June 22, 2021 summer solstice and a slap

 Hi fellow gardeners

Are these guys to blame for the wild weather?

 We got some good rain early Monday morning, about a ½ inch. But last night temps fell to 38 degrees! That’s got to be a record for summer solstice. Today we are getting a bit more rain and some wind with a high in the 60’s. What an odd second day of summer.

The prediction from our MSU agricultural weather person is that Michigan will now be entering a more normal summer rain and temperature pattern. I hope so. And I hope you gardeners out there who aren’t in Michigan also get more normal weather patterns. I think mother nature is slapping us to get our attention and make us understand that climate change is real.

Gardens love a good thunderstorm. Besides the rain, did you know that lightning also fertilizes the ground?  Lightning has enough power as it sizzles through the air to split nitrogen molecules. These molecules are two atoms of nitrogen bound together that stay in the atmosphere. When split they can fall to the ground with rain and become nitrates that plants can absorb through their roots.  So, you might say that after a good thunderstorm plants have both eaten and drank and feel refreshed.

Yesterday was the first day of summer. Summer solstice occurred Sunday evening at 11:36 EST.) Technically it’s the longest day of the year. It’s so sad that’s already passed, and we are going downhill, back to shorter days. But the days will only get shorter by seconds for a while, and there’s still plenty of summer to enjoy.

In the garden this week my clustered bellflower and yellow evening primrose are still going strong. The roses are blooming. I’m really impressed with the Maltese cross this year. Some hostas are blooming and that seems early to me. My hydrangeas are starting to bloom. I have cannas and calla lilies blooming.  Echinacea is beginning to bloom. The clematis seem to love this weather and are blooming like crazy. The ditch lilies are blazing orange along the road and wherever I have left them in the yard.

The mulberries are ripening and that means I will be able to do a lot of bird watching. Birds love mulberries. Humans can eat them too, or make wine from them, but I let the birds have them. Strawberries are also ripe.  I am picking lettuce now from the garden.

On a ride around the farm this week on my new scooter I have been discovering some things I missed.  A long time ago I bought two pawpaw trees. One thrived and is now about 20 feet high and it has bloomed the last few years. But I thought the other had died, I took the tree tube off the spot where I thought it had been several years ago.

You can’t get pawpaw fruit without 2 different pawpaw trees so I thought I’d never get fruit, since planting a seedling would take 10 years before it bloomed, and I decided not to bother.  The area the large pawpaw is in is rather wild now and we quit mowing in the area.  Poplars and birch are growing rampantly.

But I decided to take a look at the large pawpaw and lo and behold, I spotted another pawpaw off to its left. The large, long leaves are distinctive. This tree is in the approximate area where I thought the 2^nd pawpaw had died, it must have come back from the roots. It’s about 8 feet tall too, so maybe in a year or two it will pollinate the larger tree. A weigelia is on one side of it and a small birch tree on the other, they may have hidden it until it grew above them.

I also found a small mulberry tree with fruit on it that I didn’t know was there and a mock orange has grown up and is blooming behind the old compost pile. A small catalpa tree is blooming down by the pond. None of these was planted by me, but we have the parent plants on the property.

I have also noticed a lot of volunteer hosta plants are coming into their own this year.  My hosta seed themselves freely and baby plants pop up here and there. I move them around so they don’t crowd each other out. This year some of the offspring are getting quite large. I think the hosta ‘Empress Wu’ must be the father of most of them because the leaves are very similar to my plant of that name and many of the plants are getting very large. It will be interesting to see what they all look like when fully mature.

Gardening, not groaning

If you are a gardener that’s having mobility issues or problems with arthritis in your hands, you are not alone.  As we age, we often find we need to cut back on our garden projects.  I know that I have removed three beds that used to be on the east side of our property along the road. I left the larger elements, the shrubs, here and there, but dug up any perennials I wanted and moved them closer to the house in the beds there. I then mowed the rest down and converted it back to lawn.

Replacing flower beds that require lots of maintenance with easy care shrubs or lawn is one way to make gardening easier. Buying better tools is another.  There are ergonomic tools, tools that are easier to handle and require less strength to use. There are many kinds on the market now. It’s always better to handle the tools to see how they fit your hands before buying.

If you have arthritis don’t do the same task for a long time. Don’t spend 4 hours pruning, spend an hour then move on to another task. This helps keep your hands or knees from becoming too painful the next day. I know we gardeners tend to get wrapped up in a task and want to finish it but overdoing it one day can lead to days of not being able to do it.

I bought the jaw saw this year, (a battery powered small chain saw), which makes pruning easier. You may want to trade in heavy gasoline powered tools for lighter battery powered ones. Battery powered tools have improved vastly in the last ten years. They are better for the environment and for you.

If you use a push mower now you may want to consider a riding mower or self-propelled one. Or you may want to hire someone to mow and use your energy to weed and tend your gardens.

Try to sit instead of standing and bending over to do tasks like weeding, planting and harvesting. There are all kinds of garden “seats” on the market, or you can use a rolling walker with a seat. If you can still get up off the ground don’t be ashamed to sit down on the ground and work from there.

Raised beds and containers make gardening much easier for those with mobility problems. There are so many products to make that easier now, from grow bags to prefabricated plastic containers. And you may need to cut back on how much you grow, especially in the vegetable garden. A few tomato plants instead of 30, for example.

Something I bought this year that I love is a scooter that runs well outside. It’s like the scooters in stores but much smaller and lighter. Its battery powered and pretty quiet, yet it goes a long way on one charge. The seat and steering column fold on this scooter and it would fit in the back of my small car. It weighs about 100 pounds though and I can’t manage that alone. But it is an option.

But in the yard the scooter has really helped me. I can ride right up to where I want to work, swivel the seat and get to pruning or pulling weeds.  I can carry the weed whip or saw around easily.  It has a basket I keep pruning shears and a hand trowel in so I can “fix” problems as I see them.

I can do some weeding from the seat, but I am unable to bend over for very long anymore, so I sometimes need to get down on the ground still. But I put my vegetables in grow bags this year and it makes it very easy to ride up to them and weed or harvest from them. I can carry a bucket of water or even a flowerpot on the platform between my legs, another plus.  I can use a hoe or shovel from the seat in many cases too.

One of the best things about the scooter is that I can ride all over the yard and our property to keep tabs on what’s going on. And I can take the dogs for walks again.  I can check on the pond, look for birds in the wild area of the property (we keep a mowed path) and enjoy just being out in nature – and my neighborhood - again. I have been taking evening rides to admire the neighbor’s gardens.

My husband has used an electric wheelchair for years outside.  He can mow with the small hand mower or pull a cart with one hand. He can also drive around our property in his chair. We have a handicamp ramp and both the scooter and chair are easy to ride into the house for storage and charging.  

If you dread the pain of walking around your yard or are just unable to do it, a mobility scooter or electric wheelchair can make it easier. They aren’t as expensive anymore, and you can order one online and have it delivered, Amazon and Walmart carry them.  If you want one for gardening though, make sure it works well outside on uneven ground. I had one I returned because it just didn’t work on grass or dirt roads. (The model I am using is called Metro M1 and I bought it from Walmart.)

Just because you are growing older or have mobility issues doesn’t mean you have to stop gardening. Just garden slower and smarter.

 Calcium deficiency in plants- no milk please

For some reason the newest thing gardeners seem to be fretting over is a calcium deficiency in their plants.  This is a very common worry for tomato growers who think adding calcium to the soil can stop blossom end rot. Some people are even telling other people to pour milk on their plants to solve a problem they probably don’t have.  

While milk is a good source of calcium for people, it’s not a good source for plants and pouring milk on the garden is a waste of time and money. And no matter how much calcium you add to the soil, it won’t help if the plants can’t take it up. And plants being unable to use calcium in the soil is often what causes a calcium deficiency rather than a lack of calcium.

If you are growing hydroponically or are using something other than soil for growing, this article does not apply. Some potting mixes have fertilizer that contains calcium, others do not, read the label. 

Calcium deficiency has varied symptoms, stunted pale growth, dark veins in leaves, leaves looking curled or distorted, dying shoot tips and leaf buds. Tomato fruit and sometimes melons and squash, can have dark rotted areas on the bottom or end farthest from the stem. But calcium deficiency can be hard to differentiate from other problems of plants. Most people are taking a wild guess when they say they have a calcium deficiency in a plant.

There are a few places in the country where the soil may be low in calcium.  The only sure way to know this is to have a soil test done. Your county Extension educator or a farm service agent may know if the area is generally calcium deficient. But in most places, there is enough calcium in the soil.  However, calcium can sometimes be “locked up” in soil and plants can’t use it. BUT adding more calcium does not make it available. Correcting the problem, rather than adding more calcium, is the way to proceed in most cases.

Calcium becomes unavailable to plants when soil pH is too low- meaning it’s acidic. It also happens when soil is too cold or there is insufficient water and when there is too much phosphorus and magnesium.  High humidity and excessive heat can also limit calcium uptake.  Some of these problems may correct themselves in time.

Adequate water on a regular basis, is probably the easiest thing you can do to ensure your plants can get enough calcium. It’s the fluctuating between too dry and too wet conditions that causes blossom end rot in tomatoes. Yes, the plant isn’t getting enough calcium, but it’s not because calcium isn’t in the soil and adding more won’t help. It’s just not getting water on a regular basis and water is necessary to move calcium through the plant. You can’t control the weather, but you can water when it’s dry.

You can help your plants get enough calcium by testing the soil pH and if it’s too acidic (pH of below 6 for most plants) you can adjust it by adding lime. A pH of 6.5-7 is ideal for most plants, some plants like more acidic conditions of 5.5 to 6.  Do not add lime unless you know the pH is low, if you make the soil too alkaline other problems will occur.

If there is a high level of phosphorus or magnesium in your soil from over fertilizing it may prevent calcium from being taken up by plants. You’ll know this if you have a soil test. Stop using any fertilizers with phosphorus and magnesium if that’s the case. In this case extra calcium could be helpful.

Salt will also keep plants from taking up calcium. Sometimes sodium builds up when the gardener uses salty well water or irrigation water on plants. Flushing with neutral (7) pH water can help correct this as well as switching to rainwater or other water sources in the future.

If you feel you must try to add more calcium, or you had a soil test and know your soil lacks calcium add lime, bonemeal, gypsum, rockdust or a fertilizer product formulated for plants for just this problem. Use small quantities and see how your plants react.

DO NOT ADD MILK to your soil, whether its whole milk, diluted milk, evaporated milk or powdered milk.  Milk does not have that much calcium in comparison to other products listed above and it will not help your plants. It will smell and attract flies and animals.

Another thing that won’t help, this year anyway, is crushed eggshells, they take too long to break down. And sticks of chalk, tums, and human vitamin supplements aren’t a good idea either. These things just don’t work even though they seem clever.  Epsom salts will not help either – it has no calcium, and it may make the problem worse because it does have magnesium.

Lack of enough calcium in soil is not common.  Correcting environmental conditions that limit calcium uptake will probably be more effective than adding more calcium the plants can’t use because of those conditions.

A great idea for using strawberries

Got strawberries, and tired of strawberry shortcake?  Slice your berries and add some sugar and let them sit overnight. I use about a ½ cup of sugar to 3 cups of sliced berries, you may like more or less.

Now buy some of those little frozen cream puffs you find in the frozen food section of the grocery. Let them thaw and then put some in a bowl and pour sliced strawberries over them. Eat at once. Divine!

 

Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare, and left the flushed print in a poppy there.

-Francis Thompson

 

 

Kim Willis

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