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MAY FROST, IMPORTANT LESSONS, AND PROBLEM EVERGREENS
I got plenty of exercise last week carrying containers of annuals into the garage overnight and setting them outside again the next morning. At least two mornings, frost covered the grass, so the extra effort was worth it.
Covered annuals in beds survived the frost, but exposed plants in many areas were killed or set back severely by the cold temperatures.
To be really safe from frost, tender annuals need to be held back until the last week of May or first week of June. That's easy to say, but planting earlier is mighty tempting when warm, balmy Saturdays show up in early May.
I jumped the gun this year partly because the many plants I had started from seed were exceeding the space I had available under fluorescent lights in my basement. Oh, the perils of gardening in Minnesota!
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Not everything works.
That's an important lesson to keep in mind as you pursue and explore your hobby of gardening.
Not everything works for many reasons: the plant doesn't like your soil; it prefers shade rather than sun, or vice versa; the plant you purchased doesn't fit our climate; it is susceptible to insects, nematodes, or disease; it requires more or less water than you provide; it is irresistible to rabbits, deer or other pests.
My scientific advice is to try lots of stuff and don't get depressed over the things that don't work...eventually you'll discover stuff that does work, and then you can create your garden from that position of strength.
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The gardening problem that produces more phone calls than any other is poor-doing evergreens. If I could sum up with one reason why evergreens cause so many problems, it is because evergreens aren't intended to be planted in our part of Minnesota.
I recently heard a talk by Al Olson, our Carver/Scott/Hennepin DNR forester. He advises against planting many of our favorite evergreens simply because they aren't native to this area.
Before this area of Minnesota was settled, according to Olson, the topography was characterized as the "big woods" with thick stands of elm, basswood, maples and some oaks. With the exception of eastern red cedar, conifers were non-existent or few and far between.
Pines, spruce, junipers, arborvitae and yews suffer from some or all of the following unnatural conditions and threats: Heavy clay soils, lack of protection in winter (and resulting winterburn), lack of even soil moisture throughout the growing season, insect infestations, herbicide drift from lawn or farm spraying, and Rhizosphaera needlecast and Cytospora canker diseases (particularly devastating to Colorado blue spruce).
The challenge of growing evergreens successfully in our southern Minnesota landscape is kind of like fitting square pegs into round holes...it's hard to do for the reasons I just mentioned.
Many of us attempt to overcome the obstacles because evergreens are somehow romantic, in the sense that they remind us of "up north" experiences. We also persist in planting evergreens because they provide us with some green in our bland winter landscape, a definite plus on frigid January and February days.
If you simply must have evergreens in your yard, Olson says to plant white spruce (Picea glauca) because they will perform best and cause you the least problems. A common type of white spruce is Black Hills spruce (Picea glauca densata). White spruce, Olson says, will perform better in most situations than Colorado blue spruce, red (Norway) pine and white pine.
Having said all this, I will share a secret: Last week, I planted 10 white pines in my yard. Like many of you, I send $10 to the Arbor Day Foundation once or twice a year in exchange for the bundle of mail-delivered, bare-root trees, and last week my 10 white pines arrived in my mailbox with the instructions to "plant immediately."
I know the chances of even one or two of them surviving past 10 years are slim, but I simply couldn't shake that romantic notion of having my own private pine forest outside my winter window!
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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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