Hi Gardeners
It’s a difficult time for me.
I am sitting at my desk watching a crew take down some dead trees in the
yard. For some reason it makes me feel
quite sad. In all we are having 4 dead
trees removed and 4 large, live black walnut trees. We are trading the walnut wood for the work
being done on the dead trees, some of which were quite the mess to remove.
The change in the landscape will be considerable. One of the walnuts sits in the front of the
house and provides a lot of the shade that I built my shade garden under. I don’t know how it’s removal will affect the
landscape. My husband consoles me with
the idea of buying new plants, species that can take more sun.
I think the loss of the trees affects me more because I also lost
my father on March 23. That is also a big change in my life, although his death
wasn’t unexpected. I am luckier than a
lot of folk because I had my father for a lot longer than many people had
theirs. Even though his last few months
were in a nursing home and he didn’t really know me, I knew he was there.
I know my dads passing was for the best, he was tortured by a mind
he couldn’t access and a body that was often racked with pain. I know the removal of the black walnuts will
save me the mess of cleaning up after them, something that I have difficulty
doing anymore. Removing the dead trees
saves us from damaged roofs and gardens and makes the landscape look nicer. But
it’s a change, a big change, and today change makes me sad.
I’ll adjust, I know. I’ll
remember my father when he was young and strong and always came to my
rescue. I’ll add new plants to my
landscape, ones that need more sun, and that aren’t bothered by black walnut
roots. In a while I’ll forget the dead
trees whose bleached skeletons stood out against the green. I won’t miss the nuts that litter the yard
and stain my hands when I try to remove them from the flower beds. In a few
months there will be a new reality and I will have adjusted to it. But today I am sad.
How about this weather?
February was cruel, with it’s promise of an early spring, but
March, pretty disappointing. Now it’s April- and I know many of you are having
snow this week, snow where it should not be when it should not be. Looking back
at last year’s weather I note we had 2 inches of snow on April 7- but the
temperature shot up to 50 later in the day and 60 the next and it was gone as
soon as it fell. The daffodils were in
full bloom by April 10. I notice that my
crocus, which are finally blooming, bloomed in mid-March last year.
In comparing crocus bloom times back to 2012, it looks like we are
about 2 weeks behind in phenology – when things bloom or in animals when they
arrive or hatch. It’s not unusual here
to have a couple inches of snow in early April that quickly melts in my area, but
the temperatures have usually been higher on average- both lows and highs- and things
have progressed further by this time. I
see that many areas of the country are also running behind in phenology.
I know many people are worried about the early blooming plants
being buried in snow, but you would be surprised how well most of these
survive. People in zones 6b-7 –especially the mid-south- have more to worry about as
there are freeze warnings as far south as southern Missouri. Here fruit trees and strawberries may be in
bloom and this could really impact fruit production. Check your upcoming weather and cover any
fruit plants you can and any tender plants you may have outside if a freeze is
likely.
One of the most important things to remember about spring planting
is to not work in the garden when the soil is too wet, even if the weather is
warm. You’ll compact the soil and your
transplants and seeds will be prone to root rotting. Use the old fist test to see if the soil is
workable. Grab a handful of soil and
make a fist. If you open your hand and
the soil is still compacted in a ball it’s too wet. If it crumbles apart and falls off your open
hand it’s ok to get in there and plant.
Zone 3-4 gardeners- well – I’ll just say good luck. Start seeds inside.
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| Winter aconite |
April almanac
April’s
full moon is not until the 29th because we had a full moon March 31st.
April’s full moon is known as the Pink moon, egg moon or grass moon. The
moon apogee is April 8th and perigee falls on the 20th.
Holidays
in April are Golfers day the 10th, National Pecan Day 14th,
National Garlic Day 19th, Earth Day 22nd, Executive
Administrative day and Zucchini bread day the 23rd, Arbor day 25th,
International Astronomy Day the 28th.
April
is National Lawn and Garden Month as well as Keep America Beautiful month. It’s also National Humor month, National
Pecan month and National Poetry month.
April’s birthstone is the diamond and the birth flower is the sweet
pea. In the language of flowers, the
sweet pea means either goodbye or blissful love, depending on who’s translating
I guess.
Taking care of that Easter lily
Did you
get an Easter lily as a gift this year? Some gardeners simply throw them away
when the bloom fades but there are others who are determined to keep them
alive. I will tell you that they don’t
make good houseplants. After the bloom
fades the leaves will soon begin to yellow and the plant will not be
attractive. But in many areas of the
country you can plant them outside and have a reasonable chance of them
returning to bloom another year.
If you
receive an Easter lily as a gift and want to try to move it to your garden in
the spring, here’s what to do. When the blooms open, carefully cut off the
stamens, the little dangling things covered in yellow pollen. This prolongs the
bloom and keeps the pollen from staining the flower and your clothes. As each flower
dies cut it off.
While
blooming, the plant should be in bright light but not direct sunlight. Blooms
will last longer if the plant is kept at cool temperatures, 60-65 degrees would
be nice. Keep the plant watered but don't over water. You may have to remove
decorative foil pot covers so it can drain. Keep the plant out of cold drafts
and away from heat ducts, which will dry it out. When the plant is done
blooming, move it to a sunny window. Do not remove any leaves unless they
yellow and die. The leaves are producing food so the plant can produce new buds
for next year.
As soon
as the danger of frost has passed you can remove the lily from the pot and
plant it in the garden. Choose a spot in full sun with good drainage. It is
natural for the plant to die back now, but keep it watered and new shoots may
come up. If you don’t see new shoots
don’t worry, just mark the spot where the bulb is so you don’t disturb it.
Of
course, Easter isn't the normal time that these lilies should bloom. In my zone
5 garden the L. longiflorum lily
blooms in late June or early July. The
lily will not bloom again this year, but it may bloom next summer if it
survives winter. The Easter, or Madonna lily as it is sometimes called, is
marginally hardy in zone 5, and does well in zones 6 -7. It should be mulched
well to survive winter. If you don't have luck saving your gift plants you can
buy bulbs that haven't been forced to bloom, and those may do better for you.
Should
you buy up the clearance lilies left after Easter? Probably not, many forced bulbs won’t bloom
again. Your chances are about 50-50 that
the lily will survive another year and that’s lilies which have been treated
the right way while they were blooming in your home. Lilies which have dried out on the clearance
rack probably don’t have a very good chance of surviving. If you get them cheap enough or free it could
be worth your trouble but don’t spend much on them.
I love Amy Stewarts books and I finished this one just
before my father’s funeral, which made me much more appreciative of the flowers
sent to the family in sympathy. Flowers
are wonderful in their own world- in the gardens and fields- but reading about
the cut flower trade, how we breed, cultivate and ship cut flowers all around
the world is fascinating, especially as told by Amy Stewart.
In this book you’ll learn about the fascinating history
of the star gazer lily, and how the gentleman who developed this lily and other
wonderful new lily hybrids died poor while others made millions off his
plants. The stargazer lily remains one
of the best-selling lilies in the world, for gardens and the cut flower
trade. I was never overly fond of the stargazer
in the garden, but I have many lilies in my garden developed by Mr. Woodriff.
You’ll learn why roses lost their scent and developed
long straight, thick stems and the ability to stay fresh for weeks after being
cut. You’ll read the story of taking the
simple gerbera daisy and making it into one of the top florist and garden shop
favorites. You’ll learn some of the
tricks of the trade for delaying and promoting flower bloom and keeping plants
alive longer.
You will also tour American greenhouses that provide cut
flowers with Ms. Stewart. They are
struggling to compete with growers in Columbia, other South American countries
and Africa, but some still manage to make a good profit. You’ll also visit some of those growers in
other countries, where the flower trade provides thousands of people with good
jobs in a legal industry. Ms. Stewart
also discusses the movement to make those jobs safer and less exploitative for
workers while protecting the environment.
While not appearing to take sides, the author gives a one a good look at
the pro’s and con’s of the global trade in flowers.
The book will take you into the world of flower auctions,
and the dizzying, breakneck speed at which millions of flowers a day are bought
and sold, everything from long stemmed giant flowered roses to sprays of baby’s
breath and eucalyptus. And then you’ll
learn how those flowers are transported around the world and turned into those
bouquets and arrangements in grocery stores and florist shops.
This book is easy to read, but very informative at the
same time. I learned a lot about the cut
flower trade that I never knew before. I
think most gardeners would enjoy reading this book. You may also want to read one of the Amy
Stewart books- Wicked Plants and
The Drunken Botanist. You can brief reviews of these books
here: http://gardeninggrannysgardenpages.blogspot.com/p/book-reviews-and-recommendat.html
Staying
healthy while gardening
Gardening is a great hobby and it may be essential to
your food budget and lifestyle. But
while producing healthy food and beautiful flowers gardeners should remember
that there are some risks with even the safest activities and gardening is no
exception. Here are some tips to help
you remain healthy while gardening.
Begin gardening slowly and know your physical limits.
People of all ages and all physical capabilities can garden if they know how to
pace themselves and what tricks and tools can help them achieve pain free
gardening. As a gardener with some
physical limitations I can testify that it’s frustrating to get everything you
want done when you want it done, but I’ve learned that doing too much at one
time or doing things beyond my physical limits just slows things down even
more.
Even people without physical limitations can get in
trouble doing too much too quickly. If
you don’t garden at all until Memorial Day weekend and then jump into a long
weekend of non- stop gardening, you’ll probably be regretting it. Make a list of what needs to be done in the
garden early in the spring and divide your work up into easily handled work
days.
Avoiding
pain
If you have a bad back, make sure you’ve got things like
wagons, hand carts, (two wheelers), back braces and plenty of strong teen age
help for your garden tasks. Better to
ask for help unloading the patio blocks than begging for help to get out of bed
the next day. If you don’t have teen
agers of your own maybe you can hire one for a day or two. Or enlist the help of your significant other
and make it a two person lift instead of trying to do it yourself. Even if you are strong and fit don’t take on
anything that’s too much for one person and limit how much lifting you do in
one day, especially if you aren’t used to the activity.
If you have trouble bending or kneeling, don’t do
it. Learn how to garden from a seated
position, either from a stool or chair or sitting on the ground. If you have trouble getting up from the
ground, you can use a “kneeler” with handles that help you pull yourself up,
whether you kneel on it or not. There
are short handled shovels and other tools that make it easier to garden from a
seated position. Making the rows between
your garden beds wider helps if you need to sit to garden.
People who have a lot of physical difficulty gardening
may want to build raised beds. You can
make raised beds from landscape timbers or cinder blocks that you can sit on
the edge of or beds that are like tables, with knee access under them so a
wheel chair can be pulled up next to them.
If you are a frugal gardener you may be able to make raised beds out of
things like old bath tubs, freezers or refrigerators with the doors removed and
painted, or packing cases. And there are
all kinds of containers and pots on the market that can be raised on blocks to
just the right height.
If you have arthritis it may be your hands that will hurt
if you overdo the gardening. Buy
ergonomic tools with padded, large grips.
Always try tools before purchasing them to see if they are a good fit
for your hands. There are ratcheting
pruners that don’t require a strong grip to use. Do gardening in small increments so the hands
aren’t overworked. And wear gloves to
prevent blisters and scratches.
Protect
your skin and eyes
Wear suntan lotion when gardening. A bad sunburn is painful,
and sunburns can lead to skin cancer.
Use a hat to shield your eyes from strong sunlight, even if you wear
sunglasses, which are also recommended.
If you are fair skinned or sensitive to the sun stay out of the garden
on a sunny day between 10 am and 2 pm., when the sun is the strongest. If you are working in the sun make sure to
stay hydrated, drink lots of non-alcoholic fluids.
If you are using power tools like weed whips, chainsaws,
rototillers, and hedge trimmers wear safety goggles. Eye injuries are common garden
accidents. If you are using any type of
pesticides, weed killers insecticides and so on, read the label and wear the
protective safety equipment it recommends.
When you garden wear mosquito repellents when bug bites
might be a problem, such as when gardening on cloudy, wet days or in the
evening or early morning. Mosquito bites
are not only itchy, but mosquito bites can carry serious diseases such as West
Nile Virus. If you are allergic to bee
stings always carry an “epi” pen with you when gardening as there should be
bees in the garden.
Learn to identify poison ivy and other plants that you
might be sensitive to, some gardeners react to Virginia creeper, (woodbine), or
nightshades. If you think you have
contacted poison ivy immediately wash with soap and mildly warm water. Launder all clothes you were wearing and clean
any tools with hot soapy water or alcohol.
A gardener should keep his or her tetanus vaccination up
to date. These are usually given about
once every 10 years. Tetanus is a soil
borne organism and can enter your body through any skin wound, although it most
often occurs with a deep puncture wound.
If you step on a nail or run a piece of old wire into your hand or
something similar, it might be wise to get a tetanus booster, consult with a
doctor. Tetanus is almost always fatal
once contracted. Always clean any wound
you get gardening with soap and hot water immediately and cover wounds to keep
soil out of them.
Watch
the chemicals, including those in soil and water
A wise gardener always reads and follows the directions
on pesticide labels and fertilizers. And
a wise gardener always store these items in their original container, in a
secure place, as directed on the label.
But chemicals can affect the gardener from sources other than
pesticides. Gardens built close to busy
roads, on old farmsteads and orchards or in older urban neighborhoods should
have the soil tested for lead contamination.
Peeling paint around old homes and barns can leach lead into the
soil. Arsenic is another soil chemical
found in some areas. Some arsenic is
normal but high amounts are toxic. You
can have a soil test done to determine if your soil is contaminated.
New health concerns have surfaced recently over lead and
phylates and other toxic chemicals that can come from garden hoses, garden
tools and equipment. Garden hoses that
sit in the sun can hold a nasty chemical soup including lead from brass
fittings and chemicals that leach from the plastic. Let hoses run for a bit before filling pet
dishes or watering food plants. You may
want to buy hose that are “food grade” or “drinking” water grade. These are usually found in camping or RV
supplies, although more and more garden shops are carrying them.
Even garden gloves with “rubber” coatings or little knobs
for better griping may contain lead and phylates, according to at least one
consumer safety survey. Any garden tools and hose fittings made of plastic and
brass may also contain chemicals. How dangerous these are remains to be
investigated but you may want to use caution with hose water, especially if you
tend to drink water from a hose.
Gardening is a safer hobby than many others and gardening
has so much to offer in the way of mental satisfaction that no one should consider
not gardening because of some small health risks one might encounter. Most gardeners get far more benefit from
gardening than harm. But taking some
small precautions will make gardening even safer and more rewarding.
Free
Master Gardener lesson- composting and mulching
This next lesson is a quick overview of common garden
practices, composting and mulching.
Since both benefit the soil as well as plants I always covered these
topics in the soil science lesson.
What is Compost?
Many home gardeners seem to agonize over composting,
making it much harder than it really needs to be. Composting at home is quite easy and anyone
can do it successfully. Compost is like
black gold for your plants and it helps the environment too. Like anything else
there are various methods of home composting and I’ll discuss a few of them
here.
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| Finished compost |
Compost is simply organic material, anything that was
once living, that has been broken down by microbes and soil creatures such as
earthworms into a substance very similar in looks to fluffy soil. Nature makes
compost all the time; it’s called rotting when nature does it. Leaves rot, a fallen tree rots, and apples on
the ground rot. Basically, when you do
home composting you want your yard waste and home garbage to rot.
Compost is not fertilizer, although it does return
nutrients to the soil. It is not soil,
soil has a base of broken down rock with organic matter added. Eventually the fluffy material you produce
from home composting will disappear, rotting down to pieces so small that it
mixes with the soil, a very desirable thing.
It’s then called humus.
Why do home composting?
When you do composting at home you save all the wonderful
nutrient value and soil amendment qualities of your waste and return it to your
garden while saving space at the landfill.
You save money at home because you won’t need as much fertilizer. Experts at Michigan State University say that
if you leave the grass clippings when you mow and allow them to decompose, you
can skip one application of fertilizer.
This is a natural form of composting.
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| Compost bins |
If you have poor soil, either sandy, heavy clay or
nutrient poor, then composting at home can take many of the things you might
throw out and turn your garden soil into something rich and desirable. There is nothing better for soil than organic
matter and compost is organic matter that has been partially broken down.
If you do composting at home, you won’t be spending all
that time bagging yard waste and taking it to the curb. Some communities have passed a law
prohibiting mixing yard waste with other trash.
You might have to haul it away yourself or pay for a separate collection
if you don’t compost it at home.
Methods of Composting
Nature practices sheet composting. A layer of leaves falls on the ground beneath
the trees and lays there to rot. You can
do this too. Don’t rake your leaves, run
over them several times with the mower when they are on the lawn and let them
stay where they are. Let them blow into
flower beds and stay there. You can also
spread your organic waste over the garden and just let it rot.
For many of us though, a layer of rotting garbage under
the roses just doesn’t look right.
That’s why we make compost piles.
If you live in the country without close neighbors just make a pile for
your organic waste. It will eventually
rot down to compost. This is called cold
composting.
If you live close to neighbors and don’t have much room,
you want a small compost pile that rots quickly and without much smell. This is
called hot composting, because the decaying process will heat up the pile. When composting at home you can buy or build
a number of items that will speed up the decaying process and hide what you are
doing
Compost barrels or compost tumblers take small amounts of
organic matter and rot them in a matter of weeks. Turning the compost makes it rot faster and
these compost barrels or compost tumblers make that easy. You’ll find them for
sale in garden catalogs and stores.
You can also make or buy compost bins. These are just devices to hold small piles of
organic matter which you will turn over with a shovel or pitchfork from time to
time. You can make them from old pallets, a circle of wire, slats of wood or
you can buy various bins on the market for home composting.
The disadvantage of compost tumblers, barrels and bins
for composting at home is that they make only small quantities of compost at a
time and you may need several to handle your waste.
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| These compost bins were made of lightweight foam panels and stained. They are easy to move. |
Hot
composting
In hot composting you want the pile to heat up quickly to
around 150 degrees F. and remain that way for a couple weeks. Hot composting makes finished compost faster
and the heat caused by the decomp process kills some weed seeds and disease
organisms.
You have a better chance of achieving hot composting if
you do these things: make smaller piles- no more than a few yards of compost
material, chop materials into small pieces, use at least 1-part green or moist
material to 2 parts dry or brown matter, don’t layer but mix ingredients
thoroughly and turn the pile once a week.
In some instances, you can have finished compost in 3-4
weeks with hot composting. Very small
piles may finish even sooner. But it’s
sometimes hard to get a pile to heat up and stay heated for proper hot
composting. Don’t worry, this compost
may take longer but will be just as good.
Adding
compost starters
It’s not necessary to add anything to get compost
started, despite all the hoopla and sales pitches out there. You don’t need microbes or anything but the
proper ratio of greens and browns. Nothing
you buy will give you better or faster compost so don’t waste your money. Don’t add other home products like Epsom
salt, sour milk, lime, and so on either.
Some of these may impede the decomposition process.
If you really feel you must add something to get your
compost started simply dig up a shovel full of garden soil and add that. It isn’t necessary, but it makes some people
avoid the magic potions being sold to make compost.
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| Country style compost pile. |
What to Compost
If you want to make compost quickly and without much
smell, you want to put in equal amounts of juicy (green) matter and dry (brown)
matter. Compost needs to be moist to
begin the decomposition process but if it is too wet, it will smell. If you are managing a compost pile you may
want to store some dry matter for times when you have a lot of juicy garbage.
Things that can used for composting at home include lawn
and garden waste, which includes grass clippings, weeds, leaves, pruned
material, dead plants and other things.
It can also include household waste such as vegetable peels, coffee
grounds, egg shells, rotted fruits and vegetables and some food scraps. You want to avoid putting meat, grease and a
lot of sweet food waste into the compost pile.
These attract animals and smell.
You can also use shredded paper, any paper except glossy
colored pages. That’s a good way to deal
with junk mail! If you have manure and
used bedding from farm animals, or straw and hay, pile it on. Don’t use manure from dogs and cats. This may carry parasite eggs and diseases
that are transmittable to humans.
Anything that was once living (and manure, which was
technically once living) can be composted, but don’t drag road kill home for
the compost pile. Farmers may compost
dead animals, but they have been trained how to manage this and they don’t do
it in the back yard.
The smaller the pieces that go into the pile the faster
it will decompose. Also turning the
pile over every week or so will speed up the process. If you have very dry weather and the compost
dries out it won’t decompose either.
Adding moist (green) matter or water can help.
If you notice a smell from your pile it is probably too
wet, or you have added meat scraps. You can add more dry material and/or
protect the pile from heavy rain with a tarp to dampen the smell.
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| Animal manure with bedding makes great compost |
Compost
tea
If you want to start an argument among horticulture
professionals just mention compost tea.
There are those that are positive it’s all bunk, those that think it’s
good for everything and those who feel it’s something between the two extremes. Until recently I was one of the people that
felt compost tea was useless. Then I
came upon some research that made me reconsider my stance. I just spent several days reading more recent
published research on the topic and I have modified my position to some extent.
There is a lot of research on compost tea and when I talk
about research I am speaking about science-based research that has been
published in recognized professional journals and not popular garden magazines
and websites. This research can be hard to wade through and one must be careful
to not project what you want to hear/read about the topic onto the actual
results. You must also sort out
laboratory and controlled environment results from those obtained under average
garden or field conditions. I’ll give
you my opinion here based on my reading and I will also post some links at the
bottom of the article, so you can do your own reading and analyzing.
First let’s define compost tea. The oldest version of compost tea is just
putting some finished compost in a permeable bag of some sort- such as burlap-
and letting it sit in a barrel of water for a few days. The brown water that
results is compost tea. This passive method is often referred to as NCT. Some
studies also refer to it as compost extract.
But aerated compost or brewed compost is also being used
and complicated systems and equipment have been developed to make it. The systems involve bubbling air through the
compost-water mix. A number of additives
are also being pushed to make compost tea “better”. These include molasses, sugars of other types,
yeasts, and other concoctions. Aerated
compost tea is often referred to as ACT.
There are two major areas in which compost tea is thought
to be helpful, that of a fertilizer and growth aid and as a suppressor of
foliar, fruit and soil disease organisms.
The benefit is from the microorganisms, primarily bacteria, that compost
tea contains as well as nutrients that leach from the compost into the water.
So, does compost tea work? The answer seems to be- it might to some
extent. If you are someone who doesn’t want to use- or can’t use - commercial
fertilizers or pesticides to solve plant problems compost tea may be of some
benefit to you. In research studies that compared compost tea application to
conventional fertilizer or pesticides the conventional products were almost
always more effective. And in many cases
compost tea often did not provide enough of a benefit to make using it viable
in commercial production. However,
compost tea might be helpful as a last resort for home gardeners who have the
time and like to experiment.
Before you get excited and rush out to brew compost tea
read on. Compost tea is so highly
variable that the same results can’t be predicted from batch to batch. What went into the compost, the conditions
the tea was made under, the water pH and many other things all contribute to
whether the compost tea will help, be neutral or even be harmful. And fancy equipment or any additive don’t seem
to make much difference in improving the usefulness of the product.
What went into the compost determines the tea
results. Better nutrient quality and
disease suppression seems to come from certain types of compost than
others. Vermicompost (compost made by
worms), compost made with manure and compost made with some kelp seem to be
marginally more effective than other types of compost, including those made
with so called super weeds and herbs.
More research needs to be done on this.
What you absolutely should not do is add supplements to your compost teas like molasses,
sugars, yeast and so on, despite popular garden magazines and sites
advice. These things are said to feed
the bacteria and increase the bacterial component of the tea. All compost will
contain some harmful organisms like salmonella and E.coli, but in normal
finished compost the numbers are low.
However, the addition of, molasses, sugars and other things may increase
the population of these harmful bacteria to levels where they can pose a health
hazard. Organic grower standards
prohibit the addition of these things to compost tea used on food crops and you
shouldn’t use compost tea made with supplements on food crops either.
The problem with compost tea is that one doesn’t know
what the bacterial content of the finished product is. (And no, you can’t look
at a batch under a microscope and determine what’s there, without a lot of
training or some very expensive and complicated lab equipment.) Some compost tea seems to inhibit the
production of flowers for example, and that may because of the bacteria
prominent in that batch of tea. One batch may kill harmful fungal infections on
plants and other batches made the same way may do nothing to control the
problem. It’s a crap shoot on what you’ll get.
The fertilization efficiency of compost tea is also
highly variable. At most it is a very
weak fertilizer. One use of compost tea
that seems to make some sense to me is using it to water seedlings in a
soil-less planting mix. You’ll add some
nutrients, some soil bacteria and if you have the right bacteria in your tea it
may help suppress the fungal disease called dampening off.
Using compost tea as a fertilizer for plants planted
outside in the ground is useless. Using
the compost itself is far more effective.
Whole compost will provide more nutrients and will contribute more good
soil bacteria to the soil than compost tea.
Either work the compost into the soil or apply it as mulch around your
plants.
Compost tea needs to be made and applied frequently to be
effective. It doesn’t store or ship well
so forget buying compost tea products in stores- they are pretty much worthless
despite marketing claims. Home gardeners
should not sink money into fancy compost tea brewers either. Research has found that some products that
help the tea stick to foliage might improve the ability of compost tea to
suppress plant diseases.
Compost tea may be helpful when you don’t have other
options and for some specialized uses.
If researchers ever isolate what bacteria in soil and compost provide
the most benefit and learn how to ensure that those bacteria and not useless or
harmful bacteria can be increased and used, then we may have a good, reliable,
natural control product from compost tea.
That hasn’t happened yet, but it’s a possibility in the future.
Mulch
Mulching a garden, especially with bark or wood chips, is
a trend that has developed relatively recently in gardening. A hundred years ago few ornamental gardens
used mulch except to protect plants over the winter. Even 50 years ago mulch was generally
something like straw placed on the rows in vegetable gardens. Now one seldom sees a public landscape
without mulch around some plant or another.
Most homeowners now buy mulch every year to place around trees and
flower beds and garden mulch is a multi-million-dollar business. But is mulch really necessary or good for all
garden areas? Is mulch a beauty
treatment for gardens or something to replenish the soil?
There is no doubt that when mulch is properly used it
helps control weeds, keeps soil moist and breaks down to make valuable organic
matter in soil. Mulch eventually turns into compost, and then humus. Decomposing mulch adds some nutrients to the
soil, but it is not fertilizer. To many gardeners, mulch also improves the look
of the garden. It may not be necessary,
but mulch can be very useful.
 |
| Arborist chip mulch path |
Types
of mulch
Landscape
/Arborist mulch is what results when complete trees, except for
the largest portion of the trunk, are chipped up. This material is coarse, and the chunks are
not evenly sized. It may have leaves and
needles in it. It’s not the most
attractive type of mulch but it is probably the best mulch to improve your
soil. Using arborist mulch is much like sheet composting. Many experts believe arborist mulch is far
superior to bark nuggets or shredded bark.
Tree
bark nuggets and shredded bark are often used for
mulch. They look nice but don’t offer
much in the way of nutrients when they decompose. Bark mulches tend to shed water rather than
absorb it, which can be a problem in some settings. They break down quickly and must be
replenished frequently.
Recycled
wood chips are chipped up pallets and construction debris. This is the type of mulch that is often dyed
red or black or other colors. The dye is
harmless although it sometimes leaches out in rain and stains other things.
Recycled wood may contain wood that has been treated with pesticides or
fungicides. It may be a good use for old
wood but it’s probably the least desirable type of wood mulch for gardens,
especially when used around food crops.
Other
organic mulches include pine needles, (sometimes called pine
straw), coir, peat, compost, straw, old hay, cocoa bean shells, and other waste
products from food and fiber production.
These mulches all have advantages and disadvantages. Compost of course, is ideal mulch if you have
large quantities of it. Most people
don’t have enough, which is why they use other types of mulch.
Pine needles will not make your soil acidic, at least in
any meaningful way but they are slippery when wet and may wash away in heavy
rain. Hay and straw can bring weed seeds with them. They break down quickly but
aren’t too attractive. Cocoa bean shells
may be toxic to dogs if they eat them.
Most of the advantage to these other organic mulches comes if they are
cheap and easy to obtain in your area.
Inorganic
mulches include stones, pea gravel, plastic sheeting, and
recycled rubber products. Stones, like
those white landscape rocks sold in bags, or red lava rock do not improve the
soil. They are a pain in the butt when
they get into a lawn area that needs to be mowed. When leaves and twigs get
into them they look messy and are very hard to clean. Most professional gardeners don’t use them
anymore. Pea gravel may have its place
on paths, as it drains well. It’s wise to use landscape fabric under gravel
mulch to keep it from sinking into the soil.
 |
| Good use for rock mulch |
Recycled rubber doesn’t break down, at least for a very
long time. It can look attractive.
However, it probably leaches various chemicals into the soil-the
research is still on-going- and doesn’t improve the soil. I wouldn’t recommend
it except for playgrounds and the occasional path.
What about things like cardboard, old carpet, newspapers
and landscape fabric or plastic sheeting?
I used to recommend layers of newspaper, cardboard, or carpet to smother
weeds and preserve moisture. However new
research finds that this practice prevents a good exchange of air with the soil
surface and impedes soil microbes in their important work. It can also compact the soil and sometimes
keeps it too wet. It’s better to use
mulch that is loose and chunky which allows air and water flow through it than
layers of paper or carpet.
Plastic sheet mulch has its place in some forms of
vegetable and fruit production. It’s
temporary in this use and is removed between crops. Black mulch helps heat the
soil up in spring, red mulch can improve tomato and strawberry production. Generally, irrigation hoses need to be
underneath the plastic for the system to work well. Plastic mulch is not a good idea for
landscape plants and flower beds. It
doesn’t allow enough water to get to plants or conversely may keep plants too
wet. Air exchange with the soil is impeded. In the landscape the plastic may be
covered with other mulch, which further impedes water and airflow.
Landscape fabric is perorated or woven material that is
supposed to allow water through it while impeding weeds. It really shouldn’t be used under mulch
however, in applications other than paths.
Like paper and cardboard, it does impede airflow, and adds nothing to
the soil. It can be difficult to remove
or work through if you want to add plants, divide plants or remove plants
later.
Where
and how to use mulch
It is good to mulch around trees and larger shrubs if
they are in a lawn because it keeps someone from getting too close to the
trunks when mowing or weed whipping and damaging them. In this case the mulch should not touch the
trunks of trees or shrubs and should not be more than 6 inches deep. Mulch deeper than that may keep moisture and
air from getting to tree root systems.
Spread mulch evenly – nothing looks more amateurish than
volcano like mounds of mulch around trees. The diameter of the mulched area should be
proportionate to the size of the tree or shrub.
A three feet circle of mulch around a sapling looks right but a large
tree needs a larger mulched area. If
your trees are in a natural setting or set among groundcovers and smaller
shrubs they don’t need mulch.
Mulch is also good on path areas, such as in vegetable
gardens, where you don’t want something like paving stones. It’s environmentally friendly to use
something that absorbs water on paths rather than something that causes it to
run off into storm drains or other areas. Even shredded rubber and gravel
mulches on paths allow water to percolate through them. Mulches help keep weeds down in paths but
unless you lay down landscape fabric before putting on the mulch you’ll have
weeds popping through. Even on landscape
fabric some weeds will start growing but they are easy to pull.
Mulching around plants in the vegetable garden has
advantages and disadvantages. It can
keep some crops cleaner and it makes weeding easier. But in the spring you want the vegetable
garden soil to warm up and dry out so applying mulch then isn’t a great
idea. Young plants heavily mulched in
early spring may be slow to grow. Applying
mulch in early summer, when the soil has warmed up, will help keep weeds down
and keep the soil from drying out as fast.
However, if your area is seeing a lot of rain and you
have clay soil you may want to skip the mulch so more water is lost to
evaporation. Don’t pile mulch too deeply
as it may keep water from actually reaching the soil in drier conditions. Three
inches in vegetable gardens is a good depth.
Put the mulch down when the soil is moist, but not when its
saturated/flooded.
Use mulch that decomposes quickly in vegetable gardens,
so it will improve your soil by adding organic content. Straw, hay, grass clippings, shredded leaves
and landscape chips break down faster than say – recycled pallet wood chips. Current research indicates that mulch
breaking down does not use enough nitrogen to cause a problem for plant growth.
Sometimes mulch in the vegetable garden can harbor pests
like mice and voles, which may then cause snakes to frequent the garden. Snakes are harmless to humans 99.99 % of the
time, but for some gardeners the idea of mice or snakes in the garden will make
them want to leave out the mulch. Straw
and hay mulch seem to have more mice and vole problems.
Mulching around and in perennial flower beds is probably
the most controversial mulch application.
When bare ground is showing around perennials in early spring and weeds
are growing rapidly gardeners are tempted to improve things with mulch. However, many things should be considered
before adding that mulch.
Just like in the vegetable garden, mulch added early in
spring can slow down the growth of plants by keeping the soil cool and
wet. Once plants reach their mature size
there will be less bare ground to see and weeds may be smothered or shaded out by
heavy foliage in many cases. Add mulch
later- in early summer- and just pull weeds for a time in the spring and your
plants may grow better and be healthier.
What about the mulch you applied last year or the leaves
that blew into the garden and that were left there to rot, should they be
removed in the spring? The answer is –
it depends. If the layer isn’t too deep
you may only need to remove mulch from around plant crowns. If it is a deep matted layer of leaves or
other matter the top layers may need to be raked out and added to the compost
pile. Loose woodchips are rarely a
problem. If flooding has occurred or
it’s been very wet, then raking the mulch off the flower bed for a while may
let the soil dry out and prevent plant roots from rotting.
The type of plants growing in your garden and your soil
type can figure in when you are deciding to use mulch or not. If you have sandy soil and are trying to grow
plants that need constant moisture, then mulch is probably a good idea. However, if you have clay soil and are trying
to grow plants that like drier conditions, such as most herbs, you would do
well to leave off the mulch. And
remember that while mulch can preserve soil moisture, mulch that is too deep
may keep plant roots from receiving any water from light rains or irrigation.
Some flower gardeners compromise and use a strip of mulch
between the plants and the edge of the garden and don’t mulch between
plants. This looks nice and still allows
the soil to breathe and water to reach plant roots.
Mulch can be helpful in protecting the crowns of certain
perennials in the winter and in keeping plants from freezing and thawing cycles
that lift them from the ground. (Some plants don’t like winter mulch – check
your cultural suggestions.) In this case
you should apply the mulch after the plants have gone dormant, the dead leaves
have been pruned off and the soil is frozen or soon will be. You can apply mulch generously then - 6-12
inches in depth. Just make sure to
gradually remove it from the plant crowns in early spring.
All organic mulches decompose and settle and will need to
be replenished, usually once a year. If
you are preparing a new bed and want to smother weeds and grass, don’t use plastic
or cardboard, use a very deep layer of organic mulch (more than 12 inches),
preferably arborist wood chips. Leave the mulch on for a season – or at least a
few months. When you get ready to plant
you should have some nice loose, enriched soil down under that mulch. If it’s still deep you may need to pull some
back around the plants you put in but it will be worth it.
While many gardeners have been trained to think that
gardens require mulch, they may not, and in some cases adding mulch to the garden
is actually detrimental. Think of what
your plants need and require before giving in to the impulse to apply mulch as
a “beauty treatment”. That’s the sign of
a great gardener.
Your homework for this lesson on mulch and compost is to
check out 2 references below.
References for this lesson
Mulch references
Compost / compost tea references
Bloody
Dog soup
It’s a terrible name but this comfort soup makes a good
lunch, one that many kids will love. You
can experiment with making it spicier for adults. It’s a fast, fun soup and your pets will be
quite safe when you make it. It will
make 4-6 bowls of soup.
Ingredients
4 hot dogs, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1, 12-16 oz. can diced tomatoes- (I like roasted garlic
flavor, any flavor or plain tomatoes can be used. If you like spicy use
tomatoes with chilies.)
1 can (10 oz.) of condensed tomato soup
1 ¼ cup of half and half, cream or milk
2 cups of cooked pasta/macaroni – elbows, twists or your
choice
1 cup shredded cheddar or cheddar jack cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown the hotdogs in the butter in the bottom of a soup
pot
Add tomatoes, soup, cream, and cook about 5 minutes until
hot and bubbly, stirring occasionally.
Add the pasta and cook another minute. Season to taste.
Ladle soup into bowls, top with shredded cheese. Serve
hot.
This is good served with crackers, pita chips, corn chips
or cornbread.
“Snow
in April is abominable," said Anne. "Like a slap in the face when you
expected a kiss.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Ingleside
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Ingleside
Kim Willis
“He who has a garden and
a library wants for nothing” ― Cicero
© Kim Willis - no parts of this
newsletter may be used without permission.
And So On….
Find Michigan garden events/classes
here:
(This
is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)
An interesting Plant Id page you can
join on Facebook
Here’s a seed/plant sharing group you
can join on Facebook
Newsletter/blog information
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I write this because I
love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my
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