Hi Gardeners
What a weekend it was. Early Saturday morning we got 2-8/10 inches
of rain in just a few hours. Lightning
was intense and frequent all through the storm.
The roadside ditch flooded over into our lawn and many roads around here
were flooded. But as inconvenient as that was for us so many places around the
country have it much worse. Some gardeners
have no gardens as well as no house. The number of tornadoes this year has been
unusually high and there is far worse flooding going on in other places.
Grass is growing like crazy here, which
was not good because our riding mower was out of service for a week. I do keep some areas of lawn. In just a little over a week the grass was 6-8
inches long. The mower came back on Sunday and on Monday I spent a lot of time
mowing. Some areas can’t be mowed along
the road though because there is standing water on top of the ground and even
the little push mower sinks in the ground.
It’s not just me that’s having trouble
with wet ground around here. Most of the
farm fields aren’t planted yet, and many have standing water in large areas of
them. This is a problem across the
country I understand, with many states reporting a late planting season or
early planted crops being destroyed by flooding. Along with the tariffs, farmers are being hit
hard by weather.
Many farmers in my state are abandoning
the wheat fields that were planted last fall because between winter damage and
wet fields this year they don’t expect to break even on the harvest. They are burning the wheat down with weed killers. Some will replant with soy or corn and some
will leave the land fallow. The farmers
still hoping to plant corn or soy are switching to early maturing varieties and
hoping for drier weather so they can plant it.
Some farmers have crop insurance that will cover their losses if they
can’t plant but things are not looking great for farmers this year. I wonder if this is the beginning of a cycle
caused by climate change and if in years to come getting our food crops planted
and harvested will become increasingly difficult.
I’m lucky because most of my vegetable
garden is in the ground now. I planted the sweet corn last week, cucumbers,
tomatoes and a sweet pepper. I still
have to choose one more tomato to grow and I have a bag of onion sets that
needs to be planted. I should stop
buying onion sets. I like to plant them
in any open spots, as tomatoes or other things fill in, I pull them for green
onions and some get left to make bulbs.
But they are always the last thing I plant and by the time I get to them
I am so tempted just to skip them.
The weeds are getting ahead of me too,
with all the rain. I generally do not
mind weeding but right now planting and mowing are competing for my time and
weeding gets done in bits and pieces. I walk
by and get the urge to get down there and pull some weeds but more urgent tasks
pull me away.
My houseplants got moved outside this
weekend, and that is always a big job. It was perfect weather for that job,
cloudy, wet and mild for most of the time. Many are in the shade getting adjusted
to outside light and will need to be moved again in a week or so, but they are
outside. The peace lily is in bloom.
The bleeding hearts, forget me nots,
lilies of the valley and early bearded iris are now blooming. The large purple alliums are taking center
stage now, they are pretty, but those things are aggressive spreaders. The tulips and daffodils are starting to fade,
although some are still in bloom. The akebia is blooming and the flowering
quince, lilacs and redbud are all in full bloom. My strawberries are blooming
too. Buds are appearing on the roses.
Things are a week, or two in some cases, behind last year in bloom time.
It looks like I lost my passionfruit
vine over winter, despite its vigorous growth last year. It was a hardy type, but I just can’t get one
to live more than a year or two. I don’t
know whether to try again or not.
Everybody has a plant type that doesn’t like their garden
Time for plant bargains
After Memorial Day in many parts of the
country garden shops will begin to markdown some plants. But the markdown in garden catalogs and
online will be even more intense. It gets hard to hold and ship such things as
dormant plants and bulbs as the season progresses and all the major and not so
major garden catalogs will have these on sale now. And potted plants are also hard for many
nurseries to keep healthy and small enough for easy shipping, so those will be
on sale too.
Shipping is so fast now you can have
those bargain plants in a matter of days.
The selection may be getting limited, but the prices are good, and you
will probably get larger, more mature plants. So, if you have been looking for something
locally you can’t find, or plants you wanted seemed too costly earlier in the
spring try shopping garden catalogs now. You’ll be amazed at the prices you can get
this time of year.
Why your peonies don’t bloom
One of the common garden questions this
time of the year is why aren’t my peonies blooming? Peonies can survive and bloom with little
care on old farmsteads for fifty years or more, yet many gardeners have
difficulty getting them to bloom. So
just why are these gardeners having problems with their peonies?
One of the most common reasons peonies
don’t bloom is their age. It takes 3-5
years from seed to the first flower. But
most peonies are sold as root divisions and while these root divisions
technically come from an older, blooming plant it can also take a year or more
after you plant a peony before you get blooms and a few more years before you
get a full, mature plant full of blooms.
This is true even if the peony you
bought was blooming in a pot, which by the way, isn’t the best way to buy a
peony. Peonies don’t like transplanting
or dividing. Every time a peony is moved or divided it can take a year or more
before it blooms again and several years before it becomes a large plant with
numerous blooms. When you plant a peony
make sure you place it where you won’t have to move it in a year or two. And don’t dig up and divide your peonies
every few years either. They are best
left alone, and they do not need dividing to keep blooming, in fact dividing
will inhibit bloom.
Peonies are best planted in the fall
and in a dormant state. Bareroot clumps are fine and are the common way peonies
are sold. The second-best time to plant
is in very early spring. If you do have
to move a peony do it in the fall.
Which brings me to another reason your
peonies might not bloom, planting them too deep. Peonies have small red bumps or “eyes” on the
top of root clumps, and these should only be about 2 inches below the soil
surface. When planting a potted peony or
transplanting a peony make sure the peony is planted at the same level it was
growing in the pot or in its former location (unless you are trying to correct
a too deep planting).
There is some debate among experts as
to whether a peony you suspect was too deeply planted should be dug up and
replanted. Over time many plants have
the ability to correct the depth of their roots, the plant pushes upward or
downward as needed. This may take years
and the peony may not bloom during that time.
But if you dig it up and re-plant it, the peony could also take years to
bloom again. You might try carefully removing a few inches of soil from around
the peony. Or just dig it and replant it
and hope for the best.
Not getting enough sun is another
reason peonies fail to bloom. Yes, there
are some peonies that continue to bloom in partial shade, but these are exceptions,
and no particular cultivar is better in shade.
Peonies need full sun, at least 6 hours of sun midday, to bloom well. Often if peonies bloom less as they age it’s
because a tree has grown larger and is now shading them.
Peonies also need their foliage the
whole season to make enough energy to set next years blooms. Don’t cut down peony foliage before the first
frost even if it looks unattractive. The
only exception is if the foliage is infected with botrytis, see below.
Peonies are a plant that thrives
without much fertilization. In fact, if
they get too much nitrogen, they can stop blooming. This can be a problem if they are planted in
a lawn that is heavily fertilized, as lawn fertilizer is high in nitrogen. There’s not much you can do about excessive
nitrogen in the current year. But make
sure that in the following years the peony plant does not get fertilized with
the lawn.
Sometimes failure to bloom may be
caused by a common peony disease, gray mold or botrytis blight (Botrytis paeoniae). This disease is prevalent when spring is wet
and cool, and some types of peonies are more susceptible than others. The fungal disease can start at any stage,
new shoots may get covered in gray mold, rot and fall off, young buds blacken
and shrivel up, older buds and flowers get a gray mold, rot and fall off. Peony foliage can get black and tan “bullseye”
spots. If the disease comes on early and
affects shoots and buds, you are unlikely to get blooms.
If you have had trouble with this
disease in the past you could use a preventative fungicide on the peony shoots as
soon as they emerge in spring and keep up a spray schedule according to label
directions. Once the disease starts it
cannot be cured that year. However, the
plants probably won’t die and may be fine the next season if the weather is
different and you have practiced good clean up strategies.
Every year cut peony foliage down to
the ground after the first frost and remove the stems to the compost pile,
which should be a good distance from the peonies. This helps prevent disease
spores from overwintering. During a botrytis
outbreak remove infected buds, flowers, and leaves and burn them or seal
tightly in a plastic bag and discard.
 |
| A seedling peony |
Plant your peonies so each has plenty of
room around it as a mature plant so that air circulation is good. Overhead sprinkling systems can also
contribute to conditions favorable to botrytis.
One last thing to mention, ants and peonies. Peonies do not need ants to bloom and ants do
not harm peonies. Peonies and ants can have a symbiotic relationship, the ants
eat a sweet secretion from peonies and in turn defend the flowers from some
pollen stealing or petal munching insects.
But peonies don’t really need ants and since ants don’t harm the peonies
there is no reason to use pesticides to kill them. To get ants off peonies you have cut for
inside gently submerge the flowers in cold water for a few minutes.
Cost saving tip for container plantings- use houseplants
Do you need plants to fill outside
containers but money is tight? Consider
using some houseplants you may already have.
And even if you have to buy some of the houseplants mentioned they can
be brought inside this fall to decorate the inside of the house. Many small starter houseplants are very
inexpensive in summer and by fall you’ll have a much larger, showier houseplant
that would have cost you much more.
Spider plants can be so much more than houseplants. They can add texture and fill for container
gardens. Use them instead of the
traditional “spike” in the center of a pot.
(Spider plants can also be planted in the shade directly in the ground,
where they make an excellent ground cover, or used as accent plants. The white
variegated varieties nicely light up dark areas and can substitute for more
expensive plants). Spider plants can be treated as annuals and left to die in
the winter or you can bring them inside before frost and save them for next
year, enjoying them all winter long.
 |
| Some houseplants in a container outside |
More choices for “spikes” or the center of container
arrangements include small yuccas, asparagus ferns, small palms of various
types, monstera and upright philodendrons, small scheffleras, small ficus, sansevieria
(snake plant), and of course any of the
dracaena family, of which “spikes” are a part.
For fillers in containers there are many suitable houseplants
besides the spider plant. Ferns, rex begonias, aglaonema, dieffenbachia, small
peace lilies, cordyline, fittonia, Maranta species like prayer plants,
calathea, peperomia’s, and pilea’s. Pothos,
Boston ivy, tradescanthia, setcreasea, Plectranthus (Swedish ivy), hoya, and philodendron
can be used as the “spillers” in container gardens.
Containers of various tender succulents and sedums can be
put together that are very attractive and suitable for drier areas such as
under a porch roof. Remember that all
succulents aren’t suitable for full sun conditions outside.
Don’t be afraid to mix summer annuals and tender perennials
with your houseplants for containers.
These can be discarded when the houseplants are returned inside in the
fall.
Make sure to match the houseplant with the light conditions
the container is in. Many houseplants do better in partial or light shade
outside. Some plants kept inside also
need a period of transition to outside light, keep them in shade for a week or
two before moving to partial shade or sun.
Let your houseplants do double duty as container plants on
your porch or patio this year. They’ll
love the summer vacation and return inside bigger and lusher as houseplants.
Tips for protecting seeds and small plants from animals
One of the biggest problems gardeners
have early in the season is animals and birds eating seeds or damaging young
plants. Once everything is up and
growing well the problem usually abates but it can be frustrating trying to
protect seeds or seedlings in their youngest stages.
Keep branches pruned from roses,
raspberries, barberry and other prickly plants and lay them over planted
rows. Remove them when plants are a few
inches tall so that seedlings don’t tangle in them. This discourages cats and chickens
from scratching in the beds.
Spun row cover can protect seeds or
transplants while allowing air, water and light through. It looks rather like the spun fabric softener
sheets you put in the dryer. Row cover also provides a bit of added warmth and
frost protection. You can also use black
or green plastic netting sold in rolls. You can purchase these in most garden
centers. These need to be raised above
the soil or transplants.
To hold netting or row cover off the
soil or plants you’ll need supports. The
supports should lift the cover just a little to keep it off emerging
plants. Ideas for supports are paper
towel or other cardboard rolls, paint stirring sticks, Styrofoam blocks used in
shipping boxes, small pop bottles, plastic cups, or pieces of PVC pipe. Drape the row cover or netting over them and
hold edges of them down with soil or small rocks. You could also use sticks with something on
top of them like a plastic cup, lid, or small can to keep the netting from
sliding down on them.
You could also staple row cover or
netting strips onto two boards placed on either side of the row that are about
6 inches high. Or you could bend wire such as wire coat hangers (if you can
still find any) into hoops to support the covers.
Remove covers when plants are up and
growing well. Don’t let plants start
growing through netting as it will eventually girdle the stems. And it’s hard to remove the netting without
damaging the plants once they grow into it.
For longer term bird protection, like
for strawberries, netting is the best.
It needs to be supported well above the top of the plants. It also needs to be easy to move so you can
harvest the berries. You can make hoops
of stiff wire to hold the netting off the plants. Or put together a frame of light PVC
pipe. Attach the netting to it with
plastic slip ties. This lifts off easily
if you don’t make it too long -you may have to make several shorter lengths. For single plant protection you could save
netting from fruit or vegetable purchases and re-cycle it.
Cats can dig up newly planted seed beds
and even transplants. They can get in flowerpots and containers and dig up
plants or smash them by laying on them.
To protect your seeds and plants use plastic forks pushed handle down
into the soil and tines up, spaced among your plants or around seed beds. You can also use sturdy sticks you have
collected or short bamboo skewers, just space them every few inches through
your bed or around a row to make it hard for a cat to walk there or find a spot
to dig.
After the plants are larger and the
soil settled you can usually remove the forks or sticks. If cats continue to lay in pots and
containers you may have to leave them.
Painting the forks black or green, (or buying that color) helps disguise
them.
Another trick is to lay a piece of
unpainted lattice in your bed and plant through the holes in it. Pieces or wire fencing with 2 inch or larger
squares can also be used. You can cut
out additional space if needed. You can
cover this lightly with mulch to hide it, but the plants will eventually cover
it. This works well to keep fall planted
bulbs from being dug up by cats too.
Sometimes cats will lay on top of
lattice or fencing. I make v shaped covers with cheap wire fencing that bends
easily. I plant seeds or a row of
seedlings and then cover the rows with the v’s (turned upside down). I leave the v’s in place and the plants grow
up through them, in a few weeks you can’t see the fencing. Of course, the fencing must have 2 inch or
wider openings if you leave it.
 |
| In this cutting garden photo you can just see the fencing the plants are growing through. Soon it will be covered. |
There are some commercial spray
products that are designed to keep pets and birds away. These do work fairly well but the drawback is
that they often smell bad to humans too, and they can’t be used on food crops.
Things that don’t work to discourage animals
and birds are red, cayenne or black pepper, dryer sheets, pieces of soap, or
mothballs. Some of these may have a temporary effect, but birds actually like
red pepper. Mothballs are hazardous to
your health and the health of soil and should never be used outside to
discourage pests. Since mothballs are a
pesticide, using mothballs outside in a manner that’s not listed on the label
is illegal.
Cost saving tip - Recycle potting medium (soil)
A common gardening
question is can I re-use last year’s potting soil left in the containers this
year? The answer is yes, in most cases. Most purchased potting medium is
generally composed of peat, perlite, and some other form of organic matter such
as ground bark or coconut fiber. Some
will decompose enough that you will lose potting medium volume in your pots
over time, so you may need at least some added materials to refill all the pots
you used last year.
The easiest way to
recycle your potting soil mixture is to remove it from the pots or containers
and place it in a large bucket or maybe a wheelbarrow or garden cart. If a pot is
large and you don’t want to empty it, you can just remove the top 8 inches of
potting mix for renewal. The planting medium from several containers can be
dumped into one mixing container and renewed at the same time. Stir up the mixture, breaking up clumps and
removing any leftover plant debris.
You’ll need to
re-new the nutrient content of the mixture, because anything in it last year
has probably been depleted. The best way
to do this is by mixing in some granular, slow release garden fertilizer found
in all garden stores. There are organic
and inorganic fertilizers, but plants don’t care which type they receive, it’s
the human caretaker who takes that stand.
For flowering or foliage containers select a fertilizer for
flowers. If you will be growing
vegetables in containers select a vegetable fertilizer.
Estimate how much
potting mix you have and then mix in the proper amount of fertilizer granules
by reading the label directions. Mix in the fertilizer thoroughly with a shovel
or your hands.
Note; If you use a
slow release fertilizer in containers don’t use liquid fertilizers on the
plants for at least two months, or the plants may get too much of a good
thing. Most directions on slow release
fertilizers claim they are good for 3 months and that will cover most of the
growing season. Some heavily blooming
plants may need a little supplementation at about 2 months, especially if they must
be frequently watered, as this leaches out some of the minerals.
If you have good,
finished compost on hand you can add some of that to your recycled planting
medium. Even 50% compost- 50% potting
medium ratio could be used. Remember that compost is not fertilizer, and it’s
not a good source of all the nutrients plants need, you still need fertilizer. New
potting medium can be added if you don’t have enough for all your pots and
blended into the old mix. You could add water retaining granules if you like, and
any of that type of material in the old potting medium will still be good.
For pots and
containers, it’s best not to use garden soil or manure with the recycled
planting medium. This can bring diseases, or it can crust and harden. Don’t add things like coffee grounds or
eggshells either. Put them in the compost pile.
Moisten all potting
mixtures before putting them back into containers. You may need to stir it well
to get water into the bottom part of the mixture. The mixture should look and
feel moist, but water should not seep through your fingers if you pick up a
handful of the mix. If you put dry potting medium in a pot and then add water
some of the mixture may float up and out of the pot. The bottom layers of the pot may not get
moistened and will suck water away from newly planted plant roots.
If you had disease
problems in your container plants last year and intend to grow the same type of
plants in the container this year you should probably discard all of the
potting mixture and replace it with new.
Talking about turtles
It’s that time of the year again when turtles seem
to lose all sense and roam across roads like they were trying to commit
suicide. It isn’t the heat and it
certainly isn’t the ponds drying up- at least not this year- that causes this
seemingly random wandering. It’s a
mother turtle looking for just the right place to lay her eggs. Most turtles do this, but the ones that are
most common and most often seen are the painted turtle and the snapping turtle.
About this time every year mother turtles of all types
get the urge to find a perfect spot for the eggs they’re carrying. They’re looking for moist, loose soil in a
sunny area, preferably not heavily covered with vegetation. Each turtle must have some deep inborn idea
of that perfect spot and off she goes to find it, slowly but surely. She may go some distance from the pond or
swamp she mated in, across hot expanses of asphalt and up and down steep
roadside ditches. Unfortunately, many
of these quests for a nursery end in the turtle being squashed on the
road.
If the turtle finds a good spot, she digs a shallow
hole and lays her off-white eggs, which vary in size from golf ball to large
hen egg size, from oval to round and from thin and hard shelled to leathery
shelled depending on the species of the female turtle. She then pushes some loose soil over them and
starts her long trek back to where she came from. Many creatures love turtle eggs for dinner,
particularly raccoons, which sometimes follow turtles and grab the eggs as they
are laid.
If the nest remains undiscovered, the tiny turtles
will hatch in 60-80 days and they too, will start a journey. They will go looking for the perfect pond or
swamp to live in. Their instincts guide
them toward water and once again many will perish as they cross the roads and
are gobbled up by other critters.
Turtles are becoming increasingly scarce, with some
species now endangered. They take years
to become sexually mature and few baby turtles make it through the first
year. As swamps and other wetland habitat
is eliminated, turtle numbers have declined drastically. If you can avoid hitting them on the road,
please do so. If you want to help them
cross the road, move them in the
direction they were traveling, even if it doesn’t seem like they are going
the right way to you. If you take them
back to where they came from, they will just start the journey all over
again. Watch for your own safety on
roads and don’t put your life in danger to rescue a turtle.
Be careful when handling snapping turtles. Snappers are ugly looking and often covered
with algae or mud. They have long necks
and may aggressively “snap” at anything they perceive as a threat. The large
ones have jaws strong enough to break a finger or take it right off so use
extreme care. Picking them up by the
tail may hurt them and they may be able to reach around and bite you. If you
want to move them, dangle a piece of cloth or cardboard in front of their
nose. They will generally snap at this
and when they latch on to the object they firmly hold on. You can then drag or pull them off the
road. On the other side they’ll release
the object they grabbed after a few minutes of quiet.
 |
| Snapping turtle |
Snapping turtles won’t chase you and will leave you
alone if you leave them alone. While
they are ugly, they are part of nature’s scheme and don’t deserve to be
indiscriminately killed. Tales of large
snapping turtles attacking swimmers or eating all the fish in a pond are just
that, tales. While snappers have been
known to eat an occasional baby duck, they really prefer fish and frogs. The presence of snapping turtles in a pond or
lake seldom impacts the number of game fish present.
Snappers can get quite large, although the common snapping
turtle does not get as large as the alligator snapping turtle found in the
southern states. About 40 pounds and a
shell 20” across would be a large common snapping turtle. Some of these large turtles may be 50 or more
years old. Snapping turtles were a part
of Native American diets and many people still consider them a delicacy.
Most turtles are protected from being harvested and
sold in many states except for snapping turtles. The Spotted, Blandings, Wood,
and Eastern Box turtles are protected completely by law and it is illegal to
kill them or keep them as pets. So, when
you see these guys crossing the road don’t capture them for pets.
“Deep in their roots all flowers keep the light”
-Theodore Roethke -
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
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I write this because I
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