If you’re a country music fan and are in town for the CMA Awards, be sure and go by and see the rose collection named for many famous music stars and their songs at the Music City Gardens in downtown Nashville, Tn. Names like Ring of Fire, Rocky Top, Tennessee Waltz, Pam Tillis, Barbara Mandrell, Amy Grant and many more are included in the list of roses named in the garden. Our own Nashville Rose Society is to thank for this fun garden.
The Music City Garden is located at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Demonbreun in the Hall of Fame Park -just in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Get driving directions here.
Costmary is also known as “Bible leaf” and “sweet Mary” and it has become one of my favorite herbs. This hardy, large, and decorative plant with light green leaves nearly a foot long. The flowers are small and yellow and the leaves taste minty. Use them to season meat, cake and in teas.
A good background plant, growing as high as 5 feet, costmary requires thinning. It does best if partially shaded. Although you can start costmary from seed, root division is the best method of propagation.
Not always an easy herb to find, it’s worth the extra effort. Its charming appearance and sweet fragrance along with its history is filled with fascinating tales from all over the globe. Especially interesting is its special place in Christianity.
In colonial times, the costmary leaf served as a bookmark in the bibles and prayerbooks of many devout churchgoers. When the sermon became long and boring and drowsiness set in, the sleepy listener treated themselves to the minty flavor of the costmary leaves in an effort to stay awake. Thus the name “Bible leaf” grew popular.
For more gardening advice and information on growing costmary herb and other herbs, visit our website and download our free e-book entitled Herbs for your Health: How to Grow and Use Them when you sign up for our gardening newsletter
It’s easy to see why coreopsis, and especially the ‘Moonbeam’ cultivar, won the Perennial Plant Association’s ‘Plant of the Year’ award in 1992 and why it remains one of the top ten best-selling perennials for gardeners in zones 3 to 9. With pretty daisy-like flat blossoms atop thread-like green leaves, this deciduous perennial grows to about 18 inches tall by 12 to 18 inches wide so planting it in the front of the bed is preferred.
The only maintenance required for this plant is to deadhead to keep the blooms coming all summer long. At the end of the growing season, simply cut it back to about 6 inches. Next spring your plant will start all over again!
The easiest and quickest way to find the seeds you want to plant this year is through online catalogs. Seed companies like Select Seeds, Gurneys, Henry Fields and more make it fun and easy to select the best varieties for your area. They even group them together so that if you want to find seeds for a fragrance garden, cottage garden, edible garden, perennials, foliage or container plants, you’ll find great pictures and growing information.
One caution though. Be sure not to get too carried away with your choices especially when ordering vegetable packets. Only grow what you and your family can reasonably eat.
Echinacea is one of the best herbs to use to stimulate your immune system because it stimulates antibody production. Recent research has found that it also promotes rapid healing of wounds and has antiviral and antibacterial properties.
It’s very easy to grow. The narrow-leaf variety, such as the Tennessee coneflower, is the best variety to use in making tinctures.
Tinctures are simply made from alcohol and powdered herbs. The alcohol extracts the herbs’ active ingredients. Mix 1/2 cup powdered dried herbs with 2 cups (500 ml) brandy, vodka, or gin. Mix ingredients together in a glass bottle and allow to steep in a warm place for several weeks, shaking occasionally. Strain, then store in a cool, dark place. Use about 9 drops either straight or mixed in 1 cup (250 ml) of hot water. These keep a long time because of their alcohol content. (Encyclopedia of Herb Gardening)
Plant in zones 3-8 in full sun. Echinacea is drought tolerant once it’s established. Add it to your potager garden or your perennial border.
Grab a free download of our newest book Herbs For Your Health: How to grow and use them by visiting our website at Mid South Gardening Advice.com
In a recent article of Tennessee Greentimes, a magazine published by the Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association, graduate student Richard Gualandi wrote an interesting article about the once thought to be extinct Tennessee coneflower or Echinacea tennisseensis.
We have successfully grown this for the past two years in our own garden and would highly recommend it to anyone. We had to spray it with Deer and Rabbit Off to keep the pesky animals from eating to the ground (which is what they did the first year).
Here are a few things I learned from the article and from growing them ourselves.
The Tennessee coneflower was the second plant to be listed on the U.S. Endangered Species list but continues to be threatened by development and habitat destruction.
Few of these plants remain in the wild despite conservation efforts
Coneflowers in general are tough and adapt well to most any type of soil as long as you have good drainage and full sun.
Butterflies and the yellow finch love this flower (and any other coneflower for that matter)
The Tennessee coneflower is smaller than purple coneflowers with a height of about 2′.
Collection from the wild is illegal. Look for it at your local garden center.
Propagates easily from seed by means of stratification methods. May cross pollinate when planted next to other coneflowers.
We agree with the author that this flower is a rare gem in its native habitat and it should be planted in more gardens not only so others may enjoy it, but also to “be a part in preserving the volunteer state’s natural history.”
The answer is “yes”! Not only is it deer-resistant, but it is also drought resistant and virtually pest free.
Those are some of the reasons it won the Perennial Plant Association’s ‘Plant of the Year’ in 1992 and why it is still one of the best-selling perennial plants still to this day.
We’re getting pretty feed-up with how the deer are eating all they can find in our yard. So far, we are doing fairly well with using deer-off products such as Deer Scram Deer & Rabbit Repellent from Mastergardening.com, but I forgot that deer also like okra and portulica. Consequently, they have gotten the best of us with those two plants.
I’m excited to say that they haven’t eaten my hydrangeas that I love to dry. I owe that to the product mentioned above. I trained our beloved deer early in the season not to like those plants with weekly spraying for the first three weeks and once a month after that.
hydrangea
Oak leaf hydrangeas
Salvia -Great Deer-Resistant Annual
Although you can have success using such deer and rabbit off sprays, another great way to garden with deer is to plant deer-resistant annuals and perennials.
That brings us to our featured video this week which is the annual Salvia.
This plant is deer-resistant and fairly drought tolerant. It goes well in the front of your garden, drys well for arrangements (actually looks like lavender), and is good in fresh arrangements as well.
Click on the link below to check out the video of growing annual salvia on Youtube.
We have officially declared war on deer. After going out this morning and finding all of our portulaca eaten, as well as my flat leaf parsley, it’s time to become even more diligent about spraying deer-off products and thinking of planting more deer resistant perennials.
One of my most favorite deer-resistant perennials is in the coneflower family (and by the way, it’s planted right next to our portulaca) and is called the ‘Indian -Summer’ Rudbekia.
Not only is it deer-resistant and drought tolerate, its strong sturdy stems make it great for fresh summer bouquets as well as a great dried flower for winter dried flower arrangements. Check out this video on growing Rudbekia and then go to our web site for more gardening information and for a free e-book download when you sign up for our newsletter. We would love to have you stop by so check out our web site by clicking here.
Spiny Bear’s Breeches is one perennial you need in your garden. This one plant has gotten more “wows” and “what is that plant” than any other in our 4 acre garden.
Use it in a full sun area or part shade. It will make a statement anywhere you put it.
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If you’re a country music fan and are in town for the CMA Awards, be sure and go by and see the rose collection named for many famous music stars and their songs at the Music City Gardens in downtown Nashville, Tn. Names like Ring of Fire, Rocky Top, Tennessee Waltz, Pam Tillis, Barbara Mandrell, Amy Grant and many more are included in the list of roses named in the garden. Our own Nashville Rose Society is to thank for this fun garden.
