The year’s lessons from the garden

Whatever happens, keep planting and learning

At the end of the year I always like to take a little time to reflect on what worked well in the garden — and what didn’t. This year I also called some gardening friends — some experienced, some less so — to ask what they had learned.

I’ll go first. In 2021 I planted some bare-root oaks I bought from the State of New Hampshire and planted them for a client in an open meadow in what had previously been a lawn. Most did well last year and really took off this year. Based on that success, I planted even more this year in part because I could get unusual trees not available locally — northern pecan, hardy persimmon, pawpaw and more. We’ll see how they do next year.

Bare-root trees are usually the thickness of a pencil and have a foot or so of root with 18 to 24 inches of bare trunk. Although I found a grower in Vermont willing to sell them to me, most growers sell them to nurseries that pot them up and sell them in a year or two. But if you go online you can find growers who will ship bare-root trees and shrubs in the spring. They are easy to ship — no soil is included — and are less expensive than trees that have been tended and watered for a couple of years.

The downside is that bare root trees are generally only sold when dormant, and need to be planted soon after arrival. Some growers keep big coolers full of bare-root material, but you still need to get them in the ground soon after you get them. Look for them now and order what you want for spring delivery.

A friend bought a house in southern New Hampshire and had her first vegetable garden this year. She was surprised and delighted that there was no blight on her tomatoes. This did not surprise me at all. The fungus that blights so many tomatoes lives in the soil, and in a new location it rarely shows up until Year 2.

She also reported that some of her new raised beds were placed on ground so hard that she couldn’t even get a shovel in it. The wood beds were 8 inches tall but didn’t drain well, and none of her root crops did well. In the spring she is going to dig out the soil, remove the beds, and put 2 inches of coarse sand on the ground. Then she will replace the wood-sided beds and soil, and hope for the best. I predict that will solve the problem, particularly if she adds lots of compost to the soil in the beds.

Another friend was reminded this year that if a perennial is not “happy” where it is planted, you should move it! She said she had divided some phlox and, lacking a good spot for it all, put some in a place that was too shady for it. So she dug it up and moved it to a better place late in the season. Almost anything can be moved; just do it on a cool cloudy or rainy day. Even peonies can be moved if you are careful.

Another friend said that he learned to use hydrogen peroxide as a preventive for fungus on grapes. He bought some industrial-strength peroxide (30 percent concentration) and diluted it (10 parts water to one part peroxide). He then filled his big sprayer to apply it. He sprayed after pollination but before the grapes had appeared. Unlike chemical sprays, he says, it just breaks down to water and oxygen.

Another friend moved to Vermont from New York and has been working to maintain and personalize the large flower gardens that came with the house. She has learned to focus on one area at a time. She also said she has learned that it is important to act on your own ideas, even if you have inherited wonderful gardens. I agree. For example I learned that I love flowers called burnets (Sanguisorba spp.) and I collect them.

Burnets bloom in mid to late summer and come in size from miniature (6 inches tall) to huge (6 feet tall) and do best in sun with moist soil. Each year I add a few. My most recent addition is a S. hakusanensis called Lilac squirrel. I think of it as “the pink squirrel” as its blossoms are fuzzy and much like a squirrel’s tail, though much smaller. Mine are pink, not lilac in color. Not common in most garden centers, it is available from Digging Dog Nursery in California.

So yes, we all learn new techniques, try new plants and do our best to be good gardeners. All my best to you for the year ahead.

Featured photo: ‘Lilac Squirrel’ Sanguisorba blossoms are delightful to touch and see. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

What to do after a big storm

Put on a hoodie and shake off the snow

We recently got hit by a big winter storm that dropped at least 15 inches of heavy, wet snow. It clung to branches, breaking some and bending others to near their breaking points. If you suffer the same sometime this winter, here are some things you might consider to help your woody plants.

First, the best thing to do is be proactive. Even before the storm had finished I went outside and started shaking branches to get snow off them. Wear a hoodie! Snow can go right down your neck if you don’t. For shrubs and small trees, you can shake the central stem, and it will clear the snow from the entire plant. For larger trees, you will need to shake individual branches.

A good tool for clearing snow is a bamboo pole, the longer and thicker the better. Some hardware stores and feed-and-grain stores will have them. I used one to knock snow off branches I couldn’t reach.

So what can you do to repair cracked and broken branches? Generally, nothing. Take a sharp saw or loppers and remove the branch back to its point of origin — the main trunk or a large branch. But don’t cut flush to the trunk if you can avoid it. And never leave a stub as it will have to rot back to the branch collar to heal.

The tree heals itself at what is called the branch collar. The branch collar is a swollen area at the base of each branch. If you cut that off flush to the trunk, it will be harder to heal and take longer. Often the branch collar has ridges or rings around it, and you should leave them in place.

Two winters ago we had a big snowstorm and my small leatherwood shrub (Dirca palustris) split up the middle. The break was not complete: There was still an attachment point for both halves of the shrub. I didn’t notice the damage for a few days, but when I did, I decided to try to repair it.

Grafting is a well-known but difficult skill whereby a skilled person can add a branch to a living tree. This is most often done with fruit trees, allowing orchardists to add other varieties of apple on a tree. I have an apple with three different flavors of apple because it had other varieties grafted to the original tree. Truth be known, the tree came like that. I’ve taken classes in grafting and tried to do it, but have never succeeded. It’s an art.

But back to my little leatherwood tree. Because it was still hinged at the bottom of the break, I moved it back together and used some stretchy green plastic tape to wrap the two halves together. I wound it tightly, and lo and behold, it worked! I removed the tape (which is usually used for tying flower stems to stakes to keep them from breaking in the rain) after two or three months. Now, two years later, the shrub shows no signs of ever being damaged, other than a little scar tissue.

What else did the storm do? It almost flattened a small grove of willow trees I had planted 20 years ago. They are a variety of Salix integra called Hakuro Nishiki. Very popular, these willows have tri-colored leaves (green, white and for part of the summer pink) and are fast-growing. There is nothing I can do for them. They are bent over and weighed down by snow, but should recover once the snow melts in a week or two. And if they don’t spring back up? I will lop off the bent stems and let them re-grow. It’s difficult to kill a willow, and they should have been shortened long ago.

The storm also knocked down a large tree on our property, a wild black cherry (Prunus serotina). The black cherry doesn’t produce cherries we can eat, but birds eat them. The fruit is just a third of an inch across with a pit. Not much food for anybody, really. The blossoms are not important, either, but it is a good plant for pollinators, one of the keystone species.

The tree we lost had a diameter of 14 inches at its base and stood over 67 feet tall — I measured it after it fell. It was not one I had planted, but a bird probably dropped a seed in our woods. I will count the growth rings when it gets cut up for firewood. Where it grew is a good example of where not to plant a tree.

So what was wrong with our tree? Most trees do not have tap roots going down deep into the soil. Two feet is probably average. But they spread widely. I was told in a horticulture class to think of a tree as a wine glass sitting on a dinner plate. The plate represents the root system, the wine glass the trunk and branches.

But ours was growing right next to a rock ledge that was actually showing above ground. The roots could not grow that way, so all the roots were on just three sides. The wind came from the fourth side, and with the snow load, it blew over. So if you plant trees, be mindful of bedrock and ledge. Keep away from them. You can use a steel rod or crowbar to poke the soil to find ledge before planting.

Although I will miss that big tree, I try to never mourn a plant that dies. After all, it provides me a chance to plant something else there. My best wishes to you all for the holidays.

Featured photo: Cut back a broken branch to the branch collar. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 22/12/29

Family fun for the weekend

Out of the house

Looking to get your family out of the house during the holiday break? Check out the Kiddie Pool column in last week’s (Dec. 22) issue, which features a list of some of the area museums open extra days or hours for the vacation. The e-edition is available at hippopress.com and the story is on page 17.

While you’re there, also check out our listing of places offering light attractions and holiday light tours, on page 16 of last week’s issue.

Getting crafty

The last chance to sign up for Drawn to the Music is Saturday, Dec. 31. The program, put on by the New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestra, invites elementary school kids to listen to classical music and draw what they experience while listening. Winners of the competition have their artwork displayed at a concert by the Phil, and win free tickets to see the performance. To sign up, visit nhphil.org.

Library fun

• Tweens can travel the world on their plate at an international taste test at the Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) on Thursday, Dec. 29, at 3 p.m. Kids in grades 4 through 6 will try a variety of food from around the world. The food will contain some allergens, and the librarians can provide more information if contacted at [email protected]. Registration is required for this event and can be done at nashualibrary.org.

• Visit Pelham Public Library (24 Village Green, Derry) for a chance to read to a dog on Tuesday, Jan. 3, from 5 to 6 p.m. The therapy dog, named Blondie, will be a safe, judgment-free listener as kids practice reading out loud. Registration is required for this session and can be completed at pelhampubliclibrary.com.

• Take on a reading challenge at the Manchester City Library (405 Pine St.). Teens can participate in the winter reading challenge starting on Tuesday, Jan. 3, and running through March. Teens who participate by reading library books and attending events will gain points that can be used to earn prizes and a free young-adult book of their choice. Teens can sign up at manchesternh.readsquared.com and pick up their challenge packet at the library.

• Another reading challenge at the Manchester City Library (405 Pine St.) is 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, designed for children and their caregivers to encourage literacy for kids 1 to 4 years old. Once entered in the program, kids can earn little prizes upon completing different goals. To sign up, visit the library’s website at manchester.lib.nh.us. After signing up, parents should pick up the reading packets at the library.

Save the date

Watch the magic come to life at Disney on Ice Find Your Heroes at the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester). Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy will take the audience on an adventure that includes scenes from beloved Disney movies, including Moana, Frozen, Tangled and The Little Mermaid. The ice show opens on Thursday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m. and will have shows on Friday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, Jan. 7, at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 8, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Ticket prices start at $18 and tickets can be purchased at snhuarena.com.

And a happy new year

New Hampshire rings in 2023 with a plethora of events

By Katelyn Sahagian

[email protected]

The Granite State will be partying it up on New Year’s Eve. Old or young, staying up late or going to bed early, there’s an event for everyone.

• The kids night at the Y theme at YMCA of Downtown Manchester (30 Mechanic St. in Manchester; 623-3558, graniteymca.org) on Friday, Dec. 30, at 4:30 p.m. will be a New Year’s pajama party. Kids ages 3 through 9 are welcome. A space costs $25 per single child; siblings are an additional $15. Register via the branch’s Facebook page.

• See First Night, a romantic comedy, at the Players’ Ring (105 Marcy St. in Portsmouth; playersring.org, 436-8123) on Friday, Dec. 30, and Saturday, Dec. 31, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $27, $24 for students and seniors.

• The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover, childrens-museum.org) is hosting a family New Year’s Eve party on Saturday, Dec. 31, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., with a “countdown to midnight” during each session with noisemakers, hats and more. This is included in regular playtime tickets, which cost $12.50 per child with one adult, $10.50 per child with a senior age 65 and older.

• Charmingfare Farm(774 High St., Candia, visitthefarm.com) is hosting New Year’s Eve sleigh rides on Saturday, Dec. 31, starting at 10 a.m. The rides are sleigh rides to bonfires and holiday lights on a trail.

• Cowabunga’s (725 Huse Road in Manchester; cowabungas.com) is hosting a New Year’s Eve party on Saturday, Dec. 31 at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased at cowabungas.com.

• Join the Concord Public Library (45 Green St. in Concord, concordnh.gov) for a Noon Year’s Eve party on Saturday Dec. 31. The party will start at 11:30 a.m., and kids and parents can count down the clock together to noon. Recommended for kids newborn to fifth grade.

• Derry Public Library (64 East Broadway) is hosting a Noon Year’s Eve party on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 11:30 a.m. There will be a parade and balloon drop at the stroke of noon. Visit derrypl.org for more information.

• Celebrate the new year at the First Night in Portsmouth on Saturday, Dec. 31, in Market Square. The celebration starts at 2 p.m. and will end with fireworks at 7:30 p.m. Visit proportsmouth.org.

• The Kensington Parks and Recreation Department is setting off New Year’s fireworks at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 31, in Sawyer Memorial Park (24 Trundle Lane). The Department recommends dressing warmly and bringing a flashlight.

• The Portsmouth City Orchestra is coming to the Music Hall’s Historic Theater (28 Chestnut St.) for a New Year’s Eve concert and Champagne toast on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $38 and can be bought at themusichall.org.

• Dave and Buster’s (1500 S. Willow St., Manchester) is hosting a Ring Ring Ring in the New Year party from 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 31, to 1 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 1, with an unlimited appetizer buffet and unlimited play on select games. Tickets cost $69 and can be bought at daveandbusters.com.

Pats Peak (686 Flanders Road, Henniker) is having New Year’s Eve fireworks on Saturday, Dec. 31, at 10:20 p.m. Get a reservation for skiing, snowboarding, or tubing to watch the show. Lift tickets start at $60 and can be purchased at patspeak.com.

• Seven New Hampshire state parks are hosting First Day hikes on Sunday, Jan. 1. The hike at Robert Frost Farm in Derry is already full; other locations include Greenfield State Park (954 Forest Road), Monadnock State Park (116 Poole Road in Jaffrey) and Odiorne Point State Park (570 Ocean Blvd., Rye). Check-in begins at noon. Advance registration is required; visit nhstateparks.org to register or for more information.

• The Apple Therapy and Derry Sports & Rehab Millennium Mile, a one-mile downhill race on Mammoth Road in Londonderry, starts at a forgiving 2 p.m. Registration costs $20 for 12+ and $10 for 11 and under, with the first 1,250 registrants getting a winter hat (if available, registration on race day costs $5 more). See millenniumrunning.com.

• Join New Hampshire Scot for a Hogmanay at LaBelle Winery (14 Route 111, Derry) on Sunday, Jan. 1, from 3 to 7 p.m. There will be traditional Scottish music, food, activities and more. Entry tickets cost $32 per adult ages 15 and older, $15 per child ages 6 to 14, and kids ages 5 and younger are free. Visit nhscot.org for more information.

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

Enjoying the winter landscape

Pruned trees for outside, cut branches for inside

Normally at this time of year I can go out to the stream behind my house and pick stems of a shrub called winterberry (Ilex verticillata) to use in vases and on my wreath. It is generally loaded with small red berries that persist until mid-winter when hungry birds eat them, or they just plain fall off.

Winterberry is a great decorative shrub in winter that prefers wet feet but will grow in ordinary garden soil too. It is dioecious, meaning that it requires male and female plants — usually one male will take care of all the females. This year I didn’t get many of those bright red berries I like so much for decoration, and I have heard from other gardeners that they had few, too.

This prompted me to walk around my property looking at my woody shrubs to see what might substitute for winterberries. I didn’t find any berries at all. But I did cut some red-twigged dogwood (Cornus sericea) to use in a vase, and some budded branches of a Merrill magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri).

The magnolia buds are a bit like pussywillows on steroids: an inch long and very fuzzy. I have some in a vase on the table, and they look very good, and will for many weeks ahead. I’ve done this before, and will occasionally get a few buds to open into white flowers. I cut some greenery to go with them, a few stems of white pine. Hemlock would look good instead, but doesn’t hold needles well indoors.

It struck me that winter can be pretty bleak for people who don’t have nice-looking winter shrubs and trees. Judicious pruning can transform a messy tree full of small branches going every which way into sculpture. I recently helped a client prune a 50-year-old Japanese maple into sculpture that will keep it looking great for several years — with only a few minor pruning cuts each year.

When pruning, I ask myself, what will this little branch, currently the thickness of a finger, look like when it is the thickness of an arm — or a leg. If it is growing sideways toward a walkway, it must come off. Going through the middle of the tree? Remove it! The maple I pruned had many small dead branches that had been choked out because bigger branches had blocked off the sun, effectively starving them.

Bark is important. I like plants that have exfoliating bark, which means bark that is shaggy and peeling off — thus showing more than one color. My Seven Sons Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is one of those. In addition to the nice bark it offers me a display of small white flowers each fall. White birch (Betula papyrifera) and river birch (Betula nigra) are others with interesting bark. In fact all the birches have handsome bark.

I’ve been growing a paperbark maple (Acer griseum) for about 20 years. It has lovely shaggy reddish-brown bark that is very handsome. It is a very slow-growing tree, at least in this climate. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant (good to minus 20 F) but mine has survived colder temperatures. It looks great in winter.

One of my favorites — but one I do not grow — is sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), which I knew growing up in Connecticut but is rare in New Hampshire where I live. It reminds me of the English plane tree, so common in Europe. The bark peels off in big swaths, showing light gray-green in some areas, dark brown in others. It is just barely hardy to Zone 4, and prefers to grow in river bottoms, but will grow in drier soils, too.

Of the bigger trees, I like American beech (Fagus sylvatica) for its smooth gray bark. Unfortunately, beeches are prone to a fungal disease that mars the bark and eventually kills the tree.

That same smooth bark is a prominent feature of a shrub known variously as shad bush, serviceberry and Saskatoon bush. All belong to the genus Amelanchierbut bear different species names. Most are multi-stemmed bushes that get no more than 10 feet tall, though I have a wild one more than twice that height. Their blossoms are similar to apple blossoms. They do well in partial sun, often growing and blooming on roadsides.

Apple trees, particularly crabapples, can look great in winter. Some crabs hold onto their fruit throughout much of the winter, some drop their fruit in fall and many provide fruit for the birds to eat (that disappears before winter is done). Ask at the nursery when you buy a crabapple if the birds like the fruit. The form and bark of a well-pruned apple or crabapple is gorgeous to my eye.

So if your landscape has little to offer you in winter, plan on adding some winter interest come planting time. And if your trees and shrubs are drab, think about adding some strings of little winter lights to brighten them up, at least at night.

Featured photo: Merrill magnolia buds look like pussywillows all winter long, and bloom in late April. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Kiddie Pool 22/12/22

Family fun for the weekend

Library activities

• The Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) is hosting a seasonal craft time for kids in grades 6 through 12 on Tuesday, Dec. 27, from 1 to 3 p.m. The project will teach them how to ink up their own set of dice for tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons. Materials will be provided by the library. Register online in advance at nashualibrary.org.

• There will be a family-friendly movie at Nashua Public Library (2 Court St.) on Tuesday, Dec. 27, at 2 p.m. The library will show Smallfoot (PG, 2018) and provide snacks and drinks. The movie follows the friendly yeti Migo, whose life changes after he discovers humans. Visit nashualibrary.org for more information.

• Join the Manchester City Library (405 Pine St., Manchester) for a Gingerbread Earthquake activity on Wednesday, Dec. 28, from 1 to 4 p.m. Kids in grades 1 through 6 can come by and build a gingerbread house and see if it withstands the library’s earthquake simulator platform. This is the last gingerbread event of the season at the library. For more information, visit manchester.lib.nh.us.

Museum fun

• Join the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire (6 Washington St., Dover) during their holiday hours Wednesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m., and Tuesday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon. The museum will have active play time, holiday themed activities, story times, and craft projects. Tickets cost $12.50 per child, $10.50 for seniors ages 65 and older, and are free for children under 1 year old. Visit childrens-museum.org to reserve a spot in advance.

• The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester) is open regular hours over the holiday break, Wednesday and Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The museum will be closed on Christmas Day but will be open on Christmas Eve from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $13 for seniors ages 65 and older, $10 for students, $5 for teens ages 13 to 17, and are free for children under 13 years old or members. Visit currier.org for more information or to reserve tickets online.

• The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry) will be open Friday, Dec. 23, and Tuesday, Dec. 27, through Friday, Dec. 30, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum will have the annual “Holiday Festival of Toy Planes and Model Aircraft” exhibit open during those hours. This year’s exhibit features more than 2,000 toy planes and model aircraft on display. Younger kids can participate in the 12 Planes of Christmas scavenger hunt, where they look for specific planes in the mobiles of the exhibits. Admission costs $10 for adults 13 and older, $5 for kids ages 6 to 12, seniors 65 and above, and veterans/active military. Kids 5 and younger are free. Visit aviationmuseumofnh.org for more information.

SEE Science Center (200 Bedford Road, Manchester) is hosting a slew of hands-on, interactive activities during winter break. In addition to being open on Monday, Dec. 26, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the museum’s hours will be updated to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Friday. There will be different activities each day, including a chance to try a machine learning game, make a science craft to take home, or touch a fossil. For more information about the museum or to reserve tickets, visit see-sciencecenter.org.

• The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center (2 Institute Drive in Concord; starhop.com, 271-7827) will be open Friday, Dec. 23, from 10:30 to 4 p.m. and then daily from Monday, Dec. 26, through Saturday, Dec. 31, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission costs $12 for adults, $11 for students and seniors and $9 for children ages 3 to 12, according to the website. Planetarium shows cost an additional $6 per person (children ages 2 and under get in free); see times and descriptions for the different shows online. Purchase admission online to reserve a morning or afternoon visit spot.

Ice is nice

• The Douglas N. Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road, Concord) will be open on Christmas Eve from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. for ice skating. Admission is $6, with children 3 and younger being free. Ice skate rentals are $6 a pair and there are refreshments at the snack bar. Visit concordnh.gov for more information.

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