Category: The Gardening Guy

How to make them a little brighter

This is the darkest time of the year: Not only are the days short, but clouds obscure the sun much of the time. Many of us find the gloom oppressive, especially when there is neither enough snow to ski nor ice to skate on. And for gardeners, there is little we can (or wish to) do outside. So what do I do?

First, I go to my local grocery store or florist and buy cut flowers or potted plants. For $10 or $15 I can brighten my outlook considerably. The most economical to buy are potted plants. They will, with a minimum of care and forethought, bloom for weeks or even for months. Here are a few of my favorites:

Christmas cactus. It should be called a Thanksgiving cactus, really, because they usually bloom well before Christmas. Buy one in full bloom or that has a mix of blossoms and buds. They need moderate light indoors, but not hot afternoon sun. Temperatures of 60 to 70 degrees are best for success. They should not be allowed to dry out completely, but neither do they want to be kept soggy. They like humidity, so place them in a saucer of small stones and add water. Never let the pot sit in water.

Cyclamen. Another low-light plant. This one is suited for even less light than Christmas cactus. If you give it any direct sunshine, an hour or two of morning sun is plenty, but indirect light is better.

Water your cyclamen only when dry, which depends on the temperature and relative humidity. I find picking up the pot tells me a lot: If dry, it weighs very little; when moist, it is heavier. If you go too long, the flowers will flop as if to say, “Look at me, I’m dying of thirst!” But they recover quickly. Place your plant in a saucer of water and let it suck up water. But don’t let it sit in water for long.

My mother loved African violets and did well with them. I remember doing an experiment with my new Chemistry Set for Young Scientists when I was in the fourth grade. I made a solution of tannic acid and put a drop on a leaf. Overnight, it burned a perfect hole! Great experiment until my mother asked me if I had done something to her plant.

I have not had great luck with African violets here in New Hampshire (they may have heard about my experiment, way back when). I largely heat with a wood stove, and keep the house warm, but quite cool at night. I finally read an article that said one should never let the temperature in the room they are in drop below 70 degrees. So I no longer try, though I have recently read that temps down to 60 degrees are OK.

If you want to grow them, keep them consistently warm in a bright room but not in direct sunshine. They like high humidity (hence do not like woodstoves) but do not tolerate soggy roots. Water from the bottom, but water once a month from above (to flush out any fertilizer salts). Never let water get on the leaves. Pinch off spent blossoms or yellowed leaves.

My absolute favorite house plant is an orchid called phalaenopsis or moth orchid. Buy them in bloom, and they will bloom for many weeks. Direct sunlight can scorch the leaves, but they need a bright room. These are tropical orchids so like warm temperatures. But cool nights are good, down to 55 degrees.

Moth orchids in their native environment grow in trees. So the soil mix they come in is generally a special orchid mix made of bark chips, and perhaps a little perlite or vermiculite. This mix allows water to run right through it. If it comes with an inner pot and an outer pot, be sure to pour out water after watering from the outer pot, which normally has no drainage. Or just lift the inner pot and run water through in your sink. Otherwise you will kill your orchid. Water once a week, or if exposed roots turn silvery white.

According to the experts, tree orchids such as these do best with good air circulation. Me? I find that in a room with people coming and going there is enough air movement to keep them healthy. I grow them over a saucer of pebbles and water to increase humidity, and grow them in the bathroom, where steam from the shower helps.

But if you have no patience with house plants, or believe you cannot grow them, buy flowers for a vase. Most cut flowers will last a week; many will last longer. Most stems cost between $1.50 and $3. Buy an odd number of stems: three, five, seven or 11, depending on your budget.

The vase for displaying cut flowers should be about half as tall as the stems are long (or a little less). But that rule is not firm. If the arrangement looks good to your eye, it is fine.

Cut flowers generally come with a little packet of white powder. Use it. It helps to keep the water from getting full of bacteria or fungus that will clog the stem, keeping it from taking up water. Pull off any leaves that would otherwise go in the water. You can also use a teaspoon of Clorox in a quart of water. Never put cut flowers near a radiator or wood stove.

Henry’s book Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast is available from him for $19 at gardening-guy.com.

Gifts for gardeners
Henry Homeyer recommended gifts for the gardener in your life in the Dec. 2 issue of the Hippo. Find the e-edition at hippopress.com; the story is on page 20.

Featured photo: Cyclamen really are not fussy, and bloom for weeks. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Gifts for the gardener

Ready to shop! Every time I turn on the radio or open a newspaper, there are articles about supply chain issues. Even the reliable old U.S. Postal Service is saying deliveries may well be delayed. So share some garden produce this year or shop at a local, family-owned business when you can.

Food is a great gift. You don’t need fancy fruit shipped from Oregon if you made plenty of tomato sauce or quince jelly this year. Share the harvest. A quart of dried cherry tomatoes contains a lot of love and work. You had to grow, harvest, wash and dehydrate. Only people dear to my heart will rate such a gift.

My dream gift? A friend, loved one or reader sending me a nice card, along with a homemade certificate for four hours of weeding in my garden. Or two hours. Working in the garden with a friend or relative can be a great way to strengthen a friendship. Politics don’t matter in the garden. I might suspect my brother-in-law didn’t vote the way I did in the last election. But if he will bring his chainsaw and help me take down and cut up a 12-inch-diameter box elder I want removed, send me the gift certificate!

Books are great gifts, and books printed in the United States should be readily available at your local bookstore. My first choice for a book to give? Doug Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard. It explains how what we plant can affect the planet, especially our pollinators and birds. And all of us, really.

I’ve re-printed my last gardening book and will be selling it at a discount directly to you, signed. It’s a collection of my best articles organized around the calendar year. It’s titled Organic Gardening (not just) in the Northeast: A Hands-On, Month-by-Month Guide. Signed and mailed to you for just $19. Send a check to Henry Homeyer at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. I will try to figure out how to reduce the price on my website, Gardening-Guy.com where it is currently for sale at $21 if you want to use PayPal.

What else at the bookstore? Essential Native Trees and Shrubs for the Eastern United States by Tony Dove and Ginger Woolridge is a great companion for Doug Tallamy’s book. Michael Dirr has written lots of great tree books. He is informative and opinionated. Allan Armitage is just as opinionated and thorough about flowers as Dirr is about trees. Or get a gift certificate and let your gardener pick her own books at the local bookstore.

If deer are a problem in the garden of your loved one, I find nothing better than Fend Off Deer and Rabbit Repellent Odor Clips, available at Gardener’s Supply and other retailers. A package of 25 sells for about $20. I use one or two per shrub to keep deer away all winter. They clip on with a clothespin-style attachment. They contain just garlic and soy oil, no chemicals.

I recently wrote about using hardware cloth (wire screening) to keep voles from chewing off bark and killing young trees. Since then I have used plastic spiral tree guards that are easy to install and will protect against sun scald in winter, too. They are inexpensive and can be reused (I will remove them in the spring). They are sold as Rainbow Professional LTD White Spiral Tree Guards at OESCOinc.com or by calling them at 413-469-4335. They sent my order out the very day I called.

Also available from OESCO are some pruners that I like a lot. OESCO is a small company based in Conway, Massachusetts, catering to orchard professionals. The pruners are made by a German company, Löwe (not to be confused with the American retailer Lowe’s). The pruners are of the anvil type, designed and manufactured well. They sell a size nice for small hands (Löwe 5.107) and a larger size, too. OESCO sells replacement blades and parts.

Of course every gardener needs a good weeding tool. The CobraHead is my favorite and has been for years. They now have a mini-Cobrahead designed for smaller hands. Available from CobraHead.com or 866-962-6272 or at your local garden center. It has a single curved tine like a steel finger that will tease out roots from below while you tug a weed from above. I emailed the owner, Noel Valdes, who told me there are plenty in stock.

I found a wonderful shovel for digging in tough areas with lots of roots. It’s called the Root Slayer and is available from Gardener’s Supply and a few other retailers. I’ve used mine all summer and love it! Great for cutting though sod, too. It has a sharp blade and teeth along the sides for slicing roots.

Lastly, think about a gift certificate at your local nursery or garden center for plant purchases in the spring. Plants are always good.

Featured photo: Gardening books make great presents. Courtesy photo.

Intensify the flavors of garden produce

One of the reasons I garden is that I love to cook and to create wonderful, flavorful dishes that I might not get elsewhere. I think many gardeners share that inclination. One of the techniques I have not used much is roasting vegetables, but I recently did some roasting and will do some more. I find it sweetens and intensifies flavors.

It all started when I was baking some potatoes. I had the oven at 425 and decided to make some kale chips at the same time. I ran down to the garden and picked some leaves. I took four of them, sliced the leafy part off the stems, and chopped coarsely to one- to two-inch squares. Then I sprinkled them with olive oil, tossed them well and dusted them with salt. I put them on a cookie sheet and roasted until crisp — 10 minutes seemed just right.

I’ve made kale chips before but was never enamored of them. This kale had been hit by frost several times, which made the leaves sweeter. And I cooked them at a higher temperature than I’ve done before. I also made a small batch: Cindy and I ate them all before dinner. In the past I have stored kale chips in a well-sealed glass jar, but they got soggy anyway. Still got kale in the garden? Give it a try.

Baked potatoes are a classic dish and easy to make. A few tips: Grow some russets next year — they are best for baking — and brush them with a little melted butter or olive oil to help crisp up the skins. But plan ahead, because it takes 45 to 65 minutes at 400 degrees to bake a potato. The bigger the spud, the longer it takes. You should be able to poke a fork or knife in easily when cooked. Oh, and don’t forget to poke some holes in the skin when you start — I’m told they can explode if you don’t.

I usually freeze fresh bell peppers in the fall. I find they are great for cooking and can be tossed in a salad, too. No blanching: I just wash and wipe dry, then seed and slice them and freeze in a zipper bag. I decided to try roasting frozen peppers now to see how they would do.

I spread out a couple of cups of frozen sliced peppers on a clean cloth towel on the counter, while preheating the oven to 450 degrees. They thawed quickly, and I patted them dry. I put them in a bowl and tossed them with some olive oil. Then I removed one half and put on the cookie sheet for cooking; the other half I sprinkled with dried oregano flakes and a little salt before spreading on the pan. Put down parchment paper or aluminum foil to simplify cleanup.

The peppers needed 25 to 30 minutes until they were soft and slightly charred. I did not remove the skins, though people who roast them whole tend to do that. If you are roasting peppers as a side dish, be aware that roasting them reduces the size considerably — a cup of sliced peppers doesn’t make much of a dish.

A few days later I got a nice pork roast and cooked it at 350 degrees for over an hour. This gave me a medium-hot oven just begging to roast veggies. I roasted beets, carrots, onions and tomatoes, and all were delicious!

The beets were medium-sized, 2 inches in diameter or so, and took an hour or a little more to feel well-cooked. I wrapped them loosely in aluminum foil after cutting off the leaves. I left the tails (roots) on the beets, and an inch or so of the stem and leaves. Cut beets tend to bleed, and I didn’t want that.

The carrots I just tossed into the roasting pan after I cleaned them well and cut off the stems and tips. If you have small carrots they don’t take as long as beets, so you can put them in later in the cooking process. Onions I peeled and roasted whole. While roasting they caramelized, turning sweeter. Good used cold in sandwiches!

I tried roasting my tomatoes by cutting tomatoes into half-inch slices and also just cutting them in half. I found the halves were easier to serve — the sliced tomatoes tended to fall apart. Later, when roasting peppers, I also roasted three more fresh tomatoes at 450 degrees after sprinkling them with dry basil. Even at 450 it takes an hour or so to get them to collapse and brown up.

Roasting tomatoes does give them a very nice, intense tomato flavor. Years ago I roasted quite a few with the idea of storing the results in the freezer. It worked well. I roasted them longer than I did just now: I roasted them until almost all the moisture was out, probably at a lower temperature. Then I put them in zipper bags and froze them for use in winter sandwiches. I took the frozen tomato pieces and thawed them in a toaster oven.

Each year I grow some winter squash. My favorite is the Waltham butternut. It is a light-brown squash with a bulbous, seed-filled distal end, and a narrower section with no seeds that extends to the attachment point on the vine. Mostly I peel them, remove the seeds and chop into cubes to include in stews and stir-fries.

Recently I roasted a butternut squash and was delighted not only by the flavor but also by the fact that I did not have to peel the skin. When serving (after an hour at 350 degrees) I scooped the cooked meat out of the skin. But later I tried a bite of the skin, and it was soft and delicious. Vegetable skins generally are full of vitamins and minerals, so I shall plan on eating squash skins from now on (with the exception of Blue Hubbard skins, which are so thick and leathery).

So as you plan your garden for next year, think about growing veggies you can roast. They are perfect comfort food for long winter nights.

Featured photo: Roasted tomatoes with basil. Courtesy photo.

Fall color is everywhere

New England is known worldwide for its fall color. People swarm here from all over, largely to see the color of our sugar maples. As a senior citizen I am legally entitled to drive around at 25 miles per hour, holding up traffic and enjoying every brilliant red tree I see. But I rarely do — I’m too busy in the garden, most of the time. But there is a lot more to see than maple trees.

For color I really enjoy the leaves of oaks and American beech. They hold on to their leaves much longer than the maples, often long into winter. Why is that? Probably because they have only migrated north after the last ice age, and where they came from — the American South — they did not have to drop leaves in the fall. That’s one theory I have read, anyway.

On sunny fall days the yellow leaves of beeches just glow. I enjoy them in the woods or alongside the road, but do not plant beeches or recommend them to others. There is a disease caused by the Neonectria fungus that is spread by scale insects. It mars their smooth gray bark and eventually kills the trees. So I advise enjoying them where you see them in the woods. Yes, there are systemic poisons you could apply to kill the scale insects and perhaps hold off the decline of an existing tree, but I don’t want poisons in my landscape.

Oaks vary considerably in their fall color. Deep reds, purples and browns are often mixed with reds depending on the locale, soil and species. Yellows and greens are often displayed on leaves, too.

One of the great features of oaks is their stamina: The “George Washington Oak” was only recently declared dead — at the age of 600 years. It grew in Bernards, N.J., and grew to have a trunk circumference of 18 feet and reach 100 feet tall. Oaks routinely live to be 300 years old if not abused by soil compaction and urban smog. Yet they are relatively fast growing when young: The pin oak can grow 12 to 15 feet in five to seven years.

Although I am tremendously keen on promoting native trees and shrubs, I do believe we can have a few imports, and one of my favorites for fall color is a large shrub called disanthus. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant, but I have had one in my Zone 4 garden for at least 10 years. Mine is now nearly 8 feet tall and wide. In the fall the leaves turn a brilliant purplish red, as good as or better than that dreaded invasive, burning bush, that was so popular before it was listed as an invasive. In October some years (but not every year) my disanthus bush has tiny pink-purple blossoms that you will only notice if looking for them. They come right out of the bark, without stems.

Witch hazel is one of the few native trees that flower in the fall. It is an understory tree that will grow in shade, partial shade or full sun. It has yellow fall foliage that pretty much obscures the yellow blossoms until leaf drop in October or November. Then the blossoms become prominent. The blossoms have four strap-like curly petals that are less than an inch across. Witch hazel usually has many, many blossoms.

Scientists have only recently discovered what pollinates witch hazel. Bees and other pollinators are no longer buzzing around when they bloom. But witch hazel produces nectar and brightly colored flowers to attract insects. No one knew what pollinated them until naturalist Bernd Heinrich discovered that it is the night-flying owlet moth. Apparently that moth can raise its temperature by 50 degrees by shivering. If only that would work for me!

The seven-son flower tree is another fall bloomer. It was imported from China in 1907, but sales never took off. It was reintroduced in 1980 and immediately became popular for its fast growth (I have seen stems grow 6 feet in a year) and fabulous shaggy bark in winter. Its mature height is said to be 25 feet, but I keep mine to 15 feet with pruning. It will grow in full sun or partial shade.

This year mine was still blooming in late October. The blossoms are small, white, lightly fragrant and appear in clusters of seven at the ends of branches. Later, if there is no frost, the sepals turn pink.

There is one other tree I grow that blooms in the fall each year, usually in September, and then only a few blossoms at a time. It is a magnolia, a hybrid called Jane, one of the Little Girl series. It blooms first in late spring, and then re-blooms once a month or so with a few fabulous deep pink 4-inch blossoms, with a light pink interior.

Jane grows in six hours of sun or more in moist, rich soils. The leaves are deep green and glossy, good enough to put in a vase. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant but does well in Zone 4 for me. Because it blooms in late spring, frosts in April do not affect it. It is a small tree, perhaps 15 feet tall, with a nice rounded shape.

Spring and summer will always be the best seasons for flowering trees, but I like to extend the seasons with trees that flower and look good well into winter.

Featured photo: Heptacodium blossoms are small, but lovely. Courtesy photo. Courtesy photo.

Save trees from bark mulch and rodents

If you have cleaned up the vegetable garden and cut back your perennials, you might be feeling just a little smug — especially since this gardening guy admits he is behind you in completing those tasks. But there may still be tasks for you to do, and important ones for the trees on your property.

Are you one of those gardeners who has fallen in love with bark mulch? Do you use it not only in flower gardens but also around trees planted in the lawn to keep down weeds, hold in moisture, and keep the deadly string trimmer at bay? If you do, take a few moments to walk around and check out your trees and shrubs.

Bark mulch should never touch the stems of woody plants. You need a doughnut hole around your trees: a 4- to 6-inch area bare of mulch on all sides of your beloved trees. Why? Tree bark protects the tree from rain and snow, but it will eventually rot if it is covered with soil or bark mulch. And if the rot extends into the cambium layer — the layer beneath the bark — it will, eventually, kill the tree. But mulch is not the only culprit. Many trees are planted too deeply and the flare is covered with soil, which is just as lethal.

If you look at a tree that Mother Nature planted – or perhaps it was a forgetful squirrel — you will see that tree flares or widens at its base. That part of the tree needs to be planted above ground at planting time. Unfortunately, trees sold in pots often have the trunk flare covered with soil and get planted just the way they were in the pot. I have seen trees in large pots with the trunk flare covered by 4 inches of soil or more.

Mulch or soil over the trunk flare does not kill your tree right away. It often takes from six to 10 years to see signs of decline. Look at the tips of branches at the top of the tree. Leaf loss there is a definite sign of decline. Early color change in the fall is another sign. That maple that turns color before others on the property? It may be stressed by bark rot caused by damage to the trunk flare.

So examine your trees. If the trunk flare is covered with mulch or soil, you have work to do. If a tree is straight (like a telephone pole) at the soil surface, you need to pull the mulch away. And if you still don’t see a flared area, you need to re-grade the soil around your tree.

Use gloved hands or work gently with a hand tool to remove the soil around the tree until you see the trunk flare. You may notice fine roots in the soil or mulch as you remove it, but these roots can be cut away. You are looking for big roots headed away from the trunk. Keep your hand tool away from the trunk as the bark will be tender, and easily damaged. But the good news is that most trees will recover if you remove the soil or bark mulch and let the bark dry out.

If you have planted a tree on a hillside, I assume you planted it to be vertical. But to do that you had to cut back into the uphill side of the planting area to create a flat spot. If, after planting, erosion has moved soil downhill to cover one side of the trunk, remove that. People with excavators working on your property presumably know not to pile soil against the bark of trees, but check anyway. Remove soil as needed.

Another fall task involves protecting young trees from damage by rodents. The worst is the meadow vole. These are little rodents that look a lot like mice but stockier, with short tails. Think of mice as ballerinas and voles as hockey players. They often leave tunnels in the lawn during the winter.

Voles can reach sexual maturity in just 5 weeks after birth, so they can increase in numbers exponentially, given the right conditions. If hungry enough, they will chew the bark off young trees, killing them by damaging the tender cambium layer and eating the phloem all around a tree, girdling it.

Young fruit trees are the most susceptible to girdling. Older trees have thicker bark and are generally less interesting to rodents. If you planted an apple tree within the last five years, you should protect the bark. Even if they did not damage the tree in the past, you cannot assume they will not this year. If there are high numbers of voles this year, and a deep snow cover to hide them from predators, they may attack.

The best way to protect trees against damage by voles is to surround the trunk with a ring of wire mesh called hardware cloth. Get some with quarter-inch spacing of the wires, and create a ring 24 inches tall. Make the ring of wire big enough to leave a couple of inches of space between the mesh and the trunk. That will allow the tree to get fatter without meeting the hardware cloth. If you have low branches (within 24 inches of the ground), you can prune them off to accommodate the wire mesh.

Hardware cloth comes in 24-inch rolls. You will need tin snips to cut it and leather gloves to protect your fingers. The stuff is like razor wire once cut. But, having seen what rodents can do, I recommend protecting new trees. There are plastic wraps and special cloth wraps that claim to protect against rodents, and may, but I have not tried them. They are definitely easier to use. So check out your trees, and get busy if need be.

Featured photo: Hardware cloth will keep rodents from chewing the bark and killing this young cherry tree. Courtesy photo.