Welcome to the first issue of Greenhouse Garden Center Newsletter. We thank you for signing up; we're very excited about all the information this newsletter will offer. Our goal is for you, our valued customer, to use the newsletter as a tool to answer many of your gardening questions. As we at Greenhouse Garden Center celebrate another year, we look to you and say thanks for welcoming us into your home and garden.

Butterflies are beautiful, dainty and graceful flying stained glass windows! The slightest glimpse of one of these creatures brings immeasurable joy to the beholder. Poems expressing delight are written and photographs taken. Its metamorphic life cycle is analogous to our own. Butterflies are simply revered by children and adults alike.

So wouldn't you love to have a butterfly garden in your own yard? Even if your landscape is already established, if you plant a few of the plants listed below, butterflies will soon find a friendly environment in your gardens.

Unfortunately, not all flowering plants will attract butterflies. However, some flowering plants are excellent hosts for the butterfly larvae, while there are other flowers that provide nectar for the adults. Different species of butterflies are attracted to different flower nectar and flower colors.

The flowering plants that butterflies love can be annuals, perennials, shrubs and/or vines. You can create a wonderful, colorful garden that blooms year round, is beautiful for you and attracts these delicate creatures.

Plants we suggest for a butterfly garden include aster, buddleia, gaillardia, kniphofia, lavender (English), lilac, monarda, phlox, prunella, rudbeckia, salvia, statice, and wisteria. Plant them with a good soil amendment like Bumper Crop and feed regularly with the appropriate fertilizer (ask us) for best results.

This plant list is not exhaustive. During your next visit to Greenhouse Garden Center, ask one of our garden experts and we'll help you with your selection. Some of our natives also host butterfly larva and feed the adults.

One other quick note: Butterflies also like puddles. Provide a small water source in your garden with a shallow birdbath or buried bucket filled with stones and then filled with water. Note: it is a good idea to add mosquito dunks to any shallow water areas, to help prevent West Nile Virus.

A water garden can be as simple as one pot filled with water and a few water plants, or a small bubbling fountain with room for a few floating plants placed in a quiet corner of your garden next to your favorite chair. It can be as elaborate as a large pond with koi, frogs, and other of nature’s creatures. What do they all have in common? Peaceful serenity and quiet beauty.

Once you have decided upon the scale of your water feature and the area of your garden that it will inhabit, the next step is learning about all of the different water plants and their functions — including beauty, of course.

When you choose plants, apply the same rules that you might to any other area of your garden. Consider color, profile, and the eventual size of the plants. Remember to take into account that some water plants are deciduous, just like some trees and shrubs in your garden. You will want to have a good mixture of evergreen and deciduous (dormant in winter). Don't over-fill your water pond with plants, making it too full and crowding out your favorite plants.

Water plants are categorized or grouped into their "home" locations in and around the pond. The main types are listed here:

Floating plants: These are plants that truly just float, with their leaves at the surface and their roots trailing below. Examples include water hyacinth and water lettuce.

Oxygenating plants: These plants are submerged beneath the water surface and send their foliage to the surface. Many bloom with small flowers above the water. They are much needed, as they take in carbon dioxide and release the oxygen necessary for pond life such as fish. Parrot's feather, hornwort, and aquatic mint are a few examples.

Marginal/bog plants: These live at the pond's margins, with their "feet" in the shallow water and their "heads" up out of the water. They prefer water that is 2-6 inches deep and include water canna, sedges, irises, and many more.

Are you tired of serving up a nightly buffet of your prized garden plants to your neighborhood deer? Then we have the cure for you! Greenhouse Garden Center highly recommends Liquid Fence. It works not only by smell but also by taste. The smell isn't strong enough to bother people, but it sure offends the deer! Once they associate bad taste and smells with your garden, they will leave your plants alone.

Liquid Fence is also effective against other pesky nibbling critters such as rabbits, raccoons and ground squirrels. For best results, we recommend that you apply Liquid Fence every 4-6 weeks until your furry friends stay away. So don't delay, pick up some Liquid Fence today!

If your lawn is developing areas that yellow and then turn brown, you probably are experiencing a pest, disease or watering problem. The best way to trouble shoot a lawn is to work through a process of elimination.

First try to pull up the grass in a dry-looking area. Not just a few blades; see if you can actually pull up the lawn. If you can, you most likely have grubs, sod webworm, or another type of chewing insects that are eating the roots of the turf. You can usually find the insects at the edge of the dry patch eating healthy grass. Just bring us the insect and we will identify and recommend the best control method.

If you cannot find any insect pests and the grass can't be pulled up, then you may consider the possibility of a fungus disease, particularly if you have been watering a lot, or watering at night. Closely examine the grass blades to see if they appear to be rotting off where they're attached to the stem or if they have brownish-black spots on the tips. Also, if you see a distinct "ring" or pattern, then a fungus is a good possibility.

In our area, brown patch and fairy ring are the prevalent diseases most homeowners encounter. We recommend applying Bayer Fungus Control for Lawns or Bayer ProStar. Make sure to water early in the morning and don't over-fertilize.

Brown Patch

Fairy Rings

Many times lawns just become stressed out from excessive heat, under-watering, or poor sprinkler head overlap. The most common areas for drought stress are the hotspots next to sidewalks and driveways. To overcome the problem, simply irrigate deeper or more frequently and make sure the spray from your sprinkler heads overlaps each other by 50%.

A healthy lawn can fight off enemies such as fungi, weeds, and insect pests. Keeping your turf grass cut frequently at the correct height and applying water at proper times will go a long way in fighting off lawn pests. Most turf diseases thrive under certain conditions that include excessive moisture, temperature, and nitrogen supply. If you aren't sure what is ailing your lawn, just bring in a sample and one of our nursery professionals will be happy to diagnose it for you.