Ten Minute Gardening » Plants, Trees and Shrubs

Going, Going, Gone!

Bert — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:53:46 +0000

Euonymus... going, going, gone!

We have bee enjoying some unusually warm weather this past week. The daytime temps have reached in the high forties – low fifties (Fahrenheit). Normal highs for this time of year are below freezing. The mounds of snow that have been blanketing the lawns and gardens are disappearing quickly, leaving pools of water in our drainage challenged yard.

Obviously it is far too early to begin any sort of spring clean up, but this week, we could not resist the temptation to do some yard work. What we settled on was removing the Manitoba maple that has been growing wild and clogging up the drainage ditch that runs along the north side of the property. Within half an hour, using just a hand saw and an axe, the multi-stemmed tree was gone. The next day, the ditch was running freely for the first time. And also for the first time, the ditch did not overflow its banks, sparing our already water logged lawn.

With the snow melting, we have a clearer picture of the damage winter and “critters” have done to some of our shrubs. As usual, the quince and roses have been pruned by rabbits. Not a big deal. Unfortunately, the rabbits have also trimmed our new Japanese maple!! That is a big deal. On the plus side, they didn’t chew the main trunk (because it is wrapped in chicken wire), just some of the more tender branches. Careful pruning and trimming will get in back into shape. But not yet – it’s far too early for trimming.

In December, we had a blizzard blow through this area. The wind, snow and ice managed to snap the trunk of a euonymus standard growing in one of the gardens. Thank you Mother Nature!!! I detest euonymus and have wanted that ugly abomination out of our yard for years. No more arguments between my partner-in-grime and me about that as now it has to go. As soon as the ground thaws enough to get shovel down to root level, it’s bye-bye euonymus. With any luck, this will be the last spring I have to weed out the dozens and dozens of tiny seedlings it produced every year. Talk about silver linings!

Small Changes

Bert — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:19:14 +0000

Have you ever noticed how “things” can snowball? For instance, this week I purchased new towel bars for the bathroom. Changing them out was to be a simple way to update the bathroom. While taking the old towel bars off, the degree to which the paint on the walls had faded screamed at me. Hearing my rather loud “Oh no!”, my partner in grime came in to see what the problem was. His solution? “Let’s repaint the bathroom!” Since we have nothing but time these days, I said “why not?” Now at the end of day three of the simple update, we are finally ready to install the new towel bars.

That is just one example of what can happen when a simple tweaking can take on a life of its own and grow into something much larger than originally intended. So it is in the garden as well.

Last fall, during the season end clearance sales, we purchased the cutleaf Japanese maple (Acer palatum dissectum Inabe Shidare) we had both been wanting for many years. Purchasing it was the easy part. Once we got it home, the discussions began on where to plant it. Let’s just say the only thing we did agree on was the maple would be planted in the back garden where we spend most of our time and could therefore fully enjoy it.

We began the process of trying to agree on its final home by moving the small tree (still in its pot) around the yard. Agreement didn’t happen. So imagine my surprise when I came home from work a few weeks later to find that the maple had been planted! As a result, this spring we will be moving a Dwarf Korean lilac (Syringa patula) standard, several Stella D’Oro plants, three hibiscus, some rocks and, some boulders. Plus we will need to widen and re-shape the bed! The yew can stay where it is.

All that work because of one little tree! I shudder to think of will come about when I add to the perennial bed.

Harvesting Christmas Greenery

Bert — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:29:33 +0000

Harevested greenery in waiting

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to begin decorating. At our house the Christmas decorating begins outside around the middle of November. I like to use fresh evergreens and grapevines outdoors. Because I’m rather “thrifty” shall we say, I refuse to purchase evergreen boughs. Instead, I harvest my own.

I start by making note of which evergreens are looking well enough to harvest, and which can be pruned without affecting the appearance and future shape of the evergreen.

Using a variety of evergreens provides more depth, texture and interest to an arrangement than using one or two varieties.

Tools needed are: hand pruners, loppers and a pail of water.

Harvest with an eye to shaping the tree and/or shrub rather than cutting willy nilly.

A straight cut is made to remove the branch from the plant.

Next cut the stem you’ve just harvested at a sharp angle.

Place the stem of the harvested branch into the pail of water.

Continue harvesting until you have enough materials to make your wreath, swag or planters.

When you do have enough materials, change the water in the pail, and add Christmas tree preservative.

Re-cut each of the stems (angled cut) and put them in the fresh water.

Set the pail in a cool, shaded location (garage or unheated shed) until you are ready to begin creating your decorations.

Suggested evergreens:

Boxwood

Cedar

Euonymus (variegated for colour)

Juniper (be sure to get stems with berries on them!)

Spruce

Yew (berries don’t last long on cut stems)

Suggested deciduous:

Redtwig dogwood

Yellow dogwood

Curly willow

Grape vine

Tree branches with interesting shapes

NOTE: do not place these stems in water

Accents:

Evergreen cones

Rose hips

Teasel

*Hydrangea blooms

*Silver dollar seed casings

NOTE: do not place these in water

* Use only where arrangement will be protected from wind, rain and snow.

Over Wintering Potted Plants

Bert — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:37:02 +0000

A few of the new shrubs waiting to be heeled in

Though the 2009 gardening season is quickly winding down, there is still a lot of gardening to be enjoyed.

For instance, fall has become one of my favourite times of year not because of the colours and cooler temperatures, but because of the deals to be had at the local greenhouses and nurseries!

We have one local grower that is offering all, yes, all, four inch pots of perennials for $.99! Even those regularly priced at $5.99 and $6.99!! Makes resisting the urge to squeeze more plants into an already overflowing bed very difficult. And of you have decided to renovate your perennial gardens, you can do so without spending a fortune. Check out your local growers for awesome bargains in late fall.

Trees and shrubs are also dirt cheap these days. Matter of fact, yesterday I succumbed to the lure of a great deal on several shrubs that have long been on my wish list. What is a great deal? Less than wholesale! And they were purchased from a grower not a reseller, so I know I’m getting quality plants, not the beaten up ones that they couldn’t sell during the height of the season.

Will I (we) get all these plants into the ground before freeze-up? No, especially now that my other half has decided to get in on the landscape design. So what will happen to the plants over winter? We’ll heel them in and hold them over until next spring. That will give “himself” and me time to hash out a compromise over the winter.

For new gardeners that have never attempted to heel-in plants, here’s how we do it:

Dig a trench in a protected area of your yard as wide and deep as the plants’ pots. If you have several different sized pots, put all the same sized together. Yes, you may end up digging a few trenches, but just think of the work out you’ll be getting!

Set the plant, pot and all in the trench leaving a few inches between the pots.

Backfill around the pots with soil to the top of the pot.(Do not bury the stem of the plant.)

Cover the entire trench including the tops of the pots with at least two inches of mulch.

Water them in and keep them watered until they are covered with a blanket of snow. Top up the mulch as it settles.

Next spring as them temperature begins to warm up, slowly remove the mulch.

Water regularly once the snow is gone until you are ready to plant them in beds.

Amaryllis belladonna

Bert — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:27:04 +0000

An interesting late summer flowering bulb that is not a common sight is Amaryllis belladonna a.k.a. Naked Lady.

Its tall stem is crowned with a ring of pale pink trumpet shaped blooms similar in to the indoor Amaryllis, but the flowers are smaller and finer looking.

An oddity of Amaryllis belladonna is its habit of producing leaves in the spring which then die off before the flower stems form.

If you are looking for height, late summer flowers and something out of the ordinary, consider putting a Naked Lady in your garden!

Bulb

Hardy in zones 5 – 9

Height 24” – 30”

Flowers – 6 – 10 pale pink cluster of 3” wide trumpets in mid to late summer

Leaves – lance shaped medium green

Light – full sun to part sun

Planting Season – late summer or early fall

Soil – well drained soiled amended with compost or manure

Depth – plant at least 9” deep in northern areas

Fertilizer – use a water soluble 15-30-15 when the leaves appear or top dress the bed with compost or manure

Propagation – remove bulblets from larger bulbs

Other – do not disturb the bulbs unless you intend to propagate them. Amaryllis belladonna resents being disturbed
May also be grown in containers

Rose-Scented Geranium Cake

Bert — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:14:45 +0000

To further entice you to try growing scented geraniums, here is a recipe that uses scented geranium leaves. I have baked this cake many times and am always delighted with the subtle flavour rose scented geranium leaves give to an ordinary white cake!

For an alternative, try using lemon scented geraniums and making a glaze with fresh lemon juice.

Wash leaves in plain water and gently blot the leaves dry with a towel
Grease your cake pan as usual
Place scented geranium leaves on the bottom and along the sides of the pan (the butter, cooking spray or shortening will hold the leaves in place).
Prepare a white cake mix according to the instructions on the box and pour into prepared cake pan. Even better is a white cake made from scratch!
Bake as directed.
When the cake has cooled, remove all of the leaves and discard.
Frost with a simple white frosting or a glaze. For added flavour, try adding a drop or two of culinary grade rose water to the frosting.

Scented Geraniums

Bert — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:08:18 +0000

Apple Scented Geranium

If Lavender is the queen of herbs, then Scented Geraniums have to be the court jesters as they have the ability to fool you with their varied scents. Close your eyes as you sniff the leaves of a scented geranium and you would swear you are smelling roses, or apples, or lemons or mint, or pine. Even chocolate, though it does take a bit more imagination to smell that fragrance.

Scented geraniums or pelargoniums, are a fascinating group of about 250 plants. Typically they are grown for their fragrant foliage, rather than their flowers which are less showy than their cousins of the garden varieties we know too well. Their foliage ranges in shape from fern like, to tiny bunches to large fan shapes. The leaves can be plain green, have dark purple veins, or are variegated, so they are quite capable of holding their own in the garden, as they provide important foliar interest.

Okay, they smell good and have interesting foliage, but what do you do with them? What don’t you do with them?! Aside from being the perfect potpourri ingredient, scented geraniums are surprisingly, at home in the kitchen. To a lesser degree they are used medicinally and in aromatherapy.

Tender perennials, scented geraniums must be over wintered indoors. Not difficult in theory, but when attempting to trick Mother Nature, problems will and do occur.

The first step in bringing your scenteds in for the winter is to get rid of any little creatures that may be hiding in the foliage. Do this by spraying the foliage with water (outdoors!). Hopefully, you will wash all or most of the beasts off the plants.

Next, cut the plants back by at least one third. Save the leaves and dry them for potpourris or, use them fresh in recipes.

Place the pots in a sunny window where they will receive at least four hours of direct sunlight a day, in or lighted plant stand. Allow the pots to dry out between waterings. Do not fertilize in the winter months. The goal is to maintain the plants, not promote vigorous growth. Snip off any spindly new growth as it appears. In late March you can begin fertilizing the plants once a week with a half strength 20-20-20 water soluble fertilizer.

Scented geraniums, when grown indoors, unfortunately seem to be a magnate for whiteflies and to a lesser degree, aphids, spider mite and mealy bug. At the first sign of infestation, wash the insects off with water in the kitchen sink, using a fine spray. You will have to repeat this every week for a few weeks. If washing the insects off does not control the population, you will need to resort to using an insecticidal soap such as Safer’s. Follow the instructions on the bottle and repeat every week for about three weeks. Yellow sticky traps, placed just above the plant canopy, are another useful tool for combating insects, but not as effective as the first two methods.

For an amazing selection of scented geraniums, order a copy of Richters Herbs catalogue (see Sources). You will be hard pressed to select just a few to order. Some of the better garden centres will have a good selection to choose from, though not as numerous as Richters. If you are fortunate enough to have a herb farm in your area, they should have a good number of varieties available as well.

Wave Good-bye to Petunias

Bert — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:50:04 +0000

No petunias allowed!

Warning: This article may be offensive to some gardeners. Reader discretion is advised!

For the life of me, I cannot believe that petunias are the annual of choice for so many gardeners! Every where I look I see petunias in gardens, hanging baskets and containers. There is no escaping them! Talk about cookie cutter landscaping!

Why? Why do so many gardeners plant petunias? What is the attraction? Is it because petunias are drought tolerant? Low Maintenance? Showy? Is it because they are easy and cheap? For the life of me, I just don’t understand why so many people like petunias! One theory of mine is the marketing behind the petunia. The gardening public has been inundated with adverts telling us that petunias are the wave of the gardening past, present and future. Well I say it’s time gardeners waved goodbye to petunias!

Petunias are one of the few plants that I will not allow on my property and I include calibrachoas in that ban. Now, I have grown petunias in my garden and, in my greenhouses. Thirty years ago when I was first learning to garden, petunias were the recommended annual for a novice gardener. I soon learned of their shortcomings and within two gardening seasons I came to detest petunias and my garden to be a petunia-free zone. So intense is my dislike of the petunia, when I was operating the greenhouses, my staff could always tell when I was planting petunia seeds by the frozen scowl on my face and the constant muttering coming from the propagation area. Even with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (the most beautiful music ever composed) playing in the background, I my mood could not improve until the last petunia seed of the day was planted.

Why do I detest petunias? I find them boring, blowsy, overused and just plain ugly! Not to mention they become weedy looking by mid summer. And, they are sticky little things. The use of petunias shows no imagination whatsoever. Why limit yourself to petunias when there are hundreds, thousands of alternatives available? Flowers that are every bit as easy to grow, and just as colourful, not to mention more interesting.

If you are among the millions of petunia planters out there, I encourage you to explore your local greenhouses, skip over the petunias and you will discover how much more beautiful and interesting your gardens can be sans petunias.

Growing Gardens

Bert — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:44:35 +0000

The Herb Garden

A few observations:

The spring bulbs are all but done, replaced by irises, dames rocket, lily of the valley, aquilegia and bleeding hearts. The old fashioned roses have begun to send out a few brave blossoms to test the waters. It will not be long before the rest of the rose buds follow.

I have noticed the irises and lilacs are producing smaller flower heads than in previous years. At first, I thought ours were the only ones blooming on the small side, but travelling the county, I see a good many in the same condition. The same with the aquilegias. A result of the extreme cold and deep snow of this past winter perhaps?

Now that the perennials have leafed out, the effects of a cold winter and a wet spring can really be seen. We have lost all of our foxgloves, delphiniums, lupins and perovskia and a few ferns. Will they be replaced or will we take this opportunity to redesign the gardens, adding different plants? We won’t make that decision until the summer when we’ve had a chance to live with what’s left and given our imaginations time to dream up new landscapes.

The bridal wreath spirea hedge at the front of our property is blooming more prolifically that ever before! I was beginning to think that the hedge I fantasized about when we first planted it would never happen. How nice to be wrong!

This weekend has been set aside for planting up container gardens. Having learned my lesson a couple of years ago when I potted up forty-three container gardens, this year I’ll stick to five or six. Oh wait, I’m already at six, so maybe I’ll limit myself to nine.

Year two for the “new” herb garden and it is already too small! The perennial herb plants have grown like crazy leaving no room for annual herbs. Guess the annual herbs will have to go into containers. So much for limiting container gardens to nine! This fall we will have to seriously re-think the size of the herb garden. I foresee an expansion in the future.

Come to think of it, our entire yard seems to be shrinking more and more every year. Hmmm. Either the gardens have to be downsized, or we have to eliminate most of the remaining lawn area. Or we have to move to a property with more land!

Moving Along

Bert — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:08:09 +0000

Two weeks after the big move and the ginko biloba is beginning to leaf out and showing every sign of liking its new homw!

We have been spending a goodly part of this spring re-arranging the furniture so to speak. Some of our plants have outgrown their living spaces, some have decided they don’t like their neighbours any more while others just need a change of scenery.

The rose garden is in the process being dismantled and re-located to another area where, hopefully, the roses will be much happier. So far, the roses that have made the move seem to like their new home. Before the rest of the roses join them, we have to add on to the garden. That’s this weekend’s task. By next weekend, all of the roses should be moved. That’s the plan.

Our most nerve wracking move was relocating our treasured ginko biloba from the water feature to the old rose bed. Keep in mind, we would not have attempted to move the ginko if it was a larger specimen. Since it is only about 5’ – 6’ tall with a 2” – 3” trunk, we felt it was do-able. We timed the transplant for when the tree was just beginning to bud. We did not want to move it in full leaf. When a tree is in full leaf, too much of its energy has to be spent maintaining its leaves. We wanted the ginko to put its energy into producing new roots.

We began by digging out a rather large and deep planting hole in its new home. No amendments were made to the soil since the (former rose) bed has been supplemented with a top dressing of compost and manure yearly. Otherwise, we would have added composted manure to the soil used to backfill the planting hole.

Next began the delicate task of removing the ginko from its old home. Using the dripline of the ginko as a guide, we dug a trench around the tree. Then we dug down and under the tree deep enough to get a good sized root ball. The goal was to get as many feeder roots as possible. We knew we’d lose some of the taproot. By digging deeply the loss was minimal.

When the ginko was freed, we gently lifted it out. Picking it up at the base of the trunk just above the soil ball, we carried it to its new home. Then we sited it best side forward and added soil to the hole as required to raise the soil ball so the base of the ginko was at the same depth as in its previous location. After backfilling the hole, we made a “well” around the dripline, and began slowly watering in the tree filling the well in the process. The well helps confine the water to the rootball area and will be levelled out once the tree is established.