SPIFFY GARDEN TIPS ARCHIVE

APRIL 2010

When you buy plants at a nursery, keep in mind that the way a plant is grown to production size affects how it will survive over the long term at your house. Plant production is based on being able to produce a "sale-able" plant in the quickest time frame at the lowest cost. Plants are often grown in highly idealized conditions (gallons of water, tons of fertilizer and long periods of high intensity artificial light) so they grow lots of topgrowth quickly and come into bloom fast. This can present problems both in metabolic cost to the plant, as well as an inferior root system because the baby plant didn't have to work to eat. When you choose a plant at the nursery, try to develop a sense of what a potful of roots feels like vs. a potful of wet soil. Both will give you a plant that looks good at the store, but only one will be certain to thrive and survive in your garden. And choose carefully when you are facing a large group of plants. If you can avoid buying the pot that is in full flower, do so. Look for plants still in bud. And I always check the diameter of the crown--which is where the plant emerges from the soil. A nice big crown usually means a nice healthy plant. Don't be embarassed to gently shift the leaves to see the crown, or to examine many pots before deciding on the one to buy. And as always--look for signs of insects--fungus gnats flying up in hordes when you move the leaves may indicate some root damage--although it is usually minor. Chewed leaves can indicate beetle damage or caterpillars--nothing seriously terrible if the plants have been outdoors for awhile at the nursery, but something to pay attention to. Slimy leaves underneath a lot of pretty topgrowth can signal rot--as can a crown that seems weak or not well connected to the rootstock. Examine the crown more carefully than the leaves--your instincts will tell you if there is something wrong there.


MAY 2010
This tip isn't really news to most of us--but its something new gardeners should know. The top of a plant may be the pretty part, but the business end is under the ground. This time of year we are all buying new plants, and what you do with them once they come home with you matters a lot. Plants cost money, and we are responsible for their well-being, so getting the roots "right" matters.

As I said in the last "spiffy" tip, root systems can really vary depending on how a plant is grown to sale-able size. Be aware of what you see when you unpot the plant to set it in the ground. If you see a very weak set of thin white roots, the plant was babied too much and will have a harder time growing and thriving. If you see dense, circled roots, the plant will make a much stronger garden subject, PROVIDED that it is planted in such a way as to make those roots work FOR and not AGAINST the plant.
Recently at Blue River Nursery I had a conversation with John about how the people on television demonstrate "planting" a potted plant by digging a hole the size of the pot, sliding the plant with its madly circling roots out of the pot and plopping the poor child in the hole. Looks slick and easy--which is good, because they will be repeating the process again and again as their plants fail to thrive.

Perennials usually stay in one place for several years, and they need to be able to get moisture and food through their roots. As the top gets bigger, the roots need to grow as well, and the demand on their ability to take up what a plant needs to live increases. Roots that are circling will continue to do so, and oftentimes the plant can essentially strangle itself. a tight ball of roots with nothing in between them but a little bit of air and old dried out potting mix will dessicate and die.

So when you upot a plant and see a mass of tight roots, circling or not; take your hands or a garden fork and gently untangle the mass. Chances are you will cut or tear some roots. The plant will survive this . Try not to completely destroy the small root hairs--this is the really important part of a root system--so be authoritative but not ruthless. Think of the root ball as a tightly closed fist. You want a relaxed hand that spreads itself out and contacts a fair amount of the soil. This means the hole you dig needs to be wider than the root ball so you can spread the roots out. The roots should be able to go downward to their full length. Planting depth varies according to species--if in doubt set at the same depth as it was growing in the pot. If you err--it is best to err on the high side, especially if your soil is heavy. Water the plant before you unpot it--make sure it is well hydrated before you expose it to the stress of transplanting.

I don't fertilize anything right after I plant it. This can cause a flush of wimpy growth that won't serve the plant well. Give it a month to settle in before you feed it. Water is vastly more important--in fact any nurseryman will tell you--the most important fertilizer for any plant is WATER.

GO FORTH AND BE SPIFFY! UNTANGLE SOME ROOTS TODAY!

May 2010
EDGING DOESN'T HAVE TO BE BORING
Hi everybody. This spiffy tip is more fun related. When we have flower beds in our yards, the question becomes--how to we delineate them from our lawns? You can do this in a lot of ways--just by digging out your edge or using a mechanical edger (the fun mechanical MANLY way) you can buy the pound in edging--which kind of works if you have soft soil and no roots in your yard, you can buy the rolled plastic edging, which we use here and it is servicable and effective, but not attractive. For the high end among us, you can buy the steel edging--which is very effective if you want a clean and modern look, or brick or block of some kind, which has a formal look to it because of its symmetry, or haul in and stack rock, which looks static and natural at the same time. But if you want to go for the cute factor in a big way--do what Marianne K. (and I think Bobbi D) do. Go to thrift stores, buy up old plates and line the beds with them. The look is charming and tidy, and instantly converts any flower bed into a cottage border. Marianne has added to this look by hanging favorite plates along fence sections that form the backs of some of her beds. She also has taken a "Paint pen" (available in the craft supplies at Wal mart in many colors) and written on some of the plates to use as labels for plants she wants to keep track of. Saucers would be ideal for this. Then if the plates break, they are easily and inexpensively replaced, and the broken remnants can go in a stash for future use in a mosaic she is planning. If you want to go completely mad with old dishes in the garden, little bird feeders can be made by affixing old teacups and/or saucers to turned bannister rails. Could be an antique bannister or a new one that has been painted or stained. I have never made one of these, but my recommendation for a "glue" would be J B Weld, a two part epoxy that will bond to just about anything. You can find it in automotive departments--they use it to fix metal car parts.
Now--
RAMP UP THE CUTE FACTOR

IT WILL LOOK SO SPIFFY !!!!!


Late May 2010

ONE FOR THE CUTWORM, ONE FOR THE CROW


Hey folks, its VEGGIE planting time! That time of year when we begin to think about how many times we can eat huge drippy beefsteak tomatoes and have warm butter and sweet corn smeared across our faces before we explode. Once again, this spiffy tip may not be news to the more experienced growers among us, but for fledgling gardeners, it is some useful information. Talking about the CUTWORM.

Here are some facts about this garden pest that likes to pretend its a wormy little version of a chainsaw, felling our beautiful little rows of baby vegetables like a clearcut attempt in the forest.
The cutworm is easily recognizable--its a boring looking gray little caterpillar that will curl up kind of like a pill bug if you poke it. You will commonly come across them when you are digging, since they sleep underground during the day. They can go down as deep as 6 inches. Cutworms are prolific little snots--as many as 5 generations can occur within a year. The adult result of all this mayhem is a boring little night flying moth, who lays its eggs in the soil, where they hatch and the cycle begins again. The last hatch of the year results in babies that nap over the winter, so they are ready in spring for continued clear-cutting. Since they are primarily active at night (obviously they spent too much time while pupating watching vampire movies on their little worm-tv's) its not uncommon to come out in the morning for your pajama-garden walk to find a host of lovely tomato plants severed at the base and lying on the ground. Rabbits can also inflict this type of damage, but the cut they make is usually angled, while the worm makes a straight cut right across the plant base.
At this point your plant is a total loss, and the garden center will be very happy to see you again.
Fortunately, cutworms are fairly easy to thwart, seeing as how they aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier; and they offer a great opportunity for beginning gardeners to learn about low impact methods to protect their gardens. Always remember that a creature that is a pest to you is an important part of your garden system as a whole. You can't pluck one string of the ecosystem without playing the whole instrument. These unattractive little worms are food for birds and other garden residents. The moths feed bats and who knows what else they do as they live out their lives. They die and contribute organic matter to the soil. So it pays to think clearly about what steps you take to alter the balance in your favor.
For cutworms, the easiest way to level the playing field is to UN-level it. Cutworms crawl along the ground or burrow down into the ground again. They only know "straight ahead" and "Down" at bedtime. They don't get the idea of "UP". So if they encounter some kind of a barrier, they don't try to scale it--they go around. The easiest thing to do is surround your veggie plants (things you plant as plants like tomatoes and peppers) with a barrier. You can tear a strip of about 3 pages of newspaper and wrap it gently around the stem at planting time. The worm can't saw through it and he won't climb up to get above it. I have also used sections of stryofoam cups to make a little barrier-- just slide it down over the plant when its set and push it into the ground a little.
Easy.
But what about things like beans and corn? A little trickier, but not impossible. There are varieties that are resistant. For beans, look for Gold Crop, Idaho Refugee, Regal or Wade--or Fordhook.
BT is a plant dust that will kill these guys. BT is a bacteria that infects the worm and kills it. You can dust seedlings and plants with it at the soil level and this will protect the plants by killing the worms. A common brand name is "Dipel". Cornmeal scattered around each plant and leading away from the stem will also mislead the worm, and eating the cornmeal will kill it.
eneficial nematodes can be used--applied at a rate of about 50,000 per plant. These are tiny "worms" that live in the soil. They are effective at controlling a lot of problem insects, but application has to be done properly for this to work.
Many insects eat cutworms, along with birds, moles, snakes, shrews and toads. Bats and Swallows eat the moths. Making your garden hospitable for these helpful creatures will go a long way towards preserving your plants.
Garden cleanup and tilling in the fall and spring will also reduce the threat. I know fall cleanup is a drag--its kind of depressing to say goodbye, but in the long run the benefits are great. If you till your garden, after cleanup give it a good till 6-8 inches deep. Wait a couple weeks and do it again about 2 inches deep to expose the young worms at the surface in spring for the birds.
The following spring about 2 weeks before you plant, till again about 2 inches deep. this will expose the first generation of worms, which are often the worst batch.
So there are some strategies to control the wicked CUTWORM with a minimum of collateral damage.
Now go be SPIFFY and plant some more tomatoes. I want to come over and have Ensalata Caprese with you in August!

JUNE 2010


WHATS IN A RAIN


Hey everybody--I just learned the most fascinating thing--so I had to put it up here. All the RAIN we are having made me think about rain in general and how it affects our gardens in particular. It is a very worthwhile idea to explore rainwater collection--even in our area we have difficult dry spells. Rain water is naturally soft, and the most beneficial of waters for plants. Too much rain can cause problems--most notably types of rots and molds. This is one reason why SPACING of plants is important. We are all guilty of crowding plants too closely so the bed looks beautiful and full--and overly wet events cause us to pay the piper for our extravagance. There are certain pests that love wet spells, and thank mother nature for her watery disposition by reproducing themselves with highly inconvenient and undignified abandon. Aphids are the first critter that springs to mind. Keep your little spray bottle of soapy water at the ready during these wet times; this simple version of an "insecticide" can minimize a lot of infestations.

The main thing I want to pass along is this fascinating fact:
You know how good it smells after it rains--did you ever wonder why? I never have before--but it turns out there is a reason--and its all because of plants.

Plants secrete many kinds of oils--we all know about Lavender oil, and Lemon oil. But there is a combination of plant oils that are given off during dry spells that end up on the ground or nearby rocks. When it rains, the oils in the earth get damp and give off that heavenly clean smell. The name for this lovely scent is "Petrichor", which derives from two Greek words and sort of means "rock blood". This compound is known to inhibit and slow seed germination--which is probably an evolutionary adaptation that keeps baby plants from sprouting too quickly in dry times. It may also be a subtle way for larger plants to limit competition from interlopers. In Australia, where this phenomenon was first documented; certain oils are believed to wash from Eucalyptus leaves and flow into rivers, where their presence acts as a signal to fish. When the fish sense the plant oils, they understand that the rains are falling and there is sufficient water to begin their mating and breeding cycle.

Plants and dirt--just one more reason why they are SO SPIFFY!!!!



JULY 2010

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

Last night while everybody was in the garden, it made me think about what makes a garden successful. We all want tons of pretty plants that look healthy and happy--but how does that happen? As a person who routinely kills houseplants, I can say without hesitation that plants don't necessarily thrive in proportion to the amount of attention they are given. As the old saying goes--"the road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

I have a book called "Right Plant Right Place" by Nicola Ferguson. I bought it many years ago and it was a revelation to me at the time. The concept she espoused then is more and more becoming a part of our consciousness as gardeners. Basically it means that if you want plants to look happy in your yard, choose plants that will be happy there without any help from you--and then give them a little help to make them look as well as they possibly can. This necessitates a little out of the box thinking sometimes--boxwood and yew bushes don't like every kind of habitat under the sun, and planting them reflexively in every situation will lead to some failure--because the plant wasn't consulted in the decision making process. What we need to do is ask plants what they like and then look at our site dispassionately and see what we have--then make the match--kind of like the dating game for plants. If you live at the top of a windy hill over sand that goes down 50 feet and a west wind that screams across the land the entire day with nary a tree in sight--its a good bet that primroses will not be happy there. You can amend your soil and haul hoses until you are blue in the face--but the best you will ever get will be a few spindly plants that make you feel like a failure. Who needs it? Each of us is perfectly capable of having a stunningly beautiful garden--if we make the RIGHT choices of what to put in it. This requires a lot of honest thinking, not only about our yards, but about who we are and what we are willing to do. I have seen gardens to die for that contain very little plant material. But what IS there is carefully chosen and thoughtfully grown. Often in gardens like this, hardscape is the dominant theme and the plants are beautiful little accents--like the gems in a piece of perfectly wrought jewelry.
I have also seen gardens with tons of material in them--and this can work too--as long as the plants are chosen FOR THE SITE.

Ben and I recently went to Wisconsin to see Northwind Perennial Farm--the Nursery of Roy Diblik, who has written a book entitled "Roy Diblik's Small Perennial Gardens--The Know Maintenence Approach". His nursery was a model of this philosphy. There is a display garden that demonstrates this approach beautifully--plants suitable for that particular site are planted in large groups, and after the initial adjustment period, the garden is largely left to develop on its own. The effect is beautiful and harmonius because a balanced ecosystem based on the planting develops naturally over time. Plants that require similar growing conditions usually look well together. They come to agreement with each other as they discover the niches they can occupy and thrive in. What the gardener has to do is be a careful observer. A perfect example is an Echinacea that Ben and I both admired. It was a huge clump with beautiful dark stems. The plant was healthy and happy and made such an impression. Roy told us that this was a chance seedling. It seems there had originally been a planting of E. tennesseensis in this area, but the drainage pattern made the area too wet, so it eventually died out--the climate worked against the plant in this case. But what did happen was a chance hybrid of Echinacea happened to seed into the area. I imagine a number of seedlings tried to grow there--but this one in particular was able to tolerate the site, and even thrive there. So now Roy has a beautiful Echinacea that CAN grow in this site--the site didn't change--the genetics of the plant did. The lesson we can take away from this is to choose plants that are genetically predisposed to do well in our gardens. Then we are halfway home without having done a lot of work. One term that describes this approach is "sustainability". This is a concept Ben is committed to, and his blog; to which there is a link in the link section; is devoted to it.

My background is in Ecology and the thing I enjoy most about a garden is watching the ecosystem that develops within it as the space matures. This can be frustrating sometimes--because what is successful in nature--like aphids in wet weather for instance--can play havoc with our pretty spaces. But by making smart choices with our plants we can live alongside the successes that make gardening challenging, and reap the rewards we all love when everything comes together in just the right and ever so SPIFFY way.


LATE JULY 2010
SPIFFY GARDEN TIP--THE BEASTLY BORERS


We have all seen and been puzzled by this at times in our gardens. One day a plant looks gorgeous. The next day one whole branch or a section of the plant is wilted and looks like crap. The rest of the plant looks fine. Have our plants suffered some kind of dissociative personality problem? No the problem is often much more "boring" (literally) than that.
There is a kind of pest called a "borer", which is usually the larval or caterpillar type phase of a moth or beetle. Apparently these insects don't think flying around and leaving mysterious little dirt colored stains on stuff is reason enough to hate them, so they figured out how to be a pain in the neck in other ways. There are a host of different kind of borers--if you watch agricultural TV shows you have probably heard of the dreaded "corn borer", but there are plenty of others. They will happily make use of a great number of flowers and vegetable plants, even woody plants, just to make gardening even more of an exercise in tolerance and damage control.
As an illustration of this--when I looked up borers in my "Flower Garden Problem Solver" book (see favorite books section) it listed plants affected (depending on the borer--personally i don't much care WHICH borer it is--I am an equal opportunity hater) as dahlia, delphinium, hollyhock, aster, chrystanthemeum, cosmos, iris, columbine, lily, marigold, salvia, snapdragon, zinnia, columbine, rose, raspberry,squash vine: you get the idea. EVERYTHING. I have seen a whole lot of borer damage on my rudbeckia, on liatris from time to time, and even on my woody callicarpa.
So whats a poor gardener to do? First of all, be armed with a little information: Borers are little wormy affairs ranging from 1/2 to 2 inches in length, depending on the species. They are often white or pink with brown heads (sound lovely don't they--the survival guys on TV would probably dig them out of a stem and roast them so they could make Borer Smores out of them or something). They crawl around on the ground looking for something to destroy. When they find it, they chew a hole in the base of a stem and crawl inside, where they can chomp away to their hearts content in relative safety. Oftentimes their poop drops back out of the entry hole, and you will see it on the ground. The technical and scientifically polite term for this kind of bug poop is "frass". It kind of looks like sawdust. More often than not, you will know they are present by the fact that a section of your beautiful plant has just completely wilted out and now needs to be taken off. If you see this type of wilt, you can look around near the base of the affected stem, and if you see an entry hole in it or some frass on the ground, the inquiry is over at that point and you are definitely dealing with borers.
There are some strategies we can adopt to prevent this damage in the first place--and given the secretive nature of this pest and the fact that they are so numerous, prevention is the best tact to adopt. Keeping our garden areas clean and free of weeds helps; parasitic nematode application can help if applied in early spring before they emerge from the soil.
In vegetable beds, crop rotation will afford some protection.
Spreading BT on the soil surface early in the season will kill a certain number of borers. This should be done at weekly intervals. Pyrethrum can also be spread on the ground, but this should be a last resort. Pyrethrum is a strong toxin.
You can also go the mechanical route and poke the borers inside their homes with wires or slit stems open and remove them, then bind the stems back together. Personally I have a life, and this sounds like WAY more trouble than its worth. I prefer to either squish the larvae with my fingers (the simplest thing do do with bearded iris borers) or just remove the damaged plant sections and throw them away or burn them. I don't put them on the compost pile.
Fall cleanup is also an effective way to control a percentage of these pests--removing the cover that protects them makes their life a lot less comfortable. Bearded iris in particular should have their bloom stalks cut off at the base and burnt.
Its important to remember that these pests serve a purpose in the food chain that makes up our gardens, so we need to be somewhat philosophical in our thinking about them. Chances are we can't eradicate them completely, so we have to learn to live with a certain amount of damage. This year my rudbeckias went berserk and I saw a lot of borer damage in them. As I spotted affected plants I removed them, and as the season nears its end, many of these rudbeckia will be taken out entirely, and I will have to be more aggressive than usual with my fall cleanup. This won't eradicate the problem, but it will manage the extent of it. For me thats enough.
Now go forth and be SPIFFY! Just don't be a BORE.

August 2010
THE ROMANCE OF DAFFS

Hi everybody--Since our bulb buying spree is upon us, I thought it would be fun to look into the history of daffodils. People don't often think about the history and romance associated with plants, but there is plenty of it and usually its fascinating. Its a very worthwhile pursuit to investigate the history of plants you love--it deepens your appreciation of them, and makes you more fun at cocktail parties.

Thanks to the internet information is easy to come by--and you can see the various ways folklore changes, depending on the translator. Since Daffodils have been written about since at least 200 years BC--maybe even a century older than that--there has been plenty of time for the folklore to undergo different incarnations.
First the basics--Daffodils originate in areas around the Mediterranean Sea. There must have been some in the Middle East because Mohammed wrote about them in the 6th century. I know there is a fall blooming daff that is Middle Eastern in origin. (another spiffy fact--there ARE daffs that bloom in autumn). Nomenclature for these bulbs is sort of complex--kind of like the legends--the names have drifted around and changed through history. In Spain, the word "jonquil" is roughly translated to "rush" and this word was used because of the resemblance between daff leaves, rushes and reeds. In reality, the word "jonquil" only denotes one species within the overall genus (OMG--and we thought we would NEVER USE what we learned in biology class!!!!!) that is typically a late flowering plant with 2 or 3 blooms on a stem. The genus name is the word "Narcissus". Obviously no one ever told my grandmother this, because to "Maw Maw" they were all jonquils.
The name "Narcissus" is where a lot of the legend and romance begin--and it takes many forms, but the gist of the story is the same--there are some characters whose name you will also recognize, but you may not have known their association with this flower.
It seems there was this guy, Narcissus, who was so handsome he could hardly stand it. He was not only too sexy for his shirt, but even his skin could hardly contain his silly self. The gods; who were always flying around making people's lives complicated so they could invent things like flowers out of their misery; decided that since he was so cute, they would make it impossible for him to know just HOW cute he was. To achieve this they put a curse on him that would only manifest itself if he ever saw his own reflection.
One day he was hanging around in the woods and a wood nymph named "Echo" saw him and fell madly in love because he was so pretty. She followed him around and made a total pest of herself . Unfortunately like a lot of cute boys he was too stuck up to give her the time of day--she probably wasn't a wood nymph cheerleader or something. Anyway--she got depressed but nobody knew how to make Zoloft at that time--so she went to a cave where she cried and refused to eat and stuff until she just faded away. All that was left of her was her voice. Now Echo had a great aunt whose name was "Nemesis". I don't know about you, but if I saw somebody's great aunt Nemesis coming for me--I'd RUN. But Narcissus was too busy looking good and trying to find a store that sold Axe Deodorant so he could do "double pits to chesty". He failed to notice that "Auntie Nem" had placed a beautiful reflection pool right where he liked to hang out. He must have been on his way to the mall one day, when he happened to pass by it and glanced in. You know what happened next--"MAN!!! I look GOOD!!!" " I LOOK REALLY GOOD!!!!" "I LOOK REALLY REALLY GOOD!!!!" and on and on it went until he either (depending on the version ) a: fell in and drowned, b: faded away or c: (my version) realized how boring he was and ate a lot of junk food until he became Michael Moore.
What happens next varies too--either he just disappeared and the flower grew where he had been standing, or the gods turned him into the flower, or they made flowers grow near the pool and called them his name in his memory.
Moral of the story--be nice to unattractive wood nymphs.
Okay--so what else is fascinating about these flowers? The Romans thought they were medicinal--healing skin irritations--so they hauled them around while they were busy laying waste to England. In reality there is a crystal in daff sap that irritates the skin. So goes the Roman Empire. However they did have the good taste to raise them for decoration too. The ancient Egyptians associated them with the afterlife and put the papery outer coating from the bulbs on the eyes, noses and mouths of mummies, as well as weaving them into funeral wreaths. In Victorian times when everyone was overly romantic the flower included in a bouquet meant you were offering affection and seeking the same in return. I am sure there was a flower that meant "can't we just be friends?" too. Maybe rejection hurts less if its done with a flower.
So all in all--this beautiful flower has been the object of fascination throughout history. And it still has that power over us--every spring when it shines forth to tell us that another winter is actually over.
I love the last stanza of William Wordsworth's famous poem:

"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

If only he could have found a word that rhymed with SPIFFY!!!


Aug. 2010
Something to think about

Hi folks! I just got done reading an article on another blog and I want to pass the thoughts along to you. It seems especially appropriate to do this since we just visited such a successful example of what the article talked about in Wavecrest Nursery.
Basically the article (which was a letter written on the website of Plants Noveau --I'll put the link in the links section) talked about how plants are marketed and sold in this country and what it means to us as gardeners. What it boils down to is this: the bulk of plants that are produced in this country are selected and grown and timed in their shipments to please the big box stores like Lowes and Wal-Mart. This is fine, because people that shop at these stores buy plants and they have to accomodate their customer base. But what does that mean to serious gardeners, who buy plants at other times than when they are in glorious full bloom, plant their gardens at the optimal planting times rather than the pretty and fun garden times, and who want a wide variety of plants that have more than just an ephemeral show of flowers to offer to their garden ecosystem? It means that we have to look longer and harder to find plants because the big box stores put profitability first and foremost and quality and selection are slightly lower on the hierarchy. This makes sense from their point of view--they need plants that look good, turn over fast and will tolerate the various levels of "care" they get at the hands of employees. Part of this equation is "flash into cash" meaning that plants that look really neat often sell quickly--and the profit margin is high because the plant doesn't stay at the store long--requiring manpower to maintain. Witness the mad explosion of brightly colored heuchera and the resurgence of brilliantly figured coleus. But are these good plants for our gardens? Some may be--many are not. But they will fade away and we will run back to buy something else--again, something bright and flashy--so the carousel keeps on going around.
Recently I read a quote by Roy Diblik about how his nursery stocks a great many plants that "people don't want". What he meant was that they grow and sell plants whose virtues go beyond the obvious. They may not be flashy--they may not knock you down at first sight--but what they are is long lived, effective in the garden, carefully selected and tested on site so their virtues are well understood; plants that have more than flashy blooms or leaves to offer.
Remember when grasses first came on the scene? I remember thinking "GRASS?? Are you kidding me??????? I pull grass OUT of my garden!!!"
Now I understand the value of grass in the garden--how it functions as a design element and how it makes a garden beautiful throughout the year. Now I seek grasses out.
There are a lot of plants like this--plain Janes on the Nursery bench that will work wonders in a garden bed.
So how do we find these plants? First and foremost, we have to seek out people who grow and sell plants on smaller scales--people whose knowledge of certain kinds of plants is deep and intense because they love them. Yeah--people like me with my daylilies, Rosie with her Hosta, Esther Benedict with her rock garden plants. Places like this sell their plants throughout their life cycles--they don't just suddenly appear on the sales floor when they are blooming. You can actually buy one and plant it before its blooming or after its done--when it may be much more appropriate to plant it.
When you shop at larger nurseries, seek out the ones who grow their own plants--usually they will be more conscious of "zone appropriate" selections. You can still make mistakes buying from a large producer of this type--but its less likely. You are still "nearer the source" than a box store would be. This isn't a commercial for any of us--rather its using us as an illustration of the kind of growers its worth seeking out. Find these people and use them as a resource. If possible, go and look at their gardens and how they use the plants that interest them. Ask them lots of questions--they will know the answers and will love to impart information to you. Vote with your wallet and help them to grow as businesses. You may pay a little more for the plant--but keep in mind you are buying from the person who ACTUALLY GROWS the plant--not the person who off loads a truck. What is that worth to you?
Encourage the big box stores by asking if they buy plants from local producers--some of them are beginning to do that--Home Depot (at least the one in Valparaiso) has begun doing this. If you see a plant display that advertises a local source (usually it will be a midwestern wholesaler) again--vote with your wallet. If you frequent big box stores ask for plants that are native, or particular varieties that have done exceptionally well for you. Look past the flashy pretty stuff that is designed to seduce you away from your hard earned cash--disregard pretty labels and swishy sounding names or product lines. A fancy bench with pots neatly fitted into their alloted spaces may look wonderful--the plants may have been bred to achieve a size and appearance that looks GOOD ON THE BENCH, which may not translate to great in the garden.
Ask yourself if this plant is a good solid, hard working addition to your garden or a fru-fru specimen that will be gone in a year and may look like crap for 6 months of that time. If you can't resist the fru-fru, just know exactly what you are getting.
The trend will change when we change our thinking. As Roy Diblik is quoted as saying; "In America we grow plants for Home Depot--in Germany they grow plants for the garden".
All the industry needs is a change of focus--from flashy to
SPIFFY.

Sept/Oct. 2010
Burning Winter??? YAH you betcha!

Its happened to us more times than I would like to remember. Now with the train and Rob's interest in the small conifers; learning about protecting these valuable little plants through the winter is more important than ever. I found a very informative piece written by the University of Minnesota Extension service--and if they don't know something about winter damage, nobody does.

The kinds of damage that can afflict our beloved plants is really a pretty wide variety. De-icing products are the first culprit that comes to mind. There are plants that are salt tolerant, a simple google search will help you find them.

Then there is the wildlife gone mad issue. Deer, rabbits, and various and sundry rodents--all of whom are probably on a first name basis with Cindy--will turn to our gardens for food when times get tough--or even sooner if its something especially delectable, like my little red azaleas. Browse damage differs in appearance depending on whose doing it. You can play junior detectiveand examine the crime scene for clues. Once you know who you are dealing with, then you can google around and find resistant plants.

Then there is the general climate--things like heavy wet snows, ice storm, high winds and the like. There really isn't a lot you can do if these disasters strike. After its all over you may need an arborist to come and help you care for a damaged tree that you want to save, or you may need to just haul out the chain saw and clean up the carnage.

There is a set of climate caused damage that you can take steps to prevent--and that is winter burn and sun scald. First you need to know what these things are and how they happen. Sun scald happens on the sun-ward (usually south or southwest) side of trees when the sun warms the bark up too much and it begins to "grow" like it would in the springtime. Then when the sun goes away, the temperature drops and this very tender new growth is killed. The tree developes elongated and sunken areas of cracked, dead bark. Bad. Now the carpenter ants will be your best friends. Trees with thin bark are expecially vulnerable (cherry, crabapple, locust, plum) or if you prune lower branches or move a tree from a shaded to a more sunny spot, you will expose what had been a protected trunk to more sun and increase the risk for this to happen. The easiest way to protect the tree from this is to wrap the trunk--whether with a commercial tree wrap, plastic tree guards or any other light colored material. Patrick--please don't use a Pucci shirt to protect your trees. They look much better on you than on a tree. Wrap new trees for at least 2 winters--placing the wrap on in the fall and leaving it there until after the last frost. Thin skinned trees should be wrapped for 5 years.

If you see this damage on a tree--the first aid recommended is to use a sharp, clean knife and cut the damage back to live tissue. Round any sharp corners when you make the cut. You can apply a fungicide to the cut, but do NOT seal it with wound dressing. Wrap the trunk in the winter to protect it.

Now that we have addressed the tree trunks--how about the foilage of evergreens. You know how sometimes they get all brown and awful and die back in just the place that shows the most--so your lovely conifer now has a honking big hole in exactly the wrong spot? There are several causes of this.

Winter sun and wind can cause too much moisture loss. Plants "sweat" through holes in the leaf (or needle) undersides called "stomata". Evergreens are active all the time, so they sweat in the winter if the sun shines on them or the wind blows really strongly across them--the moisture evaporates out too fast. Since the ground is frozen the plant can't recover the moisture it's loosing from its stomata and the leaves dessicate and --"voila"-- instant crappy looking plant.
In addition to this, an injury can occur in much the same way as the sun scald injury happens on a trunk. Warm sun hits the foilage and it becomes metabolically active--then it gets suddenly cold again when night falls, or the weather changes, and the foilage is injured or killed.
Chlorophyll is what makes plants green--but they can't manufacture it if the air temp is below 28 degrees. That kind of low temp is very common in our area. If the sun is really bright on days like this, the chlorophyll can get ruined by the sun, but the plant can't replace it. This is called bleaching.
Or if we get a sudden cold snap in the fall before the plants have completed their transition into dormancy, their tissues can be damaged.
Its not hard to figure out that most types of this damage occur on the parts of plants that face the sun--especially the south and southwest side. Since wind can also cause problems, the sides of plants that take the brunt of the prevailing winds can also be harmed.
Okay--now we know the enemy--how to we thwart all these climactic assaults on our plants? Somebody call Al Gore!!! Oh--wait--wrong climactic issue.
Okay--there is more than one strategy. If you are considering sites for new evergreens--site them carefully. Do NOT plant Yew, arborvitae and hemlock on south or southwest sides of buildings. These species are the most vulnerable to winter damage. Also plant them in areas where winter wind impact will be minimal. You can also prop pine boughs or leftover Christmas tree stuff against exposed trees to protect them from the sun and help keep a solid blanket of snow over them.
The age old practice of staking burlap around conifers to protect them also works. if you have to surround the plant completely, leave the top of the barrier open so light and air can get in.

Something we don't always think about is WATERING late in the year. The timing of this is important. In Sept. plants are entering their dormant time, and water should be reduced to help this process along. But then in October, you should begin to water again and keep it up until the ground freezes. The way Shawn at Blue River Nursery tests this is by pushing a shovel into the soil. If it still slides in, the ground isn't frozen and he keeps watering. I suspect this is something you develop a feel for over time.
Anti dessicant sprays like "Wilt pruf" can be used. According to the article, their effectiveness is under some question. Air temperature is very important in the application of these products. Read the instructions very carefully.
If you do incur some winter damage, the article advises a couple things--first of all--don't be too quick to cut it back. Wait until mid spring to be sure it's not going to regenerate. Buds can handle more cold than foilage, and they may fill in the damaged area. If you do end up cutting--cut back to live material. Fertilize injured plants in early spring and keep them well watered to help them recover.
There are other kinds of damage--deciduous plants can loose shoots and buds to winter weather--especially flower buds. You can minimize the risk of this by planting in sheltered areas, and by easing off the water and fertilizer in late summer, and refrain from any kind of pruning.
Frost heaving can be a problem sometimes--especially on fall planted things. I see this all the time in my daylily babies. The easiest protective measure is a thick mulch spread over new kids to help the soil temp. get cold and stay that way.
So thats a basic look at how to keep your beautiful green babies safe from the ravages of winter. Living in the natural world means you have to take the bitter with the sweet. But sometimes we can circumvet Mother Nature and thwart her attempts to be somewhat less
than
SPIFFY.

OCT 2010
SPIFFY GARDEN TIP--Time for the Long Leggedy Beasties


"From Ghoulies and Ghosties
and Long Leggedy Beasties
and things that go "bump" in the night
Good Lord, deliver us"

I don't know if the person that thought up this old Scottish saying had just walked into a spider web face first, but its the kind of thing you think about when it happens.
This is the time of year when spiders are very visible, and it got me to thinking about them. I found a very instructive article on Wikipedia, so I decided to pass along what was there.
Spider webs are very ancient. There is one preserved in amber that is estimated to be 140 million years old. While spider silk is now used for web building, it is believed that intially spiders began making silk to protect their bodies and offspring when they made the move from the water onto land. (Remember--evolution is not conscious--creatures don't "decide" to make silk--it is a single or series of genetic mutations that tilts things in their favor and causes the trait to become more and more fixed in their genetic makeup over a series of generations).
Some spiders do not make webs at all. Cobwebs are spider webs that have been abandoned. Think of how strong spider silk is--that their webs can remain intact long after the spider has left.
In fact pound for pound, spider silk has a stronger tensile strength than steel. Tensile strength refers to how much force it takes to pull something like rope or cable apart. In addition to being stronger in this way, spider silk is much more elastic than steel, making it a substance of great interest to science. Specifically right now it is being investigated for use in bullet proof vests and artificial tendons. Since spiders don't contract out their silk spinning (probably some weird union regulation) recombitant DNA has produced genetically modified goats that produce the silk in their milk, and worms that spin spider silk instead of their own.
There are many different kinds of spider webs, the most well known is the big round "orb" type. When you think about the fact that the instinct to make this web is hard wired into the spider's brain (they don't learn how to do this--they are born knowing) you have to be amazed at the complexity of these very small creatures. To spin an orb, the spider lets out a strand of silk and it drifts on the wind until it sticks to something. When the spider knows the thread has attached at the other end, it carefully walks out and adds silk to strengthen the tightrope as it goes. This is repeated until the anchor thread is good and solid. Then the spider adds 2 more threads to form a Y. These three threads are called radials, and they are the framework upon which the rest of the web is made. The spider adds more radials--and amazingly it uses its own body as a measuring stick to determine the spacing between them. So when you look at a web you can make a guess about the size of the spider that made them by the spacing of the radials. When the radials are done, the spider puts about 5 non sticky threads in the center of the web, and adds a spriraling non sticky thread throughout the web so it can easily move around without getting stuck while it continues to build. Then working from the outside in the spider replaces this non sticky spiral thread with a sticky, more tightly spaced one. As it adds the sticky threads, it removes the non sticky scaffolding.
In their never ending quest to do weird stuff, scientists have taken spiders into the skylab to see if they would spin webs in zero gravity, and given them drugs to see if they would spin webs while under the influence. So how do you give a spider caffeine--which was one of the drugs??? Does Starbucks have bug flavored coffee or what? If you google for "spiders on drugs" you will see some photos that explain how it was done and what the webs look like. Predictably the caffeine web looks quite freaked out and weird--let that be a lesson to you next time you want a triple mocha latte espresso with chocolate covered coffee beans on top. Seriously, it is believed that this can be used in some toxicity testing because spider webs have regular, mathematical shapes that can be quantified and compared objectively.
In skylab, the scientists had two lady spiders--Anita and Arabella--and an enclosure that looked like an old window sill. After the spiders first attempts at building webs in zero gravity, the scientists decided to try to keep them alive presumably so they could continue the research (personally I think they just wanted some pets and the Wednesday Addams version was the best they could do). So they gave them drinks of water and fed them filet mignon. Yes--your tax dollars are feeding filet mignon to spiders. Presumably they didn't each much, so it wasn't a budget buster. Over time the spiders adjusted to the weightlessness and were able to make almost complete webs, although under analysis they were not identical in character to webs made here on earth. Sadly both Anita and Arabella perished during the flight. Whether it was dehydration or high cholesterol from eating steak all the time will never be known.
Another thing that happens this time of year is the fact that spiders begin to show up in our houses with increasing frequency. I was really surprised to learn that these are almost always boy spiders. Doubtless they have made a wrong turn on the way home from the spider bar and since they won't stop and ask other spiders for directions, they end up in our basements--where they meet the business end of a vaccuum cleaner.
So when you blunder face first into a mass of silk, while you are flailing around making sure the inhabitant isn't in your hair or hiding on your back somewhere, consider the beauty and intricacy of this highly efficient and successful kind of architecture that serves its builder in such a SPIFFY way.


SPIFFY TIP--DEC 2010
The Story of Christmas in plants


Now that its holiday time, I thought it would be fun to explore they legends that surround certain plants and the role they play in the Christmas story. Many plants have common names that associate them with Biblical figures--Lady's mantle, Solomon's Seal, Passion flower; and there are a number of herbs that are specifically connected in legend to the time of Christ's birth.

First and most beloved on the list is Rosemary. The herb of rememberance, this plant is entwined in many ways with the early Christian faith. The connection begins with the night of Jesus' birth. As the family fled from Herod's soldiers, intent on their mission of killing infants to remove the threat of the Messiah; they stopped for the night to rest by a stream, where a large hedge of Rosemary was growing. In the morning, Mary washed her dirty cloak and the baby's swaddling in the stream and spread them on the hedge to dry. The bush perfumed their clothing, and when she pulled her mantle off, the flowers changed in color from white to blue, which they are to this day, in honor and remembrance of the moment. In addition, the Rosemary plant (in its native habitat) is believed to grow in height for 33 years, and after it matches the years of Christ's life, it only grows broader but no taller. Rosemary was often slipped into a childs bed in the belief that it helped the baby have a restful sleep--and indeed Rosemary oil is a very calming scent.

Next in line for Christmas honors is Our Lady's Bedstraw. This member of the Gallium family strongly resembles Sweet Woodruff, only taller. The whorled leaves surround the stem and the flowers are bright gold. According to the legend, this plant formed the bulk of the fresh straw that Joseph laid in the manger to receive his new baby. When the babe was nestled into his bed, the white flowers became a brilliant gold, and they remain that color still.

Bedstraw and the herb Pennyroyal, a very fragrant low creeping mint, are both nice to add to your Christmas manger scene--tiny sprigs can be placed in the manger to recall their part in the story. It is believed that Pennyroyal will burst into flower at the exact hour of Christ's birth (which when the legend originated was accepted to be at midnight on Christmas morning).

Horehound, Sweet Woodruff and Thyme were also thought to be manger herbs.

The herb lavender also figures into the Christmas story--again, after washing some of the baby's laundry Mary laid it on a lavender plant and the flowers became beautifully scented from then on.

The three kings also have a number of herbs associated with them--beginning with the familiar Frankincense and Myrrh. Both of these fragrant gums were highly prized substances in that time, and so the gift of them was especially precious. Myrrh is a small bush that exudes a sticky sap that dries and becomes quite hard. Frankincense is a small tree, and the gum is collected by first cutting into the bark and gathering the "tears" as they weep out and dry.

In addition to these plant, the small, spreading "Star of Bethlehem" that blooms in spring is believed to have sprung from the ground after the actual star burst into pieces and fell to the ground.

There is one woody plant that is strongly associated with the night of Jesus birth--the Juniper. If you have ever grabbed hold of a juniper branch you know how sharp and spiney they are. The legend holds that the plant wasn't always like that. But after Jesus was born and His family was fleeing for their lives to get away from Herod's troops, they found themselves cornered with soldiers all around. Desperate for a place to hide, they slipped through the branches of a juniper. The tree understood the danger they were in and closed its branches around them, pointing some of its short needles straight out, so that anything inquisitive enough to try to look inside would get some very uncomfortable prickles and scratches. The plant remains jabby and stabby even now, and was often believed to be a "sanctuary" where injured animals would seek cover.

There are many other plants associated with our celebration of the Holidays; Hollies, Ivies and mistletoe, Christmas trees and Yule logs all come to mind. These are just some charming examples of plants that can be used in our celebrations. Many people plant "Bible Gardens" and these plants are important subjects in such a place. Sounds like a new idea to plan a bed around next spring!

Hail to the dirt--and the very SPIFFIEST of holidays to everybody!

APRIL 2011
SPIFFY GARDEN TIP--Seed Catalogs exposed!
Well spring is getting closer and those of us that start seeds indoors are getting itchy to begin. I thought it might be instructive to write something about abbreviations in seed catalogs. There is a lot of useful information in seed catalogs, and a lot of hyperbole too. They are designed to make you loose your mind and spend lots of money--and they can't ACTUALLY lie, but they can sort of tell the truth a little out of focus. Here are some things to watch for, and some abbreviations that will make the particulars look more like information and less like an eye chart.

If a plant is listed as "self sowing" or "self sows easily" it can become a pest.
Heights and spreads are relative things, determined by climate and culture. Take them as a rough guide but not the absolute truth.

There is no such thing as a plant that "thrives on neglect".
If it is the sweetest, easiest, newest, most succulent blah blah blah--take it with a grain of salt. Might be true--might not. Again, climate and culture, soil chemistry and moisture levels will all affect this.

Zone hardiness should be thought of as a sliding scale. Some things listed as tender for us will survive in particular microclimates or with special care. Some listed as hardy will fail. Zone 5 in the mountains of New Mexico is not even remotely close to Zone 5 in Indiana.

With vegetables, particularly tomatoes, there are a series of letters and terms included in the descriptions--here is a brief rundown:
Open pollinated means the bees can pollinate your plants and the resulting babies will be just like the adults.

An F1 hybrid (F1 means "first filial generation) is a cross between specific varieties. These crosses are usually made to fix or introduce a specific characteristic--such as super thick skin, deep color, low seed count--whatever. Plants from these seeds will not yield babies identical to themselves. They may be just the same or they may not. The trait inheritance will follow a bell curve shaped distribution--meaning you will get some plants that are similar, some that are different, some that are fabulous and some that are awful. Its a crap shoot. So if you want to save seeds its a good idea to start with open pollinated seeds. Most if not all heirloom seeds are OP or open pollinated.

Now what about all those letters--VFN--LMONP--oh sorry--got carried away.

Okay--the letters indicate specific pathological conditions that the plants are genetically capable of resisting or tolerating. If you consistenly have troubles with tomatos, try to identify the nature of the problem--selecting resistant varieties can make your patch more successful.
V refers to Verticillium wilt
F refers to Fusarium wilt
N refers to Root knot Nematode
A--Alternaria /crown wilt
L--Leaf spot virus
T refers to Tobacco mosaic virus
St refers to the fungus that causes grey leaf spot.

Since several of these viruses are soil borne--they essentially can't be eradicated from your yard. So choosing a resistant variety is a way to insure that the bugs won't harm your plants.
With respect to tomatoes and a few other things--"determinate" means that the plant stays relatively short--it grows to a "determined" height. Indeterminate means--how much vertical space have you got???
Many plants are also listed as "crack resistant" (no smart remarks about anyone's rear end, please), stringless, downy mildew resistant, high sugar and other such terms. If you have a good idea of the kind of pests you routinely have trouble with in your own garden, choosing wisely can reduce or eliminate your reliance on pesticides to grow a quality harvest.
Also look at days until harvest. We have a fairly short growing season here--for long maturing things like melons and corn and some of the tomatoes, compare days until harvest and try to choose varieties with shorter time frames. While poking around on the intenet I came across this nifty gadget--might be worthwhile to have for only 5 bucks:
http://cdmplanning.hypermart.net/

So that should help you decode some of the heiroglyphs in the seed catalogs--and your flowers and veggies can be SPIFFIER than ever!



APRIL 2011