What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 59: basil bee balm

 This really lovely bee balm is one of the new native species I’ve planted in the new pollinator bed. One of the plants had a few spent blooms left over from earlier in the summer and bees have already found it and foraged it, which means it should be a big hit next year.

More info:

Scientific Name:	Monarda clinopodia
Genus:	Monarda
Species Epithet:	clinopodia
Common Name:	Basil Bergamot, White Bergamot, Basil Beebalm
Plant Type	Herb/Wildflower
Life Cycle	Perennial
Plant Family	Lamiaceae (Mint Family)
Native/Alien:	NC Native
Size:	3-6 ft.
Bloom Color(s):	White, Pink
Light:	Sun - 6 or more hours of sun per day, Part Shade - 2 to 6 hours of sun per day
Soil Moisture:	Dry
Bloom Time:	May, June, July, August, September
Growing Area:	Mountains, Piedmont
Habitat Description:	Mesic, forested slopes (Weakley 2015). Common in NC Mountains, rare in Piedmont.
Leaf Arrangement:	Opposite
Leaf Retention:	Deciduous
Leaf Type:	Leaves veined, not needle-like or scale-like
Leaf Form:	Simple
Life Cycle:	Perennial
Wildlife Value:	Important for Wildlife
Landscape Value:	Recommended and Available
Plant

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 58: Meehan’s Mint (+ a better shot of the gate decor)

 Grabbed a better photo today - I am loving seeing these beauties each time I drive into the farm gate.

This Meehan’s Mint is a ground-covering mint that I’ve put in the front of the shade bed. I’m hoping it will spread out and create a nice frontispiece to the mix in the long, slightly lanky shape of this native planting. 

More info:

Meehania cordata 

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Common Name: Meehan's mint 

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Family: Lamiaceae

Native Range: Eastern United States

Zone: 4 to 8

Height: 0.25 to 0.50 feet

Spread: 0.25 to 1.50 feet

Bloom Time: May to June

Bloom Description: Lavender blue

Sun: Part shade to full shade

Water: Medium

Maintenance: Low

Suggested Use: Naturalize

Flower: Showy

Tolerate: Heavy Shade

Garden locations

Culture

Best grown in rich, humusy, medium moisture, well-drained soils in part shade. Tolerates full sun as long as soils are kept uniformly moist. Also tolerates full shade. Stoloniferous but not too aggressive.

Noteworthy Characteristics

Meehania cordata, commonly called Meehan’s mint or creeping mint, is a stoloniferous, mat-forming mint that resembles in appearance the common lawn and garden weed known as gill-over-the-ground or ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea), but it does not exhibit the very aggressive tendencies of the latter. It is native from western Pennsylvania to North Carolina, Tennessee and Illinois, where it typically occurs in rich woods and wooded slopes. This is a low-growing perennial with trailing square stems and opposite broadly heart shaped green leaves (to 1” long) with crenate margins. Hooded, two-lipped, lavender blue flowers bloom in mid to late spring. Flowers (to 1” long) are somewhat large for the plant, appearing in upright 3-inch spikes on stems rising to 4-6” tall.

Genus name honors distinguished American horticulturist and editor Thomas Meehan (d. 1901).

Specific epithet means heart-shaped in reference to the leaves.

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems. Some susceptibility to slugs.

Garden Uses

Ground cover for shade gardens, woodland gardens or shady border areas.

Update on the Big Bay

 First, he received his first acupuncture treatment this morning and he loved it - much licking and chewing and then eyes closing as he went into the zen zone, plus much giving of thanks to his vet and to me after she left. I’m happy we have an additional supportive therapy to plug into his repertoire. 

The vet did her own pre-acupuncture exam and today he is weak on the right (vs the left on Friday) and she feels he has slight lameness going on in the left rear. But she trotted him out and there was no wobbling at all, so that was good for me to see, even if it did scare me a little.

He scanned well after the acupuncture and he’s already set to get another treatment in two weeks.

As this vet drove off the farm, I got the message from his other vet that the EPM test came back positive. He’ll start the treatment for that ASAP. 

I’m relieved to have a definitive diagnosis, and happy his two vets will confer and put everything together to get the best treatment plan possible as we move forward. He’s in good spirits, enjoying the attention, and mostly looks better than he did last week. He’s got chiro and hoof trim coming up so basically everything should be in good shape for him as we get rid of the protozoa!

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 57: swamp doghobble

 Now that fall is here I’m starting to put new native species in, so they can develop strong root systems over the winter and come up raring to go in the spring. Everything I’ve planted in the fall has done extremely well with no pampering except insuring the plants get water through the winter. Usually the rainfall takes care of that.

This week, I added a lovely native shrub, swamp doghobble, to the shade bed. It will be the backdrop for a number of the other plants already living there and eventually will grow tall enough to hide the drainage ditch and pipe we have on the back side of the bed. With its leaves turning red in the autumn, it will also add some color!

More info:

Eubotrys racemosa 

Common Name(s):

 

• Swamp Doghobble
• Sweetbells Leucothoe

Previously known as:

 

• Leucothoe racemosa

Phonetic Spelling

YOO-bot-trees ray-see-MO-suh

Description

Swamp Doghobble is a 3 to 6 feet tall deciduous shrub with alternate leaves. The shiny stems are a mix of green and red. In the spring, white, bell-shaped flowers appear on 3- to 4-inch racemes. Leaves turn red in the fall.

It prefers a moist, cool, acidic soil. It can be grown in full sun, but must have good moisture. Does not tolerate drought or windy conditions. Although winter hardy to Zone 5, this shrub should be planted in a protected location and given a good winter mulch in cooler areas.  Can be evergreen in warmer zones.

This twiggy, spreading plant sends out suckers to form colonies.  Although it has no serious insect or disease problems, it is susceptible to root rot and leaf spot.

This and That, or My Distracted Day

 I’ve been reading too much news coverage the past 48 hours and I feel like I’ve had about 5 extra shot lattes. Time to cut back on news and Twitter.

Meanwhile, a couple of the outfits I ordered arrived today and I was rocketed back to Hanna Andersson catalogs and the absolute softness of this cotton clothing.  

The asters are coming in! And the bees are going nuts. I’m loving this combo.

My daughter had one of her lovely photos included in Ocean Conservancy’s 2021 calendar! She’s a rock star!

I moved the pumpkins to the ledge where we’ll enjoy them coming, going, and even glancing out the front windows.

I hung the fall horse wreaths on the gate. They’re gorgeous but 1) the photo in full blazing sunlight washes everything out, and 2) I need to do my annual tung oil application.

The new native plant pollinator doubling as rain garden bed. I’ll profile the plants in subsequent posts, but I’m really happy with how I think this will look next spring and summer. Did I get smarter about layout and weaving in heights/colors/textures/something blooming all the time? We shall see!

This post represents completely the state of my brain and my day. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some relaxed thinking and more focus!