Holiday Gifts for the Gardener
Posted on Tuesday, November 23, 2021 · Leave a Comment
This tree guard keeps voles from damaging young trees
Ready to shop! Every time I turn on the radio or open a newspaper, there are articles about supply chain issues. Even the reliable old US Postal Service is saying deliveries may well be delayed. So share some garden produce this year or shop at a local, family-owned business when you can.
Food is a great gift. You don’t need fancy fruit shipped from Oregon if you made plenty of tomato sauce or quince jelly this year. Share the harvest. A quart of dried cherry tomatoes contains a lot of love and work. You had to grow, harvest, wash and dehydrate. Only people dear to my heart will rate such a gift.
My dream gift? A friend, loved one or reader sending me a nice card, along with a homemade certificate for four hours of weeding in my garden. Or two hours. Working in the garden with a friend or relative can be a great way to strengthen a friendship. Politics don’t matter in the garden. I might suspect my brother-in-law didn’t vote the way I did in the last election. But if he will bring his chain saw and help me take down and cut up a 12-inch diameter boxelder I want removed, send me the gift certificate!
Gardening books make great presents
Books are great gifts, and books printed in the United States should be readily available at your local bookstore. My first choice for a book to give? Doug Tallamy’s book, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard. It explains how what we plant can affect the planet, especially our pollinators and birds. And all of us, really.
I’ve re-printed my last
gardening book, and will be selling it at a discount directly to you, signed. It’s a collection of my best
articles organized around the calendar year. It’s titled
Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast: A Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide. Signed and mailed to you for just $19. Send a check to Henry Homeyer at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. I will try to figure out how to reduce the price on my website,
www.Gardening-Guy.com where it is currently for sale at $21 if you want to use PayPal.
What else at the bookstore? Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States by Tony Dove and Ginger Woolridge is a great companion for Doug Tallamy’s book. Michael Dirr has written lots of great tree books. He is informative and opinionated. Allan Armitage is just as opinionated and thorough about flowers as Dirr is about trees. Or get a gift certificate and let your gardener pick her own books at the local bookstore.
Garlic clips work well for me to deter deer
If deer are a problem in the garden of your loved one, I find nothing better than “Fend Off Deer and Rabbit Repellent Odor Clips”. Available at Gardeners Supply and other retailers. A package of 25 sells for about $20. I use one or two per shrub to keep deer away all winter. They clip on with a clothes-pin style attachment. They contain just garlic and soy oil, no chemicals.
I recently wrote about using hardware cloth (wire screening) to keep voles from chewing off bark and killing young trees. Since then I have used plastic spiral tree guards that are easy to install and will protect against sun scald in winter, too. They are inexpensive and can be re-used (I will remove them in the spring). They are sold as Rainbow Professional LTD White Spiral Tree Guards at OESCOinc.com or by calling them at 413-469-4335. They sent my order out the very day I called.
I like this Lowe anvil pruner
Also available from OESCO are some pruners that I like a lot. OESCO is a small company based in Conway MA catering to orchard professionals. The pruners are made by a German company, Lowe with 2 dots over the O, not to be confused with the American retailer Lowe’s. The pruners are of the anvil type, designed and manufactured well. They sell a size nice for small hands (Lowe 5.107) and a larger size, too. OESCO sells replacement blades and parts.
Of course every gardener needs a good weeding tool. My favorite is the CobraHead, and has been for years. They now have a mini-Cobrahead which is designed for smaller hands. Available from CobraHead.com or 866-962-6272 or at your local garden center. It has a single curved tine like a steel finger that will tease out roots from below while you tug a weed from above. I emailed the owner, Noel Valdes, who told me there are plenty in stock.
Root Slayer spade and CobraHead weeder are excellent tools
I found a wonderful shovel for digging in tough areas with lots of roots. It’s called the Root Slayer and is available from Gardeners Supply and a few other retailers. I’ve used mine all summer, and love it! Great for cutting though sod, too. It has a sharp blade and teeth along the sides for slicing roots.
Lastly, think about a gift certificate at your local nursery or garden center for plant purchases in the spring. Plants are always good.
Henry lives, writes and
gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. His e-mail is
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4
gardening books.
Roasting Garden Produce
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2021 · Leave a Comment
One of the reasons I garden is that I love to cook and to create wonderful, flavorful dishes that I might not get elsewhere. I think many gardeners share that inclination. One of the techniques I have not used much is roasting vegetables, but I recently did some roasting, and will do some more. I find it sweetens and intensifies flavors.
It all started when I was baking some potatoes. I had the oven at 425 and decided to make some kale chips at the same time. I ran down to the garden and picked some leaves. I took four of them, sliced the leafy part off the stems, and chopped coarsely to one-to two-inch squares. Then I sprinkled them with olive oil, tossed them well and dusted them with salt. I put them on a cookie sheet and roasted until crisp – ten minutes seemed just right.
I’ve made kale chips before, but was never enamored of them. This kale had been hit by frost several times, which made the leaves sweeter. And I cooked them at a higher temperature than I’ve done before. I also made a small batch: Cindy and I ate them all before dinner. In the past I have stored kale chips in a well-sealed glass jar, but they got soggy anyway. Still got kale in the garden? Give it a try.
Baked potatoes are a classic dish, and easy to make. A few tips: grow some russets next year, they are best for baking. And brush them with as little melted butter or olive oil to help crisp up the skins. But plan ahead: it takes 45 to 65 minutes at 400 degrees to bake a potato. The bigger the spud, the longer it takes. You should be able to poke a fork or knife in easily when cooked. Oh, and don’t forget to poke some holes in the skin when you start – I’m told they can explode if you don’t.
Frozen peppers thawing before roasting
I usually freeze fresh bell peppers in the fall. I find they are great for cooking, and can be tossed in a salad, too. No blanching: I just wash and wipe dry, then seed and slice them and freeze in a zipper bag. I decided to try roasting frozen peppers now to see how they would do.
I spread out a couple of cups of frozen sliced peppers on a clean cloth towel on the counter, while pre-heating the oven to 450. They thawed quickly, and I patted them dry. I put them in a bowl and tossed them with some olive oil. Then I removed one half and put on the cookie sheet for cooking; the other half I sprinkled with dried oregano flakes and a little salt before spreading on the pan. Put down parchment paper or aluminum foil to simplify clean up.
The peppers needed 25 to 30 minutes until they were soft and slightly charred. I did not remove the skins, though people who roast them whole tend to do that. If you are roasting peppers as a side dish, be aware that roasting them reduces the size considerably – a cup of sliced peppers doesn’t make much of a dish.
A few days later I got a nice pork roast and cooked it at 350 degrees for over an hour. This gave me a medium-hot oven just begging to roast veggies. I roasted beets, carrots, onions and tomatoes, and all were delicious!
The beets were medium sized – 2-inches in diameter or so, and took an hour or a little more to feel well cooked. I wrapped them loosely in aluminum foil after cutting off the leaves. I left the tails (roots) on the beets, and an inch or so of the stem and leaves. Cut beets tend to bleed, and I didn’t want that.
The carrots I just tossed into the roasting pan after a cleaned them well and cut off the stems and tips. If you have small carrots they don’t take as long as beets, so you can put them in later in the cooking process. Onions I peeled and roasted whole. While roasting they caramelized, turning sweeter. Good used cold in sandwiches!
Roasted tomatoes with basil
I tried roasting my tomatoes by either cutting tomatoes into half-inch slices and also just cutting them in half. I found the halves were easier to serve – the sliced tomatoes tended to fall apart. Later, when roasting peppers, I also roasted three more fresh tomatoes at 450 degrees after sprinkling them with dry basil. Even at 450 it takes an hour or so to get them to collapse and brown up.
Roasting tomatoes does give them a very nice, intense tomato flavor. Years ago I roasted quite a few with the idea of storing the results in the freezer. It worked well. I roasted them longer than I did just now: I roasted them until almost all the moisture was out, probably at a lower temperature. Then I put them in zipper bags and froze them for use in winter sandwiches. I took the frozen tomato pieces and thawed them in a toaster oven.
Each year I grow some winter squash. My favorite is the Waltham butternut. It is a light-brown squash with a bulbous, seed-filled distal end, and a narrower section with no seeds that extends to the attachment point on the vine. Mostly I peel them, remove the seeds and chop into cubes to include in stews and stir fries.
Waltham butternut squash are great when roasted
Recently I roasted a butternut squash and was delighted not only by the flavor, but also by the fact that I did not have to peel the skin. When serving (after an hour at 350 degrees) I scooped the cooked meat out of the skin. But later, I tried a bite of the skin, and it was soft and delicious. Vegetable skins generally are full of vitamins and minerals, so I shall plan on eating squash skins from now on (with the exception of Blue Hubbard skins which are so thick and leathery).
So as you plan your garden for next year, think about growing veggies you can roast. They are perfect comfort food for long winter nights.
Fall Color: It’s More than Maples
Posted on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 · Leave a Comment
New England is known worldwide for its fall color. People swarm here from all over, largely to see the color of our sugar maples. As I senior citizen I am legally entitled to drive around at 25 miles per hour, holding up traffic and enjoying every brilliant red tree I see. But I rarely do – I’m too busy in the garden, most of the time. But there is a lot more to see than maple trees.
For color I really enjoy the leaves of oaks and American beech. They hold on to their leaves much longer than the maples, often long into winter. Why is that? Probably because they have only migrated north after the last ice age, and where they came from – the American South – they did not have to drop leaves in the fall. That’s one theory I have read, anyway.
On sunny fall days the yellow leaves of beeches just glow. I enjoy them in the woods or alongside the road, but do not plant beeches or recommend them to others. There is a disease caused by the Neonectria fungus that is spread by scale insects. It mars their smooth gray bark and eventually kills the trees. So I advise enjoying them where you see them in the woods. Yes, there are systemic poisons you could apply to kill the scale insects and perhaps hold off the decline of an existing tree, but I don’t want poisons in my landscape.
Oaks vary considerably in their fall color. Deep reds, purples and browns are often mixed with reds depending on the locale, soil and species. Yellows and greens are often displayed on leaves, too.
One of the great features of oaks is their stamina: The “George Washington Oak” was only recently declared dead – at the age of 600 years. It grew in Bernards, NJ and grew to have a trunk circumference of 18 feet and reach 100 feet tall. Oaks routinely live to be 300 years old if not abused by soil compaction and urban smog. Yet they are relatively fast growing when young: the pin oak can grow12 to 15 feet in 5 to 7 years.
Although I am tremendously keen on promoting native trees and shrubs, I do believe we can have a few imports, and one of my favorites for fall color is a large shrub call disanthus (Disanthus cercidifolius). It is listed as a zone 5 plant, but I have had one in my Zone 4 garden for at least 10 years. Mine is now nearly 8 feet tall and wide. In the fall the leaves turn a brilliant purplish red, as good as or better than that dreaded invasive, burning bush (Euonymus alatus), that was so popular before it was listed as an invasive. In October some years (but not every year) my disanthus bush has tiny pink-purple blossoms that you will only notice if looking for them. They come right out of the bark, without stems.
Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is one of the few native trees that flower in the fall. It is an understory tree that will grow in shade, partial shade or full sun. It has yellow fall foliage which pretty much obscures the yellow blossoms until leaf drop in October or November. Then the blossoms become prominent. The blossoms have 4 strap-like, curly petals are less than an inch across. Witchhazel usually has many, many blossoms.
Scientists have only recently discovered what pollinates witchhazel. Bees and other pollinators are no longer buzzing around when they bloom. But witchhazel produces nectar and brightly colored flowers to attract insects. No one knew what pollinated them until naturalist Bernd Heinrich discovered that is the night-flying owlet moth. Apparently that moth can raise its temperature by 50 degrees by shivering. If only that would work for me!
The Seven-Sons Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is another fall bloomer. It was imported from China in 1907, but sales never took off. It was re-introduced in 1980 and immediately became popular for its fast growth (I have seen stems grow 6 feet in a year) and fabulous shaggy bark in winter. Its mature height is said to be 25 feet, but I keep mine to 15 feet with pruning. It will grow in full sun or partial shade.
This year mine was still blooming in late October. The blossoms are small, white, lightly fragrant and appear in clusters of seven at the end of branches. Later, if there is no frost, the sepals turn pink.
There is one other tree I grow that blooms in the fall each year, usually in September, and then only a few blossoms at a time. It is a magnolia, a hybrid called ‘Jane’, one of the “Little Girl’ series. It blooms first in late spring, and then re-blooms once a month or so with a few fabulous deep pink 4-inch blossoms, with a light pink interior.
Jane grows in six-hours of sun or more in moist, rich soils. The leaves are deep green and glossy, good enough to put in a vase. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant, but does well in Zone 4 for me. Because it blooms in late spring, frosts in April do not affect it. It is a small tree, perhaps 15 tall, with a nice rounded shape.
Spring and summer will always be the best seasons for flowering trees, but I like to extend the seasons with trees that flower and look good well into winter.
How to Prevent Tree Death by Bark Mulch or Rodents This Winter
Posted on Wednesday, November 3, 2021 · Leave a Comment
If you have cleaned up the vegetable garden and cut back your perennials, you might be feeling just a little smug – especially since this gardening guy admits he is behind you in completing those tasks. But there may still be tasks for you to do, and important ones for the trees on your property.
Are you one of those gardeners who has fallen in love with bark mulch? Do you use it not only in flower gardens, but also around trees planted in the lawn to keep down weeds, hold in moisture, and keep the deadly string trimmer at bay? If you do, take a few moments to walk around and check out your trees and shrubs.
Bark mulch should never touch the stems of woody plants. You need a donut hole around your trees: a 4-to 6-inch area bare of mulch on all sides of your beloved trees. Why? Tree barks protects the tree from rain and snow, but it will eventually rot if it is covered with soil or bark mulch. And if the rot extends into the cambium layer – the layer beneath the bark – it will, eventually, kill the tree. But mulch is not the only culprit. Many trees are planted too deeply and the flare is covered with soil, which is just as lethal.
If you look at a tree that Mother Nature planted – or perhaps it was a forgetful squirrel – you will see that tree flares or widens at its base. That part of the tree needs to be planted above ground at planting time. Unfortunately, trees sold in pots often have the trunk flare covered with soil and get planted just the way they were in the pot. I have seen trees in large pots with the trunk flare covered by 4 inches of soil or more.
Mulch or soil over the trunk flare does not kill your tree right away. It often takes from six to ten years to see signs of decline. Look at the tips of branches at the top of the tree. Leaf loss there is a definite sign of decline. Early color change in the fall is another sign. That maple that turns color before others on the property? It may be stressed by bark rot caused by damage to the trunk flare.
So examine your trees. If the trunk flare is covered with mulch or soil, you have work to do. If a tree is straight (like a telephone pole) at the soil surface, you need to pull the mulch away. And if you still don’t see a flared area, you need to re-grade the soil around your tree.
Use gloved hands or work gently with a hand tool to remove the soil around the tree until you see the trunk flare. You may notice fine roots in the soil or mulch as you remove it, but these roots can be cut away. You are looking for big roots headed away from the trunk. Keep your hand tool away from the trunk as the bark will be tender, and easily damaged. But the good news is that most trees will recover if you remove the soil or bark mulch and let the bark dry out.
If you have planted a tree on a hillside, I assume you planted it be vertical. But to do that you had to cut back into the uphill side of the planting area to create a flat spot. If, after planting, erosion has moved soil downhill to cover one side of the trunk, remove that. People with excavators working on your property presumably know not to pile soil against the bark of trees, but check anyway. Remove soil as needed.
These beeches are infected with a fungus that will prove fatal in time
Another fall task involves protecting young trees from damage by rodents. The worst is the meadow vole. These are little rodents that look a lot like mice – but stockier, with short tails. Think of mice as a ballerinas and voles as hockey players. They often leave tunnels in the lawn grass during the winter.
Voles can reach sexual maturity in just 5 weeks after birth, so they can increase in numbers exponentially, given the right conditions. If hungry enough, they will chew the bark off young trees, killing them by damaging the tender cambium layer and eating the phloem all around a tree, girdling it.
Young fruit trees are the most susceptible to girdling. Older trees have thicker bark, and are generally less interesting to rodents. If you planted an apple tree within the last five years, you should protect the bark. Even though they did not damage the tree in the past, you cannot assume they will not this year. If there are high numbers of voles this year, and a deep snow cover to hide them from predators, they may attack.
The best way to protect trees against damage by voles is to surround the trunk with a ring of wire mesh called hardware cloth. Get some with quarter-inch spacing of the wires, and create a ring 24-inches tall. Make the ring of wire big enough to leave a couple of inches of space between the mesh and the trunk. That will allow the tree to get fatter without meeting the hardware cloth. If you have low branches (within 24 inches of the ground), you can prune them off to accommodate the wire mesh.
Hardware cloth comes in 24 inch rolls. You will need tin snips to cut it and leather gloves to protect your fingers. The stuff is like razor wire once cut. But, having seen what rodents can do, I recommend protecting new trees. There are plastic wraps and special cloth wraps that claim to protect against rodents, and may, but I have not tried them. They are definitely easier to use. So check out your trees, and get busy if need be.
Planting Bulbs for Forcing Indoors
Posted on Wednesday, October 27, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Forced tulips are my favorites
I love the winter, but by March I am ready for spring. I usually have some snowdrops blooming in March on a south-facing hillside, but they are subtle, not bodacious blooms. So I plant lots of bulbs indoors in the fall and keep them cool until it is time to bring them into the warmth of the house, and I get indoor tulips, daffodils and more in March. That’s what forcing bulbs is all about. It’s simple, really, but there are a few tips I can share since I do this every year.
Most bulbs are described on their packages as early, mid-season or late. Go to your local garden center and look for bulbs that are labeled as early bloomers – they are the best for forcing. Buy daffodils, some tulips and maybe some small bulbs like crocus or grape hyacinths. You can plant these bulbs in large pots or even in your window box if you bring it in.
You will also need some potting soil and compost. I make a mix that is half compost, half potting soil for forcing bulbs. I don’t use garden soil because it can be heavy and often stays wet. Bulbs can rot if they are left in wet soil for too long. I often reuse the potting mix that I used for growing annual plants outdoors in summer. I just pull up the summer’s plants, fluff up the soil, add some compost as needed, and make sure it is damp to start. If it is dry, I water it before I plant my bulbs.
Each year I plant about 25 daffodils in a window box that is about 30 inches long, 6 inches wide and deep. I prefer to get all of one kind so that they all bloom at once.
Tete a tete daffodils forced to bloom on a windowsill
I fill the window box a little more than half full with my mixture of compost and potting soil and place the bulbs, pointy end up, in the soil. Once I have them all in place I push them down more and fill up the box with more potting soil-compost mixture.
Be sure to label each pot with the date planted, and what is planted. Later, that will tell you when you can bring it into the warmth. Daffodils take about 12 weeks of dormancy before they should be brought into the warmth of the house, and tulips do better with 4 full months. Little things like crocus can be forced in 8 to 10 weeks.
Often bulbs will send roots out through the holes in the bottom of the pot or send up green shoots telling you they are ready. But don’t rush the process. Tulips brought up early will have nice green leaves, but no flowers.
Ideally temperatures for bulbs used for forcing will be between 32 and 50 degrees, though colder temperatures should not be a problem (my basement often goes below freezing for a few days). Left in a warm location, the bulbs will grow green tops – but not blossoms. Bulbs left in a cold basement or garage will do just fine. Inside the bulkhead to your cellar might be the right temperature, too.
You need to be aware that rodents like eating bulbs (indoors or out) – especially tulips. My basement has, most years, harbored mice and sometimes even a resident red squirrel. Unlike tulips, daffodils are not of interest to rodents as they are mildly poisonous. I keep my pots of tulips covered with hardware cloth (a fine-mesh metal screening available at hardware stores). But wear gloves if you cut hardware cloth to size – the edges are as sharp as razor wire.
You can double your production of blooms by planting two layers of bulbs in a container. Plant big bulbs deep in the pots, add soil, and then plant a layer of crocus or other small bulbs above them.
Daffodils being planted in a window box for forcing
It is important to check on the bulbs you are forcing at least once a month, particularly if you have put wire rodent-proofing over the containers. I’ve had shoots try to grow through the hardware cloth and get damaged. If the bulbs are sending up shoots, remove the wire mesh. I also don’t want the soil mix to get bone dry, so I check it and water a little if it’s dry. The bulbs will grow roots when first planted, and then go dormant if kept in a dark, cold location.
When it is time to bring up your potted bulbs into a warm place, let them wake up gently. My mudroom is good for starting them: there is some sunshine but it is cool. Then, once the shoots are up and green, I place the containers on my sunniest window sills – either east- or west-facing.
Most bulbs that have been forced are not likely to flower the following year, even if you keep the foliage alive until spring and plant them outside. I’ve done it, and some daffodils will build up the energy to blossom after a while, but tulips are not so cooperative.
I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, West Africa many years ago. There I could have flowers blooming every day of the year. It spoiled me, perhaps, because I still want flowers every day. Forcing bulbs is one way to have lots of blossoms when there is snow on the ground. So don’t wait until mid-December to start your bulbs, get on this project now.
Henry is the author of 4 gardening books, and is a long time UNH Master Gardener. Reach him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH or
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
It’s Time for Fall Plantings
Posted on Tuesday, October 19, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Camassia is a lesser known bulb plant that blooms in May for me
Spring is all about planting, but many gardeners overlook fall planting. Now is the time to plant garlic and spring-blooming flowers planted as bulbs. For me, fall planting is a joy: the thought of bulbs nestled into the ground just awaiting spring fills me with hope. And if you pick a good spot and plant them well, you are sure to succeed.
Let’s start with garlic. I like to say that garlic is, essentially, a no-work crop: plant it, mulch it to keep the weeds down, and then harvest it. Right now, the hardest part will be to find “seed garlic” – nice fat garlic bulbs that you can divide into cloves and plant. Many suppliers have sold out, but try your local garden center or feed and grain store. Don’t buy conventional garlic at the grocery store to plant. It is usually treated with a chemical to keep it from sprouting, and is the wrong kind for New England. Hard-neck garlic is what you want.
When should you plant garlic? Late October is when I plant, but it is fine to plant earlier or later. It’s best to plant after the soil has cooled down, but you will want the plants to establish roots before the soil freezes.
Pick a bed in your vegetable or flower garden that is in full sun, and that has nice, rich soil that retains water but does not stay soggy in rainy times. If you have heavy clay, work in plenty of good compost- either your own, or some you purchase in a bag.
I plant garlic cloves in rows about 8 inches apart. Each clove I plant three inches deep and three or four inches apart. I run my CobraHead weeder down the bed to create a furrow and to loosen the soil. I sprinkle some Pro-Gro or other organic bagged fertilizer into the furrow and run my hand tool through it again. Then I push in cloves, pointy end up, cover it with soil, and pat it lightly.
Finally, I take mulch hay or straw and cover the bed with about 12 inches of loose straw. I know that seems like a lot, but by winter’s end, it will be just 4 to 6 inches of cover. That should prevent most weeds from growing all summer – or until you harvest in late July. I always save my best bulbs of garlic for planting.
I will plant about 10 daffodils between these hostas that will hide the leaves of the daffies after blooming
This is also the time to plant daffodils, tulips and all the small bulbs that bloom early. If you have a fenced yard, that will keep the deer from eating tulip blossoms when in bud – a real treat for them. If you have a problem with deer, you might want to avoid tulips, or plant them in pots for forcing.
Tulips and daffodils are generally labeled as early-season, mid-season or late-season. Plant plenty of each. Early ones are generally shorter, and I plant some, but I love the tall ones best. ‘Maureen’ is my favorite tulip: she is 22 to 24 inches tall, and ivory to white. Fabulous in a vase. ‘Menton’ is another nice tall one, pink petals outside with orange and white inside.
Although I have daffodils that still bloom after more than 50 years, tulips are less perennial. My rule of thumb is that if I plant 50, all will bloom the first year, half of that the second year, and half again the third year. So I often plant them as annuals, and pull them or cut off the foliage when I plant annual flowers over them in June.
Bulb planting tools are sold that you can plunge into the soil and pull out a core of soil three inches wide. I don’t like them. Soil sticks to the tool, and I find it much more time-consuming to plant bulbs one at a time. I prefer to excavate a big hole in the ground and plant 25 or 50 at once. Soil augers for your cordless drill are sold for planting bulbs, but most drills are not strong enough to do the job.
Here’s what I do: I select a nice sunny spot that drains well and is not soggy in winter. Then I dig an oval hole about 3 feet long and 2 feet from front to back, which will serve well for 25 bulbs. For daffodils and tulips I want the hole at least six inches deep. I put the soil into a wheelbarrow or onto a blue tarp so it won’t make a mess of my lawn or garden bed.
Tulips are ephemeral, but worth trying
Next I add some good compost and either “Bulb Booster” or slow-release organic fertilizer, and work it into the soil with my CobraHead weeder, a single-tined hand tool. Then I arrange the bulbs in the loosened soil in the bottom of the hole, with fat bottom down, and the pointy head up. I mix some compost into the soil I removed, and carefully fill the hole.
If space is at a premium, you can plant two layers of bulbs in the same hole. Plant the big bulbs in the bottom of your hole and add soil up to two or three inches below the soil line. Then plant small bulbs like crocus, snowdrops, glory-of-the-snow (Chionodaxa spp.) or squill ( Scilla siberica). The small, early bulbs will delight you, and then the daffodils or tulips will overwhelm you – particularly if you forget you double-planted the bed.
I’ve been planting bulbs around my 2-plus acres for decades because spring blossoms are the perfect antidote to a long New Hampshire winter. It is always a challenge to find a spot to squeeze bulbs in, but there is always someplace. This fall I am planting them between hostas I planted last year. The hosta foliage will hide the dying leaves of the daffodils after they bloom.
Henry lives, dreams of spring and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. He is a long time UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. Reach him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Fall Chores: It’s Time to Get Started
Posted on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Those big yellow school buses have been lumbering along for well over a month now, so you know it is time to start getting your gardens ready for winter. This is a good time to work outside: the bugs are fewer and it’s not so cold that you’ll be miserable in an hour.
This Japanese red maple was full of clutter before pruning
I recently did some pruning on my Japanese red maple (Acer palmatum) trees. We all know that sugar maples pump sweet sap up from the ground in spring, but did you know that all maples send lots of liquid up in spring, even if not the sweet stuff? Because of that, spring is not a good time to prune. Now is a much better time.
I attended a pruning workshop in 2019 at Shin Boku Nursery in Wentworth, NH. Palmer Koelb has been growing, pruning and selling trees trained in the Japanese tradition for over 50 years. Some of his nursery stock is several decades old, and all of it is beautiful.
One of the things I learned at that workshop is that Japanese red maples are best trained over time. It is better to do a little pruning every year or two than to wait 10 years and need to cut big branches. I was told that I should never use a saw on a Japanese red maple, apparently they don’t react well to removing big branches. Hand pruners are best.
So what did I do? I reigned in the height of my trees. I like them to top out at around eight feet, so I looked for skyward-growing branches and cut each back to a lower fork, one hidden in the foliage. I also removed extraneous foliage and small branches in the interior of the trees, opening up the center of the tree so that the interesting branch shapes are visible. These trees, by their very nature, are not dominated by a single straight trunk, and I want to see the structure of a tree. I remove clutter, and rubbing branches.
This also a good time to shape all your hydrangeas, and prune them to keep them to the size you like. If you want to develop a new hydrangea to be upright, this is a good time to prune out downward-growing branches, and even to stake up a central branch to be the “leader” growing upwards.
I like to collect some flowers for drying indoors. Most of us cannot afford to buy flowers from a florist for the table each week, so picking blossoms now that look good in a dry vase is a good alternative. All the hydrangeas will provide lovely blossoms now, so long as you pick them before frost, which causes them to turn brown.
‘Pink Diamond’ hydrangea blooms each year in the fall.
My favorite hydrangea is one called ‘Pink Diamond’. It produces lots of big pointy flower panicles that start our white and turn to pink. In a dry vase the pink will fade a little, but stay quite pink all winter, as will other hydrangeas. The stems on Pink Diamond are stiff and upright on the bush and don’t flop the way some others like ‘Annabelle’ do when rained on.
Unlike lilacs and forsythia, hydrangeas are late-season bloomers so you do not lose any blossoms next year if you prune now. They bloom on stems that grow in the spring. I like to leave some blossoms on all winter to remind me that summer will get here eventually.
Grasses and grains are blooming now, and can look good in a dry vase, too. I grew an annual grain this year called black millet and I recently picked some stems and put them in a dry vase. Millet produces small seeds on narrow “cobs” much like corn, but without the outer leaves. It is found in bird seed mixes, and I ate it as a gruel when serving in the Peace Corps in West Africa. This year I bought some plants at a nursery, but will start plenty from seed next year. ‘Purple Majesty’ is probably the name of the variety I planted.
Black millet works well in a dry vase
I’ve been potting up annual plants I want to bring in before winter, rather than waiting until the afternoon before the first hard frost. I potted up some ‘Diamond Frost’ Euphorbia that I bought in small pots last spring and planted in the ground. This is a delightful plant that has tiny white blossoms all summer. As a “Proven Winner” plant, it is trademarked and is not sold by seed.
Diamond Frost makes a nice house plant that continues to bloom indoors all winter. It prefers a bright window sill, but will survive most anywhere so long as you remember to water it regularly. Then in the spring it can go outdoors again – and at no expense.
Each fall I dig up at least one rosemary plant and bring it indoors. I like to do this early in the fall so that it can get used to being in a pot while sitting in the garden in just the same place it was in the ground. This lets it have fewer changes in its environment at a time. Later I will wash it well with a hose in order to get off any aphids or other pests before bring it indoors.
Don’t use any fertilizer now for any houseplants coming inside. A plastic pot or an enameled one will keep moisture in better than an unglazed clay pot, if you are a lazy waterer, select them.
Raking the leaves can wait till later, after all the leaves have fallen. But go outside and start chipping away at the chores on nice days, even if it means playing hooky from work.
Henry is the author of 4
gardening books. Reach him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by mail at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
Putting Away Veggies for Winter
Posted on Tuesday, October 5, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Like any industrious squirrel, I am getting food stored and ready for winter. Even if your vegetable garden is depleted, you can buy things in bulk from your local farm stand now to save for winter.
Each type of veggie has its own requirements. Some like a cool space with high humidity. Others want it cool and dry. Then there are a few, like sweet potatoes, that require a warm space and suffer in the cold. Let’s take a look.
Storing is the easiest and cheapest way of keeping veggies for a few months. Winter squash store well in a cool dry location such as under the bed in a spare, unheated bedroom. Drafty old farmhouses have plenty of good places to store them, along with cardboard boxes of onions and garlic. I’ve stored a blue Hubbard squash (which has a very thick skin) for up to a year without any problems. But they will rot in a high humidity area.
Buy potatoes now and save for a winter meal
Potatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, rutabagas, celeriac or celery root, turnips and parsnips will store for months at 35 to 50 degrees with high humidity. You can do that in a spare fridge, preferably in a drawer that keeps humidity in it. Or put them in zipper bags and punch a few breathing holes in the bags. You can put an inch of moist sand in a bucket, and store carrots in the garage if it stays cold, but not frigid. Keep a lid on the bucket, and check from time to time. Rodents love carrots and potatoes, so you can’t store them in an open container.
I built a “cold cellar” for storing potatoes in my cold basement that often has temperatures below freezing. I made a bin of cement blocks, two layers high, and covered it with an insulated plywood lid. I weighted the lid to be sure mice could not sneak in. I put a heat mat in the bottom to use if temperatures neared freezing in the box.
A blanching pot is useful if you plan on freezing veggies 004
A full-sized freezer is a good investment. Among other things, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, beans, peppers, kale and fruit store well in a freezer. I freeze them in freezer-grade zipper bags. You can suck the excess air out of the bag with a drinking straw by closing the seal up to the straw, then pulling it out quickly and snapping shut while still sucking on the straw.
Freezing is a time-honored process for storing food. Some veggies need to be blanched before freezing to keep them tasty. Blanching is a quick immersion in boiling water before freezing. It kills the aging enzymes in your vegetables, keeping them fresh-tasting longer. If you know you will eat your frozen things within 3 months, don’t bother with it. I recommend blanching beans, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cauliflower, corn, kale, peaches, squash and Swiss chard. I freeze apples, peppers and tomatoes without blanching.
If you blanch, just do it for 60 seconds, which is often even before the water has come back to a full boil. Use lots of water in a big pot, and not too many veggies. There are special pots sold for blanching. They have an inner pot with holes that help you lift the veggies out of the water quickly.
If you blanch veggies too long they will be mushy. Drop the blanched veggies in a sink of cold water, spin dry in a salad spinner, and blot with a cloth dish towel. Then bag and freeze.
Excalibur dryer does a good job drying tomatoes, apples and hot peppers
I also dehydrate foods, notably tomatoes, hot peppers, apples and pears. You can buy a good dehydrator like the ones made by Nesco American Harvest for somewhere under $150. Or you can buy the Cadillac of dryers and get an Excalibur for $300 or more. Those use less energy and dry the food evenly without having to rotate the trays.
Dehydrating is great for hot peppers: I dry them until they are brittle, then grind them in my coffee bean grinder. That way I have a powder I can add to soups or stews a little at a time and that is well distributed. And I dry cherry tomatoes cut in half; I use them in soups and stews. They offer a bite of summer.
I also make tomato paste and freeze it in ice cube trays. I often do this with imperfect tomatoes: I cut out the bad parts and put the rest in a Cuisinart to blend them into a loose “soup” that I then cook down slowly in a big enameled cast iron pot. When I can literally stand a spoon up in the mix, it is done. Having a supply of tomato paste is essential for cooking, and I like that I don’t have to open a can when I need just a little.
I freeze tomato paste for storage in ice cube trays.
If you have an apple tree, you probably have already made some apple sauce this year. It freezes well, and is always tasty. But have you made cider? You don’t need to buy a cider press. I bring apples to my local orchard, and ask them to press and bottle the juice. Be sure to tell your orchardist that you are freezing it, and to leave an inch of space for expansion. They will charge you a fee, but it is well worth it for the satisfaction of having your own cider in winter.
Lastly, have you thought of making sauerkraut? Cabbages are easy to grow – or inexpensive to buy at your local farm stand. If you want to learn the basics just Google my name and “sauerkraut”. I wrote a full article on it in 2015 and it is available on-line along with book recommendations for in-depth learning.
One last bit of advice: don’t freeze or store any veggies or fruit that are not perfect. Freezing rotten food does not make it better! And you will not want to eat it later if you don’t want to eat it now!
Henry is an organic
gardener. He tries to eat something that came from his
garden every day of the year! Reach him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
News of the Dreaded Asian Jumping Worm
Posted on Saturday, September 25, 2021 · Leave a Comment
Jumping worms usually have a white clitellum, and move fast when disturbed
After decades of improving my garden soil, I have an infestation of Asian jumping worms. They can eat all the organic material in the soil, depleting it terribly. These foreign invaders multiply more quickly than our common worms, outcompeting them. Everything I have read about them says they are bad news for gardeners.
Scientists are working on organic solutions to the Asian jumping worm problem. I was able to phone Brad Herrick, a researcher at University of Wisconsin who has been studying them for years. He explained that although they came to the United States nearly a hundred years ago, the worms are spreading rapidly, now infesting 37 states. Their worst impact may be in the forest: they eat dead leaves and forest duff, potentially creating a soil devoid of the organic matter that nourishes native wildflowers and trees. The soil can become sterile.
Soil surface is covered with castings like coffee grounds where jumping worms are present
To see if you have them, start at a shady, mulched bed – that is where they like it best. Pull back leaves or mulch on your soil. The worms are surface feeders, living in the top inch or two of the soil, and readily seen on the soil surface. Touch one, and it moves fast, wiggling and moving – quite a contrast to our relatively sluggish ordinary worms. The soil in infested areas often looks like it has coffee grounds spilled on the soil – which are their castings or excrement.
The clitellum that produces the egg sacs or cocoons is a whitish band near the head end of the worm. This contrasts with our common worms which have a reddish-brown clitellum, and which is usually a bit raised.
Brad Herrick explained that unlike the earthworms we know and love, these guys can reproduce asexually, so even one worm can start an infestation. But they also spread when the cocoons, which sit on the soil surface, are washed away by rains. This allows them to expand their territory quickly, especially on hillsides.
How did I get them? I don’t know. They may have arrived when I bought plants for a new flower bed. I know my source of compost and know it has been heated sufficiently to kill all the weed seeds, so that would have killed any cocoons, too. And I see none of the worms in my purchased compost pile. But I had work done on my septic system, and soil was brought in.
According to Brad Herrick, freezing temperatures kill all the adult worms each winter. Unfortunately, it does not kill the eggs which over-winter and start the cycle again. The eggs hatch once the soil temperature reaches 50 degrees- perhaps in April or May. He said it takes 70 to 90 days to reach maturity, at which point they start producing eggs; they continue to produce eggs from late June until frost.
Ordinary earthworms have a raised clitellum that often incompletely encirlcles the worm, and is rreddish brown
So what can you do? If you have a new infestation you can try removing them by hand. Scientists often use a solution of yellow mustard powder in water to get worms to come to the surface. One third cup per gallon of water. But if you have a large area, that might not be practical. The best time to do this is in early summer before new worms have reached maturity.
Brad Herrick said you can heat the soil to kill the worms by solarizing it with clear plastic. Worms – and castings – will self-destruct at 104 degrees for 3 days, perhaps less. Unfortunately, that will not work in forests or shady beds- which is where I have them.
The worms can live in sunny beds if they are mulched. In fact, Herrick told me, the worms have an enzyme that allows them to eat wood mulch. I wonder if mulching with peastone or small gravel instead of bark mulch or leaves might help to reduce the problem. If they run out of food, they may well die out. That theory has not been tested, and you may not like the look of a stone mulch. If you do this, please let me know if it helps.
My worm problem so far exists only in one large shady. Here’s my plan: after frost I will rake off leaves and mulch (and collect and destroy any worms I see). Worms are usually within a inch or two of the surface.I will treat those leaves as toxic waste as they probably will have cocoons in them, which I don’t want to get into my compost pile.
Hopefully I can burn my rakings in the driveway to destroy the leaves and cocoons. Then I will cut back all my perennials and go over the area with a flame weeder. This is a torch attached to an 8-gallon propane tank that sends out a big flame. That should burn up the cocoons on the soil surface. Flame weeders are available from Johnny’s Selected Seeds or Fedco seeds.
Herrick told me of a product, BotaniGard, which contains a fungus that is listed for use to kill the worms. However, in a University of Vermont study I read, it is only about 70% effective in a lab setting. That is not good enough for me, especially since even a solitary worm can produce viable eggs. And it sells on-line for $90 a pound.
When buying nursery stock, look for coffee grounds on the surface of the pot, and when removing the root ball, looks for worms. If you see either, do not plant it, and report the problem to the seller. Check purchased compost for worms, too. Clean your tools and shoes if working in beds with worms – the egg cocoons are tiny and not visible to the naked eye.
We will get through this. Remember when we were told impatiens plants all carried a terrible fungus and we would never be able to grow them again? Didn’t happen. This is more serious, but I do believe we will be able to manage it.
Henry lives in Cornish Flat, NH and is a longtime Master
Gardener. He is the author or 4
gardening books. You may reach by e-mail at
henry.homeyer@comast.net.
Hedges and Fences
Posted on Monday, September 20, 2021 · Leave a Comment
While vacationing recently on the Maine coast I admired many nice gardens. Many of them had hedges or fences, more than I am used to seeing in rural New Hampshire.
When settlers first arrived in New England they dug out stones left by the glaciers some 10,000 years before. They piled them up to clear farm fields, and began making stone walls to define property borders and to contain animals – or to keep them out. Gradually dry stone wallers learned how to make them look good and last forever.
Building a stone wall or retaining wall is hard work, and expensive to have someone else build. If you want to build your own, remember 3 things: First, the soil moves in winter as it freezes and thaws. This can make walls tumble if not properly built. Wallers have learned to add drainage under and around a wall: at least a foot of one-inch crushed stone in a trench beneath the wall works well. Round pebbles will act as ball bearings would, allowing stones to move.
Each stone should touch 4 others, two below it, two above it. Stones should not be stacked one on top of another, much the way bricks are laid. This helps to tie it all together and prevent movement.
Lastly, use a long string to keep the wall straight and level. Or if you are creating a curved wall, define it carefully before starting. You can place a garden hose on the soil to help define the curve.
Early settlers also made wattle fences. I talked to Crow Boutin who makes his living making wattle fences in the Kennebunk area of Maine. These fences are simple: he cuts lengths of fresh yellow birch that are one- to two-inches in diameter. First he make “pencils” that he drives in the ground with a hammer after he cuts them to length and sharpens them with an ax. Then he weaves pieces of birch 8- to10-feet long between the vertical pencils that he spaces about 16 inches apart. The tension of the bent stems holds the fence in place. Simple? You bet, and something you could try.
But why do people need fences or hedges? Some are just for the looks, or to create a backdrop for flowers. Others are to keep others from looking into the yard, or to keep animals in (or out). Let’s take a look at a few I saw.
The nicest fences I saw were white picket fences. Maybe I like them because my grandfather had one, and I remember it from my youth. They show off flowers well, and allow climbers to climb on them. But generally you have to pay someone to install them, and, as Tom Sawyer knew, you must paint them from time to time. Now these fences come in a variety of materials including fiberglass or plastic that needs no painting.
Living fences – called hedges- come in a variety of species. Evergreen hedges like yew or arborvitae can look good summer and winter, but are often eaten by deer. Hemlock and pine are less likely to be predated by deer, but they will grow to 60 feet tall unless they are trimmed every year – and most somehow escape and do get tall.
Rugosa roses are commonly used as hedges on the Maine coast. They will grow in sandy soil and produce copious fragrant flowers and handsome red fruits in the fall. But they look bedraggled over time, and aren’t green in winter. Their thorns do keep people and pets from cutting corners through the yard.
Lilacs look great when blooming and have handsome green leaves 8 or 9 months of the year, but do little to block the view of your house and yard in winter. They do best in sweet soil, so add limestone every year or three to keep them blooming nicely. Lilacs, too, need trimming or they can get gangly.
The split rail fence is generally made of cedar, which lasts a long time – up to 20 years. It creates a rustic look, but neither keeps animals out nor blocks the nosy neighbor’s view. It will keep cars from parking on your lawn, and can support vines like roses or clematis.
Less common fences include stockade fences – tall wooden fences that block all view of the yard. What you need if you like to sunbathe nude in the garden and have a near neighbor. Definitely not a friendly signal to neighbors. Iron rail fences, wire fences and chain link fences all have their uses, but I can’t imagine having one installed.
Lastly, there is the deer fence. Many gardeners use them in order to grow vegetables, or to have tulips in the spring. Nowadays there are woven plastic fences that are inexpensive and come in 8-foot widths that work well to keep out deer. You can install them yourself on posts or stakes you cut in the forest. They work – unless you leave the gate open! Me? I have depended on having dogs to scare away the wildlife for many years. They did the job well, though I am now looking to adopt a dog as my corgi, Daphne passed away a year ago. And I love dogs, too, which I can’t say for fences.
Click Here to buy from Cobrahead