This spring's rainy, chilly season has delayed his wholesale peony crop by a week or two. Yet it appears he'll have a bumper crop of the showy flowers and with longer stems than usual, giving each stem more room for equally showy dark green foliage.

Hilliard calls his two lots of the dark green shrubs the "peony patch" - one of them is rooted with 2,500 plants and the other has 3,500. The patches were planted eight to 10 years ago with crowns dug from Harvey B. Hartline Jr.'s old nursery property on south U.S. 51 in Makanda, now the site of Stone Creek Golf Club.

The Hartline peonies were originally planted at the nursery by Hartline's father, Harvey B. Hartline Sr., in the 1920s, Hilliard recalled.

"All of these are from the same old stock planted by Mr. Hartline," he said, pointing to the patch at his Harrisburg farm. He and his wife, Julie, also farm corn, soybeans and wheat.

The species' trade names are Sarah Bernhardt, President Taft and Alice Roosevelt.

Hilliard's peony lore also includes learning that some 2,000 acres of peonies were once cultivated around Evansville, Ind., just 60 miles or so from Saline County. He has run into some elderly people who remember working in the peony fields as youths.

The rewards of gardening might be as simple as a beefy red tomato in your salad bowl, topped with handpicked lettuce, and sprinkled with homegrown chives.

Gardening and landscape work labors of love. He says that they transformed him from the kid who hated to mow the lawn, to the guy that inspires millions to beautify their world with plants, Justin Cave said.

"It's really gratifying to work the earth," Cave said. "At the end of the day you can step back and see what you've accomplished. And to me, that's always been really gratifying."

A garden is a wholesome place that offers a perfect family time activity.

"In this day and age, the family isn't what it used to be," Cave said. "Gardening and landscaping is a way to get the whole family in one place at the same time."

Since retiring from the University of Minnesota horticulture department in 2002, Pellett has continued his work as executive director of the non-profit Landscape Plant Development Center. Three years ago, an unassuming 6.75-acre plot on the eastern edge of Lake Elmo became the LPDC's first and only Minnesota research station.

There, near the intersection of Highway 5 and Little Blue Stem Trail, dozens of new hybrids that were developed at the center's Oregon research station receive their annual trial by ice. Those that survive and thrive will be further developed in the hopes their progeny will one day make their way to yards and gardens throughout the northern United States.

"We're developing new landscape plants to give people a broader selection of plants that are well adapted, so they can choose plants with different qualities to develop a better landscape using plants that have a decent chance of survival without needing a lot of input," Pellett said.

After leasing their property out to Bella Gardens for the past eight years, the Sloan family is back with a new nursery business.

Last week, Mike and Janet Sloan opened Dexter Gardens at their well-known yellow Baker Road barn in Scio Township, south of Dexter. The Sloans have owned the site since 1979 and used to run Sloan's Nursery & Garden Center there; before that, it was owned by Mike's father, Louis.

"Bella Gardens is gone so we thought we'd come back and open (a nursery) again because we love it so much," said Mike Sloan.
He said that he didn't put his last name on the business this time because he wanted to create a closer tie to the community instead.
The new Dexter Gardens will feature longer hours and a larger selection of annual flowers and hanging baskets than its predecessors. The Sloans also plan to plant a cut-your-own field of flowers.

The nursery stocks a variety of trees, shrubs, perennial and annual flowers, birding merchandise, a garden pharmacy, garden gifts, ceramic pots, soil and mulch. New inventory is arriving daily.

Dexter Gardens will likely remain open until the winter. Henriette Rowland, who used to work for Bella Gardens, is now manager of Dexter Gardens.

"I just came back from Hilton Head and everything was in flower and blossom down there, so I'm looking forward to it and this is a wonderful place to come,” said Christine Sykes, Fayetteville resident.

 But just because it feels like June doesn't mean it's time for that summer garden.

"The soil is still very cool. There's many annuals that love this cool, spring, weather, like stocks and pansies and snap dragons and namesia,” said Carol Watson, Watson Greenhouse and Landscaping.

But hold off on perennials like tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables. It's still spring, which means there's a chance for cool nights with temperatures in the 30s or lower.

"What happens is you think you're getting an advance on the season. So you put it in the ground and it gets wet it gets cold, the nights are cold, the soil is cold and the roots will disintegrate,” said Watson.

But if you just can't wait to start growing your tomatoes or other vegetables, try using a pot. That way if it gets cold you can bring the plant right inside.

"Then they're in warm potting soil. So you could be picking tomatoes much earlier than the ones that you'll be planting in the ground,” said Watson.

And those, along with the other summer plants, should wait until Memorial Day.

Does that describe your garden? Probably not - with today’s hectic lifestyles, many people simply don’t have enough time to spend creating a beautiful garden - and have to make do with some weed filled flower beds and tired looking, patchy lawns. Not a very inspiring sight, and bad for your property’s value too - a lacklustre garden can depress the price of your property by more than 10%.

But don’t worry - for London residents at least, help is at hand. The Keyholding Company is offering its members a special ‘Gardening’ package. When you book one of their skilled gardners for a half day, you’ll receive 4 hours work for £120, and if you book for a full day, you’ll get 8 hours work for £225.

As well as organising a suitable gardener, The Keyholding Company can provide access for them, lock up on completion of the job, and ensure that the site has been left clean and tidy.

They Keyholding Company requires all its gardeners to undergo a strict vetting process, so members are assured that their gardens will be in safe hands.

Registering your keys with The Keyholding Service costs £24 - and membership costs from £10.95 per calendar month.

Pacific Turf & Tree Care provides many landscape services from the very basic to more indept services. You can count on us to provide the highest in quality and workmanship when it comes to caring for your landscape.

Our Deluxe Tree and Shrub Program is designed to give you a quality landscape care program that will take care of most common landscape and ornamental tree needs. We also provide many additional landscape solutions and we'd be happy to discuss those with you.

A houseplant can brighten up an otherwise dull apartment and introduce a vibrant bit of life in the cold winter months. Unique plants can act as living signature pieces, conversation starters and change the entire feel of a room. However, not every houseplant is cut out for apartment living. Many apartments suffer from lack of space, lack of light and thermostats controlled by unpredictable landlords. If your houseplants have a tendency to die on you, your apartment may be the problem. The solution is selecting low-maintenance plants that are compatible with the humidity, temperature and light conditions in your apartment. Read on for some potential apartment-friendly additions to your home. 

The broad 2 - 5" cream white flower-tops are actually a compound set of many small flowers, usually with one tiny reddish-brown floret in the center. The leaves are 2 - 8" long and very finely toothed, almost fern-like. The plant grows 1 - 3' tall.

FLOWERS:
May to September

HABITAT:
Dry fallow fields, along roadsides and waste places.

OTHER INFORMATION:

This plant is very common along roadsides where the flowered heads bob with the wind of passing cars.

The flower bud opens wide to the flat-topped umbrel seen above, and then once the fruits form it closes again, as if protecting its seeds. If seen in time-elapse photography, it would probably seem to be 'flashing' pollinators.  

Vegetable gardening has traditionally been done in long rows. This allows machinery to cultivate the fields, increasing efficiency and output.

Over the past century new techniques have emerged such as raised bed gardening, which has increased yields from small plots of soil without the need for commercial, energy intensive fertilizers. Modern hydroponic farming also yields very high yields in greenhouses without using any soil, but expends much more energy.

Manures and fertilisers are essential for the growth of good vegetables. Since nitrogen, phosphate and potash are removed from the soil in large quantities by vegetables, they must be replaced regularly to maintain soil fertility. Generally speaking, the soil will not become deficient in these if animal manures and compost are used in conjunction with the artificial fertilisers.

Because different types of vegetables have different food requirements, it is customary to group together those which need similar soil conditions. Thus, Potatoes respond well on freshly manured soil, but fresh animal manure would cause distorted and forked roots of Carrot, Parsnip and Beet.