Spring Forth Into Spring
Posted on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 · Leave a Comment
This is a busy time for all of us in the garden. Not only are weeds up, some of them are already blooming. I try real hard to keep weeds from spreading their seeds in my garden beds, so I am doing my best to pull them now before they bloom and make seeds. And there is so much else to do I’m not sure if I have time to write this column!
Apple sprouts on trunk
Apple and crabapple trees are blooming everywhere, which draws my eyes to them. I can’t help but notice that so many need a little late pruning. What I keep seeing are root sprouts coming up alongside the trunk of these lovely trees, which is a distraction. And it only takes 5 minutes with a pair of loppers or a hand saw to remove those shoots.
While you’re at it, you may wish to take off any little branches that are sprouting from the main trunk below the first scaffold branches (those larger branches that reach out and up, and that have all those blossoms on them). A nice clean trunk is much better than one cluttered with unwanted sprouts.
Then there is the vegetable garden. I know we will still have frost here in Cornish Flat, so all those tomatoes and peppers and squash that I have started by seed inside need to stay in their pots. What I can do now, however, is” harden off” those seedlings. Hardening off is the process of getting seedlings ready for life outdoors.
Each nice day I should (but don’t always) carry all 12 trays of seedlings outdoors so my plants can work on their tan. That’s right, seedlings are like us – they need to start with just a little sunshine and breeze each day. Two hours of morning sun is good for a start, then 4 hours, then 2 hours of afternoon sun, and so on, increasing exposure until their leaves won’t burn or dry out even if they’re in the sun all day. If you buy seedlings it’s good to give them time to get used to the outdoors, too. Greenhouses do shelter seedlings considerably.
Forget Me Not
Right now I have thousands of forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) blooming everywhere: in garden beds, in the lawn, in the vegetable garden – even on the banks of my little stream (they love water). If you don’t have this fabulous, exuberant flower, you should. I wish I could give every reader a clump, but I bet one of your neighbors will share some with you, as most everyone has it. I rarely see them for sale at nurseries, but a few of the better ones do. Many flower books say they are biennials, but I’m not sure that’s true. Biennials only bloom in their second year, and then die. I have so many, it’s hard to know if they are re-seeding or coming back from their roots. So they may be perennials.
While weeding a patch of daffodils recently, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I had thoroughly loosened the soil surface. I spread my favorite organic fertilizer, Pro-Gro over the soil surface and scratched it in with my favorite weeder, the CobraHead. I had notice that those daffies were not flowering as previous years and decided to give the soil some extra nutrition and get rid of the weeds that were competing with them. Next spring I should have better blossoms.
Some gardeners like to divide big clumps of daffodils, though I generally don’t get around to it. The problem is that by fall I don’t know where those big clumps that need dividing are. The solution? Make some markers now and stick them in the soil. That works for marking places that need more bulbs, too.
It’s past time to rake off that leaf mulch or straw if you covered your vegetable garden with mulch last fall. I just raked mulch off my beds and into the walkways last week. By exposing the soil to the sun I do 2 things: I let the soil warm up and dry out more quickly, and I encourage weed seeds to germinate. I want the weeds to germinate before I plant so that I can hoe them over or pull them out, killing them before I plant. I also have a flame weeder which will burn off dozens of small annual weeds with a single, quick pass. (Available at Johnny’s Seeds or Fedco Seeds). But it does use propane, so is not as eco-friendly as hoeing.
Traditional gardeners grow their carrots, corn and cauliflower in narrow rows on flat ground. I don’t. I have mounded up beds that are 3 feet wide and 6 to 8 inches higher than the walkways. Wide beds produce more planting space in a garden when compared to those with narrow rows because there are fewer walkways. The wide, higher beds allow roots to spread wider and deeper than in traditional beds, and dogs and kids tend to stay out of them.
But if you have a sunny, warm weekend, don’t spend all day pulling weeds or working. Take time to sit and enjoy your flowers – and the butterflies, kids and dogs that love the garden, too.
Henry’s Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com. It now has a search engine for finding any past columns you might have missed.
Spring Flowers
Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 · Leave a Comment
I love spring. Winter is relatively austere time in the garden so I relish the bounty of spring all the more. Over the years I have tried growing most flowers that will provide color in March, April and May. Below are some of my favorites.
White Trillium
First to bloom are the bulb flowers that begin the spring show in March. I have thousands of snowdrops (Galanathus elwesii), squill (Scilla siberica), glory of the snow (Chionodoxa luciliae). These are followed in April by crocus, daffodils and early tulips. I cut even the smallest blossoms to bring inside and place on the kitchen counter in a vase. Almost all the bulb plants are good cut flowers. I plant bulb plants every fall, and recommend top-dressing them with organic fertilizer after they finish blooming each spring.
Then come the early perennials, starting in April and continuing on into May. One of the first, and easiest to grow, is called lungwort. The unattractive name comes from the leaves, which some unfortunate person decided looked like lungs – complete with spots on most varieties. I prefer to call them by their Latin genus, Pulmonaria, which is more melodious.
Pulmonaria will grow in sun or shade, wet or dry. They spread by root, creating large low-growing colonies. I once had a gardening client who considered them invasive, though I do not. If they overstep their welcome, I find they pull fairly easily with my favorite weeding tool, the CobraHead weeder, which gets under them easily. The small flowers come in shades of blue, pink, peach and white. They don’t do well in a vase, so I don’t pick them.
Hellebore
Another spring favorite of mine is the hellebore, sometimes called the Lenten Rose. Hellebores are among the earliest to send up shoots of flowers and hold those flowers for several weeks. Each flower stalk stands 12 to 15 inches tall and supports new leaves and bell-shaped flowers that are rose to purple in color, or sometimes green and white. Like the Pulmonaria, they do not last well in a vase.
Primroses bloom early, and come in a wide range of species and colors. I have at least 6 different species in bloom now. One of my favorites has no common name, only going by its scientific name, Primula kisoana. Because its species name starts with “kis”, you can call it the kissing primrose – even if no one else does (except me). It has bright magenta-colored flowers that stand just a few inches above the light-green leaves. It is not very well known at nurseries; I found mine at Cider Hill Gardens in Windsor, VT (www.ciderhillgardens.com).
An endearing quality of Primula kisoana is that it spreads by root – but never runs over another plant to establish new territory. Primroses, in general, are form clumps but spread by seed. Some, like the candelabra primrose (Primula japonica) spread very vigorously by seed if the conditions are right for it. That one stands up over two-feet tall, but blooms much later, usually in June. But P. kisoana spreads fast if the soil conditions are right. One plant can grow to cover 1 to 2 square feet in a season. They like rich, dark soil with a slightly acidic pH.
Most primroses grow well in light shade or morning sunshine and prefer moist soil. Primula kisoana, on the other hand, will grow in dry soil, too. I have observed that one of the best places to grow any primrose is under an old apple tree. The soil and light there generally is perfect for primroses.
Although it is contrary to the law to dig up wildflowers and transplant them to your property, many good garden centers are now propagating and selling them. In nature, most spring wildflowers grow in the dappled shade of a hardwood forest. They send up flowers and leaves before the trees have leafed out, and disappear soon after the forest becomes shady. Among my favorites are the trilliums, bloodroot, and hepaticas – though there are dozens of other species.
Bloodroot are so named for the red juice that oozes from the roots if cut. I’ve read that Indians used it for dye. The leaves come up wrapped like a cigar around the flower stalk. Each simple white flower stands 6 inches tall. The blossoms open on warm, sunny days and close up at night or on chilly days. They spread by root to form nice clumps. I also have some double bloodroot – the flowers resemble small white double peonies. The flowers are probably sterile, as they keep on blooming much longer than the singles. Most flowers stop blooming once fertilized, having done their work.
Common Red Trillium
I have three species of trillium: the ordinary maroon one (Trillium erectum), the white one (Trillium grandiflorum) and the yellow one (Trillium luteum). All will grow in light shade or part sun and prefer rich, dark soil. The New England Wildflower Society (www.newfs.org) sells all three – and many other fine wildflowers at their headquarters, The Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA. I bought my yellow trillium from them. In addition to its flower, it has handsome mottled leaves.
So visit your local garden center soon to see what early spring bloomers they offer, and try something new. You’ll be glad you did.
Henry Homeyer is a gardening consultant and the author of 4 gardening books. His Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com.
Spring Tasks in the Garden
Posted on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment
April has been a busy month for most gardeners because it has been warm and sunny. Our flower gardens and trees have woken up early, allowing us to do tasks we might, in other years, put off until May. Here are some jobs I‘ve been working on – and you should be, too.
Adjustable Rake
Raking the lawn. Always one of my least favorite jobs, it needs to be done if you want a good looking lawn. But really, there are only 2 places where it’s critical: First, remove the piles of sand and gravel dumped along the edge of the driveway by the snowplow. Your lawn will suffer if they aren’t removed. Second, harvest the soil pushed up by moles in the lawn. I collect the soil from those piles and use it as fill dirt. The rest of the lawn? Any dead leaves will be chopped up by the lawnmower and disappear – and add some nice organic matter to your lawn’s soil.
Daffodils
Raking the flowerbeds. This I enjoy. I love seeing what plants have come safely through the winter, what is waking up and sending forth shoots. I rake carefully, so as not to break off the growing tips of peonies or other delicate flowers. I start with a rake to clean up around a clump of shoots, and then bend over to gently “rake” the clump itself with my fingers. I use an expanding lawn rake with a telescopic handle. I can adjust the width of the rake from about 7 inches to about 22 inches, allowing me to rake carefully in-between plants. I found the rake locally at my feed-n-grain store.
Pruning. I’m mostly done with this spring task, but I’m still tweaking apple and pear trees as I walk around the property with a holstered pruner on my hip. Recently I cleaned up lots of root suckers –shoots – coming up around the base of a crab apple tree. And I shaped up my roses, cutting back long, lanky stems to create nicely rounded plants.
I just finished pruning my grapes. They need to be cut back severely each year, as they would get too unruly if I didn’t. They produce grapes on new growth, which is stimulated by pruning. I have a 2-wire system on the south side of my barn and prune back to thicker, older canes and the 6-inch spurs that I allow to grow off them.
Planting. At this time of year my garden soil is usually cold and wet. Not so this year. I have planted seeds for carrots, beets, parsnips, scorzonera, salsify (all are root crops), parsley, spinach and greens. Peas could be planted now, though I have decided to skip them this year. I also have transplanted little lettuce plants and other interesting greens that I started indoors at the end of March, including chicory and mesclun. Some folks I know have already planted potatoes, but I wait until June.
I believe (but cannot prove) that planting potatoes in June helps to reduce problems with potato beetles. I like to say they’ve already gone to my neighbors’ potatoes, so avoid mine. But who knows? I watch for the beetles and pick any I find early on, so (hopefully) few produce a second generation.
That same technique works on slugs: control them early to prevent big outbreaks later on. I use an organic slug control product, Sluggo, which is iron phosphate covered with slug bait. Iron phosphate is a naturally occurring mineral that is said to be safe for pets and wildlife – and approved for organic gardeners.
Last fall I neglected to work on my blackberry patch, so I’ve been cleaning it up now, along with help from my intern, Gordon Moore. He cut out all last year’s fruiting canes (which die after bearing fruit). The patch has gotten to be 10 to 12 feet across, so we created a path down the middle of it by pulling out plants as needed. Then we pinned down a 2-foot wide strip of heavy landscape fabric (using landscape staples) and he covered it with a 2-inch layer of chipped branches I got from an arborist.
I weeded the patch and top dressed it with organic fertilizer and other minerals including green sand and Azomite. Green sand provides extra potassium and micronutrients from the sea. Azomite is a brand- named product that contains a wide array of finely ground rocks to provide micronutrients. After adding those minerals, we spread chipped branches around the plants, too.
To keep the blackberries from flopping over when laden with fruit, I have a 2-wire fence on the outside. The lower strand is 30 inches off the ground, the upper is 60 inches. Gordon and I tightened up the fence, which had gotten floppy. Along the center walkway I tied canes to 5-foot grade stakes as needed. It’s a huge improvement! (There’ll be no more need for blood transfusions after picking berries.)
Merrill Magnolia
Finally, I spend time right now admiring my flowers. My Merrill magnolia tree has been spectacular and fragrant. Shad bushes, a native plant (Amelanchier spp.), are in full bloom now- both the planted ones and those at the edge of the road and field. All my daffodils – early, mid-season and late – bloomed at the same time this year, so I am picking them and bringing inside to enjoy. I hope you will find time, too, to slow down and enjoy your flowers.
Henry Homeyer is a life-long organic gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. His Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com
Starting Flowers by Seed: Now is a Good Time
Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Imagine this: you walk into your house and everywhere you turn there are vases full of gorgeous, colorful flowers. Light green zinnias on the kitchen counter, pink and white cosmos on the hall table, blue bachelor buttons in a crystal vase on the dining room table. In fact, imagine every flat surface in the house with a vase filled with flowers. You can do that. Start planting annual flower seeds now and it can be a reality sooner than you think – annuals are fast growing.
You don’t have to spend a fortune at the local garden center buying plants in June. Start annuals now and tend them for 6-8weeks indoors. Plant them in full sun once frost has departed for the summer and ground is warm. Water lightly, whisper a few kind words to them, and keep the weeds down. They will reward you handsomely.
Zinnias
Easy-to-start flowers include cosmos, zinnias, annual bachelor buttons, and marigolds, among others. You’ll need some lights to grow them well indoors until summer. I use 4-foot fluorescent shop lights that I hang just 6 inches over their tops. If you grow them without lights they tend to get long and leggy. I suppose you could carry them outside every day and bring them in at night, but the mornings here are still pretty cold. It should be 50 outside before you take them out.
Some annual flowers are best started outdoors. Sweet peas are lovely, usually fragrant flowers that can be started outside as early as regular eating peas – anywhere from mid-April forward. Before planting the seeds soak them for 24 hours to hasten germination: otherwise they can take up to a month to germinate, leading some people to give up on them. And if you wish to start some indoors, know that they need cool temperatures to germinate, so do not use a heat mat.
The usual method for planting peas is to work some compost into the soil and create a furrow 2 inches deep. Plant the seeds 3-4 inches apart and an inch deep. As they grow, you can then fill in the furrow around the plants. Most sweet peas will need a trellis or fence to attach themselves to. One way to do that is to use the branches pruned off your apple trees – just poke them into the soil and let the vines climb up. Chicken wire or bamboo stakes will also work.
Another cold-loving annual is larkspur, which is also called the annual delphinium. It needs cold soil to germinate and hates to be transplanted, so I recommend planting it directly in the soil – which you can do now. Sprinkle seeds on the soil surface and cover with a quarter-inch or less of fine soil. I often use an old sieve or colander to shake sifted soil over seeds needing a thin cover. Once seedlings are up you will need to thin out the plants. If you want masses of plants, thin to 6-9 inches, and they will stay relatively short. If you thin to 12-18 inches they will grow taller, particularly if you select tall cultivars. And plant seeds in a pattern so when they start to grow you will know they are not weeds!
Mass planting of Cleome 'Senorita Rosalita'
If you have gotten discouraged with perennial lupines because they get loaded with aphids and the leaves turn brown and ugly by mid-summer, think about growing annual lupines. I never have, but am currently looking for seeds. The species that sounds best is Lupinus hartwegii. It comes in an array of colors including blue, pinks, white and gold. But it is not for everybody. It takes2-3 weeks to germinate, and the seeds need to be soaked in warm water (in a thermos) for 24 hours, or nicked with fingernail clippers. I am looking locally for seeds, but have also found the seeds on-line at http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com .
Once the soil warms up and frost is past, you can plant nasturtiums and sunflowers directly in the soil. But be advised that sunflowers don’t always point their faces where you want them to. They face the sun, which may be away from you. So I suggest putting them next to the barn or house. That way they will always be looking outward toward the light. They now come in an incredible variety of colors and heights, and may have several flowers on a single stem.
Most annuals don’t need rich soil or lots of nitrogen. In fact, cosmos, cleome and nasturtiums are notorious for growing tall (or long) with lots of leaves but no flowers until late in the summer if given fertilizer. On the other hand, some modern varieties of petunias and verbenas planted in containers really do need regular fertilizing to keep them pumping out the blossoms.
One last bit of advice: despite what you were told in kindergarten, pinching is good. Pinching almost any annual (or using scissors to snip off the top) when it is 3-4 inches tall will encourage it to be bushier, producing multiple stems. Cut just above a bud or leaf.
I admit that I still spend a fair bit on annuals at garden centers each spring. I can’t start every annual I want indoors – my time and space are limited, and I devote more to my tomatoes and other veggies than to flowers.
Henry Homeyer is a gardening consultant, designer and author. His Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com. Reach him by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
To Mulch or Not to Mulch – and How?
Posted on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 · Leave a Comment
For more than a month small trucks laden with chipped bark or wood chips have been scurrying around, unloading piles of mulch. Mulch (from the rich dark color of Mississippi mud to the orange hues of your grandmother’s pumpkin pie) has been spread over flower beds and piled high against the trunk of trees. It will hold down weeds and keep in moisture. But using mulch can have a downside, too. Let me explain.
It is important, if you are using a wood-based mulch, to put on a layer of an appropriate thickness. You shouldn’t just add a new layer of that pumpkin-colored mulch to last year’s mulch just because it’s dirty or the color has started to fade. You need to rake off the old mulch before applying a new layer. A gentle spring rain will not penetrate a 4-6 inch layer of mulch, and eventually the soil will dry out.
Mulch Volcano
Next, there is the question of how mulch is applied near trees. Some landscapers favor the “volcano” look. While it is true that a 12-inch volcano of mulch will keep grass from growing up around your favorite crab apple tree, the mulch will eventually lead to bark rot, a compromised cambium layer, and a slow death. (Except for blueberries, which seem to thrive on mulch or sawdust piled right up to their stems).
Any wood-based, chipped mulch will eventually be host to fungi that break it down. Those same fungi will work on the bark of your tree and eventually break it down, too. Because it takes 6-12 years for a tree to decline and die from compromised bark, the cause and effect is not obvious. You can avoid the problem by leaving a donut hole around the tree – 6 inches of clear space between the trunk and the ring – the donut – of mulch.
Then there is the question of what is in your wood mulch? As a landscaper and garden designer I have occasionally needed to buy a few bags of wood mulch, even though I prefer to buy in bulk from a family-run business that makes its own. But when I do need to buy mulch, I read the label. If the mulch has been dyed with a chemical, I avoid it and go elsewhere to buy good mulch. Why? Because I am an organic gardener. It’s true that most gardeners only use wood-based mulch on flower gardens. Still, I don’t want chemicals introduced to my environment, or that of my clients.
Some years ago I visited radio personality Ray Magliozzi (of NPR’s Car Talk program) at his home in a Boston suburb. Ray was a late-comer to the organic movement. He became an organic gardener after his beloved collie died of cancer. He realized that the lawn jockeys he hired were spreading weed and fungus killers, along with their mowing and fertilizing. He questioned if there was a relationship between his dog’s illness and the chemicals. The same question could be asked about the chemical dye in mulch. What is it? How does it affect us?
So what are the alternatives to commercial wood-based mulch? My choice? Chopped leaves. Leaves run over by the lawnmower and saved last fall for use now. Trees mine minerals from the soil, and then shed their bounty to share with us each fall. Once wet, they don’t tend to blow away.
What about cocoa or buckwheat hulls? They are very tidy to look at and I’ve tried both, but they are very expensive to buy. Cocoa hulls, freshly applied, smell like chocolate chip cookies to me – and some dogs. I have heard that dogs can be sickened (or worse) by ingesting cocoa mulch (chocolate can be poisonous to dogs). That may be part urban myth, of course, but I tend to stay on the safe side. Cocoa hulls also tend to develop a slippery mold layer for a week or so, though it disappears eventually.
Mulching With Hay
I use a layer of 4-6 sheets of newspaper covered with hay or straw in the walkways of my vegetable garden and around large plants, and it is effective at keeping down weeds. The inks are now soy-based and safe to use (in the old days the inks had heavy metals). I soak the papers overnight in a plastic bin first and drain the water in the driveway to get rid of any soluble chemicals in the papers.
Landscape fabric comes in many kinds. The good stuff is tough enough you can’t tear it with your hands; it allows rain to pass through, but little sunshine for hopeful weeds. My feed-n-grain store sells it by the foot, cutting it off a large wide roll, which is handy. It looks best with a thin layer of mulch on top. Black plastic is used by some in the vegetable garden, but it breaks down after a year and needs to go to the landfill. I avoid it.
Nature’s most persistent mulch is, of course, stone. I like small stones for walkways or occasionally in a flower bed. In either case, a layer of landscape fabric will do wonders for inhibiting weed growth.
So take a look around. If you see bark mulch being piled up on a tree trunk, make a citizen’s arrest. Or hand the culprit this article.
Henry Homeyer is a life-long organic gardener, gardening consultant, and UNH Master Gardener. His Web site is www.Gardening-guy.com.
Working On Apple Trees
Posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Conventional wisdom has it that pruning apple and pear trees is best done before the flower and leaf buds open. This year many apples and pears are blossoming very early – even before we’ve had a chance to tune them up with an annual haircut.
I spoke recently with UNH Extension fruit tree expert Bill Lord about the effects of pruning after bud break. He explained that we can still prune, but that flower buds are a bit brittle once they start to open. So if you don’t want to lose fruit, be careful as you remove branches. But prune if needed.
Last weekend I worked on a young apple tree that I had planted about 5 years ago. It is shaping up nicely, but needed some work. The central leader, or the shoot that normally grows straight up to be the tallest of all branches, had bent over in the past year and 3 or 4 other branches were competing with it to establish themselves as the tallest.
Tying Down Branches
That’s not good. I straightened the leader by tying it to a 10-foot piece of metal electrical conduit that I placed next to the trunk.
The apical tip (the tip of the tallest branch) of an apple tree produces plant hormones called auxins that control the growth and fruit production of the tree. If there is no clearly defined leader, many branches will reach upward and compete to become the leader, and the tree will not be as fruitful as possible.
A vigorous young tree with no leader often has many unneeded “water sprouts” shooting straight up from its branches. To reduce water sprout production a leader needs to be selected and the competitors either removed (not just cut back a little) or bent downward.
Bill Lord warned that cutting back (or heading off) branches that are competing with the leader results in lots of small branches starting up near the pruning cuts. That creates shade in the center of the tree, which is exactly what you don’t want. Pruning should create open spaces so all the leaves can get sunshine. So remove the entire competing branch or tie it down, don’t just cut off the tip.
You can easily change the angle of a branch when it is still young – say an inch in diameter or less. I did that for three branches on my young apple tree, though Bill Lord told me afterwards that branches are still stiff right now and that early May would be better. I tied a clove hitch around each branch with quarter-inch diameter nylon rope, and then anchored the branches to gallon jugs full of water or to good sized stones. Don’t use wire or narrow twine to tie down a branch – it could cut into the branch.
In order to get good fruit production it is also important to have the scaffold branches of a tree at the proper angle. Scaffold branches are the side branches that will ultimately produce fruit spurs (3-4 inch long branches with fruit buds). Scaffold branches rarely are at a right angle to the trunk, but should be angled up a little bit. Scaffold branches at an acute upward angle are not generally strong (so they may break in an ice storm) and usually do not produce much fruit. They need to be removed or bent to create a better angle.
Getting the soil from under your apple trees tested is a good spring activity. That way you can add minerals to the soil as needed. Bill Lord told me that trees that produce lots of apples often need potassium – he recommends a pound of potassium sulfate for every 5 bushels of fruit harvested, and noted that potassium sulfate is approved for organic gardeners (It’s a naturally occurring compound). He said you can also use Sul-Po-Mag, which is readily available and offers your soil sulfur, potassium and magnesium, if your soil test shows those minerals are needed.
Green sand is another good source of potassium for organic gardeners wishing to add potassium to their soil. Green sand is mined in New Jersey and sold at your feed and grain store or garden center. In addition to potassium, it is said to contain 30 trace minerals from the sea, where it originated. It is a good soil conditioner for heavy clay soils.
Bill Lord also suggests sprinkling a cup of old fashioned 20 Mule Team Borax around a full sized apple tree (or a couple of tablespoons around a young tree) every 3-4 years to add boron, a trace mineral, to the soil. It is needed for good cell wall growth and for fruit and seed development.
So go outside on the next nice day and look at your apple trees. Prune as needed, and try to be sure you have a good vigorous leader at the top of your tree. It will save you work in the future by reducing the number of water sprouts you need to prune out each year.
Henry Homeyer is a gardening consultant, pruner and educator. His Web site is www.Gardening-guy.com. You may e-mail him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.
Building A Plant Stand
Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Before we launch into this week’s article…
Gardening Classes with Henry
Lebanon College: Gardening: A Practical Workshop. Garden writer Henry Homeyer will teach you the basics of organic vegetable and flower gardening. From garden design to seed-starting , planting, watering, weeding, mulching, and harvesting, this course will give each student practical knowledge of gardening. Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:30 for 5 weeks, April 3-May 2.Contact Lebanon College to reserve a spot for this5-part workshop www.lebanoncollege.edu or call 603-448-2445.
AVA Gallery, Lebanon. Henry will teach 3 classes at AVA Gallery this spring. You may sign up for one or all of these workshops:
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Starting Flowers from Seed
April 9; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Perfect Perennials for the Upper Valley Garden
April 23; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Organic Techniques for Enriching Soil and Managing Pests
May 7; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
For more information go to www.avagallery.org or call 603-448-3117.
Building a Plant Stand
It’s time to start planting seeds indoors for late spring planting. Depending where you are (and what this crazy weather does), late May or early June should be frost free, so we have about 8 weeks till planting things like tomatoes.
This year I replaced all my fluorescent lights and decided to move plants upstairs to the laundry room. My clunky old metal plant stand would be nearly impossible to get up our spiral staircase, so I built a folding wooden one – and you can, too. It took me an hour to build and cost a lot less than buying one.
Plant Stand
First, you need to decide if a plant stand is right for you. Mine is a tall narrow triangle in cross section, with 2 shelves. It is 6 feet tall, 5 feet wide and 2 feet from front to back at the base. It has space for 6 flats or trays, each of which will hold at least 32 plants – more if you buy the smaller six-packs that I avoid (some flats can hold 48-72 plants).
The lumber for this cost me just under $50 and the light fixtures – 4-foot shop lights – cost me $14 each plus $8 for the fluorescent tubes. The stand uses 3 fixtures, so the lights cost about $65, for a grand total of about $115. Looking at catalogs, I see that one can easily spend $500 or more for an equivalent. One could use the same design to make a similar model that would just have one shelf and use one fixture and cost about $75. Then, if you decide you like starting plants in the house, you could add a second shelf and buy the extra lights and shelf next year.
Here is what you need to buy for the model I built:
(10) pieces of 1”x2” pine, 6 ft long
(2) pieces ¼” plywood, 2’x4’
(1) pair 3” strap hinges
(3) 4′ shop lights with fluorescent bulbs
(50) sheet rock screws (1.25” long)
Tools: portable drill with magnetic bit to fit the screws and a measuring tape
Lumber yards will cut all your materials to size for you. Some sell plywood in 2ft by 4 ft sheets. If not, you will have to buy a full sized sheet (4×8-ft) which will cost a little more. In any case, your top shelf is 16 inches wide by 4 feet long, the second shelf is 24 inches by 4 feet, so you will need to ask someone to cut the 16 inch piece to size. You will need to ask them to cut the 1×2 pine boards as follows: six 60-inch pieces, four 72-inch pieces, six 12-inch pieces. So if the store does not have 6-ft lengths, get 12-ft lengths and have them cut to length.
Legs of Plant Stand
Start by making 2 legs for your plant stand. Lay the 6-ft pieces end-to-end on the floor. Do it on your deck if possible, or next to a wall so that you can get them in a straight line by lining them up with something that is straight. Lay the hinges in place so that you will be able to fold them closed (most hinges only close one way).
Next close up the hinged legs and place them 5-ft apart on the floor. Place 3 of the 5-ft pieces on top of the first side. One should be screwed right at the top, one 24 inches from that, and the last 24 inches below that. Flip over the stand, and do the same on that side. Stand it up, and spread the legs 2 feet apart at the bottom. At this point, your tripod will be wobbly. Let’s fix that.
You have 6 pieces of scrap wood, a foot long, left over from making the 5-ft lengths. You need to attach 2 of these to
the inside of the bottom cross pieces, one on the front right, one on the back left. Then place your 24-inch shelf on top of the bottom supports and center it. There is 6 inches or so of space on either end of your shelf.
You will now attach a cross brace at a 45 degree angle between the short piece you just installed and a leg. This will keep the plant stand from swaying. Then take another 12-inch piece and attach it across the legs (front to back) 30 inches from the top. That will make prevent the legs from splaying – and make it as sturdy as the Rock of Gibraltar.
Cross bracing
Lastly you need to hang the lights. Mine came with S-hooks and chain, which made hanging the lights easy. If yours do not, you will have to buy them. Most shop lights have a slots and holes on the back side so that you can slip in S-hooks easily to hang it. You can also open a link of your chain and fit it in without an S-hook, just use 2 pairs of pliers to bend a link open.
Plant Stand
Starting seedlings indoors is miraculous for me – even after doing it for decades. I hold my breath waiting for germination, and fuss over the seedlings like a mother hen. And when I bite into my first tomato in August, I have the added satisfaction in knowing I brought that tomato into my world – with a little help from Mother Nature.
Henry Homeyer is a gardening consultant, teacher and book author. His e-mail address is henry.homeyer@comcast.net. You may write him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.
Web Extra: When to Start Seedlings Indoors
I start 200-300 plants indoors each year. When should one start them? It depends where you live and on the type of plant. Let’s start with when. The key factor is when Mother Nature delivers the last of the cold weather to your garden. In my Zone 4 part of the world, conventional wisdom is that it is all right to plant frost-sensitive plants like tomatoes on Memorial Day weekend. I usually put mine out a week after that, to allow the ground to warm up – and taking no chances that a late season frost will kill my tender plants.
As I explain in my books, The Vermont Gardeners Companion and The New Hampshire Gardeners Companion, the phase of the moon does not affect the date of the last spring frost. Those books also list what plants are frost sensitive and which are not.
Here it is, March 27 as I write this, and I have already started onions, leeks, peppers and a few leafy greens indoors. The peppers won’t go outdoors until June, 12 weeks after starting indoors, but the onions (and leeks) will go out in May as they can take some frost. The greens, likewise will go out in mid-May. Most greens I will plant by seed outdoors.
Eight weeks before outdoor planting I will start indoors my tomatoes, broccoli, and kale. My squash plants I start 4-5 weeks before they go out in June. I don’t want them too big, and they grow fast. I start squashes and cukes in 3-inch pots instead of little six-packs.
Outdoor Work in Early Spring
Posted on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Before we launch into this week’s article…
Gardening Classes with Henry
Lebanon College: Gardening: A Practical Workshop. Garden writer Henry Homeyer will teach you the basics of organic vegetable and flower gardening. From garden design to seed-starting , planting, watering, weeding, mulching, and harvesting, this course will give each student practical knowledge of gardening. Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:30 for 5 weeks, April 3-May 2.Contact Lebanon College to reserve a spot for this5-part workshop www.lebanoncollege.edu or call 603-448-2445.
AVA Gallery, Lebanon. Henry will teach 3 classes at AVA Gallery this spring. You may sign up for one or all of these workshops:
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Starting Flowers from Seed
April 9; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Perfect Perennials for the Upper Valley Garden
April 23; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Organic Techniques for Enriching Soil and Managing Pests
May 7; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
For more information go to www.avagallery.org or call 603-448-3117.
Outdoor Work in Early Spring
Despite a spate of warm weather, it’s still early spring. In my world maple sap is running, a little snow is still in the woods and foolish (early bird) robins are losing weight while waiting for the earthworms to surface. It’s still too early to rake my lawn as it’s pretty soggy. My flower beds would suffer from soil compaction if I were to step inside to clean them up. So what can a gardener do?
Sapling growing near mature pine
This is a great time to clean up scrub brush and small trees along stone walls, close to the house and around stately old trees. If you take a look around your property, you will probably see many “volunteer” trees that are growing where they shouldn’t. Now is a good time to snip them back or pull them out before they get large.
Seeds are amazing. Each has the genetic material to create a new plant. They can stay dormant for years, just waiting for the right growing conditions. But they have flaws: they have no eyes – and little common sense. That’s right. A seed will grow wherever ends up, even if it has no chance to reach maturity at its location. So a maple seed may germinate an inch from a mature pine tree, for example. It has no good future there, but it will try anyway. Volunteer trees and shrubs are easy to remove when young. Ideally, you can pull them and they will never come back to bother you again.
There is a tool that can help you do so: the Weed Wrench (www.weedwrench.com). They come in 4 sizes, 
from mini to large depending on the size trees you need to remove – and your budget. A Weed Wrench has a mouthpiece that bites down on a trunk, and a steel lever to pull out the culprit using the mechanical advantage of its long arm. They weigh from 5 lbs to 24 pounds and cost between $82 and $189. One might be good investment for your garden club or Scout troop – many people could share it.
But even small trees may have extensive root systems, so if you wish to do a quick-n-easy clean up, go outside with your loppers and get to work. Cut off stems as close to the ground as you can. But be forewarned: many trees will coppice, or send up several new shoots around the stump.
One of the most common invasive shrubs in my neighborhood is the Japanese honeysuckle. It is common along the edges of fields, stonewalls and driveways. A single bush can get to be 10 feet tall and wide. They produce pleasant cream-colored flowers in early summer, and birds like the seeds – which they distribute widely. I cut several big honeysuckles on my property last fall, and just cut off a few more recently. I know they may come back from the roots, but they won’t bloom and produce seeds in their first year, so I am reducing seed production. And if I can remember to cut them back every year or two, I will slow their spread.
Loppers used for brush clean-up
Trees compete for nutrients, water and sunlight. If you have an aging maple or other tree that is not in perfect health, cleaning up the scrub around it seems like a logical way to help. Sugar maples, in general, are suffering due to the acid rain that falls here in New England (due to pollutants in the air from coal-burning power plants). Acid rain dissolves calcium in the soil, and allows it to wash away or leach deeper into the soil. Maples in particular suffer when growing in low calcium conditions. So removing vigorous young trees and shrubs from around the maples – their competition – should help.
You can also help your old maples by spreading some limestone around the trees at this time of year. I distribute limestone in a circle about 100 feet in diameter around an aging maple each fall or spring. I don’t do it scientifically, so many pounds per hundred square feet. I just give a light top dressing each year, and know that it helps.
Another reason I get rid of scrub brush is pure aesthetics. Small trees and shrubs distract the eye from the beauty of a stone outcropping or wall. I like simplicity and neatness in my landscape. Scruffy stuff is akin to an unmade bed. Clean it up, and it’s easier to notice the texture of the bark of a mature maple or beech.
Saw used for small trees
Another chore that can be done now is to remove some lower branches of trees alongside your stone wall. In keeping with my desire to simplify the landscape and expose ledge or stonework, I like to cut off branches that I can reach easily – though sometimes I will work up a trunk on a ladder to remove limbs that I cannot reach from the ground. Don’t do maple or birch right now, however, as they will “bleed” sap in quantity.
As much as I enjoy visiting a city, I’m a country boy. I need to go outside most days and do a little work on my landscape. I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever retire from writing so a can putter all day. It’s a temptation.
Henry Homeyer is the author of 4 gardening books. Go to his Web site www.Gardening-Guy.com for more information about gardening. His e-mail is henry.homeyer@comcast.net
Choose Something New to Grow this Year
Posted on Wednesday, March 14, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Before we launch into this week’s article…
Gardening Classes with Henry
Lebanon College: Gardening: A Practical Workshop. Garden writer Henry Homeyer will teach you the basics of organic vegetable and flower gardening. From garden design to seed-starting , planting, watering, weeding, mulching, and harvesting, this course will give each student practical knowledge of gardening. Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:30 for 5 weeks, April 3-May 2.Contact Lebanon College to reserve a spot for this5-part workshop www.lebanoncollege.edu or call 603-448-2445.
AVA Gallery, Lebanon. Henry will teach 3 classes at AVA Gallery this spring. You may sign up for one or all of these workshops:
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Starting Flowers from Seed
April 9; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Perfect Perennials for the Upper Valley Garden
April 23; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Organic Techniques for Enriching Soil and Managing Pests
May 7; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
For more information go to www.avagallery.org or call 603-448-3117.
Choose Something New to Grow this Year
Spring is coming, spring is coming! The robins and red-winged blackbirds are back. Cardinals are singing their mating songs. It’s too early to do anything outside in the garden – or even for starting most things by seed indoors. But this is the time to make decisions, buy seeds if you haven’t, and plan. I want to offer some ideas about plants you may not usually grow – but should.
Kossack Kohlrabi - Image by Johnny's Seeds
President George H.W. Bush hated broccoli. I can’t imagine why. Broccoli is not only tasty fresh, it’s great all winter if you freeze and store it properly. But maybe, if he reads this column on the internet (www.Gardening-guy.com), he’ll be willing to try one of the lesser known broccoli relatives that I grow and love. Happy Rich is one. Piracicaba is the other. Let me sing their virtues.
Happy Rich is a hybrid green created by crossing broccoli with something called gailon or Chinese kale. According to the Johnny’s seed catalog (www.johnnyseeds.com), it is just 55 days to harvest and produces lots of florets that “have an excellent sweet broccoli flavor”. My standard broccoli, ‘Diplomat’ is 68 days to harvest – about 2 weeks longer.
I love the flavor of Happy Rich – and the name, even though it has not, as yet, made me rich. I sometimes eat the leaves and stems, too. They steam up nicely, and the stems don’t get woody the way broccoli stems do. And if you go away for a week and the florets turn into full blossoms, they are still tasty! It produces until late fall.
Selected in Brazil for heat tolerance, Piracicaba (pronounced “peer-a-Cee’ca-bah”) is another broccoli-type plant that does not produce a big head, but produces lots of side shoots. It is like Happy Rich in almost all ways. I have grown it a few times, but never saved any seeds. My usual source doesn’t have it this year, but Google helped me find seeds: Hudson Valley Seed Library (www. seedlibrary.org) has it. This is a small seed company that values locally grown, open pollinated seeds. Membership (not required) is $25 and you get 10 packs of seeds free! I joined, and ordered lots of seeds, including some very interesting tomato varieties.
Salsify - Image by Johnny's Seeds
Unlike Happy Rich, piracicaba is open pollinated: it is not a hybrid, so I can save seeds. Let me digress here for a moment: modern hybrid seeds often produce plants with desirable qualities. Hybrids are created by crossing 2 specific parents. But you can’t generally do this yourself, as often the parent plants are not commercially available. And controlling pollen flow can be complicated. But if a catalog calls a plant “open pollinated” or “heirloom”, you can save seeds –though some insect-pollinated heirlooms need a considerable distance between varieties to prevent cross pollination). Squashes and pumpkins, for example, hybridize to create the “monsters” growing in your compost pile.
Rutabagas are wonderful root vegetables – I am still eating some from last summer. They look like turnips, but are sweeter and nicer. I’ve never had any pests or diseases on my plants, and they produce lots of food. I boil mine, and often mash them like potatoes, or use orange juice instead of milk for a slightly different flavor.
Then there is kale. Some years I put 50 quart bags of kale in the freezer so that I can use kale in soups and stir fries all year. The great thing about kale is that, unlike spinach, it doesn’t lose its texture when frozen or cooked. I blanch the kale for about a minute in boiling water before freezing (so that the enzymes that cause aging are destroyed) and it tastes fresh and wonderful right from the freezer many months after picking.
Kohlrabi is one more lesser-known vegetable you might want to try this year – I love it. It comes in both purple and green skinned varieties. It is a funny looking plant with stems coming out of the above-ground thickened stem that is the edible part. I like it raw in salads or cooked in a stir fry. Most varieties are baseball-sized and only 38-45 days to harvest. This year I am trying one from Johnny’s Seeds called ‘Kossak’ which is 80 days to harvest, but gets to be 8 inches in diameter, and keeps in storage for 4 months!
Scorzonera - Image by Johnny's Seeds
Since I am advising you to expand your gardening and cooking palate, I will do so, too. This year I will plant salsify and scorzonera, two long, irregular-shaped root crops. Scorzonera has black skin and white flesh; salsify is white skinned and is sometimes called oyster plant. Thomas Jefferson loved it, and grew it in quantity – which encourages me to try it. Roots of both are 8-10 inches long, so it needs loose, deep soil, which I have. I found seed at Johnny’s Seeds and will plant some directly in the soil once it warms up.
Cooking is the handmaiden of gardening. If you are adventurous in the kitchen, try some new veggies in the garden this year. If you discover an exceptional variety, please let me know! Just go to my Web site (www.Gardening-guy.com) to contact me.
Henry Homeyer is the author of 4 gardening books. His latest is Organic Gardening (Not Just) in the Northeast: A Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide.
Growing Roses
Posted on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Before we launch into this week’s article…
Gardening Classes with Henry
Lebanon College: Gardening: A Practical Workshop. Garden writer Henry Homeyer will teach you the basics of organic vegetable and flower gardening. From garden design to seed-starting , planting, watering, weeding, mulching, and harvesting, this course will give each student practical knowledge of gardening. Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:30 for 5 weeks, April 3-May 2.Contact Lebanon College to reserve a spot for this5-part workshop www.lebanoncollege.edu or call 603-448-2445.
AVA Gallery, Lebanon. Henry will teach 3 classes at AVA Gallery this spring. You may sign up for one or all of these workshops:
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Starting Flowers from Seed
April 9; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Perfect Perennials for the Upper Valley Garden
April 23; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
Sculpting the Living Landscape: Organic Techniques for Enriching Soil and Managing Pests
May 7; Monday, 6:30–8:30pm; One 2-hour class
For more information go to www.avagallery.org or call 603-448-3117.
Growing Roses
When I read a new gardening book I generally read it with a pen in hand. If I see something of special interest, I make a check mark in the margin. If I read something I agree with, and want to pass on to others, I underline.
William Baffin: Zone 2/3 8 Ft. Climber
When I learn something important, I make a star in the margin. I recently finished reading – and marking up – Roses for New England: A Guide to Sustainable Rose Gardening by Mike and Angelina Chute of East Providence, R.I. The whole book is marked up and has several stars. If you’ve been leery of growing roses, this book de-mystifies the process and gives you all the information you need to succeed.
March may seem like a funny time for reading about roses, but it makes sense to me: we have time to read now, before the gardening season begins. And if you want to order special roses, it takes some time make and receive an order. Bare root roses need to be planted while dormant – and while available. The Chutes recommend planting bare root roses in April or October.
The book describes 6 easy steps to success:
1. Select good plants. They have 150 suggestions for roses that are winter hardy and disease resistant. Steer clear of roses that have spots, blemishes or disease. Don’t buy a potted rose with wrinkled canes – it’s dehydrated.
2. Start with good soil. Test the pH: it should be between 6 and 6.8. Add lots of organic matter into a large planting
Nearly Wild: Zone 4/5, 3 Ft. Tall
hole, and some limestone if needed.
3. Plant in a sunny location. Six hours of sunshine is needed for lots of blossoms.
4. Provide plenty of water. Water deeply, up to 5 gallons per week in hot times. Do not get the leaves wet.
5. Fertilize 3 or 4 times in the course of a summer. They use a combination of 10-10-10 and slow-release organic fertilizers, and sometimes give liquid fish fertilizers as a supplement to get more blossoms. As an organic gardener, I do little fertilizing and still do fine – my soil is good.
6. Manage pests and diseases by “maintaining strong, healthy roses right from the start… Healthy plants have tougher immune systems”.
Although the authors recognize that some gardeners will want to use chemicals, they use no chemicals for insects, and rarely for fungus. A stiff stream of water from the hose will wash off aphids and spider mites, they explain, and hand picking beetles is better than spraying. If you spray for insects, the beneficial insects are killed along with the pest insects.
Chute's Garden
If you purchase bare root roses, you may be troubled by the question of how deep to plant them (I know I have been, at times). We’ve all learned not to bury the trunk flare (the natural base) of a tree or shrub, but roses are not the same. Looking at a bare root rose, you can see where it has been grafted onto a rootstock, which is called the bud union. That union should be 2-4 inches below the final grade of the soil. The colder the climate, the deeper the roots. I plant 4 inches deep for Zone 4.
Pruning roses is another problem area for many gardeners, but one easily and simply explained in Roses for New England. Mike and Angelina explain that some roses only bloom once a year, while others bloom repeatedly. For one-time bloomers, prune after blooming. For the others, you should prune early in spring, and then after each flush of blossoms.
Knockout Bed: Zone 4/5, 5 Ft. Tall
Pruning is important for rose health, too. To prevent fungal diseases, prune to open up the bush and allow good air circulation. You can direct growth by pruning just above a bud that is pointing away from the center of the bush, instead of one pointing in towards it.
I was fascinated to read (stars in the margin of my book) that the Chutes know how to prune repeat-blooming roses to get a flush of blooms on a certain date. Each rose has a certain time interval between bloom cycles. Cutting off all spent blossoms (and pruning back the canes) after a first blooming will stimulate a second set of blossoms. The more petals, the longer the period.
The simplest floribunda roses take just 40 days to re-bloom, while heavily petaled hybrid tea roses can take 55 days. Learn the intervals on your roses, and you can have them bloom for your August tea party. The average time for
Brite Eyes Bush
re-blooming roses is 50 days. Of course, 2 weeks of cold rain can upset that schedule.
I like that this book explains that you don’t need a hazmat suit to protect yourself from all the chemicals that were used in the past. Buy roses that are disease resistant, plant them well, and they will resist most diseases – and make you swoon. To learn more about roses, go to the authors’ Web site, www.rosesolutions.net. You can order your own copy of the book there, too.
Henry’s WEB EXTRAS:
Julia Child: Zone 6, 4 Ft. Tall
All The Rage: Zone 4, 3-4 Ft. Tall
Heritage: Zone 5, 4 Ft. Tall
Brite Eyes: Zone 5, 6-8 Ft. Tall
Click Here to buy from Cobrahead
Most primroses grow well in light shade or morning sunshine and prefer moist soil. Primula kisoana, on the other hand, will grow in dry soil, too. I have observed that one of the best places to grow any primrose is under an old apple tree. The soil and light there generally is perfect for primroses.
