Campbell Vaughn: Gaura is a great addition to any yard

This spring has been special. We finally made it to May and I am still able to have a fire in my outdoor fireplace almost every evening due to the cooler weather. The plants in my yard got a little boost of fertilizer and they seem very happy.  

I have a wonderful early flowering perennial called gaura (Gaura lindheimeri) that has been showing off at my house for about three weeks and is still loaded with blooms. Sometimes called whirling butterflies, this plant is native to Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, but I didn’t mind borrowing some of my fellow SEC conference plants to use in my yard in Augusta.

The plant is full of leaves at the bottom and has long stems with white flowers in the upper parts of the plant. Gaura loves full sun and well drained soils, but so do most flowering perennials. I planted mine in poor dirt last spring as 4-inch pots and they have done great. They weathered the cold without a hitch.

The variety I planted is the traditional gaura with green leaves and white blooms with a hint of pink, but there are some good varieties out there that have pink flowers and reddish leaves. Pollinators seem to love it and it will handle heat, humidity and some drought. The upright leggy loose form is a good contrast change from round compact plants like ‘Becky’ Shasta daisy, which I also have and love. Another fun feature of gaura is when a large bee lands on one of the flowers for a snack, the whole stem will fall over with the weight of the bee so, you can get some extra plant movement in the landscape. 

The birds are in high gear nesting, setting and raising their young. I am working on my second batch of bluebirds in my bluebird house. I currently have three eggs waiting to be hatched. I keep all kinds of nooks and crannies available for other bird to nest and the number one visitor to these oddball places are the Carolina wrens. They are always zipping around and in the middle of everything except when they stop to yell (that little bird can belt out some noise). I have these little corners where the columns for my patio meet the header beams that the momma wrens have always taught their little ones to roost at night once they are dismissed from the home nest. They cuddle up one or two at a time almost every night from early April well into the fall. I get to watch the fledglings sleep by the fire in the evenings.  

Campbell Vaughn:Proper fertilizing can turn a dull lawn into something magnificent

I was up at the lake the past couple of weekends and the birds are everywhere and in pairs. We have at least three osprey nests within a quarter of a mile of the cabin and you can hear them calling all day long and well into the evenings.

Great blue herons are walking the banks in pairs. There are all kinds of common woodpeckers whizzing through the pines. Canada geese have goslings, and we had three pairs with little ones grazing in the front yard. One pair inched up hill from the lake and got to a point to where I told my son that I would pay him $20 if he could catch one of the goslings. He said he had seen videos and knew that those geese are mean and bite. I had my camera ready just in case he wasn’t so well informed. I do know that it is illegal to hassle wildlife, but I had to at least give it a thought.  

Spring is full of new life. I know the heat is coming and the humidity is going to keep us from spending a bunch of time outdoors soon, but it really is incredible outside lately. Enjoy it.