2 June 2010

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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Pastimes and passions like gardening have their formalized national and international associations. Along with websites and periodic gatherings, there are annual conferences, and educational tours. After attending a few and listening to the experiences of those who have, I have some observations that make help you enjoy them more.

Shows

Many in the northern hemisphere are scheduled for early spring to anticipate our seasonal planting frenzy.

Housed in cool cavernous settings, theyre peopled by commercial exhibitors: growers, landscape designers, nursery or garden suppliers. Their intent is to introduce you to their products and services hoping youll become a permanent customer. They stage promotional sessions, hand out free samples (a baggie of dry worm compost), catalogs, calendars and the like.

Often nonprofits like garden clubs or defined interest groups (iris, bonsai, native plant, rose or horticultural societies, for example) use convention space to inform, fundraise and recruit new members.

In the U.S., the EPA, USDA, state cooperative extension service, forestry or natural resources agencies may be there to promote horticultural best practices with educational literature and presentations.

These garden fairs come with competitions for the best displays, which are generally the result of ratings by attendees, frequently by independent judges from one of the non-profits.

From the massive to the minor garden expos have their followers. In late May, the open-air, Chelsea Flower Show in London with 157,000 visitors is the ultimate. The early March, Philadelphia Flower Show is the equivalent, attracting more than 250,000.

Tours

Garden tours are exactly as the title indicates: local or international excursions through private or public gardens, botanical parks and arboretums, flower plantations, tropical tangles or arctic-alpine terrain for one day, one month, or whatever your budget allows or the tour defines; from self guided to groups led by prominent horticulturalists, garden writers or naturalists.

In the U.S. youll find weeklong garden tours from late April through June. Some span the entire season with weekly opportunities to visit a regional cluster of homes and gardens.

Purpose

Whats the reason for garden hopping or show stopping? Having a purpose narrows focus and delivers more benefits than if the choice were random idle entertainment.

Cost

How much will this cost? Food lodging and travel

Location

Will the location and expected displays offer insight into current practices or are you going to expand knowledge base about another part of the world another climate, topography

Strategy

How do you get the most from your experience? Are there guides that address the topic and offer advice on how to get the most from your experience from those whove been there much like a Fodors or Rick Staves travel guide.

Reflection

Back in your garden: What will you change or celebrate?

garden show
Bring small note pad and pen, sturdy shoes, over the shoulder handbag

garden tour
Bring small note pad and pen, sturdy shoes, layered clothing, over the shoulder handbag, wide brimmed hat.

Tip of the Week

Tuck pant-legs into your socks or garden boots to discourage ticks from beginning their ascent to more luscious body parts. Gather shirts into pants waist, and sleeves into gloves. Bare arms detect their scramble to more secluded areas, so brush or blow them off. Do a tick-check in your clothing, hat included, and on your body before you come in for the day.

26 May 2010

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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Whether its your own plot or local Community Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) vegetable gardens, fruit patches and orchards are set to produce plenty this season. What are you going to do with the surplus? Donate to a charitable food pantry? Disperse among your neighbors? Sell at a farmers market? Preserve for later use?

Because of safety issues, food preservation is very serious work. Drying, freezing, canning, or smoking: none of these processes is simple or risk free, especially for the beginner. Reduce hazard by using step-by-step instructions found at most U.S. cooperative extension websites. For Virginia, study http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/category/food-preservation.html. Check also food preservation class schedules. Louisa Extension will offer a workshop June 15.

Based on how much you plant, they will also help you calculate expected harvest and the numbers of people served. Though few gardeners factor-in this calculation with their garden plans, it is worth your consideration for the next season cool weather crops or the summer of 2011.

After you have preserved your bounty you must store it and that has its own timeline. The safe food-storage chart at the Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) website shows shelf life from months to years for canned and frozen fruits and vegetables. At the same website there is a discussion of which process maintains original taste and texture. Even canned applesauce has a preferred texture not too grainy, not too soupy.

Besides power interruption plans, freezing has its entry fees: electricity (approximately $100/year), freezer ($150-800), containers and packaging. ConsumerReports.org rates manual defrost chest freezers as the most reliable, energy efficient and least expensive (about $400).

For low-acid foods (carrots, peas, squash) safe canning means an investment in a pressure canner ($78-200), reusable glass jars ($18/dozen), new lids and seals. For high-acid foods (tomatoes, applesauce) youll spend less for the recommended boiling water bath with a large stovetop kettle ($19 for a 21.5-quart canner with rack). But jar, lid and seal costs remain the same.

For variety, dry fruits, vegetables and herbs with home-use dehydrators ($120-250). Final packaging in airtight glass or plastic containers adds to the annual price tag.

Home-based smoking equipment exacts its dues as well ($300-1000). Like dehydration, the perennial bottom line includes packaging.

After the initial outlay for reusable equipment (freezers and canners), many gardeners rethink their food preservation goals. Think long-term and the expenses diminish sharply.

The only uncertainty, with minimal repair, is the durability of your equipment. Extend lifespan beyond manufacturers projections with meticulous care. The fastidious homemaker keeps his culinary tools far beyond the expiration date.

Include your precious time as a crucial cost. Natural forces (sun, rain, disease and pests) determine harvest, not you, and sometimes they are most inconvenient. For those days when theres no time for preserving, alert your chosen charity of its good fortune, so that produce is not left to rot. Overripe fruit and vegetables send potent signals to damaging insects and other hungry invaders: fungi, viruses and bacteria.

Regardless of family size, there is a food preservation plan that will work for you. Begin slowly. Start small. Seek advice from the pros.

Tip of the Week

Blast aphids from rose buds with a jet of water. Remove tent caterpillars by hand. Burn, drown, or enclose the silky glop in a plastic grocery bag and send to the landfill. Lace bugs on azaleas are usually a function of location. Excessive heat and light, stress the shrub, making it vulnerable to this scourge. Relocate to dappled shade.

19 May 2010

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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While humans, honeybees and ants are social creatures, plants are not. To suggest that trees and shrubs have companions is to misread the theory of plant associations.

Compelling evidence from science-based research supports the notion that plants aggressively seek allies and embattle their enemies, but more subtly than mobile creatures.

They employ vegetative and chemical mechanisms to entwine, spray seeds, loom aloft and tunnel below, to out-compete or cooperate for nutrients, water and light. From the microscopic to elephantine, green growing creatures and some fungi, too, exploit beneficial and harmful connections to defend and befriend in their goal to grow and reproduce. Dont we all?

For example, oaks welcome mycorrhizal fungi to their roots for a mutual exchange of nutrients, while walnut trees exude juglone to prevent competitors seedlings from gaining nearby dominance. Alfalfa, cucumbers, oats, rye, sunflowers and tobacco join the walnut, suppressing weed seeds in the soil but only after they all have withered and died an advantageous legacy over the next generations adversaries.

Let us apply plant association principles to the same purpose: to conquer weeds, control disease and discourage pests, to replenish soil nutrients, to provide shade and moisture.

Many gardeners work seasonally to enhance and renew organic matter and minerals to the soil. If this sounds familiar, try the legumes, clover or rye, at summers end for a nitrogen boost with added erosion control. Sow no later than November 1 and till-under at spring flowering, before seed sets.

Partner plants that exchange benefits. Site shade-loving, moisture-hogging shrubs, perennials and annuals beneath maple trees, which transport groundwater from their lower to upper roots, where it seeps through the topsoil.

To eliminate root damage to susceptible fruits and vegetables (eggplant, pepper, squash, tomato) terminate harmful nematodes (microscopic roundworms) by preplanting a dense harvest of French and African marigolds or interplant thickly during the growing season.

For insect pests that detect their buffet by fragrance, confuse with more interplanting. Select strong scented herbs and vegetables (chives, garlic, leeks, onions, oregano, rosemary, sage, shallots).

Experiment with a trap-crop, luring targeted insects from their preferred feast, then spray or hand-gather from the green-bait. To divert Japanese beetles from your roses, excite them with basil.

By their chemistry some plants repel insects harmful to others. Basil also deters tomato hornworms, mosquitoes and flies from its culinary companion. Catnip ambushes flea beetles and ants on their way to eggplant. Horseradish ensnares potato bugs.

Use polyculture or diversity to reduce damage. If you must have heaps of tomatoes or azaleas or other beloved plants, then choose from varied hybrids or heirlooms; use staged growing habits and unique disease resistance.

Recruit pollinators (honeybees, butterflies) and insect predators (wasps, flies) with angelica, carrot, coriander, dill, parsley, and parsnip with their pungent, flat-topped flowers.

Two things to remember about companion planting: Avoid lists with no evidence-based science to support their claims; begin your own rigorously documented observations and tests of traditional folklore. Muster some human companions to replicate your results. Publish on a social network. Your gardening friends will certainly get back to you with their field trial results, supporting or rejecting your data.

Tip of the Week

Control fire-blighted apple, crabapple, cotoneaster and pyracantha during dry weather. Youll need bare hands or disposable gloves, twine and a 12-ounce, wide-mouthed jar, half-filled with isopropyl alcohol. Cut 6 inches below the damage, but after each cut; dip the pruners in the alcohol. Burn or bundle the prunings for the landfill. Lubricate the shears when youre finished.

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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Appearances may be deceiving but in the case of agaves and aloes I think there would be no mistake. Aloes, with north African origins, have a soft succulent look, while agaves, from the wild arid regions of our Western hemisphere, bear threatening spines and leaner leaves.

Aloes are not suitable for the outdoor garden in Virginia’s zones 6 and 7, where their fleshy leaves will readily freeze. Rather, use their vertical spires for your indoor plant collection to contrast with the softer trailing tropicals like asparagus fern and pothos.

Though accustomed to bright light, the leaves will scorch from direct afternoon sun. In summer, set them out only in dappled shade.

While aloe’s outer leaves exude a yellow-green irritant when bruised or scraped, the clear viscous gel of the inner leaves are said to heal and soothe flesh wounds, especially burns.

For succulents, irrigation must imitate native growing conditions or they’ll rot. Allow aloe’s sandy soil to dry completely before soaking, and water monthly in winter’s shorter, cooler days.

Agaves do not belong to the same family as cactus or aloe. What agaves offer us though, is a range of growing conditions from tropical to hardy.

Hardy agaves have the potential to create some unusual assemblies of drought tolerant plants in the sunniest spaces of your property, whether in the ground or a container, on the deck or at the mailbox.

Try Agave gracilipes, Agave harvardiana Davis Mts. TX coll. #IB278, Agave neomexicana, Agave parryi ssp. Truncata, or Agave potatorum. They grow in high deserts where sun is plentiful and temperatures drop to zero in the winter, low forties during summer nights.

You’ll need leather gauntlets for handling. When agave spines injure, the distress continues — reddening, blistering and bruising for 2-3 weeks.

Sculpt a planting hole on a slope that is 4 times the width of the root ball. They have long fibrous roots. Fill to 8 inches above the horizontal plane with one-third coarse sand, one-third finished compost and one-third native soil. Using a board or your hand, push aside the fill-dirt at grade and fashion within, a mound for draping the roots.

Soak the potted plant in a bucket of water until the bubbles subside. Invert the pot over the hole rolling it along the ground to loosen, then tap lightly on the base until the plant falls. Tease out the roots, spreading them above the earthen mound you’ve centered in the hole.

Now push back the soil you set aside, molding a shallow saucer. Mulch with a half-inch layer of pea-gravel or crushed rock. Next day, mist until the soil and stoney material settle. To establish, drench weekly for 4 weeks. Unless there is a severe drought, your agave will flourish with no further watering.

Avoid commercial potting soil with added nutrients as it will provide excessive nourishment, which may lead to flowering and the end of your agave; for agave concludes its life with a single blooming episode. This is probably why its common name is Century Plant.

After 10 to 35 years, from seedling to maturity, though certainly not a century, the agave will sacrifice itself with a spike or even a 25-foot mast covered in tubular flowers, setting hundreds of seeds for the next generation of agaves in your garden.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Now is the time to encourage shrubs and herbs, which tend to propagation with layering: azaleas, cotoneaster, sage, forsythia. Many have begun to root supine branches beneath a cover of rotted leaf mold, one good reason to be a little untidy around these shrubs. Keep the rootings covered with moistened shredded leaves.

5 May 2010

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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Straw bale gardening? What will they think of next? Actually, straw bale/mortar home construction is a big industry. In the garden, straw bales are big, too.

Straw (not hay) bale gardening is a low-cost solution to raised beds that make their own compost. The farmer calls them square to distinguish from round bales; so be sure you make that clear when inquiring. Those round bales are enormous at 4 feet high and weigh more than one gardener can handle.

Two-string, square straw bales are usually 18x18x30 inches, weigh 33-60 pounds and cost $1.50-$6 depending on delivery options and material. In the Eastern U.S., youll find wheat and barley bales, often advertised as clean, bright, dry and weed-free straw. Ask about synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides used on the straw. Steer clear of those who cant tell you what was used, especially if you intend to grow food crops in your straw bale garden.

An 18-inch depth wont significantly reduce leaning over or crouching. Though touted as easier to manage than in-ground gardens, youd have to stack two bales to avoid bending.

However, raised beds and straw bales will eliminate tilling and digging, a definite advantage where dense clay or rocky soil, challenge your strength and determination. Add a bale on top every other year for a raised bed that keeps rising or haul last seasons bale remnants to the compost pile and begin afresh. Remember to remove plastic twine but leave sisal or jute to rot.

If you redistribute the straw to the compost pile or use as mulch, you dodge crop rotation, an especially important factor if your gardening is confined to the one area on your property where there is enough light to grow the typical American vegetables: bush beans, cucumbers, eggplant, tender culinary herbs (basil, dill and parsley), lettuces, peas, peppers, squash, and tomatoes.

Though you cant do root crops like turnips, carrots, or beets, you can plant potatoes. Corn and other top-heavy vegetables arent good candidates. Let tomatoes ramble over the side, otherwise staking must be stout and sturdy to avoid tipping.

Keep burrowing critters at bay by spreading chicken wire or hardware clothe beneath the bale garden, though worms and other beneficial soil microbes will be attracted if the straw lays on bare ground.

The water they absorb makes them particularly heavy so position the bales in their permanent location before soaking for two hours each day for 10 days. The bales will heat up, then cool down before they're ready for planting. Add no fertilizer.

Spread a 3-inch layer of compost or ordinary garden soil when planting from seed. If you're using transplants, soil wont be needed. Dimensions are the same as for in-ground planting. Do not crowd.

Simply pry apart the straw for a hole the depth of the seedling root ball; insert the seedling, then tuck the straw about the plant and water.

Throughout the season use soaker hoses most mornings to maintain moisture. You'll be delighted to learn that the straw suppresses weeds, although some wheat may emerge here and there. Just pull the sprouts.

Hauling and positioning the bales is the hardest part of this garden, but certainly preferable to battling clay and stone. Come harvest no one can argue with the easy bounty.

TIP OF THE WEEK

Redistribute mulch with firm raking, after downpours on steep slopes, where typically the finer mulch is washed further down, while coarser pieces slam against the topside of shrubs and trees. If left in place, the heavy mulch will distort the shape of a shrub or plant.