Mainely Mulch trial

I grow my tomatoes in the same beds every year so when I was planting them before a week of wet weather, I knew I needed to find something to mulch with and find it quickly.  Soil borne diseases are the problem when you can’t rotate.  Mulching, to prevent the soil from splashing on the leaves, is a good way to minimize their impact.

Salt marsh hay is the preferred mulch here in New England but almost impossible to find.  Mainely Mulch (you can google it) is what my Agway offered as an alternative so I bought a bale of it.  I applied it just as the rain was coming in, which was probably a good thing.  It’s chopped quite finely and on a dry and windy day, I think it might blow around a lot.  Also, dust, for those of us with tendencies toward asthma might be an issue, too.  The biggest problem, however, is that about three weeks later, it’s full of a particular kind of weed.  Whatever it is does dig down in the soil and breaks off when you pull it.  No way to get the root without seriously disturbing the mulch and that would defeat the purpose.  While it would be difficult to say for sure where these weeds came from, since they are not growing in the areas of the bed that aren’t mulched, circumstantial evidence would say they were imported in it.

Mainley Mulch and weeds
Mainley Mulch and weeds

Lancaster Garden Club Plant Sale

I recently joined a local garden club, with apologies in advance as I don’t have much time to volunteer.  However, I did find time to help with setup of the club’s first ever plant sale on Saturday.  There were so many capable people there that I found time to take some pictures and videos while waiting for someone to tell me how I could help.  I’ve put them together here. 

[wpvideo idw9sEcp]The Choice plants included some really nice woodland flowers; I didn’t buy because I’m still working on cleanup of the garden adjacent to the woodlands.  Hopefully it will inspire me to get the poison ivy cleaned out and to create some growing places for special plants like these.  Assuming the volunteers will have energy enought to do it again; I could tell that it was a lot of work!

Always something to look at

Behind the driveway

I am not a tidy gardener and always experimenting so I almost never have a perfect picture.  But there is always something to look at.  I love the color combination of the chartruese hosta and the dicentra.  The blue hosta helps.  From left to right along the bottom, the hosta are:  Elegans (very large leaf) Hadspens Blue, and the chartruese is one I call Danny Boy.  A neighbor grew it from seed, so technically, it’s a no-name.  It will grow darker through the season and the hosta that’s just above it, a gift from a friend near Toledo,  Paul’s Glory, gets lighter and lighter. It also gets much bigger and fills in where the dicentra dies back.

Updated August 21, 2011.  Notice how Paul’s Glory, upper right in both pictures, has switched colors with “Danny Boy”  on the bottom.   Haspen’s Blue just gets darker blue.

Three hosta
Three hosta

Tomatoes are in the ground

As of yesterday and these may be some of the best starts that I’ve grown.  You can see they have little in common with the ones you buy in sixpacks.  Some of the credit has to go to our weather.  The storm that churned around in the ocean for a week or so didn’t come this far inland but it did create some substantial winds.  Which made for some very sturdy stems on the tomatoes as they hardened off.

So it’s a couple of weeks earlier than I would normally plant them but they look ready and the nights are forecasted around the 50s for the next two weeks.  Days not a lot warmer but warm enough.  With all of the rain in the forecast I need to get them mulched.  I do not have room to rotate tomatoes and most diseases that bother tomatoes are overwintered in the soil.  Mulching will keep the rain from splashing the spoors back up onto the leaves.

As always, I have more plants than room and a couple of the tomatoes jumped into the new asparagus bed when I wasn’t paying attention.  Naughty; naughty. 

The tomato in the picture is Black Krim, a favorite of mine for both color and flavor.  I hope that either the Pineapple or Virginia Sweets will act as a beautiful contrast on the plate.

Varieties I’ve planted

Old favorites:

  • SuperSweet 100
  • Sun Gold
  • Yellow Pear
  • Black Krim
  • Brandywine (Suddith’s Strain)
  • Pineapple

Challengers:

  • Black Cherry (I’ve grown Black Prince but it was a bit larger and slower to ripen than I like.)
  • Green Envy (Never grown a green that I thought was worth the effort.  Trying again.)
  • Lemon Cherry
  • Balls Beefsteak and Chapman (I’m still looking for a reliable, high producing, red beefsteak)
  • Virginia Sweets (a red/yellow bicolor)

Difference in Dahlia Tubers

I don’t know that it means anything in terms of performance but I’m wondering again this year about the differences in how dahlia tubers are prepared for sale.  Swan Island Dahlias came to me the way that I expect, one tuber with a sprouting point on a small part of top stem.  Brent and Becky’s came with clumps of tubers for every dahlia purchased. 

From left to right:

  • My tubers (you can see the yellow from the sulfer that I used as a fungicide last winter)
  • Swan Island tubers, every tuber has the name stamped on it, and
  • Brent and Beckys, these were sprouting in the shipping mix to the point where I didn’t want to disturb the roots by cleaning the tubers.  Other varieties from them did not have as much sprouting or hair roots but were still clumps of tubers.
Compare dahlia tubers
Dahlia tubers

(Click on the image for a larger picture.)

Endicott Pear Tree Visit

[wpvideo Q3v2KWcv]It was incredible to me that a hundred or more people would all show up on a cold, rainy week night in  April to visit an old tree. 

It wasn’t the location that bought them.  Although the hill, that slops gently to the salt flats and two rivers to the south and east, was probably beautiful in its day.  Now it’s dotted with complicated traffic patterns, box stores, chain hotels and light industry; part of the 128 commercial sprawl around Boston.  The marshlands looked like blighted space with a drainage ditch to my Midwestern it’s-gotta-have-a-tree-to –be-pretty eyes.   

And it wasn’t the food or speakers, which both turned out to be exceptional; because the program sponsors hadn’t sent us that much information in advance.

What were we doing here?  Sister and I wondered as we made our way through 128 rush hour in a driving, cold rain, after our day jobs, and as we met a healthy crowd in the Atrium of Massachusetts General/Northshore Center for Outpatient Care, and as we sat through the speaker list of welcomers from the Sponsoring Institutions.  I listened carefully as Dr. Anthony Patton told us about the history of the Endicotts and took notes as Dr. Karen Krag, a local Oncologist and amateur historian took us through her carefully researched thoughts about what the Endicott’s home and orchard would have looked like and grown.  Note to self:  check out samp; review how Indian Corn could be planted in April; only 30 plows in all of MA in 1636?  Wow.

And then, as I listened to Dr Patton talk about the meanings that people have assigned to the tree through its history, and I thought about Dr. Krag’s joyous attention to the details of her research, it started to become clear to me why I was here.  

It wasn’t really about the tree, although it’s a very nice old tree; but about what the tree symbolizes for us.  It’s about longevity, the miracle that extends its life hundreds of years beyond expectancy; its ability to survive the harsh winters of New England and the meanness and neglect of man.  It’s connection to a family; after all I was there with sister who grew up with the same fruit trees as me; and four generations of Endicotts showed up to share our celebration.  The pear tree’s beauty owes a lot to its simplicity of purpose, extrapolated against the messy, transportation centric shopping district and waning marshlands.   Dr. Krag talked about the pear tree that was historically planted near the back door for luck as well as convenience, what it would have meant to a family; now it just exists to bear fruit; year after year after year.  Our brief attention was an example of how we sometimes look backward, to remember and preserve the best of ourselves. 

These are values that don’t get a lot of air time in our society, but they live on like the pear tree behind the parking lot.  In New England and in us.

For a more prosaic version of the evening, see the follwing link:  “Just the Facts, mam…”

LED Lights to feed the world

Update 10/13/11.  The Boston Globe link no longer works but here is an ABC link that works today.  Or use the search term as described below.  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13346712

I’m sharing a link to a Boston Globe version of an AP release about use of LED lights to feed the world. You can find it at other sources if you search on “LED lights and Gertjan Meeuws”.                                  

Since my “win the lottery” fantasy, and the wishful purpose of this web site, which is now sustained by my real job, is to encourage sustainable gardening, this is fascinating news.  I’ve also been evaluating whether using some of my basement space for winter gardening would be cost effective.  However, some of the statements in this article, like fooling around with the light spectrum to get crops earlier and the idea the sun and other natural contributors to the garden can be a bad thing is all a bit, um, shivery.  Orwellian, almost, and it’s not nice to fool mother nature.

However, since the existing market and research for grow lights has been s is so heavily influenced by cash crops, i.e., marijuana, I wonder if there isn’t a huge research opportunity for things like tomatos, herbs, lettuces; the kind of things that I would be interested in overwintering.  Mixed growing, small indoor garden-type of growing.  Keeping my citrus happier, and new ideas for yummy things to harvest in winter from under the lights.

First things, first; I’ll get through our outdoor season and then come back to this.  I expect that the costs for these light arrays will go down over time, too.  Are any of you considering a winter garden under the lights?  What do you want to grow?

Spring projects

I love the woods behind my house but keeping it from taking over the few sunny areas that I have is a constant struggle and I often feel like I’m losing.  The vines creep out first, including poison ivy, to which I’m very allergic, and then the wild berry bushes try to fill in.  The next thing you know there are trees in what used to be lawn.  There used to be a pretty island around these trees covered with lilly of the valley, but even that robust ground cover couldn’t keep the encroachment at bay.  The encroachment was strongly assisted by the ice storm we had some years back that littered the whole yard with branches and twigs.  So these are “before” and “during” shots of the cleanup and replanting  There is still the back of the island and the forsythia gone wild to the right of it that I will have to clean.  The pile in the second photo is just the vining plants that I pulled; I’ll make sure that they’ve dried out too much to sprout and then take them deper into the woods.  There was wild grape and English Ivy, but also a lot of poison ivy that I pulled, I’m sure.  And then carefully washed everything with Technu.

Hard to see the grade in pictures but I still want to edge, build up the soil somewhat to delinate from lawn and to round up the slight slope to the trees.  I will not change the soil level at tree trunk level as that might not be healthy, just in front of the trees for effect.  And then mulch like crazy to keep the forest at bay while I figure out what else to plant there.  I want to use some edge plants like hydrangeas and rhodedendrons to help fill in and keep the trees out.  You may be able to make out two twiggy things.  They are hydrangeas, “Let’s Dance, Moonlight”.  With the morning sun and shade from the trees, they should do well there.[oqeygallery id=9]

When garden zones matter

On my deck, At 28 deg F, it’s 10 degrees cooler this morning than in Boston.  Some of the MA blogs that I follow have been planting onions and lettuces, I’m trying to decide whether it’s safe to try to harden them on said deck.  Nights are supposed to be above freezing for the foreseeable future.  But I don’t think it was supposed to be so cold last night either.  I took a couple of vacation days to work outside; the first four day stretch I have had off in a long time.  The projects:

  • Clean said deck so that when it’s safe, there’s room for the seedlings to harden off.
  • Rough cut rose pruning, almost done.  I will come back after there’s more signs of life to take out any dead or unproductive leaves.  I also need to fill a few place in the rose ghetto (hybrid teas) that gave up the fight against wetness and lack of sun.  But all of the shrub and old roses are looking healthy. 
  • Hacking back the foundation plantings so that I can walk the sidewalk.  I inherited these and just don’t know what else to do.
  • Cutting out last years growth from the miscanthus.  I want to dig and throw or give away more than half of it this spring.
  • Cleaning wild berry bushes and vines from the rhubarb beds.  Their little pink buts are so suggestive of future fecundidty.
  • Moving a peony that was supposed to be in front of a rose and instead, grows up into it.  This white peony’s blossoms are too big and the plant can’t hold them up.  I keep moving them to give them a better chance.  They make great cutting flowers.
  • Moving a rhubarb plant out of the food beds.  If no one wants it, I may have to throw it away.  But I need the space in the food bed.
  • Cleaning an area around trees that’s filled in with lily of the valley, and weeds so that I can plant some hydrangeas that wintered in the food bed.  Soon!
  • Burning the rose canes and anything elese that’s too big or not suitable for compost.

Gee, when I put it in a list, it looks like quite a lot.  Better get back to it…

Roses done, foundation plantings to go
Roses done, foundation plantings to go

April Fools Day Snow 2011

First picture is my sad, pruned apple tree.  Then I move to shots of the roses.  First an unpruned “Teasing Georgia with the end of the main rose bed to the left.  Then, in front of the house, you can see a pruned City of York on the right and a “OH MY GOODNESS, WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH IT” Seven Sisters, trying to bring down the arbor on the left.  Last shots are of my garden beds.  I love the way the snow is delineating every line of my supports.

[oqeygallery id=8]

Amaranthus, decorative types

Amaranthus Ponytails
Amaranthus Ponytails

I am playing with decorative amaranths this year.  I would really like to find a US source for “Ponytails”, see left, but none of the major seed companies seem to carry it in the US.  T&M does but not in the US, evidently.  Last year I ordered online and they said they had problems with the seed and I didn’t get them.  They are similar to what I’ve seen with “Love lies Bleeding”, but while that variety is chenille rope-like, the Ponytails in this picture, from Jardin des Plants in Paris many years ago, was more like chenille balls on a rope.  And I have seen some web locations that seem to believe that LLB and Ponytails are the same so I’m reluctant to try an unknown source.  Oh well, enough about the “one that got away”.  So far.  And if LLB and Ponytails are really the same thing, I’m starting some LLB and may find out.

My trial with Love lies Bleeding and Joseph’s Coat last year was without success, almost nothing germinated and what did, didn’t live to be planted outdoors .  This year I did more reading and saw a reference that they liked bottom heat.  I was using a combination of last year’s seed and some new varieties that I purchased fresh so I used several seeds in every cell and started them over a heat mat.  I think I got 100% germination from both sets of seeds!  Here are the varieties:

  • Cinco de Mayo
  • Love lies Bleeding
  • Tricolor Early Splendor
  • Joesph’s Coat

Here’s a picture of my seedling forest.  Since then, I’ve pulled out everything but two or three in each cube. 

Amaranth seedling forest
Amaranth seedling forest

Pruning Roses

When I got up today the sun was shining and I decided to wade through the remaining snow to do, well OK, start, a big job on two of my roses.  After much research, I’ve decided that the way to take care of  these two robust bushes, that have taken over much more space than they should, is a severe pruming.  I intend to identify four strong, healthy canes on each bush, not the oldest ones and take out everything else to the ground.  The blossoms grow on last year’s laterals so I will have to be careful not to damage those on the canes that I want to keep.

The rose on the right, shown first, with the larger canes and a more open habit is “City of York”.  The crazy wildish rose on the left and over the door arbor is “Seven Sisters”.[oqeygallery id=7]

It smells so GOOD!

In 2009, I heard that cherries were being dumped in the West Coast of Michigan, where I hope to retire, because there were so many that they couldn’t sell them.  I had done tours and tastings for Nashoba Winery for a few years between full time jobs and I knew what really good wine sour cherries can make.  What a shame!  It came to me that the ability to make a decent fruit wine might come in handy in that (completely hypothetical at the moment) day when I retired. 

So I bought a box of cider apples for $4 from Bolton Springs Farm in the fall of 2009.  After 18 months, and the third racking, it’s clear and smells like apple pie.  It tastes like apples, too; although a bit sour.  Fermentation uses up the natural sugars.  I didn’t have the right tool for racking so I threw away a more than I liked when I moved off the clear wine.  I put in an order for some stuff that prevents added sugar from fermenting, a stabilizer.  (And the rigid tool that I should have had during racking to control the siphoning process better.)  I’ll sweeten it and bottle it shortly. 

The first picture is before the first racking.  The second and third are from today’s process.  I wish it were a bit lighter in color but wouldn’t want to mess around with the flavor.

After first fermentation
Apple wine, after fermentation
Trying to filter the end
Racked wine
Racked apple wine
Racked apple wine

Seed starting using soil cubes — Part One

A friend remarked that I was the only gardener she knew who used soil blocks for seed starting, made by these tools, successfully.  It’s been easy for me so I thought it might make a good subject for a video or two. 

[wpvideo X5yPMCkv]

The soil blockers can be purchased from Johnny’s Seeds and Ailsa Craig, a large sweet onion, from Pinetree Seeds.  See “Sources” for link.

San Francisco Bloomin Stuff

[oqeygallery id=4]I was in San Francisco last week at a big Information Security Conference.  What I learned is that between the movement of applications to “the cloud” and the proliferation of different kinds of personal, mobile devices, we are losing what little control we had over information security in the corporate environment.  But former President Bill Clinton closed the conference saying we must be optimistic.  What choice do we have?  It rained every day but I did get in a walk and snapped some pictures that bring out the optimism in me. 

The first shot was from my hotel room window.  Some shots of winter flowers near the convention center follow.  The last are from a walk to Fisherman’s warf.  Does anyone know what the blue succulents are in shots five and six?  They really work well mixed with the greens.

You can see my cable car trip home on YouTube.

Enjoy.

Parc Floral, Orleans France

[wpvideo tO4B4taw]I found this park on one of my first visits to France. My early research had advised me that the Loire Valley was the place to visit for garden interest.  Although it doesn’t have the history of Monet’s Garden or Villandry, what it does have is this well-loved feeling and such a variety of beautiful plants and special-purpose gardens that it’s always worth a visit.  Ironically, the rose garden, a semi-ampitheatre around a large reflecting pond, was one of the best I’d ever seen on my first trip — no camera.  By the time I started recording my journeys they decided that drainage was an issue there and were reworking that area to improve it. 

Orleans is a short distance from Paris and it makes a great starting or return point for a car-based visit to greater France.  The Mecure near the center of Orleans is a favorite of mine, especially when I’m ready for the air conditioned, large room hotel experience.  I’d spent a week in Saumur at what was supposed to be an exclusive and historic B & B.  The new owner stuck me in a badly furnished attick room up three flights of stairs (because a bus was coming (no bus came)), wouldn’t let me use the pool (problems with the permit and could use it but it could destroy his business), and wouldn’t let me into my room between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm (everybody knows that’s how it’s done).  It was near 100 deg F most days and the attic didn’t cool down well at night.  I gave up, and to my host’s great displeasure moved to the Mecure for the last few days and sunk into the luxury of air conditioning and dinner by the pool.

Peace Garden, Caen France

[oqeygallery id=1]These are pictures from the Peace Garden, it’s associated with the War Memorial in Caen.  There were not good directions to the gardens itself, but if you drive around the block where the Memorial is located, you will find it.  There is parking specifically for the garden.

I love the architecture of the rose garden and remember when I first visited.  I came over a hill and saw this fantastic theatre in the round open out before me, full of roses.  Breathtaking.  These pictures are from two visits, one in the spring, where the rose pictures were taken and one in the fall.  There is a really nice area that features dahlias and the blooms go well into October  Notice the picture of the rose hips in the fall set.  That rose is “Wedding Day”, and I would like to find a source for it in the US.

How much snow?

Bird Feeder and deck

Yes, I’ve ordered seeds and have the lights in place but it’s too early by weeks to plant, even indoors.  These days in central MA my life is defined by the weather to a great degree.  I would not mind the snow if I didn’t have to drive in it but one of my commutes this week was a record-breaking two hours – one way!  Fortunately, I can work from home occasionally and today is one of those days. 

Last night’s storm dumped somewhere between 8″ and a foot.  I’ll know better when I shovel the driveway.  Better get to it.