Category: Outdoors

How to rebalance your plant life

Well-intentioned people of the past century imported many handsome plants. Unfortunately, some of them, absent the predators of their homeland, became pests here in America. These “invasives” generally spread quickly by seed and root, and can take over our gardens and adjoining wild places. Many will grow in sun or shade in wet or dry soil — in other words, anywhere!

This is a good time to work on removing as many invasives as you can. You can obtain the entire list online as each state keeps a list of plants that are considered invasive and are prohibited from sale, propagation or transportation. But let’s look at a few that are common and important to remove, no matter where you live.

For me, those include bush honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.), barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica). I recently organized a work day on a hiking trail in Cornish that focused on honeysuckle and barberry. We tried to pull these shrubs by hand, but also used a device called a weed wrench for bigger specimens.

Although “weed wrench” is used generically, it was in fact a trade name, but the company has gone out of business. Similar tools can be found under the names “Pullerbear,” “Uprooter” and perhaps others. I have used Weed Wrenches, but not other brands. These are steel tools with sturdy handles and a gripping mouthpiece that bites onto the stem of a shrub up to 2 or 3 inches in diameter, depending on the model. You pull back, and with great leverage you pull out the culprit, roots and all. Some brands come in different sizes.

Many invasive plants are hard to eradicate because if you leave a part of the root in the ground when pulling it out, it will re-sprout. And simply cutting down an invasive tree or shrub usually will often not work: The roots will send up new shoots, and may respond by sending up many, many new shoots.

But don’t be discouraged if you can’t get all the roots out. You are severely setting back the plant you pulled and it will be several years before the plant can produce seeds for birds to distribute elsewhere.

Buckthorn is one of those that responds to cutting by sending up many new plants. Instead of one buckthorn or a clump of buckthorn, you get dozens of buckthorn. But you can kill buckthorn by girdling the trunk. Take a small pruning saw and cut through the bark all the way around the trunk. Don’t cut into the hardwood, just cut the bark. Then go 12 inches higher up, and do it again.

Girdling a buckthorn is a slow death: you are interrupting the flow of sugars from the leaves to the roots, which slowly starve to death. I have done this in winter, and the tree leafed out and seemed normal that spring and the next spring. The third spring it never leafed out — it was dead, and did not send up any new sprouts around the tree.

That said, it is not always easy to girdle buckthorn. They often grow with several trunks that merge near the base and grow tightly together. So a folding saw with a pointed tip is the best way to get into the cluster of stems. Or try to cut the clump twice down low, near the base.

During the recent work day in Cornish, I spoke with someone who explained a theory of invasive plant control that made a lot of sense to me. It was a theory proposed by Dr. Steve Dewey of Utah State University, and was based on the way firefighters approach wildfires. When a fire is raging, sometimes all you can do is try to contain it, and look for places where the wind has sent sparks that are just starting a new fire.

Likewise, when there is a bad infestation of an invasive plant like honeysuckle or barberry on a property, look around for spots where a single small plant is growing. It will be easier to pull than a big one. And within a few years, a small plant will be a big plant producing seeds for birds, wind or water to move to a new location — and to produce a big patch. So put out the glowing ember first, then work on the big fire — or infestation — next.

An easy invasive plant to pull is garlic mustard. This is a biennial weedy plant and might not be thought to be so bad. But its roots produce a toxin that kills beneficial soil fungi that will, in time, reduce tree viability. It can grow in deep shade in our forests. The toxin it produces will eliminate the mycorrhizal fungi that live in symbiotic relationship with our trees, gradually weakening the trees — and killing them. Not only that, garlic mustard inhibits the germination of seeds of many species of native plants, including many spring wildflowers.

As a biennial weed, garlic mustard has two forms. In the first year it produces a low rosette of rounded leaves. The second year it sends up 18- to 36-inch flower spikes with pointy, heart-shaped leaves with jagged edges. The small white flowers have four petals and bloom in clusters about an inch or more in diameter. One plant can produce about 4,000 seeds. And although about 70 percent of the seeds will germinate the next year, some will remain viable in the soil for up to 10 years.

So organize a work party in your town — it’s more fun than taking on invasives on your own. Try to remove any one of the invasives that threaten our woodlands and wetlands. Your grandkids will thank you one day.

Featured photo: Honeysuckle leaves are oval and opposite each other on the stem. Courtesy photo.

Every gardener has an opinion about when to start planting the vegetable garden. Frost-hardy plants like spinach, onions and peas should already be in the ground for most everyone, but tomatoes and peppers? I believe that waiting until June is right for my garden, even if we get no more frost.

Why do I plant later than many others? Tomatoes and peppers like warm soil. In fact, they’d rather be growing in Mexico than Cornish Flat. Yes, you can plant them early, but they won’t grow much. They’ll sit there and sulk. If you can get your hands on a little soil thermometer, check your soil down 3 or 4 inches. If it is 60 degrees or more, fine. Have at it.

Another way to decide when to plant is to ask an “old timer.” Ask someone in your neighborhood when it is safe to plant various crops. If she has been gardening in your neighborhood for the last 25 years or more, her advice is probably excellent.

If you started seeds indoors, your tomatoes or broccoli may be tall and lanky. So tall that they will fall over when planted. The solution? Plant much of the stem in the ground, either in a deep hole for the root ball, or sideways in a shallow trench. Remove any low leaves to make it look like a little palm tree. Then make a hole for the root ball with a 6-inch trench next to it. Lay the tomato seedling in the ground, and gently turn up the top while covering the stem with soil. All the buried stem will produce roots. Broccoli or other brassicas I just plant deep if they are too tall.

Potatoes can go in the ground now unless your garden is still soggy. In fact, don’t plant anything in soggy soil. I have a somewhat soggy place for my garden, but I make raised beds, which helps with drainage. I have made two kinds of raised beds: raised mounds (30 to 36 inches wide) or wood-sided raised beds. I use rough-sawn hemlock planks that are a full inch thick and 8 inches wide. Pressure-treated wood is now said to be safe to use in the vegetable garden, but I prefer untreated hemlock, which I find lasts about 10 years.

Potatoes are started from chunks of sprouted potatoes, or from whole, small potatoes. Buy “seed potatoes” at your local feed-n-grain store, hardware store or garden center. Grocery store potatoes are likely treated to avoid sprouting, although organic potatoes are probably fine. Seed potatoes are sold as disease-free, which is important. If you cut large potatoes into chunks, make sure each has a couple of “eyes,” where they will sprout stems. Leave them in a shady, breezy place for a day or two to heal the cuts.

Loosen the soil well and dig a hole with a hand tool. You want the spud to be at least 3 inches deep when planted as the new potatoes need space to grow above the seed potato. Cover with just an inch of soil at first, but then fill the hole with more soil after the leaves and stems are up above the soil level.

Peppers and eggplants I plant as small plants in mid-June. To give them even more warmth at night I sometimes cover them with row cover (a thin agricultural fabric sold at garden centers). And I’ve been known to place dark-colored rocks near some special French hot peppers I grow to store heat during the day and kick it back at night. Peppers and eggplants can be wind-pollinated, but bees help too, so don’t leave row covers on once they start blooming.

Parsnips I plant by seed in mid-June, and they generally take two weeks or more to germinate. Most seeds are good for three years, but you must buy parsnip seeds every year. Like all root crops, parsnips benefit from having loose soil with few rocks (oh, sorry, Vermonters).

Be sure to thin all root crops in early July once they are big enough to grab onto. Give the carrots an inch to start, then a month later thin to 2 inches. You can eat the thinnings. Beets, same thing. And beet greens are delicious.

What about unusual veggies? I like to buy an artichoke plant at my local greenhouse. I have started them from seed, but it is a long process starting in February. Give your artichoke a 2-foot square of space, add lots of compost and a little organic fertilizer, and place it in full sun. Make sure it does not dry out. It will produce one good-sized artichoke at the top of the plant, and smaller ones as side shoots. The foliage is lovely, so you can plant one in your flower garden!

Swiss chard is pretty enough to sneak into your flower beds. Get Bright Lights chard, which has red, yellow and green stems.

Beans come as bush beans or pole beans. Bush beans all ripen over a three-week period and are then done. Pole beans, if you keep on picking them, will keep producing until frost. Kentucky Wonder is the classic pole bean, though Kwintus is my favorite. It’s good eating, even when large.

A word of caution about fertilizers: More is not better. Chemical fertilizers can burn fine roots. And too much organic fertilizer can push growth too fast. Compost is always a good addition to your planting hole.

I never use insecticides in the garden. Their side effects can be awful for you, your kids or pets. Just hand-pick bugs, or spray off little things like aphids with a stream of water.

Featured photo: Beans. Photo by Henry Homeyer.