Maggie's Farm

Hereabouts, it's time to yank out the Spring pansies. Many people have the nurseries fill their planters right about now, but people like Mrs. BD like to do them herself.

She says all you need to know is that a planter needs one thriller, a few spillers, and filler - with interesting foliage contrast and compatible color. It's a form of flower arranging. In a couple of weeks, these pots will be looking good:

Also known as Catmint (it is related to Catnip). It's a long-blooming front-of-the-border plant, and will re-bloom later if the exhausted blooms are cut off. It comes in a few cultivars of varying heights.

This was yesterday. Note the happy Digitalis on the left. Little Lamb's Ear Hydrangea in front.

Something valuable for your garden: a dwarf Buddleia called "Blue Chip." This new Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) is only 2' high, max, and thus can function like a perennial flower in a border while drawing butterflies from miles around. Plus they claim it blooms all summer, unlike my full-sized Buddleias. I have a spot for a few of these guys.

Wayside is the only place I know that has them. Loony Greenies should avoid them: they are genetically-engineered. Like Labrador Retrievers, corn on the cob - and cotton.

Hummingbirds like them too.

The Wood Hyacinth is not a true Hyacinth, the popular bulb brought to Europe from Turkey.

The Wood Hyacinth, or English Bluebell, or Common Bluebell, is a native of Western Europe. Today, there are many cultivars of this fine April/May-blooming woodland bulb which, when happy, spreads vigorously.

In my opinion, it is much preferable to the gaudy and artificial-looking, plastic-looking true Hyacinth.

Photo on right is a "Bluebell Woods" in England.

My photo below is our tiny patch of it this morning. It will spread though, in time.

Saw this tree in bloom today behind a very good fish store, growing out of a hole in the asphalt. Never seen this sort of tree before. The wisteria-colored, tubular 2" blooms hang down, and last year's nut-like seed pods are still on the branches. The trunk looks like the trunk of a fast-growing trash tree. Quite a wonderful small tree, with the elegant blooms before the leaves emerge:

Reader got the name for me on the first try. Thanks. I had no idea what it was: The Empress Tree, Paulownia tomentosa. AKA Foxglove Tree. The blossoms do resemble Digitalis.

For an "invasive" trash tree which will grow anywhere, it sure is mighty purty in early May. My other photos of it below -

Even the pros get confused about how to grow the hundreds of cultivars of the beloved Hydrangea family of flowering shrubs. Each Spring, I renew my confusion - especially when it comes to the topic of pruning the different categories. Not to mention the newer ever-blooming types.

Most nursery plants are Asian in origin (obviously with plenty of genetic engineering applied to them for blooming purposes), but the old-fashioned Arborescens group derives from the North American wild plant. My favorites are the lacecap types, but I admire them all.

Here are a few things I have learned, none of which applies to all Hydrangeas:

- Hydrangeas like water, and generally do not prefer full-day sun. At least half-day is fine, preferably in the morning. Full shade does not work.

- The pink and/or blue hydrangeas are indeed acidity-sensitive in flower color

- Planting them where they are free to attain their full size without normal pruning (other than that all deciduous shrubs, once they are established and healthy, benefit from removal of 1/4 to 1/3 of the plant down to the ground, or at least the leggy or woody stems, each year) eliminates a lot of complexity.

- Save the dang plant label in a file (best to do with any new plant)

- Hydrangeas do not like much nitrogen fertilizing: it makes them grow leaves, not blooms.

- If you trim or prune your plant wrong, or at the wrong time, you won't get any bloom. Some bloom on new growth, some on last year's growth, and some seem just to do their own thing.

Here's a very basic Identify your hydrangea.

Here's Pruning your Hydrangeas. Here's more info on that topic.

Here are some basics on growing Hydrangeas

Photo on top: A lacecap, "Blue Wave"
Photo in middle: Mopheads in CT
Photo below: Hydrangeas in the rain on Isola Bella two years ago

Well-organized amateur gardeners keep some sort of calendar or journal of annual tasks to be done (eg April: prune forsythias when blooms done), and a record of things planted (with exact names and maintenance needs).

I keep a casual record and to-do list on my computer with links to tips and info that I tend to forget (I do have a lot of plants with Special Needs), but some more serious folks prefer these pre-printed formats.

Constructing and maintaining shrub and perennial gardens is a Maggie's Farm hobby. Here's good gardening advice from a commenter at some gardening site I was looking at the other day:

JUST STOP!

Take a deep breath and a few steps away from the tree. Look at the package you have created and realize that you are more of a "crammer" than a designer. Your apparent desire is not to better display your specimen but rather to create more room to cram in ever more plants - "I want to be able to have the bottom more open for plants under it."

I believe the overall effect of your landscape would be much improved if you graduated to the design level where you begin an analysis of what you already have and start editing. DIY'ers often fail to realize that as gardens mature, they are dealing with a different set of design parameters than when they began. This present situation requires a different thought process.

When you first began, it was probably "more is better" because you had so much open space to fill. Your landscape has matured to the point that it is now craving some unity and simplification -- yet, here you are trying to figure out how to add even more.

When you go out, do you put on every piece of jewelry that you own or do you select only a few that serve to highlight? Think about your garden in the same way.

Image is a well-balanced garden, mature and perfect, at Christchurch, Oxford, from a post on English Gardens

Thanks to AGW, looks like we're in for two days of soaking rain. That's perfect timing, because I did all of my Spring fertilizing this weekend: lawn, perennial gardens, shrubs, Raspberries - and Holly-Tone for the Rhodies, azaleas, hollies, etc. (I also put down Preen on most of the flower gardens. It saves a lot of trouble to put it down before the first weed seeds germinate.)

It makes sense to fertilize before things green up, because the roots wake up hungry and begin growing many weeks before anything green emerges. Early Spring is when roots do most of their growing.

This specimen plant is a contorted variant of a member of the Hazel/Filbert family. It is of most interest when its leaves are off because the dense foliage conceals most of the branches.

Mine is coming into bloom with its catkins right now:

Time to begin planning. Our annual free ad for Miller Nurseries. 

Yes, they do sell Brown Turkey Fig, which is readily grown in southern New England. They also have the Celeste Fig. 

Bright red berries produced in the fall close along the stems of a deciduous shrub, most often in damp areas in the Eastern US, is Winterberry - Ilex verticillata.

Yes some ilex, ie hollies, are deciduous.

Many cultivars with larger and more abundant berries are now available of this native shrub. They are commonly used in weaths and Christmas plant arrangements. Still, the plant looks best in the woods and swamps.

A re-post from July, 2007

It is now hay-making time in Yankeeland. I cannot imagine mowing an entire hayfield with a scythe, but they are excellent tools once you get the hang of the motion, especially for steep or hard-to-reach places.

In the words of Wendell Berry:

"The Marugg grass scythe proves itself an excellent tool. It is the most satisfying hand tool that I have ever used. In tough grass it cuts a little less uniformly than the power scythe. In all other ways, in my opinion, it is a better tool because, it is light, it handles gracefully & comfortably even on steep ground, it is far less dangerous, it is quiet & makes no fumes, it is much more adaptable. In rank growth one narrows the cut & shortens the stroke. It always starts - provided the user will start. Aside from reasonable skill & care in use, there are no maintenance problems. It requires no fuel or oil. It runs on breakfast. It’s cheaper to buy than most weed eaters & is cheaper to use than any other power mower. And best of all it’s good exercise."

Berry wrote a short story titled The Good Scythe.

I suffer from a decadent weakness for power tools and power equipment - anything that uses gas or electricity -  but I am sure Berry is right. I do have two large patches on the farm that require a scythe. One is too steep for the tractor, and one is too muddy for the TR or the tractor. A stuck-in-the-mud heavy machine is no fun at all.

We have a couple of Pee Wee Hydrangeas in our compact front entry garden, which is part shade. They are the dwarf form of the big Oakleaf Hydrangea, and are not too easy to find.

I highly recommend them for shrub/perennial borders. Like everything else, they take several years to reach their full size (which is around 3'x3' or 4X4). Ours are in full bloom right now:

I planted this Bottlebrush Buckeye about 7 years ago, when it was a few 12"-tall bare sticks. Good things take a while. Mrs. BD says it was 8 years ago. You rarely seen them grown in New England. The Buckeye, of course, is a heartland plant.

This is with early morning sun glowing through those flowers yesterday. The plant is about 7' tall. I think it's like a candelabra:

Mrs. BD loves her Little Lambs. It is a very special paniculata hydrangea.

I have never known anyone who did not enjoy hydrangeas.

Before you mess with hydrangeas, you need to know whether a plant is a macrophylla, oakleaf, arborescens, or a paniculata-type. The handling of each type is different - especially the pruning - and they vary in spring frost hardiness.

A good hydrangea site.

The Madame Hardy Rose, a Damask Rose, was bred by Alexandre Hardy in 1832.

My brother in CT emailed the photo with this note: "You gave this plant to me 15 years ago, and it's still doing well. I have never had a rose survive this long."

These folks waste no space on lawn, and seem to plant every spare inch except for grassy paths. But who does the weeding?

A few easy-growing salad (and I hate salad - rabbit food) greens for the garden that even I enjoy. I would never use these things in a mixed green salad, because you lose the flavor and character of the individual thing.

These are greens that you can plant every two or three weeks during the spring and summer, and harvest small and tender. Some of them will grow back after harvesting the leaves. They are often commercially grown hydroponically these days.

My favorite is Mache (aka Corn Salad), a sweet, tender mayonnaise-tasting leaf

Frisee, a member of the Chickory family. Bitter, tangy, crunchy: good to precede a game meal, grilled lamb, or steak. Never salad with the main course, in our view, unless it's a buffet, because salad dressing messes up the flavors of the main course.

Garden Cress, a member of the Mustard family. Sort of like Watercress.

Dandelion. Spicey with a bit of crunch.

Arugula. The strange kerosene flavor grows on you. Just try to ignore the fact that Liberals like it.

Short growing season up here. Ours are just getting going, but I already have some blossoms. Please do not tell me what you have in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri. Fact is, I do like it here despite the high taxes and the short growing season.

We do not even bother with the Beefsteaks and Beefmasters. No point to it. Lucky to get a decent harvest of them before the first frost. Big Boys work, though, and they are OK. Each one of my plants is a different variety. I like the pear-shaped mini yellows, the orange ones, the sweet millions, the Big Boys and the Big Girls, etc etc.

They say that fully healthy roses cannot be harmed by aphid infestations, and that may be true. However, we do not live in an ideal world, and it makes no sense to go out on strike until it appears.

We have abundant Rose Aphids this spring, but haven't seen them for the past few years.

We mix liquid dish soap at the rate of 1 tbsp/gallon in spray bottles, and spray the roses, especially their succulent tips, with it. Dead aphids by the thousands, without poisoning anything else. The surfactant suffocates the buggers. I brush off any Ladybugs first.

Mrs. BD claims that she is waterboarding them to death.

One treatment ought to do it. Best done before the first bloom. Had to do it today.

Ever tried growing Blueberries?

I have tried any number of times and man, are they picky. I place them on the list of plants that only thrive where they feel like it. If they aren't happy, there ain't nothin you can do about it.

You just have to admit defeat. 

Even if you have some modest success, without netting I would lose all of the berries to the Robins and Catbirds.

On the farm where I spent my weekends growing up, wild blueberries grew all along the hayfield edges, reaching out from the woods over the barbed-wire fences. They grew up to 8' high, so every age had his own level to pick. They were so productive that it was no problem sharing with the birds. My Mom took coffee cans, made two holes with a nail and strung a string through them to hang around your neck, and painted our names on them with blue paint spots to indicate "berry can." Those cans hung in the barn for years.

I have seen similar wonderful areas of wild highbush blueberries on Cape Cod, but was never there much during blueberry season. Despite what is said about growing them, the wild bushes seem to like boggy edges, or at least lowlands. There is no doubt that they need acidic soil. Not being a Maine guy except during grouse season, I have no experience with the Lowbush Blueberry.

After a picking, my Mom would always make a Blueberry flat cake with hard sauce. Wow. Such memories. It's too bad there are no wild Blueberries on Maggie's Farm, but there are none.

The Blueberry is not a true fruit. Furthermore, it's in the Rhodadendron family. It's in the (marketing) category of "superfruits" because they are supposed to be "good for you," whatever the heck that means (probably nothing).

With some new full-sun garden space, I was considering trying again with a row of around 6 Blueberry bushes. Problem is, I want the small dark wild ones that look more black than blue with the intense wild tang, and not the fancy, fat, overly-sweet hybrids that you can get at the store anyway. Plus I don't want to bother with netting.

Wiki has a good Blueberry entry. So does the US Highbush Blueberry Council.

"Tobacco netting" for berries. Other ways to keep the birds from eating all of your berry crops.

Also, in the NYT, a little story about a family of Scarlet Tanagers - a splendid bird - getting caught under bird netting. The netting has to be well-secured.

These Tanagers are not rare in Eastern deciduous woodlands, but they aren't seen often because they tend to forage high and quiet. Here's the CLO bit on them.

A planted space (aka "a garden") isn't a "space" without the sense of, a suggestion of, or the reality of, enclosure - regardless of scale; whether the scale is a 20X20' herb or rose garden or a 50-100 acre meadow bounded by woods or windbreaks. Just like a picture wants a frame.

I think that comfortable feeling is deeply embedded in the human soul, and it is the reason garden designers speak of outdoor "rooms." I kinda prefer designing or thinking about outdoor "hallways" - the paths which lead from space to space. Hallways, though, must lead to rooms or they have no meaning and no purpose.

Yesterday:

The new garden path that I mentioned on the Spring to-do list. Besides looking nice, it solved the problem of the previously muddy route that the dog always takes on his routine patrols for enemies and intruders. Fortunately, he likes the new path. No, I did not build it myself but I could have, given the time.

The Mrs. did a nice job with her new semi-shade border, but it will take a year or three to mature. As you can see, I pruned the heck out of that young Crepe Myrtle behind the hybrid Rhodies. Maybe too much. That's a small Kousa Dogwood on the corner.

New shrubs in - done, mostly...
New Hostas and 200 Lariope in - done
Various transplanting - done
Gardens mulched - done
Window washing, 27 double-paned double windows - done
House power-washed - done
Evil weeds weeded or poisoned - done (for the nonce)
Lawns top-dressed, reseeded and fertilized - done
New front hallway lighting fixture - installed.
Shotguns - clean and oil for their summer rest - done
Boxwoods treated with medicine - done (it worked)
Trees and shrubs pruned - done
Gardens given good dose of Preen - done
Gardens, roses, and shrubs fertilized - done
New washer and dryer - done. I preferred the 16 year-old ones, though.
Various and misc. re-painting - done or in process
Carpets shampooed - done
Broken and fragile door fixtures - replaced or repaired
Crumbling back doorway stone steps - replaced and much improved
New gravel garden path - done
New fence - installed. Awaiting Tom Sawyer.
Broken outdoor faucet and internal leak - replaced and repaired
Driveway - re-graded, re-gravelled, and compressed - done
Slate patio and outdoor furniture powerwashing - done
3 deliveries of clothes and misc. stuff to Good Will - done
Winter log piles moved - done
New master bath mirrors - installed, but they reveal too much
Raspberries pruned - done
New trellis - installed
Carpenter bee infestation of pergola - killed
Veggie garden cleaned up and ready for planting - mostly done
Garage/shed cleaned up - good enuf for government work
Tennis racquets - re-strung
Heavy-duty house cleaners - scheduled
Old, wonderful and beloved half-broken and now-dangerous trampoline - scheduled for removal to trampoline heaven.

Coon-proofing garbage bin - not done. It is beyond human capacity.
Outdoor lighting wiring - done, awaiting fixture decisions
Mountains of clothes to be picked up and put away - it will never happen in my lifetime. Where am I to put all of my hunting and winter stuff?

Ah, the joys of home-ownership. Can we go out and play now?

How is your Spring check-list coming along?

I am putting mine in the ground today, after using my car as a greenhouse for a couple of weeks. I have 6 varieties this time. Always those Sweet Million cherry tomatoes, and always the classic Beefsteaks, even though they aren't ready around here until mid-late August. Still worth it for a few weeks of them. Some yellows. No plum tomatoes - the canned are fine with me if they are going to be cooked anyway.

Are yours in yet?

I think we did a good job on this little corner. Nepeta (which won't be blooming for a while), some giant allium and regular allium in bloom right now, Wisteria overhead getting ready to bloom (pruned them so hard this winter they might be disappointing this Spring), low boxwood hedging and a thick row of those dwarf yellow lilies heading up on the right. I forget the name of those clumps of bulbs with the bell-like purple flowers, but they are pleasant.

The pup just ate two baby bunnies (Cottontail rabbits). One baby ran away. He found their nest while we were doing outdoor clean-up. The pup was helping, of course.

It's always been my philosophy that too much outdoor clean-up is bad for the wild critters, and we love our wild critters. The early Mother's Day present to the Mrs. was the work of 4 yard guys for 4 days, plus however-many truckloads of black mulch, plus a couple of dumpsters. Three loads of mulch did the job, barely, but the garden beds look spiffy for the moment. But, sadly, with fewer bunnies.

That's our second truck load of it. This black stuff looks best, and only costs a little bit more for your garden beds. A 6" layer does the job.

For those who live in the northern parts of the world, just a reminder: unless you live in an area with remarkably fertile soil, your lawns, perennials and some of your shrubs count on some fertilizer because none of them are truly natural (they are all genetically-engineered and hybridized), nor do they receive what nature would otherwise supply them for free (rotten leaf mold, flooding silt, bear, human, and Wooly Mammoth poop, etc).

My point is that it's easy to forget that the roots wake up and begin growing and seeking nourishment long before any buds appear.

Not only that, but it takes a while for your fertilizer to get down to the roots. Time and rain. March and early April is the time to give your precious plants a good head start up here in the north country.

And, yes, this is a metaphor too.

Pruning is a subject of great interest to us, as it is to all gardeners. It is now the last chance to do our winter pruning of those late-blooming shrubs and trees which bloom on new growth.

This site from Texas A&M is an excellent pruning overview, with special attention to the pruning requirements of Crepe Myrtle.

Shrubs which are pruned wrong offend my delicate gardening sensibilities.

Photo: One of my young Crepe Myrtles blooming a couple of Augusts ago. Up here in Yankeeland, north of their growing zone, they have a small chance of thriving if they are a hardy variety, and are well-sheltered and well-mulched for the winter. Mine do just fine. While they are commonplace in the South, up here nobody seems to know what they are.

As with hybrid Rhodadendrons and azaleas, it's an iffy proposition up here - but well-worth when it works.

Taking a little break from fall planting. Last chance to do some lawn reseeding and to transplant, and to plant the last shipment of perennials hereabouts. I had to make a new small perennial border, under orders. Many bags of cow manure and peat moss from Home Depot, along with compost, to happify the lousy glacial soil we have here.

Simple pleasures. I like digging in the dirt, and I believe in digging and enriching 18" for new perennial plantings. You can only do it once.

Mostly rare Hostas, of course. Mrs. BD is an afficianado. Photo is "Dance with Me." Nice enough Hosta, but you have to get into it to fully appreciate. To get a clue, try Hosta Library.

Do me a favor: never plant Hostas in the sun. Terrible thing to do. And always en masse, or they will offend my delicate gardening sensibilities.

My Montauk Daisies always come into bloom in the first week of October. It's worth the wait but, depending on the first frost, their bloom time can be brief.

Advice to those who grow them: They don't need fertilizer. They want full sun. Prune them to 4-6" high each early spring or you will end up with a huge, scraggly shrub a bit like the one below.

This is Clematis Henryi. I have just ordered one to grow over an arbor.

In my experience, these are tricky plants and slow to establish themselves. When they are unhappy, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. When they are happy on a sunny fence, they are great. They supposedly like their feet cool, shaded, and mulched.

I've tried everything but, like people, they just go their own way and follow their own path, whether it leads to heaven, hell, or Paramus.

I also like Sweet Autumn Clematis, which is a tougher, more forgiving variety.

Johnny Appleseed - John Chapman - was an interesting character: an ascetic, a Swedenborgian missionary, and a nurseryman who had little interest in making money.

Read about him and his unusual life at a good Wiki entry.

As readers may have noticed, with the beginning of Apple Season in Yankeeland we are making a point of having at least one Apple post daily.

Here's Apple Trees: Where and how to plant.

Image is by Nicholas of Verdun (c. 1180)

Along the streambank at the farm:

"If you don't want my peaches, don't shake my tree."  That's a line from one of the versions of Blind Lemon Jefferson's perfect song from 1927 - "Matchbox Blues." I don't think Albert King used those lines in this version with Stevie Ray, though.

Our peaches up here in Yankeeland begin to ripen right about now. I get a good crop from this tree every other year, but this is the second great year in a row. I see peach pies in my near future, and maybe a year's worth of canned peach chutney. Also, a good supply of fresh peach chutney, which is better than canned: takes about 15 minutes to make. Photo is from this afternoon: