Watering in Dry Times
Posted on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 · Leave a Comment
These limp leaves tell me it is time to water
June, for most of us, was a very dry time. When weeds and established perennials started to droop, I knew it was time to water, and I did. But watering done well takes time and, done poorly, wastes a lot of water – or doesn’t do the job. I have no crystal ball to know what the rest of the summer will be like – July started well with plenty of rain – but it’s good to plan ahead
First, how much rain do we need each week to be able to avoid watering? About an inch. If you have sandy soil, water runs right through it, so you need more. Clay soil has tiny soil particles and holds onto moisture nicely. But if clay goes bone dry, it can turn into something like cement that will let water run off the surface and downhill instead of soaking in.
In either case, you can make watering easier and your plants more vigorous by adding compost to your soil. That is easiest to do before planting, of course, but you can top dress the soil with compost and let earthworms, roots and rain work it into the soil over time. Half an inch of compost on the lawn each spring and fall will help a lot. And mulching with compost, an inch or so, will help your flowers and veggies considerably.
In general, I don’t like overhead watering systems. Yes, they do mimic a rain storm, but they waste a lot of water, and water the walkways and weeds as well as the plants. So long as the soil is not parched, I like to water plants using a watering wand.
A watering wand directs a soft spray just where you want it
My watering wand is a 30-inch long aluminum tube with a watering rose on the end and a shut-off valve that allows me to increase or decrease the flow of water. I like those made by Dramm, a company that specializes in watering devices and has figured out how to deliver lots of water while not disturbing young plants.
In the vegetable garden, I walk up the rows directing the water around my tomatoes or irrigating the lettuce. The wand allows me to spray water close to the ground level – it’s not falling from waist high, the way a nozzle on the end of a hose would. I place hardwood grade stakes at the end of each row to guide the hose and keep it from damaging plants
But during an extended period of hot and dry weather, I know I need to water each bed entirely, from side to side, but not the walkways. If I just water right around the tomatoes, for example, the surrounding soil will wick away the moisture that you gave to your plants. So you need to soak the soil around your plants, not just at the stem.
This simple, stationary watering frog waters a circle 20 feet across
When watering newly planted trees, or those planted last year, water in a circle around the tree or shrub that extends at least to the drip line. Later on, when a tree is mature, the roots can go far beyond that. If the soil is dry, you might be surprised how long you need to water around a tree in order to get water to get down 6 or 12 inches – which is where the roots are.
Another way to keep your plants happy in dry times is to mulch them well. This will keep the soil moisture from evaporating and will minimize those thirsty, greedy weeds.
In the vegetable garden I put down 4 to 6 layers of newspapers or a single layer of cardboard or large brown paper bags, and then cover that with straw. To make sure a light rain gets to my plants, I don’t mulch right up to the plants. Or I’ll mulch with chopped fall leaves or grass clippings right next to the plants. Leaves or grass let rain pass through more easily than paper and straw, but keep down weeds.
This young tomato is mulched with a circle of chopped leaves, paper, and straw
Why use straw instead of hay? Straw generally costs more than straw – $10 a bale or more versus $5 or less. Mulch hay has seeds, that’s why. Straw is not supposed to have seeds, though occasionally it does. I was told that even if you see seeds in straw, they are immature and won’t germinate.
I don’t like to use black plastic in the garden. It does keep down weeds and holds in moisture, but it ends up in the landfill a year later. And it may interfere with the beneficial microorganisms in the soil – it gets pretty hot under the plastic. It can also create pools of water, a good breeding place for mosquitoes. So I avoid it.
In flower beds I prefer to grow plants so close together that few weeds grow there. But in new beds I use finely ground bark mulch. Never the colored kind, orange or black, as they have chemicals I don’t want.
A flip flop watering device can cover a lot of space
For big areas of new plants or lawn, a sprinkler of some kind is good. I like a Melnor brand flip-flop sprinkler, model XT360 M. It is easy to use, and comes with a lifetime warranty. For small areas, I like a fixed sprinkler like my brass frog that waters calmly in a 20-foot circle.
Plants will usually recover from getting dehydrated, but it takes a week or more, so you lose valuable growing time. I want my tomatoes sooner, not later. So I make sure they don’t dry out too badly in dry times.
If you pay attention to your plant, if you really look at them, you will see when they start to wilt. That’s the time to water. So get a good watering device, and be ready!
Henry can be reached at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books, and can make house calls to offer advice about your garden if you live nearby. He lives in Cornish Flat, NH.
Roses 101: They Are Easier to Grow Than You Might Think
Posted on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 · Leave a Comment
I love roses, but avoided planting any for a long time. They had a reputation for being fussy. I thought they would attract Japanese beetles, and carry black spot and other diseases. In recent years I have been enjoying growing roses and find that modern breeders have come up with many fine roses that are easy to grow, and not fussy.
At Last is a re-blooming hybrid developed by Proven Winners. It’s a Zone 5 plant that I’ve had for 4 years in Zone 4
So what have I learned? First, roses love full sun, but will grow in part shade. But the more sun they get, the better they do. Six hours of sunshine is considered full sun by most authorities. Afternoon sun is more potent than morning sun, so the west side of the house is better than the east.
Second, roses need good, rich soil. If you have sandy soil or a heavy clay, you will need to improve it in order to succeed. What does that mean? Dig a hole that is at least 3 times as wide as the pot it was in when you purchased it. If your rose came in an 8-inch pot, a 24-inch hole should be the minimum you dig.
The late Mike Lowe, a rosarian who grew 2,000 kinds of roses in Nashua, NH, told me to dig a hole 36 inches wide and 24 inches deep – if possible. If you have heavy clay, he said, put a couple of inches of pea stone in the bottom of the hole for drainage. The fill it with an equal mix of topsoil and compost.
When planting a tree, it is important to dig a hole shallow enough so that the tree does not get its trunk flare buried. The trunk flare is the portion of the tree that was above ground when it was growing before it was potted up for sale. Often that trunk flare is covered with soil when you buy it, and needs to be exposed.
Not so, for roses.
This old fashioned fragrant rose blooms but once but it is lovely
Many roses are grafted onto rootstock. The bud union – a scar – should be buried in the soil. The colder the climate, the deeper that graft line or bud union should be. For Zone 4, it should be about 4 inches below the final soil line. Zone 5? 3 inches. Zone 6? 2 inches.
Third, roses like soil that is just slightly acidic – pH 6.0 to 6.8. If you have acidic soil, say somewhere in the 5.0 to 6.0 range, you should add limestone to bring up the soil pH and make it less acidic. Mike Lowe suggested burying a 3-inch square of gypsum wallboard directly below each rose to provide limestone over the long haul. I’m not sure just how effective that is.
Don’t know your soil pH? You can get an inexpensive pH testing kit at your local garden center. Or you can send a sample to your State University Extension Service.
Roses need more water than most other things, but do not want to sit in soggy soil. They should get an inch of water per week from rain, or a couple of watering cans of water applied slowly so it can soak in. A deep watering once a week is better than a little sprinkle every day.
I called Mike and Angie Chute of East Providence, Rhode Island to pick their brains about roses. They have been growing roses for 25 years, and are the authors of
Roses for New England: A Guide to Sustainable Rose Gardening. They are well known speakers at the spring flower shows. Their web site is www.rosesolutions.net , and it’s worth visiting.
I asked them what they thought of the new roses that have been developed in the last 25 years, and how they rate them against the old heritage roses. Mike explained that the trademarked “Knock Out” roses have become immensely popular. I have some, and agree that they are wonderful. They bloom most of the summer and well into the fall, seem to get no diseases and do not attract pests.
This Knockout rose blooms all summer
On the other hand, most of the Knock Out roses have no fragrance, and do not have the long stems that lovers want to present to their sweeties. Mike and Angie grow them, along with 150 other kinds of roses, and said that the “Easy Elegance” series of roses is at least as good, and maybe better.
Want more blossoms? Mike said that roses do better if they get some fertilizer a few times during the course of the summer. They use chemical fertilizer, a 10-10-10 for a “kick in the pants”, and mulch with chopped seaweed. They like an organic, slow-release bagged fertilizer called Rose Tone, and sometimes use liquid fish and seaweed fertilizers made by Neptune’s Harvest.
My roses grow in good soil, and I have been neglectful of them – I rarely fertilize. But I understand that a dose of liquid fish and seaweed fertilizer 2 or 3 times in the summer might help. I’ll do it this weekend.
Want to learn more? The Chute’s book, mentioned above, is excellent, and worth reading. I also like one published by Rodale Press in 2002, Growing Roses Organically: Your Guide to Creating an Easy-Care Garden Full of Fragrance and Beauty by Barbara Wilde. It has a half-page description with a photo of each of 100 roses that will do well with organic care.
June is over, but roses are not. Now days, many roses will re-bloom every 45 days or so, and some bloom almost constantly. Just be sure to cut off spent blossoms, and down to another shoot with 5 leaves or more.
Henry is the author of 4 gardening books and is a veteran of the UNH Master Gardener program. His email is
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Where to Begin: How to Design a Garden
Posted on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 · Leave a Comment
Let’s say you have recently purchased a house and want to create beautiful gardens. How should you begin? I recently visited Gordon and Mary Hayward, both garden designers, at their home in Westminster West, Vermont. Their gardens are as nice as any private gardens I have seen, and I wanted to understand their thought process.
It’s important to have views of the garden from the windows
The Haywards bought a 1790’s farmhouse 36 years ago that needed a lot of work. The landscape was full of brush and abandoned cars. But they were undaunted. They explained that they wanted a house in a garden, not a house with gardens you walk by. They wanted to be surrounded by gorgeous flowers and trees, with sculpture and walkways. They wanted gardens all around them.
The first thing they did was establish the central axis of the gardens. They did this by tying a string to the front door plate and running it straight out to the trunk of a mature apple tree, thereby creating a focal point. All the main beds are either parallel or perpendicular to that string. I’d estimate that the pathway along the central axis extends from the house for a couple of hundred feet.
This old apple tree served to establish an axis from the front door of the house
At the end of that central path is a magnificent old apple tree, surrounded by an 80-foot circle of lawn, because the drip line of the apple tree is circular. Flowers in curved beds surround the lawn. As Mary Hayward said, “Curves need to make sense.” Most of the paths and lines in their garden beds are straight, only occasionally curving or meandering to go around a fixed feature.
“Pay attention to views from the doors and windows because they’ll suggest garden placement,” said Gordon. Look out them, make sure what you see pleases you. Not only that, he said you gain confidence in your design if you pay attention to the house. There needs to be a relationship between the house and the garden spaces. “The garden is an extension of the house and the people in it,” he said.
Garden paths should be the same width for their entire length
What else should one consider? The north-south orientation is important, Gordon said. You can grow roses on the south side of a barn, for example, but not on the north side, as there is much less sun. Where is sunset? Most of us like to rest at the end of a day in the garden to watch the sun go down. You can design that – and maybe steal a view of distant hills owned by others. You may need a chain saw to accomplish that.
Mary Hayward grew up near Hidcote Manor Garden, one of England’s finest old gardens, and visited often when growing up. Those visits shaped her view of how a garden should look: a series of connected rooms. Gordon Hayward grew up on apple orchard, and so he wanted apple trees on his landscape as an adult. It makes sense to have elements of a garden that resonate with each person, based on personal history.
Sculpture adds beauty and interest to a garden
“Every decorative element in a garden should have a story, a reason,” Gordon said. “Don’t go buy a cute elephant. Consider what your grandmother or grandfather had.” In the long run, that will resonate with you better.
When Gordon designs a garden for someone, he always asks what their parents or grandparents had for gardens. Are there special plants that bring back memories of simpler times? So, for example, I have a piece of a peony my grandmother (who passed away in 1952) grew called “Festiva Maxima”, and I would hate to be without it. It’s my favorite flower.
Mary and Gordon spent time researching the farm they bought, learning about how it operated and where long-gone outbuildings were located. They have three old milk can where the milking parlor once stood, and other features that remind them of the farm’s history. They unearthed granite fence posts and old bricks, and put them all to good use.
This old shed adds interest to the garden
There is an old tobacco-drying shed in the gardens, and they used the proportions of that to determine the size of beds near it. The door of the shed is eight feet tall, so they used multiples or fractions of 8 for beds around it. The barn itself is 16 feet long – the same measure as the dirt road in front of the property, an old unit of measurement called a rod.
Gordon pointed out that for five months of the year there are no perennials visible in their garden. It is thus very important to have stone walls, trees, sculpture, pottery and outbuildings that are handsome and clearly visible from key windows of the house all year long. Designed properly, a garden can be as beautiful in winter as it is in summer. And since trees and shrubs take time to reach maturity, they are a logical early step when designing your garden.
This old apple tree served to establish an axis from the front door of the house
I bought my house fifty years ago this August. It’s an old creamery, a butter factory built in 1888. It came with an acre of land, though I have since added more land. It had no perennials or shrubs, just a big native cherry tree, a few sugar maples and two huge elms, now long gone. Lawn surrounded the house.
If I were starting all over again, I would begin by designing a garden layout. To help me in that endeavor, I would study good gardens in glossy books and by visiting as many fine gardens as I could. I would take classes and go to arboretums to learn about trees and shrubs that might be used to improve the landscape. I would join a garden club and go on garden tours. And I would certainly want to read all of Gordon Hayward’s wonderful gardening books.
Henry is the author of 4 gardening books. He is now offering Zoom presentations to garden clubs and library groups. E-mail him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net for more information.
Dealing with Pests and Diseases
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 · Leave a Comment
My gardening grandfather came over from Germany around 1910. He was an organic gardener, perhaps because there were few chemicals sold to kill bugs and diseases back then. He gardened the old fashioned way: hen manure for fertilizer, hand picking to keep potato beetles under control, and a good compost pile to nurture the soil.
When Organic Farming and Gardening Magazine started up in the 1940’s, Grampy was an early subscriber – and a believer in organic gardening. He grew great vegetables and prize-winning flowers. I grew up spending time on his small farm every summer, and helping in the garden. I’ve always believed in organic gardening: gardening without chemicals.
That said, I understand why many gardeners use chemicals: something is threatening their roses or their broccoli. Flea beetles are making holes in their cabbage. And what about chemicals to make the tomatoes grow faster and bigger? I get the urge, too. But there are alternatives.
Row cover with hoops helps to keep insects off and keep plants warm
First, I want to explain that chemical fertilizers are generally salts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. They are water soluble and can be taken up fast by plants, pushing fast growth. But fast growth is not always good: stems are often weaker, and excess nitrogen in plants attracts insect pests. Bugs need it to form proteins needed to grow and have babies. Not only that, a few days of heavy rain can dissolve your fertilizer and wash it away.
But if you are used to using bagged fertilizers, you can use bagged organic fertilizers. They are made from things like seaweed and ground oyster shells, cottonseed meal or ground peanut shells. They are broken down by microorganisms in the soil and made available over a much longer period of time. Unlike chemical fertilizers, they can’t burn root hairs if too much is applied.
Then there is compost. Compost improves soil qualities as well as adding needed minerals to the soil. It makes heavy soils fluffier, and it makes sandy soils better able to hold water. Make your own, or buy it bags or by the truckload. You can use it as mulch, and let the earthworms carry it down into the soil.
What about bugs? First, please understand that not all bugs are bad. There are many beneficial insects, bugs that eat the bad boys. I have few insect pests, but never spray anything to kill bugs. If you spray your roses to kill the Japanese beetles, you may be killing beneficial parasitic wasp larvae that are on the roses but unseen.
My first line of defense is always to hand-pick problem bugs. I get to recognize them, and then pick them and drop them in soapy water. If you don’t like handling Japanese beetles, get a gallon milk jug and cut away part of the top, leaving the handle. Add soapy water and hold the jug under the leaf and tap it until the culprit falls in. Or you can just crush them with your fingers, as many gardeners do. They are easy to catch early in the morning, before they have had their coffee (or perhaps warm up in the sun).
Gardening practices can help, too. For example, I plant my potatoes in June, long after most books say to. I find that I get fewer potato beetles that way. And once the leaves are up, I check for beetles often. I look under the leaves for orange egg masses, and scrape them into a jar of soapy water. I drown the larvae and beetles if I see them.
I have read that the life cycle of a Colorado potato beetle from egg to adult is 35 to 40 days. Plant in early April, and each potato beetle can start another generation 4 or 5 times or so before harvest. Break the cycle early to keep numbers down, as each momma beetle lays many eggs.
I have had trouble with a beetle eating my cucumbers and squash plants, defoliating them when they are small. The beetles are fast and hard to catch. So what do I do?
Row cover with hoops helps to keep insects off and keep plants warm
I drape a light-weight gauzy film of agricultural fabric over plants to keep bugs from physically getting to my plants. This cloth allows sun and rain to pass through, but not bugs. It’s called row cover or by trade names like Reemay and Agribon. There are other brand names, too.
Sometimes I use wire hoops to keep the row cover off the plants, other times I just lay it over them. I pin the cloth down with earth staples to keep it from blowing off. Since vine crops are insect pollinated, I need to take it off once the plants start to bloom.
Row cover is not perfect: striped cucumber beetles live in the soil, and sometimes will appear under the row cover, but mostly it prevents them from getting to the plants. To be on the safe side, I start cukes and squash inside the house 3 weeks or more before planting time (or buy a 6-pack of starts). That gives me good-sized plants that can survive some beetle munching.
As an organic gardener I accept that sometimes bugs or diseases win. But my garden always feeds me, and I love working in it.
You can e-mail questions to Henry at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. But be patient! Henry is outdoors most of the time at this season.
How to Prepare for a Garden Party
Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2020 · Leave a Comment
In these times, garden parties are few and far between. But if you practice social distancing (tea at ten feet) and wear masks as needed, you can still share your garden with others. And despite all the hoopla about how people are gardening more, we all still have weeds. But don’t let that daunt you. Here are some tips for making the garden look great, weeds and all – and sharing it with others.
Lyme, New Hampshire has an informal group of gardeners that associate in a “not-quite-a-garden-club”. No dues, no meetings – except a mid-winter potluck. Someone manages a list serve with good info, links to articles, questions, offers of free plants, and more.
Each summer members take turns hosting a weekly “Pardon-My-Garden” event. All members are invited to pop by a garden, tour around, share libations and snacks, pull weeds, offer suggestions. These are wonderful. But this year some are hesitant to attend, or to host. Here are a few ways brave souls have reduced risks:
1) Instead of having a garden open for 2 hours in the evening, some are saying, “come anytime between 1pm and 7pm”. That makes the population density at any time lower.
2) Attendees are invited to bring their own glasses, if they want to enjoy a drink. Or hosts serve drinks in single-serving cans or bottles. At one event, box wine was served – no need to touch a cork or bottle. For snacks, there were little zipper bags full of nuts, presumably prepared wearing gloves and a mask.
3) Everyone is very respectful of interpersonal space. Hard not to hug friends after weeks of isolation, but we all just have to wave.
Moist rich shady soil is good for Primula japonica
June is the best time in my garden. I have a primrose garden in the shade of old apple trees with many hundreds of candelabra or Japanese primroses ( Primula japonica) in full bloom. So I want to share this with friends, and recently invited 2 other couples to join Cindy and me for a tour and a chat.
So how did I get the garden ready? First, I mowed the lawn the day before the event. I also have a nice battery-powered string trimmer that I used to tidy up those corners and edges the mower doesn’t get. A nice lawn sets a good first impression.
An edging tool helps cut nice edges, but a shovel will work
My partner, Cindy, loves cutting sharp edges around flower beds. She uses an edging tool that looks like a half moon on a long handle to shape nice curves to beds. She also uses a tool that you could make: 30 feet of strong masons twine wrapped around 2 nice wooden pegs with points. She pushes a peg into the ground, unwinds some string, and pulls the string tight from the other end. She then pops the second peg into the ground. That gives her a perfectly straight edge if she needs one. Great in the vegetable garden.
Next, I look for tall weeds, things that tower over our tidy flowers. Got a clump of tall timothy grass that came, via seed, from last year’s mulch hay? Dig it out. And any weed that is blooming should be pulled before it goes to seed and creates more work later on. Don’t worry about weeds in beds with nothing blooming – no one will pay attention.
Look for empty spaces. After getting the most obvious weeds, there will be spaces. You can cover these with mulch, if you wish. Or you can divide a large clump of perennials and put a few in the space. Of course, you can also go to the garden center and spend your Covid-19 relief check on new plants, too. Annuals are easy fillers – and many bloom all summer.
This Papyrus will spice up a garden if moved outdoors
Plants in pots are good fillers, too. I have a large blue and white Chinese vase with papyrus growing in it. It has been wintering over in the house for several years, and is a big, handsome plant. I am not above moving it from the deck to the garden to fill in somewhere, or to add interest to a place with no blossoms.
So far, most things aren’t tall enough to flop, but peonies are about to bloom for me, and a hard rain will knock many of them to the ground unless they are surrounded by peony cages or tied up with stakes. Best to support them now, before they flop. The same goes for delphinium, those lovely tall flowers that are famous for flopping and breaking in a hard rain. Like weeding, staking takes time and patience, but makes for a much better experience, over all.
Lastly, clean up the front of beds. Weed, and if you like mulch, add some. I mulched the first 4 feet of my huge primrose garden, and a friend thought I’d done the whole thing!
Some feel that gardening is a solitary venture. Not me. Yes, working alone, or with Cindy, is fun. But sharing the garden with others is even better. And when I do invite people over, I generally have some “spare” plants potted up to send home with my guests. And the great thing is, I know when I visit their gardens, I will go home with something I love.
Henry lives and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. Write him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 037476. Please include a SASE if you wish a response by mail. Better yet, e-mail Henry at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
How to Have a Better Lawn in Summer
Posted on Tuesday, June 2, 2020 · Leave a Comment
Let’s face it: most of us do not have a lawn that looks like the grass on a major league infield. And I for one, don’t want one that does. Most professional ball fields are doctored weekly with chemicals: fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers, insecticides. They are cut very short, and look “perfect”. Yes, I want a lawn that is green, but also full of diversity – clover, different kinds of grass, and (I can see some of you shuddering) even a few dandelions.
Dandelions and clover in the lawn are not bad
The turf grass industry decided long ago that clover is a weed. Why is that? Because the herbicides they promote to control weeds like dandelions and plantain also kill clover – but not grasses. But clover is not a weed. It is a nitrogen-fixing legume that actually adds nitrogen to the soil. It is a friend to your lawn – and your children, who delight in finding good luck with a rare 4-leafed clover. Add Weed-n-Feed and the clover is gone.
So what can you do to have a better lawn when the heat of summer arrives? I talked to Paul Sachs, of North Country Organics, an organic fertilizer company in Bradford, Vermont. Paul has written books about lawn care and soil biology, and really is a very knowledgeable lawn guy. He mentioned several things you can do, first among them: adjust your mower blades up high.
Paul Sachs explained that cutting the lawn at 3 to 4-inches will help to shade the crown of the grass and keep it cooler, which is good. Hot weather stresses most grasses. Taller grass will also develop a deeper root system because the longer blades will produce more food to nurture the roots.
I don’t recommend that you bag the clippings when you mow the lawn. If you are tending your lawn organically (avoiding all chemicals), the clippings will break down, creating a thin layer of compost. Earthworms will turn that organic matter into the soil, too, like little rototillers. The chopped grass will serve to shade the soil a little, helping to reduce heat stress.
The only time I collect the grass clippings is when we get a week or more of hot, rainy weather and I can’t or don’t mow. When there are big lumps of grass, it can smother the grass and turn it yellow, eventually killing it. Fresh grass clippings, added to a compost pile, will add lots of nitrogen and heat up the compost quickly, and helping it to break down the carbon-based brown matter.
If you have bare spots in the lawn, now is the time to plant some grass seed. Do that as soon as you can, as the hot weather ahead will make it harder for new lawn to establish itself. You want to get new grass established before annual crabgrass takes over. The best choice for that is a perennial rye grass, according to Paul Sachs. It germinates quickly – in 5-to7-days.
Start by loosening the soil in the bare spots with a short-tine garden rake. Scratch it back and forth to loosen the soil, and to remove any rocks. Scatter a layer of seed, then use a lawn rake to work it into the loose soil. I turn the lawn rake upside down, so I can drag the back of the tines across the seed. This will cover most of the seed.
Cover seeded areas with straw and water often scaled
You can help your new planting by shaking out some straw over the area, providing a thin layer to shade the soil. It is important that the seed not dry out once it has begun to grow. So if the weather is hot and dry, check the soil every day, and water as needed.
Paul Sachs told me that if you have an irrigation system for your lawn, you can help your lawn by giving it a tenth of an inch of water every day at the heat of the day. That light watering evaporates, cooling the soil and your grass. It’s similar to what we do when we sweat to cool down. Then once a week, he said, give your lawn an inch of water for a deep watering – if we have not gotten that moisture from the sky.
Another way you can help your lawn to grow better and avoid heat stress is to add mycorrhizal fungi to your soil. These fungi work with plant roots in a symbiotic relationship – one in which both organisms benefit. According to Paul Sachs, these are best added at planting time when preparing the soil.
The mycorrhizal fungi coat plant roots and benefit from sugars produced and exuded by the roots. In turn the mycorrhizal fungi breakdown soil minerals and provide needed nutrients to the green plants in a form they can use. Not only grasses benefit from mycorrhizal fungi, most green plants do. Learn more at
https://mycorrhizae.com/. A number of commercial products are available to provide these beneficial organisms, and many are present without treatment.
One last thought: if we could purchase daffodils that would grow in the lawn and re-bloom after mowing, we would pay big bucks for them, right? Especially if they would send out seeds and show up even where we have not planted them. But call them dandelions, and some people declare war. Me? I love those bright harbingers of spring and summer and don’t mind them in my lawn. A diverse lawn is a healthy lawn. I like to say, if it’s green and I can mow it, it’s a lawn!
Henry is now offering workshops on-line using Zoom to garden clubs and library groups. Contact him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
How to Divide Flowers to Get More Plants – for Free!
Posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2020 · Leave a Comment
I spend a lot in plant nurseries. At $10 or more a pop, it is easy to spend a hundred dollars quick as a blink. But I’m also a firm believer in dividing my perennials so that I don’t have to spend so much. Once you have established a good plant palette, you can increase numbers by dividing plants. Don’t be afraid to give it a try.
You need to learn a little about each plant in order to know if the roots can easily be separated, allowing you to divide plants. And although horticulturists may tell you that the time of year is important, in my experience you can divide most things anytime. Peonies are supposed to be moved or divided only in the fall after they have gone dormant, but I once moved 50 peonies for a client in June and they thrived.
One way to learn about propagation is by using a good text. My bible is Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants by Steven M. Stills (Stipes Press, paperback, 814 pages). Although the publisher sells new copies at $58.80, used copies are readily available for a fraction of the price.
The book tells when to divide (spring or fall) and whether plants spread easily by seed. It also gives cultural tips about where and how to plant each flower. Most common and many unusual plants are included, one or two pages on each. There are drawings for each, with a few color photos in the back.
Don’t be afraid to cut through leaves or roots when dividing a big patch of daylilies
Another way to learn about dividing plants is to just do it. Dig up a plant and examine the roots. I use a drain spade to do this. A drain spade is a pointed shovel with a long, narrow blade (commonly 6 inches wide and 16 inches long). I plunge it into the soil and pry back a little. Then I repeat the procedure on all sides. When the plant is loose, I lift it out.
Some plants have long, deep roots. Others, such as peonies, have roots that look like tubers. Most have lots of string-like roots going in all directions. If the bed you are working in is full of weeds, it is important to distinguish between grass or weed roots and those of your plant. Observe the color and texture of the plant roots and remove any roots that are different. Daylily roots, for example are very distinctive in both color and shape.
Barerooting with a hose will ensure you have no weed roots
When dividing a plant, you may wish to actually bare-root it. Do this by shaking off any soil attached, or washing the root system with a hose to remove the soil. Weed or grass roots will be obvious when you do that. I normally do that for any gifted plants because I want to avoid getting any invasive weeds that might come with it. I learned that lesson the hard way, having accepted some nice iris plants that had goutweed roots embedded that then have plagued me for 30 years.
If all the roots are attached to a single stem, you cannot divide the plant. But most plants are not like that. You can usually tease the roots apart, taking sections of the clump apart. Each chunk will give you a nice plant.
Hostas are common shade plants with lovely foliage. They do produce white flowers in mid-summer, but most people grow them for the foliage. Big clumps commonly are created as the plant expands, roots sending up new plants. Dig up a big clump, and you might get a dozen plants – or more.
Dividing hostas roots with a serrated knife is easy
I was dividing some hostas recently, and found some clumps hard to pull apart. So I used a curved, serrated knife to cut through some roots, allowing me to separate them. If you don’t have a garden knife, buy a steak knife at a yard sale or junk shop – on sneak one out of the kitchen – and it will work just fine.
And then I wanted to move some common orange daylilies. These send out long roots, which then send up new plants, so one plant can become many just in the time it takes to get a bottle of orange pop from the kitchen. Or a year to two.
With the daylilies, I used a shovel to cut through the roots between plants to get them into clumps of a manageable size. Don’t worry about damaging roots or leaves, these puppies are indestructible. Just dig up, cut apart and move.
For spring blooming plants, digging now may hinder flowering this year. For fall blooming plants, that is less of a problem. Some plants benefit by digging, dividing and fertilizing. Steven Stills’ book mentions how often to do that: for purple cone flower, for example, it is every 4 years. For Shasta daisies, every other spring is best. And so on.
Always choose a cool, cloudy day for dividing plants. Even a drizzly day. Plants can go into shock if divided at noon on a hot day. I like to do it in the evening when rain is in the forecast.
The great thing about digging up a big perennial is not only that you have more plants: your friends will, too. I often put a blurb in my town list serve offering free plants. I’ve made some very nice friends that way!
Henry is now teaching Zoom classes to gardening clubs and libraries. Contact him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Six Less Common Veggies You Might Like
Posted on Sunday, May 17, 2020 · Leave a Comment
I don’t mean to sound like I’m bragging, but if it will grow in Cornish Flat, New Hampshire, I’ve probably tried it. Scorzonera? Sure, once, but I was not enthralled by this long, thin root. Peanuts? Once, didn’t get many. Gilfeather turnips? You bet. Many of the things I try I don’t continue to grow – they have to taste good, and be productive to qualify. Let’s look at a few that I do like, and that you might not grow – as yet.
Celeriac with carrots, leeks and Brussels sprouts3
One of my favorites is celeriac, or celery root. This is a close cousin to celery, but less attractive to slugs and snails, and easier to grow. It is a funny looking root crop with many fat roots. It tastes very much like celery in a soup or stew, though it is not usually eaten raw. I peel the roots, and chop the round bulb into chunks for cooking. If stored in the vegetable drawer or a cold cellar with high humidity and cool temperatures, it will store all winter.
Celeriac grows best in rich moist soil. I start it indoors in March and plant it outside in late May, spaced 6 to 8 inches apart. If crowded it will not produce well. It also needs lots of moisture, so don’t plant it in dry, sandy soil. It takes a long time to grow to transplant size, so look for it at good garden centers – some will have starts for sale.
Kohlrabi is another funny-looking root vegetable. This has much of the bulbous root above ground, with leaves popping out on stems from the bulb. I’ve heard it likened to a space alien. But it’s delicious! Crisp, with a nice snap, it’s in the same family with broccoli and kale. It’s good in salads as well as stir fries. There are purple varieties, and white or green ones, which tend to be slower growing and good for long-term storage.
Try growing kohlrabi this summer
Kohlrabi germinates in less than a week and grows fast. Although you can start them indoors, you don’t need to. In most places you can start them now. Plant seeds outdoors 3 to 4 inches apart and thin every other one if all grow. They like consistently moist soil, so add compost at planting time.
Artichokes need a long growing season, so you should have planted them indoors back in early March. But more and more good garden centers are growing them, so might be able to find plants for sale.
They are big plants, up to 2 feet across with nice grey-green leaves. I sometimes plant them in the flower garden. In fact, the vegetable you eat is a flower bud. If you don’t pick them, they will open up and be quite pretty. I once saw them as flowers in an ancient abbey on the island of Iona, Scotland and they were quite striking. They’re related to thistles. Your artichokes will be smaller than store-bought.
In California artichoke plants are perennials, but even with mulch I have never had one survive a winter here. One called Imperial Star is an annual, and is best for growing here. They need rich, dark soil with plenty of compost and some organic fertilizer. Plenty of moisture is needed, too.
Although I once had a bumper sticker that said “Eat More Kale”, kale has become mainstream and needs no advertising. But I’d get one that said something like, “Rejoice in Rutabagas!” to put on my truck, if I could. They are easy to grow, mild and tasty, and don’t suffer from things that make potatoes problematic (potato beetles and fungal blight). I use them as a substitute for potatoes in stews.
Rutabagas are a good substitute for potatoes
Rutabagas are also relatives of kale and broccoli, members of the Brassica family. I plant them by seed in June, and thin to 8 inches as these are big root crops that will not produce well if crowded. Although flea beetles can bother them, I’ve never had anything eat mine. Cover with row covers if you have a problem.
The skin of a rutabaga is reddish purple, and the flesh is yellow or orange. They store well – all winter in a cold cellar or spare fridge. ‘Helenor’ and ‘Laurentian’ are the varieties I‘ve grown, but I imagine all are fine.
Leeks are some of the easiest veggies I grow. Buy them as small plants at a good garden center, or start them from seed indoors in March. Space them 4 to 6 inches apart in a trench 3 inches deep. Fill in the trench a month later. If you want more of the white part of the leek, you can mound up the soil around them.
In the fall I harvest leeks, wash them and cut off the roots. I chop them and put them right into the freezer. They are then available as an onion substitute, or to make one of my favorite soups, leek and potato.
Tomatillos are not commonly grown – even by me, but they are commonly required for Mexican dishes. They are big plants, like a tomato, but I have read that they do best sprawling on the ground, not in a cage.
The first time I grew them I just planted one, and got no fruit: you need 2 plants or more for cross pollination. So buy 2 or more plants, and plant them 2 weeks or so after you plant your tomatoes. Remember, they would much rather be growing in Mexico!
Think about digging up some of your lawn this spring to increase the size of your garden. Hungry times might be ahead, who knows? The good thing about that is, a new garden is much less likely to have tomato blight problems. So grow some tomatoes in your front yard. And since your garden will be visible from the street, you’ll do a better job weeding, I bet!
Henry Homeyer started growing vegetables with his Grampy in 1948 or so, and generally eats something he has grown every day of the year. He is the author of 4 gardening books. E-mail him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Is It Time to Plant Yet?
Posted on Sunday, May 17, 2020 · Leave a Comment
Some folks in my part of New England plant seeds in the ground on Mother’s Day and seedlings on Memorial Day weekend. Not me. Others use Mother Nature’s clues: plant spinach when the forsythia blooms, potatoes when the leaves of an oak are the size of a mouse’s ear. That sounds good, but who really knows how big a mouse’s ear is?
I start a lot of seedlings indoors, some as early as February, and (like any good mother) I am protective of my young. I only put out plants or plant seeds when I am sure that they will succeed. So I plant my tomatoes and other heat-loving plants in June, generally after the tenth of the month. Those heat lovers include tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and all the vine crops – cukes, squash, pumpkins. Even broccoli, which is frost-hardy in the fall, does not go in early. It is much more sensitive now to frost.
A soil thermometer will tell you if it’s warm enough to plant
What I have found is that soil temperature is very important to success. Yes, you can plant peas or spinach “as soon as the soil can be worked” (as described on the packages), but those seeds won’t germinate and grow if the soil is in the forties. And the seeds can rot. Seeds have triggers that tell them when to grow. That’s why starting seedlings indoors on heat mats speeds things up. The seeds think it is summer when the soil is 72 degrees. Generally the soil must be 60 degrees to get a good quick germination.
So how do you determine the soil temperature? Buy a thermometer designed for it. Generally these thermometers look like a meat thermometer. The probe is 6 inches or so long. Push 3 inches into the soil and wait for a reading. I gather digital ones now exist, too.
What can you do to warm your soil up? If you’re in hurry, rake off winter mulch and expose the soil to the sun. Do that now. Then you can cover the soil with a plastic sheet, either clear or black. I’ve found clear plastic is best. Sun heats the soil directly and the plastic holds in the heat (but be sure to seal the edges of the sheet with soil to keep the heat in). On a sunny afternoon in the sixties, the temperature under the plastic can exceed 100 degrees.
Raised beds warm up quicker than flat beds in spring
Another advantage of warming the soil with plastic for a few days is this: you can cook and kill annual weeds. They are sensitive to high temperatures when they first come up. Dandelions or witch grass, which are perennial, have root systems you know and hate. A few hot days under plastic will only make them giggle.
I’m not keen on rototilling. Yes, it will make your garden look very pretty, not a weed in sight. But for some weeds, each scrap of weed will produce a new plant. Chop up some witch grass and watch it take off! And if you get the top six inches of your garden warmed up, and then rototill, all that cold soil below will cool down the rest.
I like to think of the all the living things in the soil as my friends. Earthworms, beneficial fungi and bacteria, little arthropods? All of these help to break down organic matter and make it available in a form useable by my plants. And I think of the layers of soil as the floors of an apartment building. Some people like the penthouse, others want a ground floor room. When you rototill, you jumble up the order of things and put the penthouse in the basement.
Hoe, garden fork, and potato fork are 3 useful tools for making garden beds
So how do I prepare my garden? I create wide, raised beds using only hand tools. I have a 5-tined potato fork or hoe that has been in my family for 50 years or more. I use it to loosen the soil and shape the beds. But you can use an ordinary garden fork and a hoe to accomplish the same. I pull up soil from the walkways to raise the level of the beds and shape them. I try to disturb the soil as little as possible.
Most of my raised beds are between 24 and 36 inches wide and are 6 to 8 inches above the walkways, which I keep narrow, so as to not waste space. Generally they have no wood sides, though I do use planks to contain the soil in a few. I like a wood-sided raised bed for growing carrots, as they need fluffy soil with no rocks in order to get to be 12 inches long, my goal each year. With wood-sided beds you can build whatever soil you want by mixing in the ingredients.
Before putting your plants in the ground, harden them off. Whether you bought your tomatoes or started them indoors yourself, they can get sunburned or wind-burned if they go outside to a full day’s sun without some preparation. Start with 3 hours of morning sun, then add some afternoon sun. Watch for signs of stress. After 5 to 7 days of protection from too much wind and sun, they will be ready for planting
I like to do some cold season plantings, and have a cold frame to get a few things growing in April. But I also know that my tomatoes planted in mid-June will catch up with any planted on Memorial Day weekend. Each of us has to figure out what works best.
Six Wildflowers You Should Grow
Posted on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 · Leave a Comment
I love wildflowers. Right now several species are blooming in my woods, and others are on their way. They are a demure smile before the serious romance of summer blossoms in the main gardens. But after winter, they are loved as much as the bodacious peonies and brilliant poppies that will come later.
White trillium or Trillium grandiflorum
One of my favorites is Trillium. That is both a scientific name and a common name, though the common wine red species, Trillium erectum, is also called Purple Trillium, Wake-robin and Stinking Benjamin. It does best in light shade and acidic soils. Its flower has three petals and stands up above the foliage. As it matures over the years, the clumps get bigger. A related species, T. grandiflorum, or white trillium is similar in looks, but with white petals that fade to pink. It’s very lovely.
Another favorite of mine is Jack-in-the Pulpit ( Arisaema triphyllum). The flower has a hood over a “preacher” that is hidden inside. It is designed so that little flies will crawl down inside the flower, pollinating it as they go. It has both male and female parts, but only one or the other are fertile at a time, to prevent self-pollination. They grow well in woodlands, in deep rich acid soil. As the plants grow older, they get larger, sometimes reaching two feet tall.
Jack in the pulpit
Hepatica is one of the earliest wildflowers to bloom in my woods. The common name, Hepatica, is also the scientific name, though there are two similar species: H. acutiloba or Sharp-lobed Hepatica, and H. americana or Round-lobed Hepatica.
Hepatica grows in light shade, and does best with a few hours of sunshine. They do best in rich, dark, humusy soil. They form tidy clumps, each about the size of a big African violet. The blossoms are numerous: an old clump in my woods has about 50 one-inch wide lavender flowers on it now, each with six petals. This plant does not spread much, so buy enough to make a statement.
Bloodroot is a beauty that spreads well by root, though is never obnoxious about it. This fabulous wildflower has blossoms similar to those on Hepatica, but bigger, and white with a yellow center. The blossoms are quite ephemeral, blooming and then littering the ground some days later with petals. The flowers close up at night (when pollinators are sleeping) or on cold, rainy days.
Bloodroot likes good drainage and more sun than most wildflowers
The leaves are dramatic. When they first appear, they are rolled up like a cigar, standing vertically in your forest duff. Later the leaves open and flatten out, getting large for a wildflower: six to eight inches wide. These persist much of the summer, creating a nice groundcover.
Bloodroot gets its name from the red liquid it oozes if you break a root. You can propagate the plant by diving roots when dormant in the fall and planting in light shade or morning sun in moist, well-drained soil.
Another of my favorites is Dutchman’s breeches ( Dicentra cucularia). This is a true spring ephemeral: it produces flowers and leaves, and then everything disappears after a few weeks until next year. It is in the same genus as Bleeding Heart, a dramatic pink or white June-blooming perennial. The flowers are white, and look like little pants hanging upside down, with several flowers on each stem.
Dutchman’s breeches
The foliage is as pretty as the flowers: it is finely cut, and reminiscent of its cousin, wild bleeding heart ( Dicentra exemia) which is sold everywhere as a shade perennial. When Dutchman’s Breeches dies back, the leaves just disappear without yellowing and lingering on, which is a nice feature. It does best in moist, rich soil in shade or part sun. The corms are tiny.
Finally, you should have some trout lily or Dog-toothed Violet ( Erythronium americanum). This diminutive plant has nice spotted leaves and spreads like a groundcover in shady, humus-rich woods. But in the wild, they bloom infrequently, and only after they have two leaves – and most of mine have just one. The flowers are yellow on 4 inch stems.
So how do you get started? Most garden centers do not sell these plants, and seeds are not readily available – and often need to be planted right after picking. You should not dig them up in the wild and doing so is prohibited in most states.
I called Barry Glick of Sunshine Farm and Gardens in Renick, West Virginia. His farm is 60 acres of flowers at 3,650 feet of elevation, so Zone 5. He agreed to put together a package of the plants I have featured here, three plants of each, ready to go in the ground for $89.10 as a special deal for my readers. They will be shipped free by Priority Mail. E-mail him at
barry@sunfarm.com for details and tell him I sent you.
In interest of full disclosure, Barry sent me a set of plants for free, but I am not profiting from his sales. The plants (or bulbs or corms without leaves) are not huge, but are 3 to 5 years old, and ready to bloom next year. They come in half gallon Ziplock bags, packed in peat moss and ready to plant. All mine looked great, and I planted them in an open woodland with rich soil.
So think about getting some wildflowers, and remember you shouldn’t just go dig them up in the wild! Wildflowers bring me great joy when they bloom, and I bet they will please you, too.
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