The Know, Hoe, Sow, Grow and Show Guide | Volume # 5 | July 13/06

There are times when I have to laugh at my relationship to the Internet and this is one of those times. Some of you have asked me about pictures on my blog and why you couldn’t see them. I have no idea except that a much more perceptive reader and writer(thanks Susan of Takoma Gardener) pointed out that I was using my “feed” as my blog address and the feed didn’t have pictures. OK. I’ll add that to the list of things I’ve learned since I started having fun with blogs. Don’t use feed as blog. Lesson learned. (insert laugh here) So here’s the pictures and here’s the right address. Doug's Blog is at http://doug-greens-gardening.blogspot.com Even if you don’t read blogs – do check out the pictures (and sign up for the free email updates) for more pictures and links In the last newsletter, only one person complained about the abundance of pictures because – as they said – their system was antiquated and wouldn’t handle it. I’m sorry about that but with all the positive replies, I’ll continue to refine and add pics to this newsletter for you. (especially now that you can see the blog pictures) (insert another laugh) Doug's Blog is at http://doug-greens-gardening.blogspot.com Doug's lens is at http://www.squidoo.com/beginning-gardening/ You can download free subscriber ebooks Right now, there's one on "A Dictionary of Gardening", "Plant Thugs" and "Gardening with Children". Feature Blog Post of the Week Here’s the link to the article Here’s a perfect example I get a lot of questions about creating a beautiful lawn without having to use chemicals. Click here to have a better lawn than the neighbors with fewer chemicals. This ebook description tells you the details of how to replace chemicals on your lawn with organic problem-solving systems. If you are planning on building a water garden pond, I've put together a step by step picture book to do just that. I took the over 100 pictures from start to finish on one project and you'll see it take shape in front of you. This is a big project and I’ve taken the best pics from over 500 I took of that project to explain some of the professional secrets that will save you time and money in the long run (and the short run come to think of it). I don't know about you, but I love growing (and eating) fresh tomatoes from my own garden. Here’s how to grow tomatoes when all else in the garden fails (like mine did this year) but they aren’t this year. Pictures to follow later this summer. My all-time favorite perennial flower is lavender. I think this is the most fantastic fragrance of all flowerdom (if that's a word). It's right up there with roses in my opinion and here's how to grow lavender successfully in the ground and containers. I’ve also included instructions for how I overwinter my container lavender plants without losing them to cold. I find it difficult sometimes to understand why folks don't like to grow vegetables. Freshly grown and picked veggies from your own garden can't be beat and here's the how-to's for successfully growing all the common garden vegetables I love fragrance as you can tell from my comments about lavender. I put together an e-book about fragrant plants - what are the best ones, which ones to avoid, which varieties are award winners. Here's the scoop on fragrant plants at a price that’s soon to be increased. I have many of the fragrant shrub pictures I now need and this book is now coming to the top of my to-do list to revise and upgrade. The price *will* jump up a few bucks when I do the revised layout but the information won’t change. Get it now for this reduced price or pay more in another month. One of the delights in the gardening world is succeeding at growing something you really want. In my case, I love growing roses and there are few things nicer than picking a truly fragrant rose (the rose fragrance is the second most used fragrance in perfumes) fresh from my garden. I finally figured out how to overwinter roses without any work or preparation and still get massive, gorgeous blossoms. And I present all that information here. Want To Ask a Question? Please do a search here. Search Here If you don't find what you're looking for - HIT REPLY ON THIS NEWSLETTER TO ASK YOUR QUESTION (that's easy isn't it) Your email address will get through my spam filters. Your Questions Answered *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** Hi, I hope you can help me. I have a beautiful shasta daisy plant that I deadhead regularly, however, it never reblooms. How exactly do you deadhead this plant. Thanks so much, Barb A: As with all things it is often the little details that will trip you up. If you don’t deadhead as soon as the flowers start to fade – if you allow the plant to set seed – the plant will go into a resting or vegetative state. You gotta be right on top of this one to keep it blooming. And do try ‘Becky’ – it is an award winning plant as well as one of the best rebloomers. *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** It is just me again. I have a golden delicious apple tree in my back yard and it has a problem this year. A lot of the leaves are covered with orangy brown spots resembling rust. Some are curled and look dried. I have examined them for insects, but can see nothing there. My husband mercilessly pruned this tree in the spring and so my apple yield is going to be low this fall. Have you any idea what is causing this and if it is blight or rust which I know is a common thing for apple trees? What can I do about it? Is there a spray or dust for this problem? My tree is about 17 feet high and has a drip line of approximately 15 feet. Heather A: The problem is the apple phase of cedar-apple rust. It is much easier to control it on the juniper species (looks like dripping orange globs) but you can start spraying with a sulphur based spray and continue doing this every 7 days (or after a rain) for the next month to keep it from spreading too far and setting new spores. I note the ideal time to spray is right before a rainfall. One year it is on the apples – the next on the Juniperus species. I’ve put it on my to-write list to post an article on this on the www.simplegiftsfarm.com website. *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** My daughter recently sent me a copy of your newsletter and I was delighted. I have since signed up and am enjoying each issue, a great way to start my morning! (along with that first cup of coffee.) I have used your search and read your comments on crown vetch as a ground cover and a pest. (I found it interesting that you do not list it in the “Plant Thugs” eBook, which I read with great interest, thank you.) However, we have a situation where I think crown vetch might be the right plant to solve our problems. My question is how to plant crown vetch. Can it be seeded and if so what time of year, spring or fall? Or does it need to be plugged with small plants, also what time of year? Our situation: We have a steep slope, about a 45 degree angle, facing the southeast, located between the woods line and our driveway, about 50 feet high and 80 yards long, ending where the slope modifies and the lawn begins. The soil is clay and it is a long way from the house so not practical to water. When we moved here 4 years ago (planting zone 6a, south central PA) there were 10 year old mostly dead, scraggly rose shrubs, Stella d’ora day lilies, 5 foot tall ornamental grasses, and weeds. We have spread bark chips and weeded for 3 years. The day lilies are struggling, the roses have been removed, the grasses are fine, but stand in clumps with plenty of room for weeds all around, and they need to be cut back each year, a horrendous job on the slope. We tried planting a section with ivy and it all dried up because we didn’t keep it well watered. We have planted a small patch of myrtle (prostrate vinca minor) that is still alive and growing, but way too expensive to use to cover the whole length of the slope. I think crown vetch would be hardy and hope that it would cover the bank and choke out weeds. The only place it could spread is either woods or asphalt driveway, unless birds or wind spread the seeds. I hope you can advise me on an inexpensive and practical way to cover the slope, with crown vetch or something else you know of. Thanks very much, Bonnie A: Yes, indeed you can sow crown vetch seeds right into this mess of weeds and vegetation. Do so while running down the hill (you’ll get better speed that way) so the fast-growing plant doesn’t reach out, tripping you and breaking an ankle. Hardiness isn’t an issue in PA or anywhere in the known world except for the north and south poles and I’m not sure about those. It will be an interesting exercise to watch this slowly but surely take over. Some plants will do a wonderful job of resisting (mostly the grasses and daylilies for a while). And indeed this might be a place and use for the vetch. And yes, the plant will spread (magic on moonless nights is involved) no matter that you think you’ve got it contained. Into the woods and across that asphalt! :-) *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** Hey Doug, Jo here in AR again. I searched first, didn’t find anything so here goes. I have a 3 year old Mock Orange shrub. This thing is not the most attractive shrub so the big disappointment is that it doesn’t even bloom. Is there any certain age they need to be in order to bloom? I read where they should be pruned after they bloom, so I am assuming about now would be the time. Do you think that pruning it will help it bloom next year? A: I’ve written an article on why plants don’t flower. You can find them here at http://www.beginner-gardening.com/whydoesmyplantnotflower.html In this case, I have no idea where you’ve planted it (not enough sun) or how you’re feeding it (maybe too much nitrogen from the nearby lawn). Pruning will bring on new growth and this might indeed flower next year. You’re too late in AR for this year though. Sorry. *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** I have planted mint in a bird bath so it doesn't overtake my garden, I noticed there are little black pellets throughout the soil that wasn't there before. Are the pellets poop of some kind? The birdbath is plastic, so we drilled drainage holes for the water. My mint isn't dying, but it isn't rapidly growing either as people said it should. Is a plastic birdbath the wrong place to grow mint, and are the little black pellets a bad thing? A: Black pellets are likely a side-effect of caterpillars or some other insect. Poop is as good a term as any. :-)) Or they’re insect eggs or ?? But not to worry for the moment. I’m assuming the bird bath was sunken into the ground. If above ground, it is likely water-stressed and heat stressed because the roots are too hot. And new plants rarely grow well the first year – it’s the second and subsequent years you have to deal with with mint. I’d be concerned the soil is too shallow. I used to use big old nursery containers buried in the ground so the edges were just above the soil line for my mint. This spring I planted two varieties directly into the garden. Oh well – I’ll worry about those next year. *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** Hi Doug, I guess my hydrangea got embarrassed that I wrote to you about it not blooming because after four summers of not even a bud , it's now BLOOMING!!!! What a green thumb you have !...you "cured" it over the Internet...good job! Thanks for the wonderful newsletters and advice! A: Ahhh – yet another satisfied customer (insert big belly laugh here) *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** It’s insect time again and the bug questions are pouring in. I’ve been sent a few pics this week or pests with the query “Can I identify this pest and what do I spray?” As an aside – I want to be amazed at the person who managed to take a 5 meg closeup of a ladybird beetle and wanted to know how to kill it. I was amazed not that the person didn’t know a ladybug but that it was an excellent if monstrous bit of digital photography. :-) Man, it took a long time to download. :-) A: It’s an interesting dilemma I have with this kind of question. What the reader is looking for is a magic bullet. Some kind of answer to go out there and beat up the bugs. And I too have some concerns about pests on my plants. If you read my blog, you saw what a bunch of caterpillars were doing to my rose plant. But you also read what I did about it. I blasted ‘em with a strong jet of water. End of problem. So what do I do? Do I write an answer and say “whack ‘em with X or Y” or do I give everybody a garden hose? But seriously. We want to control major problems but we don’t want to kill off every darn insect that crawls across the face of a flower. Many times that poor guy you see is crawling across looking to eat the bad guy you missed and is killed in a gardening case of mistaken identity. I have two pest control product articles up on my simplegiftsfarm.com website now. One on diatomaceous earth and one on rotenone. They’re not written like you might expect them to be (singing the praises of organic products) but rather they’re full of the kind of advice I’d want to know. For example, rotenone will knock down darn near anything in the garden in the way of insects. But you don’t want to breathe this product at all. Diatomaceous earth will knock back almost anything that crawls (good guys as well as bad guys). But neither of these controls is long lasting in the environment. So – as a general rule of thumb. If a jet of water won’t knock ‘em off your plant – try insecticidal soap. If you can’t see ‘em, use either rotenone or diatomaceous earth. Or unless there’s considerable damage like there was on my rose (one branch has no leaves left now) try a mixing up a huge concoction of patience and virtue. :-) and don’t do a darn thing. Let the predators eat the pests. From My Garden To Yours Comfrey or Symphytum is a storied herb of medicinal value that has a long history of use. While I’m not able to give advice on herbal use, I can tell you how to grow this plant. Where to Grow While many gardeners try to grow Comfrey out in the full sunshine, it does best when treated exactly like the perennial Brunnera. That is, in part shade in dampish soils. If you grow it in the full sunshine, it will thrive in excellent soils that are well watered but will not do well in soils that are well-drained and sandy (dry soils). READ MORE BY CLICKING ON LINK Acorus or Sweet Flag is an interesting family of plants and it has been used historically for its fragrant root. I note that if you crush the leaves, you’ll get a fragrance but that some folks like it and some don’t (it’s not really a “flowery” fragrance). READ MORE BY CLICKING ON LINK Where to Grow This grows in the shallow water next to streams and lakes so it can be considered a true waterside plant. It also prefers the full sun. Acorus gramineus is called the Japanese Rush or Grassy-leaved sweet flag. It is in the same family as the sweet flag Grow in the full sunshine or part sun in the water’s edge. It will survive in wet boggy soil as well as in shallow water. I actually grew an acorus as an underwater aquarium plant one winter to see what would happen. It wasn’t totally happy with this situation but I suspect it wasn’t happy with the light levels (too low). READ MORE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK Growing Bridalwreath or Spirea prunifolia is almost a tribute to early pioneer gardens although to be frank, it is a short-blooming shrub with a coarse, open growth. In masses, it can be quite stunning and it does make a rather good (fast-growing if fed) informal, (not pruned) deciduous hedge. This plant grows equally well in full sun or part shade. It grows READ MORE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK I believe that Rotenone, like all chemicals used in the garden, should be understood before you go spreading it around. So here’s the technical details you might find interesting and useful. Rotenone is classed as a General Use Pesticide except for use on cranberries and fish control (these two uses are restricted). This means that anybody can purchase this product and use it in their garden without training or licensing. It can legally be combined with other products such as carbaryl, lindane, thiram and is in some product packaging. Often you’ll have to read the fine print to discover what you though you purchased as an organic control contains something far more of a problem. READ MORE

Parting Words “Few lend (but fools) Their working Tools.” Thomas Tusser Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie (1557) Do You Want to Grow Lavender?