August 06, 2008

Gardening Tips

Pots of Profusion Zinnias in white and cherry red brave the sizzling temperatures better than I have.

Since I frequently refer to master gardeners, please let me mention who these wonderful folks are. Master Gardeners are volunteers who have been trained to supplement the non-commercial horticulture programs of Cooperative Extension Systems Universities. I am part of a Master Gardener program administered by the Calhoun County Office of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. (There are Extension System Offices all over the country!) To be certified as a Master Gardner (MG) one must successfully complete the Master Gardener training course and then complete a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer service. After being certified, to remain active Master Gardeners must give 20 hours volunteer service yearly working on a variety of projects around our community. One of our objectives as a Master Gardener is to make horticultural information more available to local individuals and groups. MG is a terrific program – an opportunity to meet others who share a passion for gardening, to learn, and to share our knowledge with others. We like to say that we beautify our county one project at a time.

Here in East Central Alabama with temperatures ranging in the mid-nineties and the heat index over 100 degrees, it is as hard to think about going outside now as it is in mid January when the temperatures are in the teens. Regardless of the time of the year, we can always use tips on how to garden smarter. I frequently turn to my fellow Master Gardeners for inspiration. 

• I think the tip about planning ahead and putting down about 4 - 6 inches of mulch where I plan to garden next year is a BIG help if the soil is hard or clay-like. Also, a good layer of newspaper under the mulch is wonderful insofar as holding moisture and keeping weed seed from germinating.
• Before I share this next tip, let me provide a disclaimer - I have no idea how long it will work, but temporarily it works fine.

If you should have a small hole in your hose when watering, a toothpick works great for sealing the hole. It appears that the toothpick swells when it gets wet and adapts to fit the hole. I don’t know where I saw this tip originally, but I am sure I didn’t dream it up on my own. However, I had occasion to use it and by golly, it worked just fine. Hope this helps someone, somewhere at sometime or the other.

• Wash or shake most or all of the soil off that came with your plants in the container from the nursery, before you plant them in the ground. I used to just take the plant out of the container rough up the roots if necessary a bit and plop them in the ground with whatever soil mixture the nursery had planted them in the container with. Then a couple of years ago I read an article written by Tony Avent, the owner of Plant Delights. I thought what he said made sense and I had seen myself some of the consequences of just going from the container from the nursery to the hole I prepared for my plant. I had for one reason or another redug up some plants and noticed the root ball area was sometimes dry and well didn’t look like what I thought a healthy space for the roots should look like compared to the immediate area around the root ball, the soil in the garden.....Another words my experience confirmed what Tony Avent had written in his article...... Anyways I started doing it the other way, washing and shaking most if not all the packing soil off the plants before planting and I noticed that they seemed to perform better overall...when you live with the plants for awhile you get a feel for when things are just peachy and when some plants are in first gear and just getting started and some are already in fourth gear and down the road...You know what I mean...I had this one drift of echinaceas a couple of years ago and a couple of the coneflowers I had planted were really far behind and I decided to dig’em up and see what was going on, maybe some root rot problems or whatever...When I dug them up I didn’t see any root rot or anything like that but again the area the original root balls were immediately in didn’t look right to me...I washed the old packing soil off the root balls replanted them in the same holes without any new amendments and after sometime I noticed they looked better and were starting to catch up with their neighbors...after that and after reading Tony’s article I never planted new plants the old usual way again...Do some plants just naturally grow faster and better than others even when they are the same cultivars, planted at the same time, and next to each other?...Of course...But unless I’m mighty mistaken overall plants planted without any of their container soil seem to do better for me that those that are planted with it...Give the roots of your plants a chance to grow in the soil you plant them in to begin with....."plant roots need to be in contact with the soil in which they will be growing...not the mix that was used at the nursery” .....You’ll see the difference, I sure did.......If you’d like to read the article Tony Avent wrote here is the URL:
http://www.plantdelights.com/Tony/planting.html

• My tips are the same old ones--- MULCH, MULCH & COMPOST, COMPOST.
These two things have made a world of difference in my garden.

• From Urban Agent, Hayes Jackson, who works very closely with our MG program
• ~recycle broken concrete or brick and tile sections. they make great and inexpensive stepping stones, low retaining walls, and a wonderful material for small patio areas......or even garden art.
~plant lime-loving plants like holly fern, hens and chicks, and agapanthus in broken concrete blocks or incorporate broken pieces into planting hole to maintain a higher pH in acidic soils.
~I often adorn new or small plants (especially perennials and bulbs) with 2 bamboo poles (in an inverted V and tied with twine or copper wire) to mark the plants, and to discourage pets and people from stepping on them. the simple natural design is appealing, easy and inexpensive.
~I use hostas to compliment my summer annual containers. the bold texture compliments many annuals such as impatiens, begonias and flowering sage. once I replace my summer annuals with winter pansies, I have a larger hosta plant ready for fall repotting or planting....when hostas are harder to find in the nurseries. in the deep south, many hosta varieties tend to perform better in above ground pots where rhizomes can receive a better winter chill.

• Well, one I have not been able to use lately is to put buckets under the eaves of the house when it rains heavily and catch the run off. (I barely remember rain. I put my buckets out this past weekend but they are still empty. )
• Another is to put used coffee filters over the drainage holes when filling pots. I compost them (we buy the brown ones that are made from recycled material) anyway so there are usually a few on top of the heap that I can get to readily.
• I have started wearing a short little apron with pockets to hold my clippers and a few other small things. I always need clippers no matter what I started out to do and hate to go back for them.
• I think a good tip is to weed continually instead of waiting until the weeds get out of control. Every time I go to the mailbox I pull a few weeds out of the bed. Seems to work for me. Also, the earlier the better for me in the yard. Not only is it cooler, there are less distractions (my daughter sleeps late!).

• Take an old mail box or a bird feeder, turn it into yard art with paint and trim and use it to store extra yard tool– snips, gloves, hand spade, etc. That way when you need something your tools are close at hand and protected from the elements.

• A couple of products that have helped me with some pesky problems have been Deer Stopper (ordered on the internet) and Permatil (found in Birmingham garden centers). After reading reviews I bought the deer repellant both in a spray and in a granular form. This product basically made of rotten eggs scented with rosemary has kept the local deer population from munching on some of my favorite plants.  Permatil is marketed as a vole bloc; Permatil resembles small pebbles. Use it generously around the plants which the voles often target as their next snack. Form a moat around the roots of a plant with the rocks. The thinking is that the voles do not like to crawl through the rocks to get to the root. Clothing can now be purchased with bug repellant and also with sun screen in the fabric – built in protection from the sun and insects. Years ago I ordered a baseball cap with netting attached to cover your face; it keeps gnats out of your mouth, nose and my ears.
• If you run out of room in the ground for a plant, put it in a container. With proper nutrition, moisture, and enough space to accommodate growing roots, just about any plant can become a container plant. Container plants make great screen if you have meters or air- conditioner units that you want to hide but can’t disguise with a permanent planting.

• Best gardening tip I have right now is go to the local farmer’s market. You meet fellow master gardeners, meet the local farmers and meet old friends. You laugh, talk, gather lots of vegetables without alot of sweat and back breaking work. It’s fun, but go early.

• When you need gardening information, check the internet. There is a wealth of information out there.