Plant of the Month November 2009-Camellias

From In the Garden

Do you all know how gardeners just have to have that one plant the 'experts' say they cannot grow? You know the one. It's usually hardy in one zone warmer or colder than yours. Or it is the plant that likes acid soil and you have only alkaline soil. Well for me it is the camellia. And the fact that camellias absolutely shine when they are in bloom or out of bloom coupled with their ease of care make them a favored plant of mine. In fact, I have chosen the camellia as my Plant of the Month for November. I think the bees agree don't you?

I lived in southern Alabama for a hot two years during my Army career. When I say hot, I mean hot. Really really hot and humid. I did not do much gardening there at all, but I did plant a a camellia. I had never seen camellias growing anywhere else I lived. They weren't in North Carolina, Maine or Germany (at least not in the areas I lived in). I had visions of seeing my camellia grow into a tall and handsome shrub while living in Alabama but I never did see that shrub grow because we had to move due to a new assignment. That's okay though because I figured I would at some point have another chance to grow camellias.
Once I moved into my current home I thought a camellia would be a nice plant to have here as well. Never mind I did not know they could not grow in my zone. The plants did not know they could not grow here and neither did my local big box stores. Nosirree. Lowes and Home Depot stocked camellias just like they stock oakleaf hydrangeas. Surely if they sell plants in my local big box stores then they must grow here? Right?I purchased my first camellia in a one gallon pot in 2002. I had no idea where I should put it but found a spot for it and in the ground it went. It grew and grew for about two years when I decided it needed to move 5 feet over. Big shock for the camellia yet it survived and even thrived and still it grew. Years went by and I became more involved in the garden circles and certain plant societies here in Middle Tennessee. I even attended a seminar by a local camellia expert that said camellias don't usually grow in northern Tennessee, but breeders are working on new ones that are more hardy (there's hope for you northern gardeners). Harumph I thought. Don't tell my little camellia it can't grow here. It was now over 10 feet tall and faithfully blooming each year. It has bloomed with snow on the ground, in frigid winds and hailstorms and has come through unscathed. It blooms in the sun and shade and lights up this side of my home.
In fact, the little camellia I first planted in 2003 has become a 12' tall camellia and invited several of its cousins and distant relatives to come here and live. I now have seven camellias growing happily in my garden. All of them are Camellia sasanquas with the exception of two; which are japonicas. I specifically seek out the sasanquas because my first camellia was and is a sasanqua. Besides its hardiness I just like saying the word sasanqua:) My first camellia is an unknown cultivar. I have the label that came with it but the label simply says 'camellia sasanqua'. It happens to be a camellia that blooms in the fall/winter time frame and is the one I am featuring in this post. There are many sasanquas that also bloom in the spring time as well. Oftentimes folks think camellias only bloom in the winter or spring or vice versa. They don't know about all the varieties that bloom at different times, and neither did I until I started adding more camellias to my garden. I currently have three camellias blooming. The other four will bloom in the spring and because all seven of my camellias are different cultivars they usually bloom at different times but sometimes overlap the bloom period. Needless to say I have camellias blooming here for a pretty long time. The one above is my most spectacular camellia because it is the biggest so it is usually the featured one on here. I have posted on the others as well though. Remember, one of my criteria for choosing a 'Plant of the Month' is that the plant must have more than one cultivar or variety that blooms easily and rewards the gardener because of its low care and spectacular bloom and growth habit. Camellias fit the bill when grown properly.

I wanted to share a few tips I have for growing camellias. I am no expert on growing camellias nor have I ever claimed to be an expert on anything I post on this blog. These tips are simply lessons learned through growing my camellias in different spots in my garden. They may not work for everyone but have worked well here. Remember, camellias are marginally hardy to my zone and are 'not supposed' to grow here. Here is the secret to successfully growing camellias in a cold zone-shhh-plant your camellias on the north side of something so as to protect them from the southern sun during the winter. What?? That doesn't make sense! It seems counter intuitive that you would plant camellias on the northern side of something (in my case my home and evergreen trees) because that area would be coldest. Yes! That is the point. Here is what happened when I planted a camellia in a protected southern exposure in my garden next to my deck. The sun shined on it during the winter and warmed up the leaves. Then the sun went down and the plant froze. The leaves turned brown and the plant began to decline right in front of me. I quickly moved the plant and it is doing fine now on the northern side of my deck. You do not want the plant to warm up and start its juices flowing only to be frozen at night. Therefore keeping a camellia on the northern side of a house ensures the sun never reaches the camellia and it will stay dormant-at least the above the ground part which is what counts in the winter.

More cultivation tips I have learned are that camellias appreciate a good mulch (I try to use pine needles I gather from the wild or from gardens but I also use oak leaves), they don't like to be disturbed, and the soil should be acidic (5.5-6) and contain a good amount of organic matter and be well drained. I do add a good acidic fertilizer in March to all of my camellias and hydrangeas as well. If you provide these conditions your camellias will reward you admirably each and every year and perhaps they'll be your plant of the month.

I hand prune my camellias lightly after bloom each year. I prefer the natural look so I mainly prune out errant branches. I have also limbed up a few camellias so that I can see the great structure of the trunks (note the picture of mine above); which are attractive in their own way. Camellias do seem to lend themselves to more formal pruning but why would you want to? The evergreen leaves themselves make this a shrub worth growing in the garden.

It is a clear winner and the most stunning specimen for November's Plant of the Month here at Tiger Gardens. Runners up were: Pineapple sage and mums.

What is your Plant of the Month for November?

in the garden....

Thinning the 'Goldsturm' Brown Eyed Susans

There comes a time in all of our lives when we must part ways with the things we love. It is that way with my Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm'; which had gotten way too thick. They have literally taken over and I can't see anything but them so it was time to thin them. What a job!

This small raised bed on the back side of our chain link fence near the driveway made quite an impact in the summer. The problem is that the bed is all yellow and nearly all one type of plant. You can't even see the lavenders, daylilies, Mexican sage, or phlox can you? I hate to think plants and get rid of them or replant elsewhere (which means more gardens), but it had to be done.

Back in the spring when these guys were just coming out of dormancy would have been the best time to thin them out and allow room for their neighbors. Silly me, I reasoned the plants could fight it out and wow what a big impact all the brown eyes would have when they were in bloom! That was before I lost sight of my other plants and decided enough was enough. Out they came! The first thing I did was cut off all blossoms. I know it is sad but I think it will help spare the plant's energy if the blooms are gone. Then I began the process of dismantling this garden. The 'Goldsturm' is a very hard plant to dig out. The roots and plants were all joined and well entrenched in the garden. There was more than one casualty due to the separation of roots from plants in the removal but I comfort myself in the fact the plants left behind will bounce back better than if the plants had not been removed.
I learned a big lesson having to thin these plants. That lesson being to do it when they are small and to do it religiously so that they do not out compete their neighbors. While the mass of brown eyes is pretty I wanted more variety and textures in this garden bed. After I added a good inch of compost and turned the soil, I planted six 'Blue Hill' salvia, three Patrina scabiosifolia 'Nagoda', and one 'Immaculee' peony. Already in the bed were two lavenders, one Mexican sage, and last but not least, a few of the brown eyes. There is also a crepe myrtle growing in the bed and it will stay. You can bet I'll be pulling the excess brown eyes next spring before they get too big. I don't want to be caught with the brown eyes being too thick....

in the garden....

Mulch and Cultivation Tips

How many gardeners love to receive a big pile of manure? Or get stars in their eyes when they find good composted and mulched leaves? How about it? Is this you? I bet it is! Or you would not be reading this blog.

The above pile of composted, shredded, oak leaves is about 20 feet long, by 10 feet wide, by 4 feet deep. Talk about a goldmine! Problem is that it is in my neighbor's yard. I finally got up the nerve to stop and ask the neighbor if he had plans for his pile. He jokingly said no, and that he kind of liked his pile there. I think he thought I was going to tell him he should do something with it and that it was an eyesore for passersby on my road. Not so at all! You really should've seen the look on his face when I asked him if I could have those composted leaves and how I'd dearly love to see them in my garden. Wiping the drool here now. He might have been a bit astonished. I mean it is not everyday a stranger stops by your house to beg you to let them have your dirty ole leaf pile in the front yard. A deal was struck, and lucky me!!

Out comes the handy trashcan. This pile was so thick and full that it takes about two minutes to load the leaves into this trashcan. I simply scoop them up with my hands. While doing this I got a bit of a shock when I saw something slithery moving quite quickly out of my way. At first I thought it was a snake as it was so fast. Then I thought maybe slugs since it was so big and slimy. A bit more digging revealed the truth-worms! Big fat juicy worms. My neighbor just happens to be a fisherman and retired First Sergeant. Maybe he should take up worm farming? Some of those worms came home with me-intentionally too. I don't think he'll miss them-do you?

Into the truck the leaves go-one trashcan after another. Then into the garden on top of many layers of newspapers. I am so determined NOT to water this summer that I am willing to do a bit of hard work this time of year in order to avoid mucho watering and weeding this summer. That's what I keep telling myself as I haul these leaves. It really helps me to be motivated too! Don't mind the big rock. It too found a home in my garden.

The whole point of this post is to tell you to get out there and mulch now in order to avoid weeding and watering this summer when it is hot and dry and yucky. Most of the mulch I applied last fall in the form of uncomposted leaves, has blown away. All my gardens up close to my chain link fence (away from the wind) have tons of leaves, but the gardens further into the yard are bare. These leaves I just got will stay put and add super good organic matter to the gardens and save this gardener a bunch of work later on in the season. Like Nike says, "Just do it!" Excuse me, I have to get back to mulching....

in the garden....

Today is my grandson's birthday, and I want to wish him a very happy HAPPY #2!!!

Mechanical Aeration Versus Liquid Aeration Revisited

I think it is about time for an update on mechanical aeration versus the liquid aeration. Daron has indeed updated me on the results of his attempt at chemically (liquid) aerating his lawn. The results are not good. According to him (and me by observation), there is no difference in the lawn; no improvement and no worsening of the compaction of his soil. The lawn is still struggling, and what grasses Daron has growing in his lawn are not doing any better than they were before he used Liquid Aerify.

That being said, can I say for sure that mechanical aeration would have worked better? We shall see on his lawn this fall because Daron and Nancy purchased a mechanical aerator and have aerated their lawn on my advice. They then reseeded it and did not overseed this year.

I use mechanical aeration on my lawn and I can tell you that I still stand by this method of reducing compaction in lawns and improving the lawn's growing conditions. Why you ask? For me the plugs that are removed when the lawn is aerated add good top soil on top of the lawn AND the holes left behind by removing the plugs enables amendments to reach further into the soil. Additionally, my cool season fescue lawn requires re-seeding fairly frequently to stay looking good, the holes hold the seed in place in order for them to take hold and grow. Liquid aeration cannot do this. This is the big difference between liquid aerify and mechanical aeration. Can you see the removed plug above? No-this is NOT doggie doo! And the hole left by removing the plug? This is where the seeds and fertilizer will fall into and reach the roots of the grass much quicker than if they are just spread on the surface of the lawn with no plugs removed. Do not overseed and fertilize at the same time. Most fertilizers have additives that prevent germination of seed, this includes grass seed!

Liquid aerify, while it will not hurt the soil, cannot reach down far enough to allow other amendments and even itself to get to the deep roots of the lawn grasses. When I say deep, really most lawn grasses growing in clayey soil have roots that only reach about 2-3 inches deep. This is not deep at all, but without the removal of plugs, most amendments will work down to this area only after many years.

My suggestion to viewers is to save your money, mechanically aerate your lawn and apply a good top dressing of compost instead of liquid aerify. In life we know the easy way is not always going to work and most always never works. Go ahead and make the investment of an aerator (about $200) and you'll be set for at least 20 years, if not more if you take good care of your aerator.

Do any of you gardeners out there have experience with Liquid Aerify or a personal opinion of the effectiveness of it over mechanical aeration?

in the garden....

Raised Beds

I have recently been reminded of raised bed gardening. Dave at the Home Garden (http://thehomegarden.blogspot.com/) made some cool raised beds for his vegetable garden. My friend Geri feels her very best tip for successful gardening in Tennessee was to use raised beds. Lastly, Lola, my faithful commenter, reader and friend who lives in Florida, sent me some pictures of a raised bed her niece designed and built. Pretty good pictures of the bed too Lola!

I like the neatness of them, and I can clearly see they are functional. Just look at the veggies trailing over the edge. Lola's niece must be a gardener to have such a neat and tidy garden bed with so much lushness. Maybe she has the gardening gene from her Aunt Lola?

Raised beds need not be fancy. Raised beds can be a simple as a mound of soil, or as complicated and exotic as mortared stone walls and everything in between.

Reasons for using raised beds in gardening are varied. Geri says her soil is solid clay with a lot of large and small rocks. Her daughter has been digging a hole for two weeks now and has made the hole only about 6 inches deep in that two weeks! That is not much progress. I jokingly suggested she get Clare a pick axe. She didn't like the joke too much but replied raised beds are the way to go. I had forgotten that in this area it can be very hard to dig for those who have rocks and clay. I am blessed with no rocks or clay.

In addition to raised beds being good alternatives for growing plants in, versus the normal rock and clay, they also improve drainage and warm up faster in the spring time. Many raised beds can be built so as to be accessible for the handicapped as well.

Another gardening friend, Debbie, is growing a vegetable garden using the square foot method. I generally use the French Intensive method of growing vegetables, but this square foot method is similar, and does utilize raised beds. It dictates you must use a specific type of soil and exactly lay out the 12" squares. Debbie purchased a huge bag of vermiculite and mixed her own special mix for her raised beds. She then added a grid to the top of her beds, and planted in the square boxes created by the grid. I am looking forward to seeing how she does with the square foot raised bed method.

The last picture is of one of my raised beds in my vegetable garden. I have always gardened in raised beds, but usually did not have a formal box around them. No, my style of gardening has always been a bit informal with a pile of dirt mounded up and vegetables stuck in it everywhere. That all changed last fall when I had to move my vegetable garden and decided to brick in the walkways. I actually like the neatness and ease of the built beds. Now hopefully my veggies will not sprawl everywhere.

The trellis (A-frame) in this bed is what I will grow my gourds upon. I was not able to grow gourds last year due to the drought, I am making up for that by over planting this year. All my friends (even the far away ones) can expect gourds for gifts. I am not done with making the A-frames and still have two more to make. I will most likely post on my method and show some pictures. It has taken me awhile to get it right. The old method I used for vertical gardening was not working at all.

Raised beds are really the way to go for all gardening. Raised beds not only improve drainage, bring the flowers closer to you, and warm up faster in the spring, but they also provide all of the plants a very good stage for showing off. Just look at Lola's niece's plants and how much nicer they look in the raised bed.

Today is Zachary's 12th birthday. Zachary is Anonymous's son. One more year and he will join his older brother in becoming a teenager. Ooooo scary.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACHARY!

in the garden....

Lawns

Okay, I will start talking about lawns, specifically what works for me and my lawn. When Mr. Fix it and I moved here almost seven years ago there was no lawn. The house had been empty for more than four months between the months of May and August. No one thought to have anyone cut the lawn. What a nightmare. When we finally moved in the owner (or someone) was ready to spring for a lawncare man to come and cut the grass. The lawncare guy was so worried he might run into trees, debris and equipment buried under all the weeds that he did a long recon first. I thought it funny. But only as long as it took me to realize that jungle formerly known as a lawn would be my mess to clean up. Six and half years later I can honestly say it has come a long way.

We started with way more yard than we have now. Also, way more trees. Despite cutting down about 50 trees, we probably have that many still in the yard. Why do I mention trees? Well, with trees comes shade, grass does not like the shade. I like the shade though, so together the trees, us, and the grass have come to an uneasy peace which suits all. It works because I fortunately have the time to baby the grass.

Fescue does the best in shade over all other grasses. Though you can't tell that to the errant Bermuda grass which self seeds into my nice green fescue lawn. I hate Bermuda grass because it is so invasive. But, that being said, I do not begrudge anyone their warm season grasses such as Bermuda, Centipede, St. Augustine (more common further south than here), and Zoysia, they just aren't for me. Since I only grow fescue, what works for me will be tailored to my fescue lawn, but the same basic principles apply to warm season grasses with the exception of mowing height, winter color, and seeding. I will try to mention some differences as we go along.

Fescue is a type of grass that clumps rather than runs with stolons, which is what warm season grasses do. Warm season grasses are so much more forgiving and quicker to establish because they do run. Since fescue clumps, it tends to get thin during the year, not just in the summer when it is likely to go dormant due to drought. I have seeded my fescue every year for the past four years. The best time to overseed a fescue lawn is in late September, then you should plan to add fertilizer or amendments such as lime in late October or mid November. I have done it many different ways and experimented with the timing so believe me when I say this is the best way to overseed. Overseeding is really the only way to have a great looking and thick fescue lawn. I don't mind really. It is all a work of love because I do love my lawn, you might call me a desperate lawn wife as I spend an awful lot of time on it. So, first tip for fescue, overseed each year.

The next and very, very important tip is to soil test! I was always a gardener who thought that with good cultural practices I did not need a soil test simply because my soil would be good. Yeah right. When I had a soil test done two years ago it showed a ph for the front yard was something like 5.6, and the backyard was like 4.9. Very low and acidic. Lawn grasses like a ph somewhere between 6.0 and 7.0, with about a 6.5 being ideal. The soil report recommended that I add 100 pounds of lime per 1000 feet. My front yard alone is 4000 square feet of grass so that would translate into 400 pounds of lime just for it. QUITE a bit of lime in my little Buick and too much for me at one time. I instead opted for 50 pounds per 1000 square feet that year, and this year I applied the other 50 pounds. It takes a long time for the lime to change the ph and I wanted to see if adding lime would make that much of a difference. It actually did and this year I expect even sweeter things from my lawn. I had tried to use chemical fertilizers and weedkillers to get the lawn grass growing fast and that had been my mistake. Chemical fertilizers, when used over time, have a tendency to acidify a soil, so they are best used in moderation. Say, once per year in October for fescue, in April or May for warm season grasses. So, tip number two for a great lawn is to soil test and adjust for ph if necessary. Use chemical fertilizers sparingly.

Prior to overseeding I always aerate my lawn, front and back. Lawns are one of those gardens where cultivation is not really an option. But we walk and play and garden on our lawns which causes damage to the grass and compacts the soil. Compacted soil is not a good situation for any growing thing. The ideal mix of your soil should be 25% air, 25% water, and 50% soil. Compaction drives out the air so plant roots are not able to breath or move through the soil. Grass growth is stunted. Aeration, while not a perfect solution to compaction does helps the situation. Small core aerators are that can be attached to the back of a riding lawn mower are very reasonably priced and are a great help when striving for a nice lawn. I use mine about three times a year and ALWAYS before overseeding or adding amendments. Aerating in the winter works best as the wet cool soil is easier to aerate than when it is hard and dry as the soil usually is in the summer. I leave the plugs on the lawn to be washed down by the rain and weather. It is extremely muddy for a week or so, then you would never know I had aerated the lawn. The holes left by mechanical aeration help to hold seed or lime or fertilizer and to get the amendments closer to the root system of the existing grass. Also, aeration has saved me from losing all of my newly laid seed one year when we had an unexpected thunderstorm. I was sure all the seed washed away and was delighted when I saw it sprouting in the little holes left by aeration about a week later. Tip number three for a nice lawn, aerate regularly and always before overseeding or applying amendments.

Another very important part of lawn maintenance if you are starting from scratch or worse, like I did, is to get rid of the weeds. Easier said than done. I have spent countless hours all throughout the year with a fishtail weeder in hand, a wheelbarrow in tow, bent over pulling those dastardly weeds! This winter is the first winter I have not had to literally spend hours each week and I finally feel my hard work has paid off. The weeds I most have to dig are: dandelions (you really need to dig deep and dispose of the weed-don't compost it!), plantains (I love hostas but minature hosta like plants in the lawn are not what I had in mind), goose grass (the absolutely worse-see the two small pictures above), nutsedge (likes the shady moist areas in my lawn). I feel you need to remove the weeds prior to them going to seed to prevent the next season's crop, and removing weeds helps ensure you lawn grass can compete on an unlevel playing field. In the shade lawn grass needs all the help it can get. I also have problems with wild strawberries (very difficult to deal with because of the runners), and wild violets. I am still mad about those violets. I had no idea they would spread so doggoned much into the lawn when I purchased that innocent looking violet at-of ALL places-a master gardener sale here in Montgomery County. I still sting to think I bought such an invasive plant from this plant sale. I learned my lesson almost to the point of being fanatic about invasive plants like obedient plant and artemisia being sold by master gardeners. I usually don't say anything but I will definitely NOT buy any plants there. There are perhaps easier ways of getting rid of weeds, but I like to try to be organic and don't like pesticides, therefore I have not used chemical sprays or such to get rid of the weeds, instead preferring to hand dig them. This is not for everyone and if you use pesticides that is certainly your right, just be sure to read the label and follow instructions to the letter. So, fourth tip to a great lawn, remove weeds.

Another important chore for a great looking fescue lawn is to remove leaves in the fall. The warm season grasses are better equipped to deal with excess leaves since they run, but fescue will smother under leaves and debris and will not bounce back. Weeds will set in and you will be back at square one. Tip number five is to remove leaves from your lawn in the fall and compost.

The last tip is probably the most MOST important tip. It is also the easiest and simplest way to ensure you have a great looking lawn even if you don't follow the first four tips. Are you ready?! Mow your lawn properly and often. These two simple tasks are where most homeowners fail in their endeavors to have a good looking lawn. Even if they do all of the above it is all for naught if they don't mow properly. For fescue lawns it will mean mowing AT LEAST twice weekly from early March well into November. If you have a lawn person mowing your lawn, I understand it is VERY expensive to do so and you may not want to spring for an extra mowing, this would be the time to supplement the mowing with your own mowing. I can't stress this enough. In the past four years that I have been intensively gardening (since I retired from the Army), I have faithfully mowed my lawn at least twice a week with the exception of this past summer when my lawn finally turned completely brown and went dormant. In that case I only mowed about once a week. Fescue should never be mowed lower than 3 inches in the summer time. Additionally, you should never mow more than a third of the grass blade off at any one time. Therefore you need to mow the lawn when it has about an inch of new growth. This doesn't take long, especially if you fertilize and if we have plenty of rains. Even in the shade my lawn tends to grow quickly. For fescue, I do mow a little lower in March and April to encourage tillering. Once the weather starts getting hot though, the cutting heighth of the mower comes up. My lawn probably always seems like it needs to be cut but for fescue you truly want it long. The length helps to shade the grass roots and the soil. Sometimes weed seeds are not able to germinate because of the shade provided by long grass, additionally water is not lost as fast when the lawn is cut long. Now, for warm season grasses you can cut them much shorter but you still want to cut regularly and not let them get too long. Bermuda should probably be cut to a heighth of 1.5 inches or so. You can plan on cutting it when it reaches about 2 inches or so, keeping in mind that you do not want to cut off more than one third of the grass blade in any one cutting. When you cut your lawn frequently and properly, make sure you leave the grass blades on the lawn, they will quickly decompose and add much needed nitrogen to the soil. I recently heard or read somewhere that when you leave a season's worth of grass clippings on your lawn, it adds the equivalent of 1 pound of nitrogen to the soil! Now, if you don't cut properly and have gabs of grass, make sure you rake the grass clippings up for your compost so it does not smother the grass. This is not the proper way to mow and you will have many weeds and weak grass if you mow in this manner. The last and final tip of this very long post, is to cut your lawn frequently and in the correct manner prescribed for your type of grass.

If you follow these tips you will be sure to be the envy of the neighborhood (never a problem for me since most of my neighbors can't see my lawn-the way I like it!). Yes, lawn grasses take a lot of time, but it is worth it to have the beautifully maintained house with super curb appeal. Additionally, great lawns really set off the gardens. Believe it or not, in my yard even with all the gardens, the thing that takes the MOST amount of time and maintenance and money IS the lawn. That is one reason I try to take out lawn and put in gardens (hubby doesn''t agree-but then again, he does not maintain the yard-I do!). Lawn mowing, overseeding, fertilizing, raking, and weeding all take a tremendous amount of time and sometimes money, but lawns require it.

Enjoy the video. I thought it fitting since cows also like grass, not to look at, but to chew! They do a great job of fertilizing the pasture too and I really enjoy my neighbor's cows out back of my garden. I have included a couple of pictures of my lawn grass. The first picture was taken in August 07 and even without watering you can see the grass (fescue) is a lovely shade of green! I do think the shade may help, but proper mowing is the biggest, simplest, easiest thing I do for my lawn. The second picture was taken in 2004 and the lawn was not quite where I wanted it to be. It was well on its way though after having been infested with 6 foot tall pokeweed and who knows what else just three years before. Like I have said before, gardening takes time and anyone who thinks they can create an ideal garden overnight either has an awful lot of money (then the garden only looks good for a short time because you still have to maintain it!) or is a bit naive about the nature of gardening.

in the garden....enjoying the green, cool, soft grass underfoot.

Mulches

Talking about raking leaves and using them in my garden brings me to the general subject of mulches. Mulches are a gardeners best friend. They help to moderate the soil temperature in the winter and summer by providing an insulating blanket, conserve water by slowing down evaporation, and reduce weeds by preventing light from reaching the weed seeds and also by being a barrier to weeds.

Moderating soil temperatures in the wintertime helps to prevent heaving of plants with the alternate freeze and thaw spells we tend to have in the southeast. When the ground freezes plants can be pushed out of place-especially shallow rooted plants like heucheras (coral bells). Once the thaw comes (and it will here during the winter) you can push the plant back into place but the damage may already be done in the form of root loss. The plant will need a period to recover which will certainly slow down growth in the spring. Mulch will insulate the ground and hopefully keep it frozen or at least prevent a deep freeze of soil and slow down the big thaw when it comes. This benefit is exactly what plants need in the winter and may prevent plant heaving. Plus, a bed of mulch is just what my garden needs to sleep warmly during the wintertime! Knowing the gardens are tucked in for the winter gives me such a feeling of peace-strange, I know. I guess it is the fact I don't have anything else to do until late January-February timeframe when the bulbs start poking their noses up out of the ground, and the hellebores begin their very long period of bloom.

Moderating soil temperatures involves mulch shading the soil, which will help to keep the soil cool. If the soil stays just a little cooler with the mulch then water loss is lessened and plants do not suffer as much stress from the heat and sun of our summers.

Conserving water is especially crucial with the recent droughts. I am not a person who can see into the future, but I anticipate we gardeners all across the country are going to have to adjust our way of thinking away from water loving plants toward plants that are able to take care of themselves and survive droughts if need be. It is very possible next year may be a great year for gardening, then again we have the possibility of another year like 2007. I for one do not want to be outside watering for hours at a time as I have better things to do (believe it or not!). Mulches help to slow down evaporation by providing a layer between the soil and the air. Mulches also serve to slow down what rain water we do receive and can actually catch the rain and gently direct it into the soil beneath them. Mulches help prevent soil erosion by providing a soft, usually porous layer for rainwater to fall upon.

Lastly, mulches help prevent weeds. I have never seen a mulch which could totally prevent weed growth, but mulches will slow down weeds. Another benefit of organic mulches is that the soil beneath them becomes more friable and workable. So whatever weeds do manage to grow are quite easy to hand pull.

I am a big fan of organic mulches like compost, leaves (shredded is the best way to use these), pine needles, hay, and even grass clippings. Organic mulches are free, readily available and will improve the soil tilth over time. Many gardeners have clay soil which can be as hard as a brick in the summer and as mucky as sewage in the wintertime. Organic mulches help to combat those two problems by increasing soil aggregates and improving the drainage and workability. Organic mulches do not add a great deal in the area of fertilizers so the fertility of soils will still need to be managed.

I do not like inorganic mulches like black plastic, rocks, and shredded tires. Inorganic mulches do not allow the soil to breathe and if you do plant ornamentals in them, the roots may grow above, through or under the inorganic mulch. My home had five foot tall compacta hollies (thought it was boxwood but it is actually compacta) which had been mulched with black plastic and covered with shredded bark. When my oldest son, Brian and I dug those hollies out the roots were growing all through the mulch ABOVE the plastic and in the six inches of mulch left there over the years. Weeds were also growing well in the mulch above the plastic. What a mess! And this example only includes hollies, imagine what would have happened if something like irises or daylillies were planted among the black plastic. When the perennials spread the plastic will get in the way and will cause a maintenance headache.

Aesthetically mulches look good. They can add so much to your landscaping and the selection of mulches should be based on the gardener's preference and level of maintenance he or she is willing to perform on the garden. Inorganic mulches have a tendency to spread themselves around the yard (especially rocks) and will need to be tidied up frequently. (What a pain to mow over all those errant rocks) On the other hand, organic mulches require renewal every year or two depending on the type you use. I use pine needles around my house. I collect the pine needles for free from my one pine tree out front, and from Fort Campbell. I generally use leaves everywhere else but add a layer of straw and newspapers to the vegetable garden after planting the summer garden in April-May. Every now and then I take a trip to Bi-County to buy a truck load of shredded wood mulch for $10 for use in new gardens. I never ever use chipped and/or shredded wood near my house for fear of termites. I don't think it is a good idea to even use the "treated" stuff around your house. Pine needles are a better choice. Pine needles only need to be renewed every other year in my yard and I think that is a great deal! Of course, I always hate it on those years the pine needles have to be redone-like this year.

The first picture shows my front garden with a pine needle mulch after one year in the wintertime, and the second picture shows a back garden with a leaf mulch in the summer. The last picture is of this years results after raking pine needles from Fort Campbell. I love the look and think it matches the house nicely. It seems like I have so many pine needles and leaves in the winter then come summer the mulches seem to disappear. I ask myself every year "Where do they go?" It is just Mother Nature working her magic recycling the organic mulches back into the earth and the process is so gradual that I don't even notice the loss of the mulch until it is all gone. Most people have some pine needles and leaves and if you don't, you might have a neighbor willing to share.

Today is a raking day and I am going to rake and bag some pine needles from some fellow freecyclers. Now all of you freecyclers know exactly what I do with pine needles and thanks for offering your extra ones!

in the garden....

Dividing Perennials

Dividing perennials is one of my least favorite chores in the garden. I think my favorite chores are raking the yard and pruning with my hand clippers. Anyhow, now is the time to divide perennials. There are two general reasons to divide perennials, one is to make more of the perennial and the other is to rejuvenate an overgrown perennial. Fall is the ideal time to divide because the plant is usually ready to go dormant, there is plentiful moisture, and the soil is still warm enough for good root growth. I think it is important to time the division so that the perennial can get reestablished before really cold weather sets in, but as long as there is moisture in the ground and the ground is not frozen, you can probably divide up to December, then begin again in February.

Some perennials which should be divided at some point are: Red hot Pokers, daylillies, shasta daisies, hostas, sedums, irises, coreopsis, yarrows, lambs ears, oreganos, cone flowers, brown eyed susans, dianthus, phlox, ornamental grasses, gladiolus, crocosmia, spireas, alliums, ferns, and peonies. This list is not all inclusive, just some that come to mind in my garden. Notably missing perennials include: Russian Sage, salvias, mums (although I have had success in dividing some mums), and gaura. I start these from cuttings because they do not divide well.

I have a very long and wide and perennial border on the north side of my property (pictured above). This border has been sparse for many years to say the least as it is so large and my budget does not allow for instant gratification. I have started shasta daisies from seed and planted them, divided daylillies and stuck them in here and many other plants but the border has not been full because I have had to spread out the plants. My plan was to repeat everything in a uniform manner. I made sure I planted one daylily every five feet and one shasta every five feet and so on. The problem is one of anything does not work in a large garden, even if it is repeated every five feet. My saving grace was the fact I knew all of the perennials I planted would eventually grow enough they could be divided. The time has come! Where I had just one shasta I now have five or six. They will still be thin for a year or two but they will fill in and make the impact in this border I am seeking. The cost in dollars to increase your plantings from division is ZERO-so what a bargain. The costs wind up being the amount of time of you are willing to wait before you can divide your one of everything.

in the garden....

Liquid Aerify vs Mechanical Aeration

A friend (Daron) asked me to give my opinion on a product called Liquid Aerify, a product sold by Nature's Lawn and Garden, Inc. Stuart Franklin is the President. The product claims to loosen and aerate our tight clay soils and is all biological. This is the first I have heard of it and was wondering if anyone had ever used it and if it produced results. The website has several testimonials from satisfied customers. I think if the product is all biological and the homeowner has time to wait for it to work then it might be worth trying.

I would still aerate my lawn though. I think mechanical aeration is beneficial for lawns because not only does it pull out cores of soil which then allows seed, fertilizer and rain to reach deeper into the soil, but the pulled cores of soil stay on top of the soil and mix back into it-essentially building a small layer of soil on top of the grass. I like this for my challenged lawn. I have a little aerator which has saved me a lot of time and money because I can do the job myself. I aerate my lawn about three times a year, when it is wet and prior to reseeding or liming. So, in short I don't think Liquid Aerify would hurt, and might help but mechanical aeration is still an important lawn maintenance step as well. Do any readers have experiences with Aerify?

in the garden....