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.
7 Wildflowers You Can Grow
Posted on Sunday, May 12, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Recently I was asked about plants for shady places. Wildflowers, I said, are wonderful in the woods or at the edge of the woods. Most show up early, before the leaves are on the trees. They are the perfect antidote to a long winter and rainy spring. They bring color and brightness just when we need it most.
Double bloodroot
Among the early wildflowers, blood root (Sanguinaria canadensis) is one of my favorites, and it is early. First it sends up a leaf rolled up like a cigar. Then the leaf opens to display a brilliantly white flower that is an inch or two inches across. The flowers stay closed on cool, cloudy days but open up for business when the sun comes out – and the pollinators.
If you have bloodroot in your woods and want some in your shade garden, the rhizomes (root structures) can be dug up and moved easily. But wear gloves! The roots produce a red sap which has been used for dyes, but it is highly toxic.
According to an article by Susan Mahr of the University of Wisconsin Master Gardener program, blood root sap is “an escharotic, a substance that kills tissue, and external application is a skin irritant causing severe burning pain and disfigurement.” She says to move bloodroot in mid-summer as the plants begin to go dormant, but before the leaves disappear.
A friend gave me a small clump of double bloodroot about 15 years ago, and it has spread nicely. It is a tetraploid, meaning it has double the number of chromosomes, and is sterile, making it rare and expensive. I have divided mine and now have it in several places. Each blossom looks like a tiny white peony.
Another one of my favorite wildflowers is Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum). Some are fully up now in my woods, while others are just poking up their noses. The flower is not very flower-like. There is a purple phallic-looking projection that looks up from the center of the plant that is sheltered by an overhanging flap of leaf-like growth. The two large leaves are distinct on tall stems. It does well in rich soil and dappled shade.
I’ve had great luck planting seeds of Jack-in-the-pulpit in mid-summer. They are bright red when ripe. If you want to harvest some, wear gloves as the seeds of Jack-in-the-pulpit, like bloodroot, contain toxic chemicals. The seeds need to be cleaned by mashing the pulp and washing it away before drying and planting. If you do so, you should see germination the following spring (but it will be 2 to 3 years before you see flowers).
Both bloodroot and Jack-in-the-pulpit seeds produce eliasomes. These are organs that are attractive to ants, who drag the seeds – complete with the fleshy white eliasomes – back to their nests. The ants eat the eliasomes, then dump the seeds in an ant trash pile, where they can germinate. That way the seeds can travel some distance. Clever!
Western Trout Lily. A bulb plant that is much bigger than our native trout lily.
Trout lily or dog tooth violets (Erythronium americanum) were common in the spring woods where I grew up in Connecticut. Each plant has one or two small canoe-shaped leaves that are spotted, like the belly of a trout. Younger plants have just one leaf and do not bloom. Mature leaves bloom now, or even earlier, with yellow lily-like blossoms with the petals and sepals bent backwards. The flowers stems grow about 6 inches tall.
Three years ago I bought bulbs for a western form of trout lily that is much more dramatic than our native one. I neglected to label the bulbs other than to say they were Erythronium. Studying examples on the web I see Erythronium grandiflorum as one possibility, or a hybrid called ‘Pagoda’. My blossoms are on 12 inch stems, and each plant produces multiple blossoms. Definitely a fine addition to my woodland garden.
Trillium is a genus (botanical group) that includes several nice, easy-to-grow wildflowers. The red or purple trillium (Trillium erectum) is also known as wake-robin or stinking Benjamin for its earthy smell. It does well in dappled shade and rich, dark soil. I also grow a white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) that grows alongside it. The white one turns pink later in the spring. Several other species exist, and are available from nurseries and specialty nurseries on-line.
Trillium is often sold in nurseries
One of the best sources for all of these wild flowers is from The Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts. The Garden in the Woods is a garden, education center and plant nursery run by The Native Plant Trust, formerly called the New England Wild Flower Society. They sell potted perennial wildflowers, native trees and shrubs, and much more. Now is a great time to visit them to see what you might grow in your own woods.
Henry is the author of 4 gardening books. You may e-mail him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Magnolias for New England
Posted on Tuesday, May 7, 2019 · Leave a Comment
My Merrill Magnolia
One of my yearly high points occurs when my Merrill magnolia blooms. This year, and most years, mine blooms on my birthday, April 23. This year it opened that afternoon; some years it starts a week earlier and is fully in blossom; once or twice it has held off until May. Only once in 25 years has it failed to put on a great show, when there was a hard frost just before the buds were to open.
The Merrill magnolia is a “Loebner” hybrid, created by crossing the star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) with a Kobus magnolia. There are many Loebner varieties, and most are hardy from Zone 4 or 5 to 7 – fine for all of New England. Mine is white, with a soft light pink stripe on the outside of the petals (though technically they are tepals, not petals). And the blossoms are large – 4 inches or so – and fragrant. What more could you want? Other Loebner hybrids are pink or dark pink.
The Merrill magnolia does best in full sun and rich, moist soil. The literature says it needs well drained soil, but mine has thrived near my brook. The water table is near the soil surface all winter and spring, and only a couple of feet down in a dry summer. So I was not at all sure that mine would succeed. In the twenty years or so since I planted a 4-foot tall specimen, it has grown to an estimated 40 feet tall and 30 feet wide.
It really is a 4-season tree. The leaves are handsome all summer, turning a nice yellow in fall, and the flower buds are large and furry all winter, like pussy willows on steroids.
Jane Magnolia bud on September 28
I also have a smaller magnolia, a cultivar named ‘Jane’, that blooms later and stays smaller than my Merrill. It is one of the “Little Girl Hybrids”, a cross between a Magnolia liliiflora and M. stellata. Jane only gets to be 12 feet or so tall, and perhaps as wide. Her blossoms are deep pink in bud, and whitish inside when open. Like the Merrill, the leaves are shiny, glossy and beautiful.
One of Jane’s best characteristics is that she re-blooms throughout the summer and into the fall. Not a lot of blossoms, but a few. Just enough to make me stop in my tracks and exclaim every time I see a blossom. But frankly, the buds are better than the blossoms – perfect, each one. But the blossoms often develop a brown color once they open.
Star Magnolia
The star magnolia is a species magnolia, not a hybrid. It stays smaller than my big Merrill – perhaps to 15 or 20 feet tall and nearly as wide. So for smaller landscapes, it is a good choice. It is rated at hardy to Zone 4, but some grow in Zone 3. The blossoms are white, and come earlier than the Merrill – so they can be damaged by late frosts. There are single blossoms and double blossoms with extra petals.
Then there is the saucer magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana). These are rated as Zone 4, but are most successful in Zone 5 or warmer. They are small trees, to a height of about 25 feet. The blossoms are amazing: up to 10 inches across in white, pink or purplish. Unfortunately, they bloom early and are often devastated by frost. These are commonly planted in Boston, probably because the heat of the buildings protects them against frost damage.
A neighbor of mine has a cucumber tree magnolia (Magnolia acuminata). This can get to be a huge tree – 50 to 80 feet tall. It is fast growing, perhaps 10 to 15 feet in six years. Its distinguishing characteristic, aside from size, is that is has yellow blossoms. Unfortunately, the blossoms are generally near the top of the tree, and can be masked by foliage. It does not do well in very dry or very wet soils, but will grow in full or partial sun.
When I interviewed the White House gardener many years ago I asked about the two huge southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) that frame the back of the White House. They are magnificent. Dale Haney, the head gardener, told me that President Andrew Jackson brought them up from Tennessee as tiny saplings, on horseback. He planted them in 1830 in memory of his late wife and they have survived and thrived for nearly 200 years.
The southern magnolia is only hardy to Zone 6 or 7, so I can’t grow one here. Too bad. The flowers are 8 to 12 inches across, creamy white and superbly fragrant. But the trees grow to be 50 to 80 feet tall – and live forever, it would seem. They bloom in May or June.
Magnolias, in general, have fleshy roots and few root hairs. They do not transplant well, once established. So find the proper place before digging the hole. As with any tree, do not plant them too deep.
In nature, tree trunks flare out at the soil line. This trunk flare should never be buried at planting time or the bark, if covered with soil, will rot and destroy the cambium layer and eventually kill the tree. Many trees come from the nursery with the trunk flare buried, and it is important to remove the soil from the trunk flare before planting.
If could only bring one tree with me to a remote island, I suppose I’d have to take an apple tree for the food. But for beauty? I’d take a magnolia.
Henry Homeyer is the author of 4 gardening books.
Creating a Great Garden: It’s More Than Just Plants
Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 · Leave a Comment
If you’ve visited any great gardens, you know that they consist of more than just flowers. They have fine trees and shrubs, pathways, perhaps stonework or pottery, maybe a bit of whimsy, or walls and great views. Now, before your trees are fully leafed out and the perennials have begun to distract you with their blossoms, this is a good time to think creatively about what you can do to make your garden spaces better.
Pottery by Stephen Proctor adds a lot to a garden
I recently visited the Inn on Putney Road, a B&B in Brattleboro, Vermont. This is a majestic old white brick building with lots of formal gardens. I went to see it because I had seen the outdoor pottery of Steve Procter (https://www.stephenprocter.com/) at the Vermont Flower Show, and he maintains a wide selection of his pottery on display in the garden at the Inn.
Steve Procter makes pots that are high-fired and impervious to the elements. Unlike flower pots, his pots are fully vitrified, and will not absorb moisture. Most are not designed for use as flower pots, but for their amazing looks. The come with lids and a drainage hole. In the summer, they may be displayed without the lid, and rain will not collect inside. In the winter lids are recommended to avoid any ice building up.
These pots would make my garden look even better than it does. But a 5-foot tall pot takes Steve about 3 weeks to make and a full day at 2300 degrees F to bake – and days to cool it slowly. These are not inexpensive, obviously, and not in my budget just now.
Steve told me that although people are used to placing 2-dimensional art work on the walls of their homes, 3-dimensional art is less common and not everyone is comfortable placing big pots in the garden, He generally delivers the pots and helps to find a perfect spot for each. The pots are placed on a square of bluestone or concrete to keep them steady.
Whether you are placing a pot, a sculpture or perhaps a tall standing stone, 3-dimensional art can provide a visual destination, something that draws a visitor down a path. And if you partially conceal the pot or art with a shrub or tree, Steve Procter pointed out that it can create a sense of mystery. Or provide a surprise when you turn a corner.
Large flower pots filled with plants add much to a garden, too. I have a fig tree and a Frangipani (the tree that provides flowers for Hawaiian leis) in ordinary big pots – but have to bring them in each winter. That can be a struggle. But they can add a lot to my landscape.
Birdbath used as a planter in my garden with papyrus growing in it
What else can one do to provide 3-dimentional interest? A simple ceramic bird bath adorns my garden each summer. Since the birds showed no interest in taking baths in it (I also have a stream nearby), I use it as a pedestal for a plant in a pot, or even as a shallow pot. Last summer I grew papyrus in it. Papyrus grows in standing water, which is good as a bird bath collects water and would drown many plants in a rainy time.
Standing stones are also wonderful. A significant part of the stone must be buried in order to achieve stability. I think the perfect stone is long and relatively narrow with a base that is wider than the exposed portion when installed. I prefer stones that are 4 to 6 feet from end to end and just a foot to 18 inches wide.
To make a standing stone stable, I dig a hole 18 to 24 inches deep and 2 to 3 feet wide. Once I have the stone standing in the hole and vertical, I place stones around it in the hole. I choose stones the size of a loaf of bread or bigger to hold the stone in place. Then I pour into the hole a bag of ready-mix concrete, dry. The concrete will harden up and cure nicely over time. I finish filling the hole with topsoil.
When I install standing stones in public places I make each even more stable by digging a mushroom-shaped hole. I dig the hole, then dig out laterally at the bottom to create a pocket under the un-excavated sides of the hole. This space gets filled with concrete mix, making a nice anchor. I use a hand tool called a CobraHead weeder to pull the soil out of the pocket area.
What else can you use to spiffy up your garden? Benches are nice. Wooden benches are probably the most comfy. Stone benches look great, but are cold and hard to sit on for more than a few minutes. But any bench will draw the eye, and encourage visitors to approach the bench.
Stone benches are handsome, but not comfortable to sit on for long
I have a marble bench next to my brook where there is a nice planting of umbrella plant (Darmera peltata). I placed some of my late sister Ruth Anne’s ashes under the umbrella plant at planting time, and it has been a nice quiet place to sit and remember her, particularly when it blooms in the spring with tall pink flowers.
So look for some three-dimensional objects to enhance your garden – whether pots or standing stones or even an old fashioned gazing ball. And remember: you don’t have to prune or weed them!
Henry Homeyer is a garden writer, consultant, gardening coach, and the author of 4 gardening books. He can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Understanding Flowers
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Book cover 100 Flowers
At a recent used book sale I purchased a copy of a lovely book called One Hundred Flowers by Harold Feinstein (Bullfinch Press, 2000). This large-format book includes not only 100 amazing, huge close-up photos of flowers against black backgrounds, it has a lovely introductory essay by Sydney Eddison, a dear friend and fellow gardener writer. Sydney’s introduction is thought-provoking, and worthy of discussion here.
Ms. Eddison begins by explaining the purpose of flowers: to allow plants to reproduce and set seed. For annuals, flowers like cosmos or sunflowers, have but one chance to extend their genetic line. Failing to create seed and have that seed planted – by gravity, an animal or by a gardener – an annual is lost forever at the end of the season. It is generally an advantage for an annual to produce lots of seeds, in hopes that at least one will grow and extend the lineage.
Annuals must reproduce, and consequently they are excellent advertisers – they often have bright colors or strong scents to attract bees or other pollinators. Other annuals depend on the wind to pollinate them, and they need not be so bright – think wheat or corn. Still, the genetic lineage of an annual plant ends if seeds are not produced. Of course many seeds will remain viable for years, and most species have plenty of specimens trying to extend the lineage each year.
Perennials, trees and shrubs, by contrast, can go dormant, and live through winter for another chance to get their genes spread. Perennials generally die back at the onset of winter, but their roots go dormant until spring. Biennials, things like foxgloves, are more like annuals – they only flower once, in their second year.
In her essay, Sydney Eddison did a concise Anatomy and Physiology 101. Most flowers, but not all, have both male and female reproductive organs, generally on the same flower. But it is to the advantage of plants to cross pollinate with other flowers of the same species, and they have evolved to do so. Just as we don’t generally marry our sisters or cousins, flowers get vigor and new traits by crossing with other flowers.
How do plants insure that they are not self-pollinating? One way has to do with timing. Sydney Eddison gives the example of sunflowers. Each “flower” is actually a collection of hundreds to tiny flowers all jammed together, but using one set of bright yellow petals to attract pollinators. That’s efficiency personified.
Each sunflower is made of hundreds of flowers
The stigma, or the female part of the sunflower that is receptive to male pollen is delivered by bees or other pollinators, but it stays closed while a particular sunflower is shedding pollen. Later, another pollinator, attracted by those bright yellow petals, will deliver pollen from a different plant.
Many flowers seemingly make pollination difficult. Nectar or pollen is hidden away deep inside a flower. An industrious bee must crawl inside to get at the goodies. In so doing, the bee or other insect delivers pollen, the male gametophytes, from one flower to another. In the fall I love the sound of bees grumbling about their hard life after they finally force themselves inside turtle head, which is one of my favorite flowers of the season.
Flowers entice us just as readily as they do butterflies, bees and moths. We love them and we grow them for beauty as well as for the food they might produce. Humans have been hybridizing plants for eons – long before genetic engineering was even imagined. Creating hybrids can be as simple as breaking off a pollen-laden anther from one variety of flower and touching it to the female stigma on another. Then saving seed, planting it, and seeing what you get.
But once again, timing can be key. If the wind or a big, fat bumblebee has already pollinated a flower, your efforts may not create anything different. But, as Ms. Eddison points out, hybridizers have been dreaming of blue lilies and black gladiolas, and trying their best to produce them – for decades without luck so far.
If you want to try hybridizing flowers, you can “bag” a flower before it opens to prevent accidental pollination. Daylilies are easy to do this with – just use a small paper or wax bag that you place over an unopened flower and secure with a rubber band or piece of yarn. Not every daylily, even ones you pollinate, produce seeds, however. And a friend who has done this hundreds of times explained that most crosses don’t produce anything of interest.
Turtle head with bumblebees emerging
Genetic engineering –made possible just within the last 25 years – allows scientists to add genes to the make-up of organisms in ways unfathomable to Gregor Mendel, who proposed the laws of genetic inheritance in 1865. So for example, back in 2003 I interviewed scientist, Dr. Mark Brand at UConn who introduced genes from a frog into a rhododendron to help it be less susceptible to a fungal root rot. That is not something you or I could do – or would I want to.
Green plants first appeared some 400 million years ago. They evolved from aquatic algae to mosses to ferns to flowering plants. The first flowering plants appeared about 300 million years ago and now there are estimated to be 400,000 distinct species. And remember: all animals on this planet depends on plants, either directly or indirectly. They are not just decoration, they sustain us all. So go garden. Your plants depend on you as much as you depend on them.
Henry Homeyer is a UNH Master Gardener with over 20 years’ experience, and an organic gardener for well over 50 years. You may reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
The Spring Bulb Flowers
Posted on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 · Leave a Comment
My dog Daphne
Now is the time to decide where you should plant bulbs next fall. Here’s what I do: I wander around my property each year in the spring to see what spots are bare of bulb flowers. I bring along those white plastic markers used for labeling, and write “add crocus here”, for example. Then in the fall, when it’s time to plant more bulbs I don’t have to rely on my memory to know what to plant, and where.
When planting bulbs, I label what I‘ve planted. That way I’ll see what has performed well, and remember to buy more of the same. For example, I’m always eager to get color in the garden at the same time that the white snowdrops bloom. Two purple-blue bulbs bloom about the same time: Glory-of-the-snow is one plant that overlaps with snowdrops, but is a bit later, as is scilla.
This spring I saw a crocus that was labeled ‘Blue Pearl’, that is blooming with my snowdrops – and before those other two. So I’ll buy 100 of those for fall planting. I bought them at Brent and Becky’s Bulbs– I know because they include tags with each bag of bulbs. And I can order them now for delivery then.
These winter aconite self-seeded
This year I am delighted to see that the winter aconite that produced seed 2 years ago is going to bloom. Last year I recognized the leaves, but it did not produce blossoms. It is a very early bright yellow flower that has one-inch wide, six-petaled flowers. I’ve grown it before but lost it to cold or rodents or poor drainage, and re-planted in other spots. This new patch will give me 50 or so “free” flowers.
I tend to blame bulb failure on drainage problems, not rodents. I mix in lots of compost at planting time and favor hillsides, which helps with drainage. Wet soil is hard on bulbs. Our cats tend to keep rodents away. South facing hillsides are great for early bulbs as the snow melts off weeks earlier than north-facing plots, and drain well.
A bulb plant that I’ve considered fussy is a low-growing iris, Iris reticulata. It is just a few inches tall and has medium-sized blue, purple or (sometimes) yellow flowers. Doing some research I found out why I thought they are fussy: after they bloom, the bulbs divide, producing several little bulblets. These won’t bloom for a few years. So I need to plant some every year until I have a mature colony of them. I also read that they like soil that dries out well in summer, such as in a rock garden or sandy hillside.
Snowdrops are the first flowers to bloom for me
My lawn is full of snowdrops that have planted themselves. I assume that they produce seeds that wash into the lawn during summer rains. The bulk of my snowdrops are planted on a hillside above the lawn. But you can plant early spring bulbs in the lawn, too. Just don’t plant daffodils or anything with large leaves because you won’t be able to mow the lawn where they are growing until the leaves yellow and dry off – around July 4th. Bulb plants need to re-charge their batteries, if you will, by getting sunshine and storing energy.
Little bulbs like snowdrops, crocus and grape hyacinths have short leaves that disappear early and won’t disrupt your early mowing. You can always set the lawn mower blades high to protect the leaves if they are still green when you need to cut the lawn.
Grape hyacinths (Muscari spp.) are great little flowers that come in many different shades of blue and purple. I’ve planted many dozens in my day, but find they tend to lose vigor and disappear with time. So I plant them again. Whenever I see grape hyacinths for sale in pots at the grocery store, I buy them. I enjoy them immensely in the house. Later, when the soil is thawed, I plant them outside. I keep the pot in a cool space indoors, as if they get too warm, they flop over.
Tulips I treat like annuals. Why? They do well the first year, but quickly go downhill or disappear in subsequent years no matter what I do. I plant 100 most years in a bed that I reserve for them. Later I plant zinnias in the same bed, so I don’t bother to coddle them. My corgi, Daphne, keeps the deer away.
Daffodils are slightly poisonous to deer and rodents, so they aren’t eaten – and can bloom for years. You can plant them in open woodlands and they will do fine. By the way, if you forced paperwhites this winter, don’t bother planting them outdoors – they’re not hardy here.
I’ve been paying attention to bulb flowers at least since I was 9 years old. I recently found entries in my diary that tell me so. My entry for March 7, 1956, in its entirety was this: “Spring is getting here at last the snow drops are in bud + will bloom in a few days.” Then on April 5 I wrote,” Today our first crocus was in bloom it is very pretty.” As a guy who makes his living writing, I no longer keep a daily journal. I tend to document my life now with a digital camera – and this column. Thanks for keeping me writing!
Henry lives and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. You may reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Early Spring Chores in the Garden
Posted on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 · Leave a Comment
With sunny warm days upon us, we all want to start gardening. But beware: if you leave footprints in the soil, or feel it go squish, it’s not time to be doing anything. Plants get their oxygen from their roots, not their leaves. If you compact the soil, you can seriously harm your plants by damaging soil texture and tilth.
This 5 foot pole pruner will cut and grab
Even your lawn is susceptible to compaction. If you must go across it, don’t hurry across it and keep your feet flat, to maximize the surface area of your shoes. And don’t follow the same path each time you cross the lawn. Game trails in the forest can be created by animals as small as house cats if they follow the same path each time they go visit the neighbors. Compaction kills plants.
Raking the lawn seems like a good activity now, but again, depending on where you live, your lawn might not be ready for you. Wait until the lawn has “greened up”. If you rake a dormant lawn vigorously, it is easy to pull up plants, roots and all.
The plow guys dump a lot of sand and gravel on my lawn. I can clean it up now because I can stand in the road and rake it towards me without compacting the soil. I like to use a lawn rake with bamboo or plastic tines for that job, to be gentler on the lawn. Metal lawn rakes are great, but not at this time of year.
If your lawn feels fairly dry and you don’t leave foot prints, perhaps you can get to your flower beds to do a little spring cleanup. I don’t generally rake leaves out of my flower beds in the fall, as I like the extra protection against erosion and cold temperatures they provide. But that means that bulb plants are covered now, and the ground is insulated from the spring sun. I want the soil to warm up.
So I try to clean up places where I know there are spring bulbs as early as possible. If the daffodils are poking through, I use my fingers to pull back the leaves. I fear that a rake will damage the tender stems and flower buds. In other places where bulbs are not up yet, I use a rake and gently rake off the leaves. Sometimes I will bring along a scrap of plywood or a 6-inch plank to stand on as I work, minimizing compaction.
What else can you do? I’ve been cutting branches from early spring-blooming shrubs. This is one of my favorite spring tasks. I’ve had forsythia blooming in the house for over a week now. As an early bloomer, it doesn’t take long in a vase to get blossoms. Select stems that have fat buds and put them in a sunny window until they open. Then move them to a cooler place to prolong the show.
Daphne is not blooming outdoors yet this year
Another spring favorite of mine is called February Daphne (Daphne mezereum). I suppose it blooms somewhere in February – Virginia, perhaps. Here it generally blooms for me in late April, but in 2012 it bloomed in late March. The blossoms are bright pink-magenta, and are fragrant. I like it so much that I named my corgi after this shrub.
I’ve had my February Daphne for 15 years or more and is still a nice compact shrub about 4 feet tall and wide. It is originally from Japan, and I watched it closely when I first got it, as I was worried it might be invasive. I had seen it growing wild on the roadside, so worried it might take over the understory. Nope. I have never seen a single offspring elsewhere on my land.
Forsythia forces easily indoors now
Pussy willows are opening in the swamps, and I shall go out with my “cut-and-hold” pole pruner to get some soon. This pruner cuts through a stem, and grabs it at the same time. That is particularly nice when gathering branches in a swamp. The one I have is made by the Wildflower Seed and Tool Company of Napa Valley (https://wildflower-seed.com/). It is telescoping and has a pistol grip that I can work with one hand, while directing the pole with the other.
If you don’t have any pussy willows, you should –especially if you have an area that stays wet or damp most of the year. They are very easy to propagate, particularly in the spring before they leaf out. Just cut 12-inch long stems and push most of each stem into the soil. It will send out roots in the ground and leaves above ground.
If the pussy willows you cut are for display in a vase, you don’t need to add water to the vase. They will stay “frozen in time” seemingly forever. If they haven’t fully opened, put them in water until they are cute and fuzzy, then drain the water.
I recently picked a stem of hobble bush, a native viburnum (V. lantanoides), and put it in a vase where it is blooming beautifully. All viburnums would probably force well. Lilacs are early, but I’ve never found them as dramatic when forced as when I let them develop on the bush.
Last spring chore? Clean out your garden shed or barn. Throw away garden gloves with holes in them. Get some steel wool and light sewing machine oil or WD-40, and get the rust off your tools. Sharpen shovels and pruners. Summer will be along soon enough. Enjoy the spring before the bugs come along.
Henry can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Please include a SASE if asking for a reply my mail. Henry is the author of 4 gardening books.
Tips for Good Garden Design from Piet Oudolf
Posted on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 · Leave a Comment
Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ in my garden in October
I was out in my garden recently and noticed that my tall decorative grasses are looking quite bedraggled. I have a clump of fountain grass (Miscanthus sinensis) a variety called ‘Morning Light’. It’s time to cut back all the stems and flowers that stood up, largely, to the winter winds.
Looking at it made me think of Piet (pronounced Pete) Oudolf, a Dutch garden designer who works all over the world. Oudolf loves decorative grasses and uses them often, including in the High Line Gardens that he designed in New York. I had a chance to meet him and tour his personal gardens outside of Amsterdam in 2007, and I recently re-visited my notes from that time.
High Line Garden photo credit Gordon Hayward
Piet Oudolf primarily designs gardens on a grand scale. The High Line project in New York City transformed a mile and a half of abandoned elevated railway into a garden. He is the designer of the memorial gardens just blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center in Battery Park at the tip of New York, at The Gardens of Remembrance. He has done gardens in Chicago and Stockholm and elsewhere. He is the author of several books, including “Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space.”
I visited him at his home in Humelo, Holland and we talked about gardening. Asked about his philosophy of gardening, Oudolf told me that he doesn’t have one, but, he said, “I know what I like.” Early on, he said had felt trapped by English gardening –“I’m not a color gardener” – and he tried to find a way to escape. Tall decorative grasses and prairie plants appealed to him. We walked through his personal gardens, and his love of plants that provide winter interest was obvious.
Oudolf has a couple of acres of gardens surrounding his house. I visited in January, a time when only a few early hellebores were blooming. I noticed that he used sharply clipped evergreen hedges as counterpoints to the tall grasses that waved in the wind, and to the array of summer plants that had been left to show off their seedpods during the winter. I wondered aloud what he would do in an urban setting, say something 30 meters (100 ft) square.
First, he said you need to plan a space that is comfortable year round – some place where you’d like to spend time. Start by taking up most of the sod, and getting a soil test done before doing any planting. Amend the soil with compost and minerals as needed. Select easy-to-care for plants, things that are tolerant of a variety of conditions. It’s important, he noted, that you choose plants that need the same basic conditions if they are to grow together and do well. So, for example, don’t try to plant heather (which needs acidic soil) right next to lavender (that needs slightly sweet soil).
High Line Garden Photo Credit Gordon Hayward
Oudolf believes in mass plantings, not a hodge-podge of individual plants of many different species. He pointed out that you also need to have an array of plants that bloom in different seasons. He suggests 30% spring plants, 40-45% summer bloomers, and 25% plants that are best in autumn. And he believes in cleaning the garden in late winter or early spring so that those tall grasses and perennials will be interesting all winter long.
It is important to separate your garden space from that of your neighbors, according to Oudolf, either by planting a woody hedge or by building a fence. He likes iron fences that can be used as support for climbing plants like clematis, or be used to train woody plants into shaded tunnels. In his own gardens he created raised beds to change the level of the flat garden, building 30 inch tall brick circles filled with soil and planted with tall decorative grasses.
Pathways are important for gardens, Oudolf explained, as they lead the viewer through the garden. He believes that you shouldn’t be able to see the entire garden at once. You can create tension by placing tall plants and hedges in the front of a garden, he said. He likes hard surfaces for walkways in small gardens, either stone or brick, but grass as the path in larger gardens. Obviously in public gardens he uses concrete or stone to keep the foot traffic from wearing down the grass.
Places to sit should be included whether in a public or private garden, Oudolf said. His own gardens have benches for relaxing, though I suspect he has little time to use them. One of my favorite features in his garden were the sheep. No, not live sheep. He has a sense of humor, and has nice carved marble sheep resting on the lawn. Unfortunately my photos have all disappeared.
I have been to the High Line Gardens a couple of times, and they are definitely worth a visit. I understand they are now one of the most-visited tourist attractions in New York City. Meander along the path and you will see how Piet Oudolf incorporates all the design principles mentioned above. Go see the High Line, and then incorporate some of his ideas in your own gardens.
Henry Homeyer can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Please include a SASE if requesting a mailed response.
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