Garden tips for Growing Shasta Daisy

Shasta daisies, Chrysanthemum maximum, are white petal perennial flowers with a golden center that looks wonderful when grown in a border garden.  You can also grow them in a prairie or in your cutting garden.  

Grow Shasta daisy from seed or from a plant. When the daisy is full-grown it will form a bushy clump where the stems grow up to three feet tall before producing flowers in the summer from July to September. 

Growing tips:
For healthy flowers with many blooms grow the Shasta daisy in full sun. However, if your summers are extremely hot with temperatures in the upper 90’s then the Shasta daisy would welcome part shade in the heat of the day.  

Plant the flower seeds or nursery-grown daisies in moderately fertile well-drained soil.  If your soil is poor, then amend it with miracle-grow potting soil.  You can plant daisy seeds indoors 12 weeks before the last frost in spring or sow seeds outdoors when the soil warms to 70 degrees. 

For growing daisies in masses, turn over the soil with a tiller and plant seeds in rows; plant seeds  1/16 of an inch deep. Space the seeds sixteen inches apart.

Another way to grow Shasta daisies is to plant them with eye-catching colorful flowers; coneflowers, zinnias and black-eyed Susan and red bee balm are a few of my favorites.  All of these flowers can be cut for beautiful bouquets or floral arrangements.

Caring for Shasta Daisies
Water the newly planted seeds so that the soil is evenly moist but not wet.  Do not allow the soil to dry out as it will cause seedling stress. Seed germination occurs in approximately 21 to 30 days.

Apply organic mulch around the flowers to help to retain moisture. 

Keep the soil evenly moist but not wet throughout the growing season.  The best way to achieve this is to water the flowers with a slow drip irrigation system in the morning.  If your summer temperature is hot; high 90s, then water in the morning and then again in the late afternoon.

Fertilize monthly with miracle grow formulated for flowers.  I use a bloom booster that is made to attach to the end of your hose. The fertilizer that is applied with water will get to the roots where the nutrients are needed.  My Shasta daisies produce large beautiful blooms that are long-lasting.

Deadhead the spent flowers to extend the bloom season.

Prune daisies in the fall to get ready for winter. :

Tips
Shasta daisies are a useful evergreen ground cover.  The plant's foliage is attractive even in the winter.  So plant them where you can admire them from a window.

Grow in USDA zones 5 to 9. 

Recycle Coffee for Fertilizer

Pour a cup of coffee for yourself, then recycle the coffee grounds to use as fertilizer for your yard. The  coffee grounds will enrich your lawn and garden soil with phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, copper and calcium. Your acid loving plants will be healthy with vibrant blooms and your lawn will be lush and green.

Storing Recycled Coffee Grounds

Accumulate coffee for fertilizer by saving spent coffee grounds.  The best way to save the coffee is to turn the grounds from coffee filter over onto a paper towel and  air dry. When the coffee grounds are dry; put the grounds into an air tight container and store in a cool dry place. 

Fertilize with Coffee
Nourish your acid loving flowers with coffee grounds by scooping handfuls of the dry coffee and then spreading the coffee grounds around your acid loving plants, flowering shrubs and evergreens.  


Water after you fertilize with coffee as the water will help in breaking down the nutrients so that they get to the plants roots. 

Amend garden soil with Coffee
Get a new garden bed ready by amending the soil with the recycled coffee grounds. 

Ready the gardens by removing the grass; weeds, rock and other debris then use your tiller to break up eight inches of the top soil.  Work the clumps out of the soil until it is a fine texture then amend with the coffee grounds.  

Water the new garden bed lightly. The water will allow the nutrients found in coffee to slowly release into the soil. 

Feed your Lawn with Coffee

Another way to recycle coffee is to fertilize your lawn.  Add dry coffee grounds to your broadcaster and spread the coffee evenly on your lawn, then water the grass.  Your grass will green up fast and will grow in as a lush lawn.

List of Acid Loving Plants and Shrubs
 Amaryllis, aster, azalea, bleeding heart, blueberry, camellia dogwood, evergreens, fern, fir, gardenia, holly, huckleberry hydrangea, lily of the valley, lupine, magnolia, marigold, roses, rhododendrons, strawberries

Other Uses for Coffee
Repel ants, slugs, snails, grubs, cats and dogs from your flower beds with spent coffee grounds.

Dilute any leftover coffee in the pot with water and feed your acid loving houseplants with the watered down coffee.  

Recycle coffee by adding to your compost.
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Tired of Mowing - Grow Buffalo Grass

Buffalo grass is a tough short grass that is native to the prairies of North America.  Unlike other grass seed, the buffalo grass only grows to six inches which means you will not need to mow as often.  


Buffalo grass is a warm-season perennial that is a good seed choice for areas that have drought conditions in the summer.  Unlike other grasses that require hydration and turn brown when the summer temperatures soar into the 100's, buffalo grass does not bolt.  It thrives in hot dry weather and stays a lovely blue-green color.   When you plant buffalo grass seed you will save money by not having to water the grass as much and you will save energy because you will not have to mow weekly.   

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Mature Buffalo Grass Grown from Seed - 

Husbands Love Buffalo Grass

My husband does not like to mow our side yard because it slopes down and has a rocky terrain. So a few years back we decided to put down buffalo grass seed in this area that faces the woods.

We cleared the area and then amended the poor soil with topsoil before broadcasting the grass seed in the sunny side of the yard.  You can run the seed over with an ATV and it will plant it at an inch deep.  Or you can spread topsoil over it.  

My husband loves that it is low maintenance seed as he does not have to mow the area where the buffalo grass grows.   The grass is a lovely blue-green shade throughout the warm season months. In the fall the grass does die off quickly after a frost, it turns a golden brown and it remains this color until mid-spring.  

Caring for Buffalo Grass

We watered the newly planted grass seed daily in the morning to help the roots grow deeply.  We continued to water it in the morning throughout the first summer season with an irrigation system. The water that we used to water the buffalo grass was half of what we used for our perennial grass seed blend lawn. Buffalo grass will stay green with less water and is a good grass seed for water restricted areas.

The grass seed grew in slowly and we saw a lot of weeds the first year but in the second year, the grass filled in nicely and the weeds were choked out.  

Buffalo grass is slow to turn green in the spring but my husband does not care because he says it is worth it as long as he does not have to mow the side yard. 

View this YouTube video to learn more about Buffalo Grass

Tips:

1. Resists pests and disease
2. A two-pound bag of seed covers 1,000 square feet
3. Chokes out weeds within a year and forms a thick mat.
4. Grass does not grow well in part shade or full shade, best to plant in full sun.
5. Plant in well-drained soil
6. This grass is for hot, dry climates. Not recommended for areas that get 25 inches of rain annually.
7. Buffalo grass Grows well in heavy soil.  If you have soil like mine that has rocks in it then amend your soil with manure or compost before planting.