Basically, I have bad news. Although last fall it looked like the new nut grass controls were working, this spring we found out differently. The nut grass came back with a vengeance.

My hand pulling did seem to work. I am getting just a small amount of regrowth in my own nut grass at home.

We are back to recommending hand pulling, hula hoeing or using Monterey Weed Hoe. The key issue is consistence and not allowing it to reestablish itself. If you allow it to grow back you have to start over again. As near as I can tell it takes a couple of years to finally get it out.

We are continuing to try different methods of the new nut grass controls to see if we can find a better solution.

Over a few years you can develop a population that eliminates rose aphid in just a couple of weeks. It is true that you do get some damage but you can go years with no insect spraying. Obviously we don't do this at the nursery, but at home I just wash the aphids off with water, and rely on Encarsia Wasps and Lady Bug catch the straggler.

I haven't sprayed my roses in over 10 years at three houses. Note that I am talking about rose aphid not ALL aphid. The encarsia wasp does a number on the rose aphid not all aphid.

Someday I want to buy a house. I don’t have a clear picture in my mind of the house itself, but the garden I can see perfectly. The most important part of my dream garden is the vegetable patch. I think this comes from so many summers, so many loving hours spent outside with my grandmother planting and tending her vegetable patch. There were zucchini, carrots, radishes, one year we even had corn, and always there were the sweetest strawberries I have ever had in my life. Coming outside to pick the little red jewels on summer mornings to pop into my mouth with juicy fingers... I want to do that again. I want my daughter to be able to do that. There were the great “Tomato Worm Hunts” trying to spy the fat green rascals from the greener tomato leaves. There were the lady bugs, and butterflies, the birds. There was the rhythm of nature felt deep in your bones that gets lost to us as we get older and stay indoors more.

Gardening is a gift that you can give to your children. It’s time spent learning hands-on about how the world works, time spent hand-in-hand with you. There is not much that's as satisfying to a young mind as plucking a huge zucchini from the vine that you planted and watered yourself... that you protected from the snails (those buggers!). Don’t get caught up in the “chore” of gardening. Remember it’s not a chore, it’s a rich and grounding experience. Don’t deny that experience to your kids. Get them their own little gardening gloves and watering cans and send them out smiling. They’ll thank you for it.

Pixie is a true dwarf Echinacea reaching 18-20 inches tall and 20 inches wide. An adorable mini coneflower, yielding a profusion of pink blooms that sport a yellow-brown center with as many as 15 buds and blooms on a one to two-year-old plant.

from Monrovia Nursery

The petals are horizontal, not pendulous and the blooms sit atop a pencil-thick stalk. The foliage is denser than most echinaceas and has a stunning blue tint. Ideal for perennial borders, rock gardens and containers, Pixie has performed very well in full sun or dappled shade. This introduction from Dr. Jim Ault at the Chicagoland Grows® Program is the result of a tennesseenis x purpurea hybrid that was then crossed with an aungustifolia x tennesseenis hybrid.

With todays smaller gardens this fits a need and so far seems to be well received