Tips for Planting, Weeding and Edging Your Gardens
Posted on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Are you still planting your vegetables? Here are a few tips. If your broccoli seedlings are a bit tall and floppy at planting time, you can bury part of the stem so they don’t flop over. I pinch of a lower leaf or two, and then plant the root ball 3 inches or so below the soil surface. Same for Brussels sprouts. Tall tomatoes I often plant sideways after I remove 2 or more of the lower branches. The buried portion will send out roots, which is helpful to the plant later on.
Most gardeners who start seedlings indoors plant 2 or more seeds in each cell, thinking that at least one will germinate. But what to do if they both did? I advise snipping off one of the two early on. But I had a six-pack of kale seedlings with 2 nice plants per cell that had somehow escaped my scissors. For some I snipped off one seedling at planting time, thus avoiding any disruption of the roots.
For others, particularly if the seedlings were growing in opposite corners of the growing cell, I separated them and planted both. To do this I hold the rootball in two hands, thumbs on the soil surface and nearly touching. Then I push my thumbs down, and gently pull them away from each other – and tearing the rootball in half. Sometimes the roots are so entwined that the break, other times they just pull away. Either is fine. Roots recover easily.
But what can you do if you have too many melons or an overabundance of okra? It’s very hard to throw them in the compost pile. Call your friends and neighbors, ask if they need some more plants. If you still have too many plants, deliver them to the community garden nearest you. Most have websites and contact info. I found one that will drive to my door to pick up vegetable and flower starts.
The bottom line is this: you don’t have to plant every seedling you grew or bought. You might have to buy a 6-pack of kale when you only want 2 or 3 plants. It’s okay to put the others in the compost pile if you can’t find a taker. That’s better than cramming them all into a small space.
After a recent day of heavy rain I spent much time weeding. Right after a rain when the soil is soaked is a good time to do so. Deep-rooted plants like thistles or dandelions are easier to pull when the soil is moist – or even soggy. If it’s soggy, of course, your feet can compact the soil, so stay on the lawn and work from the edges.
I have learned all the weeds that grow in my garden: some by Latin name, some by common name, a few I just call “Bob” or “Larry”. No matter. What is important is to know their roots. Annual weeds like jewel weed pull easily, all the roots coming with a scratch of my CobraHead weeder and a tug from above.
Other weeds, like perennial dandelions and burdocks, have tap roots that can go down 6 to 12 inches. For those I use a shovel to loosen the earth. I push it into the soil 4 inches from the weed, pull back on the handle, and the soil – along with the roots – loosen. Then with a tug the whole system comes out. If you break off a tap root, the weed will grow back, so it’s worthwhile taking the time to do it right.
Crabgrass, by the way, grows well in compacted soil – but lawn grass will not. That’s why it grows where you walk the most. Avoid it, if it bugs you, by putting down pavers to walk on. And if you set your mower at 3 or 4 inches the good grass may shade out the crab grass that is trying to establish itself now, in the early summer.
Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) – also known as Creeping Charlie or Jenny – is a pest to many of us because it grows in lawns and flower beds and will even grow in pure mulch! But it pulls easily and smells vaguely minty. Its leaves have scalloped edges and the flowers are generally a purplish blue. It sends down roots easily as it creeps into flower beds. I follow the roots with the tip of my CobraHead weeder, and they come out easily.
Formal garden edging
Edging the border of a flower bed makes it look tidy and professionally maintained. Basically edging means cutting a sharp edge to the bed with a shovel or an edging tool. By removing some soil after you have cut the edge, you create a little “moat”. Lawn grass sends roots exploring for new territory – but if it finds air, it stops growing. It can save a lot of time weeding out grasses later on.
If you have a straight flower bed, pull a string taught to establish the line you will edge. If you want to create curves, use your hose. Just lay it out in the lawn to establish the exact curves you want. I like to make flower beds bulge out into the lawn rather than follow straight lines. Just be sure that when you expand your beds and establish new boundaries, your lawnmower can follow the lines you establish
.
I try not to get too compulsive with my weeding. I get to the weeds when I feel like it. I try to pull them before they flower and set seed, but – obviously – that doesn’t always happen. That assures, however, there is always something to do in the garden.
Read Henry’s twice-a-week blog at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. You can sign up for an email alert every time he posts a new article.
Dealing with Pests and Diseases
Posted on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 · Leave a Comment
I understand why many gardeners shop on Death Row. That’s what I call the pesticide aisle at the garden center. Insecticides, fungicides, herbicides are sold in cheerful colorful bags, often with pictures of blooming flowers on the bag. I don’t shop there and try to avoid even walking down the aisle because the smell of death – poison – is often in the air.
Leaves eaten by striped cucumber beetle
Gardeners shop on Death Row because something is threatening their roses or their broccoli. Flea beetles making holes in the cabbage? Nuke ‘em. Japanese beetles? Gotta kill ‘em. I get the urge, too. But there are alternatives.
Let’s start with something easy: I drape a light-weight gauzy film of agricultural fabric over plants to keep bugs from physically getting to my plants. This cloth allows sun and rain to pass through, but not bugs. It’s called row cover or by trade names like Reemay and Agribon. There are other brand names, too.
Row cover comes in different weights, and some heavier types can be used to keep in a little heat at night, holding off frost. But its best use is to keep plants bug-free. I use it over my vine crops like cucumbers and squash as they are very vulnerable to a pest called the striped cucumber beetle.
Row cover over young plant
Row cover is not perfect: striped cucumber beetles live in the soil, and sometimes will appear under the row cover, but mostly it prevents them from getting to the plants. To be on the safe side, I start cukes and squash inside the house 3 weeks or more before planting time (or buy a 6-pack of starts). That gives me good-sized plants that can survive some beetle attack.
Generally I just drape the row cover over the cucumber plants and pin down the edges with special staples sold for the purpose. It is light enough that it will just float on top. But since vine crops are insect pollinated, I need to take it off once the plants start to bloom.
Hoops are sold to support row cover, too. Five foot sections of #10 wire are sold for the purpose. Just poke one end into the soil, bend it, and poke in the other end. This is great for keeping flea beetles and cabbage moths of broccoli, cabbage and related plants.
Repellents can help to keep insects off plants. Liquid fish fertilizer has worked for me to reduce the number of Japanese beetles on roses and other decorative plants, though I wouldn’t use it on vegetables. Garlic Barrier is product made from garlic and citric acid that can be diluted and spread on plants to repel insects. It is rated for use on vegetables, and has no flavor once it has dried. In any case, you must get the repellents sprayed before the insects show up, and need to re-apply regularly. It is fine for use by organic gardeners.
Traps sound good, but generally are not. Japanese beetle traps use a sex hormone to attract the beetles, but unfortunately they attract many more beetles than they catch. And those pesky beetles like to have a snack before investigating the scent of sex. Give them to your neighbors, perhaps, but don’t use them!
Hand-picking bugs really does work, particularly if you are diligent when they first appear. Pick potato beetles every day as soon as you see them (or their larvae). Look under the leaves for orange egg masses, too. Don’t let a second generation get started! Get them early, and avoid trouble later on.
Keep these points in mind if you want have a good garden and healthy plants:
1) Healthy plants growing in favorable conditions (such as the right amount of sun, and moisture in the soil) are less susceptible to diseases.
2) Select disease-resistant cultivars when possible. Modern hybrids are often bred for disease resistance.
3) Don’t over-fertilize. Too much nitrogen gives fast green growth, but promotes weak tissue that is more susceptible to diseases.
4) Try to keep leaves dry when watering. Moisture on leaves, particularly at night, helps some fungal diseases to get established. A hand-held watering wand can direct water to the roots; overhead sprinklers get everything wet.
5) Prune off diseased leaves and dispose of them in the trash. Never let diseased plants over-winter in the garden. Keep your garden clean. Clean up in fall and spring to remove diseased plant matter.
6) Lastly, don’t overreact. Most fungal diseases won’t kill a healthy plant that is well planted in good soil. Don’t rush to spray chemicals. Once a leaf is infected, you can’t fix it, only live with it or cut it off.
As an organic gardener I accept that sometimes bugs or diseases win. I no longer grow Oriental or Asiatic lilies because of a beautiful red beetle that attacks them. I can’t control the pest by hand picking. That’s okay, I grow angel’s trumpet (Datura spp.), a lily-like flower that is even better – it blooms for many weeks with gorgeous big white flowers). And it doesn’t need chemical poisons to thrive.
Read my blog twice weekly at www.dailyUV.com. You can sign up to get the blog post sent to you be email.
Shrubs with Fragrant Flowers
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Some gardeners grow flowers for their beauty in the garden. Others for their magnificence in a vase. A few select species largely for their scent. My friend Nelia Sargent of Claremont is in this third category, largely because she is blind. I called her recently to see what flowering shrubs she likes best.
Nelia loves shrubs because they pack so many flowers in a small space. And, unlike most perennial flowers, have they their blossoms close to nose level. Who needs to bend over to sniff a peony if you have old fashioned shrub roses standing up 3 or 4 feet tall? Here are some of her favorites along with a few of mine –roughly in sequence of their blossoms.
First for her, in late March or early April, is a witchhazel hybrid (Hamamelis x intermedia) called ‘Arnold’s Promise’ This flowers heavily with yellow strap-like petals an inch long originating at a reddish calyx cup. Although this bush can get large – up to 20 feet tall and wide, I have never seen one half that size, here in the North Country. I have our native witchhazel which blooms in late fall, but this hybrid is a great plant and one I should get. It’s very fragrant.
At the same time (or soon thereafter) is February Daphne, a tidy pink shrub that is very highly fragrant. I love this one so much I named my corgi after it. I’ve had mine for a dozen years and never had to prune it, which is a plus. I’ve seen it growing wild by the side of the road, which makes me wonder if it will be invasive sometime in the next 50 years. But since I’ve not gotten one seedling and it grows slowly, I’m not too worried.
Nelia Sargent then listed a number of viburnums that are fragrant and lovely. Three that she mentioned are Viburnum juddii, V. carlessii, and V. burkwoodii. Don’t be put off by the Latin names. Just pronounce the species names like juddii with an E-I sound at the end. All three species were named after horticulturists.
Viburnum juddii gets to be 6 to 8 feet tall tall, with blossoms about 3 inches across. V. carlessii, also called Koreanspice viburnum, gets to be 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, with 2 to 3 inch semi-snowball flowers. The Burkwood viburnum can get 8 to 10 feet tall with spread about 2/3’s its height; like the others, its flowers are pink in bud, opening to white and highly fragrant.
In recent years there has been an invasive beetle that has terrorized many viburnum owners. Cornell University has listed viburnums according to their susceptibility. Burkwood viburnum was listed as moderately susceptible to defoliation, but V. carlessii and V. juddiiwere in the group least attractive to the beetle. You can see the entire list athttp://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/suscept.html. I have had a Judd viburnum 3 years and never seen one of the dreaded beetles.
After the viburnums bloom, and overlapping with them, are the lilacs. Nelia Sargent noted that there are early, mid-season and late lilacs, so one can have fragrant lilacs for at least 5 weeks. First for her comes one called Sister Justina, a white one that stays tidy and does not send up root suckers. ‘Gertrude Lesley’, a double white is also early and nicely fragrant. The common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, has 800 or 900 named varieties. Most are mid-season and nicely fragrant. These spread by root, sending up suckers that will create a hedge if you are not attentive.
Fragrant late season lilacs include Miss Kim (a cultivar of Syringa patula), a slow-growing variety that is (mistakenly) sometimes called a miniature. Mine is now over 8 feet tall, definitely not a dwarf! Another late beauty is ‘Donald Wyman’ (Syringa x prestoniae ‘Donald Wyman’) which is hardy to Zone 2 (minus 50 Fahrenheit) and will thrive despite pollution and compaction in wet or dry soils! One tough plant.
The final shrub on Nelia’s list is mockorange (Philadelphus coronarius). Not related to oranges, this 10 to 12 foot shrub has white blossoms that are sweetly fragrant. That said, be advised that not all cultivars are fragrant, so buy one in bloom. It is an old fashioned flower and not particular to soil type.
Roses can be lovely and fragrant, but many of the modern hybrids have little or no scent. The Knockout roses are fabulous disease-resistant roses that bloom most of the summer, but I’ve only encountered one that was fragrant. On the other hand, rugosa roses are highly fragrant, as are many of the old fashioned roses. I recommend buying them when in bloom if fragrance is important.
I agree with Nelia Sargent: shrubs with fragrant blossoms are a good addition to the landscape. And they are often great for our native pollinators, too.
Read Henry’s garden blog at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. You can sign up for an email link to the blog every time Henry posts something.
Plants for Butterflies, Bees and Native Pollinators
Posted on Monday, May 23, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Butterflies are the poster children of the environmental movement. Everybody loves them, and wants to see them thrive. But do you know what you can do to help? It’s quite simple, really. For starters, make sure that your environment includes a wide variety of plants that supply nectar and pollen. And even city dwellers can help.
Monarch on asters
Let’s say you don’t have a garden, or that you have limited time and/or space. Or you just have a lawn. You can start by planting some annual flowers in a pot, or buying a hanging planter at the garden center. Most planters sold are full of gorgeous flowers that will bloom all summer. All you have to do is water them.
If watering is too much trouble, transfer your purchased plants into a “self-watering” container. These are pots that have a water reservoir in the base that will allow water to wick up to the plants in the container. Get one about the same size as your purchased planter, along with some potting soil. The potting soil should fill in extra space if your self-watering container is larger than the hanging pot. Once you have it set up, you will just need to fill the reservoir once a week.
Another thing that anyone can do is buy a bird bath. Yes, a bird bath can be useful for butterflies, too. They need a regular source of water. Butterflies love the minerals found in water in mud puddles, so you could dig a little hole and keep it full for them. Maybe your dog, if she’s like mine, will wallow in it, too. Hmmm…
I have a bird bath that is never used by birds, even after I put stones in the middle for them to perch on. Why? Someone finally pointed out to me that I have a stream just 50 feet from the bath, which is more inviting for the birds. But I like the looks of the blue ceramic bird bath, which I now call my ”butterfly bath”.
What else can you do? Start by swearing off pesticides. I know it’s easy to spray Japanese beetles or potato beetles, but chemicals that kill one kind of bug will kill others, including butterflies and the caterpillars that become butterflies. So hand pick your pests, or agree to let them live. Many insect pests have a short life span and aren’t really as bad as you might think.
Hiking through France I have often been struck by the number and variety of birds, butterflies and pollinators along the trail. I attribute that to the fact that farmers in France allow hedgerows to separate farm fields. Flowering plants like hawthorns, blackberries and wild cherries are not mowed down, but allowed to grow – and provide space for birds and insects to nest in and thrive.
Here in America President Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, told farmers to “get big or get out”, encouraging them to plant commodity crops every square inch, “fencerow to fencerow”. That policy has affected our birds and butterflies over the years. But on a small scale, we can allow native plants to grow and blossom along our property lines. Leave wild spaces wherever you can.
If you want more butterflies, think first about the caterpillars that will become butterflies. What do they like? Dill and fennel are among the best plants for many species. Hollyhocks, lupine, milkweed and butterfly weed, thistles and willows are all good for caterpillars of various sorts.
Pansies are used by butterlies
Then, for nectar and pollen, think about creating a garden that blooms from early spring to late fall. Annual flowers are great because most will do just that. Alyssum, calendula, cosmos, marigolds, nasturtiums, pansies, verbenas and zinnias are some that are especially good.
Of the perennial flowers, here are some good ones: asters, bee balm, daylilies, delphinium, dianthus, globe thistle, hollyhocks, Joe Pye weed, lavender, liatris (gayfeather), oregano, phlox, purple coneflower, sage, scabiosa, sedums, Shasta daisy and yarrow.
Weeds are good for butterflies, too. You know milkweed is beloved by monarchs. Queen Anne’s lace is loved by many. Towards fall I often see goldenrod just full of bees and butterflies. And not all goldenrod is 5 feet tall and aggressive. You can actually purchase tidy ones like‘Fireworks’ (a variety of Solidago rugosa), or a small shade-loving one, Solidago caesia. Talk to your local nursery – they can get them from North Creek Nursery in Landenberg, Pennsylvania (wholesale only).
The very best plant for butterflies is probably butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). This is a shrub that is generally hardy only to Zone 5, meaning that temperatures colder than minus 20 will kill it. In warmer zones it can spread aggressively and even be considered an invasive pest. But is great for butterflies, and often will survive in Zone 4, just dying back to the ground each year, but blooming late in the summer. It can be a large shrub, but there are smaller varieties, too.
Butterfly bush
Remember: butterflies and bees need nectar or pollen – from spring dandelions to late fall-blooming witchhazel. You can do your part – and enjoy seeing both your flowers and the butterflies, too.
To learn about bumblebees – all of them you see right now are queens – go to Henry’s blog: https://dailyuv.com/news/843726. While there you can sign up for an e-mail alert every time Henry posts.
More on Growing Great Veggies
Posted on Monday, May 16, 2016 · Leave a Comment
This year Mother Nature, if she were a middle school student, would be at best a tease, and at worst a bully. Or maybe the Wicked Witch of the West. She gives us warm and sunny – then threats of snow or hail. Come on, Spring, let’s get with the program. We have veggies we want to plant!
Corn seeds planted in plug tray indoors
Recently I wrote a column that promised tips on growing vegetables “A to Z: Artichoke to Zucchini” – but didn’t finish the B’s and skipped to zucchini. Huh. Today I’ll be less ambitious: The last of the B’s and most of the C’s. There really are a lot of great veggies we can grow.
Beets are best started outdoors once the soil temperature has warmed to 60 degrees or even warmer. Yes, they grow well in cool temperatures, but are slow to germinate in cold soil. Plant 2 to 3 inches apart, and be prepared to thin them in a month to 3 to 4 inches apart. Each “seed” is actually a seed capsule containing 2 to 6 seeds. They like soil that is near neutral in pH, so if you have acidic soil, add a little limestone. And they are deep rooted, so plant in fluffy soil for best results.
Hoping to jump the gun this year, I planted some beets in flats indoors on April 10. I started them on an electric seed warming mat but only got 20 percent germination, and the plants have long stems and are flopping over – even with bright fluorescent lights over them. I won’t do it again. I’ll plant mine outdoors this week.
Carrots also want fluffy light soil – and few if any stones. Comb through the soil carefully to get out rocks – I use a CobraHead weeder for that. Add lots of compost and some bagged organic fertilizer at planting time and again in early July.
Carrot seeds are tiny, but it’s worth your time to plant them individually, or nearly so. It will save a lot of time thinning them later on. Put seeds in the palm of one hand, and push one away from the rest with a pencil or pocket knife. Pick it up, plant it, and repeat. Tedious, yes. I like to plant them about an inch and a half apart, and thin to 3 inches when the thinnings are big enough to be worth eating.
Cauliflower is fussy. If it gets too hot or too cold it will “button” and not form a proper head. And unlike broccoli, cauliflower makes no side shoots (with rare exceptions). There is a purple one that I have grown, gorgeous in the garden but it turns gray when cooked.
Likewise, I don’t grow celery. It attracts slugs, gets woody and tough if the soil dries out, and is generally unsatisfactory. But I’m a serious cook and often need that celery flavor. Instead, I grow celeriac, also known as celery root. This is a great root crop that is pest free and stores for a long time. It’s funny looking with lots of roots that I cut off the bulb. Then I chop or grate it.
Celeriac
Celeriac, unfortunately, is not often sold in 6-packs at the garden centers. But it’s worth asking for it as the seeds germinate slowly and take a long time to get big. I planted mine on April 10 and they are just an inch tall 5 weeks later. Still, it will grow well into the fall so you could try planting seeds. Celeriac needs soil with plenty of moisture all summer.
I avoided growing corn for decades, instead I bought just a couple of ears at a time. I’m a bit like a raccoon: I tend to glut on it when there’s plenty in the garden ‘cause it’s so darn tasty! But for the past 2 years I have grown it. Here’s what I have discovered: you do need to plant it in blocks of 4 rows to get good pollination. And it needs plenty of supplemental nitrogen to do well. Last year I ran out of fertilizer and thought that since the soil was good, it would do fine. But corn in that section was short and spindly.
Fencing is probably the best to keep out coons, but I also used some solar powered blinking red lights that are said to scare them off (www.niteguard.com). Those are touted as deer repellents, too. I had some raccoon damage, but I probably needed more of them as the corn patch was very long. You need a minimum of 4 units to point in every direction.
Cucumbers are a summer favorite of mine, and I’ve already started some seeds indoors. They’ll go outside in mid-June after frost and when the soil is nice and warm, say 65 degrees. I used to plant seeds outdoors, but the plants were often killed by striped cucumber beetles that would strip off all leaves in a single night. Now I plant them when they have vines 6 to 12 inches long with some nice big leaves.
If you have had trouble with beetles but want to direct-seed your vine crops, you can cover the hills with row cover, also called Reemay. It is a thin agricultural fabric that breathes and lets sunshine and rain through. But sometimes the beetles, which emerge from the soil, are already waiting for you before you put it down. Be sure to rotate your planting sites for vine crops like cukes.
Mother Nature, if you’re listening: I’ve had it with this weather. Don’t make me release the flying monkeys.
Henry is now blogging twice a week. See the blog at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. You can sign up to get an e-mail alert every time Henry posts something.
Building a Hot Box for Early Spring Greens
Posted on Monday, May 9, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Is your lettuce lagging? Your spring greens tired of cold, gray days? You can make a self-heating “hot box” in your garden using a cold frame, some fresh horse manure and some hard work. Lots of hard work, actually. But your lettuce and spinach will reward you sooner rather than later.
Cold frame in place on hot box base
A month ago I got a cold frame from Gardener’s Supply Company (www.gardeners.com) in Burlington, Vermont. It is a nifty 8-foot by 2-foot cedar box with a slanting sides and a clear polycarbonate top that is designed to capture the sun’s heat and warm the soil inside. It assembles in an hour with just a screwdriver or screw gun. I placed it in my garden facing southwest for maximum solar gain.
Inside the cold frame I put a radio-frequency thermometer that sends the temperature to me inside my house. I found that on sunny days, with the top panels closed, that the temperature easily hit 100 degrees, or even more. It has a prop stick for each of the two opening doors on top, allowing one to vent the heat on warm days. Or you can open the top completely for hot days. It did a great job of warming the top inch or two of soil.
Lettuce and spinach can take some frost, so it didn’t matter much that at night the cold frame only kept the air temperature 3 or 4 degrees warmer than the outside air, which occasionally dropped into the mid-twenties. But I wanted an even warmer environment for my small greens.
Back during WWII when folks really grew much of their own food, people made not only cold frames, but also “hot boxes”. And I had tried it, too, some 20 years ago. The principle is easy: bury fermenting horse manure beneath a cold frame, and the heat will rise, warming the soil and air above it. I forgot just how much work that entailed.
The first challenge was to find horse manure that was not mostly bedding. Harrumph! Horses tend to be pampered these days. But I found a horse breeder who had some good fresh manure that was not full of hay or shavings. He loaded a scoop into the back of my aging pick-up truck, though that was more than I really needed. Four or five wheelbarrows is plenty.
Filling the hot box
Next I dug pit a foot deep and the size of the cold frame. That took an hour or so of hard work. I set the good top soil to one side, the subsoil to the other. Then I lined the pit with 2-inch thick Styrofoam (blueboard) insulation. Why? To keep the cold soil from cooling down my fermenting manure. I wanted the manure to stay hot so it would keep fermenting. The temperature of the manure I unloaded from my truck was in the mid-fifties, but the next day, when I was ready for my project, it had heated up to the mid-eighties. Yes!
For compost to heat up, I knew, one needs both nitrogen and carbon-based materials. Manure has plenty of nitrogen, hay and leaves are rich in carbon. So in the bottom of the pit I tossed in a layer of old hay, then I added 4-inches of manure, then a layer of hay and leaves, then another 4 inches of manure. Finally, using the good top soil I’d set aside when digging the pit, I filled up the pit.
Did it work? You bet! When the air outside is 40 degrees inside my “hot box” it is 55 degrees. At night my box keeps the air 10 to 15 degrees warmer than outside air.
Into this deluxe new domain for plants I planted 5 red cabbage starts, a dozen lettuce plants, 3 clumps of watercress, a few Swiss chard plants and 3 cilantro. All of those I’d started indoors a month earlier. I have room for some spinach that I will start by seed.
Bottom heat is good for quick germination and growth, so I imagine fresh salads tomorrow! Oh, okay, not that fast, but certainly much sooner than I would have them if I was depending on Mother Nature to warm the soil and air.
The only worry I have is that some morning I will leave the house for the day and forget to prop open the lids of the frame. If the sun comes out it could get lethally hot. But as a dedicated gardening guy, I guess I just need to put a reminder with my car keys! That should prevent any “heat emergencies”.
Deer Repellant
On another note, tulips are coming into blossom for me. I protect mine from the deer with a makeshift fence and some garlic spikes. The garlic spikes are small plastic cylinders with a clip to attach to a twig or fence and food-grade garlic oil inside. A barrier requires you to activate them by puncturing the seal with a little tool they provide. Once opened, they are stinky! Available at garden centers or on-line (www.plantprotec.com). They claim to provide protection for 6 months or more, though a fence is your best protection if there are a lot of hungry deer around.
Read Henry’s twice-weekly blog posts at www.dailyUV/henryhomeyer. Read his article there about preventing Lyme disease (https://dailyuv.com/news/837178).
Shrubs with Fragrant Flowers
Posted on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Some gardeners grow flowers for their beauty in the garden. Others for their magnificence in a vase. A few select species largely for their scent. My friend Nelia Sargent of Claremont is in this third category, largely because she is blind. I called her recently to see what flowering shrubs she likes best.
Nelia loves shrubs because they pack so many flowers in a small space. And, unlike most perennial flowers, they have their blossoms close to nose level. Who needs to bend over to sniff a peony if you have old fashioned shrub roses standing up 3 or 4 feet tall? Here are some of her favorites along with a few of mine –roughly in sequence of their blossoms.
Common witch hazel
First for her, in late March or early April, is a witchhazel hybrid (Hamamelis x intermedia) called ‘Arnold’s Promise’. This flowers heavily with yellow strap-like petals an inch long originating at a reddish calyx cup. Although this bush can get large – up to 20 feet tall and wide, I have never seen one half that size, here in the North Country. I have our native witchhazel which blooms in late fall, but this hybrid is a great plant and one I should get. It’s very fragrant.
At the same time (or soon thereafter) is February Daphne, a tidy pink shrub that is very highly fragrant. I love this one so much I named my corgi after it. I’ve had mine for a dozen years and never had to prune it, which is a plus. I’ve seen it growing wild by the side of the road, which makes me wonder if it will be invasive sometime in the next 50 years. But since I’ve not gotten one seedling and it grows slowly, I’m not too worried.
Nelia Sargent then listed a number of viburnums that are fragrant and lovely. Three that she mentioned are Viburnum juddii, V. carlessii, and V. burkwoodii. Don’t be put off by the Latin names. Just pronounce the species names like juddii with an E-I sound at the end. All three species were named after horticulturists.
Buds of Viburnum Juddii
Viburnum juddii gets to be 6 to 8 feet tall tall, with blossoms about 3 inches across. V. carlessii, also called Koreanspice viburnum, gets to be 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, with 2 to 3 inch semi-snowball flowers. The Burkwood viburnum can get 8 to 10 feet tall with spread about 2/3’s its height; like the others, its flowers are pink in bud, opening to white and highly fragrant.
In recent years there has been an invasive beetle that has terrorized many viburnum owners. Cornell University has listed viburnums according to their susceptibility. Burkwood viburnum was listed as moderately susceptible to defoliation, but V. carlessiiand V. juddii were in the group least attractive to the beetle. You can see the entire list at http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/suscept.html. I have had a Judd viburnum 3 years and never seen one of the dreaded beetles.
After the viburnums bloom, and overlapping with them, are the lilacs. Nelia Sargent noted that there are early, mid-season and late lilacs, so one can have fragrant lilacs for at least 5 weeks. First for her comes one called Sister Justina, a white one that stays tidy and does not send up root suckers. ‘Gertrude Lesley’, a double white is also early and nicely fragrant. The common lilac,Syringa vulgaris, has 800 or 900 named varieties. Most are mid-season and nicely fragrant. These spread by root, sending up suckers that will create a hedge if you are not attentive.
Lilac
Fragrant late season lilacs include Miss Kim (a cultivar of Syringa patula), a slow-growing variety that is (mistakenly) sometimes called a miniature. Mine is now over 8 feet tall, definitely not a dwarf! Another late beauty is ‘Donald Wyman’ (Syringa x prestoniae ‘Donald Wyman’) which is hardy to Zone 2 (minus 50 Fahrenheit) and will thrive despite pollution and compaction in wet or dry soils! One tough plant.
The final shrub on Nelia’s list is mockorange (Philadelphus coronarius). Not related to oranges, this 10 to 12 foot shrub has white blossoms that are sweetly fragrant. That said, be advised that not all cultivars are fragrant, so buy one in bloom. It is an old fashioned flower and not particular to soil type.
Roses can be lovely and fragrant, but many of the modern hybrids have little or no scent. The Knockout roses are fabulous disease-resistant roses that bloom most of the summer, but I’ve only encountered one that was fragrant. On the other hand, rugosa roses are highly fragrant, as are many of the old fashioned roses. I recommend buying them when in bloom if fragrance is important.
I agree with Nelia Sargent: shrubs with fragrant blossoms are a good addition to the landscape. And they are often great for our native pollinators, too.
Read Henry’s garden blog at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. You can sign up for an email link to the blog every time Henry posts something.
Tips on Growing Vegetables, A to Z
Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Romanesco zucchini
It’s time to start thinking about the vegetable garden. We had frost recently, and will again, but this is a good time to think about what to plant. I can’t cover all plants I will grow – or have in the past – but I’d like to share a few tips on plants I love, starting with artichoke and going to zucchini.
Twenty years ago it was unheard of to grow artichokes in a New England garden. The first time I grew an artichoke from seed it developed into a huge plant, but didn’t start to produce “chokes” until cold weather came in the fall. So I built a little plastic-sheathed hoop house over it, and harvested my one and only artichoke in October – after snow! The local paper sent a reporter and a photographer.
Here’s what I’ve learned since that first effort: start early. I planted seeds March 3 this year in 6-packs and transplanted seedlings into bigger plastic pots in mid-April. Now the plants have 4 large leaves, and are ready to go to my cold basement (45 degrees) where I will set them up under lights on a timer, giving only 10 hours of light per day for the next10 days. This will fool those poor artichokes into thinking they have gone through a winter. Artichokes, you see, usually only produce in their second year. I’ll plant mine outside in early June. In California, artichokes are perennial – though I’ve never succeeded in overwintering them here.
Now locally grown artichokes are sold at farm and seedlings are sold, too, in case you haven’t started any. They will produce lovely foliage plants – and a few small artichokes. Some farms grow them in unheated greenhouses to stimulate them to produce their first year.
“B” is for beans. There are many varieties; all can be placed in one of two categories: bush beans or pole beans. Bush beans produce a nice yield of beans over a 3 to 4 week period, and are done. Pole beans, once they start producing, will continue to produce some beans until fall – if you keep picking them. Not only that, pole beans are better for casual gardeners, as many varieties still are yummy even if the beans are not picked on time and get large. Bush beans that get large, get woody. My favorite pole bean is ‘Kwintus’ from Cook’s Garden Seeds. ‘Kentucky Wonder’ is also great, and available everywhere.
Beans are legumes, and have nodules in their roots that can harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria. These bacteria take nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it in the soil – transforming it into nitrogen useable by plants. Free fertilizer, if you will. You can buy a packet of inoculant at garden centers. Wet your beans at planting time, then sprinkle the inoculant on the beans, and plant. A packet of inoculant will do a lot of beans, but won’t work next year, so share your leftovers with another gardener. And if you don’t get any in time, you can sprinkle it over the soil and water it in.
“B” is also for broccoli. I start mine by seed, but it’s getting a bit late for that now if you want early broccoli. But it is plentiful at garden centers, and quite cold-tolerant once hardened off and well established. You can plant seeds outdoors by seed in mid-July for a fall crop.
Happy Rich
My favorite broccoli substitutes are two relatives that don’t ever produce a big head, but are quick-growing and produce very numerous mini-heads, what we would call side-shoots on broccoli. One is called piracicaba, and is available from Hudson Valley Seed Library (www.seedlibrary.org). It’s actually a tropical broccoli, so does well in the heat so summer when many others are feeling wilted and sad.
The other is Happy Rich, a hybrid sold by Johnny’s Selected Seeds (www.johnnyseeds.com). Like piracicaba, it has a lovely flavor – and you can eat the leaves and stems if you are so inclined. It produces all summer and well into the fall.
The last of the “B” vegetables, for today, at least, is Brussels sprouts. This vegetable is not universally well loved – too many cooks and lunch counters over cook it, serving mushy sprouts. But they are wonderful if lightly steamed and served with butter or vinegar.
Brussels sprouts
Some gardeners never get big Brussels sprouts because they let the plants grow taller and taller, putting all their energy into growing tall. So here is what you need to do: cut off the top of the plant in early September. Labor Day at 10 am, to be precise. Cut off the top 3 to 4 inches, which is where upward growth occurs. Then the plant will use its energy to create big sprouts.
Skipping forward to “Z” as promised, my favorite zucchini is one called ‘Romanesco’. It has a striped, ridged exterior and firm flesh that is very tasty. What’s wonderful about it is that, unlike many summer squash and other zucchini, the flesh is still tasty and usable even if the squash goes unnoticed and develops into a big fruit.
Romanesco zucchini plants are rarely found at garden centers, but seeds are readily available. Buy the seeds now, plant outdoors in June or early May indoors in 4-inch pots.
Sorry I skipped a few vegetables in this year’s tips, but there will be more in future columns. Meanwhile, I’m going outside to plant some carrots – they come after the “B’s”.
Read Henry’s blog at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. You can sign up for an email alert every time he posts a new entry.
Gardening Gifts for Mother’s Day
Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 · Leave a Comment
When I was a boy, I generally bought my mom some pansies in a little wooden box for Mother’s Day. Mom is long gone, but I’ll be thinking of her and all she did for me when Mother’s Day rolls around on May 8. If your mom is a gardener, or just appreciates the beauty of the living world, there are plenty of good gifts for her.
Pansies
I like giving pansies for Mother’s day for a number of reasons. First, they are cheerful and full of color. And they are hardy, surviving and thriving outdoors even if we get frost. And they look good even without wrapping paper (I am still challenged when it comes to wrappping).
Each pansy plant is relatively small at the beginning of the season, but they will give a nice punch of color even while they are bulking up. Pansy grower Jenny Wright of Unity, NH tells me that pansies “…would rather be in England where it is cold and rainy.” So later, in August, they tend to sulk until fall rains come.
Perennials are good gifts, too. Right now some of my hellebores are blooming. Don’t know hellebores? You should. These early-spring beauties have evergreen leaves and come in a variety of colors from white to pinkish to shades of purple or even green, both as singles and doubles (with extra petals). Hybridizers have been developing new colors because they are relatively fool-proof plants.
Hellebores are plants that do fine in shade, or partial shade. They prefer moist, well-drained soil but will do fine in dry shade, too. In the beginning of spring the evergreen leaves on hellebores look pretty ratty. I’ve cut those back to tidy up the bed, and I see that new leaves are already unfurling. I’d say that by May 1 the hellebores will be looking dramatic.
Another early spring flower that will look good on Mother’s Day has a rather unappealing common name, lungwort. I prefer to call in by its botanical name, the one used by scientists, Pulmonaria. There are actually three species of Pulmonaria but all are very similar. Cold hardy to minus 40 Fahrenheit, they grow in full to partial shade in ordinary garden soil of moderate fertility, but don’t do as well in a very dry location.
Pulmonaria is a good groundcover, one that stays relatively low and spreads by root. The flowers can stand up above the leaves to 8 to 12 inches, but the leaves are low. Most varieties sold have spotted leaves, though I have one, probably Pulmonaria angustifolia, that does not. Mine has absolutely iridescent blue flowers that almost seem to light up at dusk or on a cloudy day.
Marsh marigold
Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) is a wildflower, but one that is sometimes sold in nurseries. As the name implies, it grows in wet places, even in standing water. It needs a location that is at least moist all year. It is a brilliant yellow flower about 2 inches in diameter. It is hardy to Zone 4, minus 30. It is not related to annual marigolds sold everywhere.
Your mother probably doesn’t have marsh marigolds – most people don’t – so if she has some wet areas near her garden, think about finding one for her. There is a fabulous double variety called ‘Multiplex’ that I planted near my stream last year. I got it at E.C. Brown Nursery in Thetford, VT. The leaves are up, and I can’t wait until the blossoms appear.
Darmera peltata
Another lesser known plant near my stream is the umbrella plant (Darmera peltata). This blooms in May before the giant leaves appear. It is a native – I have seen it wild along the banks of the Rogue River in Oregon – but it is not native here in the east. The pink flowers appear as drumsticks of florets on a tall stem. The leaves will stand up 2 feet and be 2 feet in diameter later this summer. Available at E.C. Brown Nursery.
I am reluctant to recommend buying a tree or shrub as a gift unless I know the recipient has asked for it. After all, shrubs take up more space than flowers, and generally last longer. But you know Mom best, and if she likes flowering shrubs and has space for more, think about getting the early blooming azalea ‘Cornell Pink’ (Rhododendron mucronulatum).
This shrub blooms before most others (except February Daphne). As the name implies, the blossoms are pink. A nice pink, not garish at all. Its only liability is that it blooms so early that some years a hard frost can ruin the buds, I’m told. It’s never happened to me, or to anyone I know, but the literature always warns about it. The shrub can get large – 8 feet tall and wide, or larger – if not pruned.
If you’d rather not buy plants, think about other things useful to a gardener. A CobraHead weeder (www.cobrahead.com), some nice garden gloves, or perhaps a colorful tubtrug. Trugs, as I call them are handy bucket-substitutes. Unlike the standard 5-gallon pail, these are flexible with 2 soft handles. Easy to pick up with one hand, they come in sizes from very small to quite large (11 gallons). Available at Gardeners Supply (www.gardeners.com), or your local garden center.
Mom, if you’re watching me, I planted some pansies this week. I hope you like them.
Henry Homeyer is blogging at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. Sign up for an e-mail every time he posts. He is the author of 4 gardening books, and lives in Cornish Flat, NH.
It’s Time to Re-Pot Many Houseplants
Posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Plants are smarter than you think. It’s true that most have a hard time remembering their nine-times tables, and are darned if they know the capitol of Nebraska (though even I might need help from Mrs. Google on that). But, for example, they know spring is on the way – even if they haven’t been outside.
When spring arrives the sun coming in the window is stronger, days are longer, and plant roots are growing. Plants know it’s time for some special care – bigger pots and more water. If you haven’t repotted any houseplants in recent years, you might want to do so now.
There are two schools of re-potting. Some good growers say, “don’t mess with the roots. Just put the plant into the next bigger sized pot, and let its roots find their way into new soil”. The other school of growers say, “tease out the roots and cut them back to encourage them to divide and grow new roots”. I’m in the second school. Especially for large plants that are already in big pots.
Hibiscus ready for re-potting
I have a hibiscus plant, a small tree, really, that was given to me more than a decade ago. It came in a cheap plastic pot about 14 inches in diameter, and a foot or so deep. Up until very recently it’s been in that same pot. The plant is 6 feet tall, decorated with lights, and blooms regularly – and has for years. This winter blossoms were scarce, so I decided that it was time to give it some new soil, compost and fertilizer.
Over the years my hibiscus has lost a lot of soil – until I re-potted it, the soil surface was 4 inches below the top edge of the pot. Some washed out with watering. Some was taken up by the plant. And some organic matter just oxidized and disappeared. That’s right, organic matter in soil can “burn up” and disappear with time –whether in your garden or in a pot. It’s why adding compost to the soil every year is standard practice in the vegetable garden.
Some big indoor plants develop big, fat roots that encircle the pot if not re-potted. When re-potting those, I get out my root knife or scissors and cut back the roots. Not so this one. It has small, fibrous roots. I teased out the roots with my CobraHead weeding tool and tickled them loose with my fingers. I let the tired old soil fall away.
Loosening the soil around the roots
To re-pot that hibiscus, I slid it out of the pot and placed it on an outdoor table on an old sheet. I removed about half an inch of soil all around the root ball, and even more on the bottom. I cut back the few long roots I came across. Then I measured the root ball. It was just 8 inches from top to bottom. My pot is 12 inches deep, and I wanted an inch of free space at the top. So I added 3 inches of “soil” to the bottom of the pot and gently packed it down.
The soil mix I used was a 50-50 mix of peat-based commercial potting mix and a fluffy light compost I buy by the truckload for my outdoor gardens. I ended up using12 quarts of this mix. I added about a cup of Pro-Gro brand organic, slow-release fertilizer to the bucket of planting mix. And I added half a cup of green sand, a naturally-occurring product that contains potassium and lots of trace minerals. It is mined in New Jersey from what was once an undersea deposit.
Pushing soil down the sides of the pot
After teasing out the roots I placed the root ball back into the pot and filled the space around the edges with my soil mix. I used my fingers and a piece of kindling – a wedge-shaped board that could get almost to the bottom of the pot – to push the mix down the sides of the pot.
Finally, I gave my re-potted hibiscus a good long drink of water. To the water I added Superthrive, which touts itself as “the original vitamin solution.” It contains seaweed extracts and plant hormones, and is very good for stressed plants. It’s very concentrated: half a teaspoon in 2 quarts of water made a very good boost for my plant. I’m a firm believer in the value of Superthrive.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know that most houseplants need more water now than they did in December. Take rosemary, for example. If you brought in your rosemary plant last fall, you probably got into a rhythm: water it every Sunday before church. Or Wednesday after bowling. Or whatever. But you knew it needed the same amount of water every week.
Then, all of a sudden, you might have noticed your rosemary was super dry. In fact, you might have noticed that it was dead. I’ve lost more rosemary plants in March and April than at any other time. A totally dry rosemary is a dead rosemary. So if yours is still alive, double the watering!
Come summer, you’ll probably bring many of your houseplants outdoors. I know I will. So I’ve started bring a few out for a little direct sunshine. By slowly introducing them to sunshine now, they are less likely to get sunburned when they move out full time. An hour or two a day is a good re-introduction to the sun.
Oh, and by the way, the capitol of Nebraska is Lincoln, not Omaha. I know. My hibiscus told me.
Read Henry’s blogs at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. Henry is a UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. His website is www.Gardening-Guy.com.
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