Ahhh, July. We’re mid-way through our high season for playing hooky, and while it’s tempting to relax because my garden is doing its thing, when working with Nature, the work (and fun) never ends. I need to keep touching and tending all the plants I’ve invited into my yard, deadheading for more blooms, pinching back for more food, applying organic fertilizer for improved soil, twining up beans for air flow, and start a new compost pile. We are putting in metal edging to maintain some semblance of order in my over-stuffed spaces, and eventually, I’ll add “green mulch,” or low-maintenance ground cover plants, for my high traffic garden paths. Funny how I find ways to boost my annual garden budget.
And then there are things that aren’t necessary for my planting success, but I do them anyway. For example, I am conducting a basil-themed experiment. On a package of basil seeds, it says that pelletized seeds (they look like cupcake sprinkles, which makes it easier to see them when you sow) last only six months. So, into one raised bed I planted pelletized and regular basil seeds, both from 2024 to ensure accurate, if dirty, results. In early June, both came up at about the same rate. Nature wants to grow, despite a birthday cake coating.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
By late June however, it turns out the warning about pelletized seeds was right; I lost most of my sprinkles. Luckily, I had an add-on basil experiment come to the rescue. My one plant from a local garden center was looking a bit wan, and since I need a forest of basil in my cooking, I did something smart and not at all sneaky. I bought a Trader Joe’s live basil plant and broke it into 12 plugs which are thriving. This is much less expensive than buying plants at a garden center. By the end of the summer, I’ll have enough pesto for me and you. I’ve already made a note to buy two TJ’s plants next year in my 2026 garden file.
While this experiment gave the win to the truth-telling seed company, an experiment I tried a few years ago went terribly wrong. I was trying to grow perennials that “look like” Gerber daisies (one of my favorite annuals), and after some research, I bought a packet of perennial daisy seeds to sow into a raised bed. Imagine my surprise when I got thirty tomato plants instead! I was able to find good homes for them all, but it made me question “Big Tomato’s” reach. Was Big Tomato angry that I went from eighteen tomato plants one year to eight the next? These experiments are inexpensive and fun to try, although Nature (and a certain seed company) doesn’t always follow my amateur science protocols.
I am seeing more butterflies every year as I super load my garden with native plants. Last year I had several generations of Monarchs, a Question Mark, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, a Silver Spotted Skipper and a Mourning Cloak (who names these elegant creatures?) I may keep my phone on a lanyard to be quicker on the snapshot draw. My first butterfly this year was a Black Swallowtail although I didn’t see her sampling nectar or laying eggs. I filled three shallow clay trays with rocks and water so the pollinators can stay hydrated. I have been trying the Monarch Watch app to submit info on my sightings. I did one of their playful quizzes to test my knowledge of the insects in my yard. Because I have had several run-ins with tobacco hornworms, I got 8 out of 10 on my first try. Now it’s your turn! I am building it (it being a food, nectar and water-filled garden), and they are coming.
I cut my garlic scapes off in mid-June so the plants put more energy into the cloves and will harvest the cloves in mid-July, once most of the leaves die back. I have jerry-rigged a drying rack in my back hallway, keeping the heads cool and aerated for use throughout the year. Last’s year garlic lasted almost 12 months, even after giving some away. With the garlic bed empty, I’ll sow another round of crops that will yield food into the “shoulder” months of fall.
Were your vegetables slow to take off this year? It’s amazing how, with only a few big, blowzy bursts of sun, my cantaloupe plants ballooned in size, the zinnias and Mexican sunflowers jumped towards the sky, lettuces filled in their beds, my dill plants recovered from early bunny attacks and the tomatoes finally straightened up with some fruit. During our long summer days my plants soak the light up, converting it to the nutrients they need to feed the rest of us.
I heard the phrase “light eaters” during a recent online webinar with Rachael Peterson of Harvard’s Divinity School and hosted by the Plant Initiative. The phrase comes from Zoë Schlanger’s 2024 book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth. Peterson’s discussion ranged from religion and science to the politics of colonial botany. The researchers in Petersen’s world are questioning the Western hierarchy we maintain – humans first, then animals, and finally plants – to understand how plants defy this unequal stratification. Petersen’s talk reminded me of Michael Pollan’s 2001 book The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World. Pollan explores how plants manipulate animals to help spread plant seeds to survive. Apples: who knew they were so devious?
We gardeners are full participants in doing Nature’s bidding, spreading seeds, feeding creatures, amending the earth’s soil. Given this scientific inquiry into the consciousness of plants, I wonder: are my plants upset when I clip them, pinch them back or eat them? Are the cuts and scrapes I get when gardening payback for my own unwelcome attacks? Plants have evolved defense mechanisms so they can thrive. Perhaps they know it is unfair that my clippers bypass their defenses and tip the scales of co-evolution in my favor.
I continue to mull over the phrase “light eaters.” Aren’t we all solar powered light eaters who live because of light? I understand my light eaters alright. They sing the song of dirt, with a crazy buzz of insects trilling the chorus. When I’m in the garden, I can feel the connection between living creatures in whatever form that takes. Kudos to you all for using your light-fueled energy to support the other lights eaters around you.
A Few Gardening Resources
FOR GARDENERS WITH KIDS
Gardening parents, what can you do to pass along your love of Nature to your kids? Give them fun things to do! I have found some fun activities, a cookbook and other activities to keep the family eating up light and digging in the dirt together.
- Free Mother Earth News Coloring Book
- Schlitz Audubon Summer Camp
- Pollinator Partnership, Five Things Kids Can Do to Help Pollinators
- Pollinator Partnership also has recipes for “Pollinator Friendly Cooking”. What better to entice your kiddos to support wildlife than drawing a direct line between plants, insects and their tummies? The recipes include little fun facts, calling out the critters that disperse, pollinate and store pollen specifically for the ingredients in each dish.
- Want to see these lessons extend year-round? Get involved with the Wisconsin School Garden Initiative so your kids and their friends learn about the world that sustains them:
- World Wildlife Fund Monarch Butterflies Tool Kit
SUPPORTING OTHER SPECIES
- The Plant Initiative – Learn how plants communicate
- American Bird Conservancy – Learn how to prevent bird strikes
- Beyond Pesticides – Learn about the impacts of pesticides and how you can wean yourself off them
EDUCATION
- Garden Conservancy and Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee Open Days Tour: Five gardens in the Washington Highlands Neighborhood will be featured in the Garden Conservancy and Garden Club of Greater Milwaukee Open Days tour which will be held on Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20. Advance tickets are required for timed entry to control the flow and are currently available by following this link. Tickets to tour all five gardens are $15.00 for members and $30.00 for non-members. In addition, there will be a 90-minute “Digging Deeper” landscape and residential architectural tour through this historic neighborhood. Tickets are limited, so sign up early if interested. Tickets are $30.00 for Garden Conservancy members and $40.00 for non-members.
- University of Wisconsin Horticulture, Division of Extension has free online garden programs
SUSTAINABLE GARDEN INFORMATION
- National Wildlife Federation: How to create and certify gardens for wildlife
- Wild Ones Milwaukee: Specific plans for climate resilient, native gardening by Danielle Bell, Native Roots
