Working That Garden in January

5. January 2009 by admin.

January Tips for the Unrepressed Gardener

  With temperatures projected to be around freezing in the week of January 11^th, there is still work that can be done for the gardener who is a little cold hardy. For myself, if I don’t get out into the sun a few times a week, I get just a little depressed, so when the weather is reasonably warm like it will be this week, getting out and about really helps limit the Seasonal Affect Disorder!

If there is anything you were hesitant to prune this fall because cutting stimulates growth, this is a good week to cut away. Shrubs and trees are dormant at this time and so will not respond to pruning. If you have a hydrangea that got out of hand, cut it to a height 3 feet below where you would like it to be. I have hydrangea that I cut to the ground every year, these shrubs are incredibly resistant.

This is a great week to work on taking dead wood out of your privet hedge as well. Privet, a classic, and very shapeable hedge material, needs regular thinning and cutting at the right time to keep it looking crisp and wall like. Many of us wait until our privet has grown in to shape it and work on it, wasting growth and making it harder to clean out old dead wood. In the winter, when the shrub is dormant and defoliated, it is a lot easier to find dead wood and remove it. Also, it is as good a time as any to think about what shape your wall of green will take in the spring and perhaps give it a little encouragement.

The same is true for low ornamental trees. This is an excellent time for removing crossing branches (branches that rub against each other), dead branches, and branches that are taking away from the natural shape of the tree. Cutting back wisteria and other aggressive vines can be done at this time. Avoid cutting early spring blooming shrubs like forsythia as their blooms have set for the spring. Cutting them now will reduce the spring blooms with every snip.

If you are looking to have this work done, local landscapers may be willing to perform these tasks at discounted rates as they are much slower in January than they are in June, giving you more time to hit the slopes.

 

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Sustainable Gardens?

15. December 2008 by admin.

  Looking at the Sustainable Sites document (www.sustainablesites.org) the thrust is to install local, low maintenance plantings. For those of us who have been practitioners of eco-friendly landscape design for soome time now, this is not a big eye opener. Conservation of resources and preservation of pre-existing natural relationships has been the groundwork of what we do for a decade now. The problem we have all experienced, and no doubt the folks at sustainabale sites will come up against, is the natural tendency of human beings to use their immediate landscape as a means of distinguishing themselves.

   People like to have clean looking, manicured properties that stand out. Of course you would not alwasye know that when you see house after house of grass, azaleas, and rhododendrons, or whatever your local version of the “lawnscaped” garden is, execept that even the sameness of those gardens represents a desire to have a certain look. Moving people from that to the Sustainabloe Sites utopian garden will be a stretch, and we submit, and impossible one.

 Inevitably we will end up somewhere in the middle. The Southern Nevada Water Authority recognized this years ago. Las Vegas, completely dependent on Colorado river water, did not attempt to wipe out lawns in their region, but instead recognized that lawns are desirable to most residents, and do have ecological value. Instead, they gave people money to reduce their lawns by planting xeriscape gardens and installing drip irrigation. Incidentally, this involved very few native plants, since the deserts of Nevada are clearly not abundent in plants like other regions are.

  By taking this tack, SWNA has reduced water usage and incidentally maintenance substantially, as well as created an environement where there can be more development. Las Vegas has limited water resources and can only grow if every citizen uses less water, than more water becomes available for new residents to move to las Vegas.

  What makes the program effective, is the spirit of compromise, and the fact that the municipality is paying money directly to the consumer so that they can afford to make their property more eco-friendly. This pays off in reduced water use, new development, and ultimately a larger tax base for the city of Las Vegas and allows lawncare, landscape, and irrigation proifessionals to continue to grow and thrive as well.

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Some Experience From This Year

8. December 2008 by admin.

People love the idea of reducing their carbon footprint, but we all know they are ambivalent if it means spending to much more. The most controversial area in eco landscape care, after chemicals of course, is noise. Folks hate leaf blowers, and they don’t want to pay more for raking.

Just to correct a stand I took on this issue, we went out and initiated a blower-less business this year, and found, raking really does take more time. The tighter and more complex the garden, the more time it took.  I don’t know what kind of steroids the grandmother in California who claims she can rake as fast as a leaf blower was on, but our guys aren’t taking them.

I still believe there is a market for raking over leaf blowing, I cant stand the noise myself to tell you the truth, but there definitely is a labor factor to be dealt with here!

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Fall Activities

19. October 2008 by admin.

Things That Need Doing In the Fall

Fall is a great time for planting, so if you’re seeing any bargains on plants you have lusted after, don’t hold back. It’s also a good time for transplanting materials and splitting perennials. This is because as it gets cooler, most plants are slowing down and shutting down so you won’t interfere with their growth process by moving them now.

Generally, you will want to be cutting down perennials and mulching your beds for the winter. Mulch will give your plants an extra blanket this winter (and its supposed to be a cold one). Some gardeners advocate leaving perennials to be cut back in the spring for this reason, however, your garden will look very messy if you go this route. Better to clean out those dead and dying leaves now and mulch a little heavier.

Do not prune or trim shrubs and trees at this time. Remember that these plants are winding down. Cutting and trimming will stimulate growth and encourage trees and shrubs to grow when they should be going dormant.

Irrigation systems can be blown out, however, if we get a couple of weeks with no rain and temperatures hold above 40-45 you will need to do some supplemental watering. Personally I prefer to blow out the system second week in November, about one month after most irrigation “specialists” like to shut down. Speaking of irrigation, now is a great time to lay in new or supplements to existing irrigation systems, as well as execute hardscape and or woodwork projects. Most landscape professionals are anxious to get a little extra work under their belts after the fall shutdowns and will give better pricing.

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Perennial Care In The Fall

12. October 2008 by admin.

Fall Gardening

Fall is for planting, though no one believes it. It is also a great time for splitting perennials, and transplanting, particularly with the moisture reach year we have had. If your perennials have been in the ground three years or more, they are not only eligible for division, but ripe for it.

When perennials in limited beds are left to their own devices for too long, they tend to start choking themselves out. By digging them up, dividing them and replanting them, you are actually doing them a favor. Have no room to plant them you say? Consider creating some new beds in front of shrubs and around trees. Get rid of lawn areas that are constantly failing, or are in an unused area of your property. The side of the house is a prime candidate for replanting split perennials; many “foundation” plantings lack perennial beds of any kind.

Select an area you want to plant, take some rope or a garden hose and lay out the beds before you do anything else. Look at the relationship of the bed to whatever is behind it and consider the height of the tree, shrub, or structure. If there is room, try to reflect the height with the widest point of your lovely curved bed. In tighter spaces, where it is not possible to reflect the height of other objects, consider the width of the area you are working with. Generally, a ration of 2/3 to 1/3 will work in tighter spaces.  For example, 2/3 open space, 1/3 planted or even vica versa if you are defining a transitional path.

Once you have defined the area you are working in, rework the soil, add in organic composted topsoil, maybe some peat moss or composted manure depending on what you are splitting and transplanting. Peat tends to be acid, while manure less so. Most perennials are not acid lovers. Till the new material into the soil and try to get some live, active compost to mix in as well. Alternately, purchase a product by Plant Health Care called Bio Pack, or get some compost tea. Any means to bring active biological agents into the soil will yield healthier plants in the future. Once you have prepared the soil split your perennials and start to plant your bed.No doubt there will be some extra room, with the economy down and this being fall, there are a lot of plant materials on sale right now.

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Naturalizing Bulbs

27. September 2008 by admin.

Planting Bulbs That Last!

We all know fall is the time to plant those bulbs for spring flowers. Most of our favorite bulbs will bloom a year, maybe three if you are fortunate and then die, never to return. However, there a group of bulbs that naturalize, meaning they acclimate to our harsher New England weather patterns and with the proper care and conditions, return year after year.

Over the years, this column has covered the Narcissus family, along with grape hyacinths, extensively as naturalizers, and indeed, this columnist has planted literally thousands of mixed Narcissus/daffodils  in and around Pelham with the Pelham Preservation and Garden Society that still return every spring despite being cut back to early and receiving little or no care.

In addition to the bulbs above, there are groups of smaller woodland bulbs that naturalize as well. These bloom from early February weather permitting) to as late as April. Woodland bulbs tend to be smaller and less showy than daffodils and though not so well suited for viewing from afar, are ideal for smaller more intimate garden areas.

A plethora of little bulbs is superb from late February or early March into early May, like

·         the common Galanthus nivalis and its sturdier counterpart, G. elwesii

·         the apple-green-leaved G. ikariae,

·         Spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum)

·         winter aconite (Eranthis hiemalis). Its yellow flowers are a bright grace note to the spring woods. Scilla

·         Chionodoxa

·         grape hyacinths.

·         Guinea hen flower(Fritillaria meleagris)

·         Shade Tolerant Crocus tommasiniannus.

·         C. tommasinianus ‘Taplow Ruby’ and ‘Whitwell Purple’,

These can be ordered individually from specialty growers or in woodland groups from growers like Van Bourgiendien and Burpee seed. If you want some free samples of naturalizing woodland bulbs, come to Franklin Field Saturday, October 4^th ,between 8:30 and 11:00 am where representatives from Greener by Design will be giving samples  away with more information on fall planting.

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Think About Your Lawn This Fall

9. September 2008 by admin.

Fall Is  A Great time For Over Seeding

If your lawn took a little bit of a beating this summer, as did mine, this is a great time to over seed it. Generally we all think of spring as seed time, but when it comes to lawns, fall is pretty ideal as well. First, weed your lawn and get out all those undesirable daisies, sedge grasses, crab grasses and anything else that does not belong there. Next figure out if you need sun or shade, or a sun shade mix.  Application rates for over seeding are about half of what is recommended for a new lawn.

Get yourself a seed spreader. If you don’t want to spring for a push spreader, a little hand spreader is just fine for this job. Over seed the whole lawn laying seed a little thicker in blank spots. Next put a thin layer of composted topsoil. Many folks like to use peat moss for this, but always remember that peat moss will make the soil more acidic. If your soil needs to be more acidic this is not a bad thing, but most of our lawns tend to be a little on the acid sign as it is. Overly acidic soil will inhibit the seeds form sprouting and encourage certain weeds. For example, if you tend to get a lot of dandelions, your soil is most likely on the acid side already; however, if you get plantain weed (big round low leaves) then your soil is alkaline and can stand a little peat moss.

Next most important step is making sure you water the freshly seeded lawn at least once a day. Seeds need damp soil to germinate. If it’s unseasonably warm like it was last week, you might want to water twice a week. Don’t cut the lawn for a good three weeks and avoid foot traffic. This will allow the seedlings, which are very tender, time to root and grow strong.

Consider looking for specialty seeds. There are new varieties of bluegrass and fescues that are very drought tolerant and generally use less water than the standard grasses we find at the big box stores. These are available on line for the most part; I haven’t seen them in stores yet. If you keep over seeding with these new tougher grasses, over the next year or two, they will eventually out compete the weaker grasses you have already established.

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String Trimmers

31. August 2008 by admin.

New B&D 36 Volt String Trimmer Kicks Butt

Going just a little less esoteric here for a change, I want to announce that Black and Decker finally has taken the lead in something. As a carpenter, I have frowned on B& D equipment. They are generally noisy tools that deliver less value than their more expensive competitors. However, B& D is moving into the battery operated garden tool arena with vengence.

My first corded mower was a B&D and I still use it today. I recently picked up the new B& D 36 volt string trimmer. What a fantastic tool! Quiet, not too heavy and absolutely competitive with gas string trimmers in terms of power.

This Battery operated trimmer runs on a 36 Volt battery which gives it tremendous power. Mind you the battery runs down after an hour, but for home use thats all you need and for commercial use this can be compensated for by carrying spare batteries. The string is self feeding as well eliminaating the need to tap tap tap the trimmer to get a feed.

No more fuel mix, no more fuel spills, and no doubt, the cost of the baterries will be made up for in the savings in fuel and time. No more carborater cleaning, pollution, or noise!!! The only set back is the support strap is a cheap flimsy thing that slips as you use it. Replace it or dump it, the trimmer jsut is not all that heavy.

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Cut Out The Gas When Cutting Grass

24. August 2008 by admin.