Gardening In The GardenGardening tips for Gardening in the Garden

Thanks so much for having your publicist suggest that we partner with you to help promote Pennington Smart 1 Feed. He was smart enough to notice that our blog has “gone mostly grassless” and we probably wouldn’t be the likeliest people to trumpet your lawn seed.  So he probably figured that trying to manage all of the pesky viburnums and tulips and tomatoes we plant instead of grass, we’d be a natural for your specialized fertilizer products.

And the fact that Pennington Smart 1 Feed plant fertilizer contains a slow-release formula that keeps working for up to eight months, giving plants what they need when they need it with no help from us is certainly appealing.

But I’m afraid we’re too Smart for Smart Feed.  Because there is another organization already on the job, fertilizing our plants and giving them just what they need when they need it with no help from us. They’re called the soil microbes.  They evolved to fertilize our plants, so we don’t need to.  All we have to do is provide the raw materials for them.  A nice mulch will do the trick.  Once a year and we’re done. Mulch is also a multi-faceted product that eliminates weeds and helps us water less.  I don’t think your Smart fertilizers do that yet.

The problems with outsourcing the soil creatures’ job to Pennington are myriad.

1. The Haber-Bosch synthesis that allows you to manufacture artificial nitrogen from the air requires intense heat and wastes colossal amounts of energy.
2. Plants often can’t use these megadoses of nitrogen all in one go.  
3. The excess nitrogen turns into nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.
4. The runoff from excess nitrogen is causing giant dead zones in our oceans.
5. Artificial nitrogen sets up a vicious cycle that depletes to the soil’s ability to store carbon and nitrogen.
6. Edible plants raised on artificial nitrogen taste like complete crap.

It’s hard to think of another product that is more useless yet wreaks more havoc, other than possibly credit default swaps.  Yes, yes, I am well aware of the argument that without synthetic nitrogen, nearly half of humanity would go hungry. Sorry, I don’t buy it. 

Let me tell you how I think of my garden: It’s an ecosystem. I don’t shake anything out of a bag or jug–not even organic fertilizer–because I don’t want to disrupt the life in the soil. Instead, I shrewdly use it to grow beautiful food with very little sweat on my end.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/atCjnEDToro/dear-pennington-seed.html

You may have noticed that GardenRant has been a total swagfest lately, what with all the giveaways of tools and books and other such freebies.  Well, there’s a reason for that:  I’m living in Portland for two months, having temporarily joined the faculty of Portland State University as a visiting professor in their MFA in Creative Writing program.  Thanks to the nice people at the literary journal and book publisher Tin House, I have a totally swell apartment, too.

What I don’t have is a garden, or really any interest in one.  I mean, Portland is in full bloom right now, and that’s lovely.  Last month the air was perfumed with daphne blossoms, and this month the azaleas are doing their insane technicolor thing, and I’m sure something else very pretty is about to happen right now.   But I came here to think about writing, to talk about writing, and to do some writing.  The rest of you can go garden.  I’m doing this other thing.  (and writing about it a little on my own blog.)

What does this mean to you?  Before I left for Portland, I lined up a whole series of posts in which I do little more than give free stuff to you.  Mostly this happened in partnership with my good friend Gen at North Coast Gardening. 

So.  She and I spent a very confusing afternoon putting together the deceptively simple Triolife Plant Pyramid sent to us by the nice people at EarthEasy.  Please note that it does not take an entire afternoon to put it together–it takes about a minute and a half–but because we were too lazy to go inside and look at a photo of the thing, and because the instructions were nearly incomprehensible, it took us forever.

But you will have no trouble at all, because once you watch our video, you will totally get it! The light bulb will go off.

And you can have one!  Tell us what you will plant in it and where you will put it (on a table, on a patio, on your roof, etc) and we’ll choose a winner.  Gen is giving one away too, so get over there to check out her thing.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/sMWmRg78n0Q/my-complete-lack-of-a-gardening-lifestyle-and-how-that-means-more-free-stuff-for-you.html

As reported here a few years back, a group called Project Laundry List is hard at work defending our  Right to Dry.  And since most of us grew up with indoor drying, they have to start with some public education – like their Top Ten Reasons to Line-Dry.

Project Laundry List would surely love my newly adopted town, a planned community built by the federal government in the ’30s.  Clothes lines were installed here before the first buyers ever moved in, and from what I can tell, most residents take advantage of them.  Proudly.

I’ve discovered a couple of interesting limitations on line-drying in the town’s history, though.  Originally, line-drying wasn’t alowed on Sundays.  (Remember blue laws?  Reading up on them, I’m shocked to discover how many are still in effect.  Wikipedia contributors also can’t agree on the origin of the term.)

Another local law that’s long gone is that laundry had to be taken in before dinnertime, which long-time residents tell me had to do with making the home look nice for the return of the breadwinner.  We can imagine the little woman putting on her nicest housedress around that time, too, a la June Cleaver.

Today, with those silly restrictions gone and energy conservation a big concern, my neighbors proudly adorn their gardens with laundry and some have even asked – where’s MINE?  I guiltily confess to removing the poles to make room for more plants.

My plant-stuffed but laundry-free garden seems a bit out of step in a town where the Sun-Drying Garmenture Society Drill Team struts its stuff every year in the Labor Day Parade.

So I’m curious.  Readers, do YOU line-dry?  Do your neighbors?  Or has line-drying gone the way of party lines and black and white TVs?

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/f0PLtEyJEcM/laundry-as-garden-art.html

I have a habit of planting lilies everywhere, often where I should have left well enough alone. Here, they are interfering with a perfectly nice dicentra.

Do we become more tolerant of the multiple problems and imperfections in our gardens, or less so? It is certainly the former with me. These days, as long as the ground is more or less covered and something smells nice, I’m happy. These days, just sitting on the steps next to the jasmine (whose winter defoliation I am tolerating) can be enough. I can see the weeds, the various perennials that seem to be faltering, and the inexplicable/unfortunate planting decisions I’ve made over the years, but it just doesn’t bother me that much.

The list of issues I’ve become willing to overlook has grown gradually. There’s more than I can remember to include here.

•Weeds. These are generally allowed to flourish unseen until I happen to notice them and pull enough out so that they become less noticeable. I don’t go nuts trying to get every little piece of root.

•Pruning. I don’t like it. I do cut away the dead branches of my roses.

•Insects and diseases. Oh the joy of embracing the no-spray movement. When I first started out I really thought you had to buy the treatments sold at the garden center. I know better now.

•Plant dividing. I have actually never done this, except inadvertently when moving a plant.

•Cutting back and deadheading. I have a hard time remembering what’s supposed to be cut back, but I do cut back spent blooms if they’re unsightly.

•Hoeing. I don’t have one. I am not sure what I’d do with it if I did.

•Planning and design. This never really happened, as I was fortunate enough to inherit a courtyard space where the beds were already laid out.

There are some things that even I can’t avoid. The pond has to be cleaned, the roses do benefit from at least a springtime fertilization, and I throw compost and mulch down when I can get to it. New things have to be planted when old things die or don’t work anymore, and I love anything to do with bulbs—and that’s work.

Otherwise, I’m beginning to forget there was a time when I spent most of my time in the garden working on the garden.  It helps of course that I am not a food grower. What’s your experience? Do you find that you relax your vigilance with time, or increase it?

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/VCpG6Ur-42c/a-gardeners-insouciance.html

LOVE this wedding story in today’s New York Times!  The bride, Dr. Amy Goldman, is chairwoman of the Seed Savers Exchange and the groom, Dr. Cary Fowler is head of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which helps run the famous Svalbard Global Seed Vauilt in arctic Norway.  The couple is seen here at the vault.

My favorite part of the story:

As far as their study of seeds goes, the couple do have some differences:  Dr. Goldman likes “fruity vegetables,” while Dr.  Fowler prefers staples, like rice and wheat.

Photo credit:  Seed Savers Exchange.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/K72sZtG0Dqs/a-seed-based-romance.html

As all our Rant regulars know, my partner Susan Harris is a big, big champion of going lawn free. I visited her old garden in Takoma Park, which managed to be restful and beautiful without a carpet of grass, and the photos of her new garden suggest that she won’t be out there with a mower at any point soon.

Me, I have mixed feelings about lawns. I had a weekend house in the country for 10 years. And in the country, I loved having a few acres of lawn, surrounded by a wilder meadow that was only cut once a year. The kids and the dog used to run around like crazy people on that lawn, they used to roll down it, and in winter, they’d toboggan down it. Try doing that stuff in a mixed bed!

But, alas, I am selling that country place.  I am gardening now in a city, and cities are different. I have just a 7500 square foot lot, much of that taken up by my house and carriage house.  And as a farmer at heart, I think my land needs to be productive. Grass may be pretty and a good place to play, but it is not productive.

As soon as I moved in, I started taking out the lawn in front of the house and on my hellstrip, mainly because I got sick of dragging a lawn mower from the back of the yard through a barely functioning gate that needs to be replaced.  The only problem with no grass on the hellstrip is that people getting out of parked cars in front of my house are slightly stumped–how do I get to the sidewalk?  But I accept a certain amount of crushing in that bed.  Otherwise, I think the whole deal looks great.  I’m not much of a design person, but the super-lush mix of perennials, bulbs, small shrubs, and fruit trees in front of my house makes a real statement about the generosity of Mother Nature.

Last year, I smothered half the lawn in the back and made a vegetable garden out of it.  The garden wasn’t big enough.  There was no room for pumpkins–and seriously, I need at least a few ‘Jarrahdales’ for pie-making in the fall. I only had room for a single row of potatoes.  Where is the fun in that, if you don’t have enough to store in the basement, so you can cook them whenever you want, to warm you up when the earth is cold?

This year, I started 65 potato seedlings from True Potato Seed that I ordered from New World Seeds and Tubers–exotic stuff that breeder Tom Wagner has engineered in part from old Andean varieties.  Where to put those?  So I’m eyeing the remaining lawn very coldly.  In fact, I seem to have stopped mowing it, which suggests that its fate is already sealed.

I’ll put up a little fence around the garden that will persuade the dog to head to the back of property to pee in the morning. He won’t have quite the same soft options for lying in the sun, however.

I guess the person I’m most concerned about is my 14 year-old daughter Georgia, a great natural athlete.  She lives to ride horses, but I’ve always thought, future hurdler.  Since she was tiny, she’d set up jumps on the grass–structures made of saw horses, buckets, paint cans, and bamboo poles from the garden–and jump over them, pretending to practice her horse jumps.  Without much runway at all, Georgia can sail over a jump that is neck high.  

I’ve gotten a ton of pleasure out of sitting on my screened porch, watching her fly over obstacles on the velvety lawn.  But the truth is, she’s 14 and 5′ 7″ now and wears mascara and eye-shadow whenever she can get away with it. There is less hanging out on the lawn than there used to be.

For the future, potatoes are a better bet.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/WhMwWrDE77Y/lawns-have-purposes-too.html

This weekend marks the 25th Annual Herb and Garden Faire at the Landis Valley Museum near Lancaster, PA. After a week filled with rain and clouds it looks like we will have perfect weather to enjoy the faire and spend time outside in the garden.

Here in the Zone 6 region of Pennsylvania, the middle of May and Mother’s Day are both recognized as a safe time to start planting out frost tender plants into the garden beds. That means that the Herb and Garden Faire couldn’t come along at a better time!

Charting Mother’s Day, Garden Fairs, and Frost Free Planting Dates

The fair is always scheduled on Mother’s Day weekend, that makes it easy to remember and also convenient for the gardener because plants purchased this weekend can go right into the garden over the following week without as much risk of a late frost coming along to create havoc.

I always look forward to this event, it’s not only one of the largest plant sales on the East Coast, but also one of the few plant sales with a focus on heirloom varieties and other rare plants that you won’t often find at local nurseries or nearby garden centers. The Herb and Garden Faire runs from Friday May 11th to Saturday May 12th. The hours are 9 am till 5 pm on both days.

What’s New at the Herb and Garden Faire this Year

There are a couple new features at the fair this year. First Mike McGrath, host of the “You Bet Your Garden” public radio show and author of several gardening books will be on hand Saturday afternoon to lecture and answer questions. There will also be a seminar in the Craft Barn exploring the history of natural dyes and their modern applications.

For more information about these special sessions and other things of interest that you’ll find at the fair, just download the event flyer from the Landis Valley Museum website. The flyer has expanded to include a welcome letter and a map of the grounds with a legend of the specific vendor locations to make it much easier to find what you’re looking for.

Plant Vendors from Across Pennsylvania and Beyond

My To-Do list includes: 1). stopping by the Happy Cat Farm booth to see what interesting heirloom pepper plants they are offering this year, 2). picking up a few heirloom tomato seedlings from the students at Manheim Central’s Ag-Ed Program, and 3). checking out the grafted antique fruit trees over in the Backyard Fruit Growers area.

I’ll also make the rounds to explore what all of the vendors have to offer in the way of plants, trees, crafts, and other items of interest to the gardener. This year’s list shows vendors coming in from all across the state of PA and others traveling in from VA, CT, MD, DE, WV, and NY. If you are nearby it will be a great opportunity to join in and pick up some great plants for this season in the garden!

Tagged as:
Heirloom Plant Sale,
Herb Garden Faire

Other Related Vegetable Gardening Posts:

• Herb Garden Faire 2008
• Landis Valley Museum Herb Garden Faire
• 2007 Herb Garden Faire
• Landis Valley Farm Museum Herb Garden Faire
• 2006 Herb Garden Faire

Article source: http://www.veggiegardeningtips.com/25th-annual-herb-and-garden-faire/

Readers may be remember that I recently moved and downsized, especially in the size of the garden.  Above is the “before” shot of my new front* yard – a lawn with a couple of oversized boxwoods and a few ungainly azaleas.

While indoors is still a dirty, messy construction site – kitchen and dining reno’s still in progress, though at least the bathroom is completed – the completion of the new flagstone finally allowed me to start planting the garden around it.  I welcome your ideas on what’s done so far and what more could be added.

This shot shows the two connected rectangles that are the patio, which a designer friend suggested be flagstone because the color complements the gray building.  besides, flagstone is beautiful!  We made it large enough to be connected to the front door and still extend out into the yard where the sun is in the morning.  Surrounded by humongous oaks in this town, I feel lucky to have almost full sun on this side of my house, which I’ll enjoy even more with the help of an easy-crank market umbrella, for when the sun is too much.

In the foreground are the three Invincibelle Spirit Hydrangeas (H. aborescens) that I’m excited about.  It’s reported to have huge blooms on sturdy stems, and unlike its cousin Annabelle, those blooms are pink.  On the right is another view of the Invincibelles, shown behind the Japanese Carexes that do a great job creating filler in a new garden.  These rather dull but very useful plants are from my old garden, where they won’t be missed, as they’re just three of dozens of divisions from the original plant I bought 25 years ago.

Back to the hydrangeas – notice I bought three of them?  Despite the smallness of this garden, I’m trying my best to avoid the dreaded “onesies” – the tendency of plant-lovers like myself to buy one of everything.  You know the look – interesting, but kinda chaotic?    Even in tiny spaces, massing of plants is essential for the type of garden I seem to like best, so that’s the goal here.

Above is another example of massing – this time of the chartreuse-leaved Spirea ‘Ogon’ that you see in the foreground.  Love them!

The simple black bird bath was chosen it because it matches the black patio furniture.  Around it are other bird and butterfly-attracting features – some Agastache (the best plant I’ve ever grown for attracting hummingbirds), some ‘Red Husker’ Penstemon and a dwarf, sterile butterfly bush called ‘Blue Chip’.  I’ll be adding more plants to fill out the space and attract still more critters for me to watch from my patio and kitchen window.

From another angle you see, in the foreground right, the Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ that’s so new I haven’t even planted it yet, and I’ve already decided to replace it with some evergreens – five boxwoods along the border.  (I have a good spot for the Fothergilla in the back garden, which I can’t show you until the new porch is done – and I’m still in permitting hell on that project.) 

Above are five Apricot Drift roses.  Like the extremely popular Knockouts, Drifts bloom repeatedly throughout the season and are virtually (or literally) disease-free.  These guys will spread a bit to fill in, but won’t get any taller than a foot and a half or so. 

In front of the roses are a few Lamb’s Ears that a neighbor gave me, along with the weedy-but-beautiful Rose Campion (a weed to some, a beauty to my eyes), and a bunch of annuals that I’m hoping will make a big splash here this year, making up for the newness of all the shrubs and perennials, which won’t make a big splash until their second and later years.

In the pots are more annuals – especially Salvia, Petunias and sweet potato vine.   They’re SUCH great performers, I’ll be growing them even after the rest of the garden mature.

Behind the umbrella is the stunning Japanese Snowbell that’s technically my neighbor’s but the view and the fragrance are mine to enjoy.

Above is the view as I step out the front door.

Here’s a view of the foundation plantings, with some empty spots still to be filled in; e.g., in front of the old (existing) azaleas on the left.  This is the northwest side of the house, so foundation plantings get just an hour or so of late afternoon sun.   To the right of the door are three ‘Burgundy Wine’ Nandinas I just bought, chosen because the red foliage matches the red of the large Japanese maple nearby in my neighbor’s yard.  In front of them I’ve planted some of my favorite Euphorbias – E. amygdaloides.  It prefers almost complete shade and best of all, is evergreen. 

‘Goshiki’ Osmanthus and ‘Burgundy Wine’ Nandina

On either side of the front door are two brand-new ‘Goshiki’ Osmanthus, a plant I’ve coveted for years now.  They’re fine with no direct sun at all.

Finally, the view from a second-floor window. 
Plant list after the bump.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/FbwDkIosnWI/new-garden-ready-for-its-debut.html

Avast and belay! I couldn’t help but notice some familiar names on the Kickstarter list, so thanks to any of our readers who contributed to the Farmer Pirates Kickstarter campaign. They made their goal late last night, and will be able to expand their compost program, collecting food waste and other materials from throughout Buffalo and hauling it back to be used in large-scale compost production.

$15,000 was raised, 3k of it over the last 2 days of the campaign.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/Kn856iqPTnw/farmer-pirates-get-their-dump-truck.html

Our winner from last week’s Fiskars giveaway is Gerry, who is replacing lawn with vegetable garden.  Well done!  Thanks for playing, everybody.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GardenRant/~3/Q849dHhAldE/fiskars-uproot-weeder-winner.html