©Deborah S. Tukua
www.hollycreekbooks.com

Butterflies scarce this summer? By following these few tips, butterflies will be enticed to your lawn and garden areas this summer, when butterflies are the most active.

Butterfly Garden Tips:
1. Don’t use chemical insecticides in the butterfly garden.
2. Establish your flower garden where it will receive full sun. Butterflies need direct sunlight for flying power.
3. Like hummingbirds, butterflies are attracted to flowers by color. Group flowers that butterflies favor in clusters.
4. Plant taller species toward the back of the flowerbed and shorter flowers at the front to get the best view of both flowers in bloom and butterflies in flight.
5. Butterflies do not drink from open water, but are drawn to moisture instead. Fill a saucer with potting soil or a sponge and add water to moisten. Place saucer in the flower garden and keep soil or sponge moist through the summer.
6. Set a rock in a sunny place in your garden for butterflies to alight on. Butterflies sun on rocks for energy to fly.
7. What’s the most popular plant used to lure butterflies? The brilliantly orange, Butterfly Weed and Butterfly Bush, of course.
8. Plant botanicals that produce nectar and attract butterflies. List follows.

A garden of butterflies is what you’ll have by planting a garden full of these flowering shrubs, trees and flowers. (The best time to plant trees is in the fall.)

Flowers Butterflies Love:

Ageratum Marigolds
Aster Mexican Sunflower
Bee-balm Milkweed
Black-eyed Susan Nasturtium
Butterfly Weed Passion flower
Chives Phlox
Coneflower Queen Anne’s Lace
Coreopsis Shasta Daisy
Cosmos Sage
Daylily Sunflower
Globe Amaranth Verbena
Goldenrod Yarrow
Hibiscus Zinnia
Hollyhock
Impatiens
Ironweed
Lantana

Flowering Shrubs, Trees and Vines Butterflies Frequent:

Butterfly Bush
Cypress Vine
Mock Orange Tree
Pear
Plum
Redbud
Rose of Sharon
Tulip Tree

An entire chapter on Theme Gardens, which includes: Cut Flower Garden, The Mr. McGregor and Peter Rabbit Garden, Biblical Garden, Water Garden, Hummingbird Garden, and Rock Garden Ideas are waiting to inspire you in Deborah Tukua and Vicki West’s book, Pearls of Garden Wisdom. The book is on sale now to FATV readers. Visit the shop for your copy today!

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by Farmers Almanac Staff
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©By Deborah S. Tukua
www.hollycreekbooks.com

Swarming mosquitoes threatening to ruin your cookout this weekend? An even greater concern, of course is avoiding the diseases such as West Nile virus that mosquitoes carry. Mosquitoes are the biggest threat from dusk until dawn. Evenings in the summertime are most pleasant outdoors, but not when mosquitoes are present. While it is unlikely that we will ever be able to eliminate mosquitoes from this planet, there are steps that we can take to avoid getting bit by these bloodthirsty pests this summer.

Step 1 – Ensure That Your Yard is Not a Breeding Ground for Mosquitoes.
· Make sure that there are no buckets or empty planters left where they could collect stagnant water. Empty any standing water found and store empty containers upside down.
· Check the gutter on the house for leaves or other debris blocking rainwater from flowing freely.
· Change the water in the birdbath weekly.
· If you have a pond or water garden, install a pump, waterfall or fountain to keep the water flowing. Mosquitoes require stagnant water to breed.
· Fill in any puddles or low spots in the lawn with soil or rock. Check the area just beneath all downspouts to ensure there is no standing water.

Step 2 – Fighting Off Mosquitoes Naturally·
. Install a bat house near your outdoor living spaces. Bats dine on mosquitoes in the evening and are a beauty to behold in flight.
· Erect bird feeders in your yard to attract wild birds, which feast on mosquitoes.
· Stock the water garden or pond with goldfish or other mosquito larvae eating fish.
· Use yellow bug lights outside on the patio, porch or deck.
· Light citronella candles or mosquito coils when using outdoor seating areas. There are safe, propane and butane operated mosquito traps and devices that can be used when entertaining outdoors.
· Install ceiling fans on your covered porch or balcony and sit beneath them when outdoors at night to discourage mosquitoes from lighting on you and your guests.
· Use an oscillating fan in outdoor living spaces in the evenings.
· Wear light colored clothing with thin, long sleeves, long pants and socks when working in the garden just before dark. Spray a mosquito repellent on top of your clothing.
· There are safe, nonchemical, herbal-based repellents on the market. Most contain plant-based oils such as citronella, cedar, eucalyptus, lemongrass, peppermint, basil, geranium and feverfew, which are mosquito deterrents. These are safe for use on children, who are highly susceptible to mosquito bites when running and playing outdoors at night.
. Taking garlic or brewers yeast supplements is said to deter insect bites.

~Numerous tips for ridding the garden and lawn of pests naturally are found in Deborah Tukua and Vicki West’s book, Pearls of Garden Wisdom. This handy gardening companion is available now at discounted prices to the FATV readers. Visit the shop for your copy today!

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by Farmers Almanac Staff
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©By Deborah S. Tukua
www.hollycreekbooks.com

Mulching holds a close second place next to compost as being the organic gardener’s closest companion. Mulching around vegetables, trees, shrubs, and flowers is beneficial in a variety of ways. Besides enriching the soil with organic matter, mulch also aides in keeping the soil temperature even, prohibiting extremes of too hot or too cold year round.

There are two main times in the year when mulching the garden, orchard and flowerbeds is essential. Place mulch around outdoor plants in late autumn to provide a barrier of protection from frigid temperatures and mulch again in summertime to help plants retain needed moisture and to reduce the growth of weeds. In summer, mulch also helps keep fruit and vegetables off the ground and out of standing water, avoiding unnecessary rot.

Mulching Tips:

· Pine straw is the ideal mulch for all acid-loving vegetables and flowers. Place pine straw around tomato plants, roses, camellias, azaleas, and rhododendrons.
· Mulch between rows and pathways in the garden to reduce weeds. After the growing season, organic mulch can be turned into the soil to enrich the soil.
· Organic mulch can be freely obtained by putting to use shredded newspaper, grass clippings, bales of straw, pine needles, wood shavings or chips, shredded leaves and old sawdust. Local sawmills can furnish sawdust, tree bark and wood chips at little or no cost when you bring your own truck or trailer to haul it away.
· Water the soil around your plants well just before mulching.
· Keep the mulch from touching the stems and trunks of plants, shrubs and trees.
· Mulch 2” inches deep.
· The best time to mulch is right after a rain or just after watering.
· When using newspaper as mulch do not use pages with color ink. Newspaper breaks down quickly. Weigh shredded newspaper down with bark or wood chips.
. For inexpensive, highly beneficial organic mulch sure to enrich the soil use these three layers. First add a layer of shredded newspaper. Second, add a layer of decomposed manure and top with a third layer of straw, shavings or chips.

A bounty of garden tips abound in Deborah Tukua and Vicki West’s resourceful guide, Pearls of Garden Wisdom. Make the most of your garden, yard and patio spaces, visit the FA-TV shop today.

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by Farmers Almanac Staff
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©By Deborah S. Tukua
www.hollycreekbooks.com

Making sugar water nectar for a hanging hummingbird feeder is simple. Since the standard feeder holds about one quart, here’s a recipe for that amount.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe~

4 cups water
1 cup sugar

Stir sugar into a pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow cooling completely before adding to hummingbird feeder.

Hummingbird Feeder Tips:
· Hang the feeder in partial shade to keep the nectar solution from fermenting.
· Tie a red bandana to the top of the feeder to attract hummingbirds.
· Best to hang the feeder from a chain away from any post that ants might crawl up on. Ants, wasps and bees can also be attracted to the feeder. If this becomes a problem, visit your local garden center for a mesh bee guard to attach to the feeder.
. Never substitute honey for sugar when making sugar water nectar.

Deborah Tukua and Vicki West have compiled great gardening tips and age old advice in their lovely, hardbound edition of Pearls of Garden Wisdom. Purchase your copy today at the FA-TV’s shop!

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by Farmers Almanac Staff
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