The Newsletter for Lazy Gardeners

As I told you in my last newsletter, I’m in the process of leaving gainful nursery employment and re-launching my writing career. That means you’ll 1) get this newsletter more regularly 2) have more questions answered 3) the newsletter will spruce up and 4) you get to listen to me complain about my aching back as I hit the garden next spring again.:-)

So, what’s going to change?

More web pages. I put seven new pages up on the http://www.water-gardens-information.com site this week. All about pond construction. If you click the construction tab on the left of the screen and scroll to the bottom (reading *every* word along the way of course) :-) you’ll see links to the next page – and the next etc etc. The pages describe the steps pro landscapers use to install ponds. No – at this point there are no pics up (that’s a summer project to take them of a job in progress) and you’ll see where there will be links installed in the future to other topics.

More questions answered. By the next newsletter, I’ll have an “AskMe” page up there you can dial into and ask questions. There is one now but I’m not happy with it so I’m about to redo it.

Two new web sites I can’t give you the details yet but I’m currently designing two new web sites to answer a lot of other gardening questions and showcase other garden writers and buddies of mine.

Have fun doing it If you’ve been receiving this newsletter or any of my writing over the past few years, you’ll know that I want to enjoy what I’m doing – whether it is gardening or writing about it or sailing the Folkboat named Choir or driving the Triumph named Folly. Life is fun and I hope to share some of that fun with you folks – to give back to the gardening community.

Onwards!

About This Newsletter

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I have the choice of doing it in html and/or text. Due to the time it takes to do html, I’m going to do it in text for the immediate future. But, I’ll do it. Once I get back to full time writing, I’ll revert back to html and fancy stuff. OK?

Questions

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I have a hollyhock plant that was planted by birds i guess, should it be cut back in winter and covered up with mulch. I have cut it back once, and it came back, Also i have some potted lantana,) should i replant now, mulch over also, or is it too late. I have them in a building out of the cold, even though it is not that cold here now.

A: Hollyhocks are technically biennials so if it flowered this year, it will likely not survive the winter. I’ve seen them flower several years but mostly they die after a single flowering. Having said that, the seeds should be everywhere and you’ll quickly find them springing up next spring and early summer. Lantana should be indoors if you want it to survive the winter. Frost will turn that one into compost. They’ll take a little light frost but anything major and you get to buy a new plant next year.

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I am a new gardener and I have a garden full of tomatoes, jalepenos, zuchini and green peppers. It thrived over the summer, but it is pretty much done because of a frost and cool weather. How do I go about closing it down? Thanks so much for your help, I love your website! Sincerely, Rebecca

A: Oh, I’m late on this one. Looking out my window to the freezing rain out there I can only hope you’ve got your garden cleaned up. Let me say that I belong to the old school of gardening that wants to leave the garden in the fall the way you want to find it in the spring. This means that all plant debris is removed to the compost bin and the ground turned over with a shovel but not raked. I leave the veggie patch (mine is pretty small now) as rough ground. I did put six inches of leaves over it this fall mostly as cosmetics for my small backyard and I’ll rake those off next spring, turn over the ground and smooth it, then add the leaves again as a summer mulch. I’ll add compost over the leaves and plant my veg through the mulch into the soil. Next fall, I’ll simply clean up the debris, add more leaves and not do any digging. But the tip here is to clean up the old leaves and stems and debris. Either compost them or garbage them out. By taking away the old plant refuse, you take away any overwintering sites for diseases that may have been in your veg patch this past summer.

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Hello!

I've just come across your web site and read about composting.....perhaps you could give me some help with mine? As our neighbours live so close I've bought one of these awful black plastic composts in the hope that any odours will remain contained. However I now find that I have two problems:

1. loads of small black flies. 2. It's possible to draw out the ready compost from the bottom but from one side it's too dry, from another it's excellant,and from the remaining two sides it's water-logged. Do you have any idea what I can do about this? I'm looking forward to hearing from you

cheers Christine

A: Compost making is a bit of an art and a science. The black flies are there as there’s lots of fresh organic matter and no heat developing to kill them off. You’ll often see them in cold compost. Those small black compost makers are mostly a waste of time as there isn’t enough bulk there to get the compost really hot unless you are very careful with the proportions of material you add to the pile. It has to have a lot of nitrogen (green) in the mix to kick up the heat and actually “make” compost. If you can somehow turn the contents of the compost maker, you might find a more even mix. I think this is something I’m going to have to put up on the web pages (its on my to-do list now) as it can be a bit of a challenge in small quarters. I personally use a worm farm to do all my compost and it sits in my office with no problems.

Compost is so useful in the home garden that I’ll try to write some detailed instructions in the new year.

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Doug,

I've stumbled across your article about the motion detector that turns on a sprinkler, and I was wondering who made this, so we can try to get one. The "pest" we want to get rid of is whoever keeps breaking into our front yard and tearing up our dahlias, including pulling the whole plants out of the ground, tuber and all! We figured if the sprinkler turned on him each time he might get the idea and not do this anymore. Thanks for any help you could give us with this.

Andy

A: It is called a scarecrow and you can find them online by searching for electronic scarecrow on google. I’ve seen them at the mass merchants as well.

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From My Garden To Yours

It is really difficult to know how to creatively tell you about some great gift ideas for gardeners but tell my family that I’m really not interested in any of these things myself. The twenty foot square garden really doesn’t have a lot of room for more stuff. Heck, I’m still trying to figure out where my commercial grade wheelbarrow is going to fit. And I’ve given up trying to find a place to store the eight foot long bamboo stakes; they’re leaning against the wall in the backyard waiting for next spring’s tomato high-rise construction efforts. My indoor gardens are just really being set up over the Christmas holidays and I have some hopes of hooking up the grow-lights but there’s not a spare inch of window space left. The simple fact is that I have no more room for garden gifts so I’m telling my kids and family to go ahead and just buy me the new Porsche or Cessna; I’ll be fine with those. If your loved ones still have room and appetite for garden gifts, you might want to consider these ideas:

In my mind, the unchallenged champion of the mail order gardening guide is Lee Valley Tools. (leevalley.com) A garden writer friend who shall remain nameless because she says that this seat fits her “rather ample derriere” and has some mobility problems suggests the rolling seat with tool tray for making garden life easier. I note that the Bag Balm is still available and this is a great product for making hands soft after they’ve been abused in the garden. I’m almost finished my old tin and will likely have to make a late order to restock this very useful product. Hey, can a million cows be wrong on this product?

I also note that gardening gloves are popping up like crazy all over the place. Just about every ex-athlete or chiropractor has designed a bionic glove for we aging gardeners. I will stick to my old fashioned gloves but if you have a mind to be fashionably attired, great gardening gloves should be high on your list of must-haves. (bionicgloves.com) And for the guys out there, high-end gardening gloves are almost as expensive as sexy lingerie but you have to pick your spots with this gift. If she’s looking for lingerie, a set of gardening work-gloves just isn’t going to cut it, no matter how excited she is about gardening. But if you can’t give her lingerie (like your mother) then gardening gloves will fit the bill. And I’m told by more fashionably attired gardeners that the old farmer bib-overalls are big again (as if that essential bit of country attire would ever go out of fashion) so as long as you can find the right size, this is a sure fire hit. See the note re lingerie for considerations re appropriateness and don’t blame me if you mess up.

A cooking friend suggested that you wander over to the specialty kitchen store and buy some fancy garnishing tools. Never having met a garnishing tool itself, never mind a fancy one, I’m told these are nifty little tools that make those carrot curly wiggly thingies and slice radishes into flowers. I’m staying away from anything sharp as I don’t need my fingers turned into flowers.

If you’re really stuck, head over to your significant person’s favourite nursery and buy a gift certificate. This isn’t original by any means but it is surely safe. There’s no point in actually reserving the plant itself (unless it is a double white Hellebore ‘Mrs. Betty Ranicar’ that they’ll surely want) because a gift certificate keeps you in the loop as being interested in their hobby while at the same time maintains the illusion that you really do know something about gardening. Having said that, if you really can’t resist something at the store, come home with something huge. Try a five gallon jug of fish emulsion or forty pounds of seed starting soil or even a truck load of mulch. Go big or stay home in the gardening department.

Lon Rombough, the 2003 Garden Writers Award winner suggests you might consider a gift certificate or gift membership to the Seed Savers Exchange if you have dedicated vegetable gardeners on your list. You’ll find varieties there that you’ll never see elsewhere. (seedsavers.org) Memberships to the North American Fruit Explorers (nafex.org) is also interesting. While Lon wouldn’t make a pitch to you, I’m going to recommend you check out his books on grape growing at bunchgrapes.com. And speaking of friends, Jeff Lowenfels has a macroscope at closetoinfinity.com that will blow you away with its close focusing ability. Visit and order one of these little beauties if you want to be close to nature. If you visit the site, read the “Daily News Article” to get a sense of what this gizmo can do. I’ve used the prototypes and they are a ton of fun. Speaking of a lot of fun, another garden writer Daryl at mrsgreenthumb.com recommended a full load of composted horse manure as a great present for the enterprising gardener. This certainly works for me but I’m not sure how you’d wrap something like that, never mind get it down the chimney.

And just when you think you’ve heard just about everything as a Christmas gift, I give you yet another new thought. Fred Whitehurst, the Marketing Manager at Rincova suggests you check out the gifts relating to bugs and biocontrol that will appeal to that “special someone” (rinconvitova.com) If you’re going to be giving bugs for Christmas, it had better be a really special someone or you had better have a good head-start when they get to the unwrapping stage.

But I’ll stick with my Porsche thank you very much.