Growing Wise

Vegetables

Elisabeth — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:31:00 GMT

The hottest trend in gardening right now is vegetable gardening, or, more properly, food gardening, since that term encompasses vegetables, fruits and herbs. Not since the days of the World War II "Victory Gardens" have so many people concerned themselves about growing their own food. Whether the concerns focus on food prices, carbon footprints or just great taste, experienced gardeners, novice gardeners and everyone in between will shortly be turning their thoughts towards planning and planting.

The task can be a bit daunting, however. Most food crops require sunshine, which is at a premium in many gardens. Today's gardeners tend to have smaller spaces to work with and some may wonder how much food they can raise on such limited plots. The solution to these problems is in realistic thinking and planning.

First of all, think about what you want to grow. If you are new to food gardening, grow the foods you like best. For many people, the easiest place to start is with tomatoes because they are tasty and accessible. You can grow them in the ground or in pots. You can focus on heirloom or modern varieties and choose anything from tiny, "cherry" tomatoes to big, beefy behemoths. Tomatoes can be started indoors on a sunny windowsill and transferred to the outdoors.

Basil is by far the easiest herb to grow, and it works very well with tomatoes. Peppers are also simple.

Once you gain confidence, the sky is the limit (or, probably, your property's boundaries are the limit). Eventually you may find yourself growing Swiss chard, potatoes and even a row or two of sweet corn. Like any other gardening, food gardening is good for you mentally and (especially) physically. There is something very healthy about supervising food production from seed or starter plant to table.

Spare Bulbs

Elisabeth — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:18:00 GMT

If you are like me, you buy too many bulbs every year. Around Thanksgiving you heave most of the remaining bulbs into the ground with a sigh of relief. However, if you are like me, more often than not, you also have a few left over. Simply keeping them until next year is not an option, so put them to good use.

If the ground is still workable, plant them--even though it is already the first week of December. Chances are they will get enough chilling to provide you with blooms next spring. You can also pot them up. Depending on the number of bulbs you have, pick a large pot or pots, fill with good potting soil and plant your bulbs. If you have a mixture of daffodils or tulips and smaller bulbs, like crocuses, save space by planting them in layers. Dig down six to eight inches for the large bulbs, cover them with a couple of inches of soil, then plant the little bulbs on top and cover those. A cross section of your planting scheme would look a little like a fruitcake.

Put your pots in a garage or other cold, sheltered spot (a screened porch or a sheltered corner right by the house). The idea is for the pots to be chilled, but not frozen solid for at least a few weeks. When spring comes, you should see the green tips popping up through the soil. After your bulbs have bloomed, you can plant them in the garden. Tulips are a little "iffy" under the best of circumstances, but daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses should return faithfully the next year.

HIps are In

Elisabeth — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:07:00 GMT

Most people buy roses for the beautiful blooms--which is very sensible, since not all rosebushes are lovely when they are out of bloom. Real rose lovers also consider the hips, sometimes called "heps", which are the fruit of the rose. Depending on the species and variety of rose, the hips can by tiny or cherry tomato-size and can range in color from orange to brilliant scarlet.

One of the best roses for hips is a species, Rosa moyesii. It bears pink single blossoms once a year, but its hips are its crowing achievement. Some writers have described them as flask shaped and they are borne in great numbers on a mature shrub. The color is bright red. Even if you have never seen Rosa moyesii, you would know it the minute you laid eyes on it, just because of the hips.

Rugosa roses (R. rugosa) and their hybrids often have very large (over one inch in diameter) hips, which tend to be brilliant red. The hips are full of Vitamin C and make excellent jam or jelly. Popular rugosa hybrids include the famous, fragrant white 'Blanc Double de Coubert'; (above) and the light pink-flowered 'Frau Dagmar Hartopp', more correctly known as 'Frau Dagmar Hastrup'. Whatever her name, this German lady has lovely light pink flowers, followed by big red hips. Both 'Blanc Double de Coubert' and 'Frau Dagmar Hartopp' also smell divine. The only drawback to rugosas is that they tend to be exceptionally prickly.

One of my favorite roses, Rosa glauca or the red-leafed rose, has gorgeous foliage that is reddish when young and later takes on a blue cast. The single pink flowers appear once a year, followed by pretty orange oval-shaped hips.

A Chinese rose, Rosa mutabilis, sports butterfly-like flowers that change color from yellow to pink to red as they age. The hips that follow are like exquisite tiny red beads. They look wonderful in arrangements or on the plant and last well.

Any rose can get you through the summer, but a rose with great hips can get you through fall and beyond.

St. John's Wort

Elisabeth — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:41:00 GMT

My Thanksgiving centerpiece this year will include bright, brownish red fruits of the hypericum or St. John's Wort plant. In my garden, these fruits have long since turned from red to black, but somewhere in the world they have turned ruddy just in time for the fall harvest.

The sight of the St. John's wort fruits (which look a little like rose hips) makes me think of how valuable the plants are in the garden. You can buy shrubby hypericums like the 'Sunburst' variety (Hypericum frondosum 'Sunburst'), which is descended from American native plants. There are also ground covering species and varieties like Hypericum calycinum, which is native to Europe and Asia Minor. The most important thing that these plants have in common is bright, cheerful yellow flowers. Normally these blooms appear in the summer and have five petals surrounding vivid bunches of golden stamens and green-gold centers. In my experience they are not particularly good for cut flower arrangements, but create a wonderful spectacle in the garden.

St. John's wort requires little. It thrives on lean, relatively dry soil, making it a low maintenance plant. Some varieties are vigorous to the point of invasiveness, which is great if you have a lot of empty space. Otherwise, you may want to grow your hypericum in a large pot instead of putting it in the ground.

Stems bearing hypericum fruits are available in supermarkets and garden centers now. They are inexpensive and have a big decorative impact. Buy the fruits for now and plan to install some St. John's wort plants in the spring for sunny summer flowers.

Garden Bones

Elisabeth — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 18:01:00 GMT

Gardeners always talk about the "bones" of a garden. It sounds good, but what does it really mean? Just as bones give structure to the human body, landscape "bones" give structure to the garden. "Bones" include the layout, the hardscaping and plants like shrubs and trees that provide shape and interest year in and year out. This time of year--when annuals are dead, perennials have died back to the ground and deciduous shrubs and trees have dropped their leaves--is a good time to see your garden's "bones".

Deciduous shrubs can help give structure to a garden, especially if their branches form distinctive shapes.

Evergreens contribute substantially to the "bones" of a garden. From the tallest Norway Spruce to the shortest carpet juniper, evergreens maintain not only shape but color in every season. No garden should be without them and the variety of sizes, colors and shapes is astonishing. For every standard yew, boxwood, arbor vitae, juniper, rhododendron, euonymus and holly, there are many variations. People with small gardens or collections of containers can choose from an every-expanding range of small cultivars to use as accents. Right now evergreen varieties with a greenish gold cast like Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon' are popular. They are great for lightening up dark places as well as providing bones.

Look around your own garden. If there aren't enough evergreens make a note to order more in the spring.

Dried Hydrangea

Elisabeth — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:46:00 GMT

When I was growing up we had a decorator friend who could not get through the holidays without a can (or two) of gold spray paint. Everything looked more festive sprayed gold, from Rose of Sharon seedpods from the garden; to a collection of old sheets and styrofoam balls, which our friend fashioned into a trio of gilded angels, using toothpicks and a can of gold spray paint.

I thought of this recently as I considered my own holiday decorations. Like many people, we are cutting back a bit this year, but want the house to look festive. I thought of all those peegee hydrangea flowerheads that I meant to hang and dry two months ago, while they still had their wonderful dusty pink fall color. Other chores intervened and the flowerheads are still on the plants. They are tan now, but they remain big and beautifully shaped. I'll combine some of them with gold and russet mums or carnations for the Thanksgiving centerpiece. The can of gold spray paint will be put to good use when I spray many more of the hydrangea flowers for holiday arrangements. Some of the gold hydrangeas will also be wired to evergreen wreathes or used to decorate the Christmas tree.

We gardeners have always known that you can find just about everything you need in the garden. That is even more true over the holidays.

Winter Cabbage

Elisabeth — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:16:00 GMT

Every year I install ornamental cabbage and kale varieties in the garden to give color in late fall and through the winter. The colors are wonderful and the cabbages would be perfect if only the groundhog was not so fond of them.

Fortunately a few cabbages managed to escape the groundhog's attention last year. When I went to remove them in March, much to my surprise, I found that one of the cabbages had taken root. I decided to see what would happen if I left it alone.

It sent up a single flower stalk with pretty, but relatively insignificant yellow flowers. It acquired a few spindly leaves, but otherwise changed little throughout much of the summer. Finally in the fall it sprouted new leaves, which formed themselves into the blossom-like shape of a full-grown ornamental cabbage. The leaves were purple at the center of the plant and gray/green on the outside. The cabbage head was not as big as it was last year, but it was very pretty. It also sprouted a spindly offspring. As a decorative accent, my two-year old cabbage has earned its keep. Let's hope the groundhog stays busy elsewhere.

Holly With a Twist

Elisabeth — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:13:00 GMT

In a few weeks, holly will start showing up everywhere, as people begin to deck their halls. One of the delights of having holly trees or shrubs is that you can cut your own holly, which is often fresher and better than you can buy in stores or garden centers. I am particularly lucky because my garden is home to a couple of variegated holly bushes."Variegation" means that the leaves of a particular plant are not completely green. A variegated specimen may have white or yellow leaf edges. In the alternate, a variegated plant might have white, cream or yellow leaves edged in green. Leaves can also be blotched or spotted with a contrasting color. The only constant is that plants with variegated leaves add sparkle to a garden. The Victorians loved variegation and it has made a huge comeback in the last fifteen years. My favorite variegated hollies combine the brilliant red berries that make the plants so wonderful in holiday arrangements, with glossy, dark green leaves edged in cream. The 'Honey Maid' cultivar (Ilex x merserveae 'Honey Maid') has this color combination. Sprigs of 'Honey Maid' work well in holiday wreathes and can be combined with pieces of regular green holly to add a little piquancy to indoor decor. In December I usually arrange a mix of hollies in a freshly polished brass tea kettle and place it on the coffee table in my living room. The combination of green, red and gold is perfect right through New Year's.If you decide to grow holly, make sure that you have a female plant, as the males do not set berries. If there are male hollies in your neighborhood, pollination may not be a worry, but if you have the room, buy a male variety as well. Either 'Blue Prince' or 'Blue Baron', plain-leafed varieties of Ilex x merserveae, would work well for this purpose. Remember that hollies like acid soil, but that once they are established, they pretty much take care of themselves.

Florist's Cyclamen

Elisabeth — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

If you love hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen coum or Cyclamen hederifolia) outdoors, you will want to have some indoors to tide you over the winter months. Fortunately, at this time of year, you can find "florist's cyclamen" (Cyclamen persicum) in all kinds of stores, garden centers and nurseries. These plants, which are usually available in six or eight inch pots, have the same butterfly-like flowers and beautifully mottled leaves as their cold-hardy cousins. The difference is that florist's cyclamen have larger flowers and cannot take the cold.

Cyclamen have been known and used for millennia--from Ancient Greece, through the Victorian era, to modern times. Flower lovers have long been drawn to the white, pink, purple or red flowers and in the eighteenth century, the forerunner of the modern florist's cyclamen was first described. Since then amateur and professional hybridizers have worked with Cyclamen persicum to create the large-flowered plants we enjoy today.

Good looks are not the only thing that make cyclamen popular. They are also very easy to grow. They are sold in bud or in flower, and the blooms tend to last a long time. The plants go dormant, so as the flowers fade, decrease watering gradually. After the leaves have disappeared, place the cyclamen in a dark indoor space with good air circulation or take it outside and place the pot on its side in the shade. About September, new growth should occur, at which time the plant can come inside and the plant owner should resume watering and fertilizing. Cyclamen are helped by being grown with the pot sitting atop a tray of pebbles and water. The plant itself doesn't like standing in water, but the humidity from the pebble-filled tray is very beneficial. Water the plant only when the top of the soil feels dry to the touch.

News on Yews

Elisabeth — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:32:00 GMT

My house came with several overgrown yew shrubs (Taxus) that stood in front of the high stone foundation. At first I found little to love about these bushes, except that they seemed relatively inoffensive and were not hard to take care of. At the time I was much more in favor of flowering shrubs and thought longingly of the day when I could afford to hire someone with a truck and a chain to come and yank the yews out.

Now, ten years later, a couple of the yews are gone, but a couple remain, pruned into shapes that are less bulky than the ones I found when we moved into our house. I especially appreciate the red berries, which few writers mention, except to say that they are poisonous to humans.

The berries are plump and scarlet and make a big visual impact in the cold winter months. They are also, I have discovered, not poisonous to birds and squirrels. The other day, I saw a squirrel in a variety of awkward positions--upside down, sideways and leaning at odd angles--grabbing the berries and stuffing them into its mouth. Several of its relatives were doing the same thing on different branches. I have also seen starlings and blue jays gobbling the yew fruits. None of the animals or birds were in the throes of death by poisoning.

The other thing that you can do with yew branches in these lean economic times is use them for holiday decorations and arrangements. You can deck your halls with yews just as easily as you can deck your halls with other evergreens and they look just as good. If you have small children or domestic pets that might chew on the needles or swallow the berries, it is probably better to pick other decorating materials, but if you can put the yew out of reach or don't have child or pet worries, clip some branches. Your holiday joy will increase and your wallet will stay full.

Winter Pansies

Elisabeth — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:44:00 GMT

The stores at this time of the year often carry pansies that are specially bred to withstand winter temperatures, even in areas where those temperatures can be rather harsh. Is it all advertising hype, or do these pansies actually perform?

The answer depends on where you live, where you plant the pansies, how much snow you have and whether the plants have a chance to become well-rooted before hard frosts set in. Ordinary garden variety pansies and violas are naturally cold tolerant, which is why they are traditional spring and fall plants. I live in a cold winter area, but it is not uncommon to see ordinary Johnny jump-up type violas blooming in clear spots of ground between the snow piles in midwinter. Modern breeders have improved on that cold hardiness trait through hybridizing and selection and come up with plants that have an even greater tolerance.

The best advice is to buy the specially bred pansies, plant them in protected spots near buildings or walls and hope for relatively good weather. The worst enemy of even the hardiest plants is winter conditions that combine extremely cold winds with relatively little snow cover. The ground is colder, as are the air temperatures and even tough plants like specially bred pansies may give up and die.

This does not mean that you shouldn't buy these pansies and enjoy them. It just means that "winter pansies" is a relative term.

Rosa Glauca

Elisabeth — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:28:00 GMT

It's a funny time of year to write about roses, but yet I appreciate my Rosa glauca, sometimes known as the "red leaf rose" even more right now. The gray green leaves still cling to the arching stems, so the decorative qualities of the bush remain, even though the flowers are long gone. In certain lights, the leaves have an almost bluish cast. New growth and buds appear purplish-red and the flowers are light pink, with only five petals apiece.

Rosa glauca is a shrub that you can grow purely for its landscape value. I saw my first one, a was a large bush, over six feet tall, in a private garden. I discovered it on a misty day when it appeared almost ghostly (though graceful). I was so taken by its unique coloring that I went home and ordered one right away. Unlike flashier roses, Rosa glauca thrives in light shade. Flowering once a year, it also produces oval-shaped orange hips, which contrast beautifully with the glaucous foliage. If you can stand to cut them, the branches also look wonderful in indoor arrangements.

Most commercial Rosa glauca plants are grown on their own roots, which means that though they may start a bit smaller than grafted roses, they will be stronger and healthier in the long run. Should frost damage the canes--even killing them off to the ground--new ones will grow back true to the rose's type.

If you are starting to plan for next spring, consider Rosa glauca--lovely but not gaudy.

Lavender Indoors

Elisabeth — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:07:00 GMT

By this time all the virtuous gardeners have put in their bulbs, ordered amaryllis and/or paperwhites for the holiday season, and possibly even put a few bulbs in the refrigerator for forcing at winter's end. If you are thinking of ways to get through the plant-deprived winter months, consider buying a lavender plant to grow indoors.

Generally around holiday time, the stores sell pots of Lavendula dentata 'Godwin Creek Grey'. This lavender, which has toothed foliage that is almost more gray than green, is a variety of a species sometimes called "French Lavender". The name is something of a misnomer, since the plants are native to southern Spain.

The important thing to remember is that 'Godwin Creek Grey' and other French lavenders are too tender for cold-winter climates. Given enough sun, though, they are excellent pot plants. The purple flowers and aromatic foliage have all of lavender's winning traits--especially the wonderful clean fragrance. You can snip of flowers and leaves, dry them on a piece of newspaper and use them in sachets. You can also avoid all of that work and liberate that great scent by simply rubbing the foliage between your fingers every time you pass the plant.

Water your potted lavender only when it is dry and don't over fertilize as the plants like lean soil. When spring comes, take your lavender outside, where it can pretend that it is back in Spain soaking up the sun. Don't let the pot get waterlogged when it rains.

Growing lavender indoors means a winter of lovely fragrance. What could be better?

The Growing Garden

Elisabeth — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Every year I have enlarged my garden. This year is no exception and I am about to start the process.

If you do just a little extra work in the fall, you will have a lovely garden bed by springtime. Don't worry about the digging--I never do. Instead use the layered newspaper and compost method that author Patricia Lanza dubbed "lasagna gardening." All you have to do is mark out the area of lawn that you want to make into a garden bed. Cover it with a layer of newsprint at least several pages thick. Wet down the newspaper with the garden hose. Cover the newspaper with mulch. In this season a thick mulch of fallen leaves that you have gone over a few times with the lawnmower will do nicely and not cost you a thing. I usually use one layer of newspaper and one layer of mulch, but if your soil is particularly problematic, you may want to repeat the layering.

After you have finished the layering, attend to your regular business until spring. By the time the soil has warmed up enough for planting, your new bed will be ready. The newsprint and mulch smother the grass, and as they break down, the soil loosens. Worms move in and help the task along. The soil becomes workable and stays weed free. Your back will ache much less and you can use the time you save to plan your new planting scheme.

Hibiscus Woes

Elisabeth — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:07:00 GMT

A friend of mine has a potted tropical hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) that has been a garden delight over the summer and early fall months. Now, however, it's in the house and it's unhappy--dropping leaves and giving a good approximation of a dying plant. My friend is worried, and, like most gardeners, feels guilty, "Where," he asks, "did I go wrong?"

It's possible that he hasn't done anything wrong at all. His hibiscus is a tropical plant, and tropical plants like tropical conditions. The hibiscus may simply be stressed by the garden to house transition and mourning the loss of the large quantities of light, humidity and warmth that it enjoyed while it was outside. It may be situated on a windowsill where it catches drafts. It may not be getting enough sunlight because it is not in a south-facing window. Then again, my friend may be doing what a lot of plant lovers do when they are trying to save a specimen--killing it with kindness by over watering.

So what should he be doing? He should move the plant to the sunniest space possible and only water when the soil surface feels dry. He should fertilize once a week. And finally, he should be patient. The plant is probably sulking and will recover enough to get through the winter. My friend will have to accept the fact that tropical plants like hibiscus will not perform as brilliantly indoors, unless they are indoors in a heated greenhouse.