Sharon's Greenhouse

06/04/2026

GREENHOUSE OPEN THURSDAY, 10 - 9

06/03/2026

A garden feels healthier when the good bugs show up 🌼 A few plants I like for that:
🌿 Dill and fennel are great for tiny helpful insects, but I give them space because they can get tall.
🌸 Sweet alyssum is one of my favorites for tucking along edges and containers.
🧡 Calendula and marigolds add color while helping bring in garden visitors.
🌼 Cosmos are easy, cheerful, and don’t need much fuss once established.
🐝 Let some herbs flower instead of harvesting every stem, especially cilantro and dill.
I’ve found that adding a few “bug-friendly” flowers makes the garden feel more balanced without doing anything complicated.

06/03/2026

Your birdbath gets 5-10 visitors a day. This hack makes it 50-100.

The secret: dripping water.

Birds hear dripping water from 100+ feet away. Still water is invisible to them — they can't see a shallow dish from above. But the SOUND of a drip hitting water is a universal bird signal: "Water here. Safe. Come."

THE DRIP HACK — 2 MINUTES:

MATERIALS:
→ 1 plastic milk jug or 2-liter bottle (from your recycling: $0)
→ 1 thumbtack or small nail
→ String or wire to hang it

METHOD:
→ Poke ONE hole in the bottom of the jug with a thumbtack. One hole. Tiny. The size of a pin.
→ Fill with water.
→ Hang it 12-18 inches ABOVE your birdbath so the drip lands in the water.
→ Tie it to a shepherd's hook, branch, or pole above the bath.
→ Adjust the hole size: you want 1 drip per second. Too fast = empty too quickly. Too slow = no audible signal.

THE PHYSICS:

→ Each drip creates a concentric ripple on the water surface. Moving water reflects light in flashing patterns visible from 50+ feet above — birds in flight can spot the flashing.
→ The impact sound travels 100-150 feet through suburban ambient noise. In a quiet morning, further.
→ Ripples prevent mosquito larvae from establishing — mosquitoes need STILL water for 7-10 days. One drip per second keeps the surface in constant motion.

THE RESULT:

A backyard birding study compared identical birdbaths with and without drippers:
→ Drip bath: average 47 visits per day (12 species)
→ Still bath: average 8 visits per day (4 species)
→ That's a 488% increase from one pinhole in a milk jug.

WHO COMES (species that respond specifically to dripping sound):
→ Warblers during spring migration — these canopy birds almost NEVER come to ground level. A drip brings them down.
→ Thrushes (Wood Thrush, Hermit Thrush) — secretive ground birds that follow water sounds.
→ Cedar Waxwings — travel in flocks of 20-40. One finds the drip, the flock follows. Spectacular.
→ All your regular visitors — but more often, and they stay longer.

MAINTENANCE:
→ Refill the jug daily (a 1-gallon jug lasts 8-10 hours at 1 drip/second)
→ Clean the birdbath every 3 days (more visitors = more use)
→ In winter: the drip prevents freezing longer than still water. Moving water freezes at a lower effective temperature.

💡 Pro Tip: Set up a lawn chair 15-20 feet from the drip bath. On a May morning during migration, you'll see warblers you've never seen in your life — birds that have been flying over your yard for years and never stopped.

06/02/2026

Same price, same soil (well not the SAME soil)

POTTING SOIL - $15

06/02/2026

The supermarket basil plant dies almost always for the same reasons. None of them are inevitable. 🌿

What most people do — and what does not work:

Supermarket pot left as sold: it contains 15 to 20 seedlings packed tightly together, grown for appearance on the shelf rather than for sustained growth. They exhaust each other's root space within days. As sold, they will die.

Flowers left to develop: the moment basil flowers, it stops producing leaves and puts all its energy into seed. The harvest ends. A flower bud looks like an elongated point at the stem tip — different from the leaf pairs. Remove it the instant it appears.

Watering from above: water falling onto the stems at soil level promotes fungal rot at the base. The roots are dead before the problem is visible on the surface.

Direct midday sun in summer: in a south-facing British window in July or August, direct afternoon sun scorches basil leaves. The edges yellow and burn. Morning light is ideal.

Pot with no drainage holes: roots in standing water rot within days.

What works:

Divide immediately into individual plants: buy one supermarket pot and gently separate it into three portions. Pot each one separately with fresh peat-free compost. You get three healthy plants instead of one dying one. This is the single most important action.

Remove flower buds the moment they appear: pinch or cut. The plant responds with new lateral shoots and more leaves.

Water from below into the saucer: pour water into the saucer, allow the plant to absorb for 20 minutes, then empty the remainder. Roots draw from below; stems stay dry.

Morning sun, partial shade in the afternoon: particularly important in a south-facing window from late June onward.

Pot with drainage holes: never standing water beneath the roots.

One supermarket pot, divided into three, watered from below, and pinched regularly — will last all summer on a British windowsill. 🌱

06/02/2026

Succulent bowls fail for one reason most people never consider — dormancy cycles.

A cactus that grows in summer and an aeonium that grows in winter are on opposite schedules. Water the bowl on the cactus's timeline and the aeonium rots. Water on the aeonium's timeline and the cactus sits in moisture it can't use. They look like they belong together. They don't.

The grouping rule for succulents is simpler than it looks: same growing season, same soil, same water needs.

🌿 Eight groupings that actually share the same schedule:

- Golden barrel cactus, old man cactus, zebra haworthia — summer growers, full sun, pure grit. Use the driest, grittiest mix you can make — mostly pumice or perlite with almost no organic matter. A shallow, unglazed pot that dries within a day

- Echeveria, sedum, graptopetalum — rosette-forming summer growers in bright sun. These handle slightly more water than true cacti but still rot in standard potting mix. The rosette shape funnels water toward the stem, so top-water around the edges, not into the center

- Jade plant, elephant bush, string of buttons — upright, woody-stemmed succulents with deeper roots than rosette types. They need a taller pot to accommodate the root structure. These are the succulents that eventually look like miniature trees if you let them grow

- Lithops, split rock, baby toes — the extreme end of the spectrum. Almost no water for months at a time. Zero organic matter in the soil — pure mineral grit. These die from kindness faster than from neglect. If you're watering them on the same schedule as anything else on this list, it's too much

- Aeonium, blue chalk sticks, string of pearls — winter growers that go dormant in summer heat. Water in fall and winter, back off in summer. Most people kill string of pearls by watering through July — she's sleeping, not thirsty

- Aloe, agave, gasteria — tough, wide-spreading plants with thick roots that need room. Use a wide, heavy container — these get top-heavy and tip lightweight pots. Aloe and gasteria handle lower light than most succulents, which makes this the grouping for a bright room that doesn't get direct sun

- Snake plant, ZZ plant, haworthia cooperi — the low-light survivors. These aren't true desert plants — they evolved in shaded understory conditions. They handle less light and more neglect than anything else on this list. Water monthly in winter, every couple of weeks in summer

- Christmas cactus, Easter cactus, rhipsalis — jungle epiphytes, not desert plants at all. They need humidity, some organic matter in the soil, and indirect light. Everything about their care is the opposite of a barrel cactus. The number one mistake is treating them like desert succulents because they have "cactus" in the name

🌱 The one test that prevents most succulent losses:

- Before combining any two succulents, look up whether each one grows in summer or winter. If they're on different schedules, they can't share a pot — no soil mix or watering technique fixes a dormancy mismatch

Eight groupings. Eight schedules that don't conflict 🌿

06/02/2026

Geraniums, technically known as Pelargoniums, are among the most popular flowering plants for gardens, containers, and hanging baskets because of their bright blooms, decorative foliage, and easy-care nature. Although many people grow them as annuals, they are actually tender perennials that can survive for multiple years in warm climates.

There are several different types of geraniums, each offering its own unique appearance and growing habits. Zonal geraniums are the most common and are recognized for their rounded flower clusters and patterned leaves. Scented geraniums are grown mainly for their fragrant foliage, which can release scents similar to lemon, mint, or rose. Regal geraniums produce larger, more dramatic flowers, while trailing ivy geraniums are ideal for hanging baskets and containers because of their cascading growth habit.

Geraniums grow best in full sun to partial shade and prefer rich, well-drained soil that does not stay overly wet. They should usually be planted outdoors after the danger of frost has passed, and proper spacing is important to allow good airflow and reduce disease problems.

These plants require regular watering, especially during active growth, but the soil should be allowed to dry slightly between waterings because geraniums tolerate dry conditions much better than soggy soil. During very hot weather, container-grown geraniums may need watering every day to prevent stress.

Warm temperatures are ideal for strong growth and continuous flowering. Geraniums generally perform best between 65–75°F (18–24°C), while cold temperatures or extreme heat can slow growth and reduce blooming.

To keep the plants flowering throughout summer, gardeners often feed them with a balanced fertilizer every few weeks and regularly remove faded blooms through deadheading. Pinching back stems also helps encourage bushier, fuller growth and produces more flowers over time.

Although geraniums are considered low-maintenance plants, they can occasionally develop issues such as root rot, mold, aphids, whiteflies, or spider mites, especially if conditions are overly damp, crowded, or poorly ventilated.

Geraniums are also very easy to propagate from cuttings or seeds, making them simple to multiply at home. In colder climates, many gardeners overwinter them indoors so they can be replanted outdoors the following year.

Overall, geraniums are dependable, colorful plants that thrive with simple care and provide long-lasting blooms throughout summer, making them a favorite choice for both beginner and experienced gardeners.

06/01/2026

Bench, wishing well and mushrooms and 3 hens and chicks in a basket. Fairy to go in, also. $30.00
One made up. Can make up more.

06/01/2026

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Most gardeners assume their lilac is thriving. It's tall, it's lush, it blooms every spring without fail.

What they don't notice — until someone points it out — is that every single flower is way up at the top. The bottom two thirds of the shrub is just bare woody trunk. You practically need a pair of binoculars to see the blooms.

That's not a healthy lilac. That's a lilac that has quietly been getting away from you for years.

Lilacs are tip bloomers — the flowers follow the new growth upward, year after year, until the display has climbed so high it barely registers from the ground. The plant isn't failing. It's just doing exactly what an unpruned lilac does, given enough time and benign neglect.

The good news is this is fixable. There's a specific pruning method that brings the flowering back down to eye level — and it starts right now, while the spent flowers are still on the shrub. The full guide is in the first comment, worth a read before this year's pruning window closes.