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PLANT OF THE MONTH: Virginia Mountain Mint
Posted on by ridgetownrick
The fragrant minty leaves of this plant can be used in your dinner, but I prefer it to leave it in the garden where lots of bees and other pollinators can be found on the flowers. The tiny white flowers, upon close inspection, are covered in little purple polka dots. This delightful flower is a must have in your native plant garden, and it tolerates a wide range of light, soil and moisture conditions. As usual, the Plant Description and In the Garden sections, below, are courtesy of Shaun Booth from In Our Nature. This Plant of the Month article has been adapted from our book The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region.
Common Name: Virginia Mountain Mint
Scientific Name: Pycnanthemum virginianum
ARTICLE: Is it Invasive or is it just Aggressive?
Posted on by ridgetownrick
This article is NOT about invasive species, but is about the strategies I use to deal with aggressive species in the garden. But first, a note about invasive species.
Common Reed or Phrag (Phragmites australis), Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis), Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), European Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) – these names tend to strike fear (or at least dread) into hearts of native plant gardeners. They are all invasive species.
What makes them so bad? All were introduced into gardens from which they then escaped into the wild. There, their ability to spread was so powerful that they soon started to exclude the local plants (and sometime even animals).
Invasive species may spread by seed (e.g. Garlic Mustard, Phragmites, Buckthorn) or by rhizome (Japanese Knotweed, Lily of the Valley) or both. Control of the spread is difficult, at best.
BOOK REVIEW
Taming Wildflowers
Posted on by ridgetownrick
By Miriam Goldberger
- Publisher: St. Lynn’s Press, 2014
- Paperback: 208 pages
- ISBN-10: 0985562269
- Dimensions: 8.5” X 8.5”
- Price: $25.99 (Indigo.ca); $18.89 (Amazon.com) – hardcover
Note: This review is adapted from the one I posted to Amazon after purchasing the book in 2020.
There are a lot of things to like about this award wining book (The Garden Writers Association Silver Award of Achievement). The book seems to be geared primarily to introducing new gardeners to the joy of growing “wildflowers”, but it can be confusing in places for the newbie. I’ll start with what I like about it, and wrap up with the flaws, as I see them. (I will say up front that, after publishing my own book on the topic, I now have a greater appreciation for what it takes to put a book like this together – including the challenges of working with a publisher and an editor.)
Other Random Stuff
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