GreenYankee Blog

Visitors in Your Garden

in Gardening Guy: Henry Homeyer
annuals, elephant ears, flower gardening, weeding

I recently got my gardens ready for visitors right around Father’s Day, which made me wonder what my dad might have said about them (he passed away long ago). Dad was a gardener who grew vegetables so he could eat them. Period. He was not interested in growing  flowers. Or shrubs. Or decorative trees. But he appreciated nice gardens, and I think he would have liked how mine look right now – especially after my 72-hour blitz to get ready. Let me share with you my ideas about getting gardens ready for visitors.

First, since my gardens have been (ahem) a little under-maintained, I had to accept that they would not be perfect when company came. I knew I could make them look good, but that there would be flaws: weeds, empty spots, flowers that need staking, shrubs that need pruning. You get it. Fortunately other gardeners are forgiving since often their gardens are in a similar state of imperfection.

I think that hiring a college student, preferably an athlete, is good – especially if you’re not a kid anymore. Even a student who has never gardened before can push a wheelbarrow full of compost or mulch, or empty your wheelbarrow for you. That saves a lot of energy so that you, the gardener, can do the stuff that requires experience. Teach your helper to identify one or two designated weeds, and let her just go after them. Carlin, my helper, filled several wheelbarrows with nothing but jewel weed, which was everywhere.

Buy some annual flowers. As you pull out the golden rod and other big weeds that somehow escaped notice last summer, there will be empty spots that need filling. You can buy 4- or 6-packs of flowers to fill in the spaces without a big expenditure.  Annuals are often in bloom when you buy them, and will bloom all summer if you cut off the spent flowers – and some don’t even require that. I bought marigolds, snapdragons, zinnias, asters, gazanias, gomphrena, and stock. Read the tags as to height and spacing, and have at it. Most do well in average soil, so you probably don’t even have to do much soil improvement.

Think about buying one really dramatic annual. I spent $40 on a plant commonly known as “elephant ears”. It came in a14-inch pot, stood 32-inches tall and had a 48-inch spread. Elephant ear (Colocasia spp.) is a tropical plant that grows large green or purplish leaves and thrives in moist soils. They are grown in Cameroon (where I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1970’s) as a food item – the roots are like yams. High in carbohydrate, low in flavor.  And it’s so dramatic that visitors will ignore a few other flaws in my garden as they gush over this big, juicy plant. I didn’t remove this big plant from the pot, just buried it up to the lip of the pot in the ground.  Then this fall I can easily bring it inside without re-potting it.

Don’t be afraid to move things around. My granddaughter, Casey Yunger, planted a 6-pack of dianthus last summer in her little garden bed here at my house. I thought it was an annual, but low and behold, it came back and produced 6 large blooming plants (each a foot across). I popped them out of the ground, and used them to fill in spaces. With the exception of big, deep rooted perennials like peonies and perennial poppies, most flowers don’t mind moving. I even moved a rose I’d had for over 15 years so that it would get more sun – and fill in an empty spot. Just move things a week before company comes, so plants will have adequate time to settle in.

Tie up floppers. Nothing looks worse than a nice perennial with gorgeous flowers that are lying in the dirt. I have tried every type of material for tying up plants, and prefer green plastic tape (not sticky) that comes on a roll; it’s about a quarter of inch wide. Unlike string, I can break it off the roll with my fingers. I generally use 3 bamboo stakes to type up a good sized plant, running the plastic tape between the bamboos about two-thirds the way up the plant from its base.

Big urns of flowers can really dress up a garden, too. You can buy a hanging basket of flowers, and then transfer the contents into an appropriately-sized pot for a quick and dramatic spot of brightness.

I hate to admit it, but I found that a weed whacker (string trimmer) can be a terrific tool for garden clean-up. I’ve had one for a couple of years but never used it at all last summer – I hate loud machines. But a weed whacker really can make places near stone walls and buildings look much better – and quickly. I’m still a novice with a string trimmer, so I generally stay away from trees and flowers – they can damage plants in the blink of an eye (I have to admit to ruining places in my lawn while getting used to it).

And lastly, cut the lawn. A neat lawn –especially if you have edged the lawn around flower beds – gives an overall impression of order. So invite a group to visit your garden: it will force you to get it looking really great, and then you will enjoy it more all summer.

Henry’s new book is Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast, a Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide. His Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com.

Weather Worries – Not to Worry!

in Seasonal Tip
compost, mulch, tomato, vegetable gardening, water conservation

It seems as if the weather is getting more extreme: tornadoes, floods, drought, heat waves, cold spells. What’s a gardener to do? Well, stop worrying, for starters. Each year the weather is different – and most years we still have nice flowers, and eventually have the lettuce and tomato for a good sandwich. And unless you’re a commercial farmer, your life and livelihood will not be too adversely affected, even if the weather is bad. There are a few steps we can take to help our flowers and vegetables along, however.

Planting anything is best done on a cool, cloudy day – or even in a light sprinkle. If we’ve had a few days of rain, it’s better to wait for the soil to dry out a little before planting. Rototilling wet soil is definitely a no-no, and walking on wet soil can compact it, ruining soil structure.

Adding compost, or aged cow manure, will help any soil. If you have sandy soil, it will act as a sponge to hold moisture from percolating right through. If you have a clay soil, it will improve drainage and make the soil lighter and fluffier – and more receptive to roots. Avoid fresh cow or horse manure as it will introduce grass and weed seeds to your soil – those animals don’t digest all the seeds.

I planted my tomatoes on a warm dry day in early June, and we almost immediately got hit by a spell of days in the 90’s. I had grown these babies from seed, and hardened them off outside, but a big, leafy tomato can lose a lot of water in the hot sun when it’s 94. So I created some shade for my tomatoes by draping row cover over the tomato cages. It helped.

Row cover is a spun synthetic fabric that is used to keep insects off plants while allowing water vapor and sunshine to pass through. It also can keep a plant a few degrees warmer early or late in the season if draped right over it. Row cover comes in various weights, and I had some of the heaviest type. It did a good job of shading my plants when placed the cages (and kept in place with clothes pins). I also kept the soil well watered during the heat wave.

A few words about watering: I don’t like overhead sprinklers. Yes, they are easy to turn on and let the machine do the work. But they get the leaves of your plants wet, and that can encourage fungal diseases. Most fungi send out hyphae (root-like appendages) that pierce the leaf, allowing the fungus to infect the plant. Many need a moist leaf surface to do that. Watering in the evening with an overhead sprinkler moistens the leaves and makes them more susceptible.

I like watering with a watering wand. This is a nice 30-inch long metal handle with a watering rose on one end and a shut-off on the other. The brand I like best is Dramm. It sends out a nice gentle spray, even with the water pressure up fairly high. I find the less expensive watering devices send sharp sprays, which can damage the plants or wash away the soil. I like the watering wand because I can deliver water to the root zone while letting the tops stay dry.

Newly planted trees and shrubs need to be watered weekly, or even more often if the soil is sandy and temperatures are high. The most common cause of first-year death of trees is dehydration. But don’t just give your new tree a quick squirt. Time how long it takes for your hose to deliver 5 gallons of water into a bucket, and then make sure to spray long enough to deliver 5 gallons – in a nice wide circle around the tree. Watering the rootball is not enough – dry soil nearby will wick the water away, leaving the rootball dry in no time.

Many gardeners put down bark mulch in established perennial beds. This keeps down the weeds and holds in moisture. But if you add more mulch each year to pretty-up the beds, you can develop a layer of bark that is almost impermeable to rain. I find an inch to an inch-and-a-half of mulch is adequate. And I try to leave a little donut hole around the plant so that quick showers can deliver some water to the roots.

Recently I examined some maples that were dying in a parking lot – the top half of one was completely leafless, the others also showed some leaf loss. These trees were suffering from bark rot due to “mulch volcanoes”. Each had at least 6 inches of bark mulch right up against the trunk. I predict that all will be dead from bark rot within 2-3 years. And all will struggle getting any moisture. So be judicious in applying your mulch.

If we have another week of rainy weather, your vegetables like tomatoes may show yellowing leaves – a sign of stress. This occurs because normally plants pull up nitrogen and other minerals from the soil with water that is used to replace water lost to transpiration on sunny days – but not in rainy spells.  The solution: spray liquid fish fertilizer onto the leaves. The leaves will absorb the nitrogen and green up.

So don’t worry, be happy. No matter what the weather, your garden will (eventually) be just fine.

Henry’s new book is called Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast, a Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide. Contact him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Wildflowers That Are Not So Wild

in Gardening Guy: Henry Homeyer
coral bells, iris, larkspur, wildflowers

Every time I travel to a far-off place I am intrigued to see what is growing in a different climate – and what I might learn about plants that I grow here that also grow under different conditions. I recently had a fabulous hike down the Rogue River Canyon of Oregon in prime wildflower season. The trip was organized and supported by Rogue Wilderness Adventures (www. wildrogue.com or 800-336-1647). Although we hiked most of the way – some 40 miles in 4 days – the trip was supported by rafts that carried our stuff (or us, if we got tired). That meant I could hike with just a day pack – and not worry about the weight of wildflower books.

So what did I see? For starters, coral bells (Heuchera spp.).Coral bells are commonly sold in garden centers in the standard green-leafed form as well as lime green, orange, purple and variegated-leaf varieties. The plants generally have very thin flower stalks that stand up well above the leaves and terminate in small but handsome bell-shaped blossoms. I grow a number of varieties including a purple-leafed one that I think is called ‘Persian Carpet’ (those pesky tags are routinely stolen by the garden gnomes). I grow ‘Persian Carpet’ in light shade in soil that is rich in compost – in full sun the color of the leaves tends to bleach out. I grow the standard green-leafed variety in full sun with rich, moist soil. It has orange-pink blossoms that look lovely in a vase.

Coral bells were growing in both sun and shade along the Rogue River, including some growing right out of the rock in walls that face the afternoon sun. Generally there was a little seepage at this time of year, and moss was present that also held a little water. Still, these plants (which I identified as Heuchera micrantha) are growing in a much tougher environment than those in my garden. Winters, however, are much milder out there – just a few days below freezing.

I was not surprised to see sedum growing on the rocks out there. Sedums of all sorts are used as rock garden plants here, including my favorite, Sedum rupestre “Angelina”. Angelina has chartreuse foliage, but no flowers; it’s an excellent groundcover. The sedum (sometimes called stonecrop) I saw out there was Sedum spathufolium which had grey to green leaves, and bright yellow flowers on 3-5 inch stems. As with sedums here, this one is very drought tolerant, sometimes growing right on rocks with no apparent soil.

I was surprised to see iris growing in deep shade along the Rogue River and blossoming profusely. Many sun-lovers, (and I consider iris to be a sun-loving plant) will grow and survive in shade, but bloom minimally. Not so with the iris I saw there. I identified 2 species of shade-loving iris: Iris innominata and Iris tenax. I did a Google search and found GrowsonYou, a website in the United Kingdom (http://www.growsonyou.com) that sells both species of iris. They do not offer our zone hardiness ratings, however, so they may not be viable here. This winter, when I have more time to do a more thorough Web search, I may be able to buy seeds and start my own plants, which is better than getting plants from overseas.

I grow California poppies here from seed, and saw plenty of them in grassy, sunny meadows there. The California poppy is a very bright yellow annual poppy. I don’t find them re-seeding for me, or not very often. Like annual poppies, they start easily from seed.

Another annual flower that I saw there and grow here is larkspur. It is the annual form of delphinium, a perennial that many gardeners grow. Larkspur is readily available in 6-packs from garden centers, or you can start your own. I have learned not to try starting larkspur indoors in early spring, as it needs cold soil to germinate. If you want to grow it from seed, it is best to start it outdoors in the early spring. The blue of the larkspur in Oregon was truly wonderful: a bright, bold, medium to dark blue. I was surprised to see it growing in both sun and shady locations.

Wild columbine is common along the Rogue. Columbine comes in several colors, though there it is just the red columbine (Aquilegia formosa). Here I have a deep purple that is almost black, and hybrids in blues, pinks and light colors. Columbines in the wild here I see mostly growing on rocky outcroppings. It is a short-lived perennial that is easily started from seed – and often sows seeds itself. I find my columbine sends “volunteers” where I didn’t plant them.

The last of my flowers that I saw there was a lesser known perennial known as umbrella plant (Darmera peltata). It was growing right on the banks of the river, and in the river where the water was high. I planted an umbrella plant in 2009 in memory of my late sister, Ruth Anne, right next to my stream. In 2010 it limped along, but this spring it bloomed beautifully: pink flowers on tall stems that appeared before foliage in early May. And this year the foliage is big and luxuriant.

So if you travel, look to see where plants grow in their native habitats. It may help you understand that we sometimes pamper our plants too much, and they can do fine on their own.

Henry Homeyer can be reached at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. His new book is Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast: A Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide.

Flowering Trees and Shrubs

in Gardening Guy: Henry Homeyer
apple, crabapple, forsythia, lilac, maple, Serviceberry

If you have traveled a mile from your house this past month, you have passed by plenty of blooming trees and shrubs. Some, like those bold, deep pink or magenta PJM rhododendrons, are brassy and loud in their announcement of spring. Others, like the maples and birches, are more subtle. All give me joy. All are worth observing.

It seems to me that maples are given scant attention when it comes to their flowers, but this year the maples in my part of the world are producing prodigious numbers of blossoms. Most trees have an occasional “mast” year when they produce a bumper crop of fruit, nuts or seeds. This appears to be a mast year for maples. Their flowers appear first each year, before the leaves, and are dainty greenish yellow. The flowers hang or dangle on thin green 1-3 inch long strings in a merry, decorative fashion. They don’t resemble flowers we pick or admire, for the most part. Still, given the numbers of them this year, they make a dramatic statement, creating a yellow/lime green cast to the entire tree, glorious from a distance.

The birches also have interesting blossoms, which are called catkins. Catkins are hanging appendages 2-4 inches long, a bit like tiny fuzzy sausages hanging in groups of 2-3 that produce (or receive) pollen. There are separate male and female catkins. Catkins also appear on some willows, and poplars. Like any wind-pollinated flower, catkins produce lots of pollen and may cause allergic reactions in some people. Male poplar trees produce pollen which is very irritating to many people, and is a main cause of hay fever at this time of year – though the females are not allergy producers.

If you suffer from hay fever, a good resource is Tom Ogren’s book, Allergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping. Ogren lists not only trees and shrubs, but many common flowers and rates them on a scale of 1 to 10 in term of how potent the pollen is.

The shadbush, shadblow or serviceberry (Amelanchier spp) have been blooming along the roadside in recent weeks. These are white-flowered understory trees or shrubs that bloom towards the end of the forsythia display, but before lilacs. The blossoms resemble apple blossoms, but the trees (or shrubs) have smooth gray bark and a lankier overall appearance than apples. They vary in size, but rarely get taller than 30 or 40 feet in the wild. As a domesticated shrub they can be kept in the 6-10 foots size.

If you want a good bush for feeding birds in summer, shadbush is a good choice. They produce blue berries that are much beloved by birds, and are generally stripped off the bushes before I get a chance to taste them. But they are tasty for us, too. And I love the smooth gray bark and the multi-stemmed growth of the bushes. The most floriferous of the varieties, for me, is Amelanchier arborea ‘Cole’s Select’. I found it at E.C. Brown’s Nursery in Thetford, VT. (www.ecbrownnursery.com) and I have gotten other varieties there, too.

This is a good time to prune your forsythia. As early spring bloomers, they set their blossoms for next spring this summer, so prune by early summer to get the best display next spring. That is a good plan for any spring-blooming tree or shrub. If you have forsythia that only bloom on the lower branches, you have an old fashioned variety, one that is easily susceptible to winter burn. The blooming branches are those that were protected by snow. The best solution? Cut them down, dig them up, and get a better variety. ‘New Hampshire Gold’, ‘Vermont Sun’ and ‘Northern Sun’ are good, hardy varieties that should do well for you. Or ask at your family-run garden center for a good one for our climate.

Apples and crabapples set their buds for next year by early June. You should be done with pruning them by now, though a little pruning now is all right. Fruit buds are brittle at this time of year, and you can easily snap them off when pulling prunings from the tree, so be careful when removing branches. Pruning them when dormant is best, which is why March is the usual month. It’s also fine to do some pruning in the heat of August.

Lilacs are some of the toughest and most wonderful of the blooming shrubs. Old farmers scattered wood ashes around the base of their lilacs in March to keep the soil sweet (not too acidic). You can do that now – or anytime, really – to help with next year’s bloom. A quart yogurt container of limestone or wood ashes is fine for a small lilac or a couple of cans for bigger ones.  It really does make a difference. And lilacs in full sun bloom much better than those planted in shade. Buy lilacs in bloom so you can see their color and sniff their fragrance before making a purchase.

This is a great time to plant trees in shrubs, but only if you are willing to water them all summer. If you’ll likely forget, plant in the fall.

Henry Homeyer’s Web site is www.Gardening-Guy.com. Reach him by email at henry.homeyer@comcast.net

Lawns, and the Machines Available to Work on Them

in Gardening Guy: Henry Homeyer
clean up, lawn

Most guys love machines, the bigger and louder the better. And before you take me to task for that comment, answer this: who in your family usually uses the chain saw, the lawn mower, the rototiller and the snow blower? In my experience it’s the guys. Not always, but most often. So spring is here, and the guys (and a few intrepid women) are itching to get out the chain saw to cut up the pine branches that broke off last winter and then get to work on the lawn.

Me? I’m not much of a machine guy, so to learn about the various motorized options, I visited Upper Valley Equipment Rental on Bridge Street in West Lebanon, N.H. and talked to Brian Henry, the manager. We looked over his arsenal of machines: a power broom, a lawn de-thatcher, a core-aerator and a 40 inch sweeper with a bristle brush, and I went home with a power broom to try out.

The power broom is actually an attachment that goes on a string trimmer (also known as a weed whacker). It consists of a rotating cylinder with rubber paddles that lift and push debris forward. The one I rented weighed 25 pounds, but because the motor and blades are at opposite ends of a 6-foot handle, the machine requires a certain level of strength and endurance (your 80-year old mother should not attempt to use it).

The power broom works: you can push a lot of debris with it. My lawn is quite soft and I found that if I didn’t keep moving the machine forward, it was possible to damage the grass and dig a depression. I see it as best used to clean up a paved driveway or the shoulder of the driveway with sand and gravel left from the winter. I still prefer a rake to a power rake, even though an old fashioned rake takes more time.

The core-aerator is a machine designed to make your lawn less compacted – and thus to grow better. It extracts plugs of turf from compacted lawns, allowing you to get compost and fertilizer into the soil. As I explain in my new book Organic Gardening (not Just) in the Northeast, you can test your lawn for compaction by trying to plunge an ordinary 6-inch screwdriver into the lawn up to the hilt. If you cannot easily do this, your lawn is compacted and you may wish to rent an aerator. It pokes holes 2-3 inches deep and half an inch across. The plugs extracted fall out on the lawn (and would eventually break down) but most people would want to rake them up. Spreading compost after aerating is a way to get organic matter into the lawn, increase biological activity to soften and loosen the soil.

I also looked at a walk-behind “Sweepster”. The one I saw had a 40-inch stiff-bristled brush on a rotating drum. It reminded me of a street sweeper, but it pushes the debris forward and does not pick it up. Since I have no pick-up truck I wasn’t able to bring one home, and (as a confirmed Luddite) I am not sure I need one anyway. Again, it would be great on driveways, and might also serve to clean thatch, or accumulated dead grass, out of the lawn.

Speaking of which, I got a demonstration of a dethatching machine at the rental center. It’s a walk-behind machine with lots of short metal blades designed to loosen and lift dead grass. If you have biologically active soil, the organisms in the soil (including earthworms) should breakdown your grass clippings, precluding the need for a dethatcher. But if you apply lots of chemicals to the lawn, you may wish to rent one, as chemicals tend to minimize biological activity. The machine would be good for scuffing up the soil in order to apply seed to an existing lawn, too.

Small engine repair shops are busy tuning up lawn mowers and sharpening the blades. If you are mechanically inclined, you can sharpen the blade yourself by removing it and using a bench grinder or coarse file to mimic the angle of the blade set by the manufacturer. If it has been warped or bent by hitting rocks, stumps or dog bones, you should replace the blade.

If you set your blade at 3 inches or more, you can minimize crab grass growth – effectively shading it out. If you want to minimize weeds in the lawn you can spread corn gluten. It is a corn product that should be spread now, during the period between the blooming of forsythia and lilacs. But it is not a miracle (some weeds will get established anyway), and for best results should be used 3 years in a row. Microbes in the soil break down the gluten, releasing peptides that inhibit root growth – of weeds, but also of any grass seed you might use, so don’t use it if overseeding the lawn now. Corn gluten contains nitrogen and acts as a fertilizer, slowly releasing nitrogen as your microbes break it down.

The best spring activities for improving your lawn, besides cleaning it up, are spreading some compost over it and adding some good grass seed. Half an inch of compost spread with a shovel and rake will energize your lawn, and adding grass seed will fill in the thin spots. So pick your weapon of choice – either motorized or manual – and get to work. Summer will be along soon.

For other suggestions and info about spring activities, go to Henry’s blog:
https:// henryhomeyer.wordpress.com. His web site is www.Gardening-guy.com