Hi Gardeners
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| Sarracenia 'Judith Hindle' |
Yesterday was a beautiful warm sunny day after last
weeks cool rainy weather and the warmth was most welcome. I
thought I could accomplish a lot outside, but the wind was terrible. I hear and
read about a lot of people complaining that we have more wind than we used to
have, and I’m inclined to believe them, although I haven’t looked up any statistics.
Two tasks I had planned to do were to put up some camouflage netting to hide my
garbage cans and to cut down the dead bamboo stems from last year.
When spring comes, we move our trash cans from up
close by the back door to out further in the yard, behind my water
feature. Until the plants grow up behind
the water feature the trash cans spoil the view. So, the last few years I had this flimsy reed
fence that hide the cans. It composted
itself this past winter. I purchased something called woodland camouflage netting
that I intended to suspend from posts to hide the cans.
I got the posts up just fine put trying to stretch
the netting out in the wind was an exasperating effort I eventually gave up
on. It was so lightweight it blew into
everything nearby and the netting caught on it and had to be untangled. And I knew from past experience that if I
started cutting that bamboo when it was so windy it would end up at various
neighbor’s homes. It is so light that it
literally flies in the wind. Once the dry
leaves are stripped off the canes don’t fly but it takes more time to do that
as you cut them down instead of later.
So yesterday I decided to just do some cleanup and
transplanting. I worked on cleaning up
my water feature, which is a disguised horse tank, and checking out my solar
pumps. I had forgotten about the little pump
in the tank in the fall and it got frozen under the ice all winter. I didn’t expect it to work but it did, and quite
well too. So did the floating solar pump from the tiny water feature in the
front yard, which I had remembered to bring inside. I love those solar pumps.
I transplanted some daylily divisions from a back
flower bed to my new beds in front and in the process had another frustrating
experience. I lost my favorite hand
trowel. I was sitting on the ground
using it to dig holes in the soil near the edge of the new bed. When I started to get up to move to another
part of the bed, I looked for the trowel immediately and couldn’t find it. It was right there. I had just used it. Tell me how it could have disappeared.
I sat there for 15 minutes feeling around for it as
there is some leaf litter and mulch in that area. No dice. I went back after I
used an old trowel to plant the rest of the tubers, still no trowel. There was no one else around, even the dog
was inside. I even dumped out the mud in the bottom of the bucket the daylilies
were in. I went out this morning and looked again. Can’t find it.
I tell people all the time to paint the handles of
tools a bright color. It used to have a
bright color on it, but it has worn off.
It will probably show up eventually but it sure is a mystery. Has that ever happened to you?
But I am glad I got out in the sun yesterday since
today its cloudy, rainy and cooler. And
we still have that awful wind. Things
are really starting to bloom though. The
early daffodils and species tulips are blooming as the larger crocus are
finishing up. Corydalis, hyacinth and
grape hyacinths are blooming, and I see the trilliums and wild ginger coming up. The barberry by the barn has leafed out and I
see leaf buds breaking and flowers on many types of trees. The grass is very
green, and my husband got the mowers running Sunday and mowed a little.
Saturday it was pouring rain here, but I went to the
local greenhouse anyway and bought a flat of pansies, which I planted Sunday. I made some hanging baskets and planted some
in various bare spots around the front garden.
I do love pansies and it’s really hard for me to pick which colors and
types I want. It was a bit easier this
spring because I only picked from those displayed under the awning at the
greenhouse so I wouldn’t get drenched.
But while at the greenhouse I did have to look at the
other plants inside. I saw many things I
liked but decided to let the greenhouse care for them for a couple more
weeks. Even the perennials were a little
too developed to plant now without worrying about cold damage. But back at the water plant display I did see
something that I decided I must have now.
It was a pitcher plant, a Sarracenia hybrid named ‘Judith Hindle’. There were only 2 of them so I snatched one
up. It will stay inside under grow
lights for a few more weeks, then I hope to put it in one of my little ponds in
shallow water. It’s not winter hardy
here so it will remain potted. ( See Photo above)
Since it’s not real nice outside I did write quite a
bit this week – hope you have time to read further.
Have
you put your hummingbird feeders out?
I put one hummingbird feeder out this weekend when I
read that hummers have been seen in Michigan. The rest are washed, and I made
up a batch of sugar water and froze it.
When I see the first hummers approach the one feeder, I can quickly thaw
my nectar and fill the others. I always make large batches of nectar up and
freeze it for quick refills.
It’s been proven that hummingbirds return to areas
where they fed at nectar feeders the previous year. Put your feeders in the same location each
year so they can quickly find them. Take
any yellow bee guards off feeder ports and paint over any yellow around the
feeder ports as yellow color attracts bees.
You could paint those guards red and re-install them.
But hummingbirds do not need red nectar or even a lot
of red color to find and use your feeder.
Skip the dyed nectar. The best
sugar solution for hummers is simply white sugar and water. Bringing the water to a boil and stirring the
sugar into it to dissolve it destroys some microbes and makes the solution last
longer before molding. Use 1-part sugar
to either 3 or 4 parts water. Different “experts”
have different recipes that they offer.
Many flowers have nectar that has sugar content that
is more like 2 or 3 parts sugar to water so I don’t think a stronger solution
will hurt hummers. I use the 3 parts water to 1-part sugar recipe. Hummers use the sugar water for energy to
catch insects.
Discard sugar solutions that aren’t used after 3-4
days and refill the feeder. I seldom
have to worry about nectar getting old.
Keep your feeders clean, the mold that sometimes grows on the feeders actually
doesn’t harm the hummers, but its presence indicates that other harmful
microbes could be present. If the nectar
starts smelling like wine, it’s also time to replace it.
If you are putting up your first hummingbird feeder
you may want to use a bright red artificial flower on the pole or top of the
feeder. After they find the feeder you
can remove it. Feeders should have some
red on them, but it doesn’t need to be a lot. There are all kinds of feeders,
make sure the ones you chose are easy to fill, because that’s the important
feature. I don’t think it matters how
many ports a feeder has because more than one hummingbird rarely feeds at the
same feeder at the same time.
Place several feeders around your garden but put them
at least ten feet apart. The birds will
still fight and protect feeders, hummingbirds are not social creatures, but
more birds will get a chance to feed and not be driven away by a dominant bird.
Ants and bees will find your feeders. Do not put anything greasy like Vaseline on
feeders or poles to strop ants as this can harm the hummers if it gets on them.
Water moats can be used at the bottom of poles to prevent ants. I don’t think there is any way to totally keep
bees and wasps away from a hummingbird feeder.
Cover any yellow on the feeder as it attracts them, but they will
eventually find the feeder. Keep feeders away from the house or sitting areas
if you or someone in the family is allergic to bees. Some people don’t mind
bees using the feeders as they need food too.
Hummingbirds also like a bird bath with a mist or a
drip feature. I have had them fly
through and play in the spray from a hose and I have seen them enjoying garden
sprinklers, but I have never seen them bathing in a plain, still water bird
bath.
Make sure at least some of your feeders are where you
can sit and watch the hummers at their antics.
They are active from early morning until almost dark. Keep your feeders
up from early spring, when flowers first start appearing but hard freezes have
passed, until early fall. When you haven’t
seen any hummers for 2 weeks or a hard freeze is predicted take the feeders
down.
Here are a couple links to track the hummingbirds moving
north.
Jerry
Baker just won’t die
Jerry Baker is dead of course, he’s been dead many
years, but his brand of nonsense voodoo gardening lingers on. You wouldn’t know he’s dead from the catalog
I received again this spring touting his “all new” book. There’s Jerry’s face peering out from the pamphlet
advertising his “new” book and quotes like; “After nearly 50 years of working magic in my yard and garden I’m still
discovering lots of new tricks…” Wow, discoveries from beyond the grave and
since most of the discoveries are scams it’s obvious Jerry must be somewhere
too hot to garden.
I wonder how Jerry’s neighbor recently called him to
find out how to cure his prized tomatoes of blossom rot. Did he contact Jerry through a séance? Jerry says
he’d love to visit each and every one of you.
I don’t believe in ghosts, but if you do, maybe you can invite Jerry to
visit. And Jerry guarantees his books 3
ways. One of the guarantees says he
stands behind his books for life. Well I
guess that guarantee is over.
Now it isn’t the fact that the publishers of this
book aren’t honest enough to admit that Jerry Baker is dead that aggravates me. Many books get sold after an author dies. I’m
aggravated that this type of gardening nonsense advice hasn’t died with
him. And I’m aggravated that somebody
must be combing the internet for more nonsense to add to the books in Jerry’s
place.
Please don’t use Jerry Baker books for gardening advice. Jerry started his career pretending to be a
gardener as an undercover cop and then he was an actor pretending to be a
gardener on some local news shows. Jerry
branded himself as “America’s Master Gardener” but he never took a Master
Gardener course. He had no formal education
in botany or horticulture and obviously he didn’t even remember his high school
science classes.
I met Jerry Baker many times in his early career,
when he was a spokesman for Kmart garden products. He didn’t know a petunia from a pansy, and I
mean that literally. Jerry knew almost nothing about gardening. He was a great
actor to convince gullible people that he was a gardener and that his good old-fashioned
garden advice wasn’t simply made up.
Some of the rubbish that is given in this latest
advertising pamphlet as garden tips just makes me wonder how stupid some people
can be if they believe those remedies and tips work. Oatmeal sprinkled on the ground won’t help
plants thrive, it will attract ants and mice.
Sprinkling Epsom salt on the soil after planting bulbs won’t give them a
dose of nitrogen because Epsom salt contains absolutely no nitrogen.
Pouring weak tea on your lawn won’t “strengthen” it.
Scotch and dishwashing soap won’t perk up perennials. Sugar, bone meal and Epsom salt won’t make
things flower. A hard- boiled egg planted beneath your cukes won’t make them
fabulous, instead it will probably get them dug up by a coon going after the
egg. Apple juice can’t be used as
fertilizer and it won’t make your plants bloom faster. Instead it will probably attract deer to eat
them.
All
of
Jerry Bakers so called tonics are nonsense.
Some may even harm your plants. Any remedy that he suggests you make up
from your kitchen or bathroom cabinet and the liquor shelf is useless. There’s
some odd thinking that if you use ingredients you buy from the grocery or drug
store to mix up home remedies that you are frugal. Time after time people have
proven that more effective products formulated for plants will actually cost
less, ounce for ounce. Even oatmeal has
to be purchased, just because you didn’t buy it for the garden doesn’t make it
free.
And there’s the idea that if you buy it at the
grocery or drug store its safe and chemical free. Are you kidding me? Look at the ingredients in mouthwash, laundry
and dish soap that Jerry tells you to use. And even ingredients that used alone and for
the uses they were intended, can become hazardous when combined or used in ways
they aren’t meant to be used. There are
no studies to show if some of those remedies would have unintended affects when
used in the garden, such as killing pollinators or soil microbes.
If you want to use some of Jerrys gadget tips, like
using a clothespin to hold a thorny rose cane or taping sponges on your knees
with duct tape, you are probably not going to do any harm. If you run out of oil to grease your mower
blades maybe peanut butter will suffice. I might even try a denture cleaner
tablet in my hummingbird feeder some time.
Stick to the gadget tips and ignore Jerry’s plant tonics and plant remedies
and you’ll be fine.
Earth
day musings
Earth day was Sunday April 21. It’s a time to think about how you can help
the earth. Planting something is always
a good start, especially if you plant a tree.
Even though earth day has passed it’s still a good way to help the
earth. If you don’t have room to plant
another tree on your property maybe you could plant one on public property (get
permission first) or a friend’s property.
Or donate a tree to a school community service project.
Your conservation district may have a spring tree
sale. Check with them to see. You can often get very good deals on seedling
trees for large projects and some districts now sell fruit and ornamental trees
too as well as other native plants. The trees sold by the conservation district
will be ones that grow well in your area and people there can often give you
advice on trees and how to choose them.
My conservation district also rents equipment for
tree planting and sells things like tree tubes to protect trees from deer and
rabbit damage. Check your soil conservation district out this year.
Don’t
worry about using non-native plants
The native plant thing deserves a word here too. There’s no doubt our climate is changing rapidly
now. Native plants may no longer be
ideal choices for changing conditions and people must keep this in mind as they
plan for the future. In just 20 years your climate may be too warm for some
natives or unsuitable because its wetter or drier than what it is now. Some native plants won’t adapt and will be
replaced by other species by nature. You
should consider doing the same.
Having a variety of species in your landscape, both
native and non-native, may be the healthiest situation for our landscapes. If some things can’t survive others
will. This is especially true for things
like trees and shrubs.
I already urge people in planting zones 5 and higher
to stop planting those pretty blue spruces, and in fact most spruces. Spruces
are trees of cold climates and they suffer in warm, humid ones. Spruce decline
is a term coined to cover many problems spruces are facing in planting zones 5
and above now. Insects and diseases are destroying trees weakened by
unfavorable climate conditions and it is just going to get worse.
Many pines are also being decimated by warmer climates
but there are pines that can stand warm, humid climates. Cypress and cedar also withstand heat and
humidity better than some other evergreens.
When purchasing evergreens, carefully research first, to see what
species can handle heat and humidity well.
It’s not just large plants that are slowly being
pushed beyond their comfort zones. We are going to need to be more open minded
about accepting non-native plants into our landscapes and even natural areas if
we want a healthy thriving ecosystem that is achieved with diversity. Nature doesn’t recognize human
boundaries. For nature it’s native if
it’s a species on earth.
Buy
it canned or frozen
Other things you can do to help the earth include recycling
and trying to minimize waste, including food waste. I read that sales of canned and frozen fruits
and vegetables are down, more people are buying fresh. That may seem great to some people, but fresh
produce is the biggest source of food waste and transportation of fresh produce
from one end of the country to the other certainly isn’t the greatest thing for
the environment. Fresh produce is also
the largest contributor to the food borne disease problem.
Canned and frozen produce is far less likely to be
wasted by consumers. Fruits and
vegetables are usually processed near where they are grown at the peak of
freshness. Many fresh and frozen fruits
and vegetables are more nutritious and actually taste better than the fresh
versions, which may be picked green and ripened artificially. They are often less expensive too, even
though they are ready to eat and don’t require peeling and other processing at
home. And they are certainly far less likely to give you food poisoning.
If you can’t buy it in season and locally, consider
buying your produce frozen or canned. You are less likely to waste it and it’s
environmentally friendlier than using fresh produce that isn’t grown locally. And some local produce can be purchased
frozen or canned for times when it isn’t available fresh.
Buy
a shredder
Paper breaks down into organic matter, so most people
don’t consider it a big recycling problem.
But if your house has an abundance of junk mail and catalogs as mine
does, your trash may be full of paper or you may have piles of paper waiting
around to be recycled. You could recycle paper at home, with very little effort
and a lot of benefit though. Simply buy a shredder.
I bought my paper shredder for around $20. It lets me turn that junk mail and all those
unwanted catalogs into fluffy material I can use in the barn cat beds and
chicken nest boxes. And it can be used
as mulch in less visible gardens, maybe the vegetable garden, and put into the
compost pile, where paper in shreds breaks down quickly. Use it as your dry, carbon material in equal
ratios with green or wet materials. Some
people even feed it to their worms in bins to make worm casting fertilizer.
I can easily fill a garbage bag every week with
shredded paper. Unlike flat sheets of
paper spread on the ground, shredded paper used as mulch lets air and water
through and while it may not look as attractive as other types of mulch it’s
free and breaks down quickly into compost.
Soak it with water after you put it down to keep it from blowing away. When weeding toss your weeds on top of the
paper to really compost in place.
You can use colored paper and light cardstock type
paper in the shredder too. Almost all colored paper and printing ink is made
with soy-based dyes and isn’t harmful. And most modern shredders let you put
light staples right through the machine.
I rip apart those duplicate garden catalogs and feed them through my
shredder to make something valuable out of them. And experts say shredding all those offers of
credit and other personal mail is a good idea to keep your identity from being
stolen.
Let
your lawn have diversity
Some people believe all lawns should be abolished to
have a healthier environment but that isn’t true. Having a mown, meadow like area around your
home isn’t bad for the environment or wildlife.
If you don’t spray that meadow with pesticides and you allow “weeds”
like dandelions and clover to share space with grass, then your lawn or meadow
is just fine. Lawns with weeds in them
actually help pollinators and other creatures.
Lawns that don’t consist of a single species of grass,
ones that have a wide variety of plants in them, are like a forest clearing or
natural meadow. Wildlife flourishes in
this “edge” habitat. It doesn’t have to be
knee deep either. Keep your lawn about 3- 3½ inches long. Try to mow every other week once the very
fast growth period in spring has passed.
Don’t water your lawn unless you live in wildfire
prone areas and it’s been dry. A green
space makes a good firebreak. Don’t mow too much space around your home if you
have a lot of acreage, at least don’t mow a lot of it more often than twice a
season. If you don’t live in fire prone
areas 100 feet of lawn around the home is all you need. You may want to double that in fire prone
areas.
Of course, if you live in a hot, dry area where grass
isn’t a normal part of the landscape you don’t need a lawn and shouldn’t waste
resources on one. Earth Day is just one day of the year but it’s a good day to
review your treatment of our home and think of ways you can help keep it
healthy.
Staking
Trees- should you do it?
It’s the time of year when many trees are being
planted so let’s talk about staking trees.
You see it all the time but it’s usually NOT a good cultural practice. Many a tree has been killed by improper and
unnecessary staking. This often comes from the wires or ropes tied around the
trunk rubbing or cutting into the trunk and girdling it. But it can also come
when the trunk snaps after the stakes are removed or the tree is tipped over
when poor root systems fail in wet and windy weather. Even when staking might be indicated the
stakes are generally left on far too long.
When a tree moves in the wind it strengthens the
trunk and root system just like movement strengthens the muscles of
animals. Trees that have strong trunks
and root systems actually survive wind storms better than staked trees. If you do stake a tree it should staked
loosely, so that it will still be able to sway in the wind.
Most trees do not need to be staked when they are
planted. Small, immature trees almost
never need staking. Small is trees with
less than a two-inch diameter trunk and less than 8 feet tall. Dormant (trees without leaves), deciduous
trees normally don’t need staking, even larger ones. Larger evergreens and some large deciduous
trees in full leaf that are planted in windy locations might need temporary
staking until they reestablish a good root system.
Some dwarf ornamental trees, particularly those with
umbrella or weeping forms may need staking the first season. Some of the most fragile of these may need
staking for a longer period of time.
Sometimes dwarf fruit trees that bear heavily may need propping or
staking. Let them grow without staking
for the first few years when they aren’t bearing heavily.
Sometimes a tree that has been uprooted on one side,
or tipped over, by a severe storm can be pulled upright and staked to
re-establish itself. But if this has
happened the growing area should be examined carefully to see if there is a
reason the root system failed. Often
there is either a high-water table that keeps roots from going deeper, or some
kind of hard barrier such as bedrock, concrete, or very compacted sub
soil. This must be corrected, or the
staking of the tree won’t do any good. Do
not leave the stakes on a tree that’s been pulled upright for more than a year.
When a tree is staked it should not be made
immobile. The best stake systems involve
rings around the trunk that are several inches wider than the trunk. The support wires are tied to the rings or the tie clips on a stake. Inside the ring the tree trunk will be able
to move a little with the wind.
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| Tree Mate by A.M. Leonard Co. https://www.amleo.com/ |
Conventional staking usually involves three stakes
placed equal distances around the trunk and about 6-10 feet (sometimes further
if the tree is large) out from the trunk. Ropes or wires are then run from the
stake and around the tree trunk. Make
sure anything that goes around the trunk is padded so it doesn’t cut into the
trunk or wear a bare spot on the bark.
All of the stakes and ropes or wires must be removed
after one growing season. The biggest problem with staked trees is that no one
removes the stakes for several years. Or if they remove the stakes, they leave
the ropes or wires around the trunk. Many
times, the tie wires or ropes may have actually grown into the tree and girdled
it. These trees will probably die.
If you stake a tree in one of the situations where it
might be necessary, put a notation on your calendar to remove the stakes and
wires 6 months from when you staked it.
That’s enough time in most situations for the tree to be able to stand
on its own. And while a tree is staked
check where the wires or ropes touch the trunk every week or so to make sure
the trunk is not being damaged by the ties.
Staking tree should only be done in some special
circumstances as described above and not done every time a tree is planted.
Shoots
and sprouts pictures
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| Sedum |
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| May apple (Podophyllum peltatum,) |
The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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Newsletter/blog information
I write this because I
love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my
research each week (or things I want to talk about). It keeps me engaged with
people and horticulture. It’s a hobby, basically. I hope you enjoy it. If you
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