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LESSONS I'VE LEARNED ABOUT GARDENING IN 1997
Golf ball size hail is very hard on tomato plants, hosta leaves, blooming delphiniums and budding lilies. The white ice stones that sliced through the evening sky July 1 stripped off tomato leaves, blossoms and fruit, and ripped hosta leaves ragged. The beautiful 10-inch leaves on my two Francis Williams hostas will not likely return to their early summer grandeur.
The timing on starting seeds indoors in late winter is critical to summer success. Next year I'll start my begonias as early as January, and geraniums by the beginning of February. My geraniums started from seed never bloom until July and yet the geraniums at garden centers are blooming in mid-May. How come? The professionals must either employ some magic potions or start them very early.
Perennials are a long-term proposition. Many perennials don't reach their peak for 3 or 4 years, and even then they often need to be moved to provide more or less sun, wetter or dryer soil, or to give them or neighboring plants more room.
Hanging baskets require an incredible amount of water, especially during hot, dry, windy days. I have pots of petunias that need water every day. Potted plants will also perform much better if you give them a dose of liquid fertilizer at least once every two weeks.
Bad soil doesn't improve on its own. The best advice I can give to new gardeners is to make sure the soil is right before planting anything. My two best garden beds began with a lot of sweat. In one, I removed 17 wheelbarrows of clay and replaced it with humus-rich black loam. The other is a raised bed made of timbers into which I dumped a couple of cubic yards of rich soil. If your best efforts to grow flowers or vegetable never seem to break through into bounty and beauty, consider a complete soil overhaul.
Attempting to grow plants under a mature basswood tree is kind of stupid. My basswood is next to the driveway in my front yard, so naturally I'd like to show off dazzling colors, shapes and textures. Unfortunately, the maze of roots from this big old tree sucks the ground dry of moisture and other nutrients, and my plants end up "playing second fiddle."
Native perennials should be introduced into flowerbeds very cautiously. If wild flowers grow profusely in the woods or meadows next to your house, they will most likely grow profusely in your flowerbed, much to the detriment of all the other stuff you want to show off in the same space.
Two examples from my yard are golden rod and wild violets. If you introduce a golden rod or two for late season color this year, you can expect a forest of golden rod in the same space next year. And wild violets...give them an inch and they'll take a mile. I have wild violets growing everywhere. Well, I guess they're better than thistles.
I've written about my love of petunias before. I've grown Purple Wave petunias the last several years. This year, I ordered several packages of Pink Wave, a newer, spreading variety said to be even more delightful than Purple Wave. It is! The other petunia I started from seed is Celebrity Chiffon Morn, a prolific bloomer with 2-inch creamy pink flowers. I mixed all three varieties in varying combinations in more than a dozen hanging baskets and the results have been fantastic.
Another benefit of starting these very showy - and as well as pricy - petunias from seed is the fun and ease of giving them away as gifts during May and June. I gave my nephew a potted Purple Wave petunia as a graduation present and he showed it to me last weekend - it has dozens of cascading blooms and he may just become a gardener because of it.
Well, that's my partial list of lessons I've learned about gardening this year. Hope you're having an equally educational summer, horticulturally speaking.
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PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
$10 + $2 for shipping
by Cliff Johnson |
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