Planning a Garden in the Lawn
Posted on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 · Leave a Comment
A 10 by 12 ft garden in August
This is a good time to make plans. If you are willing to spend just 15 minutes a day, every day, from spring to fall you can create an edible showcase for beauty: the splendid look of ripe red tomatoes, multi-colored Swiss chard, or glossy green peppers. It’s not nearly as difficult as you think. And unlike maintaining a lawn, you get to eat the results of your labor. Here’s what you need to do:
To grow good vegetables you need sunshine, at least 6 hours a day – and preferably more. For most people, the sunniest part of the yard is in the middle of the lawn. A well maintained vegetable garden can be as gorgeous as a flower garden. And if you like flowers, you can plant some of those in your vegetable garden, too.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew – or weed. A nice lawn garden can be just 10 feet across and 12 feet long. Properly maintained, it will provide you with fresh veggies much of the summer.
Lay out the garden with string and remove the grass
Using string and stakes define the borders of the garden and pry out the sod after cutting it into 1-foot squares with an edging tool or a spade. Use the sod to start a compost pile.
Start early enough in the season – say the first of May – so you can work just 15 or 20 minutes a day for a week or more to get all the grass out. That way you get in the habit of spending time in the garden, but don’t develop blisters or an aching back. Gardening should be fun, not hard work. Still, it can give you a workout without going to the gym.
Your lawn garden will have two raised beds separated by a walkway. Once you have removed the sod, you can just mound up the soil to form beds about 30 inches wide with a walkway up the middle and a 6-inch space between the lawn and the beds all the way around the garden. To do this, (after removing the sod) loosen the soil with a garden fork, shake out the soil and then rake the soil from the perimeter and the walkway onto the beds.
Then spread out 5 bags of composted cow manure on each bed (each bag is usually labeled 30 quarts), and work it into the loose soil with your garden fork or favorite hand tool.
Adding composted manure enriches the soil
Alternatively, you can build wood-sided beds using ordinary 6 or 8-inch wide planks. For more years of service, 2 inch thick lumber is even better. Gardener’s Supply (www.Gardeners.com) sells a variety of brackets for building raised beds, and I suppose others do, too.
If you build wood-sided beds you will have to buy more filler than if using mounded beds. Most garden centers sell top soil and compost by the tractor scoop, which is usually two thirds of a cubic yard of material. They’ll dump right into the back of your pickup truck, or even deliver (for a price). I recommend a mix of topsoil and compost, a 50-50 mix.
A small raised bed is great for a child
If you make wood-sided beds you can place them right on the lawn without removing the sod, which saves a lot of labor. Just scalp the grass with the lawnmower and put a thick layer of newspapers over the lawn, then fill the box. Long carrots might hit the bottom the first year, but most other plants won’t be bothered.
What to plant? Make a list of the veggies you like best and that taste best freshly picked. If you plant tomatoes, dedicate at least 24 inches of a row to each plant. And buy those wire cages for your tomatoes, so they won’t flop over and shade out your carrots or broccoli nearby.
I like to plant lettuce seedlings all around the tomatoes at the beginning of the season while the tomatoes are still small. By the time the plants get big, the lettuce will have been harvested and eaten. Run your rows north-south, and plant tomatoes (or any tall plants) on the north end of the garden so they will shade other plants less. Buy some bagged organic fertilizer and stir some in at planting time.
Oh, and about those weeds: the easiest way to prevent a problem is to mulch. Put down 6 sheets of newspaper and cover it with straw, mulch hay or last fall’s leaves. This will keep the soil dark, turning off the switch that weed seeds have to tell them when to germinate. Mulch also holds in the moisture during dry times. But when a few weeds do turn up – and they will – be sure to pull them before they get big and make more seeds. That’s preventive maintenance.
Gardening is said to be a middle aged sport. After all, what parent of three toddlers has time to weed? But if you wish to reduce your food costs and feed your family well, a garden is great. And done this way, you can maintain it in 15 minutes a day. I promise. Just keep at it daily, and you’ll be surprised and delighted at how good your garden looks, and how much food you can grow – right in the middle of the lawn!
Henry is a UNH Master
Gardener and the author of 4
gardening books. Send mail to him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or e-mail him at
henry.homeyer@comcaset.net.
The Spring Flower Shows Are Back!
Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Calla lilies at the Chelsea Flower Show in London
The spring flower shows are always a contrast to the cold, icy days of winter. Bright flowers, garden paraphernalia and numerous workshops make these events fun – both for beginner and expert. Here is this year’s offerings, starting with the first ones in February and going on until May.
The first show of the season in a specialty show: orchids. The NH Orchid Society is holding its annual get-together February 10 to 12 at the Courtyard Marriott in Nashua, NH. This is THE show for orchid lovers. There will be vendors of orchids from Ecuador, Taiwan and the USA. Members of the Society will bring their orchids to compete and to strut their stuff. Admission is just $10 or $8 for seniors.
Next up is the Connecticut Flower and Garden Show February 23 to 26. This is a mammoth show with over three acres of displays. As always, it is being held at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, CT. Tickets are $20 at the door, or $17 in advance. Kids 5 to 12 are $5.
Bonsai on display at a past Connecticut Flower Show
One of the greatest things about this show are the educational seminars. Here are a few workshops that interest me: “Good Bug, Bad Bug, Benign Bug”. This is great for anyone who tends to squish any bug in the garden – even though most are not a problem. I assume there will be slides of insects we should recognize, but probably don’t. Then there is one on organic lawn care, another called, “Shady Characters”. I know garden writer Ellen Ecker Ogden of Vermont will do a nice slide presentation and talk about Kitchen Garden Design and how to make your veggies look artful. She always does.
One of my favorite shows is always the Vermont Flower Show. It will take place this year March 3 to 5 at the Champlain Valley Expo Center in Essex Junction, VT. The theme this year is “Out of Hibernation! Spring Comes to the 100-Acre Wood”, a tribute to Winnie the Pooh.
Tulips at the Vermont Flower Show
The main garden display is always a collaborative effort by members of the Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association. For three and a half days members of VNLA will work together to create a 15,000 square foot display using their own and donated materials. Other shows tend to have displays by professionals that are competing with each other, but not in Vermont – they work together.
There will be over 100 vendors and 35 workshops to attend over the three days of the event. In the past I have purchased seeds, seed potatoes, bulbs, books and garden tools. Tickets are $25 or $20 for seniors. Kids are $7.
The Vermont show is a child-friendly event with a craft room open all day. Go online to see the schedule of events for kids – there will be a magician, marionettes and music. Be sure to attend this year – it only occurs every other year.
A bit farther afield there is the Philadelphia Flower Show. Last year they held it outdoors in May due to Covid concerns, but this year they are back inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in downtown Philly March 4 to 12.
According to their publicity, “The PHS Philadelphia Flower Show is both the nation’s largest and the world’s longest-running horticultural event, featuring stunning displays by premier floral and landscape designers from around the globe. Started in 1829 by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the Show introduces diverse and sustainable plant varieties and garden and design concepts. In addition to acres of garden displays, the Flower Show hosts esteemed competitions in horticulture and artistic floral arranging, gardening presentations and demonstrations, and special events.”
I’ve been to the Philly show a couple of times and I am always amazed by the sheer size and diversity of the displays, vendors and workshops. It is best to go mid-week when crowds are smaller, and take two days, if you can, to see it all. Tickets are $43.50 for adults and $20 for kids.
A show I have yet to attend is the Capital Region Flower and Garden Show in Troy, NY which will be held again this year at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy from March 24 to 26. According to their website, there will be 160 vendors and exhibitors and 8 to 10 workshops each day.
Then in May there is the New Hampshire Farm, Garden and Forest Expo being held this year at the Deerfield, NH Fairgrounds on May 5 and 6. It is now in its 40th year and is the least commercial of all the shows. It is focused on sharing information.
Finally on May 23 to 27 there is the Chelsea Flower Show of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in London, England. I’ve been, and the trip was well worth it. It’s held outdoors and is truly wonderful.
Opening day a the Chelsea Flower Show can be crowded
If you plan to go to Chelsea, join the RHS to get better access times and pricing. Members get a discount of over $10 per day, but prices still range from $89 to $46 depending on the day of the week. British women tend to dress up for this show and wear big colorful hats. The first 2 days are for members only, so it should be a bit less crowded.
The spring flower shows are fun – and we deserve that after a long New England winter.
Henry is a UNH Master
Gardener and the author of 4
gardening books. Reach him at henry.homeyer @
comcast.net.
Growing Food for Taste and Flavor
Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2023 · Leave a Comment
My favorite pepper is the Espelette, a hot pepper I first tasted in France
We gardeners love our home grown vegetables. As John Denver sang long ago, “Only two things that money can’t buy and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” And why do they taste so good? We can grow tomatoes that don’t have to conform to commercial requirements of size, shape, color and transportability. Our soils generally are rich in compost or manure and host a wide range of minerals and micro-organisms that enhance the flavors of our vegetables. And of course, we eat them fresh from the garden.
We can taste five flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. These flavors were important to our evolution as they told early humans what was safe to eat – and what to avoid. The fifth flavor was not named until the last century: umami signals available protein in meat, eggs, milk, and beans. It is not as easily described or identified as the other four, but it is sometimes described as the flavor of contentment. We need protein, and feel good when we eat it.
So how can we recognize the complex flavors of a good stew, and aged cheese or a bowl of exquisite ice cream? Our noses can recognize many thousands of distinct scents, and our noses and tongues work together to create tastes. Good chefs recognize this, and many farmers do, too. I recently read a book that contains interviews with fine organic farmers who treasure their soil and what it imparts to the scents and flavors of the food they grow.
This book recounts a wonderful journey across America visiting organic farmers
That book by Michael Abelman is called “Fields of Plenty: A Farmer’s Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It”. Abelman, an experienced author and organic farmer in British Columbia, spent three months traveling around the States in a 15-year old VW van. He went with his 23-year old son back in 2004. They camped out, ate local food and met with organic farmers, some of whom were growing food for the best restaurants in America.
There is much to love about this book: Abelman is a skilled writer and story teller, he is a talented photographer, and he is adventurous and inquisitive. Not only that, he included recipes from many of the farmers, and they all sound delicious – and mostly vegetarian.
Each of these farmers he wrote about had a unique approach to farming. One let weeds grow rampant. Another had fields that were weed free and managed with “precision, control, formal science and discovery.” But all ate their own food, fresh from the field – or in the field. And each interview gave me something to think about, and perhaps to apply to my garden.
One of the most startling interviews was with Bob Cannard in Sonoma, California. Raised on a farm, Bob went to agriculture school but dropped out and started his own farm. When starting out, Bob grappled with this question: Why are natural places naturally healthy, while the fields and orchards of commercial agriculture are a continual battleground with weeds, insects and diseases?
His approach to farming was to try to mimic nature – weeds and all. He believed that plants that struggle to survive would develop more complex flavors – a belief later adopted by some wine makers. He believed that a monoculture – acres of the same crop – encouraged insect pests to arrive and necessitate insecticides. He succeeded as a farmer, selling vegetables to Chez Panisse and other high-end restaurants in San Francisco.
I was fascinated to read the section on Strafford Organic Creamery in Vermont. Earl Ransom has a small herd of Guernsey cows and bottles their milk in glass bottles and makes fabulous ice cream, which I know and love. Ransom believes that he gets wonderful flavors by letting his cows graze in pastures with a variety of grasses, wildflowers and weeds. Diversity in the field creates better milk, he says, and the fat in milk absorbs flavor.
I grow and eat potatoes of several colors
The book provides the names of many varieties of vegetables that are exceptional. Organic farmers Gene and Eileen Thiel of Joseph, Oregon specialize in potatoes, and particularly likes LaRatte, Yagana and Sante. Sante, he said, is like a Yukon Gold, but bigger. Yukon Gold also got high marks, as did Ranger Russets and Yellow Finn. He avoids losing his crop to blights, in part, by growing lots of different kinds of potatoes – as did the Incas, where potatoes came from. Of course there is no guarantee that a potato that does well in Oregon will do well for you.
Abelman, a farmer for decades mentions some of his own favorite vegetable varieties. For sweet peppers he likes Ariane, Red Lipstick (I want to grow it, if just for that name) and Corno di Toro. Then there is the Charentais melon, about which he waxes poetic.
Of beans, some of the varieties mentioned as excellent include Valentine and Sophia flageolet shell beans, Maine Yellow Eye, Vermont Cranberry and Red Streaked Borllotto. According to the book, thin-skinned dry beans are easier on the digestive system: “the skins harbor the chemistry that causes digestive problems.”
It’s time for all of us to be studying seed catalogs and seed websites to pick the vegetables we’ll grow this year. I’ll be referring to Abelman’s book for new varieties, but also going back to my old favorites.
Henry is a lifelong organic gardener and the author of four gardening books. Reach him by e-mail at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by regular mail at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
Looking Back on Gardening Projects and Thinking About the Future
Posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 · Leave a Comment
It’s gray and chilly outside, but I have a fire in the new woodstove that warms the house and pleases me as I look through its glass window. I’ve been in the same house since 1970, so I’ve had plenty of time to plan and execute projects. I’d like to share with you some of my memories of those efforts in hopes that some of you will be inspired to take on similar projects of your own.
The biggest projects I did were in the 1980’s after returning from my time with the Peace Corps in Africa. My house came with just an acre when I bought it, but I had been able to buy another acre or two while away, and I wanted to utilize it well for gardens. My home was built as a butter factory in 1888 on a hillside. The land dropped off sharply to a field alongside a little stream and some woods.
My first project was to terrace off the hillside behind the house and make a gently sloping access for wheel barrows, people and dogs to the field where I planned to grow vegetables and flowers. I wanted to terrace off part of the hillside so that I could have drier soil for growing fruit trees – fruit trees hate wet feet!
This potato hoe is great for preparing soil for planting
I was 36 years old when I returned from Africa and had plenty of energy but limited cash reserves, so I did almost all the work myself. I found a local fellow who sold me 13 dump truck loads of topsoil. He looked at the site and told me he couldn’t drive to the far end of the potential terrace with soil, so he dumped it all in one place and I had to move it with a wheelbarrow! The area for fruit trees was 10 to 20 feet wide and 80 feet long, but that did not daunt me at all.
After creating a nice flat place for apple trees and a gentle road 10 feet wide built to the lower field, I constructed an 80-foot long stone retaining wall. I had plenty of stones on the property so I went about harvesting them using a borrowed a “stone boat”. It was a wooden sled on runners about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.
I had a chain attached to the front runners of the stone boat so I could pull it with my riding lawn mower (I’ve never thought I needed a tractor). I rolled or flipped big stones end to end until I got them out of the woods to the stone boat and dragged them away. A neighbor also let me have some large rounded stones from a fallen-down stone wall.
I built the wall before the days of the internet and endless U-tube videos, so I asked friends what to do. Drainage is important they all said: dig out below the site for the wall and put small stones there and behind the wall. Unfortunately, instead of buying crushed stone, I bought pea stone – small round pebbles. Big mistake. Round stones act a bit like ball bearings- allowing stones to move and tumble as the winter frost lifted them. Over the years I have had to repair and re-build the wall many times. But it still pleases me even though it is not a perfect wall.
This brush hook is great for clearing out brambles and small trees
The back field had grown up in willows, alders and brambles over the years I was away. I used a brush hook – a simple hand tool with a curved sharp blade to cut them down. Then, with a cheap used riding lawn mower, I mowed the land to keep things from growing back, and I dug out roots where I could.
The next year I had a farmer with a moldboard plow on his tractor come and plow the area I wanted for a large vegetable garden. This type of plow digs up the soil deeply about 8 inches deep and flips it over, burying all the grasses and weeds. That mostly killed them, and allowed me to start growing vegetables.
I also bought several truckloads of aged manure from a farmer and worked it into the soil with an old potato hoe – a 5-tined tool like a rake, but with 2-inch spaces between the 8-inch teeth. Each year for a decade, at least, I worked in a truckload of old manure, increasing soil fertility and improving tilth.
This stone retaining wall has moved some since I built it 30 years ago
I like having stonework, arbors and sculpture in the garden. Over the years I’ve made plenty of bentwood arbors for the entrance to the vegetable garden. Since neither of the “rot-resistant” trees (cedar and locust) grow here, I used maples saplings that were plentiful, but only lasted three or four years. I placed them 4 feet apart and bent the tops together over the walkway, and wired them together. I wired on one-inch branches to make places for decoration and for vines to grab onto.
Later, I decided to use cedar fence posts to make garden structures. Cedar posts are available locally and last for many years. I have one 10-foot diameter hexagon that I built to support grapes and wisteria vines that only now, after more than 20 years, is falling apart. I plan to extract the vines from the structure this summer and re-build the whole thing.
This vine structure is now old and falling down, ready for replacement
Big projects are fun to take on, but at age 76 I am not looking for more of them. I plan to build some more raised beds for vegetables this year – they are great as one need not bend over so far to plant, weed and harvest. I also find that there are fewer weeds and grasses than in-ground beds as many weeds just creep into the beds from adjacent areas. Even an 8-inch tall wood bed will prevent that from happening.
I don’t see myself ever giving up on gardening so long as I can still get around. Yes, I may eliminate some high-maintenance plants and substitute shrubs, perhaps. But I started young, and hope to garden till the day I die. Winter is the time to plan, so think of your own projects now, too, and tell me what they are if you wish. I’m always interested.
E-mail Henry with your own ideas of projects for 2023 at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or write him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
This Year’s Lessons from the Garden
Posted on Tuesday, December 27, 2022 · Leave a Comment
At the end of the year I always like to take a little time to reflect on what worked well in the garden – and what didn’t. This year I also called some gardening friends – some experienced, some less so – to ask what they had learned so I could share their thoughts with you, my loyal readers.
I’ll go first. In 2021 I planted some bare root oaks I bought from the State of New Hampshire and planted them for a client in an open meadow in what had previously been a lawn. Most did well last year and really took off this year. Based on that success, I planted even more this year in part because I could get unusual trees not available locally – northern pecan, hardy persimmon, pawpaw and more. We’ll see how they do next year.
Peonies are best divided or transplanted in the fall but can be moved anytime
Bare root trees are usually the thickness of a pencil and have a foot or so of root with 18 to 24 inches of bare trunk. Although I found a grower in Vermont willing to sell them to me, most growers sell them to nurseries that pot them up and sell them in a year or two. But if you go on-line you can find growers who will ship bare root trees and shrubs in the spring. They are easy to ship – no soil is included – and are less expensive than trees that have been tended and watered for a couple of years.
The downside is that bare root trees are generally only sold when dormant, and need to be planted soon after arrival. Some growers keep big coolers full of bare root material, but you still need to get them in the ground soon after you get them. Look for them now and order what you want for spring delivery.
A friend bought a house in southern New Hampshire and had her first vegetable garden this year. She was surprised and delighted that there was no blight on her tomatoes. This did not surprise me at all. The fungus that blights so many tomatoes lives in the soil, and in a new location it rarely shows up until year two.
Raised beds need to sit on soil with good drainage
She also reported that some of her new raised beds were placed on ground so hard that she couldn’t even get a shovel in it. The wood beds were 8 inches tall, but didn’t drain well and none of her root crops did well. In the spring she is going to dig out the soil, remove the beds, and put two inches of coarse sand on the ground. Then she will replace the wood-sided beds and soil, and hope for the best. I predict that will solve the problem, particularly if she adds lots of compost to the soil in the beds.
Some dear friends of mine, now in their eighties, sold their house and downsized their gardens considerably this year. “The concept of growing has been in our hearts all our lives, and we are not going to stop now”, I was told. They have some help in the garden, and utilize raised beds to grow some vegetables. The beds are far enough apart so that someone with a walker can maneuver easily. Although they will no longer grow potatoes or carrots, they will continue growing lettuce, herbs and a few tomatoes. “Gardening is still in our brains,” my friend said.
Another friend was reminded this year that if a perennial is not “happy” where it is planted, move it! She said she had divided some phlox and lacking a good spot for it all, put some in a place that was too shady for it. So she dug it up and moved it to a better place late in the season. Almost anything can be moved, just do it on a cool cloudy or rainy day. Even peonies can be moved if you are careful.
Another friend said that he learned to use hydrogen peroxide as a preventive for fungus on grapes. He bought some industrial strength peroxide (30% concentration) and diluted it (10 parts water to 1 part peroxide). He then filled his big sprayer to apply it. He sprayed after pollination but before the grapes had appeared. Unlike chemical sprays, he says it just breaks down to water and oxygen.
Another friend moved to Vermont from New York and has been working to maintain and personalize the large flower gardens that came with the house. She spoke of the work-life balance. It is important, she said, to recognize how much energy is needed to properly maintain a large garden. She has learned to focus on one area at a time.
She also said she has learned that is important to act on your own ideas, even if you have inherited wonderful gardens. I agree. We each need to personalize our own spaces, and grow plants that we love. For example I learned that I love flowers called burnets (Sanguisorba spp.) and I collect them.
Lilac Squirrel Sanguisorba blossoms are delightful to touch and see
Burnets bloom in mid- to late-summer and come in size from miniature (6-inches tall) to huge (6-feet tall) and do best in sun with moist soil. Each year I add a few. My most recent addition is a S. hakusenensis called ‘Lilac squirrel’. I think of it as “the pink squirrel” as it’ blossoms are fuzzy and much like a squirrel’s tail, though much smaller. Mine are pink, not lilac in color. Not common in most garden centers, it is available from Digging Dog Nursery in California.
Lastly, even very experienced gardeners make mistakes. One friend this year cut the tops of her Brussels sprouts off around Labor Day as is recommended to get large sprouts. But she forgot to harvest them until November. By then the spouts were bigger than golf balls and some had gone by.
So yes, we all learn new techniques, try new plants and do our best to be good gardeners. But I like what my friend said who suggested we not beat ourselves up if we mess up! All my best to you for the year ahead.
What to Do after a Big Winter Storm
Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 · Leave a Comment
We recently got hit by a big winter storm that dropped at least 15 inches of heavy, wet snow. It clung to branches, breaking some and bending others to near their breaking points. If you suffer the same sometime this winter, here are some things you might consider to help your woody plants.
First, the best thing to do is be proactive. Even before the storm had finished I went outside and started shaking branches to get snow off them. Wear a hoodie! Snow can go right down your neck if you don’t. For shrubs and small trees, you can shake the central stem, and it will clear the snow from the entire plant. For larger trees, you will need to shake individual branches.
A good tool for clearing snow is a bamboo pole, the longer and thicker the better. Some hardware stores and feed-and-grain stores will have them. I used one to knock snow off branches I couldn’t reach.
So what can you do to repair cracked and broken branches? Generally, nothing. Take a sharp saw or loppers and remove the branch back to its point of origin – the main trunk or a large branch. But don’t cut flush to the trunk if you can avoid it. And never leave a stub as it will have to rot back to the branch collar to heal.
Cut back a broken branch to the branch collar
The tree heals itself at what is called the branch collar. The branch collar is a swollen area at the base of each branch. If you cut that off flush to the trunk, it will be harder to heal and take longer. Often the branch collar has ridges or rings around it, and you should leave them in place.
Two winters ago we had a big snow storm and my small leatherwood shrub (Dirca palustris) split up the middle. The break was not complete: there was still an attachment point for both halves of the shrub. I didn’t notice the damage for a few days, but when I did, I decided to try to repair it.
Grafting is a well-known but difficult skill whereby a skilled person can add a branch to a living tree. This is most often done with fruit trees, allowing orchardists to add other varieties of apple on a tree. I have an apple with three different flavors of apple because it had other varieties grafted to the original tree. Truth be known, the tree came like that. I’ve taken classes in grafting and tried to do it, but have never succeeded. It’s an art.
But back to my little leatherwood tree. Because it was still hinged at the bottom of the break, I moved it back together and used some stretchy green plastic tape to wrap the two halves together. I wound it tightly, and low and behold, it worked! I removed the tape (which is usually used for tying flower stems to stakes to keep them from breaking in the rain) after 2 or 3 months. Now, two years later, the shrub shows no signs of ever being damaged- other than a little scar tissue.
These willows probably will recover from being bent by the snow.
What else did the storm do? It almost flattened a small grove of willow trees I had planted 20 years ago. They are a variety of Salix integra called ‘Hakuro Nishiki’. Very popular, these willows have tri-colored leaves (green, white and for part of the summer, pink) and are fast growing. There is nothing I can do for them. They are bent over and weighed down by snow, but should recover once the snow melts in a week or two. And if they don’t spring back up? I will lop off the bent stems and let them re-grow. It’s difficult to kill a willow, and they should have been shortened long ago.
The storm also knocked down a large tree on our property, a wild black cherry (Prunus serotina). The black cherry doesn’t produce cherries we can eat, but birds eat them. The fruit is just a third of an inch across with a pit. Not much food for anybody, really. The blossoms are not important, either, but it is a good plant for pollinators, one of the keystone species.
The tree we lost had a diameter of 14 inches at its base and stood over 67 feet tall – I measured it after it fell. It was not one I had planted, but a bird probably dropped a seed in our woods. I will count the growth rings when it gets cut up for firewood. Where it grew is a good example of where not to plant a tree.
So what was wrong with our tree? Most trees do not have tap roots going down deep into the soil. Two feet is probably average. But they spread widely. I was told in a horticulture class to think of a tree as a wine glass sitting on a dinner plate. The plate represents the root system, the wine glass the trunk and branches.
This cherry tree grew on ledge and was knocked over in the recent storm
But ours was growing right next to a rock ledge that was actually showing above ground. The roots could not grow that way, so all the roots were on just three sides. The wind came from the fourth side, and with the snow load, it blew over. So if you plant trees, be mindful of bedrock and ledge. Keep away from them. You can use a steel rod or crowbar to poke the soil to find ledge before planting.
Although I will miss that big tree, I try to never mourn a plant that dies. After all, it provides me a chance to plant something else there. My best wishes to you all for the holidays.
Henry lives and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. He is the author of 4 gardening books and is a UNH master Gardener. Reach him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or by email at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net. Please include a SASE if you wish a response by mail.
Enjoying the Winter Landscape
Posted on Friday, December 16, 2022 · Leave a Comment
Normally at this time of year I can go out to the stream behind my house and pick stems of a shrub called winterberry (Ilex verticillata) to use in vases and on my wreath. It is generally loaded with small red berries that persist until mid-winter when hungry birds eat them, or they just plain fall off.
Winterberry grows best in wet places
Winterberry is a great decorative shrub in winter that prefers wet feet, but will grow in ordinary garden soil, too. It is dioecious, meaning that it requires male and female plants – usually one male will take care of all the females. This year I didn’t get many of those bright red berries I like so much for decoration, and I have heard from other gardeners that they had few, too.
This prompted me to walk around my property looking at my woody shrubs to see what might substitute for winterberries. I didn’t find any berries at all. But I did cut some red-twigged dogwood (Cornus sericea) to use in a vase, and some budded branches of a Merrill magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri).
The magnolia buds are a bit like pussywillows on steroids: an inch long and very fuzzy. I have some in a vase on the table, and they look very good, and will for many weeks ahead. I’ve done this before, and will occasionally get a few buds to open into white flowers. I cut some greenery to go with them, a few stems of white pine. Hemlock would look good instead, but doesn’t hold needles well indoors.
It struck me that winter can be pretty bleak for people who don’t have nice looking winter shrubs and trees. Judicious pruning can turn transform a messy tree full of small branches going every which way into sculpture. I recently helped a client prune a 50-year old Japanese maple into sculpture that will keep it looking great for several years – with only a few minor pruning cuts each year.
When pruning, I ask myself, what will this little branch, currently the thickness of a finger, look like when it is the thickness of an arm – or a leg. If it is growing sideways toward a walkway, it must come off. Going through the middle of the tree? Remove it! The maple I pruned had many small dead branches that had been choked out because bigger branches had blocked off the sun, effectively starving them.
Bark is important. I like plants that have exfoliating bark, which means bark that is shaggy and peeling off – thus showing more than one color. My Seven Sons Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is one of those. In addition to the nice bark it offers me a display of small white flowers each fall. White birch (Betula papyrifera) and river birch (Betula nigra) are others with interesting bark. In fact all the birches have handsome bark.
Paperbark maple has interesting bark for winter appreciation
I’ve been growing a paperbark maple (Acer griseum) for about 20 years. It has lovely shaggy reddish-brown bark that is very handsome. It is a very slow-growing tree, at least in this climate. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant (good to minus 20 F) but mine has survived colder temperatures. It looks great in winter
One of my favorites – but one I do not grow – is sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), which I knew growing up in Connecticut but is rare in New Hampshire where I live. It reminds me of the English plane tree, so common in Europe. The bark peels off in big swaths, showing light gray-green in some areas, dark brown in others. It is just barely hardy to Zone 4, and prefers to grow in river bottoms, but will grow in drier soils, too.
Of the bigger trees, I like American beech (Fagus sylvatica) for its smooth gray bark. Unfortunately, beeches are prone to a fungal disease that mars the bark and eventually kills the tree.
That same smooth bark is a prominent feature of a shrub known variously as shad bush, serviceberry and Saskatoon bush. All belong to the genus Amelanchier but bear different species names. Most are multi-stemmed bushes that get no more than 10 feet tall, though I have a wild one more than twice that height. Their blossoms are similar to apple blossoms. They do well in partial sun, often growing and blooming on roadsides.
Apple trees, particularly crabapples, can look great in winter. Some crabs hold onto their fruit throughout much of the winter, some drop their fruit in fall and many provide fruit for the birds to eat (that disappears before winter is done). Ask at the nursery when you buy a crabapple if the birds like the fruit. The form and bark of a well-pruned apple or crabapple is gorgeous to my eye.
So if your landscape has little to offer you in winter, plan on adding some winter interest come planting time. And if your trees and shrubs are drab, think about adding some strings of little winter lights to brighten them up, at least at night.
Henry is lifelong organic gardener, a UNH master Gardener, and the author of 4 gardening books. Reach him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or by e-mail at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Composting: It’s Important, Even in Winter
Posted on Thursday, December 8, 2022 · Leave a Comment
When I was a boy it was one of my many jobs to take out the kitchen scraps every few days and dump them in our woods in a compost pile. Like the postman, this was a job I did no matter what: “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays this boy from the swift completion of his appointed rounds.” I would not say that the postman nor the boy enjoyed their tasks in a blowing rain. But I did it. Now, older and wiser, I still do it.
This gas-powered chipper-shredder helps make mulch and compost materials
Making good compost is easy. Plenty has been written about the best way to create that “black gold” we all love to give our plants. There should be the proper mix of ingredients that are high in nitrogen and those that are high in carbon. That will help our microbe pals breakdown leaves, weeds and kitchen scraps into useful biologically active material to support plant growth. Now, in winter, composting is even more of a challenge.
Scientists disagree about the ratio of carbon and nitrogen materials to get a compost pile “working”. Some say an even 50-50 mix of materials, but others say up to 30 times more carbon-based materials than those high in nitrogen. Me? I aim for a 3 parts dry, brown material to one part high nitrogen material. Eventually, everything breaks down and turns into compost.
What ingredients are high in nitrogen? Grass clippings, green leaves and weeds Animal manures are good, but you should never use cat or dog waste. Vegetable scraps, raw or cooked fall in this category, too, and coffee grounds. Moldy broccoli from the back of the fridge? Sure.
A 5-gallon pail will transport plenty of kitchen scraps to a local farm that can use them to make compost
High carbon materials include dead leaves, straw, tea bags, even a little shredded paper. If using newspaper, avoid glossy pages and things with lots of color. Newspapers are pretty benign these days, as they use soy inks and no heavy metals. I keep a supply of fall leaves next to my compost pile and spread a layer over the kitchen scraps every time I empty the compost bucket. That also minimizes flies in summer.
A good compost pile also needs oxygen to work well. And if your pile stays soggy, it won’t allow the microorganisms to get enough oxygen. But if your pile is too dry, the working microbes won’t be able to thrive, either. If you grab a handful and squeeze it, it should feel like a wrung-out sponge. People who really want a fast-acting compost pile turn over the compost with a garden fork regularly to help aerate it, but I don’t have the time or energy to do that.
In winter, most compost piles stop breaking down plant material because it is too cold for the organisms that cause decomposition. In summer, if yours is working well, temperatures can go up over 140 degrees F, which will kill weed seeds. In fact I‘ve done experiments and found that 125 degrees for a couple of days killed the seeds of the annual grass I placed in it – though some weeds may be tougher to kill than that. To get my compost pile that hot I layered in fresh lawn clippings. Still, the pile had cooler pockets and hotter ones.
So how does all this help you in winter? First, accept that your kitchen scraps will be frozen and not breaking down. Even those big plastic drums that rotate compost probably won’t work in winter – the material will be one big lump impossible to turn.
I keep chopped leaves in a barrel next to my compost pile to spread over kitchen scraps
I used to keep my compost pile near the vegetable garden so I could throw weeds in it. But the problem was that in winter I needed boots or snowshoes to get to my compost pile. If you don’t want to build a bin or trudge to a distant compost pile in winter, think about just using a big trashcan and saving all your scraps until spring when things thaw out and temperatures are good for composting. This will also keep dogs and skunks out of it. Recently I built a nice bin made of wood pallets that is next to my woodpile, near the house – and more accessible all year.
Not all compost is the same. The microbes attracted to material made from woody plants is different than that made from kitchen scraps and grass clippings. Think about the soil in an established forest: it is dark and rich, formed by the breakdown of leaves, twigs and branches over a long period of time. You can mimic that and speed up the process to create mulch or compost to put around newly planted trees and shrubs. Just compost you autumn leaves, twigs and small branches. I shred them in a chipper-shredder machine.
If you collect scraps (no meat or oil) and are a member of a CSA, they may accept your kitchen scraps for their composting system. If you have a 5-gallon pail with cover, you can easily transport it to a farm or recycling facility that accepts food scraps. When we were on vacation in Maine, we brought out kitchen scraps to a farm that used them for compost.
Aside from helping your plants, making compost helps keep food waste out of the landfill, which is important: we are running out of space in landfills. So do your part, even in winter. And whatever you make will enhance your soil when you add it in at planting time.
Henry is a UNH Master Gardener, the author of 4 gardening books and a lifetime organic gardener. Reach him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
Holiday Gifts for the Gardener
Posted on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 · Leave a Comment
First on my list for holiday gifts for the gardener is this: a subscription to this newspaper. Our local papers need subscribers in order to deliver to you the news you want but cannot get on-line. Yes, local news, gardening tips that fit your climate, obituaries and more. If your loved ones do not have subscriptions, think about giving one.
Consider a donation to a good non-profit like the Kilham Bear Center (photo by KBC)
Next, since most of us really need very little, think about a donation to a non-profit in your loved one’s honor. One of my favorites is a non-profit that for decades has nurtured orphan bear cubs, the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme, NH. The Center this year is nurturing and caring for more than 100 baby bears whose mothers have been killed by cars or hunters, and that would otherwise not survive. The Center has over 19 acres of fenced forest for the bears, and serves Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
You can donate to The Kilham Bear Center at PO Box 37 Lyme, NH 03768 or go on-line to
https://kilhambearcenter.org/. On-line there are photos and videos of the bears. Visiting is not possible, as they want the bears to have as little contact with humans as possible because their goal is to return all to the wild where they avoid humans.
Other non-profits I like include The Native Plant Trust, the Audubon Society and the Nature Conservancy. As a supporter I get the Nature Conservancy magazine and I never cease to be amazed at all the good projects they initiate or support. And of course most states have nice non-profits supporting public gardens and wildlife areas that need our support.
Cobra Head weeders now come in two sizes
Along with new products I like, each year I have to mention a few old favorites. The Cobra Head Weeder is a simple, well-made tool that virtually all gardeners love once they’ve tried it. Shaped like a curved steel finger, it will get under weeds or flowers to lift them from the earth. I use it for planting as well as weeding. Found at most garden centers or on-line at www.cobrahead.com for about $30. They now have a version for smaller hands and a long-handled weeder as well.
Books are a great present. I usually mention author Michael Dirr, my favorite expert on trees and shrubs. All his books are well researched, complete, and opinionated. My favorite is his classic, the “Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propagation and Uses”.
Another classic is Barbara Damrosch’s “The Garden Primer”. This book is a good reference on almost anything a gardener would wish to know. And at under $20 in paperback, it is great value for an 800-page book. More reliable than many of the on-line experts, I dare say.
Lastly a pair of books that work well together. First, Doug Tallamy’s “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard”. This explains in readable, layman’s terms why what we select for our gardens impacts birds and pollinators.
A good companion to Tallamy’s books is “Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States” by Tony Dove and Ginger Woolridge. This book supplies all you need to know for selecting the right trees and shrubs for your land to support wildlife.
An electric chain saw can be useful for small project
But on to other needs of gardeners. Consider a small electric chain saw. They are safer, quieter, and easier to start and to use than gas powered ones. I have a DeWalt DCCS620 chain saw that has a 20-volt battery, 12-inch bar and weighs just 9 pounds. Great for cutting up downed branches, removing small trees and more. Available locally at $250 or less.
For gardeners who start seeds indoors each spring, there is an alternative to all those flimsy plastic 6-packs. You can buy a metal soil blocker that you can use to make small cubes of a soil mix for your seeds. Available from Johnny’s Seeds or Gardeners Supply, about $40.
With this simple tool, you can make Soil blocks for starting seedlings
Another great product for starting seedlings are electric heat mats. These sit under flats of seeds planted indoors, providing heat that speeds up the germination process. They are available in two sizes – enough for one flat or a big one for four or more flats. Great for things that take a long time to germinate.
For stocking stuffers I like seed packets. Give your loved ones seeds of less common vegetables and flowers that they might not find at the plant nursery. Garden gloves are great gifts, we all use them in spring and fall, and some people use them all summer, too.
Lastly, my wife, Cindy, swears by a natural bug repellent made in New Hampshire, White Mountain Deet-Free Insect Repellent (
http://www.whitemountaininsectrepellent.com). It doesn’t take much of this stuff to keep away black flies, she says. It comes in a 4-ounce bottle of all-natural ingredients (no fillers) for $15 plus shipping. Great stocking stuffer.
Use your imagination. There are so many nice things a gardeners will appreciate, including your own time promised for weeding in the spring!
Henry is a garden consultant, public speaker and the author of 4 gardening books. Reach him by e-mail at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
Winter Tree Care
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2022 · Leave a Comment
Living in New England is a joy, but we gardeners do have some challenges: cold winter winds, deer, rocky soil and more. As we get ready for winter, one of the biggest challenges for many of us are the deer. They are hungry and relentless. In my part of the world, there was a crop failure for acorns this year, a staple for hungry deer. The deer don’t care that you spent $275 on a nice tree. If they want to browse it, they will … unless you take steps now to protect it.
The most expensive but most sure method to prevent deer from damaging you plants is to fence your entire property with 8-foot tall deer fence. That will keep them from your flowers – tulips are a favorite – as well as vegetables, shrubs and trees. It’s what most arboretums do. You don’t need to have a metal fence – though metal posts are best – as plastic mesh deer fencing is readily available.
Burlap will protect these yews from deer all winter
Alternatively, you can protect plants that have suffered damage in the past, or, if new, are known as “deer candy”. Yew is an evergreen favorite of deer. I recently wrapped a pair of yews with burlap for a client whose plants had suffered deer damage in the past. The plants stand seven feet tall or so, and are about as wide. I used a 6-foot wide roll of 10 oz. burlap to wrap the shrubs and four 8-foot tall stakes for each plant. I left the top open to avoid breakage due to heavy snows. The burlap came from www.burlapsupply.com.
Various repellent sprays may deter the deer, too. But if they wear off before you re-apply, the deer will let you know. Rain and warmer weather can affect how long they last.
Hardware cloth will keep rodents from chewing the bark and killing this young cherry tree.
Voles and other rodents can be a problem, too. Years when we have deep snow are the worst because owls and hawks are less able to eat the rodents that may eat the bark and girdle a tree. Wire mesh known as hardware cloth is great for keeping away rodents, but now plastic spiral wraps are available and easier to install. Young fruit trees are the most vulnerable, so do protect yours until they are 5 years old or so. Protection should go up 18 to 24 inches of the trunk.
What about those evergreen rhododendrons that have their leaves shrivel up? When the ground freezes the roots can’t take up water to replace water used in photosynthesis on sunny days or water that just evaporates from the broad leaves. There is a product called Wilt-Pruf that works as an anti-transpirant for up to four months in winter. It is available in ready-to-use form, or as a concentrate.
Rhododendron leaves often shrivel up in winter but recover in spring.
According to its literature, Wilt-Pruf “contains a film-forming polymer which offers high density, good efficacy, and even coverage across foliage.” Talking with a local arborist, I was advised to spray both top and bottom of leaves or needles, and to do so late in the fall. He also said it may also make foliage less attractive to deer. Shriveled leaves do recover, come spring.
If you planted new trees this year, think about mulching with bark mulch now if you haven’t done so. Trees do much of their root growth now, after leaf drop and before the ground freezes deeply. Trees have stored carbohydrates for use by roots even though they are no longer producing them.
By now I have about an inch of frozen soil on the surface, but roots are deeper than that – most are within a foot of the surface. So you can still put down two inches of mulch over the roots to slow the freezing of the soil.
Although traditionally farmers pruned their apple trees in late winter or early spring, I have always assumed that the reason for this is that they had time on their hands then. But if you want to do some pruning now, after the garden has gone to bed, feel free!
Begin pruning by removing any dead branches. This is a bit trickier now than when leaves are on the tree. Just look for cracked or damaged branches. Dead branches have bark that is a bit different than the rest: dry, flakey, lifeless. Rub small branches with a thumbnail. If you see green beneath the outer layer, the branch is alive. If there is no green, the branch is dead.
The goal of pruning is to allow every leaf to get sunshine. If the density of branches is too great, inner leaves will not do their job. Leaves have two major jobs: to feed sugars to their roots and to help produce flowers, fruit and seeds. If you prune back too much, a tree will respond by growing lots of new shoots, usually those vertical water sprouts. Don’t take off more than 20% of the tree in any one season.
Look for rubbing branches, branches growing towards the center of the tree or branches that parallel others closely. Those are all good candidates for removal. And any time a fruit tree is getting too tall, reduce the height. Finally, pruning should make your tree or shrub beautiful to look at – especially in winter.
Henry is a UNH Master Gardener and a lifelong organic gardener. Reach him at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
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