If you are a Kingston and area resident (anywhere within an hours drive) – if you know of any great gardens I should see/photograph this summer, I’d appreciate it if you’d drop me a note and tell me about them. I’m particularly looking for water gardens but love just about every really fine garden – from veggies to annual containers. I need some great photographs to share with you folks next year. I’m scouting.

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Traffic to the sites is very heavy right now and the question list is *very* backed up. Spring has really happened out there! :-)

So just to remind you –

1) I do my best to answer questions.
2) I never forget a question – it goes to my to-write list But I don’t forget and they don’t get deleted until they get written about somewhere. Don’t ask how big the mailbox is getting. LOL!
3) It may take a while as I’m only one person doing all this and I’m currently running over 1000 visitors a day and increasing. (Some days it seems like you’re all asking questions) :-)
4) I hope to turn most of the most commonly asked questions into web pages so that’s where the delay comes from. When you ask – what can I grow “here”. It turns into a long list – and that turns into doing up a webpage. The disadvantage is that it takes time to do this – the advantage is that we all have the information. When I get 50 “here” or “how?” questions a day, it gets a little hard to get to them all. Nah, it gets impossible to get to them all. ;-)
5) I know your question is important. I’m trying. (As my dad would say, “Yes, you’re very trying.” :-)

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New Articles for You

All my new articles are listed here. Click on the archives link at the site to see others.

Want a Healthy Lawn?

Want to ask a question? Click here to ask a gardening question.www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/askagardeningquestion.html

Your Questions Answered

Thought you should know I used your method for starting lotus from your article. Thus far GREAT success. My question is: At what pond water temperature could you move the potted, growing lotus into? If we wait until mid-June here in Colorado, our average pond temp might be around 68F. Will it think it is time to go into dormacy? I'd be curious to know when you move yours from the special heated growing condtition to your pond?

A: I used to move them as soon as I figured there would be no more night frosts (end of May) and I could stand to put my hand in the water for more than a few seconds. If I could stand the water for 10 seconds, then so could the lotus. If there were no more night frosts, then foliage would be fine. But as with all things, it is a *really* good idea to acclimatize the plant to outdoors gradually. Put it outside during the day for a few days and inside at night again to get it used to wind and sunlight. Don’t just plonk it into the cold water from the warm house. Think of you going outside in the winter – easier to get dressed up and used to the cold rather than just running out.

Darn, all this talk of lotus flowers is making me want a little sunshine so I can build a pond. Oh Oh ! Here I go again…

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My new garden area is going to be next to a large wooden fence, about 40 inches wide and 14-15 ft long. We've only lived here 2 years and the soil is probably in need of a lot of help. My old location (chipmunk alley) was never properly mulched and prepared in the fall--this will now be the herb and perennial garden. So...thinking of prepping a good soil mix--should it be the same for both the veggies and herbs? (I have always kinda planted them alongside one another or in containers in the past) Do I need heavier mix for the new garden area and with what additions? I was thinking of a mix of cow manure (not sure if moist bag or dehydrated chips? do they work the same? chips are half the price) top soil, a little lime, and mulch or peat moss..then comes fertilizer...we are going to set up a composter this year on the other side of the fence from the garden, and this will be new for us. I am not big on chemical fertilizers, can you recommend an organic mix to begin or is the manure and perhaps some fish guts and egg shells enough??? you're the best, many thanks for your guidance!

A: The question really boils down to “How do I make good soil for gardening?”

The real secret to great gardens is getting the soil bacteria and fungi alive and kicking. Increasing their numbers so they increase soil fertility and improve the structure.

Now the interesting thing is that these soil microorganisms are easily added to the soil by using compost tea. Properly brewed tea contains tons of these critters and once you get them going, life in the garden will never be the same. You do need to start with good compost and use a good tea recipe with aeration if you want to produce fine compost tea.

You don’t likely need top soil as you’ll make your own quite quickly with copost and compost tea. You don’t need fertilizer if you use compost and compost tea. You don’t need lime (unless you’re growing in an acid peat bog). What you need is compost, compost tea and mulch. Yes, for the first year you can toss a little liquid fish emulsion into the garden to kick up the nitrogen count but no granular fertilizer is needed or wanted if you’re trying to increase the microorganism count. Granular fertilizer is like raw sugar candy – wrecks the metabolism of the ground just like it revs kids up and puts them off the wall.

Use all the cow manure in dehydrated chips you like, the soil will soon rehydrate them and get working on them. I suspect you can’t add too much of these. After you’ve dug in the cow chips and whatever compost you have, lay down a mulch. The compost tea can be poured directly onto the mulch as it will go right through. Some will stay on the mulch to work there.

This week’s article is about compost, next week’s is the primer on making compost tea. See below.

Now the important point of all this is that this article and next week’s are really simplified snatches of a fascinating and complicated world. Nothing is as simple as I’ve written it but you’ll get the big picture.

So, get used to the answer of compost and compost tea. Great stuff!

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i have a question about mu hydrangea. for a reason unknown to me, it did not bloom last summer.do you have any suggestions? paula

A: Why didn’t my hydrangea bloom last summer. In cold climates, the pink and blue hydrangea get their buds blasted off by cold weather. The plant grows tons of green leaves and gets huge and bushy but a zone 4/5 winter will normally do nasty things to Hydrangea macrophylla.

If it was the old fashioned peegee hydrangea, I have no idea why it didn’t bloom either – you haven’t given me any info on where you’re growing it or what you’re doing to it.

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Re Garden Thugs

I have suggestions that 1) petasites, 2) vinca 3) Ornithogalum 4) English ivy 5) Tradescantia are all thugs as well. My .02 on this is that any plant can be a thug if you give it warm space. All of these plants with the exception of the Petasites that belongs in the book, are controlled pretty easily by a sharp shovel. The English ivy is definitely a thug in warm areas but not in cooler climates.

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When planting a clematis in a patio container, should I mix compost into the artificial soil? Also, how should I feed the potted clematis? Thanks, Linda

A: You know that I have mixed feelings about compost in containers. Generally speaking, I like to see a straight artificial soil mix all the way to the bottom of the pot. No pebbles or any other kind of so-called drainage material at the bottom (ruins the real drainage – pebbles are old-wives tale). But I do know gardeners who run up to 10% compost into their artificial soil mix and like the results.

Media in containers does NOT act the way you think it might. Generally, soil is much more acidic than expected. And this influences the feeding of the plants.

Irrigation water flushes any soluble fertilizer out the bottom as fast as you put it in the top. This means you have to continually feed your container plants if you expect them to grow properly.

Drainage is critical to success and if you make some mistakes in mixing, you can influence small containers much more than the larger ones. So, a 10 inch pot is susceptible to more problems than an 18 inch clay pot.

Having said all that, there is research that shows that using mycorrhizae enhance the growth and productivity of containerized nursery plants so good compost might be beneficial.

Bottom line. Mix it in if you like. Well mixed soil will not likely create a problem. I confess I tend to toss some onto the top of the pot and stir it in but not mix it throughout.

Feed with an organic liquid fertilizer at least once a week and preferably with every watering. I’m about to buy a small gizmo called a “hozon” that attaches to the end of your hose and sucks up the feed in a pail putting it onto the garden with every watering.

I used to use fancy injection equipment when I had the nursery and feed every time I watered. This produces huge container plants! The hozon will replicate this in the home garden.

Treat a clematis in a container like any other plant.

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Is there a safer and natural way to control insects in my flower beds. there seem to be lots of earwigs and I don't know what else! They eat everything from leaves to flowers. Donna

A: Earwigs are a royal pain in the anatomy but generally speaking, I don’t see them in my garden. Earwigs prefer to eat rotting organic matter. (how nice of them!) so I give them some. I mulch my garden and the earwigs like to hide under the mulch, munching away on the bottom layers and keeping out of harm’s way. They leave my flowers alone. I only see them sometimes on container plants but a swift knock on the flower or leaf axil and they scoot out of there.

Controlling pests in organic ways is specific to the kind of pest being controlled. There is no “one size fits all” organic control method or magic silver bullet.

For example, I use a jet of water to knock aphids off my roses and plants. Once knocked to the ground, these slow moving insects are easy prey for the larger beetles that happily eat them for lunch.

Rotenone is a fast knock-down product that will kill many creepy crawlies in the garden but you don’t want to breathe it.

Insecticidal soap is a contact spray – whatever you hit, you kill (for the most part) and it is extremely effective at controlling spider mites (the bane of my banana tree).

Bt is a bacteria that is very effective at controlling caterpillars.

Neem is a wide spectrum knock down type of product that controls a wide range of pests.

And there are a wide range of other products out there that are equally effective and equally environmentally safe.

Having said all that, I have this to write on my to-write list for a bit later in the season when the pests really come out to play.

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re bulbs: I understand that one should let the leaves turn brown naturally. What about the flower stems?? Can they be cut back, topped, or should one just leave them alone to turn brown too? Thank you in advance.

A: The stems of bulbs can be pruned off to the base for cosmetic purposes. Or, if you’re really lazy they can be left there to act as brown exclamation marks in the garden.

But you’re right, don’t touch those leaves until they turn brown. Your bulbs need the energy those leaves produce if they are to set flowers for next season.

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From My Garden To Yours

Well, if April showers bring May flowers, this is going to be a bumper crop. And so far, it doesn’t look too bad as the double bloodroot has survived yet again another move from one garden to this one. The leaves and flowers are a little small, signifying it is not overly happy with me and I had better not move it again. But it is alive and has given me one more chance. So, if the weather is good when you read this, and it is supposed to be then I’m going to be brewing up some compost tea for the garden and giving all my plants a boost of microorganisms to get them growing happily.

I’ve been studying compost and compost tea over the past little while and the more I learn, the more I’m aware that this material holds the key to both gardening and good farming. For example, nitrogen is the limiting factor in plant growth. If your soil doesn’t have good nitrogen availability, then your plants will not grow very well. The problem is that the chemical sources of nitrogen, (nitrates, nitrites, ammonium and ammonia) very quickly leach out (or evaporate) of the top inch of soil by rainfall or watering. In soil tests, if you apply one of these forms of nitrogen to your lawn and then water the lawn with an inch of water, the nitrogen will simply leach out of the root zone and disappear down into the water table (where we all have to drink it or pay to have it taken out of the water.) The trick is to find nitrogen that doesn’t leach.

Plant food is held in the soil by several different mechanisms. The mineral components of the soil are one holding place; the sand, clays and mineral components of soil hold nutrients. These are difficult and slow to release and gardeners have difficulty affecting them. In other words, while they might store nutrients, it is expensive and time-consuming to obtain them for plant growth or to add to their supply. Organic matter in the soil also holds nutrients and these levels can be readily changed by the gardener. Adding organic matter to soil eventually increases the soil fertility and the level of nutrients that are available to plants. The third source of stored nutrition and the one that gardeners can increase drastically and quickly are the bacteria and fungi in the soil. These microorganisms voraciously find and consume soil nutrients of all kinds and act as a giant storehouse of plant nutrients.

Many people hear the words, “bacteria” and “fungi” and immediately assume they are bad things. The interesting thing is that bacteria and fungi are extremely important parts of our lives and most do not create problems for us. Think of cheese, think of beer, think of all the different drugs that promote and lengthen our lives (even penicillin started life in a moldy test tube) and you have a quick sense that these microscopic creatures have the potential for both good and bad. In fact, the thing that keeps your skin healthy is a microscopic layer of bacteria that eats all invading disease problems. You sweat and this feeds the bacteria and mites that live on your body and in turn, they keep you healthy by eating the bad guys. Life is a complicated business.

When it comes to storing nitrogen, bacteria are the single most efficient organism to do this. Bacteria contain nitrogen to carbon at ratios of four parts carbon to one part nitrogen. Healthy humans by comparison have thirty to one ratios. If there is excess nitrogen to be found in the minerals or organic matter, bacteria are going to find it, grow and multiply. This is a good thing because the increase in their numbers means that their secretions increase the ability of soils to hold together (they secrete a healthy kind of glue that binds soil). With the soil holding together better, the water-holding capacity of the soil increases and water stays around for the plants rather than simply disappearing below the root zone. Bacteria will outcompete anything in the garden to eat nitrogen, including fungi. Bacteria and their secretions tend to make soils acidic.

Fungi are composed of thirty parts of carbon to one part nitrogen and their specialty is attacking organic matter that has equally high carbon to nitrogen levels. Fungi attack wood and organic matter components of the soil to break these down and make their nutrition available to plants. Fungi have similar soil building properties to bacteria and they are equally necessary for great soil building. Fungi don’t build individual soil particles like bacteria do, instead they build long fungal chains that wind around the garden seeking and feeding on organic matter. Fungi and their secretions move the soil chemistry toward alkalinity.

In a practical sense, gardeners want both bacteria and fungi in their gardens. We want the nitrogen storing abilities of bacteria and we truly require the carbon attacking abilities of fungi to recycle plant wastes. To create a balanced soil where nutrition is high, water holding capacity is high and plants are healthy, we’ll need an abundance of bacteria and fungi.

And in another practical note, the easiest way to increase the fertility of your garden is not to increase the amount of chemical nitrogen you apply but to increase the numbers of bacteria and fungi. They will do the hard work for you. This is as easy as adding extra compost and using compost tea. Next week, I’ll tell you how to make compost tea because I’m going to be doing it myself.