Between the Rows – A Guide to Vegetable Gardening: July 2024
Vegetable gardening information and events for July.
Gardening in Extreme Heat: Stay Calm and Cool and Garden On
Follow these best practices for gardening in extreme heat. For example, native Golden Ragwort and Virginia Creeper intermingled together create a green mulch to cool the soil, maintain moisture, & outcompete invasive English Ivy. Photo © Nancy Brooks
GROUND COVER: Sedum ternatum (Wild, Woodland, or Three-leaved Stonecrop)
Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This lovely ground cover, the most widespread native member of the Sedum family in eastern North America, favors rocky banks, cliffs, and woods. Its tiny, slightly-fragrant, starlike flowers rise in showy clusters above succulent foliage in the spring.
Invasive Plant Video: Mimosa
The Glencarlyn Library Community Garden coordinators have created a new series of short videos about locally invasive plants and native alternatives. This month's post is on the Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) tree.
Threats to Pollinators and What YOU Can Do!
Part 4. Residential Land Use: Invasive Species
Natural habitat loss results not only from human incursion but by introduction—intentionally or accidentally—of invasive non-native plants and insects. Read about the harm invasive species cause. Watch invasive insects in action. Learn what YOU can do to combat invasive species! #PollinatorWeek #inVAsives
Pollinator Attractor: The Capitulum
Seven Asteraceae genera sustain specialist bees. Two are the top perennials supporting Lepidoptera. Learn about the Asteraceae’s flower structure—a capitulum with disk and/or ray florets—that attracts pollinators. See pictures of 24 pollinators and a new video of American lady butterfly and brown-belted bumble bee foraging on capitula. #PollinatorWeek