Category: The Gardening Guy

It happens to even the best gardeners

If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I kill plants (just like you probably do). Houseplants. Annuals. Flowers in the ground. And yes, even trees. Although some oaks live 400 years, most plants naturally have a much shorter life span. And although some die due to my negligence, most do not. But I do push the limits of zone hardiness, trying plants that rather would winter in Pennsylvania — and occasionally killing them.

I have a native dogwood tree that shows up all over my property. It is called the pagoda dogwood and is one of my favorites. This small tree never gets much taller than 10 feet, has just finished blooming with understated white blossoms and has blue berries loved by birds in July or August.

But it has a short lifespan for a tree; 25 years is a good run for this one, even in the wilds. Fortunately it seeds in, so I always have plenty. When one dies, I can cut it down, thank it, and get rid of it. No mourning.

For the last 20 years or more, I have had a hazelnut tree called Harry Lauder’s walking flower stick (“Purple Majesty”) in one of my flower beds. This tree is a naturally occurring freak: Its stems twist and turn in unusual ways. Great in winter for its silhouette, mine also had purple leaves and was a great tree. I pruned it to keep it just 6 feet tall. But last summer it showed signs of distress, and this spring it did not leaf out. It is dead.

But because it is striking in profile, I decided not to cut it down. Not yet, anyway. I planted annual vines around its base and I am training them to climb up into the tree. If all goes as planned, in a month or so I will have purple hyacinth beans blooming in the tree.

In the meantime my wife Cindy and I decorated it with colorful strips of cloth. Each is just a couple of inches wide and perhaps a foot long. She attached threads to the top of each so we could tie them on like Christmas ornaments. Even the slightest breeze has them fluttering and twisting. It’s lovely.

Although nowadays I buy almost exclusively native plants, last summer I was tempted by a lovely Japanese clethra and brought her home. This spring it did not leaf out, a major disappointment. My test for a dead branch is to rub my fingernail on the bark, scraping off the outer layer. If it is alive, it will show some green. But this clethra showed brown everywhere, and I decided it was dead.

As I was lopping off the branches prior to digging it out, I noticed a few leaves growing at the very base of the tree. Life! So I am letting it stay. Unfortunately, I do not know if the tree was grafted onto a different rootstock, which is common in the landscape trade.

So, for example, a branch or branches of a Japanese clethra might have been grafted to a summersweet clethra. This avoids having to start a new plant from seed and ensures that the new plant has the desirable characteristics of the plant grafted to rootstock. If the rootstock grows, one gets a plant different from the purchased plant.

All apples are grafted onto rootstock because the seeds are hybrids and will not breed true. The rootstock used for apples determines the size of the tree. Some will produce miniatures, others full-sized trees. So if your apple was killed by rodents last winter and the roots sent up new shoots, what you get will probably not be interesting to eat. Yes, Johnny Appleseed traveled around America with a sack of apple seeds, but those apples were for making hard cider, America’s beverage of choice, not for eating apples.

If your rose died last winter, you might be able to bring it back to life. Most roses are sold on roots that are different than the flowering portion. You should be able to see a scar, the graft union, on your rose. If the union was planted below the soil line, the rose may sprout from the fancy rose you bought, not the rootstock. So wait and see what happens. By now, this late in the season, a “dead” rose should have sent up shoots if it is going to.

Most plants we grow are vigorous and seem to have an innate “desire” to keep their genetic lines viable. That is why they produce seeds, and many (especially weeds) send out roots that can send up new plants. So if a perennial plant dies, you may be in luck. A baby plant may replace the mother plant. It’s what they do.

A few words of warning, however. Any plant that starts from seeds dropped by a hybrid plant will probably not breed true, although it can. A hybrid is a cross between two genetic lines, and seed producers develop them in carefully isolated circumstances to protect their lineage.

I like to think that if I never kill any plants, I am not trying hard enough. I try to grow new and different plants, often things that would rather grow a few hundred miles south. When those rare (for here) plants do survive and bloom, I feel like a million bucks. Hopefully they did not cost that much, as I will probably lose them at some point.

Featured photo: Pagoda Dogwood berries are loved by birds. Courtesy photo.

Summertime, but the livin’ isn’t easy

As the song goes, it’s “summertime, and the livin’ is easy!” Well, not really. Yes, I’ve planted my 53 tomato plants, 200 onions and more, but there is still plenty to do. Let’s look at a few chores you might want to do this weekend.

Your tomatoes need support. If they lie on the ground or even on a nice bed of straw they are more prone to diseases. They need air and sunshine to stay healthy and to ripen up sooner.

I like wire tomato cages as supports. I recommend getting the biggest cages possible: 54 inches tall with four support legs instead of three. They are expensive but last for many years. Right now your tomatoes are short and standing up on their own. But if you wait too long they will be much more difficult to install. Do it now!

If you grow a lot of tomatoes and don’t have the budget to buy nice cages, you can tie them to wood stakes. Get one-inch hardwood “grade stakes.” Five-footers are best because you need to push at least a foot into the ground. Tie the plants to the stakes with something soft: strips of old sheets work well, or pantyhose. If you use string it may bite through the stems when they are loaded with fruit. You will need to add more ties as the plants get taller.

As your tomatoes get mature, you may notice that lower leaves are turning brown. This is probably early blight, a common soil-borne disease. It is not fatal but reduces your fruit production. You can minimize by doing two things: cut off affected leaves, and mulch the soil to minimize splash-up. Grass clippings, leaves or hay will help. They also keep the roots more moist in dry times.

If you are growing carrots or beets, this is a good time to thin them. You really should thin them by the Fourth of July. It is tedious work, which is why many seed companies are selling “pelleted’ carrot seeds. These are seeds that are coated with a clay covering to make them larger and easier to plant an inch or so apart. Beet seeds are actually seed clusters: several seeds are in each “seed.” So even if you spaced them carefully, they need to be thinned.

If you planted potatoes, now is the time to look for potato beetles, or their eggs on the underneath side of the leaves. The egg masses are bright orange and easy to spot. Scrape off the eggs into a jar of soapy water. If you see the beetles or their larvae eating the leaves, get them into the water, too. By reducing their population now you will reduce their exponential increase in numbers.

This is a good time to plant parsnip seeds because they need warm soil to germinate. Keep in mind that the seeds do not keep well, so do not plant last year’s seeds. Most garden centers probably still have parsnip seeds because they are not a terribly popular crop. But they store well over the winter — just leave them in the soil. I love them as an early spring treat: just boil them up, then serve them with butter and maple syrup. Yum! And don’t get discouraged if they take 2 full weeks to germinate; they are very slow.

I am eating lettuce from my garden that I planted early in the spring. That means it is time to plant some more seeds. Lettuce bolts when the summer gets too hot, which means that it elongates (reaching for the sky) and turns bitter before flowering and producing seed.

But there are summer varieties that are heat-resistant. Of the butterhead lettuces, try Skyphos or Buttercrunch bibb. Oakleaf lettuces such as Magenta do well, and a romaine called Jericho does well in heat. Read the packages well or study a catalog.

Plant mid-summer lettuces where they get morning sun and afternoon shade if you can. You can also use shade cloth to protect against strong afternoon rays. Perhaps you can plant seeds in six-packs to get them going, then transplant them in your tomato patch where the big plants provide some shade.

Pesto season is coming up in August, so plant some more basil by seed if you don’t already have enough planted. I like planting seeds in small pots to get them well established before planting them in the garden. But if you want a lot for pesto, dedicate a 6-foot row and plant plenty of seeds. They will do fine, even if a bit crowded.

Look around your garden now to see what you forgot to plant. For me this year, it was dill. No matter. I shall plant some by seed, and it will grow vigorously in the heat of summer.

If you have run out of space in the garden, think about creating a raised bed for those last-minute plantings. Most garden centers sell metal corners to help you build your own raised beds, even if you aren’t a carpenter. Not only that, your local lumber yard will cut the boards to your specifications at no extra charge. All you need is a cordless drill and some outdoor screws to put a bed together in no time.

Don’t forget a few annual flowers in your vegetable garden to attract bees and butterflies. Most garden centers still have plenty of flowers that are in bloom and ready to plant. Just remember to tease the roots apart before planting now, as the little cells are often root-bound. So get outside, and get busy. It’s summer!

Featured photo: Hand pick Potato beetles and look for orange egg masses on underneath side of leaves. Photo courtesy of Henry Homeyer.

You can never have enough

If you don’t have a peony, I’m surprised. If you don’t have three, you should. They are blooming now, and this is a great time to buy them. Go to your local garden center or family-run plant nursery and buy some more, no matter how many you have. Buying in bloom means you can see the color of the blossoms, and sample the fragrance. Not all are very fragrant, but some are so lovely they might make you swoon.

When my wife, Cindy Heath, moved in with me in 2019, she insisted on bringing many plants — including her dad’s favorite peonies and several others. I walked around recently to count how many peonies we have together. We have 44 between us, including my grandmother’s favorite, Festiva Maxima. Grandmother died in 1953, but her peony lives on.

I regularly get questions about peonies. “Why did my new peony bloom once, but never again?” It’s probably planted too deeply in the ground. In the fall, cut back your stems and feel for the “eyes,” which are next year’s growth. To get blossoms, they should not be covered with more than about an inch of soil. If your peony is too deeply planted, or covered deeply in mulch, don’t dig it up, just pull back some soil and mulch to fix it.

Another question I get: “Why are there ants on the blossom buds?” Some write saying their grandparents told them the ants are involved in opening the buds. Is that true? No. The ants are attracted because there are aphids on the buds, and aphid droppings are called honey dew. Honeydew is sweet and attracts ants.

Gardeners are often frustrated by the fact that after a rain, many gorgeous flowers flop over or even break. Peony cages are sold in garden centers, but often these are much too short to prevent the problem.

What is the solution? Buy bamboo stakes that are 3 or 4 feet tall and place two to four around each clump of peonies, pushing them deep into the soil. Then encircle the plant with twine, tying the string to each stake with a clove hitch. If you didn’t learn how to tie a clove hitch in the Scouts, YouTube will teach you. The encircling twine should be set about two-thirds the height of the plant. Do this when the buds have not yet opened.

Some gardeners write asking if it is OK to move peonies, and when should they do it? Conventional wisdom is that peonies do not like to be moved, but if you must, do it in the fall when they are starting to go dormant. That’s good advice, but peonies can be moved anytime. I once moved 50 peonies in June, and they all bloomed the very next year.

But I do agree that there can be problems moving peonies. The roots are fleshy, a bit like long, thin sweet potatoes. And they are easily broken unless you take great care. I would only dig them after a long, soaking rain — or if I had watered well a few days before and the water had soaked down deep. Some roots go 18 inches into the soil or more. And remember: be sure not to bury them too deeply. Look for those pointy little nubs and keep them near the soil surface.

Do peonies have diseases to watch out for? Rarely. The only problem I’ve ever had is with botrytis, a fungal disease that blackens leaves and kills them and the blossoms. And that only happened once. I removed the blackened leaves and sprayed with a solution of a product called Serenade.

Serenade contains a soil bacterium that kills fungal diseases including botrytis but has no ill effects on humans, pets, fish, insects or birds. It stopped the infection, and it has not recurred. Serenade is commonly sold at garden centers and has a shelf life of 3 years if properly stored.

I have peonies that bloom starting in late April some years, others that bloom in May and June. My earliest are woodland peonies: the fernleaf peony and the obovate peony. The first is bright red, with single blossoms and finely divided leaves. Both have just a single layer of petals. My obovate peonies are cream-colored but produce blue seeds in red seed pods. The seeds are vigorous self-sowers.

Then there are tree peonies. These are small shrubs that produce huge flowers, up to 8 or 10 inches across. The blossoms are short lived but spectacular. I had one for 20 years, but it died after a cold winter. Then a few years ago I bought an Itoh peony. This is a hybrid of a tree peony crossed with a regular peony. The Itohs generally have yellow blossoms and produce many, many large blossoms over several weeks at maturity. But they are pricey: Expect to pay $50 or more for a young plant.

Lastly, gardeners ask me, “Can you grow peonies in a shady garden?” Yes and no. Given good rich soil and plenty of moisture, you will get some blossoms with just four hours of sun per day, which is considered a shade, or part-shade garden. They really like full sun, and do best with six hours of sun or more. Those two woodland peonies I mentioned will do fine in shade, but are nearly impossible to find for sale.

One last bit of advice: Since peonies live so long, be sure to add compost and a little slow-release organic fertilizer at planting time. Then every few years, top dress the soil around your peonies with some fertilizer and compost to get best results.

If I were to be exiled to a remote island and could choose just one perennial flower to take with me, I don’t know if I would take a Festiva Maxima peony. I do know that it certainly would be high on my list. How about you? Send me the name of your favorite flower. Let’s compare notes.

Featured photo: Tree Peony. Courtesy photo.

Nothing wrong with a lazy gardener

I saw a friend recently who was bubbly and excited about her garden. “It’s full of color and stays that way all summer!” she exclaimed. “And it is NO work! All I have to do is water it daily, and give it a little fertilizer every few weeks.” She invited me to come see it, so of course I went.

What my friend has is a small outdoor courtyard that she has transformed into an outdoor room, complete with a small metal table and chairs sitting on an outdoor carpet. She has purchased lots of annuals and is growing most in pots (hence the need for daily watering), along with a few easy perennials.

The house is L-shaped and defines two sides of the space, with a low railroad tie retaining wall for the third side; the front is open and once allowed her to park her car right by the side door to the house. No more.

In addition to the annual flowers, she has a few perennials growing in the ground and lots of whimsy. She stops whenever she sees a “FREE” sign by the side of the road. A chair with no seat? Bring it home, paint it bright blue, and put it in the garden. See a sculpture of a head, or an interesting vase at a yard sale? Get it!

The annual flowers she generally buys as hanging baskets because they have well-established plants with blossoms from Day 1. Lots of color. Supertunias, verbenas, and marigolds of various descriptions are some of her favorites. When she gets them home she takes them out of their horrid plastic pots and puts them in nice ceramic pots. If she goes away for a few days she has someone come by to water.

A vining or trailing plant she likes this year is one I have never seen before. It has bright red trumpet flowers and is a Proven Winner trademarked plant called Lofos Wine Red, a lophospermum hybrid. Keep it in sun with mostly dry planting mix, and it blooms all summer, attracting hummingbirds. In general, trademarked plants like this offer good results with minimum effort.

Right now she has a big pink bleeding heart in full bloom, though that will bloom only for a few weeks. She has a groundcover that I use in shady areas called sweet woodruff that serves as a nice filler near it and is blooming right now. It has fragrant white blossoms and delicate lacy foliage that stays green and handsome all summer. Later an astilbe will blossom nearby.

Hosta is another important plant in her garden. She has many with large, green leaves. And although hostas are generally grown for their foliage, later in the summer they will send up flower stalks with white blossoms.

The side of the space that gets the most afternoon sun is filled with Stephanandra incisa or lace shrub. This is a deciduous woody shrub that spreads by root and roots in wherever the tips of branches touch the ground. It only gets a couple of feet tall, but has very dense foliage — dense enough that grasses and weeds do not come through. It blooms in June, with small white star-shaped flowers. The leaves are shaped a bit like maple leaves. Her stephanandra was planted 25 years ago and still looks great — it covers the bed that is over 50 feet long and 4 feet wide.

More than a dozen years ago I planted bulbs for my friend in another part of the property. My goal was for her to have blossoms from March until late May from spring bulbs, and the bulbs are still going strong: first snowdrops in March, followed by crocus, then daffodils. I selected daffies for their bloom time: some early, some mid-season, some that bloom in late May. Like everything at this property, the goal was to have no-labor or low-labor beds, so the beds were well-mulched with chipped bark.

What other plants grow at this garden? She had a steep rocky hillside with gravelly, poor soil. Grass grew on it, but it was impossible to mow. Someone suggested a creeping sumac, and she had it installed. It is variously called skunkbush sumac, creeping three-leafed sumac, or “Autumn Amber.”

The Autumn Amber sumac is a trademarked variety and boasts of ”a profusion of small chartreuse-colored flowers that bloom in delicate clusters before new foliage appears.” In fall the leaves transform into “striking hues of ambers, yellows, oranges and/or reds before dropping for the winter”. I have only seen it once before, even though it is hardy to Zone 4. It is supposed to be very good for tough, hot dry places. It is dense enough that I saw no grass growing through it.

Each year my friend picks a theme for her garden by the kitchen door. This year she focused on birds: metal birds, colorful bird houses, hummingbird feeders. She likes to find flourishes for the plants at yard sales and thrift stores, trying to keep her purchases to under $5.

I asked my friend how she would describe herself as a gardener. “I’m a lazy gardener who doesn’t like to weed. I love color and whimsy and like to repurpose everyday objects.” Nothing wrong with that — it gives her more time to volunteer, and take walks on her woodland trails.

Featured photo: Lofos Red Wine attracts hummingbirds. Courtesy photo.

What to do when you have a Code Red

When you face a flower bed and can’t immediately tell what’s a weed and what’s a flower, you have a situation my wife, Cindy Heath, calls Code Red. It happens to the best of us at times, myself included. So what does a gardener do?

Cindy likes to begin a weeding project by edging the bed. She has a pair of wooden pegs 12 inches long that anchor a 50-foot piece of twine. She unwinds the twine and stretches it between the two pegs when edging a straight bed. Curved beds have to be edged by eye.

The edging tool Cindy uses is a half moon-shape on a long handle. She pushes it into the earth with a foot, then tips the handle back to create a little moat when she removes the soil and grasses. Edging discourages lawn grass from creeping into the bed.

Next, she said, find the flowers. At this time of year weeds and rambunctious spreaders like forget-me-nots may be taller than some of your perennials. Get close, and paw through the foliage. Pull a few weeds around your perennials so that you can see them, and so that you will avoid stepping on them or inadvertently pulling them.

If you pull a “weed” you don’t recognize but see that there is potting soil in the roots, you know you just pulled a flower you bought. Oops. Get it right back in the soil. If you have an inexperienced gardener helping you, you could flag the plants with bright orange surveyor’s tape.

Cindy said she likes knee pads because she likes to weed on her hands and knees. I personally find them hot and uncomfortable, but you may wish to try some. Me? I like something to kneel on, a foam cushion, or such.

In this season, Cindy says bug spray and a good hat are essential — black flies can be real pests, reducing your willingness to continue. Some gardeners like beekeeper hats to keep black flies off their faces, but I don’t. I spray the top of my hat, which does a pretty good job of repelling biting bugs without getting repellent on my face.

A good hand tool is essential for loosening the soil and teasing out roots. I think I have tried every weeding tool made, and I like the CobraHead weeder best. It is like a steel finger: a single curved tine with a sharp, widened tip. Made in the U.S.A. and with a blue handle made from recycled plastic, it never seems to get dull and lasts forever.

If I have a large clump of grass to remove, I loosen the soil around it, then push the tool into the soil; the curve of the tool allows the blade to get under the clump. Then, pulling from above with one hand and below with my weeder, I can pull the clump right out. It is great for loosening tree roots that have invaded a bed, too.

When should you weed? Whenever you have the time and inclination. I recommend doing a little weeding every day. Sort of like brushing your teeth or washing your coffee cup. Just make it a habit so the weeds don’t get ahead of you.

Clay soils are heavy and sticky when wet, and much like concrete when dry. If you have them, work when they are moist but not soggy. If dry, water moderately with your hose. Keep a bucket of compost with you and mix it in as you go along. Compost will lighten the soil, making it easier to weed or to plant things to fill in the spaces where the weeds were.

Sandy soils can be weeded any time, but I recommend adding compost as you go along. Nice loam is what we all want, and even that can benefit from some compost. I buy a 3-yard dump truck load once a year and it has helped my soil become close to perfect.

But back to Code Red. If you have weeds that spread by root, things like goutweed or witch grass, you may need to “bareroot” the flowers that have been invaded. That means digging up a clump of flowers and washing all the soil off so that you can identify and separate the weed roots from the roots of your perennial flowers. Then replant.

Learn to recognize the roots of your garden flowers. Many invasive weeds have long, whitish roots with nodes along them and can send up new leaves from any of those nodes.

Lastly, after weeding it is advisable to either mulch your bed or install a ground cover that will shade out any weeds that try to establish themselves. If you grow your flowers close enough together, weeding will become a minor chore.

It does take time to establish most ground covers, so you may wish to plant some annual flowers in the spaces between your peonies or phlox. Buy six-packs of common annuals like snapdragons, cosmos and zinnias at your local garden center. Plant them 6 to 8 inches apart, stand back, and let them grow! They will delight you with blossoms for much of the summer and into the fall.

Featured photo: An edging tool helps create clean lines. Photo courtesy of Henry Homeyer.

Aim for more fun, less weeding

OK, all you parents and grandparents, it’s time to garden with your beloved little ones. That’s right, start them young, make it fun, and they will garden forever. The key part is fun. Never make a child pull weeds. Digging in the dirt is fun. Playing with a hose or a watering can is fun. Picking flowers and eating cherry tomatoes warm from the sun is lots of fun.

When my grandchildren were small, I created little gardens at my house for them. I used boards to create distinct little beds, one for each. What size? I made them their height by their wingspan — the span of their arms — about 3 1/2 feet square. I actually had them lie on the lawn with their arms out to set the dimensions. That’s good for a giggle.

The boards were just 6 inches wide and were made of ordinary lumber — definitely not of pressure-treated boards, which even now are full of chemicals, albeit not as toxic as those produced when pressure-treated lumber first came out. But remember, they will not be that size long, so you don’t need the beds to last forever.

The simplest way to build a sturdy bed is to cut pieces of two-by-four as long as your boards are wide. Put one in each corner, and use a cordless drill to screw the boards on to them in the corners. Screws that are 2 inches long are fine, and much easier to work with than nails if you are not accustomed to building things. Two screws are needed on each end of the boards to make it sturdy. Work on a flat surface such as your driveway or inside the garage to make work easier. Metal brackets are also available to help make sturdy garden boxes.

Pick a spot for the garden in full sun. That means six hours of sunshine at a minimum, but preferably all-day sun, from morning to late afternoon. Choose a site that is flat, or nearly so. If you are giving the kids garden beds in your garden, be prepared for it to be weedy and messy at times — unless you intend to weed it yourself. Some kids will want to weed, but most won’t. So you may want to place the little gardens somewhere on the back lawn.

If you choose to place the garden box on the lawn, you don’t need to remove the sod. Just cut the grass as short as you can, then cover it with six pages of this newspaper, and fill it up. The soil will kill the lawn. The first year carrots may stop or bend when they hit the bottom of the bed, but after that the soil will loosen up with the action of the microorganisms, and you can grow deep-rooted things without a problem.

What should you use for soil? I like to mix plenty of compost with ordinary garden soil, roughly a 50-50 mix. You can buy bags of compost and topsoil, or raid your compost pile and your garden for soil — you don’t need but a couple of wheelbarrows of soil.

When the bed is first built, your kids may want to just play in the fresh earth. Soil smells good, is pleasant to touch, and is ideal for making little roads for trucks or mounds for castles, just as it’s fun to make sand castles at the beach. I suggest you don’t be too goal-oriented, telling the kids they need to stop now and plant their carrot seeds. Let them see you planting things, both seeds and plants, and they will want to, too.

Ask your children about their favorite vegetables. Have they ever seen a purple or red carrot? Would they like to try growing some? Where do french fries come from? In my experience, planting potatoes is great for all kids — the seed potatoes are a size even the littlest ones can handle, and later on the harvesting is like going fishing and knowing they’ll catch fish. Very exciting.

Maybe take them with you to a garden center. Look at the marigolds, which are already blooming. Encourage them to smell flowers, and if they find something they like? Buy it. I like the idea of kids growing flowers with their veggies, and my grandkids did, too.

Remember, success is important. That means you will have to be attentive to their gardens. Weeding and watering will be your responsibility unless they live nearby and want to do these tasks.

By the way, it’s important to have a few child-sized tools and especially watering cans. Our watering cans are too heavy for them, and a hose can easily blast a tomato seedling from here to Milwaukee.

What if your grandchildren want to grow pumpkins or watermelons? Those vines will quickly exit the mini-garden you have lovingly prepared. Are you willing to let the vines run, making it impossible to mow the lawn there? Perhaps you can convince them to grow something else, and together plant the pumpkins in your vegetable garden.

My maternal grandmother died when I was 7, and my parents sent me to stay with my grandfather that summer to keep him company. Grampy and I had a lot of fun so I went every summer until he died when I was 21. I learned to garden by observing. He never lectured. That’s probably a good recipe for success.

Featured photo: A child’s garden can accomodate planting and playing with toys. Courtesy photo.