Flowers (annual and perennial)

Cleome Plants

Cleome plants are not too popular anymore and I do not know why. They are hard to start indoors but come up readily in the garden if you allow the seeds to drop. Once the flower spike opens up, cleomes draw attention. They bloom all summer long on 3 to 4 foot high plants and are drought tolerant. As for pests, grasshoppers and deer hate them.

Purple flowered cleome

As I stated before, cleomes are hard to start indoors because of lighting, temperature, and needing bottom heat. Also, they are hard to transplant, so just plant the seeds in the flowerbed. Once germinated they grow fast. The hotter, the better.

Coming from South America and parts of the Southwestern U.S., the Navajo Indians tribes used this plant to eat and use various parts for herbal uses. The dark violet cleome was used for a dye for rugs and pottery. England adopted this plant for use in its Victorian gardens.

Cleomes in the flowerbed

They are also pollinator plants bringing bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds in the garden. Also called Rocky Mountain flower, spider flower, cat’s whiskers, and grandmother’s whiskers.

Garden hacks, Vegetables

Red Plastic Mulch

Been reading about using red plastic mulch being good for tomatoes. I did this and the results are very noticeable! The tomato plants growing on red plastic are showing twice the growth versus the plants without the plastic. I had some plastic leftovers and tried it on peppers. I have twice the growth of those also. It has to do with reflecting the red light wavelength back to the plant increases the production of chlorophyll especially plants in the tomato family and strawberries. The plastic also holds soil moisture and controls weeds. Do not use the cheap pink plastic, like I did last year. After two weeks the pink faded to clear and acted like a greenhouse for the weeds under the plastic.

Red plastic mulch under tomatoes


There are studies now stating to use silver mulch for vine crops. They show bugs like aphids, cucumber beetles, and squash bugs get confused and travel somewhere else. Next year’s test!

Flowers (annual and perennial)

Amaranthus

Amaranthus plant has been grown for thousands of years as a food crop in Mexico from the Aztec. When Spain’s Cortez arrived, he burnt the fields as punishment. Mexico is reviving the crop as a staple food source. Also called summer Poinsettia because of some variety’s colorful foliage. The plant is related to the weed: pigweed. The Hopi use the dye from the red seeded plants for their clothing and bread.

Green Headed Amaranthus
Green Headed Amaranthus

The moral of the story is you can smash old relics of civilizations, but the history of plants can not be done away with.

These plants come in heights from 1 to 8 feet with different colored foliage and seed heads. While rarely found in greenhouses, the seeds are in many catalogs. Easy to start from seeds 8 weeks before transplanting them to the flower bed. Amaranthus does not flinch at heat or drought. After that, seedlings will come back in the following years.

Golden Amaranthus & Red Foliage Amaranthus
Golden Amaranthus & Red Foliage Amaranthus

This plant grows slowly in the cool spring, however, will shoot up unbelievably when summer comes. The colorful seed heads can be cut and dried for dried flower arrangements.

In the Caribbean, they steam the leaves on most plants as a spinach substitute. Mostly they are used as grains.