Kewaunee County Garden Club

04/25/2026

Heirloom tomato varieties available at the 28th annual plant sale
May 23rd @ Lakehaven Hall downtown Kewaunee

Hawaiian cherry - red, small, sweet
Black cherry - dark red, size of a golf ball
Green grape - green when ripe, size of a golf ball
Snow white - very light yellow, size of a golf ball
Pink Berkely Tie Dye - striped, pink flesh, 4-5"
Mortgage Lifter - red, large
Aunt Ruby's German Green - green when ripe, large
Stupice - red, 2-3", Czech heirloom
Kentucky Beefsteak - large, orange-yellow
Cherokee Purple - 4-6", purple
Black Russian - dark red, 3-5"
Golden Jubilee - 4-5", yellow, low acid
Alice's Dream - striped yellow, large
Green Zebra - Striped greenish yellow, 2-3"

04/25/2026

Never too early to mark this spectacular annual sale in your calendar.

04/19/2026

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You planted flowers for pollinators. You chose by color. Almost nothing showed up.

The problem isn't color. It's shape.

A butterfly can't feed from a tubular flower because she needs a surface to stand on. A hummingbird won't bother with a flat flower because there's no nectar tube deep enough to be worth the hover. The shape of the bloom determines which pollinators can physically reach the nectar inside.

Color is the advertisement. Shape is the door.

🌿 Four flower shapes and who they let in:

- Tubular (salvia, penstemon, honeysuckle, columbine, bee balm) — long narrow blooms with nectar pooled at the bottom. Only pollinators with long reach can access it — hummingbirds and hawk moths primarily. If you want hummingbirds, plant tubular

- Flat and open (yarrow, coneflower, black-eyed Susan, milkweed, dill in bloom) — a landing pad with nectar right at the surface. Butterflies need this shape because they perch while feeding. Short-tongued bees, hoverflies, and small wasps all use flat flowers easily. If you want butterflies, plant flat

- Bowl (magnolia, poppy, single-petal roses, crocus, water lily) — wide enough to crawl inside. Beetles have been pollinating bowl-shaped flowers longer than bees have existed. Bumblebees also work bowl flowers by vibrating inside to shake pollen loose

- Composite head (sunflower, zinnia, cosmos, aster, goldenrod, daisy) — what looks like one flower is actually hundreds of tiny individual florets packed together. A bee walking across a sunflower head visits dozens of florets in one stop. Almost every pollinator type can feed on composites

A garden planted with one shape serves one group. A garden with all four feeds the full range.

The pollinator doesn't choose by color. She chooses by whether her body fits the bloom 🌱

04/11/2026

Not every bug in the garden is a problem — some are doing the hard work for you 🐞
🦋 Ladybugs, lacewings, and hoverflies are ones I’m always happy to see
🌿 Beneficial insects help keep pest numbers down naturally
🐛 Aphids, whiteflies, and cabbage worms are the ones I watch for most
✨ I try to learn the helpers first before I panic over every bug

04/11/2026

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Your yard isn't one habitat. It's three, stacked on top of each other.

The ground layer (first 12 inches) is home to toads, ground beetles, salamanders, chipmunks, and ground-nesting bees. They thrive in leaf litter and soil cavities, mostly at night.

The shrub layer (2-8 feet) hosts cardinals, catbirds, song sparrows, and rabbits. Dense cover like hedges and thickets is essential for nesting.

The canopy layer (above 15 feet) includes orioles, tanagers, and vireos that feed on caterpillars in the upper branches. You may hear them more than you see them.

Each layer supports unique species and predators. A yard with all three layers can sustain three times the species of a lawn-only yard!

🌳 The quick check:

- Do you have ground cover? Leaf litter, mulch, rocks, logs.
- Do you have shrub cover? Dense hedge, native shrubs, brush pile.
- Do you have canopy? A mature tree with a full crown.

The yard that looks the simplest from the sidewalk may be the richest from the inside. It just depends on how many layers are running 🌿

04/09/2026

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The pest doesn't need spraying. It needs a predator. The predator doesn't need buying. It needs a flower.

Plant the right flower and the predator shows up on its own, finds the pest, and does the work for free. The chain assembles itself.

🌱 Five chains that work:

- Aphids → ladybug larvae → plant yarrow. The larvae do the killing — hundreds of aphids each. The yarrow keeps the adults around to lay eggs near the colony

- Tomato hornworms → braconid wasps → let your dill bolt. The wasp lays eggs inside the hornworm. The flowers are the weapon, not the dill leaves

- Slugs → ground beetles → let cilantro flower. The beetles hunt at night while you sleep. The flowers give them daytime shelter

- Cabbage worms → paper wasps → plant fennel. The wasps catch caterpillars, chew them into paste, and feed them to their own larvae. One nest near your brassicas catches dozens a day

- Whiteflies → lacewing larvae → plant cosmos. The larvae have sickle-shaped jaws that drain whiteflies in seconds. The cosmos keeps adult lacewings fed and laying eggs nearby

One flower per pest. The predator does the rest 🌿

04/02/2026

Consider including a few native plants in your landscape this year. They help support pollinators, other beneficial insects and songbirds. Their deep roots create pathways for water to infiltrate and travel through the soil to the groundwater. The plant roots and soil help remove much of the dust and pollutants from the stormwater before it recharges the groundwater. As the old roots die, they add organic matter to the soil.

Select plants that not only thrive in the growing conditions but will also fit the space when mature. Include a variety of plants with various bloom times, helping support pollinators throughout the growing season.

Although most native plants are resistant to animal browsing, you may find them nibbling on coneflowers, asters and tender new plants when food is limited and populations are high. Protect susceptible plants with organic odor based Plantskydd https://plantskydd.com repellent. It repels deer, elk, moose, rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and voles before they take a bite out of the plants. Since Plantskydd is rain and snow resistant you will need to apply it less often. Check the label for application rates and timing for the most effective control.

Pictured here is lavender hyssop.

04/02/2026

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March is still a good time to scrape and destroy any spongy moth egg masses you observe on or under bark of oaks and other trees, as well as on vehicles, birdhouses, deer stands, picnic tables, and other outdoor items. This can help prevent hundreds of caterpillars from emerging and defoliating your trees.

03/27/2026

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Baltimore Orioles are arriving in the mid-Atlantic this week. Scouts first. Main wave in seven to ten days.

Here's what most people don't know about orioles — the first reliable food source they find when they arrive becomes their primary station for the entire breeding season. If your neighbor puts out oranges before you do, the orioles set up near their yard. Not yours.

The station that's ready when they land is the one they keep.

🐦 Three food sources, one station:

Oranges — cut a navel orange in half and push each half onto a nail driven through a board or branch, cut side up and exposed to the sky. The bright color is visible from a long distance. Orioles locate feeding stations by color first, then scent. Replace every two to three days before the fruit ferments

Grape jelly — a small shallow dish with about a tablespoon of standard grape jelly. Not sugar-free, not artificially flavored. Orioles seek it out immediately. Limit the amount to a tablespoon per day — too much jelly and they stop eating the insects their chicks need for protein

Nectar — same recipe as hummingbird nectar. Four parts water, one part white sugar, no dye. Some oriole-specific feeders have larger perches and wider ports that accommodate them better than hummingbird feeders

🐦 Where and how to place it:

Open area, not tucked against the house — orioles prefer feeding where they can see approaching threats from every direction. A branch or pole at the edge of the yard works better than a window feeder

About five to six feet off the ground, near a tree where they can perch between feeding visits

Orioles respond to orange, not red. An orange feeder, an orange ribbon, or even the exposed orange halves themselves help scouts locate the station faster from a distance

Set it up this weekend. Scouts check food availability during their first days in your area. A station loaded with oranges, jelly, and nectar when they arrive tells them this territory feeds. An empty hook tells them to move on

One station. Three food sources. Ready before they land 🌿