Using Vines in the Garden
- On June 22, 2008
- By Meleah
- In Perennials
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In the interest of full disclosure, before I go on to extol the virtues of vines, I’ll admit right now that I’ve had some trouble growing them in my own garden. At our last house, I tried growing a trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) on an arbor in my front yard. Our neighbor had a beautiful one with bright orange flowers entwined around the fence in her backyard. It bloomed all season and had a thick, gnarled stem that anchored it securely to the ground by her garage.
My trumpet vine, however, was puny and didn’t grow much at all over the four years I carefully wound it around my arbor as it grew. I fertilized it. I talked to it. I pruned out the dead stuff after each winter. And, still, it never took off and, one spring, it just didn’t come back at all.
Read More»Coping With Hail Damage
- On June 12, 2008
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Perennials
- 0
I’ve been gardening for many years, so I guess I should count myself lucky that only one hailstorm has ever come my way. To be honest, though, as I look out at my shredded garden, which was pummeled by marble-size hail (not small marbles, the shooters) on May 31, I don’t feel very lucky. And that’s the big reason why I wanted to write about this topic.
In the big picture, having your garden flattened by hail is a small problem when you consider all the bone-crushing things going on in the world right now. But I admit, I could barely speak as I watched chunks of ice fall from the sky and squash my tomatoes and peppers, rip limbs from my shrubs, make mincemeat out of my hostas, and tear all the flowers from my newly blooming bleeding hearts and Virginia Bluebells.
Read More»Butterfly Gardening
I saw my first butterfly of the season the other day. I am but a rookie lepidopterist, so I don’t know what kind it was. All I saw was a streak of black, not nearly enough to be of help when looking it up in my field guide. As it swooped over my brown, sleeping garden, I worried about what in the world it would find to eat in these early days of spring. What was it doing here so soon?
The only thing I’m sure of is that it wasn’t one of our Eastern black swallowtails. It’s wings didn’t have the right yellow spots and blue patches. I say “our” swallowtails because for the last two summers my husband, Mike, and I have tried raising swallowtails on our front porch. We got the idea, or I should say I got the idea and my ever-patient husband went along with it, from a man named Jim.
Read More»FAQ: Relationship between ants and peonies
- On April 11, 2008
- By Meleah
- In Bugs, FAQ, Perennials
- 0
Q: Is it true that ants play a role in helping peonies bloom? It doesn’t seem true to me, but people always talk about how they’re needed to make the buds open. What do you think?
A: You’re right; it isn’t true. Ants don’t just go around kindly doing good deeds like helping flowers open. In this case, what’s in it for them is tasty nectar in the structure that covers the buds though they do help the buds, too, by keeping pests that might harm the blooms away.
Dealing With Ice, Snow and Winter’s Hungry Critters
Here are a few tips for helping your landscape make it through the winter unscathed by freezing temperatures, snow, ice and critters.
Let’s start with those de-icing salts people use to make sidewalks safer. These products are great for cutting down on slipping, but they wreak havoc on plants. Salty injury to deciduous trees and shrubs takes many forms but usually includes things like bud and twig dieback, stunted growth, and leaf scorch. Conifers, like spruces, pines, and firs often have mild to severe needle browning when exposed to salt spray.
To remedy the situation you could, of course, just skip the de-icer. But if you’d like to be nice to your plants without fear of breaking your neck, try taming your de-icer a bit by mixing it with another abrasive material like sand (50 pounds of sand to one pound of salt is a good ratio). You might also try a salt-free, de-icing compound made from calcium magnesium acetate or kitty litter. Rather than just throwing down a lot of de-icer on top of packed snow and ice, try sprinkling enough to loosen the ice and snow and then remove as much as you can with a shovel. Take care not to pile salty snow from driveways and sidewalks around plants and trees. Salt accumulation at the base of plants can force them into an early decline and eventually kill them.
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