Enjoying the Fruits of Our Labor
Posted on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 · Leave a Comment
I’ve been doing some sort of garden work every day since March 1, when I planted my first seeds indoor (artichokes, leeks and onions). That’s nearly 6 months of effort. Of course, most of what I do is fun, at least for me. But now is the best part: eating from the garden every day and putting up food for the winter.
Tomatoes are my favorite vegetable (or fruit, if you want to be technical). Once they start ripening I eat them two, even three meals a day. I love eating them whole like apples, in salads, or eaten between 2 slices of bread. Tomatoes promote good health and give any cooked dish a tastier, juicier flavor. But you know that.
Here is how I avoid becoming a slave to my 40-50 tomato plants: I freeze most of the whole. No need to blanch or skin them, Just put a dozen in a gallon freezer-grade zipper bag and freeze. I like to use a common drinking straw to suck the air out of the zipper bag before sealing it. I insert the straw and zip the bag right up to the straw. Then I suck out the air, watching the bag snuggle up to the tomatoes. Finally I remove the straw and pinch the last bit of zipper closed all at once. No need to buy one of the machines to do the job for you. And a bag without humid summer air in it has less frost on your tomatoes.
Come winter when I need tomatoes for a stew or sauce, I run the tomatoes under hot tap water, rubbing the skin off with my fingers. I let the tomatoes warm a trifle, then chop and use. When fully thawed they have the consistency of canned tomatoes, so I can’t use them in sandwiches, alas.
Any flawed tomatoes I turn into tomato paste after cutting off any bad parts. I use a paring knife to cut out the attachment point, then squeeze out as many of the seeds and as much excess juice as possible. I halve or quarter the tomato, and toss it into the food processor. I blend the tomatoes into a puree, then transfer it to an enameled cast iron pot to slowly simmer. It takes a few hours, but eventually the puree gets thick enough for a spoon to stand up in, which tells me it’s done.
I also use less-than-perfect tomatoes to make sauce, and sometimes use a hot water bath process to can a few jars to store in the pantry. Most sauce I freeze, despite the fact that I like to look up on the shelves of my pantry and see nicely labeled jars all in a row. Canning takes a lot of time and effort, so I prefer freezing.
NESCO Dehydrator
I also dehydrate tomatoes. I cut cherry tomatoes in half, place them in a food dehydrator cut-side up, and dry for 24 hours. I use a NESCO American Harvester dehydrator, one called the Garden Master Pro. The dehydrator uses 1,000 watts of electricity per hour, but I can stack up 8 trays of tomatoes at once if I have them. Once dry, I could just store them in zipper bags on a shelf, but I usually store them in my freezer as I usually have adequate space. I also dry apples, hot peppers, pears, and sometimes garlic for making garlic powder.
Blanching pot
Some veggies need to be blanched, or slightly cooked in boiling water, before freezing. The ones I blanch include summer squash, kale, beans, broccoli, corn and Brussels sprouts. The reason for blanching is to stop the enzymes in the vegetables that would continue the ripening or aging process. Beans, if not blanched, get tough and stringy with time. I’ve never read a good explanation why tomatoes don’t seem to age in the freezer without blanching. Peppers don’t need blanching either.
Home-frozen vegetables seem to have a bad name with many gardeners because most books on freezing tell you to blanch longer than I deem necessary. Putting Food By by Greene, Hertzberg and Vaughan is considered the bible on how to store foods, but the authors say to blanch green beans in boiling water for 2-4 minutes, depending on size. To me, that’s cooking them, not blanching them. Cooked that long, they’ll be mushy when you eat them, and I want my beans to be crunchy.
To me, the key to blanching is brevity. Start with lots of water at a rolling boil, and don’t add too many veggies at a time. I have a special 2-piece blanching pot – it has an inner pot with drainage holes that fits into the (slightly) bigger water pot. I lower the beans into the boiling water, and then as soon as they change color – turning a lighter green – I pull up the inner pot, allowing the water to drain out. Using the lid as a saucer, I carry the inner pot to the kitchen sink and dump the beans into a full sink of cold water.
The cold water stops the cooking process. Some people add ice to the water, but I just change the water frequently to keep it good and cold. I then drain the beans in a colander, spin dry in my salad spinner, and pat them dry with a cotton tea towel. Then into zipper bags and the freezer.
So I eat from my garden all year round. Yes, it takes some effort to put food in the freezer, but I take great satisfaction in being able to eat my own produce, especially since I know it has never been sprayed with chemicals.
Biological Controls
Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 · Leave a Comment
It’s not always easy to be an organic gardener. Even committed organic gardeners sometimes long to spray herbicide on gout weed or that pesky poison ivy. There are times when Japanese beetles or rose chafers arrive in throngs just before your garden party and you want to nuke those nasty critters. There may be times when you have an urge for the good old days, the time before you understood that spraying an insecticide kills beneficial bugs along with the bad, aggravating your pest problems. But there are also problems that are more easily addressed with organic solutions.
Purple loosestrife
Right now purple loosestrife is blooming in swamps and along streams and roadsides. It is a tall, beautiful weed with small purple-pink flowers growing on square stems. So who can object to such a pretty plant? Biologists know that it is a plant that came from Europe and has few natural predators here to keep it from taking over wetlands. It has an amazingly robust root system and can elbow out native plants, in part, because it produces huge numbers of seeds. Not only that, the plant offers little of food value to our wildlife. It’s pretty, but worthless. A thug.
Purple loosestrife came from Europe in the early 1800’s –probably in soil used as ballast in ships – but it is not a problem there. Why not? It evolved there, and over time some 120 species of insects learned to eat it. Of these, 14 are host specific, meaning that they eat it – but nothing else. A few of these insects were brought to quarantine labs to test the following: Will they eat related species of the target plants, or plants that share a habitat? Will they attack any of our major crops such as corn, wheat and soy? Beetles have been found to help control purple loosestrife.
If you’ve ever tried to dig out purple loosestrife, you know that it has an amazing root system that will challenge even the strongest back. Scraps of roots left in the ground will start new plants. Not only that, each mature plant produces many thousand tiny seeds every year, so even if you did poison or pull one, the soil if full of tiny time-release capsules – seeds – that will start the process all over again next year, and the year after that, and so forth. But it can be kept under control with the use of introduced beetles.
Since 1994 beetles that eat purple loosestrife have been successfully reducing stands of this exotic. They reduce the numbers of plants to around 10% of pre-introduction levels; as the numbers of plants drop, so do the number of the predator beetles.
Dr. Casagrande and his colleagues at the University of Rhode Island have been working on finding and introducing biological controls for major plant and insect pests. But it is a slow process. They have introduced 3 parasitic wasps to control the dreaded lily leaf beetle, that red pest that devours our Oriental and Asiatic lilies. When I asked him recently how the wasps are doing, he told me that they are well established in sites in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. That some have spread as much as 10 miles since introduction. However, the predator insects are not for sale – so we just have to wait for them to slowly make the way to our gardens.
So what can the home gardener do? First, realize that help is on the way – in the form of biocontrols. Second, recognize that herbicides for plants and insecticides for beetles ultimately don’t work. Yes, you can kill lily leaf beetles or loosestrife with a spray, but you can’t eliminate them. Patience is required as Mother Nature, with a little help from scientists, will eventually restore balance.
I have purple loosestrife near my stream. My control? I cut it down with my pruning shears, thus preventing the plant from producing seeds. When small plants appear in my flower gardens, as they have done, I dig them out before they establish a big root system.
Angel's Trumpet or Datura
I have given up planting Oriental and Asiatic lilies. Dr. Casagrande told me that there are a few cultivars of lilies that are less attractive to the pest beetles, such as ‘Black Beauty’. But instead of those lilies I now grow a lovely unrelated plant called angel’s trumpet (Datura spp.). The flowers are big white trumpets not unlike the lilies, but they bloom in sequence all summer, sometimes a dozen or more at a time. It’s an annual here that I re-plant every year. One note of caution: the seeds are poisonous if eaten.
As an organic gardener, I have to accept that I am not in total control of the environment and that sometimes I have to endure some losses. Biological controls do work, and have made some exotic pests such as birch leafminers into nothing more than minor annoyances. There are already places where purple loosestrife is no longer a problem. I urge you to stay the course and be organic.
Mid Summer Blahs
Posted on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 · Leave a Comment
August can be a tough month in the flower garden. Generally it’s hot and dry. Even the annual flowers that are supposed to bloom like the Energizer Bunny are tired and moody. I pulled some muscles in my back (foolishly moving big stones as if I were 25instead of 65) so the weeds in my garden got ahead of me, too. But now I am back at it, and trying to perk up my gardens.
The front walkway at my house is flanked by 2 flower beds, each just over 2 feet wide and about 8 feet long. In the spring I had Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis sylvatica) and pansies providing color and verve, along with daffodils and crocus. But all those are long gone – or dormant.
Persian shield
I planted a variety of annuals along the walkway including nicotiana, verbena, salvia, cosmos and a lovely plant called Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) that I grow for the rich purple and silver foliage. The verbenas were a fancy new variety but they have proved too tasty to some ambitious insect. The nicotiana (also called tobacco plant) is still blooming quite nicely in lime green and a brownish red. The cosmos are in bud, but currently flowerless. Annual poppies have come and gone. My salvias are showing just a few deep blue/purple blossoms.
The problem now is that most garden centers do not have a wide variety of blooming flowers for sale. Geraniums are still for sale in fire engine red, pink and white. And some places have expensive hanging planters, but my budget for $25 planters has run its course. So what can I do?
Daylilies, one of mid-summer’s heroines, are in their glory now. I could dig up a clump from elsewhere on the property and move it to the front walkway. Or I could visit a garden center and buy a potted daylily in bloom and move it into an empty spot left when I pulled weeds and the dozens of annual poppies that show up each year.
I realize that the common orange daylily has prejudiced some gardeners against the breed. They are so common that they are considered trite. We like the new, the different, and once I suppose the orange daylily fit that description. Another problem is that orange daylilies have roots that spread, and a small clump turns into a big clump in just a year or two. And they are hard to dig up. Not only that, even a small scrap of root will generate a new plant.
Not so the fancier daylilies. They are “clumpers” that stay in one place. They are easier to dig and move, and can provide color for a few weeks each summer. There are early bloomers, mid-season bloomers, and some that bloom well into the fall. Colors? Clear yellow, rich yellow, various shades of pink, red and even lavender are available. Tall ones with scapes (flower stems) over five feet are available, as are tiny ones with scapes barely 18 inches.
If you want to dig up or divide a daylily, you will need to dig from at least 4 places – thrust a drain spade or transplant spade into the soil at a 45 degree angle on each side, each time trying to get under the center of the clump and tip the spade back to lift it a little. A big clump will give you a good workout. You can divide the clump by slicing through the root mass with a spade or a machete. Even a long serrated knife will do the job. Cutting is much easier than trying to tease apart the roots with a pair of garden forks, which is recommended by some garden authorities. Yes, you may damage a few bits of root when cutting them, but daylilies are invincible.
Daylily blossoms only last a day (hence the name), but most scapes have 6 or more buds that bloom in sequence. I pick scapes with flowers in bloom and put them in a vase. The buds open in sequence for a week or so. So don’t hesitate to use them in a vase. By the way, golden rod is a wildflower (a.k.a weed) that is starting to bloom and does well in a vase. It is unjustly accused of causing hay fever – the real culprit is ragweed (with inconspicuous green flowers), which blooms at the same time.
Great blue lobelia
Other flowers in bloom for me right now in other places on my property include cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and its cousin great blue lobelia (Lobelia syphilitica) that is showing nice blue spikes. The first needs a moist, sunny site, while the later does fine in hot, dry places (or any sunny spot, really). Black-eyed Susan is in full glory, too. Bee balm (Monarda spp.) is finishing up, and obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) is just starting to open. Later the fall-bloomers will be along, so I have plenty to look forward to.
So what did I do? I didn’t move a daylily, I dug some annuals that were growing in moist, rich soil and moved them up to the front walkway where the soil is drier. I used my CobraHead weeder to get under a short zinnia (Profusion series) and a big, juicy marigold. They reminded me that I need to water the plants in afternoon sun along the walkway daily – and I’ll give them (and all my potted plants) some liquid fish fertilizer for a mid-summer boost.
Creating Beauty on an Urban Lot
Posted on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Tom Kelley lives in a big 3-story brick Victorian house just off the town common in Newport, NH that would appeal to the ghoulish characters of the Addams family. But his gardens are full of flowers and vegetables – and are quite a contrast to the building itself, which had been, among other things, home to a veteran’s club and bar.
When Tom bought the place 11 years ago, much of what is now garden was then parking lot. “I didn’t need a huge parking lot, “he said. “I started digging up the asphalt by hand, then brought in an excavator.” Even parts of the property not covered with black top were filled with rubble. “The whole back yard was a big parking lot. When I dug into the ‘soil’ all I found was gravel and chunks of asphalt.”
In order to create a vegetable garden, Tom built wood-sided beds to contain new soil. He now grows tomatoes, beans, squash, greens and much more with great success. “I had a couple of truckloads of soil brought in for my original beds, but I have been adding compost, hay and oak leaves for years. Originally not a thing would grow, not even weeds. We can grow pretty much anything now.
Stone Garden Arch
One of the most interesting features of Tom’s garden is his use of stone. He bought some large slabs of granite, and decided that he should use them to make a statement. He hired an excavator and set stones in two groups of three: two vertical stones about 4 feet apart, and a large slab on top of each. They had relatively flat edges, so he was able to make good, steady – and sturdy – structures that look a bit like the Greek letter pi. A modest man, Tom said, “I’m not sure it was completely my idea. I was talking to this guy who was selling stones, and a friend suggested making an arch. So I did. It makes sense here – pi is related to circles (in mathematics), and one is placed at the entrance to a labyrinth (a circle with walking paths).”
American Hornbeam
Tom’s life partner, Sonia Swierczynski, is a landscaper who lives in Norwich, VT. She has extensive experience with a great variety of plants. Together they have selected and planted a very unusual group of plants. At the front of the house, for example, they planted a hedge of American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). Sonia explained their choice: ”We wanted to sit on the porch) but didn’t need to totally block out the view of the street. We wanted some diffusion of the view. We didn’t want to shut everything out.” They planted the hornbeam as small plants about 5-feet apart and now, 6 years later, the screen works well. It is 7-feet tall and has filled in nicely. For privacy elsewhere on the property a neighbor put what Sonia calls a “shiny white plastic fence”. She planted red daylilies on their side of it, one called ‘Salieri’ (after the composer) and it is a fabulous contrast to the fence.
Tiger Eye Sumac
Other woody plants that Tom has installed include two kinds of decorative sumac (Rhus typhina), ‘Tiger Eye’ and ‘Lacinata’. Sumacs have extensive root systems that send up suckers, often creating large thickets that are difficult to control. But Tom does not worry about that. “I really liked the form of the sumac and its Oriental look. I really wanted it. I planted it in a place that I thought I could control it by mowing around it, and so far it’s fine,” he said.
Another favorite shrub of Tom and Sonia’s is ‘Limelight’ hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata). This is a trademarked variety of the Proven Winners Company. As its name suggests, the panicles (blossoms) are a lime green, though they turn pinkish in the fall. The plants get to be 6-8 feet tall and wide, and are hardy to Zone 3. According to Sonia, “All the hydrangeas are very happy here, and they seem to fit the Victorian nature of the home.” They grow numerous kinds of lilac, which also are appropriate for the era of the home.
Tom’s lot is perhaps 3 or 4 times larger than a standard city lot, so big perennial flowers work well there. Tree scabiosa (Cephalaria gigantea), for example, grows to be 5-7 feet tall and displays bright yellow 2-inch flowers. It is hardy to Zone 3. They grow a couple of interesting burnets (Saguisorba spp.) including ‘Pink Elephant’ and ‘Pink Brushes’, both big plants that they purchased at Opus Plants in Little Compton, Rhode Island (www.opustopiarium.com). When I looked at the plant list of Opus Plants on-line, I was amazed to see many very hard to find perennials, and plan to visit them soon.
Other big flowers include a fall aster, a variety called ‘Hella Lacey’ and Virginia mallow (Sida hermaphrodita). Virginia mallow grows up to 10 feet tall with big lobed leaves and small white flowers. It is a flower native to Pennsylvania and neighboring states, but is considered endangered.
Tom and Sonia
Tom and Sonia have planted several nice decorative grasses including Siberian Greybeard (Spodiopogon sibericus) and Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra), one of the few grasses I know that will grow in shade.
There really are too many interesting plants in Tom and Sonia’s garden to mention them all. I do know that next June I will visit again to see their peony collection when it’s in bloom – they have a great selection, particularly of white and coral colored ones, which Sonia says “just glow at dusk”. I can’t wait to see them.
Learning about Gardening
Posted on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 · Leave a Comment
While it’s true that I spend a lot of time studying and reading about plants, much of what I know comes from paying attention – outdoors, in the garden. Observation is a great teacher, I recommend it to you. Here are a few of my recent observations.
Blazing Star
Last week I was admiring a nice stand of blazing star, also called gayfeather (Liatris spp.). It is a spiky plant with bluish-purple flowers (or occasionally white) and in my part of the world it is just coming into bloom. The flower stalks stand up anywhere from 18-36 inches in clumps that increase in size each year. I’ve not had much luck with it – mine has tended to disappear after a year or two. I have tried 3 or more different species of it, none of which was long lived.
The owner of the Liatris offered me a clump or two, saying that her stand – 50 or more plants distributed over a 20 foot circle – was made up of “volunteers” that had all come from one plant. I was amazed to discover (when I went to dig out a clump) that they were not rooted in the earth. They were growing in the 2-3 inches of bark mulch that was sitting on weed mat that is impenetrable to roots. A light bulb went on in my head.
What I learned is that Liatris does well in dry, lean soil – or no soil at all (bark mulch has little nutritional value to plants). It needs no fertilizer. I have a garden with rich soil full of organic matter, and in most places on my property the soil stays moist, even in dry times. In the winter it can be downright soggy. Looking in Steven Still’s book, Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants I read confirmation: “One should avoid soggy soil situations during the winter.” Aha! I should have checked before I planted. He also notes that Liatris blooms from top of the stem downward, the opposite of most flower spikes.
Digging out a small dandelion in my vegetable garden recently I got the entire root by loosening the soil around it with my CobraHead weeder. As I was about to toss the weed into a bucket I noticed an inch section of the root was as almost as thick as a pencil but the rest was much smaller. Aha! I≠d had help in my garden, and one of my weeders had pulled a dandelion but broken off the root. That small section of root had spawned a new plant.
The lesson from that dandelion? Be careful pulling weeds, particularly those that are perennial or have tap roots. Even a small section left in the ground will produce a new plant. I know people who rototill their gardens year after year, chopping up dandelion roots, grasses and annual weeds. The annual weeds can be killed by tilling; grasses and perennial weeds usually are not.
If you hear a root snap when you are weeding, a plant will probably come back. So loosen the soil well, and try to get the entire weed. Weed when the soil is moist, even if it means watering before weeding. And use a good tool like the CobraHead (www.cobrahead.com) to get under weeds to loosen roots.
Snakeroot
It’s been hot and dry recently, which is not a great time for transplanting perennials. But I was installing a new garden bed, and we had a spot for a large plant. I wanted a full-sized bugbane or snakeroot (Cimicifuga racemosa) for the spot, although few nurseries sell plants the size I wanted. But I had one in my garden – a volunteer that had elbowed its way in. A gorgeous plant, it stood over 5-feet tall but was shading out the neighboring plants. It needed to go.
I hadn’t dug a snakeroot in a long time, but decided it was worth a try after Anne Sprague at Edgewater Farm in Plainfield, NH told me that it has a shallow root system and transplants quite well (things with deep tap roots or fleshy tubers are not so easy to transplant).
I dug the plant early in the morning, and re-planted it with half an hour. I dug it out with my drain spade. This is a pointed spade that is long and narrow: 16 inches long and only 5 or 6 inches wide, available at your local hardware store. I went around the plant, poking my spade under the roots at a 45 degree angle and lifting it slightly by pulling down on the handle. Once I had gone all around the plant, I pried it up and scooped up the plant.
Superthrive
Yes, that snakeroot took some special care for a week or more. I checked on it, watered it daily, even talked to it – words of encouragement cannot hurt. I also administered a solution of Superthrive (www.superthrive.com), a concentrated vitamin and hormone mixture that seems to reduce signs of plant stress. It’s expensive – $12 or more for 4 ounces, but only half a teaspoon is needed in a 2-gallon watering can. I’ve been using it for years, and seen stressed plants recover remarkably quickly when they get it. It’s not a fertilizer, but I often mix it in with some liquid fish fertilizer when I transplant.
Gardening for me is a passion. I love digging in the soil, planting, seeing new plants develop and grow. By observing well and remembering what works, I have created some very special gardens. You can, too.
Gardening: A Metaphor for Life
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Gardening can be considered a metaphor for life. Some gardeners like their gardens – and their lives – simple and predictable. They plant things that they know will succeed and look good: daffodils, daylilies, marigolds, purple cone flowers and such. I grow all those things, but I like to take some risks, too. After all, I could be run over by a bus before the end of the growing season (though my mother did a good job of teaching me to look both ways before crossing). And I want to have the joys of growing special plants that are not necessarily hardy here.
I’m a plant collector and get great joy in growing plants that are outside their climatic zone (or that require special conditions) and seeing them do well. Taking a risk in the garden is different than racing motorcycles or skiing down the north face of Mt. Washington. Yes, I did once spend $75 on a yellow ladyslipper that did not make it through the winter because a dog dug it up, exposing the roots. But that was not personally perilous. I recommend taking some risks in the garden.
Calycanthus Floridus
My most recent ≈risk≈ was planting a shrub variously called, spicebush, Carolina allspice or sweet bubby. Those names are from my bible of woody plants, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants by Michael Dirr. Sweet bubby – that’s worth planting just for the name! Its Latin name is Calycanthus floridus Just as plants with botanical names including canadensis indicate northern origins, plants with floridus indicate southern plants. So it may not do well here.
I am a sucker for plants in bloom. I was recently at EC Brown≠s nursery in Thetford Hill, VT (www.ecbrownsnursery.com) and saw that new-to-me shrub, spicebush or sweet bubby, in bloom, and had to take one home. The blossoms are a deep dark red, globe-shaped and about 2 inches in diameter. According to Dirr≠s book, it is considered hardy to Zone 4, but “-15 or -20 is the breakpoint – flowers occur on short shoots from leaf axils along the entire stem length, i.e. where buds are present; even if shoot tips are winter killed, the potential for good flowering is excellent.” So I am optimistic that it will survive and thrive for me.
After my sister, Ruth Anne Mitchell, died unexpectedly two years ago I planted some plants of dubious hardiness here in her honor. Ruth Anne was a risk taker – she was an intrepid international traveler who thought nothing of hiking a hundred mile through a war zone such as Liberia during the civil war there. While working for an international aid agency she was once captured by teenage rebels carrying automatic weapons and who were high on drugs. They thought she would be scared. Not so. She lectured them, and asked if they would treat their mothers like that. Chagrinned, they brought her to their adult leader who reprimanded them and then let her continue on her way.
Among the plants that I planted in memory of Ruth Anne that did not survive were bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), trailing arbutus (Epigea repens) and that yellow ladyslipper. I also planted 3 blue Himalayan poppies (Meconopsis betonicifolia ), and 2 died that first winter. The third bloomed but died the following winter. Undaunted, I bought 3 more from Cady≠s Falls Nursery (www.cadysfallsnursery.com) in Morrisville, VT this year. That one successful poppy, with true sky-blue blossoms, gave me great joy, taught me where to plant it – and gave me the willingness to try again.
Darmera peltata
Of all the flowers I planted for Ruth Anne, the most successful was the umbrella plant (Darmera peltata). My bible of perennials, Steven Stills≠ Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants, lists it as only hardy in Zones 5-7 (minus 20 to zero in the coldest parts of winter). The first year after planting it limped along, but this spring it sent up numerous flower spikes with lovely pink flowers before the leaves appeared. And now those umbrella leaves are a foot across and the clump covers a 4-foot circle.
The key to out-of-zone success is getting the soil and sun requirements right for the plant. Acidity, drainage and exposure to cold winds really do make a difference. Even though the books by Dirr and Stills cost well over $100 for the pair, I think they are worth the investment: they tell you not only cold hardiness, they tell you what kind of soil is needed. I know the world wide web is supposed to have all answers, but I like an authoritative book that I can depend on.
Most nurseries have Dirr’s book on hand, and will let you read it before deciding if you should invest in a woody plant. Dirr’s book is very personal, with his strong feelings expressed, and anecdotes about where he has seen a particular plant growing. I use Stills≠ book to tailor the soil for perennials at planting time: he details the fertility needed, so I know if I should add plenty of organic fertilizer, just a little, or none at all.
Take a good look at your own garden. Are you willing to try some new plants? I spent hours this past weekend pulling out the roots of Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra) so that I could plant my new spicebush or Œsweet bubby≠. And if it doesn≠t survive? Well, I’ll have a good place to try another interesting plant!
Keeping the Deer at Bay, the Weeds at an Arm’s Length
Posted on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Karen Gillock and her husband, Rick Simons, live near the end of a dead-end dirt road in Cornish, NH. Karen has a big vegetable garden with 3 dozen tomato plants and much more. The garden allows them to eat fresh produce all summer and put up a year’s worth of tomato sauce each fall. Because she has a busy professional life, Karen has devised systems to produce her summer’s bounty with a minimum of effort – and to protect it from a forest full of hungry deer.
wood-sided raised beds
This spring Karen decided to install wood-sided raised beds, each 3- by 8-feet. That’s a nice size: she can reach the middle of a bed from either side without straining. She had the beds made using rough-sawn hemlock obtained from a local saw mill. The boards for the beds are a full 2- by 8-inches. Hemlock is quite resistant to rot, and with luck should last 8 to10 years. Pine will work, but won’t last as long. Pressure treated wood should be avoided as toxins from it may leach into the soil.
landscape fabric to cover each bed
Weeding is not one of Karen’s favorite pastimes. For years she has spread black landscape fabric over her entire garden to exclude the weeds, just slicing the fabric as needed to make room for her plants. This year, with the new wood beds, she has had to modify the arrangement slightly, cutting landscape fabric to cover each bed. Rick ordered a roll of good quality landscape fabric (one you cannot tear and that is rated for 15 years of use outdoors). The fabric allows rain to penetrate, but no sun – which keeps out the weeds.
Karen had the beds filled with her garden soil and enriched it with extra compost. A tractor with a bucket did the job in just a few hours (instead of days of back-breaking labor that would be required to do it by hand). Then, with a helper, she stretched the landscape fabric over the beds and stapled it in place, carefully folding the fabric on the corners the way you might wrap a present. Her stapler is the kind used by builders for installing insulation, not an office type.
To plant the beds, Karen sliced through the fabric, cutting a row or open square big enough to insert the plants or seeds. This fall she will use duct tape to close the slits and next year will plant into different places.
For some plants – lettuce for example – weeds never had a chance. As the plants got bigger, they shaded out any daring young weeds. Others, such as her prize tomatoes, had enough space to grow a few weeds, too, but many fewer than if she had just planted them uncovered in the ground. Another advantage of the fabric: some tomato blights are soil-borne and infect plants when the spores splash up onto the lower leaves. The fabric should minimize that splash-up, though some blight is air-borne, so it’s not a sure preventive for blight.
Then there are the deer. Instead of fencing the entire garden, Karen decided to build shields over some beds with veggies that appeal to deer. Deer always go for her lettuce, chard and – this year – they have gone after peppers and broccoli, too. But her tomatoes have never been bothered by her deer, nor have they eaten her herbs, onions, cucumbers or squash.
Protecting plants from deer
Rick got her a roll of 4-foot wide welded steel fencing (with 2-inch openings) and a roll of 2-foot wide fencing (with 1-inch openings). Using tins snips, Karen cut 7-foot lengths of fencing and arched them over the 3-foot wide beds. Each bed needed 2 pieces of the 4-foot wide fencing to cover its 8-foot length. She used plastic tie-wraps to attach the two pieces of fencing side-by side. It is heavy enough that it doesn’t flop or bend, but stands up nicely and can be lifted off for harvesting. Karen used the 2-foot wide fencing to make end pieces to keep the dome structurally sound and to prevent enterprising deer from sticking their heads inside to grab a bite of her lettuce.
With left over fencing Karen surrounded the beds that were not covered with domes that might be of interest to deer. She was surprised when the deer walked into the enclosed section of garden – she had left just a small open “doorway” so that she could get in herself. Lesson learned: hungry deer are not afraid of walking into small enclosures if they see something they want. So she surrounded those beds with 4-foot fencing attached to grade stakes, right next to the beds. The beds are small enough that deer haven’t jumped over the fence to get inside such tight quarters.
The best arrangement I’ve ever seen for thwarting deer was at Fort Ticonderoga. There is a vegetable garden that is protected (after the tourists go home) with an electric horse fence. It is one that could easily be jumped by deer, but the deer are afraid of it. Each night workers spread peanut butter on squares of aluminum foil, attach the squares with clothes pins, then turn on the fence. Deer come, attracted to the smell of peanut butter. The smart deer just taste the electrified peanut butter once. The dummies learn more slowly, but never cross the fence. It must give them quite a jolt.
Grow Up! Build a Trellis to Use Your Vertical Spaces
Posted on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Most of us think we need more garden space. But once we have carved out a garden and removed the grass from the lawn or field, it is often difficult to find more space – or the energy – to expand. But growing plants on vertical supports will help you save space in the vegetable garden. Bean tripods are well known, but have you thought about a trellis for your cucumbers or gourds? I recently designed and installed 24 wood-sided raised beds for a demonstration vegetable garden at Home Hill Inn, in Plainfield, NH. Each bed is 4-by 8-feet, and although that may sound like a lot of space, it gets used up quickly. I built some trellises to help grow more vegetables and save space.
trellis
The first trellis I built for was for cukes. It is an A-frame built using conventional 1- by 4-inch pine lumber. I bought pine boards that had already been sanded and primed, then applied a coat of exterior latex white paint. I used 8 boards, 4 on each half of the A-frame (2 legs and 2 cross pieces on each side). I also bought a pair of inexpensive door hinges and some 1-inch galvanized dry wall screws.
On a flat piece of lawn I began by laying out 2 boards, end to end. I attached the boards with the hinges so that later I could stand up them up to make the legs for an A-frame. I repeated with another 2 boards. Then I placed the 2 sets of legs 6-feet apart and connected them with cross pieces on what would become the inside of the A-frame. Using a cordless drill, I attached them with 1-inch screws 18 inches from the bottom of the legs of the A-frame and 18 inches from the top.
I set up the A-frame in the garden bed and attached plastic netting I had bought for the job. The netting is 78 inches wide, and has openings 6 inches by 7 inches. To attach the net I used 1-inch screws on the inside of the A-frame; I put the screws in just half way so that the head of the screw could be used to hook the netting on to, pulling it tight. It took a little experimentation to get the spacing right, but worked slick as a bean.
Arbor Trellis
The next trellis was a bit more work. I wanted to build a trellis for gourds that would allow the vines to go up 6 feet or so, then range across cross pieces like a grapes on an arbor, hanging down inside the arbor. I bought 10 pieces of 8-foot long bamboo, each almost an inch and a half in diameter. They make good sturdy poles.
Using a post hole digger I dug 6 holes, each about 16 inches deep. The arbor is a rectangle approximately 6 feet by 3 feet, fitting nicely inside the 4 by 8-ft bed. Each end of the bed had 2 poles about 6 inches from the end and side of the bed, and 2 were place equidistant between the end poles. I held the poles vertical as I added soil back into the hole, checking it for plumb with a small level. I tamped down the soil in the holes with a shovel handle, then mounded the soil up around each pole.
With the 6 pieces in the ground, I added cross pieces (a foot down from the top of the upright poles) on each long side. I attached the bamboo with copper wire I had stripped out of 14-gauge building wire (I was an electrician in an earlier life, and had some in the cellar). I wrapped the wire around the vertical and horizontal pieces and tightened them up with a pair of pliers. Lastly I added 4 cross-pieces on the top to support the vines and allow the gourds to hand down from.
Bean Tripod
I also built a bean tripod. I went into the woods and cut down 6 maple saplings about 2-inches in diameter at the base; I trimmed each to be 8-feet long. I pushed the poles into the soft earth of the garden bed, and, standing on a step ladder, brought them together and tied them near their tops – where all 3 were touching. I used garden twine, but will go back soon and add some copper wire – I fear the string will rot before the end of summer.
Another way to make a bean trellis is to use four 6-foot (or 8-foot) grade stakes. These are 1-inch by 1-inch hardwood stakes. Drill a hole 2 inches from the top of each that is big enough to insert a length of metal coat hanger. Cut a 6-inch straight piece of the coat hanger, insert it though the holes, and bend the ends. Then stand it up and spread the legs – two on each side.
Peas are traditionally trellised using chicken wire and posts. My only suggestion is this: put in a post every 4 to 6 feet. That will keep the wire from sagging and flopping as the vines get heavy. You can’t put up a sturdy trellis that spans 8 feet or more between posts, though I drive by gardens that try to.
So if you’re short of garden space, think about getting your veggies up off the ground. In other words, grow up!
Weather Worries – Not to Worry!
Posted on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 · Leave a Comment
It seems as if the weather is getting more extreme: tornadoes, floods, drought, heat waves, cold spells. What≠s a gardener to do? Well, stop worrying, for starters. Each year the weather is different – and most years we still have nice flowers, and eventually have the lettuce and tomato for a good sandwich. And unless you≠re a commercial farmer, your life and livelihood will not be too adversely affected, even if the weather is bad. There are a few steps we can take to help our flowers and vegetables along, however.
Planting anything is best done on a cool, cloudy day – or even in a light sprinkle. If we’ve had a few days of rain, it≠s better to wait for the soil to dry out a little before planting. Rototilling wet soil is definitely a no-no, and walking on wet soil can compact it, ruining soil structure.
Adding compost, or aged cow manure, will help any soil. If you have sandy soil, it will act as a sponge to hold moisture from percolating right through. If you have a clay soil, it will improve drainage and make the soil lighter and fluffier – and more receptive to roots. Avoid fresh cow or horse manure as it will introduce grass and weed seeds to your soil – those animals don’t digest all the seeds.
tomatoes
I planted my tomatoes on a warm dry day in early June, and we almost immediately got hit by a spell of days in the 90’s. I had grown these babies from seed, and hardened them off outside, but a big, leafy tomato can lose a lot of water in the hot sun when it’s 94. So I created some shade for my tomatoes by draping row cover over the tomato cages. It helped.
Row cover is a spun synthetic fabric that is used to keep insects off plants while allowing water vapor and sunshine to pass through. It also can keep a plant a few degrees warmer early or late in the season if draped right over it. Row cover comes in various weights, and I had some of the heaviest type. It did a good job of shading my plants when placed the cages (and kept in place with clothes pins). I also kept the soil well watered during the heat wave.
A few words about watering: I don’t like overhead sprinklers. Yes, they are easy to turn on and let the machine do the work. But they get the leaves of your plants wet, and that can encourage fungal diseases. Most fungi send out hyphae (root-like appendages) that pierce the leaf, allowing the fungus to infect the plant. Many need a moist leaf surface to do that. Watering in the evening with an overhead sprinkler moistens the leaves and makes them more susceptible.
Watering Wand
I like watering with a watering wand. This is a nice 30-inch long metal handle with a watering rose on one end and a shut-off on the other. The brand I like best is Dramm. It sends out a nice gentle spray, even with the water pressure up fairly high. I find the less expensive watering devices send sharp sprays, which can damage the plants or wash away the soil. I like the watering wand because I can deliver water to the root zone while letting the tops stay dry.
Newly planted trees and shrubs need to be watered weekly, or even more often if the soil is sandy and temperatures are high. The most common cause of first-year death of trees is dehydration. But don≠t just give your new tree a quick squirt. Time how long it takes for your hose to deliver 5 gallons of water into a bucket, and then make sure to spray long enough to deliver 5 gallons – in a nice wide circle around the tree. Watering the rootball is not enough √ dry soil nearby will wick the water away, leaving the rootball dry in no time.
Many gardeners put down bark mulch in established perennial beds. This keeps down the weeds and holds in moisture. But if you add more mulch each year to pretty-up the beds, you can develop a layer of bark that is almost impermeable to rain. I find an inch to an inch-and-a-half of mulch is adequate. And I try to leave a little donut hole around the plant so that quick showers can deliver some water to the roots.
Recently I examined some maples that were dying in a parking lot √ the top half of one was completely leafless, the others also showed some leaf loss. These trees were suffering from bark rot due to ≥mulch volcanoes≈. Each had at least 6 inches of bark mulch right up against the trunk. I predict that all will be dead from bark rot within 2-3 years. And all will struggle getting any moisture. So be judicious in applying your mulch.
If we have another week of rainy weather, your vegetables like tomatoes may show yellowing leaves – a sign of stress. This occurs because normally plants pull up nitrogen and other minerals from the soil with water that is used to replace water lost to transpiration on sunny days – but not in rainy spells. The solution: spray liquid fish fertilizer onto the leaves. The leaves will absorb the nitrogen and green up.
So don’t worry, be happy. No matter what the weather, your garden will (eventually) be just fine.
Wildflowers That Are Not So Wild
Posted on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 · Leave a Comment
Every time I travel to a far-off place I am intrigued to see what is growing in a different climate – and what I might learn about plants that I grow here that also grow under different conditions. I recently had a fabulous hike down the Rogue River Canyon of Oregon in prime wildflower season. The trip was organized and supported by Rogue Wilderness Adventures (www. wildrogue.com or 800-336-1647). Although we hiked most of the way – some 40 miles in 4 days – the trip was supported by rafts that carried our stuff (or us, if we got tired). That meant I could hike with just a day pack – and not worry about the weight of wildflower books.
coral bells (Heuchera spp.)
So what did I see? For starters, coral bells (Heuchera spp.).Coral bells are commonly sold in garden centers in the standard green-leafed form as well as lime green, orange, purple and variegated-leaf varieties. The plants generally have very thin flower stalks that stand up well above the leaves and terminate in small but handsome bell-shaped blossoms. I grow a number of varieties including a purple-leafed one that I think is called ‘Persian Carpet≠ (those pesky tags are routinely stolen by the garden gnomes). I grow Persian Carpet≠ in light shade in soil that is rich in compost – in full sun the color of the leaves tends to bleach out. I grow the standard green-leafed variety in full sun with rich, moist soil. It has orange-pink blossoms that look lovely in a vase.
Coral bells were growing in both sun and shade along the Rogue River, including some growing right out of the rock in walls that face the afternoon sun. Generally there was a little seepage at this time of year, and moss was present that also held a little water. Still, these plants (which I identified as Heuchera micrantha) are growing in a much tougher environment than those in my garden. Winters, however, are much milder out there – just a few days below freezing.
I was not surprised to see sedum growing on the rocks out there. Sedums of all sorts are used as rock garden plants here, including my favorite, Sedum rupestre “Angelina”. Angelina has chartreuse foliage, but no flowers; it≠s an excellent groundcover. The sedum (sometimes called stonecrop) I saw out there was Sedum spathufolium which had grey to green leaves, and bright yellow flowers on 3-5 inch stems. As with sedums here, this one is very drought tolerant, sometimes growing right on rocks with no apparent soil.
Iris innominata
Iris tenax
I was surprised to see iris growing in deep shade along the Rogue River and blossoming profusely. Many sun-lovers, (and I consider iris to be a sun-loving plant) will grow and survive in shade, but bloom minimally. Not so with the iris I saw there. I identified 2 species of shade-loving iris: Iris innominata and Iris tenax. I did a Google search and found GrowsonYou, a website in the United Kingdom (http://www.growsonyou.com) that sells both species of iris. They do not offer our zone hardiness ratings, however, so they may not be viable here. This winter, when I have more time to do a more thorough Web search, I may be able to buy seeds and start my own plants, which is better than getting plants from overseas.
California poppies
I grow California poppies here from seed, and saw plenty of them in grassy, sunny meadows there. The California poppy is a very bright yellow annual poppy. I don≠t find them re-seeding for me, or not very often. Like annual poppies, they start easily from seed.
larkspur
Another annual flower that I saw there and grow here is larkspur. It is the annual form of delphinium, a perennial that many gardeners grow. Larkspur is readily available in 6-packs from garden centers, or you can start your own. I have learned not to try starting larkspur indoors in early spring, as it needs cold soil to germinate. If you want to grow it from seed, it is best to start it outdoors in the early spring. The blue of the larkspur in Oregon was truly wonderful: a bright, bold, medium to dark blue. I was surprised to see it growing in both sun and shady locations.
Wild columbine is common along the Rogue. Columbine comes in several colors, though there it is just the red columbine (Aquilegia formosa). Here I have a deep purple that is almost black, and hybrids in blues, pinks and light colors. Columbines in the wild here I see mostly growing on rocky outcroppings. It is a short-lived perennial that is easily started from seed – and often sows seeds itself. I find my columbine sends “volunteers” where I didn’t plant them.
The last of my flowers that I saw there was a lesser known perennial known as umbrella plant (Darmera peltata). It was growing right on the banks of the river, and in the river where the water was high. I planted an umbrella plant in 2009 in memory of my late sister, Ruth Anne, right next to my stream. In 2010 it limped along, but this spring it bloomed beautifully: pink flowers on tall stems that appeared before foliage in early May. And this year the foliage is big and luxuriant.
So if you travel, look to see where plants grow in their native habitats. It may help you understand that we sometimes pamper our plants too much, and they can do fine on their own.
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