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May 8, 2008

narc100

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Who's Gardening Here?

from martha to just margaret
I was so blessed to visit and document many of the nation’s finest homemade gardens for 15 years for ‘Martha Stewart Living,’ first as its garden editor and then as editorial director for the company. The list of places we were proud to publish included my own upstate New York home a few years back. Take a tour of how it looked then. Want to know more about me? Or read what Anne Raver said in June in The New York Times, calling A Way to Garden “the best (garden blog) I’d ever seen.” Adrian Higgins of The Washington Post was similarly kind. And so was Martha, on her TV show.
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Why Do You Garden?

One of the most popular questions at A Way to Garden: Why do you garden? A bunch of us answered in a stream of comments, and there's great other stuff on the Forums. Just in case you'd like to tell us why, too (or have a good read about what makes the rest of us tick).
November Garden Chores

All based on my Zone 5B Berkshire/Hudson Valley location; adjust accordingly.

THE WINDING DOWN is well under way, a beautiful time of reflection and rest…if only we can get the place cleaned up before really harsh weather says “stop.” Target cleanup first to areas where rodents and moles might do winter damage, not leaving any heavy buildup of fallen plants and wet leaves in place. I set out mousetraps under boxes, buckets or cans where I see any activity, to rid them from my beds and borders.

If you had areas where something didn’t fare well—an unproductive vegetable or fruit crop, an unwillingness of some shrub to flower for no apparent reason—quickly gather a soil sample before the ground freezes and take it in for analysis to your local Cooperative Extension service. Some amendments can be spread or tilled in before heavy frost to start to mellow over the coming months.

If it all seems too hectic, remember: Seed catalogs in the easy chair are just ahead. Position it to point out the window, where there are still riches: berries, bark, new birds. Did you join Project Feederwatch yet?

TREES & SHRUBS

PRIME TRANSPLANTING TIME for deciduous trees and shrubs continues into this month, sometimes longer if weather permits and the ground shows no signs of freezing. Make that work include some focus on the addition of fall and winter plants to the landscape.

CLEAR TURF OR WEEDS from the area right around the trunks of fruit trees and ornamentals to reduce winter damage by rodents. Hardware cloth collars should be in place year-round as well.

BE EXTRA-VIGILANT cleaning up under fruit trees, as fallen fruit and foliage allowed to overwinter invites added troubles next season.

BE SURE TO WATER trees now through hard frost if conditions are dry, so that they enter dormancy in a well-hydrated state. Evergreens (needled ones and broadleaf types like rhododendron, too) are particularly vulnerable to desiccation and winterburn otherwise.

ALWAYS BE on the lookout for dead, damaged, diseased wood in trees and shrubs and prune them out as discovered. This is especially important before winter arrives with its harsher weather, where weaknesses left in place invite tearing and unnecessary extra damage. Remove suckers and water sprouts, too.

VEGETABLE, FRUIT & HERBS

MULCH STRAWBERRY PLANTS with a couple of inches of (guess what?) straw. If next year’s plans include a patch of strawberries (or asparagus), do the soil preparation now so the bare-root plants ordered over the winter can be planted extra early come spring.

PREPARE A SEEDBED NOW for peas and spinach for next spring, to get a headstart on such early crops. Spinach can even be sown now through Thanksgiving, for super-early spring harvest; not the peas, of course.

PARSLEY AND CHIVES can be potted up and brought indoors for offseason use. A few garlic cloves in a pot will yield a supply of chive-like (but spicier) garlic greens all winter for garnish. Determined types with really sunny windowsills can sow seeds of bush basil in a pot, too. I rely on frozen pesto cubes instead.

HURRY, HURRY if you didn’t get your garlic in. Ideally it would be in about a month before frost is in the ground. Prepare a sunny spot, and plant each clove 1-2 inches deep and 6 inches apart in the row, with about 12 inches between rows.

FLOWER GARDEN

PROTECT ROSES FROM WINTER damage by mounding up their crowns with a 6- to 12-inch layer of soil before the ground freezes. After all is frozen, add a layer of leaf mulch to further insulate.

PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION to areas around peonies, roses, irises and other flowers that are prone to fungal diseases. Cut down iris foliage and rake well under roses.

CANNAS, DAHLIAS AND OTHER tender bulb-like things including elephant ears need to be dug carefully for indoor storage. There are many methods, but the basics: Once frost blackens the foliage, cut back the tops to 6 inches and dig carefully, then brush or wash off soil and let dry for two weeks or so to cure. Stash in a dry spot like unheated basement or crawl space around 40-50 degrees, in boxes or pots filled with bark chips or peat moss. Details, here.

DON'T DEADHEAD FADED perennials, biennials and annuals if you want self-sowns, or make sure to shake pods around before removing plant carcasses. Nicotiana, poppies, larkspur, clary sage and many others fall into this leave-alone group. So do plants with showy or bird-friendly seedheads, like grasses and coneflowers.

LAST CALL FOR BULB ORDERS (see Sources), though I swear you can plant them even with a pick-axe and they come up anyhow. Remember our “early, middle, late” mantra when ordering. And think drifts, not onesies and threesies.

PREPARE NEW beds for future planting by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, then put mulch on top.

HOUSEPLANTS

START A POT OF PAPERWHITES in potting soil or pebbles and water, and stagger forcing of another batch every couple of weeks for a winterlong display.

CONTINUE RESTING AMARYLLIS BULBS by leaving them in a dry, dark place where they will have no water at all for a couple of months. I put mine in a little-used closet, and they will come out in another few weeks. Pot up new ones now.

LAWNS

KEEP MOWING TILL THE GRASS stops growing, and make the last cut a short one. Let clippings lie on the lawn to return Nitrogen to the soil, and mow over fallen leaves to shred, or rake them off before snows.

TAKE THE MOWER IN for service now, or store without gas in the tank. Run it dry.

COMPOST HEAP & MULCH

START A LEAVES-ONLY PILE alongside your other heap as a future source of soil-improving leaf mold, or when partly rotted for use as mulch.
Brief but Juicy

ultimate garden no-no’s
WHEN SOMEONE ASKED in a comment about my point of view on using landscape fabric, the fuse was quickly lit: NO! I said. NO! I’ve rounded up some no-no’s we’ve posted collectively so far, but I bet by now there are a few more things to bitch about. Grab a lawn chair and a cold drink, and we can fester together. Sure beats weeding (which ought to be a garden no-no).

lose anything lately?
THE SAYING GOES THAT a thing of beauty is a joy forever. I guess “forever” in this case is in the mind’s eye. My darling, oldest bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) went down for the count in July, or at least half of it did, and I had already seen the death knell for a couple of my 10 crabapples. Jeez.

true love, really
LOOK, I HAVE A THING for frogs. Call it my little fetish. An issue. Whatever. My general obsession notwithstanding, I’ve finally met THE ONE FOR ME.

hail the stewartia
I LIKE PLANTS THAT EARN THEIR KEEP. By that I mean they do more than a week or two of showing off; they look good in more than a single moment, or season. The small-ish to medium trees in the genus Stewartia are a good bet if that’s the kind of multi-season interest you are looking for. Sound good?

more, more, more clematis
WHEN I SEE ‘POLISH SPIRIT’ CLAMBERING up and through the golden Chamaecyparis in late spring-into-summer, I realize I have a serious Clematis shortage around here. Not in the Chamaecyparis, specifically, but in lots of other places where things look a little dull. I’ve got a penchant for growing vines up and over otherwise-dull shrubbery, you see.

can-do pruning
REPEAT AFTER ME: I can prune. I can prune. If you follow this simple method for starters, your woody plants will thank you.

the ‘other’ peonies
JUNE WAS PEONY TIME, the big raucous kind of peony time, but just before that another kind of peony you might want to consider adopting did its subtler, wonderful thing.

which lilac to plant?
SO MANY LILACS, so little space. Browse a glossary of some of my favorites before you shop—maybe you’ll like them, too.

non-blooming peonies?
Did your peonies not cooperate—was there not a good crop of flower buds, and you don’t know why? This came up on the Forums, and here’s the dish.

twist-off ticks
I AM COMING IN everyday with at least a tick or two on me; not embedded, thankfully, so far, but it's only a matter of time. But I am prepared. Are you?

anything but forsythia
I guess I have a thing against forsythia…even though I have several specimens of it along the fringes of my property. But there are better choices for spring color among shrubs.

surprise (avian) visitors
If you make a garden for birds, or even plant a crabapple or two (or ten), you never know who’ll show up.

magnolias to love
THEY’RE MEMORIES NOW but I couldn't garden without magnolias. Want to know more about the queen of the spring-blooming trees?

order in the garden
I AM LABELING my plants, I am. As memory fades, out comes the label machine, just in the nick. Saved by the Dymo. You can be, too.
Buried Treasure

I NOTICE THAT BLOGGING results in some rich but buried treasure: great stuff in a comment thread you may not see; interesting topics on the forums that perhaps you haven't visited.

Subjects ranging from feeding and pruning Hydrangeas and pruning clematis, to entertaining (read: ranting) lists and lists of garden no-no’s (not just mine!).

Pick a click, and enjoy. Better yet, CHIME IN yourself. Up in the nav bar…that's right, GO FOR IT: our Q&A FORUMS.

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Your First Visit? Take a Walk.

IF YOU MISSED THE UNFOLDING OF SPRING in our garden, take a series of walks with us, one in April and another in May, even if it means being in the past and out of the moment. I know, not very Buddhist, but it will help you get acquainted. Or just browse through our photo galleries of favorite plants now gone by. Enjoy.
Categories
- 'woo-woo' (essays and such) (33)
- annuals & perennials (54)
- bird sh-t (13)
- bulbs (9)
- cut flowers (7)
- doodles by Andre Jordan (7)
- edibles (28)
- etcetera (22)
- from seed (21)
- hot p(l)ants (51)
- houseplants (6)
- lawn care (organic) (5)
- nature (27)
- organics (12)
- photo galleries (12)
- tools & techniques (45)
- trees & shrubs (46)
- uncategorized (16)
- urgent garden questions (3)
- vines (8)
- well said: quotes (4)

From the Forums

Re: Hostas: When and how to divide

11/21/08 - 12:59 am

Re: Ornamental grasses

11/21/08 - 12:57 am

Landscape Design

11/17/08 - 5:44 am

Home Security Starts in the Landscape

11/17/08 - 5:01 am

Re: Over-wintering a potted Japanese maple

11/17/08 - 4:53 am

Re: Vegetable garden prep

11/14/08 - 6:53 pm

Re: Vegetable garden prep

11/14/08 - 11:02 am

Re: Vegetable garden prep

11/14/08 - 7:32 am

Vegetable garden prep

11/13/08 - 2:19 pm

Re: Over-wintering a potted Japanese maple

11/12/08 - 11:39 am

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Reference
Sources
Compost, Compost, Compost

I am as proud of my compost heap as I am of any part of my garden. It is the archaeological record of my garden past; it is the stuff from which future gardens will arise. Composting’s also a topic I read a lot about, and lately it's from sources like these: Garden Organic, a 50-year-old British charity; Journey to Forever (don’t worry, not some into-the-bunker survivalist cult); and the vast Cornell Composting web archive. Dig in.
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a beautiful revolution andre jordan annuals begonias bird counts bird watching clematis colorful foliage compost container gardening cut flowers fall garden fall gardening frogs Garden Conservancy garden shrubs garden tours gold foliage heirlooms heirloom tomatoes hostas hot p(l)ants houseplants lilac pruning Margaret Roach native plants organic gardening perennials pruning seeds seed starting shade garden shrubs soil preparation species peonies spring spring garden tomato vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables vines wildflowers winter WordPress
Sharp Tools

frost calculator
Global-warming black humor aside, gardeners need to know their frost dates—the first and the last in an “average” year—to be able to plan when to sow or transplant what. The frost-date calculator from Victory Seed Company’s website helps.

the mother list
Thanks to Tony Avent, plant hunter and proprietor of Plant Delights Nursery, for sharing the list of all lists—every horticultural link you’d need or want.

a gardener's best friend
You are not alone. The national network of cooperative extension services is a lifeline for gardeners; find yours and join now. No excuses!

fairest weather
The weather is key, but forget those commercial sites and TV channels. Ask the all-knowing NOAA instead. At least our government is doing one thing right.
A Way to Garden Archives
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