grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Tree Peony ~ a day in the life

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Tree Peony

Take a look at this gorgeous tree peony! Two of these beauties are in full bloom at the Headquarters House in Fayetteville, one on either side of the long sidewalk that leads to the front steps. If they know how beautiful they are, they are incredibly humble about it. They welcome visitors with saucer-sized blossoms; their sweet scent is like a gentle tap on the shoulder.

Classy. No doubt about it. With old-fashioned charm.

Ahhh… They smell like antique climbing roses, the sort that grew next to your grandmother’s potting shed.Continue Reading

Zebra Plant Love

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Zebra Plant + Vintage Planter

Even the blackest of thumbs can successfully grow a zebra plant! These small succulents are very forgiving and rarely complain about anything. Several years ago, I planted one tiny zebra baby in my vintage ceramic planter. Look at her now. She’s bloomed several times and has all but outgrown her container.

A few days ago when it was pouring rain and I couldn’t do any yard work, I scratched my gardening itch by showing my zebra plant a little love.

But first, a story about these ceramic planters. Popular in the 60s and 70s, they were often filled with flowers and delivered to hospitals upon the birth of babies.

My mother received this scottie dog planter when I was born. I often wonder what sort of flowers were inside? Probably carnations, if I had to guess. (And maybe if I searched through my baby book, I could figure it out because Momma saved those little It’s a Girl! cards.) The important thing to note is that somehow Scottie has been in our family for over half a century (gulp), and now he’s one of my favorite pieces of gardening decor.

If I had to evacuate due to fire or flood or famine, I would grab him!Continue Reading

How to Make an Insect Hotel (and why you should)

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I discovered my first insect hotel at the Denver Botanic Gardens in 2018. Since then, I’ve been enamored with them. Not only do insect hotels provide a bit of garden whimsey, but they attract solitary native bees, wasps, and other beneficial insects desperately needed for pollination.

D*e*s*p*e*r*a*t*e*l*y.  

Pollinators are on the decline for various reasons—mostly due to habitat loss. Without pollinators, we may as well call it a day. Pollinators are essential to the creation and maintenance of the earth’s ecosystem. Eighty to ninety percent of all flowering plants need pollinators. Pollinators are responsible for 1 out of every 3 bites of food we eat.

This is not fake news. Take a look at this crop list from the University of Arkansas Research and Extension Office.

Crops pollinated by bees

Umm. Coffee and watermelon?

Yikes.

What constitutes a pollinator?

We often think of honey bees, right? But a pollinator is anything that moves pollen from the male part of a flower (stamen) to the female part of the flower (stigma). Pollinators include birds, solitary bees, wasps, moths, spiders, lacewings, roll poly bugs, ladybugs, fireflies, bats, hoverflies, earwigs, small mammals, and the wind.

After seeing insect hotels in Denver, I attended my first make-and-take insect hotel class at the Botanic Garden of the Ozarks (BOGO). Before I show you the hotel I created, take a look at these examples in Denver.

How to Make an Insect Hotel

These are very large and partially decorative, but even so, these Denver versions provide insect nesting places as well as education to those of us visiting the garden. It’s because of these that I first became interested in insect hotels.Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

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