First of all, I hope you neighbors participate in the Mott Park Garden Contest by posting on Mott Park Flint MI Facebook page. There are two categories – Most Improved and Prettiest. So if you or someone else are making improvements to their home, take a picture and post it (before and after pics please). The winner in both categories will be given a $100 gift card. I will try to post some myself. I dropped the ball last year so if anyone has before and after pics they would like to re-enter, please do so. The contest will end Sept 21 (the last day of summer).
Now on to gardening! I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a dry growing season so if you’re putting in new plants, use drought-tolerant plants. Some of the more familiar perennials are black-eyed susans, coneflower, daylilies (Happy Returns are recommended by Keep Genesee County Beautiful), peonies, sedum, yucca, hostas (Patriot Hosta recommended by KGCB), daisies, butterfly bush, bleeding heart (likes shade), red twig dogwood, lavender, russian sage, yarrow, veronica, burning bush, blue star juniper, and virginia sweetspire. Annuals include cleome, nicotiana, sweet alyssum, moss rose, salvia, and lantana. Planting drought-tolerant plants is called xeriscaping by the way. The only other thing to remember is that when planting new plants, water them the first week or so to give them a chance to settle in and get a good start on life especially if there is little rain. If you have any questions, give me a call – 444-7566.
In our Mott Park Gardens this year we are going to use RED geraniums again. Hopefully the groundhogs won’t eat them (as they did at the Nolen/University site last year). If someone would like to adopt a garden, give me a call.
Gardening is great exercise by the way. I liken it to doing yoga. One can sure get into some strange positions!
Ginny Braun, Gardening Coordinator