2 December 2009

In The Garden With the Fluvanna Master Gardeners
By Irene C. Burke - Fluvanna Master Gardener
Fluvanna County Extension Office: 434.591.1950

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They also eat my junk mail and apple cores. These worms (Eisenia foetida) are tireless. Some anglers use them as bait, but red wigglers also feed on aboveground, rotting organic material. Their castings create the compost, which gardeners prize as an effective long-lasting fertilizer.

Vermicomposting is also a valuable gardening complement to conventional outdoor composting. In milder climates where temperatures range from 50 to 80 degrees F, vermicomposting works well outside. Commercial vermicomposting functions in all climates in temperature-controlled, ventilated buildings.

Every day an average American family will generate enough vegetable food scraps and other suitable materials for one bin (no meat, fish, dairy, or pet feces). The worm bin will require an area about 2'x2'x2'. A homemade worm composter, using an 18"x12"x10" dark-colored, covered plastic bin costs about $8, while a three-tray worm system runs $90.

Worms are available online by the pound, or anywhere that sells bait as long as you can be certain the worms are Eisenia foetida. You can also get worms from someone who has a healthy system. The worms reproduce rapidly, so that removing a handful will have no negative affect on your friends composter.

If youre interested in the low-cost approach, your bin will need quarter-inch holes drilled an inch from the bottom about eight inches apart, eight inches up the side. Create random holes in the cover. Worms need air. The worms will not escape from their dark damp environment.

Spread an inch of moistened shredded paper (worms dont eat the shiny kind) in the bottom of the bin. Insert worms, then feed them whenever you have more shredded paper for them to munch, chopped veggie pieces, cotton scraps, pet hair, or vacuum cleaner dust. Completely cover with 4 sheets of moistened folded newspaper; this will eliminate fruit flies. Harvest the castings when you see 2 inches across the bottom. Return the worms to their bed but throw away undigested bits or place the castings on a coarse screen and let the worms drop through.

Any brown liquid residue at the bottom of the bin should be recycled through the compost as it may contain acids harmful to plants. Add dry shredded paper to absorb excess liquid from your juicy waste.

Worm compost bins do not reach the high temperatures of outdoor piles. If such temperatures were to occur the worms would die; so any disease causing microbes, which find their way into the indoor compost, cannot be reliably killed.

For this reason I recommend that you know the source of the material you feed your worms. If you are reluctant to add eggshells, then soak the shells in boiling water to cover, for 10 minutes (discard the water) before pulverizing them for the bin, or exclude eggshells entirely. In an outdoor compost pile where you can be assured the pile reaches 130 degrees F or more for two weeks, salmonella perish.

Mix the worm compost in the soil no more than 10% by volume and watch those plants grow!

Tip of the Week

You can't buy mulch heavy enough to remain on landscape fabric covering a steep slope. The mulch will slide quickly in a downpour and slowly over time. So get rid of the fabric and use bulkier or thicker mulch, which after a year will improve soil structure when mixed in.

11 November 2009

In The Garden With the Fluvanna Master Gardeners
By Irene C. Burke - Fluvanna Master Gardener
Fluvanna County Extension Office: 434.591.1950

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A trees foundation enveloped in mulch, shrubs rounded to a thin green film — both may be esthetically pleasing to some, but are crippling to their victims.

Only topiary absolves you of such gardening transgressions; for it is the fanciful art of sculpting trees, shrubs, and sub-shrubs. Horticultural artists typically choose cultivars of arborvitae, bay laurel, boxwood, holly, myrtle, or privet to express their topiary creations. Worthy candidates make compact growth with dense evergreen foliage. They withstand repeated shearing with few adverse effects.

However, shrubs trimmed and shaved because the narrow ground they inhabit no longer fits, should be relocated to a roomier place where they can relax in their mature width and height. Prune to bring light to the plants interior, paring away aged or diseased limbs, suckers and vertical "water spouts".

Frequent clipping and cutting lead also to a profile of knobby knees and bare ankles about the shrubs lower levels. To encourage lush regrowth, prune by one third each year for 3 years, until the natural form is revealed. For a hedge, create a broad base with a narrower top.

Remove foundation plants that are too close to a structure, by as many feet from center, as the full-grown ornamental requires, or relocate entirely.

The natural habits of shrubs evoke images of feathery down, corkscrews, cascades, and vertical sprays, so instead of shaping shrubs to look like meatballs think fluff, drapes, spirals and points.

Our wild shady woodlands make no volcanoes of leaf litter or pine straw; a trees trunk-flare will extend its roots across the soil then dip below, often embracing boulders and decaying logs. There, the chipmunk, mouse, and vole confine their feeding to emerging shoots, bare new roots, nuts, mosses, seeds and other bits about the forest floor.

The manicured mulch volcano on the other hand, serves as a cozy nest for the same nibblers. These vermin will girdle a tree as they feast on tender bark, and then finish the job at the trees sweet hairy rootlets, hidden by that same dense litter.

In their search for oxygen, water and sustenance, roots will also grow into the thickly layered mulch, slowly encircling then strangling the entire tree. Theres your cankered, starving wood!

Now, mulch volcanoes have as their true purpose, weed suppression and reduced compaction from mowers and human traffic. It would be a far better thing to protect your trees with groundcovers like ferns, mosses, liriope, Creeping-St.-Johns-Wort (Hypericum calycinum), hellebores or sedges, or if you must, mulch lightly from the outer edge of the trunks flaring roots to the drip-line — the point where the tree canopy ends.

A low growing turf will do, but only if you do not injure root flares with mechanical trimmers. Injury at ground level invites disease and pests to the open wounds.

Avoid, too, the modified volcano — a steep sided bowl; reminds me of Crater Lake with a tree stuck in the middle. This invention drowns the trunk flares and suffocates the extended roots, making the tree ripe for toppling in a windstorm.

Rake away the mulching eruptions. Banish the buzz-cut to the barber. Let your landscape breathe.

Tip of the Week

At the Diversitas (2009, October 14) conference in Cape Town, South Africa experts said the world will miss the 2010 target to stem biodiversity loss. In your garden, diversity means greater plant vigor and more disease and pest resistance; so release your garden from boring rows of the duplicate flowers, shrubs and trees.

4 November 2009

In The Garden With the Fluvanna Master Gardeners
By Irene C. Burke - Fluvanna Master Gardener
Fluvanna County Extension Office: 434.591.1950

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For those of us cheered by flowers, let us turn our attention to housebound blooms, especially during the raw, rainy days of November.

The denizens of our window-sills and plant stands depend more on air and soil moisture, temperature, light, and ventilation than the soil itself, for you can easily modify soil but light and humidity need to be managed by the indoor gardener and this is not always possible.

A humidifier or even a pebble and water filled tray may bring moldy ruin to your surroundings, even the bathroom. Outdoor shade may not be something over which you have any control; the light may be short-lived because of exterior obstructions — trees, buildings, fences.

These are the factors that determine gardening success; so its important that you choose plants matching your interior climate rather than whimsy, unless youre interested in making costly structural changes, which is unlikely.

Select whatever blooms continuously with little coaxing and tolerates the forced hot air systems that characterize many homes today. Rather than respond to the gorgeous blooms that beckon from the shelves of your favorite nursery or even the grocery store florist, survey your living spaces and decide what conditions prevail. With a list of those conditions scrutinize whats available, whether online or on the street and choose wisely.

There are of course some boilerplate plants that will laugh and smile regardless of how you treat them. On that short list are the African violet (Saintpaulia) and Cape primrose (Streptocarpus). They are cousins coming from the same family &mdash Gesneriaceae but each from a different genus. They need damp light soil and bright indirect light. To assure them of the delicate moisture they love, provide either the pebble and water saucer or a self watering pot.

My homemade potting soil has evolved over the years as my pocketbook has shrunk and my compost has fattened. No longer do I flush away the soluble salts of commercial fertilizers, for none accumulate; no white rings or granules adorn my pots and plants.

The recipe? Compose the growing medium from one-part mature leaf mold, two-parts humus from the depths of the compost bin and one-part coarse sand or shredded biodegradable cornstarch packing peanuts. The humus and leaf mold provide a slow-release fertilizer with trace minerals, those other critical nutrients besides the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium of the usual N-P-K fertilizer.

When watering, hasten the evaporation of chlorine and other volatile organic chemicals with a two-minute rolling boil; then store in a glass gallon jug for at least 24 hours. For those with water filters, this may be unnecessary. Do not use softened water because the sodium will damage root systems.

The Virginia Master Gardener Manual recommends baking garden soil on a rimmed tray at 180F for 30 minutes to rid it of the microscopic inhabitants that created the humus. This seems counterintuitive; so I do not pasteurize my soil and have observed only improved plant vigor, no escaping creatures or fluffy mold. Let the blooms begin!

Tip of the Week

Peat, a common element in potting soil, effectively holds moisture and provides valuable nutrients; however, peat is declining rapidly as the bogs from which it is extracted are drained and demolished. Nurseries are substituting composted coconut "peat", and pine bark — satisfactory alternatives but less nutritious than finished compost.

3 June 2009

In The Garden With the Fluvanna Master Gardeners
By Irene C. Burke - Fluvanna Master Gardener
Fluvanna County Extension Office: 434.591.1950

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A gentle reader and avid gardener wants to try her hand at growing table grapes. With the abundance of vineyards in central Virginia she figures she stands a chance. The prospect, however, of wading through dense text and web-based information is forbidding. Lets see if we can untangle this subject for her and you.

As a beginner she has made a good choice by opting for small fruits over tree fruits. Space requirements and pest control are more manageable and the fruits of her labors will be evident in three years, lasting 25 to 30 years.

With care and attention to these key elements, success is within reach: Site, and variety selection, soil, pruning, and integrated pest management.

For central Virginia, American bunch grapes are the best options. Look for resistance to black rot, powdery and downy mildew, cold hardiness for those occasional tough winters, vigor and abundance, and sweet flavor, with juice, jam and jelly possibilities. This narrows the selections to the blue-black Concord and Steuben, the golden-yellow Himrod, and the dark blue Mars Seedless.

Choose reputable growers, who guarantee quality and label accuracy, use correct wrapping and packing, and offer vines for planting in early March, three or four weeks before May 1-15, the last frosts average date. Whether ordering online or from a local nursery, select year-old plants and always inspect the roots and vine for health.

Under optimum conditions, grapes roots anchor themselves in the soil often to a depth of six to eight feet. Though Virginias piedmont clay may be a challenge, its structure and fertility can be deeply improved at least 24" with organic matter at a one-to-one ratio in an 8 X 10 bed maintained by a six-inch mulch of aged compost or arborist wood chips for each vine.

Prepare for generous spacing, which will prevent disease, encourage vigor and assure higher yield. Most small gardens can support one to two vines trained along a fence, over an arbor or up a trellis in full sun, sheltered from the westerly wind, above frost pockets and wet areas.

Now is a good time to prepare for next years planting. For the year-old vine, use an inch or two of leaf mold, thick with white thready mycorrhizae fungi to encourage the uptake of phosphorus and promote strong root growth. For mature vines work in a quarter inch of coffee grounds mid-spring to support lush vines with the released nitrogen. Grapes tolerate a wide range of soil pH, but prefer and thrive with 6.0 to 6.8.

Pruning and training grape vines to a trellis or arbor requires a three-year process of shaping the vine to a structure using the four-arm Kniffin system. Important detailed instructions are found in the VCE Publication Number 426-840 or online at the VCE web site >Resources >Fruits & Vegetables > Fruits-Home Gardening >Small Fruit in the Home Garden.

Harvest bunch grapes when fully ripe, as flavor and sugar dont improve after harvesting. Use the fruit immediately, cutting each bunch from the vine with a sharp knife or shears to avoid damage.

Tip of the Week

Evolutionary biologist, Marco Archetti reported online, April 14 in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society B" that those life-sucking insects that plague our gardens, those aphids who fed on apple trees with red autumn foliage were less vigorous and often failed to reach maturity. Though aphids don't see red, there is something about red leaves that doesn't suit them.