Is it Time to Starting Seedlings?
Posted on Monday, January 23, 2017 · Leave a Comment
A reader, Vicki, wrote recently asking if it’s time to start Brussels sprouts indoors, and if so, how? No, it’s not time for them yet. But I will start a few things soon. Here are some tips.
First, know that most vegetables and flowers only need to be planted 8 to 12 weeks before you put them out. For me, frost sensitive vegetable starts go outdoors in early to mid-June. Counting back 8 weeks means planting in April, not January.
But look at your seed catalogs – or go online – to see how long a particular plant takes to germinate and get ready to plant outdoors. I find that the Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog is one of the best source of growing tips. Go to www.johnnyseeds.com and click on grower’s library, then on vegetable library. This will give you the chance to click on a vegetable and get 2 pages of good information – most of which is also in their print catalog. For another good source of information go to the Gardeners Supply Company’s vegetable encyclopedia: http://www.gardeners.com/gardening-encyclopedia and you will be able to get great information for about 40 kinds of vegetables. I helped write that years ago.
A Flat of Seedlings
Professional growers don’t want to spend a lot of time babying seedlings – time is money – and recognize that smaller seedlings generally transplant better than large ones. Roots of small plants are not bound up, even in a small cell, so they transplant better. Some gardeners like to start tomatoes 16 weeks ahead of planting, and then transplant seedlings from starter 6-packs to individual 4-inch pots, allowing them to plant large tomatoes in the ground. But that’s a lot of time tending and watering. Those same gardeners often try to get seedlings into the ground in May – even if the ground is chilly. I like to put mine out when the soil is 60 degrees or warmer. Then the plants take right off and are not stressed. Warm weather plants like tomatoes and peppers tend to sulk when put in cold, wet soil.
The reader, Vicki, asked if I thought she needed a heat mat for her Brussels sprouts. Not necessarily. Heat mats are good for impatient gardeners who want to get things growing fast. Soil temperature is a safety feature for plants: cold soil means more cold weather is still coming. If the soil is truly warm, it’s safe for tender plants to germinate. So it may take 2 weeks or more for Brussel sprouts to germinate at 50 degrees, but only 5 to 8 days at 75 to 85 degrees. Soil mats should be turned off once the plants have germinated.
Vicki was planning on growing her Brussels sprouts on a south-facing windowsill. Don’t do it, Vicki. Invest in some lights. Seedlings need intense light in order to develop strong bodies and thick stems. If there is not enough light, plants get tall fast and lean toward the source of light. They are flimsy and more prone to disease.
I tell wanna-be gardeners that they need to have 6 hours of direct sunshine outdoors to grow good tomatoes and other fruits, but that lettuces and kale – leafy greens- can get by with 4 hours of direct sun. It’s hard to get 6 hours of sun indoors at this time of year, especially since the sunshine is so often filtered through clouds. And in modern windows, much of the sun’s strength is filtered out so that it won’t bleach out your rugs and curtains. What kind of lights are best? I recommend fluorescent lights using T-8 bulbs. Those are tubes that are narrower in diameter than the old T-12 bulbs, but more energy efficient. Shop lights are relatively inexpensive, though special “Gro-Light” fluorescent tubes can be pricey. I use ordinary shop lights with no-frill tubes.
Tomato Seedlings Ready for Bigger Pots
I built an A-frame plant stand that is perfect for shop lights and flats of seedlings. You can see the directions to build it at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy It will hold 6 flats of seedling, and for around $50 you can get everything you need including the light fixtures (depending where you get them). The height of the lights above the flats of seedlings needs to be adjustable so that the lights are always about 6 inches above the tops of the plants. I use jack chain, a lightweight chain available at hardware stores, and a hook at each end. As the plants grow, I shorten the chain.
Vicki asked me about fertilizing her Brussels sprouts seedlings. It depends on the soil mix you use. If you buy a commercial seed-starting mix, it is light and fluffy and good for developing roots, but it has little in the way of nutrients, and those present will wash away in a couple of weeks. Me? I make a 50-50 mix of seed starting mix and good compost. The minerals in the compost will not be so quickly depleted. In either case, a regular light dose of an organic liquid fertilizer such as Neptune’s Harvest fish and seaweed will keep your plants from suffering from lack of minerals. But don’t overdo it. More is not better.
So, Vicki, don’t start your Brussels sprouts until April, or even May. Onions and peppers and artichokes are things I start in late January, or even as late as mid-February. That keeps me busy and thinking of Spring, but doesn’t overwhelm me.
You may reach Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Please include a SASE if you want a mailed response. Henry’s web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com.
Twelve Rules for Gardeners
Posted on Monday, January 16, 2017 · Leave a Comment
I do a lot of public speaking, and was recently asked to give a talk that put forth a list of “Commandments” for gardeners. Not wanting to sound pretentious, I decided that 12 rules sounded better than 10 commandments. Here they are:
- Do not use chemicals in the garden. Not insecticides, not weed killers, not chemical fertilizers. Why? Because it’s not only better for the environment, it’s better for your plants. And you, especially if you plan to eat your veggies.
Just say no to pesticides! My dog Daphne
Mother Nature has been growing green plants for a long time – and she never fertilized with tree spikes or used Roundup to kill weeds, or Sevin to kill bugs. And she did just fine. Sure, the Japanese beetles can be pesky. But do you really want your kids and dogs playing on a lawn with pesticide residue on it? I don’t. Plants do fine with organic techniques. Pick off those dang beetles and drown them in soapy water.
- Don’t let your weeds make seeds. Seeds can last years, waiting patiently for you decide to go to the beach for a week in August. Then they will germinate and grow like crazy. Making you go crazy when you come back and see the gardens full of weeds.
What to do? Learn to love weeding. It’s an excuse to be outdoors in the garden and to ignore other deadlines. Say to your loved ones, “Gotta go weed! Weeds are blooming! Sorry, can’t help with that!” And mean it. Weed every day for at least a few minutes. Make it a ritual like brushing your teeth or making the bed.
- Treat your soil as you would a puppy: give it good nutrients but not too much of anything. Don’t give it big doses of fertilizer. Some compost and a little slow-release organic fertilizer will help, but too much fertilizer will encourage fast, weak growth that is attractive to insect pests and fungal diseases.
- Create biodiversity in the landscape. Put some flowers in with your veggies and veggies in with the flowers. Artichokes or purple kale will look great in your flower bed. Marigolds in the vegetable garden are thought by some to repel certain pests. An acre of cabbage will attract loopers that might not find one or two plants.
Not only that, flowers in the vegetable garden feed pollinators needed by your cukes. And insects like ladybugs, which eat aphids, also depend on pollen when insect prey is not available.
- Create hardscape so that you have beauty even in winter. When I bought my house in 1970 I started by vegetable gardening. Later I planted perennials. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered the joys of shrubs and trees.
Clematis in the fall
Woody plants take a lot more time to grow and become mature than perennials. So start with them. In 15 or 20 years most trees start to look great, even maples and oaks. Add stone walls or a bentwood or cedar archway, or even a barn if you can. All look great in winter – and can support blooming vines.
- Learn to store, dehydrate and freeze garden produce so you can eat something from the garden throughout the year, not just in summer. This is one of my great joys in life. Even a clove of garlic added to a salad or a winter squash put in a soup in January brings me pleasure. I spend a lot of time in late summer into the fall preparing food for storage, but it is worth every minute I spend, and more.
- Prune your trees so they are beautiful. Most people look forward to pruning as much as they enjoy getting a root canal. Think of pruning as creating living sculpture. But the nice thing is, if you inadvertently lop off a branch that you regret removing, others will fill in the space.
Stone bench
Yes, there are rules about pruning. But if you know enough not to leave ugly stubs, and cut just outside the “branch collar”, that swollen area where branches meet the trunk, you will be fine. Clear out clutter.
- Keep a compost pile, but don’t be afraid to buy compost, too. Don’t worry if your kitchen scraps don’t turn into “black gold” overnight. Buy compost as needed – we never have too much.
- Cut fresh flowers whenever some are in bloom and keep them on the table. Plant early bulbs and late fall flowers to extend the season. And then support your florist. Fresh flowers are a basic human right.
- Keep a few easy houseplants to keep your green thumb active, even in winter. Don’t be afraid to throw them out if they disappoint you – or you, them!
11. Learn from other gardeners. Visit other gardens. Take classes.
12. Take a few moments every day to walk through the garden, pausing to look at the beauty, not just the weeds or the projects on your list.
Read Henry’s blog posts at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy You can sign up to get an e-mail alert every time he posts. You can reach Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
Michelle Obama and the White House Garden
Posted on Monday, January 9, 2017 · Leave a Comment
I recently was re-organizing my gardening books and came across a great book by Michelle Obama: American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America (Crown Publishers, 2012, $30 in hardback). I must have gotten it when it came out, but never read it until now. It’s a wonderful book, and every library should own it. Not only is it a good gardening book, it is a look into the life and character of Michelle Obama.
Michelle Obama grew up in Chicago and never had the chance to garden as a child or young adult. But as a mom, she knew she wanted her children to eat fresh organic food whenever possible. When she and the family moved into the White House she had the opportunity to have a garden.
Rutland, VT Farmers Market
With the help from fifth graders at nearby Bancroft Elementary School, Michelle Obama created a vegetable and herb garden. They also got help from National Park Service staff, a professional farmer, and the staff of the White House, especially the cooks. Their garden thrived and the food was not only eaten by the Obamas, but shared with the children who helped plant it, and with a local homeless shelter called Miriam’s Kitchen.
This book is more than a feel-good story. Yes, a third of the food went to the homeless shelter. And yes, low-income children got to work in the garden and eat the results of their labor. But it also tells the story of how to create a garden, starting with removing the sod. It’s full of useful gardening information.
It is full of spectacular photos showing the gardens every step of the way, from planting to harvest. It has diagrams and layouts of the gardens. It explains the importance of getting a soil test before planting. And it has recipes for using (and knowing when to pick and how to store) things like bok choi or cauliflower, which most of the Bancroft Elementary students had never encountered.
Like most beginning gardeners, Michelle Obama had doubts: “What if the seeds or seedlings were not set in correctly and we ended up with empty beds? What if we couldn’t control the weeds? I worried about the weather … What if the plants didn’t grow? And what if, after all this effort, the food that did grow didn’t taste good?” But her fears were unfounded, and the garden was a huge success.
The book includes profiles of others who worked in the garden with her and really gave full credit to everyone who helped, taking none for herself. And the book includes vignettes and photos of many community gardens around the country.
I particularly liked a section on a container garden in Houston, Texas. The Houston Parks Department donated 34 huge planting containers that were installed on a stone patio in front of a high-rise office building. Each floor got one or more of these waist-high containers and a choice of vegetables to plant. Office workers took turns watering and weeding – and taking home the lettuce, okra, tomatoes and more.
Canillas Garden
As most of you know, Michelle Obama has been a supporter of healthy eating and active lifestyles for children as a way to be healthy and reduce obesity. This garden, which she calls a community garden, is part of that effort. The book also profiles others – some well-known athletes, some ordinary citizens – who are doing things that support her goals. I loved a picture of 400 kids in purple tee-shirts doing jumping jacks on the South Lawn with her in an effort to break a Guinness Book of Records record. And they did, over 300,000 people participated at the same time around the country.
Not everyone can have a garden, or even pots on a patio. Mrs. Obama spent time in the book lauding farmers markets, too. Fresh, local food is good food. She pointed out that Thomas Jefferson had started the first farmers market in Washington, D.C. (and that he also had a kitchen garden at the White House). So she lobbied city officials and got approval for a farmers market near the White House.
I haven’t tried any of the recipes in this book, but they look very good. Her corn soup made with fresh corn and thyme looks great, I shall try it next summer. And the spinach pie seems like a winner.
So as I bundle up to go outside on a cold January day, I like to think back to summer and my own vegetable garden. I like going to my freezer to extract bags of kale and squash for making my own soup. And I enjoy sitting by the fires and reading about other fine gardens. I think you would like Mrs. Obama’s book. I did.
Read Henry’s blog, and get an email alert every times he posts, by going to https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy. His e-mail address is henry.homeyer@comcast.net. You may reach him by writing to him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. If you want a reply, please include a self adressed stamped envelope.
A Garden Year in Review
Posted on Wednesday, December 28, 2016 · Leave a Comment
I had a great gardening year in 2016. Of course, I’m a mad-dog gardener, so that means I was born optimistic and wired to remember success, not failure. So I suppose I had some of both. But the weather was largely sunny and I got a great yield from most of my vegetables, especially my precious tomatoes. I have enough food put away that if all my newspapers fired me tomorrow, I could probably survive just eating out of my freezers and cold cellar all winter.
Tomatoes are bothered by early blight and late blight. Late blight is the bad one, the one with spores that float in on the wind, killing everything and turning fruit into mush. When it comes early, we don’t get tomatoes, but I dodged it this year. I did have some early blight, but less than most years, probably because of the dry weather.
Mulched Tomato Plant
I also mulched my tomatoes with hay early on, and cut off any diseased branches once or twice a week, reducing the spread of late blight. My Sun Gold cherry tomatoes produced hundreds of tomatoes each, I dehydrated them using my Excalibur brand dehydrator, and will enjoy them in soups and stews all winter.
I had great success with the one tomato plant in a raised bed made by Gardeners Supply, something they call a “VegTrug”. The tomato I planted in it was virtually disease free, and what’s more, the green tomatoes I picked from it before frost ripened perfectly and did not rot. I ate a few good tomatoes each week until Thanksgiving. The tomato was one called, “Summer Sunrise” and I got the seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Library. I shall grow it again, for sure. It had good flavor, right up to the end.
Kale is always a winner in the garden. It is easy to grow and this year I used a lot of it in green smoothies made with fresh mint, lettuce, a banana, blueberries, some juice and/or water, fresh ginger and half a lime. I’m still picking kale for smoothies, even though the greens are frozen when I pick them.
Winterbor Kale
I grew 4 kinds of kale this year as I wanted to see if I liked anything as well as Winterbor and Ripbor, the two curly kale varieties I usually grow. No. Next year I will just grow one or the other of those two – they are tasty and so long-lasting in the garden. They are easy to store in the freezer – while keeping their character and flavor.
I grew 2 non-heading broccoli relatives this year, Happy Rich from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, and Piricicaba from Hudson Valley Seed Library. Both produce earlier than broccoli and continue-producing little shoots well past frost. They produced so much food that I will plant fewer, just 2 or 3 plants of each, not 6.
My potato harvest was ho-hum this year, but my grandkids had great production in their little 4-foot by 4-foot raised beds on my lawn. The difference? I tried to squeeze in too many plants in my rows, crowding them. The kids only planted 2 seed potatoes each, well apart. Even though they planted later than I did, their spuds were bigger.
I had no potato beetles at all this year, even though I looked for them every day for a while. I plant my potatoes in June, and believe (without real proof) that late planting helps to avoid the beetles.
New this year: I planted a second crop of potatoes in August from some seed potatoes that had been languishing in my cool dark cellar. I planted them in my garlic bed, after harvest. A third of those late-planted potatoes did not grow, but those that did grow produced full-sized potatoes by October.
I planted late lettuce, too. I got some 3-inch lettuce starts from a friend in early September, and planted them 6 inches apart. These did very well, and in November I moved my Gardeners Supply cold frame over the plants. They were good though November. They were helped by a layer of Reemay or row-cover over the leaves inside the cold frame.
Lettuce Indoors
New this year: In mid-October I dug two nice lettuce plants and moved them into an unglazed clay planter about 6- by 12-inches and 6-inches deep. I placed a layer of fluffy compost in the bottom as planting material, and filled in around the plants with pure compost. Then I moved them into the house, sitting in an east-facing window. Great success! I have eaten 2 or 3 leaves almost every day since sometime in November. Fresh greens for my sandwich at lunch. I had to water every other day. I will finish them off by New Years.
I grew flint corn this year for the first time ever. Flint corn is dried and ground to make corn flour or meal. The corn plants were huge, but the ears were relatively small. And while I was drying them some mice got in with the ears, so I didn’t want to use them. So I am feeding the corn to the blue jays and squirrels. I used some of the stalks for Halloween decorations and gave some stalks away.
The raccoons ate all my sweet corn but for half a dozen ears. Oh well. I am enjoying frozen tomatoes, summer squash and kale. I have plenty of winter squash, garlic and onions stored in a cool dry location. And root crops galore in an old fridge in the basement. It was a great gardening year, despite a few setbacks that I had already almost forgotten about.
Read my blog posts at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy You can sign up to get a link by email every time I post.
Nine Root Crop Stew
Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Rutabagas? Kohlrabi? Celeriac? What does one do with these lesser known root crops? I make stew. You just need to get past the idea that they are food for “old folks” or “poor people”. There were good reasons that these vegetables – and other root crops – were the backbone of the diet in tough times. These vegetables are easy to grow, store well, and are very tasty.
Celeriac With Carrots Leeks and Brussels Sprouts
I recently made a pot of winter stew that used the three veggies mentioned above, along with potatoes, onions, parsnips, garlic, leeks and carrots. Oh my! It was delicious. But first, let’s look at what all these root crops need in order to produce well and fill your root cellar or spare fridge.
All root crops need soil that is essentially rock-free. They need to be able to grow to size without bumping into a boulder, or even a rock the size of a golf ball. So if you have rocky soil, you need to work on it, come spring.
I find a potato fork is good for finding stones. This is a tool similar to a garden fork or spading fork, but the handle is at a right angle to the metal tines. I have one that has been in my family for at least 50 years.
To get stones out of the soil, I sink the tool into the soil and pull it toward me. It acts like a big rake, loosening the soil and dragging stones to the surface. I have seen smaller ones in hardware stores, but the kind I like has tines at least 8-inches long.
I have bought the modern equivalent of my potato fork from a tool company, Howland Tools (www.farmandgardentools.com), that imports them from an Italian maker, Falci. They sell two varieties, the 4-tine hook fork and the 4-tine hook weeding fork. I have the first, but not the second, which has broader tines, like a standard fork. At about $50 each, these tools are well worth the price. Good steel, good beech handles.
What else do root crops need? Most need fluffy, well-drained soil that stays moderately moist all summer. Their requirements vary for the three main minerals, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Click this link for a summary of what each requires.
Kohlrabi Gigante
What does all that tell you? Root crops are fairly moderate in their needs. Potatoes require yearly addition of a balanced fertilizer. Only garlic does best with fairly dry soil, so planting it in raised beds and adding some extra compost to the soil will help. Add some blood meal to the soil for parsnips as it will provide plenty of nitrogen (13%) but little P or K.
Now the stew, (click here for the recipe) which can be vegetarian or not, depending on your preference. I’m an omnivore, and find that some beef adds flavor and depth to the stew, but you can omit it if you prefer. I use 1 to 2 cups of each of the vegetables, according to my supply and mood.
I start by selecting the vegetables and getting off all soil. Then I peel any that need peeling (potatoes, for example, don’t have to be peeled –the skins may add extra color and vitamins). In a large cast iron enameled pot I start by browning the onions and leeks in olive oil on low heat while I cut up a pound of stew beef into tiny cubes – half inch or so. I add them to the pot and add a little more oil, as the onions tend to suck up the oil fast.
When the meat is browned, I add some liquid to prevent the leeks and onions from burning. Two cups of apple cider is my preference, but either water or broth is fine, too. Then I chop up and add to the mix 3 large tomatoes from my freezer- I freeze them whole. I also add 4 ounces or so of tomato paste I made and froze last summer, and a handful or more of dehydrated Sun Gold cherry tomatoes (optional). If you don’t have frozen tomatoes, use a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes or sauce.
Next? I cut into small cubes the carrots, celeriac, kohlrabi and rutabagas. These can simmer quite a while without getting mushy. Next the garlic goes in the pot, chopped fine, 2 to 3 cloves. Or more, depending on my whim. Potatoes I cut in bigger pieces and boil separately for 5 minutes, then add to the stew near the end. I want them firm, not mushy.
To achieve the perfect juiciness of the stew, add more liquid at this time. For spicing, I add Herbs de Provence, a tasty mixture of rosemary, thyme, basil and other spices I get at my Coop. A tablespoon is about right for me. And most importantly, I add lots of fresh ginger. I peel and grate a piece nearly the size of my thumb. And although I know people who grow ginger in the Northeast, I’ve tried and not had success, so I buy it.
I garden, in part, because I love to eat –and cook. I don’t mind spending an hour making a meal like this stew, because it will feed me for days. Oh, and by the way, you can make this stew and leave out any of the root crops you don’t have except the carrots, potatoes, onions and ginger, which are essential. Bon appetit!
Read Henry’s twice-weekly blogs about gardening, travel and more at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguyYou can sign up for an e-mail alert every time he blogs.
Indoor Plants for the Holidays
Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Florists, garden centers and grocery stores are loaded with color right now – plants that are bright, cheery, and hard to kill. They are just what we need in these dark, dreary days of early winter when the sun goes down before 5pm. Christmas cactus and poinsettias are great plants that are affordable and easy. I recommend them highly.
Poinsettias Come in Many Colors
You may think that poinsettias have big red flowers atop handsome green foliage. Wrong! The colorful parts (they now come in white, pink, plum, burgundy, cinnamon and lemon) are actually bracts, or modified leaves. The flowers are actually just pea-sized yellow blossoms in the middle of the bracts.
Poinsettias were introduced here in 1828 by President Andrew Jackson’s ambassador to Mexico, but only became popular holiday flowers in the 1960’s. A grower in California promoted them heavily on TV, giving plants to the likes of Johnny Carson who kept them on his desk during the Tonight Show.
If you buy a poinsettia, start it off right: be sure it is enclosed in a sleeve or a bag on the way home – they hate the cold. But don’t place it near a wood stove or radiator, either. The ideal temperature is 68 to 72 degrees, but my house is rarely that warm, and they do fine with daytime temps in the sixties and night-time temps a little cooler. Anything below 50 degrees is fatal – but we wouldn’t be happy then, either.
Poinsettia Flowers are Just the Center of These Colorful Cracts
Poinsettias do not require direct sunshine. In fact, bright indirect light is best; six hours is all that is required. And don’t over-water them. Root rot results from keeping roots constantly soggy. Water once a week but check the soil first by probing the top inch with your finger. If it feels moist, you can wait. Experts say it is best to water by placing the pot in a saucer or water and letting it soak up for 15 minutes, but I never do that. I water from the top and it works just fine. I often judge dryness by the weight of the pot, too. The heavier it is, the more water is in the pot. Fertilization is not recommended when they are in their bloom cycle.
Although I don’t usually do it, you can keep your poinsettia over the summer and hope to get it to produce colorful bracts next winter. These plants are photoperiodic, which means they are sensitive to daylight length. They need 14 hours of darkness each night in the fall if they are to “bloom”. Even electric lights on in their room can interfere with the coloring-up process, I’ve read.
Christmas cactus often bloom for Christmas, though if you keep them for years they may bloom at other times. Buy one now, and you’re pretty much guaranteed blossoms through the holidays. Properly cared for, a Christmas cactus can be handed down to your kids … and later, their kids.
Like poinsettias, a Christmas cactus needs bright, indirect light and moderate temperatures. Over-watering can be lethal, so if you are starting a new plant from a cutting, add some sand to the potting mix for increased drainage. One part sand to three parts potting mix is about right.
Christmas Cactus
Christmas cacti are not true cacti – they wouldn’t survive in a desert – so you shouldn’t let them get too dry, either. Feel the soil weekly – when the soil is dry an inch below the surface, it’s time to water. If you water too much or too little you will notice flower buds falling off.
A Christmas cactus does best with humidity in the 50 to 60% range. If you have a wood stove, chances are your house is drier than that in the winter. You can remedy the situation by filling a wide saucer with small stones, add water, and placing the potted plant on the stones. As the water evaporates, it adds humidity to the air around the plant.
Aside from these colorful plants, I like to add some greenery around the house in winter. I have a number of foliage plants, but also like to pick some pachysandra outdoors to keep in vases, or to fill out bouquets of flowers I buy.
Pachysandra is a shade-loving vine with year-round glossy leaves. Even with snow on the ground you can pick stems and place them in a vase of water, where they will thrive all winter. The leaves stay glossy and green and will develop good roots in a vase. In the spring I plant them outdoors in shady places as a ground cover. Right now I have a vase full of pachysandra stems with a few twigs of red winterberries, which is quite festive.
Despite my careful attention to my outdoor plants – both vegetables and flowers – I have never paid near as much attention to indoor plants. Perhaps I need a break in winter, when they are needing my care the most. So it is important to me that house plants be relatively undemanding. Poinsettias and Christmas cactus fill the bill.
Read Henry’s twice-weekly blog at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy. You can sign up for an e-mail link to the blog every time he posts. His e-mail is henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Winter Pruning
Posted on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 · Leave a Comment
Traditionally farmers pruned their apple trees in late winter, but there is no reason not to do so now. Trees are dormant, and we’ve finished weeding and raking, so most of us should have time to work on our trees. Pick a sunny afternoon and get to work! Later, when the snow is deep, it won’t be so easy to prune.
Start by walking around the tree and looking at it from all angles. One of my goals in pruning is to create living sculpture, a tree with grace and elegance. A cluttered tree is never elegant to my eye. A bird should be able to fly through an apple tree – without danger of injury.
Branch Collar and Line to Show Where to Cut
Hesitant pruners often begin by nibbling away at a tree, taking dozens of small twigs and branches. I’m a bold pruner. I was taught that taking off big branches is better than tentatively snipping away at a tree. You want to open up the interior of the tree so that sunshine can get to every leaf. This creates a healthy tree. Do this by taking out the big branches if they are crowding others. More on that later.
But first, begin by looking for branches that are dead and removing them. They are doing no good for the tree and never will. If you scrape off a little bark, a live branch will show a green layer. Dead branches will only show brown. Cut the dead branch back to where it originates, but leave the branch collar.
Stub Healing Back t o Branch Collar
The branch collar is a swollen area on the trunk of a tree or a larger branch where a new branch originates. The bark is often wrinkled at the collar. You don’t want to leave a stub when you remove a branch, nor do you want to cut flush to the trunk. Just leave that collar, as that is where the tree heals itself.
Low branches are the bane of many people who mow lawns. So take a look at any trees with lawn underneath, and see if you could remove a couple of low branches and make life easier. Some trees tend to shed lower branches, but most do not. Cut low branches back to the branch collar on the trunk, allowing space for you and your mower to cut the grass with ease.
Often trees, especially wild trees, grow too close to their neighbors. A single root system sometimes sends up 2 to 4 stems in close proximity. Cut out one or more to leave a single trunk. At this time of year I leave first year root suckers – those pencil thin shoots surrounding the base of apple and crabapple trees –and remove them in the spring.
So what else can you remove? Look for branches that are rubbing, crossing or growing parallel to others. Trees really are of very low intelligence. They grow branches that have no chance of growing to their full potential. They run into each other, or crowd others out. Your job is to train them to behave – with a saw! Ask yourself what a branch will be like in 5 years. If it will crowd another branch, remove it – or the other one.
Corona Pruning Saw
Using the appropriate saw is important. Don’t use that rusty old bow saw that you bought 25 years ago when Sammy was a Boy Scout. Go to your local garden center or family-owned hardware store and get a tri-cut pruning saw. These saws are sharp! You can’t sharpen them, but that doesn’t matter. The steel is so tough they will be sharp long after you have stopped pruning.
Get something with a blade a foot long or more so you can cut large branches. Small folding saw are okay for many cuts, but my favorite is a long curved saw made by Corona. It has a 21-inch blade and the big teeth with gaps to remove sawdust and prevent it from clogging up and binding the saw. It’s model RS 7160 and is available from OESCOINC in Conway, MA for about $47; I have the sheath for it, which costs another $35, but really is needed for a saw with teeth that could hurt you when carrying it. It’s my alternative to a chain saw for large branches.
If you are removing a heavy branch, you need to make 3 cuts, not one, so that the branch doesn’t break off while you’re cutting it, causing the bark to rip off, thus damaging the trunk. Make an undercut about a third of the way through the branch a foot or more from the trunk. Then go farther out the branch and lop off the bulk of the branch, reducing its weight. The undercut will stop any tearing of the bark. Finally cut off the stub at the branch collar.
The nice thing about pruning is that there are few serious mistakes to make. Yes, you can “oops!” a branch, but the tree will fill in spaces in a year or two. Branches are not like our arms or legs. Pruning is more like giving a tree a haircut. And if you think of pruning as sculpting, you will want to do it every year.
Henry posts his weekly articles and others at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy. You can sign up for an email alert each time he posts. Contact Henry at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by mail at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. I you want a mailed response, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope.
Holiday Gifts for the Gardener
Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 · Leave a Comment
It’s that time of the year again: time to figure out good gifts for Uncle Albert and your sister Sadie. If they’re gardeners, gifts are easy to pick. There are plenty of items that cost from $5 to $300, and generally, one size fits all. Let’s look at some things I have used and like.
Nitrile Gloves
After giving a talk at the Milford, NH Garden Club recently, I bought some gardening gloves that were being sold as a fund raiser. These cost me just $5, and have already earned their keep. These are nitrile gloves made by the Atlas Glove Company. They have a waterproof palm and a stretchy, breathable fabric back. I have big hands, and the x-large size was perfect. Mine are black with silver palms, but the smaller sizes come in a variety of colors.
I don’t generally wear gloves when gardening, as most are too thick – and I like the feel of the soil – but in cold weather I do wear them. These are thin enough that I can go easily in my pants pocket and pull out my pocket knife, or feel a tender weed. The nitrile glove is the Atlas 370B series. I’ve also used a thicker Atlas glove with a natural rubber palm, the 300 series. These are both available at most gardening centers.
Does your loved one start plants by seed? Gift cards at garden centers or seed companies are nice. I get my seeds from several places: the Hudson Valley Seed Library, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing Seeds, Renees Garden and a young company in New York State, Fruition Seeds. All have wonderful selections.
VegTrug
One of my favorite additions to my garden this year was a “VegTrug” from Gardener’s Supply Co. (www.gardeners.com, Item#8586918). This is a stained cedar planting box on legs, about 6 feet long and 32 inches wide that retails for $279, with free shipping. It is V-shaped in cross section with the deepest portion 16 inches deep – deep enough for potatoes or tomatoes. It stands 32 inches tall, so no bending is needed to weed or to pick.
In my VegTrug I grew one patio tomato and pretty much every kind of herb: basil, dill, marjoram, thyme, sage, purple sage, chives, oregano and parsley. I even had a nasturtium cascading over one end.
One reason I loved my VegTrug was the convenience: it allowed me to have herbs near the house in a spot not otherwise suitable for growing. And the plants grew well, although in the heat of the summer they dried out more quickly than my garden near the stream, so I watered pretty much every sunny day. It uses 380 liters of soil mix, so I made my own, a 50-50 mix of peat moss and compost. The bottom is slotted for drainage, but it comes with a woven liner to prevent soil from washing away.
Cobrahead
Every gardener needs a good weeding tool, and every year I recommend the CobraHead Weeder, because I believe it is the best weeding tool available. This tool has a single tine that is curved like the shape of a rising Cobra. I use it to tease out grass roots, to get under large weeds (so I can loosen the soil below them and pull from both top and bottom of the weed at the same time), and for preparing soil to plant. Now it seems a part of my right hand (though it is right-left neutral). At under $25 locally or from the manufacturer (a family business found at www.CobraHead.com), this tool is tough, strong, and made in the USA.
Every year I try to learn more about growing healthy plants. This year I paid $50 to join the Bionutrient Food Association (http://bionutrient.org/), and would like to suggest giving a membership as a nice present. One of the goals of the non-profit is to educate members about how to grow food that is nutrient-rich.
Much commercial agriculture depends on adding just 3 minerals to the soil (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) and basically ignoring the other nutrients that plants – and humans – need to be healthy. Growing vegetables year after year removes micronutrients from the soil that need to be replaced. The BFA offers information and workshops that I believe will help me to grow better food and stay healthy.
Garden Shears
Weeds are the bane of many gardeners. One way to minimize their presence is to weed daily, mulch, or to put down weed mats. A Vermont company, Garden Mats (https://gardenmats.com) produces heavy-duty woven mats with pre-cut holes in a variety of patterns for different vegetables. I’ve used them – and re-used them. They keep down weeds, hold in some moisture, but also breathe and let rain penetrate. They are 4 feet wide and come in lengths of 6, 12 and 18-feet for a cost of $11 to $31. They are definitely a labor-saver, and they claim the mats increase yields 10% to 20%, too. I like them, and also the fact that it is a small, family-owned business.
The last item for this year’s list is a lovely pair of stainless-steel garden shears for cutting flowers, herbs, and for use in the kitchen. Made in England, these shears are elegant as well as sturdy, and are said to be designed for small hands. Sold by Gardeners Supply (Item#8593404), they retail for $60 and come in a handsome gift box.
Santa, if you’re listening, I have everything I need. So you can just volunteer to come work in my garden next summer. I know it’s the off-season for you, and we both need to lose some weight, anyhow. We can pull weeds and eat cukes.
Read Henry’s blog at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy. You can get an email update every time he posts.
Winter Color on the Table
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment
I garden for many reasons. I want to grow my own chemical-free food, to have an excuse to be outside a few hours every day, and to have flowers on my table most of the year. Right now I have just 2 out of 3. A good batting average for a ball player – better than David Ortiz, for example – but not good enough for me. I want to hit one thousand. I need color and beauty in my house all year.
Winterberry
I almost always have a pair of pruners in my car, so when driving past an uninhabited swampy area recently I stopped to pick some winterberries. These red berries are the fruits of our native holly, Ilex verticillata. Unlike the evergreen varieties with shiny green leaves, winterberry drops its leaves in the fall, but clings to the red berries displayed on the female bushes.
Winterberry is dioecious, meaning that there are male and female bushes, and (remember that lecture you got ever so long ago about the birds and bees?) only the females produce fruit. And only if there are males present. If you buy winterberry plants, a good nursery will be sure to sell you a male to go along with your females. One male for 5 females is adequate.
Winterberry is a very satisfactory garden plant. It prefers moist soil and will grow in standing water – though I have seen it succeed in ordinary garden locations, though not in dry, sandy places. It does best in acidic soil, with a pH of 4.5 to 6.5, so add some sulfur to the planting hole. It produces the most berries in full sun. Soil rich in organic matter is a plus.
It is very cold hardy, surviving temperatures to minus 40 degrees (Zone 3). It is a moderate-sized shrub, rarely getting much more than 6 to 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I’m not sure why I haven’t planted much of it, as it brightens the winter landscape with its bright berries standing in contrast to the snow. Next year I will plant some more. Remind me!
Witchhazel
Of my outdoor flowering plants, only witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is still in bloom. Its yellow flowers have strap-like curly petals that remind me ever so slightly of yellow spiders dancing on the branches. The flowers are, theoretically, fragrant, but I have never noticed such.
Witchhazel will bloom in sun or shade and prefers moist soil. It has an open, branching habit. It is native to our area, and I first met it in the fall, hiking through a woods; I was intrigued to find something blooming after leaf drop, and looked it up. I have two that I planted, and after 10 years they are about 10 feet tall – but somewhat wispy. They are considered small trees or large shrubs and will grow up to 20 feet tall, but can be kept smaller with pruning.
My fallback position for color on the table is to visit my local florist on a regular basis for cut flowers. For 10 to 15 dollars I can get a nice arrangement of flowers that will last up to two weeks. Ask for flowers that will last a long time in an arrangement. Chrysanthemums are great, as are alstroemeria and carnations; lisianthus, spray roses, statice and monkey paws last well, too.
Each fall I also purchase an orchid. Orchids are thought by some as fussy or temperamental, but if you treat them right, they will bloom for months – and even come back and bloom the following year (though that is tougher). The most common orchids sold are Phalaenopsis orchids. Twenty years ago they were dreadfully expensive, but growers in Holland and Taiwan now produce them by cloning – producing hundreds of thousands of them for sale in big box stores.
Phaelanopsis
Phalaenopsis orchids like bright light, but no direct sunshine. They do not do well with cold temperatures, but home temperatures are generally fine – even though they come from greenhouses with temperatures in the 80’s. Don’t place them near radiators, woodstoves or doors to the outside. And never let the roots sit in water!
When buying an orchid try to find one that not only has pleasing colors, but also has plenty of buds. The stems will blossom from bottom to top, but usually you will only get blossoms from existing buds. I have cut back flower stems part way to the base after blooming, and gotten side shoots that blossomed, but that is rare.
Because you can buy a Phalaenopsis orchid for $10 to $15, some people just toss them out after blooming. Not me. I keep them, watering once a week until summer, when I bring them outdoors onto my shady deck. They come in pots with no drainage holes and would drown and die if I left them in those pots, but I lift out the inner pot which is just a stiff plastic mesh, which allows rain to moisten the roots but not rot them.
This year I have 2 Phalaenopsis orchids that I bought last year, and one has started a flower stem. It hasn’t yet started forming buds and I know I will never get it to bloom as magnificently as it did when I bought it. Still, it will add some color in a couple of months – and it cost me nothing this year.
Most Americans waste money on unnecessary items from time to time. Me? I’d rather waste a little money on house plants and cut flowers than most other things.
Read Henry’s blog at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Getting Trees and Shrubs Ready for Winter
Posted on Monday, November 14, 2016 · Leave a Comment
All right, I’ve managed to clean up my vegetable gardens and rake the lawn. I’ve gotten most of my flower beds cut back, weeded, and raked. So can I relax and watch football? NO, not yet. Smug though I may be for doing all that, there is still work to do. Trees and shrubs need attention now.
Garlic deer repellent
Let’s start with the deer. You know what trees and shrubs deer will eat. What can we do to protect those tasty treats? I’ve had good luck with a garlic repellent, one called, “Deer and Rabbit Repellent” made by Plant Pro-Tec. These are little cylinders (3 inches by half an inch) with a clothes pin type attachment that can clip onto branches.
Each package of 25 comes with a small tool to puncture the garlic oil storage compartments when you are ready to use them. They are rated for use by organic gardeners, and relatively inexpensive. I’ve used them on shrubs previously eaten by deer, and never lost a bud. They should be available at your local garden center or on-line at www.plantprotec.com.
Voles can be lethal to young fruit trees. Two years ago we had very deep snow and many gardeners lost fruit trees to voles – they girdled the trees, chewing off the bark and cambium layer, which eventually killed the trees. The deep snow allowed the voles to stay hidden from owls and hawks, allowing them to greatly increase in number.
hardware cloth around a pear tree
To prevent that from happening, you can physically keep the voles away with fine-mesh screening called quarter-inch hardware cloth. It comes in 18- and 24-inch rolls, and I recommend the wider roll. A single layer of mesh screen around the base of the tree will keep the voles a bay. Remove the wire next spring to keep it from getting swallowed up by the bark as the tree grows (that would take a few years, but I’ve seen it happen).
Also available are plastic tubes slit up the side, allowing you to open the slit and slide the tube around young trees to protect them from rodents. These are generally 2 inches in diameter and 24 inches long. If your young tree has branches in its lower 2 feet of trunk, you will have to prune off those lower branches. But that is good anyway. And voles shouldn’t bother trees that are more than 2 inches in diameter anyway – their bark is thick enough to deter the rodents.
What about tender young shrubs? Will they survive the winter and bloom in the spring? Some gardeners like to wrap shrubs in burlap to protect them from cold winter winds. The winds can desiccate buds, preventing them from blooming. In 2015 I planted a kousa dogwood which is marginally hardy here. Last spring I only got a couple of blossoms – even though there had been more buds.
Polypropelene “jacket” over a kousa dogwood
So this fall I wrapped my dogwood with a synthetic fabric designed to keep the cold wind from damaging buds, but allowing it to breathe. The material came in 12-foot by 5-foot pieces, and was sold as a “Bush Jacket”. I was given some of this material some years ago and hadn’t used it. An internet search told me that Gardener’s Supply is one source for it, and they don’t have it as sheets, but as bags or “jackets” that fit over small, medium or large shrubs.
An advantage of wrapping shrubs with either non-woven polypropylene fabric or burlap is that will also keep deer from eating your shrubs.
On a nice sunny Sunday I worked on my blueberries, too. I weeded them, digging up the sod that had grown right up to the base of each plant. I created a space free of grass and weeds about 18 to 24 inches all around the bushes. Blueberries have fine roots near the surface, so I was careful not to dig deeply with my weeding tool. I found that once I got started I could peel back the sod in big pieces with my hands. I will sprinkle some agricultural sulfur over the soil, and then put down a 3-inch layer of ground branches I got from an arborist.
The sulfur helps to keep the soil pH very acidic, which will promote good fruit production. Next year’s fruit buds are already set, so applying sulfur this year will not affect next year’s production. But in following years the sulfur will be a big help.
My apple trees did not produce much this year – there was a hard frost in April when the buds were getting ready to open. Additionally, the year before had been extraordinarily fruit-productive and trees tend to alternate between good years and bad. But this fall the fruit spurs are loaded with flower buds for next spring.
I picked or cut off any dead fruit still attached to the trees. Often diseased fruit will dry up and stay on the tree, and I don’t want any fungal spores to infect next year’s crop. I used a pole pruner to cut or knock off dead fruit. Finally, I raked under the trees to collect rotten fruit or infected leaves. I put all that on my burn pile that is awaiting snow for an opportunity to burn it.
You could also prune your fruit trees now, or in the late winter or early spring. But that’s an article for another day.
Read Henry’s twice-weekly blog at https://dailyuv.com/gardeningguy.
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