This week, we said goodbye to summer, but not to gardening. With the temperatures still reaching the 70s and sometimes 80s in our neck of the forest, it seems silly to pack up our gardening gear and call it a season.

In fact, Fall means a lot to do for gardeners. 

First of all, take a moment to look around. Your garden is in its last full flower and now’s the time to take stock of what worked, what didn’t work and what you’d want to change next year. If you wait until winter or next spring, you might have a harder time remembering or visualizing the things you want to do.

Also, you might not get a chance to do it next month. October is the transition between summer fun to holiday crunch, particularly as we try to figure out how (and if) we can do our traditional get-togethers in the time of COVID.

Meanwhile, let’s talk about how to extend the season so you can enjoy your garden for as long as possible. Pretty soon the threat of a freeze will loom, so I’ll be honest with you – you’ll likely lose your “non-hardy” annuals. But you can replace them with some fall favorites, like mums, asters, flowering cabbage and kale, all of which will keep your garden looking beautiful for several more weeks. Meanwhile, spring blooms like pansies and violas have made a reappearance and aren’t threatened by a little cold weather – or even snow!

If you haven’t yet, make sure you get those spring-blooming bulbs into the ground before the freeze. Plus there’s still time to plant some cold-season veggies.

Fall is also a great time to get trees and perennials planted. I know the temptation might be to wait until next year, but there are a lot of advantages to getting them into the ground now. You’ll get more growth out of the plant next year if they are planted in the fall. Also, there’s less up-front care that is required when you plant this time of year as trees will soon go into dormancy.

The bottom line is that any excuse to be outside gardening during this beautiful season is a good thing!

Hope you are enjoying your Fall and we hope to see you soon at Warner’s Nursery.

Happy Gardening,
Misti

One of the things we’ve really missed this year because of COVID-19 is being able to have our club for kids. Usually, the “Mud Club” would meet every couple of weeks with fun, hands-on lessons about how plants work.

It was good for us (there’s nothing like the unabashed enthusiasm of kids playing in the dirt). It was also good for our young participants. Horticulture is a really effective way of teaching things like patience and responsibility. 

But in 2020, our get-togethers needed to be curtailed because of safety concerns.

Which is why I’m so very excited to announce that this Saturday, September 12, we’ll be launching our online version of the Warner’s Kids’ Club.

Our New Video Series Debuts

It will be a video series uploaded on Facebook every other weekend to explore plants, science and the environment. Each class will include a fun project you can do at home and we’ll have “kits” set up for purchase here at the nursery.

This Saturday we’ll be talking about the water cycle – how water on the ground heats up, turns into vapor, rises into the sky where it cools, becomes heavier and returns to Earth in the form of rain.

What’s even cooler is that we’ll show kids how to recreate this phenomena with a self-watering seedling. All it takes is a couple of cups, some seeds and seedling plant mix and, of course, water.

As I mentioned, we’ll have a kit for purchase specifically for this kid club. And the beauty of this video series is that you can access it at any time, giving your child one more fun activity to do at home. 

We hope that you – and your child – enjoy this new video series. 

Happy Gardening,
Misti

Mark your calendars – on Friday, September 18, you could help save a life.

That’s when Warner’s Nursery will be having its second blood drive of the year in the safe and super comfy Vitalant bus in our parking lot.

It’s unusual because we typically just have one annual drive around the July 4th holiday. We decided to add a second one this year for several reasons.

First of all, we had a tremendous response to July’s blood drive. Within days of announcing it, all our appointments to give blood were filled up. At the same time, there’s still a huge need for blood. Many blood drives have been cancelled during this era of COVID-19 (although it is safe to give blood – more on that below).

Avari

But probably the most important reason for this special drive is a little girl named Avari. She’s who this blood drive is in honor of and for us, it’s personal; Avari is the beloved step-daughter of one of our employees. 

When Avari was born in February 2011, she seemed to be in perfect health, a happy and adorable baby. But after about a month, she developed a persistent cough and fever. A blood test showed that her red blood cell count was dangerously low. The very next day, she was at Phoenix Children’s Hospital for a blood transfusion. 

Avari’s had almost 100 blood transfusions since then. She suffers from Diamond Blackfan Anemia, a rare condition that means her bone marrow doesn’t produce red blood cells. As her mother puts it: “Ava lives on borrowed blood.”

Donations – Safe to Give While Saving Lives

When we have our special blood drive from 9 am to 5 pm on Friday, September 18, you’ll not only be making a difference in the lives of people like Avari, you’ll be safe doing it.

We know that it’s a scary time, and if you are hesitant about donating blood now, we want to reassure you that there’s no inherent risk of coronavirus from the blood donation itself.

Additionally, Vitalant is taking precautions to ensure the well-being of donors and its staff. All donors and staff will be required to wear masks. Social distancing measures will be enacted, which is why we are asking everyone to make an appointment. Vitalant will also be continuously sanitizing the bus, wiping down all high-touch areas often and after every collection.

Being a blood donor is it’s own reward, but there are a few other benefits you’ll get when you donate on September 18:

• A voucher for a free pint of frozen custard from Culver’s.
• A coupon for 15% off all your purchases that day on regularly priced items at Warner’s Nursery.
• Entry in a drawing for a $25 Warner’s gift certificate

To schedule your appointment, go to bloodhero.com and use the code “warners” or give Vitalant a call at 877-25-VITAL. Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you on Sept. 18.

Happy Gardening,
Misti

With the wet weather, we’ve been getting more questions at the nursery about whether mushrooms are good or bad for your garden.

My reply? Don’t fear the fungi.

Mushrooms actually are a friend, not a foe in your garden. Basically, they break down complex organic materials like dead leaves and wood chips. This turns them into substances plants can absorb.

Not that you see any of this. What you think of as a mushroom is the “fruit” body of the plant. There’s a bunch of stuff happening below the soil’s surface that is good for your garden.

How mushrooms help

Mushrooms have filaments called hyphae that spread out into the soil and interact with nearby plant roots. This interaction increases the roots’ surface area, which has a whole host of benefits, such as:

• An increased ability to suck up water and nutrients from the soil
• Improved drought tolerance
• Improved disease resistance
• Reduced stress from weather conditions and transplant shock

In fact, mycorrhizae are often used to improve poor soil. If you are seeing mushrooms, it’s an indicator that your soil is healthy. 

Generally, I’d leave your mushrooms alone with one big exception: if you have pets or small kids who are out and about in your garden. Ideally, you’ll want to teach your kids to stay away from mushrooms and limit your pet’s access, but that isn’t always possible.

Some mushrooms are toxic, so if it’s likely your children or pets will get into your garden, you might want to pull them as you see them.

Mushroom superpower?

Scientists think there’s another superpower mushrooms have, although it probably isn’t playing out in your garden: they eat plastic.

I’m not kidding. In the past decade, there have been two academic studies that have shown that certain mushrooms, such as the Pestalotiopsis microspora found in the Amazon, will break down and “eat” plastic. They also don’t require oxygen to live.

Think of the possibilities. A layer of this super mushroom at the bottom of a landfill could decompose the waste in a matter of months. Natural decomposition would take decades, if not centuries.

So I think when you see some mushrooms, you should give them a little salute. Not only are they making your garden better, the might be a secret weapon in helping our environment. 

If you have any questions about mushrooms or anything else going on in your garden, please stop by and ask. Our friendly experts are always ready to help.

Happy Gardening,
Misti

Today I want to have a serious talk with you about the birds and the bees. 

No, not that talk. That talk you probably had years ago and, in any case, I’m not your Mom.

All joking aside, birds and bees (and butterflies) do need to be discussed seriously because they face incredibly challenging times. Pollinators are responsible for one out of every three mouthfuls of food we eat, but their numbers have been in serious decline for decades.

The Monarch Butterfly population has plummeted by something like 90 percent, mostly due to the loss of milkweed along their migratory route. Bee colonies have collapsed, victims of loss of habitat, pesticides and disease. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says more than 20 species of pollinator birds are on the Endangered Species list.

But together, we can help, either by creating more gardens or making some changes in existing gardens so they are more friendly to birds, bees and butterflies.

You can expand pollinators’ garden habitats by planting at least three different pollinator-friendly plants that bloom in three different seasons (spring, summer and fall) to help ensure a consistent food supply. 

Towards the end of summer and beginning of fall, your best pollinator attractors include: Rudbeckia, Gaillardia, Catmint, Coreopsis, Agastache, Monarda, Lavender, Penstemon, Yarrow, Echinacea, Summer Phlox, Trumpet Vine, Russian Sage and, of course, Butterfly bushes.

Adopting some other strategic choices in your garden will help pollinators thrive as well. You can:

• Create habitats for pollinators by supplying necessary water, food, shelter and places to raise their young. A great example is a “bee condo,” which you can make or purchase. 
• Plant in clumps as clustering plants makes them easier to find and shortens the need for travel, reserving the energy of backyard pollinators.
• Choose a variety of colors and shapes, as different pollinators are attracted to different types of flowers. (For example, flat petal flowers for butterflies, who “taste” with their feet; funnel-like flowers for hummingbirds; yellow and blue flowers for bees, who have difficulty seeing red.)
• Use pollinator-safe pesticides and follow the directions for use carefully.

Warner’s locally grown native plant selection, as well as all the other quality plants from our nursery, provide multiple food sources for pollinators. Not only will they keep your local pollinators well fed, they’ll also keep your garden and yard looking lovely too.

Stop by and let us know if we can help.

Happy Gardening,
Misti

We’ve made it to summer, hopefully safe and sound.

In a year as crazy as this one has been, one of the few sanctuaries for “normal” that we have left is our gardens. Being outdoors, growing things, even weeding for goodness’ sake, can be an escape during these times. 

Everything in the news from pandemics to politics is almost designed to make our hearts race each and every day. At the same time, the shutting down of so many of our favorite summer activities (big yard parties, movies, anything involving people not in your immediate household) can make this year feel crushingly boring.

Gardening can help with both, getting you away from the immediate concerns of the day and giving you a place to expend all that pent up energy. It keeps you active, but at your own pace. There’s always projects to work on, but very few hard deadlines.

(Except for watering and feeding your plants, of course. That’s definitely on a deadline, otherwise it’s your plants that will be dead.)

Being outdoors in your garden also gives you another “room” to take advantage of in your house. Which, if you’ve been trapped inside with your family for the past four months, is essential right now.

In fact, that’s a great project to work on during the summer: creating a new outdoor space to give your family a new setting to enjoy.

And, eventually, we’re going to be able to socialize more closely and have those big BBQ or outdoor cocktail parties. Won’t it be nice to have an inviting space already made for those events?  

Creating an outdoor “room” also provides a place to get away from our screens. Much of our lives now have to be conducted on Zoom and the like. Getting in the garden and away from your laptop or smartphone – even for just 15 minutes – is the pause that refreshes.  

So take a look at your garden, patio or yard and think about how you can enhance them this summer. If you need any advice, give us a call or visit at Warner’s Nursery. We’d be happy to help.

I hope you have a safe and fulfilling summer. 

Happy Gardening,
Misti