Sigh. The birds are singing, the mosquitos are buzzing, and the dandilions have taken over the rose beds. It must be the first day of spring! ACHOO! My car is covered with yellow pollen, and just when the weather gets gorgeous, I have to go inside, change the air filter, and close my doors and windows. Shucks!
If you can tolerate the pollen count, this is the time to plant small trees and shrubs. Putting them in the ground now, while the nights are still cool, gives them a little bit of time to settle in and get their roots growing. This will allow them to up-take enough water to survive the hot, still nights of summer, when the temperature seldom dips down below 85 degrees.
I have put in some Lil' Gem magnolias this last year, and they are doing very well. They are a dimminuative version of our Southern Magnolia (magnolia grandiflora) and grows slowly, and stays small, growing only to about 20' tall, 10' wide over 20 years (according to Dirr). It is a great hedging plant, and the Monrovia introduction roots easily from cuttings taken in the spring.
This is the time of year to plant these broadleaf evergreens, and others, such as hollies and azaleas. It's also the time to divide and replant (don't forget to share!) ferns, perennials, and ground covers. Bulbs like lilies can go in the ground, though it's a little early to put out caladiums. They won't come up until the ground warms up in May, and they rot during cold, wet springs. This is a great time to lay sod!
Stop fertilizing the acid-loving plants like camellias and azaleas (you should have done that by now), and instead, fertilize everything else. If you live far enough north to be able to grow peonies, now is the time to top dress them with a little lime. Clematis and boxwood like this treatment as well.
If you live the coastal zone, you will need to begin spraying roses for blackspot this week. Just put it on your calendar, and don't forget - or plant one of the new, disease-resistant varities like Knockout Roses and Flower Carpet Roses. I have grown the Knockout in the bright, hot pink, the first of the introductions, and I fell in love with everything about it except the color. I have also grown the light pink "apple blossom" variety, and it has most of the charm and charisma of it's parent. It is just a "little less" across the board in my Louisiana garden (less mildew-resistant, less hardy, less tolerant of drought, etc.) The bright pink Knockout is appearing in commercial landscapes wherever I look, and for good reason. The Flower Carpets I have grown include the white and the apple blossom. Both were outstanding, low-growing plants for the front of bed. I don't remember ever spraying for black spot on any of them, and they were very dependable, blooming late into the fall, and starting up in early spring. (See my blog: Plant Food: It's Not What You Think!)
Have fun out there, and don't forget to take your Benedryl! ACHOO!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
My Love Affair with Zinnias: Annuals for a Hot-Season Garden
I love to peruse the garden catalogs while in the throes of winter - and the beautiful plant combinations always catch my eye. Most of the catalogs I receive are from places like North Carolina, or Maine. Their "summer" is three days long, and occurs in July. And while I love the beautiful pastels of the northern perennial garden, my Gulf Coast yard is baking by mid-May, and the heat won't abate until mid-October, if I'm lucky.
So I have given up on verbena, delphinium, and alyssum - in my summer garden. These plants will grow well, but need to be planted in the fall, so that they bloom in earliest spring. For the summer garden, I want heat-hardy annuals that blaze with color in our bright, Tropic of Cancer, sunshine.
Annuals are plants that germinate, mature, flower, bear seed, and die within one season. Flowering is the one reason that they are alive, so they are extremely prolific in bloom, and will keep it up throughout the whole summer. While they do have to be replanted each year, they are typically easy to grow from seed, and give you a long, long season of color.
Zinnias are my favorite annual because there are so many forms, and because they are so bright and colorful. The seeds germinate in 3-4 days, and they are in full bloom about a month or two later. There are zinnias for the border and front-of-bed, with smaller flowers and a full, leafy form. There are taller, more spindly zinnias for the full border, with just about unlimited range of colors and shapes. They make long-lasting cut flowers, and will bloom happily throughout the heat and humidity of our coastal summers. What more could anyone ask for?
Besides zinnias, here is a list of annuals that can be seeded now for summer and fall color:
ageratum
hollyhock
Joseph's coat
browallia
annual aster
ornamental peppers
celosia
cleome
coleus
cosmos (yellow)
globe amaranth
sunflower
impatiens (shade)
statice
ice plant
nicotiana
purslane
salvia
scabiosa
marigold
Mexican sunflower
nasturtium
zinnia
Some of these, impatiens and coleus, for example, readily re-seed in my pots and in my garden. Every year, a few of these garden "volunteers" survive the coldest days of winter, tucked up against the house, and burst into bloom long before the ground is warm enough for the seeds to germinate. What a blessing it is to see them shinning in a bed of Japanese holly fern, or peeping out from around the walkway pavers.
Planting some of these seeds now will give you full and colorful beds beginning about May, and lasting through the summer, so get out there, and get busy!
Note: If you saved any of those Easter Lily plants from church last year, they should be getting ready to bloom soon. Put some flowering plant fertilizer on them now, and stand back. The show is spectacular!
So I have given up on verbena, delphinium, and alyssum - in my summer garden. These plants will grow well, but need to be planted in the fall, so that they bloom in earliest spring. For the summer garden, I want heat-hardy annuals that blaze with color in our bright, Tropic of Cancer, sunshine.
Annuals are plants that germinate, mature, flower, bear seed, and die within one season. Flowering is the one reason that they are alive, so they are extremely prolific in bloom, and will keep it up throughout the whole summer. While they do have to be replanted each year, they are typically easy to grow from seed, and give you a long, long season of color.
Zinnias are my favorite annual because there are so many forms, and because they are so bright and colorful. The seeds germinate in 3-4 days, and they are in full bloom about a month or two later. There are zinnias for the border and front-of-bed, with smaller flowers and a full, leafy form. There are taller, more spindly zinnias for the full border, with just about unlimited range of colors and shapes. They make long-lasting cut flowers, and will bloom happily throughout the heat and humidity of our coastal summers. What more could anyone ask for?
Besides zinnias, here is a list of annuals that can be seeded now for summer and fall color:
ageratum
hollyhock
Joseph's coat
browallia
annual aster
ornamental peppers
celosia
cleome
coleus
cosmos (yellow)
globe amaranth
sunflower
impatiens (shade)
statice
ice plant
nicotiana
purslane
salvia
scabiosa
marigold
Mexican sunflower
nasturtium
zinnia
Some of these, impatiens and coleus, for example, readily re-seed in my pots and in my garden. Every year, a few of these garden "volunteers" survive the coldest days of winter, tucked up against the house, and burst into bloom long before the ground is warm enough for the seeds to germinate. What a blessing it is to see them shinning in a bed of Japanese holly fern, or peeping out from around the walkway pavers.
Planting some of these seeds now will give you full and colorful beds beginning about May, and lasting through the summer, so get out there, and get busy!
Note: If you saved any of those Easter Lily plants from church last year, they should be getting ready to bloom soon. Put some flowering plant fertilizer on them now, and stand back. The show is spectacular!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Nothing Better Than a Freshly Made Bed...
I love the thought of a brand new flower bed in the spring. There's nothing better than a freshly made bed...
But when the harsh, hot reality of mid-July summer sun and the work that's required really sets in, I, well, truthfully, I have my regrets. Just like the five-year old in the cafeteria line, my eyes are bigger than my stomach. To save yourself from this kind of rueful awakening, I suggest you ask yourself these questions:
"What do I want to grow?"
Research the requirements of the plants you want to put in your garden. Will they grow in your Hardiness Zone? (Don't know your zone? Here's a link to the USDA online map, with instructions on how to use it: http:www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/.) Personally, I love cherries, and would love to grow the trees in my Zone 9 garden. Unfortunately, they hate our hot, humid weather - we don't have enough cold days to entice them from dormancy in the spring - so they are, in effect, permanently dormant (i.e., dead.) Once you know what you want to grow, and have done your research, go on to the next question.
"Where do I want to grow it?"
In the summer of 2005, my Louisiana garden had ten billion trees in it. It was a beautiful, tree-shaded lot full of pines, water oaks, black gum, swamp maples, and understory trees like star magnolias, bay magnolias, grancy greybeard, and azaleas out the wazoo. I could not grow a vegetable garden in that thicket to save my life. It was so shady that even the magnolias and azaleas were struggling to find enough sunlight to bloom sparsely and sporadically.
Hurricane Katrina did what I didn't have the courage to do: it edited my landscape, and opened up my yard to the sun. OK - it's not exactly bright in there, but there is enough light now for a small patch of grass (aka "the bocce court"), and the magnolias and azaleas have sprung back to life, putting on brand new leaves, and blooming happily. Why this long diatribe? Because you need to be realistic about what you can grow on your site, and put in the kind of plants that will be successful under your conditions. Roses need eight or more hours of FULL SUN - not half-sun, or a little sun, or patchy sun. No matter what else you provide for them, they won't be happy if they are not getting the sunlight they need.
On a bright, sunny day, take a piece of white paper out into your yard and put it on the spot where you want your garden to go. Put it on the ground and hold your hand about four inches above it. The shadow your hand makes should be dark, and have a clear outline. Now, go back out there every couple of hours, and test it again. Write down the hours that your hand produces that dark shadow. That's the number of hours you have of sunlight. Now that you know that, go on to the next question.
"How hard do I want to work at this?"
You can grow ANYTHING - ANYWHERE - as long as you are willing to work at it. So, how hard do you want to work? I'm a lazy gardener, and so are most of my Master Gardener friends. We don't want to spend so much time working in our gardens that we don't have time to enjoy them. So make this easy on yourself! Most soil types in the south east part of the United States will need amendments of some kind, and the heavy, clay-based "gumbo" soils of Louisiana and Texas will require you to build raised beds. Part of the reason for this is to provide drainage to a depth that will allow deep roots to develop, and some of this is because it's so much easier on your back!
There are many books that provide information about building raised beds, and there are several kits available (Through The Gardener's Catalogue, for example, or on their web site at Gardener's Supply Company: http://www.gardeners.com/Hexagonal+Raised+Bed+Corners/VegetableGardening_RaisedBeds,35-910,default,cp.html
If you want to do it yourself, here are some helpful hints:
1) Plan on your beds being 12 inches high, at a minimum, and if you want to grow large carrots, horseradish, parsnips, or other large root crops, 18 inches minimum.
2) Don't make your beds wider than about 3.5 to 4 feet, so that you can reach in and weed them (and pick your flowers or vegetables) from either side.
3) Design a watering system for those hot days of July - either ground-level sprinkling or drip hoses, or raised sprinklers. The former are relatively unobtrusive, but less effective. The latter are downright ugly, but cover the acreage better. Run your water access out to the garden now, while the weather's cool.
4) Like the five-year-old with the big appetite, gardeners tend to want it all. Start small. Really - I'm not kidding. Professionals plan for one full-time worker for every quarter acre, more or less. That's one 8-hour-a-day person, five to six days a week to keep one quarter acre of planting bed weeded, hoed, fertilized and mulched. If you're like me, that full-time person is me, and I don't want to work that hard. About 6 feet of new, raised, 4-ft. wide bed is about all you will want to take care of. If you find you want more, there's plenty of time to build another bed in the fall.
Fill your bed with your very own, amended soil, designed precisely for the plants that you want to grow. A general purpose vegetable garden would be about 1/3 sand, 1/3 high quality soil, and 1/3 organics such as composted manure and soil amendments. If you want to grow plants that love water, add some perlite to the mix - about 1 small bag per foot of bed. Mix this up well, and fill the beds - the mix will settle by about a third by the end of summer, so be prepared to add compost, or other organics, as you re-plant the beds.
Increase the amount of sand in this mix to about half, if you want to grow Mediterranean herbs. Throw in a good wheelbarrow full of small pea gravel as well, to improve drainage for rosemary, lavenders, and other heat lovers. You will have to water them, just make sure the water flows right through, and the plants don't sit in the beds with their feet wet.
Some bulbs, like bulbing irises, love this kind of drainage, too, especially when they are bedded in for the fall, and our hurricane season starts. Be sure and mulch them well when you see the first signs of growth in the spring - then keep cutting!
Always top your new beds off off with a good, light mulch. Just like a nice blanket, it finishes off the neat appearance of the bed, but it also helps to hold in moisture, and keep the roots cool during the long, hot summer. Mulch also retards the germination and growth of weed seedlings, so be sure to replenish it each time you replant.
When your plants are safely in the ground, sit back and enjoy. All your hard work will pay off down the road, when you don't have to spend your July out in the sun, bending over the weed patch growing where your tomatoes used to be. So pour that big glass of sweet tea, and have a great day, ya'll.
But when the harsh, hot reality of mid-July summer sun and the work that's required really sets in, I, well, truthfully, I have my regrets. Just like the five-year old in the cafeteria line, my eyes are bigger than my stomach. To save yourself from this kind of rueful awakening, I suggest you ask yourself these questions:
"What do I want to grow?"
Research the requirements of the plants you want to put in your garden. Will they grow in your Hardiness Zone? (Don't know your zone? Here's a link to the USDA online map, with instructions on how to use it: http:www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/.) Personally, I love cherries, and would love to grow the trees in my Zone 9 garden. Unfortunately, they hate our hot, humid weather - we don't have enough cold days to entice them from dormancy in the spring - so they are, in effect, permanently dormant (i.e., dead.) Once you know what you want to grow, and have done your research, go on to the next question.
"Where do I want to grow it?"
In the summer of 2005, my Louisiana garden had ten billion trees in it. It was a beautiful, tree-shaded lot full of pines, water oaks, black gum, swamp maples, and understory trees like star magnolias, bay magnolias, grancy greybeard, and azaleas out the wazoo. I could not grow a vegetable garden in that thicket to save my life. It was so shady that even the magnolias and azaleas were struggling to find enough sunlight to bloom sparsely and sporadically.
Hurricane Katrina did what I didn't have the courage to do: it edited my landscape, and opened up my yard to the sun. OK - it's not exactly bright in there, but there is enough light now for a small patch of grass (aka "the bocce court"), and the magnolias and azaleas have sprung back to life, putting on brand new leaves, and blooming happily. Why this long diatribe? Because you need to be realistic about what you can grow on your site, and put in the kind of plants that will be successful under your conditions. Roses need eight or more hours of FULL SUN - not half-sun, or a little sun, or patchy sun. No matter what else you provide for them, they won't be happy if they are not getting the sunlight they need.
On a bright, sunny day, take a piece of white paper out into your yard and put it on the spot where you want your garden to go. Put it on the ground and hold your hand about four inches above it. The shadow your hand makes should be dark, and have a clear outline. Now, go back out there every couple of hours, and test it again. Write down the hours that your hand produces that dark shadow. That's the number of hours you have of sunlight. Now that you know that, go on to the next question.
"How hard do I want to work at this?"
You can grow ANYTHING - ANYWHERE - as long as you are willing to work at it. So, how hard do you want to work? I'm a lazy gardener, and so are most of my Master Gardener friends. We don't want to spend so much time working in our gardens that we don't have time to enjoy them. So make this easy on yourself! Most soil types in the south east part of the United States will need amendments of some kind, and the heavy, clay-based "gumbo" soils of Louisiana and Texas will require you to build raised beds. Part of the reason for this is to provide drainage to a depth that will allow deep roots to develop, and some of this is because it's so much easier on your back!
There are many books that provide information about building raised beds, and there are several kits available (Through The Gardener's Catalogue, for example, or on their web site at Gardener's Supply Company: http://www.gardeners.com/Hexagonal+Raised+Bed+Corners/VegetableGardening_RaisedBeds,35-910,default,cp.html
If you want to do it yourself, here are some helpful hints:
1) Plan on your beds being 12 inches high, at a minimum, and if you want to grow large carrots, horseradish, parsnips, or other large root crops, 18 inches minimum.
2) Don't make your beds wider than about 3.5 to 4 feet, so that you can reach in and weed them (and pick your flowers or vegetables) from either side.
3) Design a watering system for those hot days of July - either ground-level sprinkling or drip hoses, or raised sprinklers. The former are relatively unobtrusive, but less effective. The latter are downright ugly, but cover the acreage better. Run your water access out to the garden now, while the weather's cool.
4) Like the five-year-old with the big appetite, gardeners tend to want it all. Start small. Really - I'm not kidding. Professionals plan for one full-time worker for every quarter acre, more or less. That's one 8-hour-a-day person, five to six days a week to keep one quarter acre of planting bed weeded, hoed, fertilized and mulched. If you're like me, that full-time person is me, and I don't want to work that hard. About 6 feet of new, raised, 4-ft. wide bed is about all you will want to take care of. If you find you want more, there's plenty of time to build another bed in the fall.
Fill your bed with your very own, amended soil, designed precisely for the plants that you want to grow. A general purpose vegetable garden would be about 1/3 sand, 1/3 high quality soil, and 1/3 organics such as composted manure and soil amendments. If you want to grow plants that love water, add some perlite to the mix - about 1 small bag per foot of bed. Mix this up well, and fill the beds - the mix will settle by about a third by the end of summer, so be prepared to add compost, or other organics, as you re-plant the beds.
Increase the amount of sand in this mix to about half, if you want to grow Mediterranean herbs. Throw in a good wheelbarrow full of small pea gravel as well, to improve drainage for rosemary, lavenders, and other heat lovers. You will have to water them, just make sure the water flows right through, and the plants don't sit in the beds with their feet wet.
Some bulbs, like bulbing irises, love this kind of drainage, too, especially when they are bedded in for the fall, and our hurricane season starts. Be sure and mulch them well when you see the first signs of growth in the spring - then keep cutting!
Always top your new beds off off with a good, light mulch. Just like a nice blanket, it finishes off the neat appearance of the bed, but it also helps to hold in moisture, and keep the roots cool during the long, hot summer. Mulch also retards the germination and growth of weed seedlings, so be sure to replenish it each time you replant.
When your plants are safely in the ground, sit back and enjoy. All your hard work will pay off down the road, when you don't have to spend your July out in the sun, bending over the weed patch growing where your tomatoes used to be. So pour that big glass of sweet tea, and have a great day, ya'll.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
My Task List for the March Garden
Cold, then hot. Wet, then dry. Spring brings us uncertainty, at least as far as the weather goes. Everyone loves the idea of an Easter party on the lawn, but this year, Easter is March 23! It's so early, it may very well be cold and wet. Still, we'll plan well and hope for the best.
Take a good hard look at your garden, and decide what tasks MUST be taken care of now, and what can wait. Here are the things on my list that I want to get done in order to have a big Easter Egg Hunt in my yard on March 22:
All of the beds need to be cleared of the old plant material that has frozen, or just died back. Gingers, groundcovers, and weeds fit into this category. Even the dried tops of the sedum and mums have to be cut off and thrown away. Be very careful what you choose to compost out of this debris. Anything soft and mushy may carry over fungus or bacteria, and it's better to bag it, and throw it out with the trash.
After I clean out a bed, I will add a fresh layer of mulch. Remember, with our 300+ day growing season, mulches won't last for a whole year like they do up north. Not only are our plants actively growing, but the organisims in the soil are actively breaking down soil organics as well. Plan to mulch at least twice a year.
Selectively and carefully trim back cold damage on citrus and other tropical shrubs and trees. Citrus don't like to be pruned, and remember that pruning is going to cause a flush of new growth. So, don't be in a hurry to do this unless you are sure there will be no more cold weather in your area.
I'm watching for new growth this time of year, and I will fertilize things that are in bloom, or indicating that they are coming out of dormancy. I use a half-strength liquid fertilizer on my Japanese magnolias, sweet olive, azaleas, and camellias. Also, Louisiana Iris, which will bloom next month in my garden, and callas. The rest can wait for a while.
I purchase a bottle of dormant oil spray at the local Lowes' or Home Depot, and make sure my hand sprayer is in working condition. As soon as the nights warm up above 50 degrees, I will give my camellias and sweet olives a good spraying, being sure to get under the leaves. Citrus, which is prone to black, sooty mold (caused by insects) can also be sprayed with this product. Do not spray when daytime temperatures will be about 80 degrees - you'll burn the plants. This is a springtime application ONLY.
This is the time of year that I gather up all my old pots - full of last year's impatiens volunteers, and dump them out, scrub them off, and refill them. You can still plant some snapdragons, petunias, or violas, but it's getting late - they will succumb to the heat as soon as it arrives in May. Be ready to replace them with things that are more tolerant of our heat and humidity as soon as they show signs of stress.
Take a good hard look at your garden, and decide what tasks MUST be taken care of now, and what can wait. Here are the things on my list that I want to get done in order to have a big Easter Egg Hunt in my yard on March 22:
All of the beds need to be cleared of the old plant material that has frozen, or just died back. Gingers, groundcovers, and weeds fit into this category. Even the dried tops of the sedum and mums have to be cut off and thrown away. Be very careful what you choose to compost out of this debris. Anything soft and mushy may carry over fungus or bacteria, and it's better to bag it, and throw it out with the trash.
After I clean out a bed, I will add a fresh layer of mulch. Remember, with our 300+ day growing season, mulches won't last for a whole year like they do up north. Not only are our plants actively growing, but the organisims in the soil are actively breaking down soil organics as well. Plan to mulch at least twice a year.
Selectively and carefully trim back cold damage on citrus and other tropical shrubs and trees. Citrus don't like to be pruned, and remember that pruning is going to cause a flush of new growth. So, don't be in a hurry to do this unless you are sure there will be no more cold weather in your area.
I'm watching for new growth this time of year, and I will fertilize things that are in bloom, or indicating that they are coming out of dormancy. I use a half-strength liquid fertilizer on my Japanese magnolias, sweet olive, azaleas, and camellias. Also, Louisiana Iris, which will bloom next month in my garden, and callas. The rest can wait for a while.
I purchase a bottle of dormant oil spray at the local Lowes' or Home Depot, and make sure my hand sprayer is in working condition. As soon as the nights warm up above 50 degrees, I will give my camellias and sweet olives a good spraying, being sure to get under the leaves. Citrus, which is prone to black, sooty mold (caused by insects) can also be sprayed with this product. Do not spray when daytime temperatures will be about 80 degrees - you'll burn the plants. This is a springtime application ONLY.
This is the time of year that I gather up all my old pots - full of last year's impatiens volunteers, and dump them out, scrub them off, and refill them. You can still plant some snapdragons, petunias, or violas, but it's getting late - they will succumb to the heat as soon as it arrives in May. Be ready to replace them with things that are more tolerant of our heat and humidity as soon as they show signs of stress.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)