Caroline Spray
Q I have a camellia in a pot which should be in flower by now. It looks healthy but has only one bud. What could be wrong?
A Camellias like light shade and must be planted in an ericaceous compost if in a pot and fed with an acid plant food. They are happy in a container but I suspect the lack of flowers may be due to lack of water or feed, so make sure the soil doesn't dry out. Use water-retaining granules to keep moisture in.
Q You advised me to use lawn sand on my grass but it has turned black.
What do I do now?
A Keep calm. The lawn sand has killed the moss as it is supposed to and this is what has turned black, not the grass. If the lawn is mostly moss it will look awful so rake the dead moss out then feed the grass to rejuvenate it.
Q I bought two Rosa de Jericho - how and where should I plant them and care for them?
A The Rose of Jericho or dinosaur plant as it is sometimes known is an amazing variety which supposedly pre-dates the jurassic age. You place it in water and it quickly hydrates itself and becomes green. When it dries out it hibernates until wet again and the process can be repeated hundreds of times.
Q I have a long bed full of winter-flowering heathers and conifers. Should I prune the heathers?
A With heathers that flower in the winter and early spring, all you need is a light prune to remove the dead flower heads.
Q I only have a patio as my garden and would love to grow strawberries. Can they go in a pot?
A Strawberries will grow very well in a container or a hanging basket. Buy strawberry barrels with holes in the sides so you can plant in the sides and the top. This way the fruit will hang down. Remember to water, feed and protect them from the birds with a net.
Valves, risers, timers, controllers, moisture sensors, and pipes, oh my! If all these parts and how they should go together makes your head spin, hire someone. Hire someone who’s done it hundreds of times; find such a contractor via your local garden center, in the yellow pages, or through a reference from a friend or neighbor. (Get a written estimate for the work, labor, and parts, and check references.)
However, if you’re an affirmed do-it-yourselfer, handy, and confident, by all means, install your watering system yourself. Check with your local utility companies — gas, water, and electric —
(if the system’s underground) before doing any digging to avoid costly and potentially dangerous accidents.
Even if you don’t live in an area experiencing drought, you don’t want to waste water, no matter what you pay for it or how much you have to use. Remember that for most efficient delivery, water in early to mid-morning —after the dew has dried but before the heat of the day sets in and much of the water evaporates. And mulch, mulch, mulch individual plants and entire beds to hold in the water right by the roots, where plants most need and appreciate it.
Wherever possible, build up a basin of mounded-up dirt or mulch around the edge of the rootball of each plant at planting time. Water goes right in the basin and soaks directly down into the root system instead of running off onto the lawn or driveway or elsewhere where it isn’t needed. The method of delivery can also save water: In-ground irrigation systems are wonderfully efficient, as I mention earlier in the chapter, and soaker hoses are also good. Drip systems shouldn’t produce any appreciable runoff on slopes. And although some sprinklers are good, others are very wasteful. Check out mail-order catalogs that specialize in types of sprinklers. They’re filled with good information on how to choose the right ones. Depending on what kind of soil you have and how well it absorbs, you may find it worthwhile to run the water slowly rather than fast, and perhaps ten minutes on, ten minutes off — either or both of these techniques often drenches an area quite efficiently with little waste.
Rain gauges are useful for measuring water when you apply it with overhead sprinklers. For drip systems, run them for an hour or two and then dig down into the soil around the plant to see how far down and wide the moisture has penetrated. Run the system longer if it hasn’t yet penetrated deep enough to reach the root zone. After you do this exercise a few times, you should know how long to run the system each time you water. Another way to cut back on the amount of watering you need to do is to use drought-tolerant plants in your garden. Gardeners in the Southwestern portion of the United States are particularly good at this type of gardening, largely through necessity. Drought-tolerant plants include cacti, succulents, ceanothus, rock rose, native dryland plants and their cultivars (such as penstemon and gaura), and deep-rooted perennials like prairie natives and their cultivars (such as baptisia, liatris, black-eyed Susans, and purple coneflowers).
EILEEN FISCHER
Environmental concerns, high food costs make vegetable gardening popular again -
There isn't any hard data on how many of us in Connecticut are raising our own vegetables. In fact, it's not a statistic the state's Department of Agriculture can even hazard a guess on. But with the growing concern over the environment, the increased demand for organic, locally farmed produce and increasing food costs, anecdotally, it seems, more of us are interested in planting home gardens. Bill Duesing, executive director of Connecticut's Northeast Organic Farming Association (www.nofa.org) in Oxford, which has about 800 members, has been gardening since 1969. While gardening is the No. 1 hobby, according to the National Gardening Association, over the years, Duesing said he's seen the popularity of vegetable gardening wax and wane. It was growing in the 1970s, he said, but slacked off in the '80s and '90s. Today, he said, "I think we're approaching a perfect storm of problems with climate change and high food prices" that is resulting in people once again returning to the earth.
This time, he said, "this may be a trend that lasts for a longer time."
"Edible gardening is going to continue to grow," said Charlie Nardozzi, a senior horticulturist with the National Gardening Association in South Burlington, Vt. Traditionally, he said, it's people in their 50s or older who garden, but he predicts younger people will pick up on the trend. In 2007, he said, 25 million, or 22 percent, of
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American households had a vegetable garden. That number has held steady for about five years, he added, but what did increase, by 22 percent, is the amount of money spent on the gardens. Next year, he believes, there will be an increase in their number, too.
"What happens in the edible gardening category is when the economy gets rough, people want more control in their lives and one way to do that is to grow their own food," he said. "The bigger picture is concerns about the safety and quality of foods and [people] are concerned about their carbon footprint."
But, planting a vegetable garden can seem intimidating — Where to start? What to plant? How can I keep the deer from eating everything? If you're concerned that you don't have all the answers, or the space, joining a community garden may be one solution. "The wonderful thing about a community garden is there's someone who knows what they're doing," said Cordalie Benoit, president of the Connecticut Community Garden Association. "You don't have to be friends to do a community garden; it's a true cross-section of society that's arbitrary.
"And people learn from each other," she said. "It's not that hard. Kids can do it. Old people can do it. [Gardening alone] in your own backyard can be discouraging."
In Connecticut, there are 80 community gardens, she said. Some are located in urban areas where you'd expect to see them, such as Bridgeport and New Haven, but they're also in upscale communities, such as Darien and Westport.
"They're everywhere," Benoit said.
A plot can be large or small, ranging in size from 8- by 4-feet to 10- by 20-feet. Generally, families work a plot together, she said. But, there are many ways to run a community garden.
In New Haven, where Benoit lives, she gardens at the Williams Street Community Garden. The maintenance is done as a group and the harvest is divided among the members, which includes about 30 families. In Bridgeport, there are 20 community gardens with 200 families involved, said Robert Halstead, president of the Bridgeport Community Land Trust. Over the last two years, the number of participants has increased by about 50 percent, he said. Halstead attributes the rise to better maintenance of the gardens, which has given them better visibility in the community and improved people's impression of them. Lynn Pritchard, a Land Trust board member and captain of the Burroughs Community Garden in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport, has been gardening for 18 years and prefers gardening with others. "You can garden alone, but you're getting to know your neighbors and know who's around. It makes the neighborhood safer," she said.
About 18 families and children who go to the Burroughs Community Center are involved with the garden. Pritchard's two children garden, too, and thinks it's a great idea for youngsters for many reasons: They learn about nature, where their food comes from, and watching something grow that they planted is a great source of pride, she said.
The garden's main crops are tomatoes, kale, collard greens and beans, said Pritchard, who started hundreds of heirloom vegetable seeds in her home for planting in the city gardens. There are plans, she said, to expand the Burroughs' garden.
"We are seeing more interest because of the cost of fresh food," she said. Before the recent opening of a Stop & Shop supermarket nearby, the garden was the only source of fresh vegetables for some families, she added.
In Milford, Linda Ball works for the Park and Recreation department supervising the Bensen-Crump Community Garden in Eisenhower Park, a job she's had for 17 years. There are 135 plots on three acres, said Ball.
"Interest in the garden has been pretty steady," she said, but in the last few years people have been calling earlier and earlier to get on the waiting list, which this year swelled to 25 people. Seniors, especially, are concerned with the high cost of food, she said, and want to keep their plots and more people are even planting winter crops, she said. They are even talking about canning, which seems to be on the rise again after being almost nonexistent for years, she said.
"Last year about 25 gardeners grew for themselves and also participated in Plant a Row, or PAR," an initiative to help feed the hungry, she said. "We set aside two plots for PAR that volunteers took care of.
"We totaled 716 pounds of food that was donated" to local soup kitchens and shelters, she said, proudly. The National Gardening Association has a free, monthly e-mail newsletter on edible gardening. For details, visit www.garden.org.
BEGINNER'S GARDEN
- Start small. Horticulturist Charlie Nardozzi from the National Gardening Association said plant a 3- by 5-foot bed that's in full sun in an area that you'll pass by frequently.
- What to grow? Bush beans, summer squashes, tomatoes, any greens, swiss chard and peppers are good first choices, said Nardozzi.
- Keep the garden low maintenance. Mulch around beds and plants. Visit the garden every other day and spend 10 minutes weeding instead of once a week.
- Get the children involved with planting seeds, harvesting carrots, fun stuff, not just pulling weeds. Once they're invested in the garden, they'll discover how great-tasting fresh veggies are.
- Container gardening is easier than ever with the new self-watering containers and specially mixed potting soil — don't use garden soil in containers, said Nardozzi.
The amount of water your garden needs depends on what kind of soil you’re using, what your climate is like, and what kinds of plants you have. Shallow rooted plants, for example, need more water than deep-rooted ones for the simple reason that they’re closer to the soil surface, which dries out more quickly in the heat of the sun. Deep roots can reach the more consistently damp lower soil layers.
For many gardeners, getting enough water to their gardens is the biggest gardening challenge. If you’re crunched for time or have a large area to water, installing in-ground sprinklers and irrigation systems may be a good idea. Employing the use of a regular watering system, such as drip irrigation or an in-ground system, is the best approach to ensuring a consistent moisture cycle to grow happy, healthy plants. However, in-ground watering systems tend to be expensive and should be installed by professionals. If you’re looking for suppliers of irrigation systems, the companies in the Appendix may be a good starting point.
Of course, you can always water your garden yourself, by hand, and really that’s a great way to do it, because you can personally inspect each plant. Whether you water by hand or use a system, here are some things you may want to keep in mind:
- Watering your garden early in the morning, before the sun is fully overhead, is usually best. Watering at night can make plants susceptible to diseases that cause them to rot.
- Some plants in your garden, such as melons, may require more water than others, in which case watering by hand is probably best. _ If you don’t have an outdoor spigot close to your garden for convenient hose hookup and watering, a rain barrel may be a good substitute for keeping water close to your garden. Various mail-order suppliers sell rain barrels.
- Make sure you get a barrel that’s tall enough so pets can’t get in, or put on covers to reduce drowning risks to pets and children. To keep mosquitoes out, use products like Mosquito Dunks, which are donuts of a type of bacteria that’s harmless to humans but deadly to mosquito larvae.
- Usually, watering the soil rather than the leaves is best because the roots are what absorb water, and they’re in the soil. Also, wetting the leaves can result in more disease problems. Still, on a very hot or windy day, watering the leaves can reduce wilt and lower leaf temperatures.
- Unless you have a very large garden, sprinkler heads that you attach to garden hoses are usually better suited for lawns than gardens. If you decide to use one, make sure the sprinkler covers the entire garden area evenly and doesn’t water things you don’t want watered, like your lawn furniture or windows.
- No matter what kind of garden you have or which watering system you use, infrequent deep soakings are better than frequent shallow waterings.
Telling when a plant doesn’t have enough water may seem to be a snap, but keep in mind that there’s definitely such a thing as too much water. If puddles form in your garden or an area of it’s quite soggy, all the pores in the soil fill. When this happens, no free oxygen, which needs to get to the roots, is in the. Meanwhile, some plant diseases (like mildew and blight) travel via water and can easily develop and spread in soaked conditions. Sodden roots blacken and rot, and all the aboveground growth subsequently dies. Garden plants in these circumstances, of course, need less water.
Unfortunately, an overwatered plant looks the same as one that’s underwatered! The reason is that an overwatered plant is actually suffering from dehydration because the roots have been damaged by too much water (actually, too little oxygen, because the water has displaced the oxygen); the roots can’t absorb water, so the plant wilts. One difference is that overwatered plants don’t recover from wilt when you apply additional water, but underwatered ones generally do.
If there is magic to be found at the bottom of the garden, one would be sure to find it at the Gardening Australia Expo this weekend.
The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre abounded with wonders botanical, innovative and sustainable, with everything from water tanks, boutique compost and specialist plants for the dedicated gardener.
The most unusual plant on display was without a doubt the hybrid Aloes.
A cousin of the humble Aloe Vera found in most gardens, these unique blooms can go for six months without water and have an other-worldly names like Gemini, Topaz and Aries.
Breeder of the plants, Michael Dent said the blooms were complex, some having up to eight parent breeds.
"We launched them here in Queensland and hope to take them to other states soon," he said.
But not all the interesting plants at the show were botanical, as the brisbanetimes.com.au discovered talking to Mr Paul Plant.
Mr Plant, editor of subTropical Gardening Magazine, said his name was indeed the one he was born with.
Appearing keenly aware of the irony of having the name Mr. Plant and being a well-known figure in the horticultural community, he said he didn't have an especially keen affinity with greenery as kid.
"I just was the only one in my family that didn't instantly mow over everything my mother planted."
The expo runs from 9.30am - 4.30pm today and tomorrow.
