Pattie's Perennials

09/07/2026

Tomato tar. That is what some old growers called the yellow black grime on your hands after an afternoon of tying up vines, and nobody ever explained where it came from.

It comes from hairs. Look at a tomato stem in low sun and it is furred all over, and the shorter hairs carry a tiny round gland at the tip. Inside the gland is a droplet of sugar and oil, the sugar with fatty acids bolted onto it so it turns sticky the instant it hits air. Brush past the plant and thousands of glands break at once. The oil is the smell. The sugar is the tar.

It is armor. A whitefly or an aphid landing on the leaf gets its feet gummed. A hornworm chewing through it gets a mouthful of the same bitter oil. And the smell that follows you into the house is a signal the plant sends the whole garden, a chemical shout that something has been brushing against it.

So the stain is not dirt. It is the plant's whole defense budget, transferred to you. The vine cleanup guide for the end of the season is in the comments. 🍅

09/05/2026

PATTIE AND SUE'S PLANT SALE TOMORROW, SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5th 10am -3 pm
7665 BRADLEY STREET SIREN.
Fall is a great time to plant perennials and shrubs. Beautiful Perennial mum's, asters, black eyed Susan's, cone flowers, sedum, hosta, Pulmonaria grasses and much more. Shrubs; hydrangea, lilac, spirea , burning bush and more.
Come early to get the best selection
We look forward to seeing you.

09/01/2026

09/01/2026

Pattie and Sue's Plant Sale this Saturday September 5th, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
7665 Bradley Street, Siren.
This is the last sale of the season. Don't miss out fall is a great time for planting.

Perennial Mum's; several varieties, Asters, Black Eyed Susans, grasses, corn flowers, Hosta, Sedum, Purple Veronica, Blue lobilia, Red cardinal flower, blue diamond, delphinium, shrubs; Hydrangias, Lilac, Spirea and much more. Specialty autumn porch pots.

08/19/2026

The advice "water deeply once a week" was written for the front lawn, not the back of the house.

University of Massachusetts Extension data shows that shaded ground holds soil moisture two to three times longer than open turf, depending on canopy density. Hostas, ferns, astilbe, and heuchera all evolved to sit on slow-drying woodland floors where the top inch dries but the root zone stays cool and damp for days. Pour an inch of water on that bed twice a week and the roots sit in saturated soil with no oxygen, the fine feeder roots suffocate, and a fungal pathogen called Pythium moves in.

The damage looks like drought. Wilted leaves, yellow edges, slow growth. So most gardeners water more, which is exactly what kills the plant.

The fix is mechanical, not seasonal. Push your finger into the soil two inches down. If it feels cool and damp, skip watering. If it feels dry, water once and walk away. In a typical mid-summer week, an established shade bed needs water once every seven to ten days, not every three.

A wet shade bed in July is more dangerous than a dry one. [7TQT4]