Groundhog Day 2025

 I must admit, I love groundhogs! While it probably has to do with my birthday being near Groundhog Day, and I don't have groundhogs getting into my garden daily, I love the critters. All the critters. But groundhogs, deer, etc. are garden-eating machines.

 

Will he see his shadow this year?

Herbs work great as repellents, but no repellent will work 100% of the time. We say, "deer repellent, not deer proof." If your critters are hungry enough, they will eat it.

 

As he grows, this 4-foot fence won't keep him out

Some of the best advice I have ever heard is that if they know that food is there, they will go to it, so you must break the habit of them going to it. Start with this:

 

Animal Stopper has a lovely herbal scent

1. Use a repellent. My favorite is Animal Stopper because it smells like herbs. But I've also had success with Liquid Fence and Bobbex. Other options include fencing, netting, decoys, and motion-sensing sprinklers.

 Be consistent with using the repellent and switch every year or two so they don’t get used to it. Break the habit of the animals using your garden as a buffet.

Do we have animal repellants? The answer is a resounding yes 

 

2. Plant "resistant" plants. Again, no plant is animal-proof, but texture and scent play a big part in deciding what is edible and what is not. Herbs work great! Lavender, rosemary, sage, mint, chives, basil, oregano, thyme…in fact, most herbs will work as a resistant plant. The same smells that attract us repel the critters. 

Many herbs are perennial, coming back year after year. 

Most herbs prefer sunny spots with well-draining soil. Some herbs, like mint and oregano, can handle some shade. Determine if the light the area will provide will be enough for the plants. You can mix the ornamental plants with resistant plants to help protect them. 

Sage, Thyme, and Rosemary

 Stop in and pick up a copy of our Deer Resistant Plants handout, and this year, let’s keep the critters out of our gardens.

Jen KostickValley View Farms 

 

The Lunar New Year: Good Luck Plants

 The Lunar New Year begins this Wednesday, 1/29/2025. In many cultures, plants symbolize good luck, prosperity, and happiness. A gift displayed in your home or given to a friend is a way to bring blessings for the years ahead. Here are some popular choices currently available in our greenhouse at Valley View Farms:

Anthurium, Lucky Bamboo, Money Tree

Lucky Bamboo, Dracaena sanderiana, can be grown in soil, pebbles, or water. Lucky Bamboo symbolizes strength, resilience, and good fortune.  Grow 3 stalks for happiness, wealth, and long life, or 5 for wealth. 

Moth Orchid

Orchids represent fertility, abundance, and refinement. Bright colors, especially red, purple, and pink, are the most sought-after. 

Money Tree

Money Trees, Pachira aquatica, sold all weekend. It must be that they are associated with prosperity and wealth. Most have braided stems to symbolize stability and growth. 

Money Plant

Another plant, Pilea peperomioides, nicknamed the Money Plant, symbolizes wealth and prosperity with its rounded, coin-like leaves. 

Miniature Orange

Calamondin orange trees are symbols of wealth and good fortune. The more fruits that are present, the better. 

Red Bromeliad

 Red decorations are important elements for celebrating Lunar New Year. Red symbolizes happiness. luck, and, celebration. Red-blooming houseplants including Bromeliads, and Anthurium, could also celebrate the holiday. Red pots are another way to bring luck to your home. 

In this Chinese Year of the Snake, consider bringing good luck to your home with some beautiful houseplants!

2025 Herb of the Year

 

The International Herb Association has chosen Chamomile as the 2025 Herb of the Year.

Chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla, is native to southern and eastern Europe and western Asia. Over time, it has naturalized in other meadows and fields adjacent to those areas. Chamomile is derived from the Greek chamos and melos, translating to ground apple as the leaves and flowers have an apple-like scent. 

Chamomile, Matricaria chamomilla

Chamomile's history: Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks used chamomile as a medicinal herb prized for its effect as an anti-inflammatory agent. It has been used to treat various skin conditions, digestive issues, and allergies. Chamomile has been used in salves, lotions, vapors, and compresses but is known mostly as a tea. 

Daisy-like flowers attract bees, hoverflies, and, ladybugs

Chamomile flowers are a much sought-after tea ingredient to aid in sleep and anxiety-filled dreams. I remember it as the primary ingredient in Celestial Seasoning's Sleepy Time tea. Making a cup of tea was a part of my nightly ritual for years.  

Blend other herbs and spices for delicious and soothing teas

Chamomile has many other uses according to a fact sheet from the Herb Society of America. Chamomile oil, a blue color, is used in shampoos to bring out highlights to blonde hair. Flowers can also be used to create a yellow-brown fabric dye. 

Harvest

The petals are edible and can be used in foods and beverages. Use chamomile to make sleep pillows, potpourri bath blends, and other craft and cosmetic uses. 

Botanical drawing

In the Victorian era, the small, bright white daisy-like flowers symbolized patience in adversity.

Chamomile is grown as an annual in our area. According to the Strictly Medicinal seed packet, "the plant prefers full sun and cool soils for germination. Prepare a fine seed bed, mix fine seed with sand, strew on the surface, and press in hard. Sow in early spring for flowers in early summer. It is unnecessary to thin the plants, they grow fine in close association." 

Recipes for teas, syrup, a sleep pillow, and soothing bath tea are from the Herb Society of America website.

Our seed selection is HUGE

Chamomile and other herbs

Visit our store where we sell Chamomile seeds from Strictly Medicinal and Southern Seed Exchange. We will have herb transplants available this spring. 

Plant of the week: Stephanotis floribunda

 The first thing we noticed was the fragrance. We had just unloaded and priced flowering plants from one of our growers. The Stephanotis was in beautiful bloom, its bright, white flowers adding an amazing scent to the greenhouse. Like jasmine, the smell was intoxicating. 

Stephanotis floribunda, commonly known as Madagascar Jasmine, is a tropical plant native to Madagascar. It is a favorite flower for bridal bouquets for its symbolism of love and marital bliss.  

Its vining growth habit allows Stephanotis to be grown on a trellis or hoop. Ideal growing conditions will allow spring and summer blooming, and growth up to 10 feet or more if properly supported. 

Light: Provide bright indirect sunlight.

Temperature: Like most tropical plants, it will thrive in warm, humid conditions. It is sensitive to cooler temperatures below 50F. 

Soil: Use a well-draining potting mix. 

Watering: Keep consistently moist while flowering, allowing the top of the soil to dry out a bit between watering. Provide good drainage. 

Humidity: Loves humidity; consider growing in a pebble tray in dry homes. 

Fertilizer: Feed with a well-balanced fertilizer 1-2 x a month.

Prune after flowering to maintain and encourage shape and new growth.

Stephanotis can be moved outside after all danger of frost is gone. Keep it in light shade. Bring the plant back in when nighttime temperatures are in the 50's. 

Gifts for Gardeners

Years ago, my mom saw my struggle shopping for my friends and family. "Why not get them plants and garden items? You know their skill level and can customize the right gift for everyone on your list." She was right. Little by little, plants and garden items became gift ideas for sisters, brothers, friends, nieces and nephews. 

Christmas Mouse Poinsettia in a lovely gift basket

Let the plant fit the person you are gifting. A snake plant might be perfect for the new 'plant parent'. Those with more experience might like to try a bonsai or an orchid. Pair the plants with a book, planter, plant light, watering can or whatever would help your indoor gardener succeed. The opportunities are endless. 

Indoor lights and seed starting systems

Vegetable gardeners would love an indoor plant lighting system to get their transplants off to a good start. Seeds, seed starting mix, or a heat mat, are other items that might be fun to try. 

Hori-hori knife, trowel, Felco pruners and kneeler/seat

Good tools are always treasured by gardeners. Felco pruners are the best and offer customizable options for small hands, left-handed people, and feature replaceable blades. A hori-hori knife is another go-to tool for gardeners; it serves as a weeder, bulb planter, scores roots to be transplanted, and digs through clay soils. Older gardeners might appreciate a gardening stool/kneeler in the garden. Getting up and down in the garden is made easier by this handy accessory. For the budget conscious, a good trowel and pair of fashionable/functional garden gloves may be just the thing your gardener needs. 

Watering the garden this year has been a struggle with two periods of drought after a wet spring. The pros use Dramm nozzles and wands for good reason-they work. A watering can from the same company features a long, thin spout perfect for watering containers of plants. 

Gifts to give the host and hostess can include plants as well. An amaryllis or a few paperwhite bulbs already planted are a great idea. A cyclamen that blooms all winter, or small gift baskets of plants are always welcome. 

Stocking stuffers may include garden gloves, indoor watering aids, seed packets and other small items; a gift card being my personal favorite. 

Consider the gift of membership to Longwood Gardens, Cylburn Arboretum, Rawlings Conservatory or Ladew Gardens. If not a membership, maybe a daytrip together to enjoy these lovely gardens. 

The great thing about gardening is that you can invest a little or a lot into a gift; there's something for every budget. 

Enjoy the season!

We Love to Decorate for Christmas and other Winter Holidays---Early

We wish for a White Christmas

Have you noticed that in recent years people are decorating for Christmas earlier than ever, with outdoor lights, trees and holiday decor going up before the Halloween decorations have been put away? The phenomenon has sparked curiosity and debate attributing some of the change to cultural and psychological factors. We may be a little guilty over the years; people expect our Christmas Shop to be up and running in October. 

Ornaments and lights

Psychologically, many people find joy and comfort in the holiday season. Those Hallmark movie people must know something. Christmas decorations evoke nostalgia, family, happiness and serve as a reprieve from everyday stress and challenging times. Covid's uncertainty may have had some decorating to embrace positivity and warmth. 

Red and White, a traditional favorite

Culturally, we used to wait until after Thanksgiving to get the tree up and light up the outdoors with color and inflatables. Social media may be part of the change. Instagram, facebook and Pinterest inspire us with ideas, showcasing early holiday set ups, offering classes to help us with decorating and allowing us to spend more time connecting with friends and family. We love to share our holiday homes and spaces. 

Friends gather for a wreath making party

As a large, regional Christmas Shop, we begin our set-up in early fall. By October, we're ready to showcase our trees, ornaments and Christmas themed decor. Many retailers are joining us earlier. There is a sense of urgency and anticipation that guide our behavior. 

What great fun for family and friends!

December seems too short a time to celebrate; why limit it? We allow more time to visit with friends and family throughout the extended season. If you need to get into the holiday spirit, social media helps out by covering events all season long. 

Not everyone embraces the change.  Some argue that it diminishes the significance of Thanksgiving and leads to holiday fatigue. Others feel that there is just too much commercialism stretched out over time. 

Enjoy the season!

There is a growing acceptance of early decorations. Some may say that the extra time allows more moments of joy.

Where do you fall in the decorating debate?

I have a gardening addiction: My Vacation In Maine

 Maine is a regular vacation destination for me, two close friends and some of my family members. Luckily, we travel well together. Here are some of my observations about gardening in Maine. 

Annual flowers are beautiful well into fall. Our trips are usually in early October and we found gardens galore. Here are some pics from one of my favorites, Thuya Gardens in Northeast Harbor, just outside Acadia National Park. 

Annuals and perennials are planted together in long beds against a backdrop of evergreens in Thuya Gardens, located in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Thuya delights the senses with tall, beautiful plantings. 

Asters, botanically known as Symphyotrichum, are stalwart bloomers in early fall along the coast of Maine. 

Asters paired with celosias offers a nice texture and color to the garden.  Celosias are being used more and more in late summer and fall gardens. 

Nicotiana, aka ornamental tobacco, adds bright color to the bed alongside Black-eyed Susans and Salvia.

Zinnia, an annual that will succumb to frost any day now, is planted with Dusty Miller, Rudbeckia and Salvia. All around the garden, tall Zinnias and Dahlias play a huge part in brightening up the perennials around them. 

The tall Joe Pye Weed dominates a bed that also features Salvia, Marigolds, Dahlias and more. All of the gardens provide nectar for butterflies and hummingbirds migrations. 

Blue and purple Asters and Zinnias share the fall garden spaces at Thuja. Most of these are cultivars; native asters abound in the wild spaces here in Maine. 

Bright red Coleus and Zinnias alongside Cleome and Salvia are offer amazing contrast. 

Dahlia blossoms in the concrete planter gives a feeling of tranquility with the water.

Trails through the garden lead into the woods and eventually to a terrace that takes one to the harbor. 

A peek through the trees to Northeast Harbor.

Maybe it's because the season is shorter in Maine; gardens around homes, hotels and public spaces are beautiful. Thuya garden offers a look into the gardening legacy around the resort areas in coastal Maine. 

I hope you can use some of these ideas for your own gardens. Take photos of what worked (and what didn't)in your landscape and draw upon some ideas for next year. 

In the meantime, have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a nice holiday season.