Home of Stella's Gardens

We are now living full time in Northeast Iowa, and working on the new gardens. It will keep us busy for quite a while...

As an avid gardener since I was about 7 years old, that gives me over 45 years of experience gardening in this part of the world. And every year teaches me a bit more.


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

It's been a long fall and winter, lots of things to do with the new house on the verge of starting. May be posting more about that....in the meantime, with the discussion of impatiens and their impending doom (hope not) here is a picture of my shady corner many years ago - you can still see too much of the neighbor's icky yard, and this was before the shed was built behind the fence, making it even darker....Impatiens are invaluable to me here, Shady Ladies! And today, amazing number of cardinals mobbing the feeders this evening. A minimum of a dozen in view...light snow falling, quite the colorful sight!

2 comments:

  1. I agree about the impatiens, they are really indispensable in shade. I'm going to avoid them this year but not sure what I will use as a substitute.

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  2. Talk about being slow on the response...We're breaking ground on the new house - I think I will make a separate page for that - so not a lot of time for blogging etc. I have been peeking at your blog, it's nice to see someone is gardening! We are "on hold" until the house is in, then I will probably spend the fall moving plants (if we can get the space ready) or maybe next spring!

    As for what to use instead of impatiens - there are certainly lots of shady perennials but annuals are a lot more difficult, aren't they? I have used begonias - (fibrous semperflorens, not tuberous) started them from seed, and then take cuttings in the fall to keep under my lights, as they are actually tender perennials. They aren't as bright or varied as impatiens but some of them have colored leaves, and some are pretty large (Big Red is one.)

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