a pedals instead of the usual six the names are often as exotic as the blossoms but two in particular caught my eye the well the trendy named for my former neighbor whose family gets attracted national attention and for texas listeners a striking beauty called palo duro canyon robin sells lard chelsea double fan starts in either they read or pot and form and her methods of rapping tying labeling are all signs of a true planet lover and professional she also gives lots of advice to help your plants get a good start and have a long and how happy life the families are hardy and easy to grow best in six hours of sandra day and one inch of water per week they hit their

peak of atlantic for years and when the us began to lessen that's a sign that the dividing robyn dixon to fight any time during the summer provide this chore when the plants are blooming so the buyer sees exactly what they're getting she cautions to plant by thirty days before a hard freeze date and doesn't encourage fertilizing transplants know established plans like a bit of food in the fall that one complaint sometimes heard about daley says the fact that the bloom's only lasted one day and that's the botanical name mr callas remains purely for a day however with great care and healthy start families will branch with up to fifteen beds on one branch robin prefers many the standard varieties to the newer repeat plumbers because they cost much less and allow much more color and height choice for landscaping purposes planet and groupings the bloom for three to six weeks during june july or august i know this to be true because this summer i've watched my established their golden yellow day lilies bloom

since july fourth and it's still going strong and just think what the new year will bring with the dark winds tiny buttercup eyes and exploding colored spiders i couldn't resist doing my walk through rather's world if you'd like to bring days and days of day lilies at your life give me a call at this station and i'll give you directions to robin calderon store it'll be worth the trip i guarantee are demanding science is a production of things that are hosted by scotland's only about your comments and questions and seventy two to be second street garden city kansas six seventy four six

then hurricane is made possible in part by hurricane nature gardens located at fifty two to just sell dedicated to the preservation and propagation of the region's diverse talents and nursery specializes in drought tolerant native plants a half hour an hour and justice kagan ceded cities says

i mean you're a new oasis the plan ms parton comes to at least a feeling into a fish and she has a support some scavenger fish and snails to help with the housekeeping human cells can range from common variety goldfish too exotic japanese carp and no matter what their lineage they provide flashes of color i'm interested i was seeking to set off the best of their watery landscape the conventional in fishes and supplemented by other fish varieties such as long tailed comments and tales morals and my favorites the shutdown ends and suskind beauties come and rainbow of colors that include violence blacks and princeton's to get an idea of the riot of

colors that inspired they're sometimes called counterparts should that was fly fish poolside for males however were running their great jumpers i just tuition duncan's who leapt to fiddle freedom from a freestanding patio term and my mother fought back into the water ice is pretty minimal scrutiny over my little kettle of athletic fish if you're in the us ponder i suggested a few smaller fish and watch them grow they can reach one foot in length but their ultimate size will be determined by the amount of room they have in their new home the shellfish of any condor definitely the japanese carp called coi there will use a goldfish and fulfill the requirement of doing a cold blooded fish the only kind that will survive an outdoor pond environment i went away experts advise and now one pundit the three feet in order for fish to safely overwinter in cold climates and be sure to keep the pot from tony freezing over it to keep oxygen available to happen and

fish now back to that corey become a wide range of colors with variations on red white orange and black been prevalent gotten korea are becoming very popular also it does not have your approval that is hunter six korea various sizes and colors these fish have definite personalities following among the age of approval when i walk by and sometimes flipping the irony if they have a complaint to launch consulting noontime frequency i know people who feed their coin by hand and taken them under their chins but my future definitely independent and several latino part of domestication network of knowing about kobe concerns the future of your plant life i've heard pro and con about crazed destructive behavior considering upgrading plants in tearing him to shreds some people say their choir gentle unplanned loving the lettuce leaves and then the fish aren't interested in ironing on exotic water lilies and luxury and aquatic foliage don't you believe it

if you love the sky and plants them in the safe side and protect your plants with screening in baskets a place that alleges that do not allow the corps to swim around the base of the plant seven muscles are sometimes introduced into a pond in order to help keep the algae growth damn again i were fighting make sure using the types of snails and muscles that will not take over your entire water garden they can definitely become invasive cubans that may show up from time to time are frogs toads salamanders yes that's a relatively harmless but watch out for two thousand ducks who could polish up upon for small fish in a single serving many seem to stand in line for every type of disaster possible i hope you will consider an implant your garden in life lots of planning and network established that well with it that's right

scott simon host sen feinstein says six seven or so disney has an adverse in the ticket and to the preservation of the region's diverse and species of those plants trees shrubs now flowers and middle class mixes include in organic fertilizers an experiment as landscape design and installation located at two zero to another road just south of the enamel it's been going on the high plains monarch

butterflies for a few brief days each september my shelter dog trees rival any of the fall foliage that is a famous trademark for the new england states over the trees themselves don't support the colorful display they play host to the annual migration of monarch butterflies as they use are spread for a roadside park they seemed to prefer the rows of seniors and universe perhaps because those trees give more wind protection the marching on the dow's and messed up before flying on south to the gulf coast where the mountains of northern mexico they bask in that one son of late september and drink for my digit irrigation that we've provided for our new tree rose actually they don't drink the water but what's called peddling a lying on the many ages and taking moisture from the soil monarchs along with their cousins called queens are classified as milkweed butterflies the live a fee on no creed although the adults tend to seek out nectar

from butterfly weed goldenrod and other summer flowering plants the average lifespan of a monarch is from two to six weeks and then that migrate each fall varies from year to year i really good butterfly here could result in as many as half a billion migrating monarchs either way no they aren't all coming by to visit them and see any household this year certainly seems like it maybe it's the extra long heat wave that is enticed him to drop by any case they can be seen by the thousands in the early mornings and late evenings they congregate and cluster and the trees seem decked out for christmas with floundering ornaments covering the branches in gold and black so don't tell me about your flaming red maples are your quaking golden husbands this year at least my lonely cedar trees are adorned by inaudible feast for the eye and the spirit