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Plant Profile: Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
 Look at a purple coneflower, and a vast, sweeping prairie, butterflies and little bluestem grasses waving in the wind come to mind. Or maybe not.
Regardless, purple coneflowers are a great perennial for every garden from zone 3 to zone 8, making it a versatile plant. Coneflowers grow best in full sun, moist, well-drained soils, but can also grow well in clay. They are native to North America, and is very resistant to pests and disease.
Coneflower seeds provide food for many birds, including golden finches and juncos. They are also good butterfly nectar plants. You can deadhead coneflowers throughout the summer to encourage re-bloom. Leave the last blooms of the fall on the plant to provide food for the birds, and to encourage re-seeding. They do re-seed prolifically.
Within the last several years, many orange, red and pink cultivars have hit the market. These plants are not usually as vigorous as the species coneflowers, but do make a nice addition to the garden. It is almost impossible to kill a coneflower. New gardeners will have much success with this plant.
- Coneflower seeds and plants are available at Parkseed
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Pollination 101
“Let me tell you about the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above. . .”
The birds and the bees, huh? It is time for a refresher about pollination, because this is the time of the summer when many vegetable/fruit plants are at their peak of producing, and it is very important that everyone understands what that means for them, as gardeners. Especially, organic gardeners …
Read More, including how to pollinate your plants
Creative Blueberry Garden Recipes
 One very important thing to learn as a gardener is to eat seasonally. This means eating greens and wintered over root vegetables in the early and late spring, peas and beans in the early summer, and finding 317 ways to eat blueberries, tomatoes, and peppers in the mid to late summer. In order to accomplish this goal, it requires that the gardener has a number of creative blueberry garden recipes at their disposal.
Blueberry Butter
- 3 cups pureed blueberries
- 3 cups sugar
- zest of one half of lemon
- Juice of one lemon, or about 1/3 cup bottled lemon juice
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a large stainless steel pan. Bring to a rapid boil, stirring frequently. Lower heat to a medium simmer, and allow mixture to boil down until it sets rounded on a spoon. Stir occasionally. This process can take a couple of hours. If done in a slow cooker, less attention is needed, though it takes a bit longer.
Place butter into prepared jars, and use the boiling water canning method for 10 minutes. Remove jars, the pop indicates that there is a proper seal. Label, and store in a cool dark place.
Product Review: Watering Tools
 In midsummer, your plants have reached the point where they need water frequently, but their roots are long enough to reach deep into the soil for it. You may not have to water as frequently, but you still have to hand-water occasionally, and your hose and your inferior watering wand have reached the end of their lives. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to find a replacement for your best hose or watering wand mid-summer. If you go to the big-box stores, they’ve already long since put away gardening tools, and are moving on to Halloween.
Your best bet for summer replacements of garden tools is Gardener’s Supply , a mail-order company from Vermont. I used to live in Vermont, and the Gardener’s Supply one and only retail store was always on my list for a visit. Here are a few reviews on some of their most popular watering products.
Read reviews on watering wands, self-coiling hoses, self-watering baskets and more!
Potting tipping over? Here’s a solution!
If you grow tomatoes or peppers in pots and containers, chances are these plants are now acting like sails in the wind. After a windstorm, you may see some of your pots toppled over. Well, here’s the solution (for next season):
With an empty pot, drive a wood or metal stake through the drainage hole and into the soil, about six inches for tomatoes and four for peppers. You may need to drill new drainage holes along the bottom. Then fill the pot with soil as usual. Best of all, you can use the remainder of the stake to tie and support your plants!
Special Offer: 10% off order of $50 or more
Get 10% off any order at Gardener’s, with $50 or more. Offer good until August 13, 2009
 
Your Organic Gardening Questions
Question: Galls on Grape Leaves? What are they, and should we be concerned?
Brian
Answer: Grapevines throughout North America are often plagued with galls forming on the leaves. Galls are abnormal growth of cells that are infected by a parasite. The most common type of gall issues with grapes is Grape Phylloxera. This is a difficult problem to control. If the galls stay only on the leaves, they do not cause a big problem, other than aesthetics. If the galls reach the roots, they cause more of a problem.
According to most university research, you can’t do much about this problem late in the growing season. You can control the spread early in the season by applying an insecticide while the grapes are flowering in the spring. Our advice if you have this problem: wait until next spring to work on fixing it.
Katie
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