Garden links, information,and resources for people who garden!

We are happy to announce or new Garden Classified Section.  This a brand new Free Service here at Glenns Garden. This is a free classified section for anything garden related. Buy or sell seeds, Sell your plants, Sell your tools, if you have free stuff related to gardening list it here ! There is even a section for bartering.

I hope you will take advantage of this great new service and get the word out about what you have to offer. You can find the classifieds on the navigation bar on the left or just Click Here

Here it is the middle of summer and I am writing about fall bulb planting! Well really it is not to early to start thinking about planting bulbs for next springs garden. Most of the major bulb companies have already sent out their Fall Bulb Catalogs. In fact you should start seeing bulbs for fall planting in a couple of weeks at your local garden centers. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, anemones, crocus, and asiatic lilies should all be planted in early October for a smashing display next spring. By ordering early you will be able to get the varieties you want before they are sold out. The bulb company will ship them at the proper time for planting in your area.

One of my favorite tulip blends for a truly eye catching display is Stop The Car

This is a great time to start planning the Spring Garden. You should take some walks around the garden and note where there are nooks and crannies that you can tuck some bulbs into.  Next look and see if there would be a good spot to plant a new bulb bed. Always carry a notebook and a digital camera is also a great added tool for these walks as well. Take your time and be sure to note the plants that are already growing in the area especially perennials. A lot of times early flowering bulbs can be planted in amongst the perennials so that as the bulbs are fading the perennials will be emerging and help cover the foliage of the bulbs till it is dried and be cut off. This will make for a much more attractive garden in the spring .

Remember it is easy to get carried away while looking through catalogs so do not go too overboard. While bulb planting is not hard, remember that there will be time involved in preparing the beds as well as uncertain weather to contended with. You can easily plant a few hundred tulips in a fall afternoon with very little effort. Planting a few thousand bulbs well that may be a different story!

A while back I wrote about the Purple Robe Black Locust trees we had planted and how I thought that they were pretty great trees at first but as of late was having serious doubts about them after I noticed they did not hold up very well in storms.

We recently had to replace one of the Purple Robe in a row along one of the driveways. The landscaper planted the tree and I checked the tag to be sure even though it was not quite the same as the others. Different shape and size. Well the administration was convinced that this was not the right tree and they insisted that the landscaper planted the wrong tree. Had I not seen the tag with my own eyes I would have believed the administration. I did see it though yet this tree was definitely not the same as the others. So I started to do some research. I now have a real dilemma on my hands!

This is a picture of a tree that looks just like what was planted. I downloaded.

As you can see the shape of this tree and even the purple pink flower brackets hanging down . It is very lovely tree. The only problem is that the purple robe black locust we had planted did not look like this. So now I had to go on a search to find out what we had planted. This is what I came up with.

This is a picture of the tree we have palnted that I downloaded.

This is not a Purple Robe Black Locust it is a Robinia pseudoacacia Umbraculifera which is also a varety of black locust. I calle the nursery that sold us these tree 3 years ago and they confirmed that they had sold us the wrong trees but there was not much we could do about it as 3 years had passed.

So just to make matters worse growers are not growing this tree right now because it was found to be very suspetible to borer attack and when it was under stress it tended to sucker from it’s root sending up shoots of the root stock it was grafted to. Which is a very invasive tree that also tends to be filled with thorns. Well I decided better to start looking at all 55 of these trees and after just a couple of them I just stopped. I found that they were starting to sucker and then I checked the tres and found they were covered with borer holes and well now I guess it is time to make a decision. I have presented this to the administration and I await there decision.

These trees were all checked by the Landscape Architect that had drawn this plan ever one of the 460 trees we had planted were field checked by her. So if the person that designed this did not know what the tree looked like well I am just saying! My thought as each of these trees dies out lets replace them with the right tree. We will See

The other night we experienced some sever storms here in the chicagoland area. Over a hundred homes were damaged right around where I live. This got me to thinking about home owners insurance and how important it is. I started to look around at different sights because now a days it seems like everything keeps going up and you have to do some research and try to find the right price for just about everything you are trying to buy.

If you have not checked your policy lately or worse yet let it lapse I highly recommend that you stop whatever it is you are doing and get that straight right now. You never know when a disaster can strike.

I found a site that will help you check out a lot of insurance quotes all in one place Home Insurance . This is a great insurance quote comparison site. Whether you need Home Insurance, Landlord Insurance, Tenet or even student insurance you can find it here. It really is a great place to start your search they have dozens of listings and very helpful information. It really is important to be sure that you have coverage. I think that all too often we get caught up in day to day life and forget to stop and think about protecting what we have.

It is so lovely to spend some time walking through your garden then going in the house to fix yourself a nice cup of tea. But just imagine that there is no house to go back into! Not trying to be dramatic I’m just saying you should take time to review your coverage and I would do it now while it is fresh on my mind. You know how I will do it latter is ! Latter never seems to come.