July Beauties in the Flower Garden
Posted on Thursday, July 25, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Prairie Sun
Every day in the warm months I take time to wander through my garden, often with camera in hand. I am always greeted by flowers in bloom that make my heart sing. Here are some blooming for me now, including a few you might not grow – or not yet. I include the Latin names of plants, as common names vary from region to region.
Astrantia does fine in partial shade
Great masterwort (Astrantia major) comes with flowers ranging in color from white to lavender to reddish-purple. Its flowers are dome-shaped umbels (shaped like the stays of an umbrella). In ordinary garden soil it needs some shade, but in moist soil it will thrive in full sun. The leaves are tidy and stay in a nice clump a foot tall and 18 inches across; blossom stems can reach 2-feet tall, It is a good cut flower.
I have planted 4 species of milkweed to attract pollinators and to support our monarch butterflies. The monarchs (or their mimic, the Viceroy) were out recently and swooping around as singles or in pairs, perhaps in a mating dance. The swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is in full bloom now and the 5 plants I planted last year make a handsome 4-foot tall hedge topped with white flowers. I have it in full sun with moist soil, though it will thrive in ordinary garden soil.
Clematis jackmanni
On the front of the house I have a vine climbing up 10 feet or more on wires I installed for it. Currently it has 50 or 60 deep purple blossoms, each three to five inches across. It is a clematis, a species called Clematis jackmanii. Like all clematis, it does best with plenty of hot sun, but needs shade on its roots. I have tall perennials growing in front of it to accomplish that. Jackman’s clematis, as Latin-name-adverse gardeners call it, is one of the hardiest of all – easily surviving winter temperatures to 40 below.
You probably have grown that lovely purple-pink biennial foxglove that blooms in its second year, and then dies (Digitalis purpurea). I love it and spread the seeds after it blooms to get a few new babies the following spring. Mine are just now coming into bloom. But there are also a couple of perennial foxgloves, including a nice yellow one that is just finishing up its bloom period for me now. It is simply called yellow foxglove or Digitalis grandiflora. It does well in partial shade in rich, well-drained soil. It may re-bloom if you cut off the flower stalks after blooming. On the other hand, if you leave the stalks and seed pods, you may get more plants next spring. The other perennial foxglove I have grown is the small yellow foxglove, D. lutea, though it has been less long-lived than the larger one.
Knautia
One of my favorite perennials is called knautia (Knautia macedonica). I love the wine-red, domed, one-inch flowers on thin stems that seem to float above its foliage, or the foliage of nearby plants. It drops seeds and volunteers show up, which is a good thing as it is not as long-lived plant. It does fine in full sun and ordinary soil. It is not common in garden centers, but if you see it, buy it!
Everyone has some black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia spp.), either those you planted or as wildflowers along your fence line. They are tough and cheery. But I also have a named variety that is my favorite, ‘Prairie Sun’. Prairie Sun is not black-eyed, but green-eyed. It blooms prolifically from now until mid-October or even later. Although it is sold as a perennial, my experience is that it usually dies during the winter, though some plants do last 2 or 3 years. I grow it in full sun, a hot and dry location. It is hard to find as a plant, so you may want to start some from seed next spring.
Another great plant that I have only had in recent years is betony (Stachys monieri ‘Humelo’). Unlike the well-known lamb’s ears (Stachys byzantina), this does not flop, and the flowers are fabulous. The flowers are a pinkish-purple in a bottlebrush arrangement on nice stiff stems – perfect for cutting and using indoors in a vase. The leaves are a deep green and look good all summer in a nice tidy clump. Flower stalks stand up about 18 inches tall.
Annual poppies are blooming right now, and all of mine are self-seeded. I have planted them on either side of my brick front walkway in the past, but this year I just let them show up. I have the common orange one, the yellow California poppy, a double red one and one called ‘Ladybird’ that I bought as a six pack last year. Ladybird is a light purple with some large dark purple spots inside.
Double poppy
A few poppies seeded themselves between bricks in the walkway and bloomed! Save seeds this year if you have them, and sprinkle them on loose soil in the fall after cleanup, or in the spring. I have even sprinkled them on the snow in winter and gotten them to grow in spring.
Betony is a good cut flower
And speaking of sowing annuals, I got a great mix of wildflowers from Renee’s Garden Seeds this year. I made a bed perhaps 5 feet by 2 feet and sprinkled the entire seed packet on the soil in the spring, just lightly covering the seeds and patting down. I now have a mass of color, mainly annual blue campanula and yellow calendula, with a few annual poppies. I like broadcasting annual flowers, letting them pop up in a random pattern, and have done it with zinnias and cosmos to great success. And if I save seeds, I can make my own mix.
Henry is a UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books.
Weeds? Why Worry?: One Farmer’s Perspective
Posted on Thursday, July 18, 2019 · Leave a Comment
I recently went to Cochranville, Pennsylvania to visit relatives, and they brought me to visit a successful farm-to-table farmer. I learned some new and interesting ways of looking at gardening, and I think they are worth sharing with you.
Glenn Brendle farms organically and tries many unusual techniques
For the past 40 years or so Glenn Brendle has expanded his operation until now it encompasses about 40 acres of veggies. He grows everything from herbs, tomatoes and squash to dent corn, celery root (celeriac) and parsnips. He pays his 9 employees a living wage and does well for himself.
This spring the weather has been challenging for farmers in his part of Pennsylvania. The rain has been above average, sometimes falling 8 inches in a week. That is good for weeds, but not so good for farmers who want to have “clean” fields that look good from the road. “”Generally you don’t have to keep your fields as clean as people think. A lot is cosmetic,” Glenn told me.
Wet soils mean that he cannot use a tractor to control weeds, and some days even farm workers cannot trudge through the mud to hand-pull them. Fortunately, Glenn is not hung up about looks – he is more interested in growing high quality vegetables that he can sell to high-end restaurants.
Since Glenn grows organic vegetables, he cannot use pesticides to control weeds, or use genetically modified seeds. He depends on using a tractor or tiller to cultivate the space between rows to chew up the weeds, or hand pulling them.
Carrots compete well with weeds and grasses here
He explained to me that if a row of carrots, for example, is clear of weeds on two sides, it is not too important if there are weeds in the bed with the carrots. This goes against everything most of us have been taught. But he pulled a few carrots to show me that they can compete with the weeds, and assured me that at harvest time they would be long and handsome.
In some fields we visited the weeds were taller than the vegetables. Glenn explained that the important thing is to prevent weeds from making seeds and dropping them in the soil. As soon as the fields dry out enough he will run a tractor with an attachment to mow over them with the blades set at a height that will top the weeds, but miss the vegetables. He suggested that home gardeners could accomplish that with a string trimmer.
Part of the reason his carrots and other crops can compete with weeds is that Glenn has worked hard at improving his soil every year. Among other things, he is a firm believer in the use of biochar.
Biochar is soil amendment from the partial burning of organic waste matter including branches or wood chips, leaf litter and dead plants. It is burned in a reduced-oxygen environment in a controlled process called pyrolosis, and results in a substance that resembles charcoal. It is available on-line, and from some garden centers.
Biochar is very stable – it can sequester carbon and store it for hundreds of years, or even longer. It is very porous with the innumerable small spaces available to hold bits of compost and microorganisms. Glenn mixes biochar that he makes himself with biologically active compost in water, allowing microbes to settle into the pores of the biochar. He spreads the mixture on the soil before planting. He believes that when a disease-causing microbe comes along, there is usually has a microbe that will inhibit its growth. And a healthy plant can compete with weeds better than a struggling plant.
What else did I learn? I have always insisted on keeping tomato plants off the ground, and most commercial farmers do so, even though that is a very labor-intensive and expensive to do. I use cages (54-inch, 4-legged heavy wire supports) for my tomatoes, or I tie them to wood stakes. But Glenn does not support his tomatoes. He lets them sprawl on the ground, sometimes smothering the weeds beneath them. Huh. He says his tomatoes do just fine.
Glenn grows lots of potatoes and says the best one he grows is a Dutch variety called ‘Bintje’. It is an early- to mid-season potato with yellow skin and flesh. It is resistant to some potato diseases, notably potato virus A and leaf-roll virus. It is susceptible to scab, however. Apparently it is the most commonly grown potato in France and Belgium, and was introduced for sale in 1910. He says it is the absolute best potato for making fries.
Boards guide woodchucks to the trap
Woodchucks can do a lot of damage but Glenn has figured out how to trap them. He places a large Hav-a-Hart near a woodchuck’s hole and uses 2 wide boards about 5 feet long and 10 inches wide to create a V-shaped chute leading to the open mouth of the trap. He doesn’t bother with bait. He said that they don’t see well, but will approach the trap and enter it as a way to proceed to the field. Clunk. The cage closes.
The old saying goes, “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” So I will try a little of Glenn’s methodology. I will remove the cages from 3 of my tomatoes and stop weeding around them and see how they do. I’ll experiment with biochar, but I hope I won’t have to try his woodchuck trick. I’ll report back at the end of the season, so stay tuned.
Henry is the author of 4 gardening books. He lives in Cornish Flat, NH.
Garden Thugs to Love or Hate
Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2019 · Leave a Comment
I’ve never subscribed to the old saying that “Children should be seen and not heard.” So it shouldn’t surprise you that I don’t insist that all the flowers in my garden stay in place each year, and that those that
do wander are not necessarily disciplined with a weeding tool. No, I recognize that rambunctious plants have a place in my garden, even if they wander from their assigned seats. Let’s take a look at a few.
Just coming in to bloom for me right now is pink or hollyhock mallow (Malva alcea). Each plant presents lots of bright pink blossoms over several weeks that are about 1½ inches wide. She is generous, offering babies that mysteriously pop up all over my garden. There is a big clump blooming in my vegetable garden right now that I definitely did not plant.
Pink mallow
Pink mallow grows to be 3 to 4 feet tall and 18 inches wide when grown in full sun. It is drought tolerant and not fussy about soil. It does tend to flop, however, so it often needs to be staked. It has a fleshy root and hates to be moved except when very young.
Beebalm (Monarda didyma) is one of my favorites, despite the fact that it spreads by root and cannot be contained. The blossoms are large and fragrant, and it is an excellent cut flower.
Beebalm is a tall plant (mine are 3 to 5 feet tall) on square stems. I have it planted up against a rock wall and fronted by a lawn, so it is contained on 2 sides. A lawnmower is a very effective tool against the spread of any flower. The good news is this: it is very easy to pull out volunteers.
Many gardening books list beebalm as a “full-sun” plant. My books do not. I recommend planting it where it gets morning sun only. I have found that full sun dries it out too quickly and reduces its bloom time and beauty. Hot afternoon sun is often too strong for this plant, particularly in sandy soils. For me it grows and blooms in quite shady places, and loves moist soil.
The “common” orange daylily (Hemerocallis fulva) is frequently disparaged by gardeners, but not by me. It really will grow anywhere, in any soil and is not deterred by bugs, slugs or predatory herbivores. Or at least not in my experience. I once dug out a clump from a flower bed at the end of the day and dropped it on the lawn. At the time I was an electrician working long hours all week and gardening only on weekends. By the next weekend it had dug its fingers into the soil (Okay, its roots) and I left it there. Now 20 years later it is still there and beautiful when it blooms.
The fancy varieties of daylilies stay in a nice clump that get bigger each year, but don’t really spread. The orange one does spread by root, and can be difficult to contain. But I have some growing right by the road in shade and truly awful soil, and they will be blooming shortly. I also have a double orange that spreads by root, but is a bit flashier.
Giant fleeceflower
A plant you might not know is giant fleeceflower (Persicaria polymorpha). It is quite wonderful – it can get to be 8 to 10 feet tall with white fleecy flowers that persist much of the summer . It thrives in full sun and moist soil, but will grow almost anywhere.
Why might some consider it a thug? It gets bigger and the clump gets wider every year. And if you do not discipline it, it may well steam-roller favorite plants nearby. It has an amazing root system that will challenge most gardeners. So be sure you have a 6- to 8-foot wide space for it to dominate.
You probably know lobelia as a short annual plant (Lobelia erinus) that has intense blue or purple flowers and will bloom even in shade. Or perhaps you grow cardinal flower (L. cardinalis), a tall bright red, late-summer bloomer in wet places. But it has a cousin in the same genus that is a perennial with a wanderlust. Great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) is a great plant that moves around my garden at will. And I let it grow wherever it shows up.
Great blue lobelia
Like cardinal flower, great blue lobelia is a vertical plant with blossoms along its stem. It stands about 2 to 3 feet tall and blooms in August. It does well in moist soil, but I also find it in hot, dry places. It pulls easily if it grows where you don’t want it. There is also a white form, but it is not a clean white.
I know that many gardeners love lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis) for its sweet fragrance. I consider it a thug as it spreads by root and is hard to remove. I was recently given one with striped green and white leaves, and have planted it in a raised wood-sided bed so I can see if it tries to take over. The foliage is very attractive, and generally plants with white in their leaves are less aggressive. If it behaves well, it will earn a spot in my garden.
Each of us has a different level of acceptance for flowers that spread or move around. I love the spontaneity of many of the flowers I mentioned here.
Henry can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
A Dozen Sweet-Smelling Shrubs
Posted on Tuesday, July 2, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Lilac season is about over. For the lasts two weeks I have been enjoying the amazing fragrance of ‘Miss Kim’, a species lilac (Syringa patula) with light purple blossoms. It was sold to me some 25 years ago as a dwarf lilac, but it is not. It’s just slow-growing. Mine is now 10 feet tall and wide. It was loaded with many hundreds of blossoms, and I was able to smell its fragrance from across the garden.
I have a gardening friend, Nelia Sargent of Claremont, NH, who specializes in fragrant plants. She is blind, so she cannot see their blossoms; she grows them, in part, because she loves their scent.
Miss Kim lilac
I called Nelia and asked for her list of fragrant shrubs. She told me that her goal is to have fragrance in her house and garden from spring until fall. “And I don’t want to have to put my nose in the flowers,” she said. “I want to smell them from 5 or 10 feet away, or even further.”
So she and I put together a list, roughly in sequence of bloom times. We agreed that even a shrub that should be fragrant, isn’t always sweet-smelling. So we recommend buying for fragrance when the plant is in bloom.
The earliest on Nelia’s list is a spring-blooming witchhazel (Hamamalis vernalis), one called ‘Arnold’s Promise’. It is hardy to Zone 4, but I have never grown it, but will. She has it and says it blooms in late winter. The frilly yellow blossoms are infused with red, and it is highly fragrant. She cuts blossoms and brings them in the house when snow is still on the ground, and they last in a vase for up to 2 weeks.
Close-up of February Daphne
Next comes February daphne (Daphne mezereum). I’ve had this for over 15 years, and like it so much I named my little corgi after it. It has nice sweet pink blossoms that bloom in April. Mine rarely needs pruning and is still not 5 feet tall and wide. Mine was winter damaged this year for the first time ever. I like to cut stems in March and bring them in to bloom indoors.
Then come the Viburnums. Many are fragrant, some very fragrant. Three that Nelia likes are Viburnum judii, V. carlessii, and V. burkwoodii. Many viburnums are susceptible to the viburnum leaf beetle, which can defoliate a shrub in a week or less. Nelia told me she has not had a problem with those three. Birds love the berries viburnums produce.
A nice fragrant understory shrub that I grew up with in Connecticut is spicebush (Lindera benzoin). Its flowers are negligible, but its leaves are fragrant. I learned this as a boy, pulling off a leaf and noticing the strong scent. As a teenager I chewed on the twigs, using them as a breath freshener! I was able to find one for sale and have been growing it in dry shade for 3 years now.
Nelia mentioned fothergilla (Fothergilla major) as a fragrant shrub with a pleasing subtle scent. I’ve grown it for 20 years or so, and love it for the white, bottlebrush flowers in May and fabulous fall leaf color; but I have never noticed the fragrance. Mine might be the exception, and once again proves it important to buy things in bloom if you want fragrance.
All lilacs have nice fragrance in bloom, I think. Nelia was once asked to judge their scent for the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard. She determined that there are at least 20 different lilac fragrances in their collection. If you select early, mid-season and late-blooming lilacs, you can have 5 weeks of fragrance and blossoms, she said.
Nelia Sargent noted that the Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata) is very fragrant, but that it should probably be considered an invasive and not planted. Seeds are spread by birds, and this stranger from a foreign land can out-compete many of our native understory plants. The gardeners at Saint Gaudens National Park have observed this, and actively remove them whenever they see them.
Carolina allspice or common sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus) has been blooming for me since mid-June and has lovely deep wine-red flowers; it prefers a shady spot with rich moist soil. Although Nelia considers it fragrant, mine is not, or just barely. Still, a shrub that blooms in shade is always welcome in my gardens.
In August there is summersweet clethra (Clethra alnifolia). Nelia says a pink variety called ‘Ruby Spice’ is very fragrant. I have the wild white one, and it is fragrant, but not very.
In late August or early September the seven-son flower tree (Heptacodium miconioides) tree blooms. It is a very fast-growing tree – branches can grow 5 to 7 feet in a single season, but it slows down some when it reaches its full size of 25 feet tall or so. Mine has a pleasant, but not overpowering scent.It has wonderful exfoliating bark that is splendid in winter.
This list of fragrant shrubs cannot include them all. Mock orange, for one, is very strong smelling. Some rhododendrons are fragrant, particularly the native swamp azalea (Rhododendron viscosum). Please write me if you have a favorite I have neglected to mention. Perhaps I need to grow it!
Write Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Please include a SASE if you wish a response by snail mail. Henry is the author of 4 gardening books.
Flowers in Bloom That Make Me Want to Swoon
Posted on Friday, June 28, 2019 · Leave a Comment
My earliest memory of a flower dates back to spring, 1948, when I was just 2 years old and living in Hingham, Massachusetts (we moved away that fall, so I know the year). My mother, sister and I were walking through a pine woods when we encountered a cluster of pink ladyslipper orchids. I was enchanted. I wanted to pick it. My mom restrained me, saying it was a rare and special flower. I am still overwhelmed by their beauty, and feel lucky I can grow 2 kinds of ladyslippers.
Pink showy ladyslipper
There are 3 main types of ladyslippers that grow in the Northeast. A yellow ladyslipper (Cypripedium parviflorum), the pink one that I saw when young (Cypripedium acaule), and a bigger pink one called the showy ladyslipper (Cypripedium reginae). I grow the yellow and the showy.
The pink ladyslipper is tough to grow – it requires very acidic soil and is nearly impossible to transplant. In the wild I have only seen them in sandy soil under white pines.
The yellow and showy ladyslippers do fine in moist, rich soil and moderate shade. It is now possible to buy them at specialty nurseries. Some nurseries grow them and divide big clumps to sell individual plants. Starting any ladyslipper by seed is generally considered nearly impossible.
Primula japonica
What other flowers now in bloom make my heart go Ka-Boom? My Japanese primroses, also called candelabra primroses (Primula japonica). I’ve grown these in the shade of some wild apple trees where the soil is rich, black and moist. Starting with just 7 plants, these have dropped seeds and self-planted so that I now have hundreds after 20 years. They are finishing up their bloom cycle now.
Candelabra primroses range in color from a deep magenta to medium pink to nearly white. They bloom up their stalks, presenting a ring of florets, then a second, third and sometimes even a fourth or fifth set of blossoms. Because they don’t all bloom at once, they flower for up to a month, depending on the heat.
Then there are the peonies. I have one, a division of my grandmother’s favorite, called ‘Festiva Maxima’. Grandmother died in 1953, and my mother dug it up and brought it to my childhood home. Then in the 1980’s I dug it up, divided it and brought some of it to New Hampshire. It is a double white with a speck of red in the middle. What makes it so special is the fragrance. It is enough to make the weak-hearted swoon.
If you don’t have a peony, or don’t have several, go buy one now when you can see the blossoms and judge the fragrance. Not all peonies have fragrance. Be sure not to plant it too deep. The ‘eyes’ or growing points need to be within an inch of the soil line. Otherwise they will grow and look healthy, but fail to bloom. Plant them with plenty of compost and some organic fertilizer added to a large planting hole.
I love roses. For ages roses bloomed mostly in June and suffered from black spot, Japanese beetles and other difficulties. No more. You can get roses that require no chemicals to stay healthy and bloom much of the summer. The only problem is that most of these modern hybrids have little or no scent.
Of the modern hybrids my favorite is the “Knockout” series. I have had singles and doubles, and find most are as hardy as a shovel (though much prettier). And I’ve had them bloom all summer and past Halloween.
But what I really love are the old fashioned roses. Many of them send up side shoots from the ground that can be dug and passed on. I have two of these, and I don’t know their varieties. I have a double white and a double pink, both with lovely scent. And despite the fact that I am an organic gardener who doesn’t spray them, they seem to stay free of pests and diseases.
Clematis
I grow 5 kinds of clematis, and all are wonderful. Most clematis die back to the ground each winter, and start up in spring, though a few have hardy vines. Most grow 6 to 10 feet in length and need something tall to climb up. They have big, bodacious blossoms. Most are not particularly fragrant. They bloom in shades of pink and purple, along with white. The two I have in bloom right now have flat 6-petaled blossoms 4 to 5 inches in diameter. The most durable and vigorous is a purple one called Clematis jackmanii.
The trick to succeeding with clematis is to remember the old adage, they like “hot tops and cool bottoms.” The vines need to be in full sun, or full afternoon sun, and the roots need to be shaded. Plant something right in front of the clematis to help keep the roots cool.
June really is the best month for flowering plants. All those I mentioned above – and dozens of others – grace us with their presence. Go to a good family-run nursery where the staff really knows the habits of the plants and can tell you about each one. Most really enjoy educating you about the flowers, so ask questions. Of course, the best teacher is experience. So go get some new perennials and enjoy them.
Henry is a UNH Master Gardener, and the author of 4 gardening books. He lives in Cornish Flat, NH.
7 Things to Do to Improve Your Garden – and Your Life!
Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2019 · Leave a Comment
If you’re like me, by now you have your garden planted, both vegetables and flowers. It seems like a good time to take a deep breath, pour a cold glass of your favorite beverage and watch the flowers perform. I have set up chairs by my Japanese primroses for viewing, and have invited friends to come see them and relax. But wait! There is still a lot to do, and you can make your life easier with some work now. Here are 7 garden activities I recommend.
- Weeds in the vegetable garden are little now, and easy to pull. Take 20 minutes a day – or twice a day – and just weed. All my weed-free beds are sprouting weeds, but the roots are small. It’s important to loosen the soil a little before pulling weeds. If you don’t do that and you hear a snap, you have broken a root. I like a CobraHead weeder for loosening the soil because it has a single tine, and is very precise.
Superthrive is great for reducing transplant stress
If you are weeding in a bed with small seedlings – lettuce, for example – you may end up pulling up seedlings, too. Re-plant immediately, and water. I use an anti-stress liquid called Super Thrive, just a quarter teaspoon in a gallon of water, after weeding. It helps plants recover from having their roots disturbed. It has plant hormones and seaweed extracts, and I find it very effective.
- I like to mulch after weeding, and after the soil is nice and warm. If the soil is still cool and wet, wait for a few days of hot sun before mulching. Roots like to be warm.
Mulching tomatoes with newspaper and straw
My preferred method of mulching is to put down several layers of newspapers around big plants like tomatoes, and in walkways. Then I cover it with straw, leaves I saved last fall, or even mulch hay. Mulch hay has seeds, but the newspaper keeps the seeds out of the soil pretty well. Leaves are the best, but always in short supply.
- Protect your tomatoes. Put tomato cages around them. They need to be kept upright, but will flop if you don’t support them. Get the 54-inch cages with 4 legs, not 3 legs. Tomato diseases are generally soil borne, so mulch the soil with grass clippings, leaves or straw to prevent splash-up.
This year I am trying an experiment with a biological control for blight on tomatoes. There is a bacterium, Bacterium subtilis, that feeds on fungi. It is now available as a commercial spray called Serenade. I have sprayed half my tomato plants with Serenade and marked them with labels. According to the directions, I will need to spray once a week. I will report back if I see a marked difference.
- Find and utilize unused spaces, both in the vegetable garden and flower beds. If you planted a few nice perennials this year, you probably left space for them when they get big. Instead of depending on mulch to fill the space, plant some annuals.
This newly plant raspberry patch has plenty of room for lettuce
The same works in the vegetable garden: Tomato plants won’t be big for another 4 to 6 weeks. Grow lettuce around them, and eat the lettuce before they get shaded out. Spinach and radishes are good candidates for those spaces, too.
- Think about cutting off branches of trees that are now shading out your gardens. Or remove trees altogether. I love my trees, but find they are interfering with my flowers and veggies that like full sun. I removed several large branches from a pear tree this winter because it was shading my peonies. You can do that now, too.
Weed trees like box elder and poplars should be the first to be removed. They pop up and get big before you know it. Elms will grow for 25 years or so, then die from Dutch elm disease, so I cut or yank those any time I find them on the property.
- Thin root crops like carrots, beets, rutabagas and parsnips. By the Fourth of July all those should be 1 to 2 inches apart. Carrots will compete with their brothers and sisters just like they do with weeds – and suffer.
- I don’t want to sound like Anne Landers, but get a gardening partner to help in the garden. It works for me! My life partner and sweetie, Cindy Heath, has lived 6 miles away for the past 10 years. But now she has moved in so we garden together here, instead of having 2 gardens.
If you already have a husband or wife, some re-training may be needed. Pavlov had it right: Make brownies or give back rubs as a reward for help in the garden. Soon there will be no more weeds!
Henry lives and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Weeds to Worry About, and What to Do About Them
Posted on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 · Leave a Comment
There are weeds to worry about. There is even one that I fear. But most weeds are just a nuisance and can be managed relatively easily. Dandelions, for example, are bright and cheerful. If they were named daffodil instead of dandelion, we would pay good money to have them in our lawn, returning each year and re-blooming after being mowed.
Yes, dandelions spread seeds willy-nilly on the wind. But if you pull them from your vegetable plot or flower beds when they are young, and after a good rain, you can keep them under control.
First year garlic mustard leaves
Let’s start with the worst weed: garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata). I fear its arrival in my garden. This weed is a biennial, flowering in its second year and then dying. It is relatively easy to pull. So why worry? This plant exudes a chemical that kills the beneficial fungi that coat the roots of our maples, oaks and other hardwoods. Our trees depend on these mycorrhizal fungi to get minerals from the soil. Without the fungi they decline, and eventually die. This is not a quick death, but our forests are in danger if this invasive weed is allowed to spread. Garlic mustard also inhibits the seeds of many native wildflowers from germinating. I don’t have it, but fear it.
So what can you do? Learn to identify it, and then work hard at pulling it. In the first year it produces a low rosette of rounded leaves with scalloped edges an an indentation at the stem. The second year it sends up 18- to 36-inch flower spikes with pointy, heart-shaped leaves with jagged edges. The small white flowers have 4 petals and bloom in clusters about an inch or more in diameter. One plant can produce about 4,000 seeds. And although about 70% of the seeds will germinate the next year, some will remain viable in the soil for up to 10 years.
Garlic mustard leaves
Pulling garlic mustard is easy – and satisfying. Do it now, before the flowers produce seeds. I find a CobraHead weeder is good for loosening the soil and helping me get the roots. But you will have to keep on doing this every year for 7 to 10 years. That’s why the weeds so often win the battle with us – we give up. And do not throw the plants into your compost! Bag and send to the landfill or incinerator.
Another nasty weed is called goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria). There are 2 forms: an all green variety and a green and white variety often called ‘Snow on the Mountain’, which is sometimes sold by garden centers (though it should not be). The green and white one is possible to control, but the all green one is almost impossible to eradicate. I got goutweed when a friend gave me some iris with roots of it mixed in. The long white roots are insidious –they break easily and a scrap will generate a new plant.
Again, know the plant and recognize the roots. If you buy plants at plant sales, I recommend you bare-root the plants before planting. Look for thick white roots that are not from the plant you bought. Bare-root by removing all soil with a hose and carefully inspecting the roots. Do that in your driveway, not in the garden as scraps of root can start a disaster, so clean up the scraps carefully.
Cutting off goutweed blossoms prevents seed germination
Goutweed grows 12 to 24 inches tall and sends up stems with compound leaves: At the tip of each stem are 3 leaflets; two pairs of leaflets grow below that. Soon it will send up white flowers a bit like Queen Anne’s Lace. The roots spread fast and far. You can try to smother it with black plastic and mulch, but in my experience it just runs out from under the plastic before long.
Horsetail or Equisetum is a beautiful weed: very fine leaves arranged in whorls around a central stem. It has been growing for about 100 million years – perhaps it was fodder for dinosaurs. Instead of seeds, it produces spores. It can be quite persistent and difficult to eradicate.
Digging it and removing horsetail roots helps, but changing the soil type can be a big help. It tends to grow in compacted acidic clay soil. But according to one farmer I discussed it with, adding compost and limestone will make it less of a problem and other plants will compete with it better.
There are good weeds, too. Plantain (Plantago major) may use its broad leaves to smother grass in the lawn, but if you are stung by a bee you can reduce the pain by rubbing a leaf on the sting. It has been used as a medicinal for hundreds of years for a variety of ailments.
Chickweed (Stellaria media) blooms early when lady bugs need food before aphids appear. They survive on the pollen. It is shallow-rooted and easy to pull up.
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is a fleshy-leafed weed that prefers sandy fertile soil but will grow most anywhere. Like some other weeds, the flowers can produce seeds in the compost pile – or in a pathway after being yanked out. It’s virtue? It is edible. It can be used in salads, sautéed, or boiled. Every part of the plant is edible.
The bottom line? You can mow the weeds to reduce their vigor and their ability to produce seeds. You can smother them with a barrier and mulch. Or you can do it the old fashioned way: digging them out with a fork and a good weeding tool.
Henry lives and weeds in Cornish Flat, NH. Contact him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is a UNH Extension Service Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books.
Tips for Building Raised Beds for Your Garden
Posted on Tuesday, June 4, 2019 · Leave a Comment
As an avid gardener I am always looking for new places to plant. I own a couple of acres of land, but over the past 49 years I’ve filled virtually every square inch of useable space with something – vegetables, flowers, trees and a little lawn. Recently I built a wood-sided raised bed to give me more room for flowers.
Raised beds are good for many reasons:
- The lawn can’t so easily creep into them.
- You can design/blend the soil to be anything you want – sandy, rich or heavy; acidic, neutral or alkaline.
- They drain well, even if built over a soggy base.
- You can place them on the lawn without needing to remove the sod (it will die off).
Materials for making a garden box
I built a raised bed recently using rough sawn hemlock I bought from a local sawyer. Rough sawn must means that the wood is cut, but not planed. So a 1”x 8” plank is a full inch thick, not the ¾ inch that you would get at a lumber yard or home center – and hence stronger, and longer lasting.
Hemlock is full or resins that resist rot. It is not as good as cedar, but it is much cheaper. You can buy planed cedar that is a full inch thick, it is called “five-quarter”, and is available at most places that sell lumber. But it’s pricey. You can use plain old pine boards from the lumber yard, but they tend to rot sooner.
Then there is pressure treated wood and synthetic boards made from re-cycled pop bottles that is said to last 50 years or so. Years ago pressure treated wood leached arsenic into the soil, but newer technologies have eliminated that as a problem, I have read. Still, I am personally leery of using it for any food or herbs. I try to avoid chemicals whenever possible.
What size bed should you build? That depends on your space and the reach of your arms. I am relatively tall, so I made my bed 4 feet wide. Smaller people might be more comfortable weeding or planting a bed that is just 3 feet wide. I made mine 8 feet long, but 10 feet or even 6 feet might suit you – or your space – better.
Here’s how I built mine: I cut 2 hemlock boards 8 feet long for the sides, and 2 boards 4 feet long for the ends. Then I cut a piece of wood 2 inches by 2 inches into 8-inch long sections, 4 of them. You can use a 2-by-4 instead of 2 by 2 if you have one.
Instead of using nails I find it easier to work with screws. I used some that were an inch and a half long. Driving screws into dense wood like hemlock or cedar can strain a drill. If you find that the screws don’t easily go all the way in, you can pre-drill holes a little smaller in diameter than the screws. Or you can lubricate the screws by dragging them across a bar of soap (moisten it a little to soften it). That helps a lot.
Corner of garden box
Those 8-inch pieces of 2 x 2 are for the corners, to make them sturdy, square, and to allow the screws to bite into something more substantial than a 1-inch plank. I screwed them onto the ends of the long planks, then stood up the planks and screwed the short planks into the corner pieces. That is easier to do if you have someone helping you, but you can always lean the long planks against something to keep them vertical if you are working alone.
If you don’t feel handy or don’t have a saw, you can buy brackets that will hold either a 2-inch or 1-inch thick planks. Gardener’s Supply Company sells a variety of brackets designed for 2-inch thick lumber, and Lee Valley Tools has just one type and it is for 1-inch thick lumber (from a lumber yard, so they won’t work on the thicker rough sawn lumber I used). Both companies make nice products, and will ship to your door. Your local lumber yard will cut the boards you need to the length you want. Just ask.
I started this project because I wanted to give perfect soil and sunlight to a new peony I bought from Cider Hill Gardens in Windsor, Vermont. It is one called “Garden Treasure”, an Itoh peony. These peonies are crosses of regular herbaceous peonies with tree peonies.
Garden Treasure at Cider Hill Gardens, Windsor, VTitoh
Itoh peonies can bloom in colors other peonies could not even dream of: yellow with peach, for example. And they can bloom for a full month, producing 50 blossoms or more at maturity. But they are expensive, so I have never gotten one – until this year.
In that same bed I am moving some old daffodils that have stopped blooming. Nearly 50 years ago I dug some old bulbs from my parents’ home in Woodbridge, Connecticut and moved them to my home in New Hampshire. In recent years the leaves have appeared, but not any blossoms.
Those daffodils have been growing in a place that is getting shadier each year and there is more root competition, too. So I will dig them up and move them into this new bed, which offers full sun. I will also treat them to a dose of Bulb Booster to enrich their soil. What I do to pamper my plants!
Reach Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Please include a SASE if wishing a response by mail.
What Happened to Our Rhododendrons?
Posted on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Rhododendrons throughout New England are looking awful! It is common for “rhodies” to get shriveled leaves during the winter, but they normally recover in spring. Those shriveled leaves occur when warm winter days allow moisture to be given off when the ground is frozen solid – and thus unable to re-hydrate the leaves. Normally they look good again as soon as the ground thaws.
I’ve been getting e-mail from readers asking what happened this year, so I called an expert to learn more. Dr. Cheryl Smith is a plant pathologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
Rhododendron damage
Dr. Smith said that the winter damage this year was the worst she had seen in decades. Not only were rhododendrons damaged, she said, but also cherries, plums, Christmas trees, boxwoods, junipers, spruce, raspberries and blueberries. Yikes.
First, the good news: the damage you are seeing is not due to a pathogen. This is not a disease that is damaging your plants. And most plants will recover fully, given time. But you must have patience. Please don’t get out the chain saw and cut away everything that’s looking bad.
Most of the damage is due to fluctuating temperatures, said Dr. Smith. Usually in the fall evergreen trees like rhododendrons harden off their leaves as the temperatures slowly descend. This past fall was a warm one, with temperatures in the sixties in December, followed by low temperatures in January. Then in February the temperatures again went into the sixties for a day or two, sending signals to plants that spring was on the way. But then it dropped below zero within a week.
Throughout the winter there were high winds, and repeated freeze-thaw cycles. But the ground was frozen and during the thaw cycles plants could not take up water to replace that lost due to respiration.
So what should you do now? You can test any given twig by scratching it with your thumbnail. If you see green, the branch is still alive. If a branch is brittle and brown, and shows no green when you scratch it, the branch is dead and should be removed. Branches with brown leaves will eventually send out new leaves.
I recently visited a site where I had overseen the installation of some rhododendrons last fall. Some looked much worse than others – even though they are growing in close proximity.
I wanted the plants to look better, so I removed dead leaves, or leaves that were mostly brown. Some came off with a gently tug, others needed a snip from my pruners. Obviously I wouldn’t do that if the shrub was 20 years old, huge, and badly damaged, as it would take too long. Mother Nature will eventually replace the leaves.
PJM rhododendron
Many, perhaps most, of the flower buds on those rhodies were damaged and will not bloom this year. On the other hand, some rhododendron varieties are tougher than others. The most common rhododendron variety, the PJM, is tough as nails.
The PJM is a pink-purple color and is planted everywhere. It was developed at Weston Nurseries by Edmond Mezitt, and named after his father Peter J. Mezitt (his initials = PJM) when it first bloomed in 1945. Apparently nurseryman Peter Mezitt gave $50 to some friends traveling in China in 1939 to collect some nice seedlings for him.
Edmond collected pollen on a paint brush from one very nice rhododendron of a species known as Rhododendron dauricum, and used it to pollinate a Rhododendron carolinianum which they were using as seed stock. He saved seeds, and planted them. The first hybrid cross bloomed beautifully when it was just 6 or 8 inches tall, and it was evident right away that this hybrid was special.
Olga Mezitt rhododendon
The parent plants of the PJM are still alive and well in front of the offices of Weston Nursery, and Wayne Mezitt (of the third generation of Mezitts in the nursery business) showed them to me when I visited Weston Nurseries some years ago.
The “mother’ plant of the PJM is a cultivar known as ‘Olga’, named after his grandmother. Wayne gave me an Olga about 15 years ago, it has done well, and it showed no damage this winter. It is currently finishing its bloom cycle. It is much pinker than the PJM.
Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts. You plant a seed or a seedling and wait to see how it performs. Wayne Mezitt told me that you can hybridize thousands of plants and grow them out before you get something special. I guess that’s why I don’t have any plants named after me!
Henry is a 20 year veteran of the UNH Master Gardener program and a lifetime organic gardener. His e-mail is henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Tips for a Successful Vegetable Garden
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Depending where you live – a cold hollow, a hilltop, or near a large body of water, you may be ready to start planting the vegetable garden – or not. In any case, there is much to do before your plants go in the ground. Here are some tips to consider. In my opinion, there is not much point in planting seeds or seedlings until the soil has warmed up sufficiently. A soil thermometer will tell you when it hits 60 degrees a few inches the soil surface; 60 degrees is good even for cold weather crops like spinach and peas, although you can plant them into cooler soil. Cold, wet soil may rot seeds and discourage seedlings.
Last fall I covered my garden with leaves and straw; I start work in the vegetable garden by raking those off. This will allow the soil to absorb the sun’s heat directly. If I’m in a hurry, sometimes I will cover a few rows with clear plastic and seal the edges with soil or mulch so the heat will build up.
Its time to brake off the mulch over the vegetable garden to the soil can warm and dry out
On a sunny day it will get up over 100 degrees under clear plastic, which will also cook and kill many germinating weed seeds. It won’t kill perennial weeds or grasses, as the roots will survive even the hottest of days under plastic. Black plastic also holds in the heat, but is slightly less effective in heating the soil.
I don’t believe in rototilling, except perhaps when mixing in a thick layer of compost to a new bed, and even then I recommend a shallow tilling. Rototilling makes the garden look good, but it is not good at killing weeds. It just cuts up those perennial roots and spreads them around. Instead of having a hundred weeds, you can have a thousand. Soil organisms each have found the perfect place to live; stirring up the soil only disrupts their habitat.
The CobraHead weeder loosened the soil allowing me to get the entire root
After raking off the mulch into the walkways, I weed. Yes, I weeded last fall. But I will have missed plenty of little ones, and others have germinated from seed by now. I like the CobraHead weeder best. This curved tool gets under weeds, loosens the roots, and lets me get the plant and its entire root system easily. Of course, you probably have a favorite tool and whatever works best for you is the right tool. CobraHead makes a long handled version, but I don’t mind bending over to weed.
Meanwhile, I have been hardening off my vegetable starts, and will continue to do so. Just as you would not put a baby in the sun without sunscreen, I won’t put my baby tomatoes out in the garden without preparation.
I start by putting out the flats of seedlings on a deck that only gets morning sun for a few days. Then I give them morning sun and a couple of hours of afternoon sun. After a few days of this, they are ready for all day sun. The stems have gotten stronger, the leaves are used to wind and sun, and they are ready to plant.
When do I plant? I planted spinach seedlings around May 8 or 10. Lettuce and kale seedlings are growing in my cold frame that warms up the soil and keeps them cozy at night. But my tomatoes? I wait well past the last chance for frost to plant. I also know that they will sulk – and stop growing – if the soil is too cold or if the nights too chilly. I have been carrying them inside at night during the hardening off process.
Plants that do well in cooler temperatures include the following: arugula, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, leeks, onions, parsley, peas, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, spinach and Swiss chard. All the rest, especially sweet potatoes, tomatoes and all the vine crops can be seriously set back by chilly nights and killed by frost.
Now is a good time to plant some vine crops in small pots inside. I have a terrible time with the striped cucumber beetle. If I plant seeds outdoors, the beetles miraculously appear the night the seeds germinate and eat those first two little leaves. That kills the plant. But if I get vines 6 inches long with a few real leaves, the beetles can chew on the leaves, but won’t kill them. Cukes, squash, watermelon and pumpkins all are attractive to those nasty critters.
Row cover with hoops helps to keep insects off and keep plants warm
Another way of protecting crops from marauding insects and furry critters is to cover them with a thin agricultural fabric called row cover – also called Reemay or Agribon (trade names). This stuff will let sun through, as well as moisture and air. You can drape it right over the plants, or stretch it over wire hoops that are sold for the purpose. It comes in 5-foot wide rolls, which is perfect for a wide raised bed. You need to buy earth staples to pin it down. It comes in varying thickness; thick ones will keep things warmer, but allow less light to come through.
Later, when your cukes and squash start to flower, you need to take off the covers as insects pollinate the plants. Peppers and eggplants benefit from the extra heat contained by the row covers, and are wind pollinated. Generally they do fine under row cover.
One last piece of advice: ask at the greenhouse if the seedlings you are buying have been hardened off. Being inside a greenhouse is much less stressful than being outside directly in the sun. Leaves can actually get sunburned if not hardened off outside. They will recover, but slowly. So you may need to harden them off before planting.
Memorial Day weekend is the traditional day for planting warm weather crops in my area. But I never hesitate to wait a bit longer. The plants will always catch up.
Write Henry at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or e-mail henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
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