Tag: 240425

Growing in the garden

A talk with Henry Homeyer, the Gardening Guy

Henry Homeyer’s regular advice about all things gardening has appeared in newspapers, including the Hippo, around New England (currently, his pieces run about once a month, including this week on page 10). He is the author of several books, including The New Hampshire Gardener’s Companion.

What got you into gardening?

I started gardening as a young boy. I’m talking ages 2 or 3. My grandfather in Spencer, Massachusetts, he was an organic gardener starting back in the ’40s … I was born in ’46 — and he just made it fun. He was a fun guy. He taught me a lot but he didn’t tell me to do things. He didn’t give me chores I didn’t want to do, I didn’t have to pull weeds. I got to do things like stir a big wooden rain barrel full of chicken manure and water to … make a manure tea that we would then dip into and put on his tomato plants, and it was all fun. Gardening has been part of my life for 75 years.

What non-native plants do well in New Hampshire or are there any non-native New Hampshire plants you’d recommend?

Well, I recommend native plants whenever possible. If we can plant 90 percent native and 10 percent non-native, or 80-20, that’s a better mix. A lot of the non-natives are not useful to our pollinators and birds who didn’t evolve with them, so our natives are so much better. With that being said, there are certain trees and shrubs, particularly, that are so beautiful I have to have them. I have a Merel magnolia which is going to bloom … big white flowers, blooms in early April — fabulous plant. Not a native. Japanese red maple is another one that you see from time to time that has a deep, rich red leaf all summer long and brilliant in the fall.…. Go to the local nursery, don’t go to a big box store, go to your local nursery … They’re well-educated, generally, and can help you find just the right thing for you and for your part of the state.

Do you have a favorite plant that’s often overlooked?

I have over 100 different species of trees and shrubs. I have more than that in terms of perennial flowers. One that I really like is the candlestick primrose…. It’s a non-native but it grows in moist soil in partial shade or even full shade. It blooms in late May, early June, with a series of blossoms going up a stem. It comes in a variety of colors from magenta and pink to almost white. It’s not well-known but it does very well under old apple trees and that’s where I have a patch and they spread by root, which I like, they’re early, which I like, and they bloom for over a month, which is unusual for a perennial flower.

Besides garden beds, are there other structures you like to build or have in a garden?

Absolutely. I think that because we have such a long winter, and fall and spring don’t have much going on, we need to have things that are three-dimensional besides our flowers. At the entrance of my vegetable garden I built a cedar entrance arbor with cedar poles and a slanted, criss-cross roof, kind of hard to describe…. It is a good structure for growing vines on. I have wisteria growing up that. I have also another vine structure that’s a 10-foot hexagon with a tall roof, again made out of cedar. … In addition to that I have benches, a marble bench, I have sculpture, iron sculpture, ceramic objects, bird baths…. If you have a big garden, if you have some Adirondack chairs at the far end of it, it draws people toward them as a place to sit down. It’s good to have something comfortable and probably in the shade.

What can gardeners do in New Hampshire in the next two weeks for their gardens?

It really depends on what our weather is, but you don’t want to compress your soil by walking in wet soil. You don’t want to rototill your vegetable garden right now. You don’t want to walk in your flower beds to clean them up right now because it’s going to compact the soil. Plants get their oxygen from air spaces in the soil, they don’t get it through their leaves, they get it through their roots. So if the soil is wet and we step on it, it’s compressing it. This is a good time to take inventory on what is growing, what made it through the winter, what’s coming up, and what didn’t. … This is a good time for looking and planning, maybe do a little raking, you can rake the lawn now if it’s dried out, those sorts of things. — Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Henry Homer

News & Notes 24/04/25

Drug take-back

The DEA is promoting a national drug take-back day on Saturday, April 27, with collection sites listed as open to take prescription drugs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. According to dea.gov/takebackday, local drop-off spots include area police departments and Elliot at River’s Edge in Manchester. “DEA and its partners will collect tablets, capsules, patches and other solid forms of prescription drugs. For more than a decade, this event has helped Americans easily rid their homes of unneeded medications—those that are old, unwanted, or expired—that too often become a gateway to addiction. … Collection sites will not accept syringes, sharps and illicit drugs. Liquid products, such as cough syrup, should remain sealed in their original container. The cap must be tightly sealed to prevent leakage.,” according to a press release from Granite United Way, which will participate at its three public health networks (see graniteuw.org).

Moose sounds

According to an April 16 press release, researchers at the University of New Hampshire have used publicly available online videos to develop a method to assess wild moose sounds in nature and to identify distinct differences by age and sex, as a first step in creating an acoustic network that could help track, monitor and protect moose populations.

In a statement, Laura Kloepper, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UNH, said that “by tracking moose, scientists can predict how forest habitat affects moose distribution. Specifically, how habitat disturbances, like those caused by some timber management, affect where moose prefer to live and how those preferences change with the seasons or the time of day. Since moose have a wide roaming range and low population densities, monitoring them is an ever-present challenge that could be aided by non-invasive technologies like a moose acoustic sensor.”

Their study published in the journal JASA [Journal of the Acoustical Society of America] Express Letters outlined their use of online videos crowdsourced from hunters and recreationalists to identify differences in moose calls and characterize them by age and sex, according to the same release. Researchers collected 673 calls — 199 from cows (females), 255 from bulls (males) and 219 from calves — and although individual variations existed, there were clear differences between groups, according to the same release.

The researchers plan to include networks of calibrated acoustic recorders across a landscape to develop an automated detector and determine moose population density to inform forest management, according to the same release.

Their efforts are supported by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station through joint funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture as well as the State of New Hampshire and conducted in partnership with NH Fish and Game Department, according to the same release, which also named co-authors of the study including Alex Zager, Sonja Ahlberg, Olivia Boyan, Jocelyn Brierly, Valerie Eddington and Remington Moll.

Visit unh.edu/unhtoday/2024/04/developing-bioacoustic-methods-characterize-new-hampshire-moose-populations for details and links to the JASA Express Letters article.

Relief money

An April 22 press release stated that President Joe Biden granted Gov. Sununu’s request for a major disaster declaration in response to severe storms and flooding in January that resulted in significant costs to local communities. Rockingham and Grafton counties are included in the declaration. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), working with state and local emergency management officials, had completed a Preliminary Damage Assessment and found that the statewide cost for response to this event totaled more than $3 million. This declaration allows communities in the two counties to seek federal funding assistance, according to the release.

The declaration also makes federal support available through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Public Assistance Program, with the purpose of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program being to reduce the loss of life and property due to natural disasters and to enable the implementation of mitigation measures during the immediate recovery from a disaster, according to the same release.

The same press release mentioned that the Department of Transportation has been granted $20 million in federal funding for seawall reconstruction and the funds will be used to reduce flooding, structural damage and post-storm cleanup time along Route 1A. Visit governor.nh.gov.

Fire in Plymouth

On Saturday, April 20, a fire broke out on Main Street in Plymouth that forced the evacuation of Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center. The investigation into the fire is ongoing; Downtown Pizza received most of the damage and is currently closed, according to a report on WMUR.com.

Vincent Vella, CEO of The Common Man Family, said in post on the venue’s Facebook page: “The Monkey has sustained only minor smoke damage. We are unbelievably lucky and happy to report that our beloved venue has survived such a devastating event. Unfortunately, some of the Monkey’s neighbors have suffered tragic losses, and Main Street in Plymouth will look different for some time. We will support them in their efforts to recover.”

The venue’s marquee reads “Everything is fine. We are OK. See You Friday. 4-26 Sugar Mountain,” according to a photo posted April 22.

The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Manchester Ladies Philoptochos Society will hold an Eastern Orthodox Easter Bake Sale on Saturday, April 27, from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. in the church hall. Spinach peta, Greek cookies, assorted Greek pastries, pastry platters, and Easter bread will be available for sale.

See EVs and talk to their owners at the Merrimack Electric Vehicle Fair on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Tractor Supply Parking lot in Merrimack (515 D.W. Highway). Visit driveelectricearthmonth.org to RSVP and see a list of vehicles expected to be there.

Friends of Leach Library in Londonderry (276 Mammoth Road) are holding a book sale on Tuesday, April 30, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m, according to their website, although hours are subject to volunteer availability and they ask that you call the library to check if the book sale room will be open prior to your visit. Visit londonderrynh.org/leach-library or call 432-1132.

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