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The value of research
May 29, 2009 | 10:33 am
5/29/09
Thrice now I’ve learned the same gardening lesson the hard way.
It began years ago when I rescued five spindly phlox from a veritable cave of overgrown foliage. They paid me back by multiplying into a rampant plague I can’t control. A few years later, a generous friend donated some evening primrose to a space I needed filled. In both cases, I never cracked a book or scoped online to learn about these plants.
The primrose have since emulated the phlox and overrun the garden. I have no more places to transplant them, or friends to fob them off on. Had I done my homework, I would have learned about the spreading habits of these species. Up ’til then, I’d only heard about such behavior as a characteristic of mint — which I have carefully avoided.
Last spring, now older and wiser, I did a lot of research before planting Jerusalem artichokes as an experimental food crop. Unfortunately, I didn’t research enough! After they were well established in three of my gardens (spread out to see which environment they favored — all of them, it turns out!), I decided to transplant a batch to clear more room in the veggie patch. Before acting, I spent more time learning about them, which led me to warnings about voracious qualities. In fact, one source claimed that no matter how thoroughly you dig them out, you will never get all the bits, and you will spend the rest of your life trying to get rid of them.
Too true!
In all three gardens where they were planted and removed last fall, I now have dozens of new plants bursting through the soil between replacement vegetables, annuals, and perennials. I’ve had to dig up to my elbows to find the roots, each of which is larger than my fist. I can hear bits breaking off as I wrestle them to the surface — and groan, not only from the effort, but also from the knowledge that I’ll need to do it again next year. And the next, and the next . . .
Moral of the story: RESEARCH NEW PLANTS THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU INSTALL THEM!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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Jumping the gun
May 19, 2009 | 8:33 pm
Last week I wrote about protective coverings for early plantings. Last night I found out how well (or not) they work.
Several times since I planted my vegetable patch and container flowers, overnight temps have dipped below freezing. All my plants are under cover, or are easily coverable, with a combination of commercial fabrics, milk-jug cloches, plastic-covered frames, and old bed sheets. These have proven effective for a light tickle of predawn frosting — but long hours below freezing are another story.
Last night’s hard frost took out all the tomatoes and peppers except for the experimental 3 under Kozy Koats* in the lasagna garden, 3 under milk-jug cloches in an EarthBox, and 1 under a milk jug in a pot on the deck. Everything else under jugs, fabric, or plastic got zapped, save for the lightly covered, cold-tolerant broccoli and peas in scattered gardens. Lettuce in containers shoved against the house under a rooflet, not covered with anything, seem just fine.
One-third of the flowers survived; one-third didn’t; one-third took a hit but seem to be alive. Yet-to-be-planted annuals inside a cold frame had similarly mixed results.
I could kick myself for losing the carefully selected varieties I planned all winter and my neighbor started from seed; that’s what I get for jumping the gun in a region where common wisdom says to plant no earlier than Memorial Day. Conversely, I planted with this risk in mind, and created a perfect test lab for different season-extending techniques. Now I know from practice, instead of theory, what actually works, as well as have a better understanding of backyard microclimates. Unfortunately, the opportunity to practice what I’ve learned has to wait another year!
For now, off to the nursery to replace homegrown, custom transplants with whatever I can get. Chances are slim I’ll lose them, because we’re entering a week-long warm spell that will take us past normal last-frost date. Therefore, my mistakes can be chalked up to experience instead of causing hardship. Not so for farmers and orchardists who can’t cover everything, and so lose an entire crop when caught by surprise.
More than ever I admire people who grow food successfully, and bless them for growing extra so the rest of us can afford to make mistakes!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
* Kozy Koats, a.k.a. Wall-o-Waters, a.k.a. teepees of vinyl water tubes that work on the principles of solar gain.
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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Outfoxing the season
May 13, 2009 | 7:51 am
5/12/09
This time of year, the warm, sunny days ideal for planting are often followed by crispy nights that will kill whatever you planted. After a decade of riding this rollercoaster, I’ve compiled an arsenal of coverings designed to warm the soil and/or protect tender seedlings from weather. Most of them are cobbled together from found materials, but slowly I’m accumulating easy-up, easy-down tents, row covers, and cages that allow me to plant well before the normal Memorial Day start.
So far, these covers have all proven to work and I will continue simplifying and experimenting until I can get my whole garden in by Mother’s Day without losing a thing. It would be easier if I had one big garden, so I could assemble one big cover and be done with it! But I’m still moving beds around, and have many containers in different places. So I continue the morning and evening ritual of covering and uncovering until Memorial Day, when it’s 99% certain that all frost has passed.
Then, three months of freedom until the cycle begins again any time after Labor Day. Between this covering exercise and trying short-season vegetable varieties, I hope to reap my entire harvest before the return of frost. All northern gardeners are familiar with this challenge, and as more folks nationwide start growing their own food, I’m sure the numbers will surge.
Books are coming out now that address season extension and four-season gardening, as well as greenhouse gardening. Two on my shelf are: “Four-Season Harvest: Organic vegetables from your home garden all year long,” by Eliot Coleman and “Solar Gardening: Growing vegetables year-round the American Intensive Way,” by Leandre and Gretchen Poisson.
A search of the Internet or browsing the appendix of my book will lead to other information sources.
Happy Spring to all!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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A REALLY BIG garden pest
May 5, 2009 | 6:09 pm
A paradox often occurs in gardening, when you intentionally do something and get the opposite result. Japanese beetle traps are a common example: Unless you position them exactly right, you’ll not only end up with a gazillion stinky dead beetles, but also you’ll attract every other beetle in the county to feast upon your roses and green beans. The reverse is true with pesticides: While zapping that bug munching on your cabbage, you’ll kill all the bugs that munch on your bug, plus the bees that pollinate everything, and the fish in the pond where the groundwater flows.
Bird feeders offer the same predicament. I keep them up year-round, despite warnings from the neighbors and wildlife experts that bird feeders will attract bears from April to November. In 11 years of living in the country, I’ve never seen a bear. Heck, we rarely see deer, while suburban friends are overwhelmed by them. Here in the boonies, I need no deer fencing, have no trouble with rabbits, and my garbage remains undisturbed by raccoons.
Until last week. I awoke at dawn to find the pole supporting my fancy triple-tube sunflower feeder bent double, the empty feeder rolled down the hill; a hanging tube of thistle seed shattered on the ground; the iron hanger attached to the house, supporting suet and a squirrel baffle, snapped in half and the suet cage missing. At the foot of the tree beside the destroyed thistle feeder, a paw print larger than my hand.
We’ve been beared!
Must’ve been a hungry bear, or a sow with cubs, because the yard seemed vacuumed — not one morsel left on the ground. I had just filled the feeders the evening before, and that constituted about 5 pounds of seed and a suet brick. Happily, the triple-tube feeder was intact (otherwise, a $60 replacement!), and I had spares of the other components. So within an hour I was back in business, though I now have a new daily ritual of taking in the feeders at night.
I’ve forgotten them a few times, but no further bear ravages. I wonder where it came from and where it went. I especially wonder what became of the suet cage!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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Surprise party
April 20, 2009 | 8:34 pm
4/20/09
Because I’m a dilettante by nature, my enthusiasm for gardening waxes and wanes. But my appreciation for gardens never fades — especially for God’s Garden, which is what I call the natural world.
Both enthusiasm and appreciation get a lift each spring from the random surprises that pop up in my garden. Last year, it was The Crocus (see blog of the same name, 4/15/08); this year it’s glory-of-the-snows in the front lawn. These are low star-like flowers in a purpley-blue, similar in color to chickory, with a white center and grass-like leaves. Their name reflects their early bloom in cold climates. I originally planted them because I wanted the earliest possible harbinger of spring.
Turns out they bloom around the same time as daffodils, violets, and forsythia — sometimes later. Oh well. But this year . . . Apparently they didn’t like the protected corner I tucked them in, for a pair of them jumped the wall and down 20 feet to the lawn to find full sunshine. Now they proudly present themselves as the first blossoms of the season. Our lawn turns a peculiar shade of yellow over the winter, against which the glory-of-the-snows’ purpley-blue stands out like a holler and flag-waving. Good thing they’re done by the time the lawn needs mowing!
Another surprise occurred in the living room. I had decided to abandon the red bell peppers I’d been nursing through the winter (see “Indoor Veggies,” 10/21/08), waiting only until the snow cleared off the compost pile before cutting them down. As I loomed over them with snippers, I came face to face with a fresh flower. Whoa! And there — another one, on the sister plant. No, two, three more. And the tomato! The back side against the window was bursting with flowers. So instead of cutting, I resumed pollinating, and now tiny tomatoes and peppers are forming on the plants. Which answers the question I started out with 12 months ago: Yes, tomatoes and peppers are perennials, and can be grown year-round indoors.
Leaving a new question: What the heck am I going to do with the now-giant plants?
This is the kind of problem I don’t mind having. Can’t wait to see what surprise turns up next!
Carolyn Haley
Author: Open Your Heart with Gardens
Posted by: Opening the heart, gardens, gardening, yard, plants, cultivation, spring — Carolyn Haley
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Zone maps, revisited
April 14, 2009 | 8:32 pm
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