No Mow May
Posted on Tuesday, April 25, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Dandelions in lawn help feed pollinators early in the spring
In 2019 a British non-profit called Plantlife coined the phrase “No Mow May”. They proposed that gardeners leave their mowers in storage for the month of May in order to let wildflowers and weeds bloom and provide pollen and nectar for pollinators. And of course the caterpillars of many pollinators feed all our baby birds, so the ramifications are vast.
Early spring is a tough time for pollinators, especially here in New England as there are not many flowers to visit. I like the idea of a simple action that can have positive effects on so many species of wildlife.
The most obvious advantage to you is that you have a few extra hours to do other things in your garden. May is a busy time for most of us: raking out beds, pulling weeds that wintered over and are starting to grow in our beds. Planting early vegetables and flowers. Shopping for new plants. We can even bask in the sun like seals if we have the time to do so.
Electric mowers have improved greatly in the past few years. They are quiet and non-polluting
Next, you are not spending any money on gas or electricity (if you have a battery-powered mower). Most gas powered mowers do not have the emission controls that are required for cars. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one hour operating a new gasoline lawn mower emits the same amount of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide as driving a new car 45 miles.
According to the EPA, lawn mowers and other garden machines like leaf blowers, string trimmers, etc., contribute as much pollution as our cars and homes. The statistics on lawns are deceiving; two percent of the land mass in America is lawn. But that is more square miles of land than all the corn grown here. Roughly 80% of homes have at least some lawn.
If we mow our lawns from May to the end of October, that’s six months of mowing. Eliminating one month of mowing reduces those emissions by 17%. Good for the environment, good for the wallet.
We stopped mowing this lawn and here it is in late August
For the last two years I have been installing trees in what was a 5-acre lawn in Hanover, NH. So far we have planted about 150 of them – and we largely stopped the mowing, just leaving pathways throughout. The owners now have their field mowed everywhere just once every two years to control growth of unwanted woody plants like poplars, which spread by root.
We were delighted last spring to see the field come alive in spring. At least a dozen species of flowers bloomed, probably more. And the bees and other pollinators just loved it.
You must be wondering what happened when we just stopped mowing. Grass grew, and largely flopped over as it got taller. It was nothing like the unruly 2- or 3-foot tall mess that the mowing guys predicted. We were always able to walk anywhere in the field even though it was not mowed. Of course, when the mowing crew shows up soon, they have big, industrial-scale mowers that will chew up anything.
For your home lawn you may want to pay attention to how tall the grass gets in May. Presumably your push mower or electric mower will not mow tall grasses as easily as the riding mowers used on the field described above. If you can only avoid mowing for two or three weeks, it’s still better than mowing it short every week in May.
Another advantage to the No Mow May is that you will probably end up with a better, more resilient lawn in times of drought. The longer your grass, the more food it produces for the roots, allowing them to grow longer and deeper.
Your lawn might complain about being mowed short on June 1. So put the blades up as high as they go, to avoid giving the lawn that “scalped” look. The lower parts of blades of grass may be a little pale in color as they were shaded out by the taller parts. Leave your lawn a little longer this year – it doesn’t have to look like the infield of Fenway Park.
What about bare spots on the lawn? These are often filled in with crabgrass, an annual weed. For large areas, you will need to plant new lawn seed – the sooner the better.
This part of the lawn needs re-seeding
Filling in empty spots can be done in May by scratching the soil with a short-tined rake to loosen the surface. Add half an inch of compost and mix it in with the soil. Then spread seed over it – just broadcast it with your hand in small areas. I use a lawn/leaf rake to mix the seed in with the soil: I flip over the rake and drag it lightly over the area, which mixes in the seed well. If you have a metal tamper, use it to press down the planted area. If not, use a small board and step on it.
I never fertilize my lawn, and it looks fine to me. If your lawn is a little feeble, check the soil pH. If it is too acidic, you can spread some limestone. Lawn grass prefers nearly neutral pH.
So take a break from mowing this May. Tell your neighbors what’s going on, so they won’t call you a lazy slug! You are just being environmentally conscious. Thanks!
Henry is an organic
gardener who has lived in the same house since he bought it in 1970. He is the author of 4
gardening books. Reach him at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Early Spring Bloomers
Posted on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 · Leave a Comment
I like to have blossoms in the garden and in vases everywhere. I try to have something blooming all the time – or as often as possible. Right now, in mid-April, I count more than ten species of plants in bloom, along with seven species of bulb plants which are blooming by the hundred for me.
Leatherwood
Let’s start with trees and shrubs – what I call woodies. The most unusual woody is leatherwood (Dirca palustris). This is a native woodland plant that does well in part shade. Although the literature says it prefers moist, rich soil, I have it in dry soil and it does well there.
Leatherwood has small greenish-yellow flowers that appear about the same time as forsythia –mid April for me. Mine is slow growing with lovely gray bark that reminds me of beeches. This is a well-mannered, slow growing plant that stays 3- to 6-feet tall and wide.
February Daphne (Daphne mezereum) is in bloom now with highly fragrant pinky-purple flowers. It is originally from Europe, Turkey and Iran. I love it so much I named a corgi after it (she is now gone, alas). It stays 3-5-feet tall and wide. In the fall it has produces small red berries.
I named a dog after this shrub, Daphne mezereum or February daphne
Magnolias are in bloom now, too. My favorite is the Merrill magnolia, a hybrid which produces double white, lightly fragrant flowers. I planted mine as a small tree in 2004, and now, 19 years later, it is about 40 feet tall with a spread of 25 feet. It blooms reliably (nine years out of ten) on my birthday, April 23. It is a good specimen tree to put in a lawn, and will do well even if the soil is consistently moist to soggy.
These magnolias come as both single-stem and multi-stem trees, but most are multi-stemmed, as mine is. However, when the stems get big they grow together at their base. Sometimes the included bark rots and weakens the stems, making them susceptible to splitting. I removed one big stem on mine two years ago and the tree has recovered.
Forsythias are in bloom everywhere with bright yellow flowers. If yours only blooms down low, in the area covered by snow, the buds which were formed last summer were killed by the winter cold. So get rid of it and buy a new variety such as New Hampshire Gold, Vermont Gold or Meadowlark. All are hardy throughout New England.
Drumstick primroses
My favorite early spring perennial is called the drumstick primrose (Primula denticulata). It comes with flowers in purple, blue, pink, magenta and white. The florets are small and arranged in 2-to 3-inch globes on 6-inch stems. They do best in moist to wet soil in sun or partial shade.
Hellebores or Lenten Roses (Helleborus orientalis) are also wonderful spring flowers. Mine have been blooming for a couple of weeks already and will continue on for another month or so. The blossoms are 5-petaled and 2- to 3- inches wide with yellow stamens in the center. Colors range from white and cream to pink, purple and nearly black. They are evergreen, but last year’s leaves should be cut off now as they are all bedraggled.
A dainty flower with beautiful finely-cut foliage is a spring ephemeral called corydalis or fumewort (Corydalis solida). It pops up in my garden where it wishes, and I am always glad to welcome it. It seems to do best in moist, part shade with rich soil. The flowers on mine are small, long-spurred light blue, but other colors are also possible. There is a yellow variety of a related species (C. lutea).
Corydalis solida
Lungwort or pulmonaria (Pulmonaria spp.) is a good ground cover that is blooming for me now, too. It is interesting that a single stem might support blue, pink or apricot flowers all at once. All do well in shade or partial shade and better in moist soils than dry soils. It spreads by root.
There are at least a dozen different species of pulmonaria including P. longifolia with spotted leaves and multicolored blossoms. The one I like best is P. angustifolia which has very intense blue flowers and solid green leaves. I’ve read that varieties or species with more white spots grow better in full sun than those with fewer or no spots.
Wildflowers are starting to bloom, including one of my favorites, bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). These white multi-petaled flowers come up from the soil wrapped in the leaves that look like a green cigar. In cold days, or at night, the blossoms close up but open on sunny days when the bumblebees are working.
Double bloodroot is rare and not usually found in the wild but is sold in specialty nurseries
The bloom season of bloodroot is short, but there is double bloodroot which is sterile and blooms for a longer time. Like all bloodroots, the clumps get bigger every year, so you can dig them up and divide them to start doubles in new places. The sap from the roots is poisonous, so wear gloves when dividing any bloodroots. Do that in now, or in the fall.
We certainly deserve spring blossoms for having survived winter and mudseason. But you do have to plan and plant for those early bloomers.
Henry is the author of 4
gardening books and is a 25-year veteran of the Master
Gardener program. Reach him by email at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Things to Try … Or Not!!!
Posted on Saturday, April 15, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Are you in a rut? Spring is here, but most of us cannot plant anything outdoors due to cold nights or wet ground. Yes, you can plant seeds indoors and baby them until early summer, but that requires a place to grow them and lights to keep them happy. So maybe you should put on your thinking cap and decide what you want to do later on, and do some research.
Catalpa blooms for me in late June into July
For starters, you could join a plant society, of which there are many. If you love daylilies, join the American Hemerocalis Society. You will find people who love daylilies, too, but have much more knowledge than you ever will. You will learn how to collect seeds and to hybridize daylilies of new colors. Truth be told, there probably are no more new daylilies – someone has tried pretty much every cross of two varieties. Still, hundreds more are named every year.
Or what about the International Aroid Society? The Arum genus has a diverse collection of plants from skunk cabbage to Philodendrons to Colocasia yams. The Plumeria Society of America is focused solely on the 11 species of Plumeria – known as Frangipani in English. Hostas? Wildflowers? Boxwood or Bonsai? There are societies for each and every group.
Any easy project indoors would be to start an avocado tree. Avocados ripen in California starting in spring and going through summer. Winter avocados won’t usually sprout from their seeds – they have been in cold storage too long. The classic method it to perch a seed in a glass of water using 3 toothpicks to keep its bottom just kissing the water. Put the point end up and the fat end down. I cut one open recently, and it was already sprouting! So I planted it in a mixture of potting soil and compost. I let the sprout just peak out above the soil line.
The avocado tree lives inside all winter, but goes on the deck in summer
I have grown many avocado trees over the years, generally by recognizing the shiny leaves in my compost pile. So I know that you don’t have to suspend the seed in water – they will be glad to grow in compost. When I lived in West Africa I was able to buy avocados for a penny or two apiece, and often fed them to our cats. Cats love them because of their oil content. I have a 5-foot tall avocado tree growing in a 12-inch pot that lives as a house plant in winter, and goes out on the deck in summer. It started life in the compost pile.
Try to remember the favorite flowers of your grandparents, or your parents. This would be a good time to ask your mom, for example, what did her mom really love? My grandmother, who died in 1953, loved peonies. My mother, may she rest in peace, dug up one of her mom’s peonies and moved it from Spencer, MA to Woodbridge, CT and grew it for decades before I came along and divided it in the early 1980’s and brought a part of it to Cornish Flat, where I live. The peony I got is called ‘Festiva Maxima’ a highly fragrant double white, with splotches of red inside – blood from a fairy princess, I think.
If your Grammy loved roses, study your yard and figure out where one could go in loving memory of her. And do a little research now if you have never grown roses. Roses are easier to grow now than they were 40 or 50 years ago when Grammy was growing them. I love the ‘Knockout” series of roses. The Knockouts are not fragrant, so they do not attract Japanese beetles, and they bloom for months. They are highly resistant to diseases. They don’t have long stems, but sometimes I have dozens of blossoms at once – for months.
Think about planting an oak later in the month. Many gardeners don’t think of planting oaks saying they get too big, or grow too slowly. But it has been proven that oaks are the #1 best plant to support our birds, pollinators and mammals. And you can even plant a sprouting acorn now.
Oaks are pretty for us and food for caterpillars and wildlife
Oaks probably grow faster than you think. I planted several bareroot oaks in the spring of 2021. They were as thick as a pencil and only a foot or two tall. In two years many of them have taken off and are three feet tall or more, and will be ten feet tall in less than 5 years.
Want a fast-growing flowering tree? Plant a catalpa. They are native and the flowers are amazing. Fragrant, attractive. The leaves are huge – big enough that Native Americans used them for diapers for babies, I’ve read. I bought a 10-footer five years ago and now it already a shade tree – 25 feet tall with a 20-foot wide crown.
What else can you do? Grow a lot of something you love, starting from seed. I love rosemary, and recently bought a packet of seeds and planted 50 seeds. If all goes well, I will have plenty to share.
I will grow them on an electric heat mat (designed for use with seeds) as they germinate best at temperatures in the 70’s. Once they have germinated I will grow them under very bright LED lights, and will transplant them into rows in my vegetable garden in mid-June. Of course I will keep some in pots, and grow them on the deck.
Lastly, plan on growing a vegetable you have never grown before. Me? This is the year of the tomatillo. I did grow one once before, but only one plant and they are not self-pollinating. So this year I plan to plant 3 or 4. They are big plants, as big as tomato plants. You might try tiny decorative pumpkins, or huge ones. Or rutabagas.
Dreaming is part of being a gardener. Dream big. You’ll be glad you did.
More Chores for Spring
Posted on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Although I still have some snow around the house here in Cornish, NH, many of you may be looking at brown grass and mud. It will be some time before real spring weather is safely ensconced. We all want to get outside and enjoy warm, sunny days – and most of us are itching to do some work in the garden.
This plank will let me cut down this decorative grass without compacting the soil
If you do go outside, please be extra careful where you walk. Your lawn and gardens are probably soggy, and your footsteps can easily compact the soil and damage roots. Take a different route to your garden each time you go out. Game trails in the forest can be made by animals as small as a house cat due to compaction if they follow the same path, day after day. Plants do not thrive if their roots are in compacted soil.
I live on a dirt road, and each year the town plows dump sand and gravel mixed with snow on the lawn. I try to shovel that grit and snow back onto the road or haul it away while it is still mixed in with snow to cut down on raking later in spring. Use a soft rake – one with bamboo or plastic tines – when you rake the lawn so you will be less likely to tear up the grass as you rake.
If you have decorative grasses that overwintered, they are probably pretty bedraggled by now. It is better to cut down tall grasses before they start growing. Last year’s stems will not turn green- they grow new stems each year. The only problem you might have now is that they may be in a garden bed that you wish to avoid walking in. I use a serrated knife for the job, but pruners will work, too.
If you want to work in flower beds, find a couple of three-foot long 6- to 8-inch wide planks. Place them in your garden bed and step on them instead of the soil. They will distribute your weight and allow you to work while avoiding the problem of compacting the soil.
It’s time to clean out your birdhouses
If you have bluebird boxes or other nesting boxes, this is a good time to clean them out. I don’t know just when the bluebirds arrive and claim their nesting places, but I want to be ready for them. This would also be a good time to put up a bat house. Bats eat lots of mosquitoes so you should welcome them to your garden. Pre-made bat boxes are available, and directions to make your own are available on-line.
I love art and whimsy in my garden, and have all kinds of interesting art placed around my property. I recently noticed that some of it has tipped or fallen over. Depending on the nature of the whimsy, you might be able to right it now. Others, such as wire sculpture that has rods designed to go into the soil might have to wait. My soil is still frozen, which deterred me from fixing all of mine that needed straightening.
Fix art and whimsy that has fallen this winter
It’s too early here for me to rake leaves and clean up garden beds that need it. But I am picking up sticks that were blown out of trees. After a little drying time in the barn they will provide me with kindling for my woodstove.
In the past I piled up broken branches each year and burned it all in late winter while there was still plenty of snow around the pile. I have stopped creating burn piles, for two reasons. First, little animals may have settled into the burn pile over the winter, and I don’t want to evict them – or possibly kill them. And certainly there are lots of insects that overwinter in dead branches and stems of thing like goldenrod and bee balm – which used to go into the burn pile (but are now composted).
The second reason is environmental: the bonfires I enjoyed in the past send up a lot of smoke and air pollution, and I want to avoid doing that. Instead of burning those branches, we bought a chipper/shredder to make chipped branches that can be used on pathways to keep down weeds. Or they can be double-ground and the fine results are good for mulching or mixing with food waste in our compost pile.
Chipper shredders come in many sizes. We bought a gasoline-powered machine that will allegedly take 3-inch stems, but is actually better for things half that size and smaller. Manufacturers want to sell their products, so they tend to exaggerate a bit. But buy the most powerful machine you can afford. Ours cost $600 and is good for our needs.
This gas-powered chipper-shredder helps make mulch and compost materials
What don’t they tell you? Chipper/shredders are noisy and can be dangerous. Mine does not start in winter. One pass though the machine makes a rough mixture of shredded branches that is not aesthetically pleasing to my eye as a mulch. But this material is easily dumped in the top hopper for fine grinding. Electric machines are out there, but the ones I’ve tried are not as powerful as a gas-powered machine. Good for small branches and leaves, I suppose.
I’ll start my tomato seedlings around April 10 indoors. These I will plant outdoors around June 10. Vine crops I’ll plant later – early May will be fine for cukes, squash and pumpkins that will go out in mid-June. I don’t need to tend seedlings any longer than need be.
Spring and summer are just around the corner. So try to be patient and avoid compacting your soil. If you see foot prints in the soil, you should stay off it. Or wear your snowshoes to get around the garden!
Early Spring Chores
Posted on Wednesday, March 29, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Early spring is a good time to look at the trees and shrubs on your property when you are not distracted by flowers and leaves. Study your “woodies” now to see if they need some care– and if some plants need to be removed for the health or beauty of the remaining ones.
Buckthorn often grows with several stems in a tight grouping
If you have a wooded area on your property, it probably needs some help from you, especially if you haven’t done any thinning or grooming of trees in recent years. Start by going outside and really look at the trees growing on your property with a critical eye.
In nature trees grow willy-nilly. Where a seed lands is largely determined by chance. It is unable to know if it is 6 inches or 6 feet from another tree. If it germinates and grows it might be a good place, or it might be smack-dab next to another tree – or your house.
Ask yourself this question as you walk around your property at your trees: what is the future of this particular tree? How big does this type of tree grow to be? What will this one look like in 10 years? In 50? Is it too close to its neighboring trees or to the house? Is it shading your vegetable garden or favorite flower bed?
I’m a tree-hugger but I have no problem with cutting down trees when judicious removal is beneficial. Now is the time to plan on some careful thinning of trees to improve the health of your best trees and to improve the looks of your landscape.
Before you start tagging trees for culling, you need to learn to identify the trees on your property. A good guide is “A Guide to Nature in Winter” by Donald Stokes, a wonderful book that will help you with that. Because there are no leaves on most trees out there now, the Stokes book is great – it identifies trees by their bark, shape and buds. It also teaches much about all the other living things out there in the woods – from snow fleas to deer and everything in between.
Buckthorns still have black berries and small branches that are sub-opposite (see pair just above my finger) or opposite each other.
Trees that I cull from my woods include poplars (Populus spp.), boxelder (Acer negundo) and alders (Alnus spp.). These are fast-growing trees that are short-lived and that produce lots of seedlings.
Trees that I revere are maples, oaks, beeches, birches and hop hornbeams (Carpinus caroliniana). I would think long and hard about cutting down one of them. But if a fast-growing poplar were growing within six feet of one of my favorites, I would not hesitate to cut the popular down. Trees need plenty of space to do well.
Invasive shrubs make their way into most woods, too. Barberries, burning bush and honeysuckles are shrubs that can choke out native shrubs and many native wildflowers. I work on eliminating those every spring, but the honeysuckles are still ahead of me. Learn to identify them and tag them for removal.
There are a few buckthorns (Rhamnus spp.) moving into the neighborhood, and I am keeping a sharp eye to make sure none get established on my property. Buckthorns are foreign invaders that cannot be easily killed by cutting them down because they sprout up from their roots if you cut them down.
A weed wrench allows anyone to pull out invasive shrubs
To rid your property of buckthorns, you can pull young ones or girdle the older ones. Trees up to about 2.5 inches in diameter can be pulled with a tool designed for that purpose. It is often called a weed wrench, although the original Weed Wrench company has gone out if business. Another brand of weed wrench is called the “Pullerbear”. It is a steel tool with a gripping mouthpiece and a long handle that provides mechanical advantage. They come in several sizes and prices. For more info see www.pullerbear.com. I have not yet tried one of this brand, but they look like the old weed wrenches I have used.
If you cut down a mature buckthorn it will stimulate the roots to send up many suckers that will develop into new trees. To prevent this from happening, you need to girdle buckthorns twice about 12 inches apart. Cut through the bark severing the green cambium layer all the way around the trunk, but don’t cut deeply. They will usually survive two years before dying. Girdling starves the roots of food from the leaves.
You can girdle them now but doing so right after they leaf out in the spring is better. Just tag them now, and plan their demise. Some buckthorns develop multiple stems in a cluster, making it tough to girdle them, but it is possible using a pointed pruning saw.
These trees will never thrive, and most will die from crowding
Hemlocks and pines often grow so densely that their lower limbs die out because the sun never reaches their leaves. Removing those lower branches opens up the landscape – another task you could do now. And think about removing any wild grapes that are climbing your trees – they can kill them.
So enjoy the spring weather and make some plans for real spring.
Bringing Spring into the House
Posted on Wednesday, March 22, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Pussy willows in a dry vase
Even though spring has arrived according to the calendar, I fear winter is not done with us yet. Mother Nature is full of tricks, so I am not packing away my snow shovel just yet. But to reassure me that she will provide us with flowers this spring, I am forcing her hand a bit. Or should I say, forcing some woody stems to blossoms indoors now.
Each spring when winter seems to be carrying on forever, I cut stems of early-blooming trees and shrubs and bring them into the house to enjoy their blossoms. If you wish to try this, you need to know which trees and shrubs to use, and learn to identify buds that will produce flowers, not just leaves.
Forsythia forces easily indoors now
The easiest to force are forsythia and pussywillows. But it is also possible to force magnolias, rhododendrons and azaleas, apples and crabapples, cherries, plums, dogwood, spirea and peach. Of course cutting stems off your young peach or plum tree will reduce your fruit crop.
Trees and shrubs that bloom early in the season are quicker to produce their flowers. Shrubs like hydrangeas that bloom in late summer or fall will not bloom now, no matter what you do. I’ve never had much luck with lilacs, though perhaps if I tried closer to bloom time it would work.
In general, flower buds tend to be bigger and fatter than leaf buds. Apple and crabapple trees produce flower buds on short “fruit spurs” but not on those tall water sprouts that appear each summer. So if you are pruning your apples now, look for branches with short spurs and fat buds. Keep those, and bring them into the house.
I lost a plum tree this winter – it broke under the weight of snow and ice. It took 20 years from the time I planted a bare root twig to the time it first produced fruit. This year it was loaded with fruit spurs and I was looking forward to a big crop of plums. No matter, these things happen. I am making the best of it by cutting lots of stems with fruit spurs and placing them in vases in the house. I should get a multitude of blossoms in a few weeks.
Forsythia with flower buds in pairs
I am also cutting stems from forsythia bushes to bring in the house. Forsythia is one of the first to bloom outside, and one of the easiest to force inside. It produces bright yellow flowers in quantity. Look for branches with pointy buds on stems that are at least 2 years old. You will see skinny new-looking branches that grew last year. They probably won’t produce flowers. Stems that are closer in diameter to pencils are what you want. Older branches have stems growing out of them, often with flower buds.
Then there are the pussy willows. . What we call pussywillows are actually the male catkins – pollen-producing parts – of two species of willows (Salix caprea and Salix discolor). Both grow wild, and are available at nurseries.
Pussy willows, like all willows, like wet, swampy areas. They will grow up to be small trees, but can be kept to a manageable size with yearly pruning – and now is a good time to do so. The more you trim your pussy willows, the more vigorous and productive they will be. Left unpruned, pussy willows can easily reach 20 feet tall. Since they bloom on their upper branches, picking good-looking stems can be difficult unless you have a pole pruner.
An established pussy willow is next to impossible to kill. If you have wild pussy willow that is tall and gangly, you can take a saw and cut it all right to the ground. It will come back. It can grow four feet or more in a single season.
Fruit buds on plum tree
If you see yellow dust on your pussy willows, they are already producing pollen. So if you are allergy-prone, don’t pick stems with yellow on them. But you can halt pussy willows from producing pollen: pick them at their peak of beauty, and place them in a dry vase. They will stay looking the same for a year. If you pick them before they are fully developed, put them in a vase with water to let them mature. Drain off the water when the little gray kitties are at their cutest.
In 2005 I worked as a volunteer on an organic farm in the Dordogne region of France that grew willow for making baskets. I worked through an organization called Willing Workers on Organic Farms (
www.wwoof.org). In exchange for 4-6 hours of work each day I got room and board, lived with a family, and learned a lot about willows – including how easy it is to root them.
To root willows, cut 8-12 inch sections of vigorous young stems in May or June. Strip off the lower leaves, and push the stems into moist soil, leaving just 2 inches above ground. Roots will develop at each node (where leaves start) on the stem below ground; new stems and leaves will grow above ground, so long as you leave at least one node above ground. Depending on your soil, you may need to poke a hole in the ground with a screwdriver before inserting your willow stem; be sure the ground is firmed up around it when you are done.
So cut some stems to flower and chase away the late winter blues. It’s easy, and now is the time to do it.
Pruning Apple and Other Fruit Trees
Posted on Monday, March 20, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Ask a farmer, “When should I prune my apple trees?” and you will most likely hear, “March.” That’s an old tradition – but not because it is the only time to prune. You can prune any time. But March is a month on a farm when not so much is happening outdoors, and farmers have time to prune their apples. Me? I often prune in the fall, or later in the spring when the ground dries out and it warms up. I say, “Prune when you have the time and inclination.”
Fruit spur on an apple tree will produce fruit and leaves
Pruning serves a number of functions. First, for many of us, it helps to create a work of living sculpture. Most of us don’t need as many apples or peaches as healthy tree will produce. But we do enjoy seeing a well-balanced, aesthetically pleasing tree every day of the year, especially in winter.
Next, pruning opens up a tree and lets sunshine hit every leaf so that it can produce food for the roots and fruits. A well-pruned tree will be healthier and produced tastier fruit than a neglected tree. My pruning mentor told me decades ago that a bird should be able to fly through a well-pruned apple tree without getting hurt.
When pruning a fruit tree it’s important to know which branches will be blossoming and producing fruit. Look for fruit spurs on apples and pears. These are roughly 3- to 6-inches long protuberances with buds on them. As you prune you will have to make choices about which of two branches to cut. Look for those fruit spurs, and be guided by them.
In general when making cuts on an older, neglected tree, it’s better to remove a few larger branches than trying to make many, many smaller cuts.
Branch collar and line to show where to cut
It’s important to know where to make your cuts. If you cut off a branch flush with the trunk you will create a bigger wound than if you cut it off a little farther out from the trunk. Notice that most branches swell a bit at their base. That swollen, wrinkled area is called the branch collar, and it is where healing takes place. Cut just beyond the collar. But if you cut too far out the branch, you leave a stub which will not heal quickly – it will have to rot back to the collar before it can scab over.
Start by removing any dead or damaged branches. Cut them back to the trunk, or to a larger branch where they originate. Heavy wet snow and high winds this winter have created lots of broken branches. Clean them up. Knowing if a small branch is alive is easy: scrape it with your thumbnail. If it show green, it is alive. Bigger dead branches will have flaky, discolored bark and will not be flexible if bent.
Remove any branches that are rubbing other branches. Keep the best looking branch and remove the other. Remove any branch that is headed into the center of the tree instead of growing towards the outside.
Or perhaps you’d like to begin with the easiest branches to remove, the water sprouts. These are vertical shoots coming up from a more-or-less horizontal branch. They are very numerous in some trees, not so much in others.
Water sprouts need to be removed yearly
Water sprouts are generally a tree’s response to a need for more food for the roots. Trees that haven’t been pruned in years have many of these as there are many leaves shaded out and not producing much food for the roots. Or after a heavy pruning, a tree may produce lots of water sprouts to replace food-producing branches that have been removed.
If water sprouts are not removed when the thickness of a pencil or a hot dog, they will become as thick as your arm or leg and be difficult to remove. So clean those up every year.
You can change the angle of growth of a branch that is only an inch or less thick. Once winter is over, attach string or rope to a branch and tie it to a peg in the ground or to a weight to bend it down. A half-gallon milk jug works well. Just add water until you have the correct angle on the branch. Forty-five to sixty degrees off vertical is fine. You can remove the weights in June. Branches that are 45 degrees from the horizontal produce more fruit than more vertical branches.
If you have to remove a bigger branch, do it in two steps. First make a cut two or three feet out from the trunk to reduce the weight of the branch. Then make a second cut just outside the branch collar. Use one hand on the saw, one hand supporting the weight of the branch. That will prevent tearing the bark on the trunk if it falls before you finish the cut.
When pruning, don’t overdo it. Trees need their leaves to feed the roots and fruit. In any given year don’t take more than 25% of the leaves (woody stems don’t count when calculating how much you have taken off). In winter you just have to estimate how much live wood you can take off.
This pruning saw made short work of removing this bigger branch
A few words on tools: The basics are a good pair of hand pruners, kept sharp. A good pair of geared loppers for medium-sized branches. A good hand saw with a tri-cut blade for branches bigger than an inch or so. Don’t buy the cheapest you can find. Buy the most expensive you can afford. My new curved Stihl hand saw went through a 3-inch apple branch like a hot knife through butter. With the leather sheath, it cost about $65 and is worth every penny.
Pruning is fun. And if you make a mistake, don’t worry. Your tree will grow a new branch to replace the one you removed.
Plan to Plant Plenty of Annual Flowers
Posted on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Reclining in an easy chair on a recent cold and snowy day, I imagined myself a bumblebee. I meandered from flower to flower, taking in the colors and scents and textures of annual flowers, starting with A (alyssum) and ending with Z (zinnias).
I wasn’t a good or careful bumblebee who only visited flowers of one kind: I was a bumblebee tourist, seeing everything my mind could imagine – and all were in bloom at once. Then, returning to reality, I got out of my catalogs and started searching for new flowers to try.
Gomphrena is great fresh or as a dried flower
Annual flowers are wonderful. Perennials are great, too, but most make a relatively short appearance, rarely more than three weeks . Annuals are born to flower: many start early and keep on blooming all summer if you keep cutting them. They need to make plenty of seeds or their genetic lineage can literally die out and disappear at the end of the season.
I like starting annuals by seed in 6-packs indoors, even when it’s warm enough that I could plant them directly in the ground. Flowers can easily get lost or misidentified as weeds when planted directly in the soil, especially things I haven’t tried before, or if I just want a few.
I love zinnias. They come in such a profusion of colors, and range in size from diminutive to giant. I love the lime-green ones such as Envy and Benary’s Giant Lime because they look so great mixed in with other flowers – in a vase, or in a flowerbed. Zinnias come as singles, such as the Profusion series, which are short (12”), and doubles such as Sunbow (24-30”) and Oklahoma (30-40”). I save seed from non-hybrid ones and plant them directly in the soil in large numbers. And the more you cut these flowers, the more they branch and re-bloom.
Lisianthus comes in several colors and lasts well
Most annual flowers are easy to grow from seed, but not all. One of my favorites, Lisianthus, takes 17 days to germinate if kept at 72 degrees, longer if cooler. And even after it starts to grow, its seedlings do not grow fast for several weeks. It’s not a flower for impatient gardeners.
Cosmos varieties have been bred and hybridized in recent years. Looking at the John Scheepers Garden Seeds website I see 23 different kinds of cosmos, including one I must try: “Double Click Cranberries Cosmos”. Deep wine colored, double-petaled like an old fashioned rose.
A flower good as a cut flower or as a dry flower and spectacular in the garden goes by the unlikely name gomphrena. I plan to plant at least a dozen of these this year, maybe more.
Purple Hyacinth Bean has both lovely flowers and interesting foliage
Vines are good, too. I love purple hyacinth bean with purplish leaves and pink-purple flowers. They are slow to start, so I’ll start some indoors in March.
Nasturtiums are vines that don’t climb. They sprawl. Plant these large seeds in full sun after the danger of frost has past, perhaps in a bed of daffodils. The daffies need sunshine to recharge their bulbs until the foliage dies away, and the nasturtiums will fill in and hide the dying foliage. Nasturtiums like lean soil, so don’t add fertilizer.
I grow some of my favorite annuals not for their flowers, but for their leaves. These beauties are always in bloom – which is to say, their leaves are a treat to look at. I love their bright colors and shiny surfaces. Here are some good ones:
Perilla: This is a terrific purple-leafed plant that self-sows exuberantly. Pinch off the flowers (which are not at all showy) if you don’t want it to spread next year. Eighteen inches tall. The ‘Magellanica’ cultivar is taller, and has foliage in shades of hot pink, deep plum and vibrant green.
I grow Persian shield for its foliage
Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus): This plant just shimmers with silver overtones on dark purple and pink leaves. It loves hot weather, and gets big: one plant can spread over a 3-foot circle and stand 3-4 feet tall.
Licorice Plant (Helichrysum petiolare): I buy some of this every summer because I love the silvery leaves, because it mixes so well with bright colored flowers in planters, and because it takes abuse. It rarely complains if I let it dry out in a pot. It flows over the edge of pots and weaves it way through other plants. It’s also an exceptional in flower arrangements. There are also chartreuse and variegated lemon-lime varieties.
So even though annuals are disposable plants – they die when frost comes – I have to have them. I grow them in the vegetable garden, and in pots to fill in drab corners of the flower garden after perennials have finished blooming. If you want, all those mentioned above are available as plants in six-packs at your local nursery, come spring. Most are great cut flowers – and the bumblebees love them.
Reach Henry Homeyer by e-mail at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net or by mail at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. He is a UNH master
Gardener and the author of 4
gardening books.
Get Ready to Start Seedlings Indoors
Posted on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Starting seeds indoors under lights is a good treatment for the winter blues. It connects me to my upcoming garden and all its benefits. Early March is when I start onions and peppers, though April is the month for most everything else.
My wife, Cindy Heath, and I are making a commitment to reduce/eliminate the use of plastics in our life, so we are transitioning away from those handy, dandy flimsy plastic 6-packs for starting seeds. You can, too.
Metal planting cells from Gardeners Supply
Gardeners Supply Company has been offering ways of reducing single-use plastics like those 6-packs sold everywhere. They have sturdy reusable plastic trays for seed starting which have been available for a few years. This year they came out with metal seed starting trays.
These galvanized steel growing cells are pricey, but should last a lifetime. For about $50 you get 24 individual, tapered cells and a leak-proof tray to hold them. The cells are a nice big size. The kit is self-watering: it comes with a wire grid and moisture-retaining mat that keeps seedlings hydrated from the bottom of the tray which you fill with water once a week or so. I got one of these kits and looks like a winner.
Renee’s Garden is now selling seed starting cell trays made of silicone that are sturdy and reusable, and dishwasher safe. They do not get brittle, they say. I am ordering some to try them.
Making soil blocks with a simple press
If you don’t mind extra work and lots of mess, you can make soil blocks using a little metal press that produces 2-inch soil blocks. The mixture includes peat humus, compost, soil, blood meal and minerals. E-mail me for more info about the process.
So what else do you need? Lights, growing medium and seeds. Let’s start with lights. To keep your light bill low, I recommend using LED lights. I have some old-fashioned 4-foot fluorescent lights, but have been replacing them with the LED equivalent. These look about the same, but have no ballast (transformer) inside the fixture and use much less electricity.
If you replace your old fixtures, don’t just throw the old tubes into the trash as they contain mercury, which is toxic waste. Some recycling centers will accept them, or bring them to an electrical supply company for proper disposal. And if you want to use an LED tube in an old fluorescent fixture, you should remove the ballast. Unless it says “No PCBs on it, it needs to be sent to a hazardous waste collection site also.
Hang your fixture about 6-inches over the planting trays. Use “jack chain”, a small-link chain sold at hardware stores. It allows you to raise the lights as your plants grow. Give your seedlings 12 to 14 hours of light per day – they need a good night’s sleep as much as you do.
Plastic caps keep seeds from drying out
Most seeds will wake up and grow more readily if you place them on a warm base. Electrical seed-starting mats are great for that, but not really necessary. I use them for things that specify warmer temperatures, like the flower Lisianthus, and for hot peppers.
I recommend buying “Seed Starting Mix” instead of “Potting Soil” to put in your planting cells. Why? Seed starting mix is a finer blend and works better. It is made from peat moss, vermiculite, perlite and fertilizer. You can make your own, of course, and I often do – I start 10 flats (trays) or more each year. I also mix in some high quality compost – about 50% of the final product. I also add a little Pro-Gro, a slow-release organic bagged fertilizer.
Peat moss is coming under criticism now by the eco-minded community. It is harvested from bogs and is centuries in the making. Coir, a palm fiber, is becoming more available, but I haven’t found it yet in big bags like peat moss.
Moisture is key for starting seeds. If the soil mix dries out before they get well established, they can quickly perish. That’s okay with me – I need a reason to get out of bed on gray days in mud season. Gotta check my seedlings and give ‘em a drink after I have my coffee!
The Stella Nataura calendar gives planting times based on celestial rhythms
You can contain moisture by buying and using clear plastic covers for your flats of seedlings. They are inexpensive and reusable. Take them off after everything has germinated, or most things.
A biodynamic calendar called Stella Natura is available for gardeners who want to plant seeds by the phase of the moon, stars and planets. I consult it when planting, and although not foolproof, I think it helps. Available at
www.stellanatura.com.
So if you want another hobby, grow your own plants from seed. It takes a little practice, but it may make you happy – it works for me!
Henry lives in Cornish, NH. He regularly gives gardening talks at garden clubs and libraries. Reach him by email at
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
Tips for Buying and Enjoying Cut Flowers
Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 · Leave a Comment
Tulips brighten a winter day
Winter drags on, even though the days are getting longer. The sun is often lurking behind gray clouds, and on a good day we only get about 9 hours of light. I do miss the colors of summer, so I keep fresh cut flowers on our table – even though I have to buy them.
Cut flowers are among modern America’s true bargains. For the price of a bottle of wine – or a couple of cups of fancy coffee – you can buy flowers that will grace your table for up to three weeks. But there are some things you should know about getting good table-life for your investment.
First, you need to buy fresh flowers that have been carefully tended – and you can’t beat a florist for that. A floral shop has trained personnel who trim each stem in the store every other day and change the water to keep flowers fresh. Cut flowers need to take up water to stay fresh and healthy. Stems tend to scab over after a day or two, which means they cannot take up replacement water, or not much, so they suffer.
Ask for locally grown flowers like these Asiatic lilies I bought recently
Here are some things you can do to promote longer vase life: cut off leaves that would enter the water in your vase. Leaves will rot, promoting growth of bacteria, which will impede water take-up. Cut off half to three quarters of an inch of each stem every few days, and change the water. Use the packets of white powder that often comes with flowers – it does help.
Keep your arrangement cool if you can. Putting it near a radiator or woodstove, or putting it in a sunny window will shorten its life. If you have invested in pricey roses or tulips, you may wish to move the vase to the entryway or mudroom at bedtime to keep the flowers extra cool during the night.
Some flowers are better picks than others if you’re on a budget and can’t afford to buy new flowers every week. Here are my recommendations for good cut flowers:
- Lisianthus: These look like silk flowers to me: perfect white, pink or lavender-colored bell-shaped flowers on long stems. Tough to grow in the garden, they are perfect in a vase – I’ve kept them for up to 3 weeks.
- Miniature carnations: Each stem has 2-4 blossoms. They come in a variety of colors. Mix dark red “minis” with red roses to make a bouquet of roses look fuller. And even after the roses go to Valhalla, the carnations will still be good!
- Chrysanthemums: These come in a variety of sizes and colors, from the huge spider mums to little guys. I love the scent of the flowers –it’s not overpowering, but it’s there if you sniff them.
- Statice. I grow these for use as dry flowers, which tells you that they really do last forever – even out of water. They come in blue, purple, pink and white.
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Alstromeria is a long lasting inexpensive cut flower
Spray roses: Instead of a single blossom per stem, these have 2-5 blossoms, giving you more bang for your buck. These will last about a week – or even more with proper care
- Alstromeria: One of the best for long life. Each long stem has clusters of 2-inch lily-like blossoms in pinks and reds, with yellow throats. If you buy them in bud, they will look good for three weeks!
- Orchids: While not cheap, orchids as cut flowers can last up to a month. I love dendrobiums, though they are not common, even in floral shops. Cymbidiums have bigger blossoms and also last extremely well.
- Kangaroo paws: These Australian natives are fuzzy and cute. They come in pinks, reds, orange and brown, and last very well. Not every florist will have them.
- Asiatic lilies: I recently got a bouquet of five nice stems grown in New Hampshire that was sold at my local Coop food store. For $12.95, they will bloom with great elegance.
Statice is a good flower for drying and will last for months
You may wish to ask where the flowers you plan to buy are from. Holland, Columbia, Ecuador and Kenya are the world’s top growers and export much of what is available. Some foreign growers have been criticized for producing flowers using strong pesticides and poor labor practices. The Sun Valley group in California is an excellent major American grower of cut flowers – but there is still the environmental cost of shipping them 3,000 miles to us. If you can buy flowers grown locally in greenhouses, do it!
Everyone loves to receive the gift of cut flowers, even us guys. So treat your loved one – or yourself- to fresh flowers this winter. They’re cheerful, and can make winter less oppressive for gardeners.
Henry lives in Cornish Flat, NH, He is a
gardening consultant and a presenter of
garden talks with slide shows for clubs and library groups, both live and via Zoom. His email is
henry.homeyer@comcast.net.
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