The Newsletter for Lazy Gardeners

Gardening Made Easy | Volume # 1 | Sept 2003

You'll notice a new format to the newsletter this week. I'm working on html programming to be able to make it a little easier to read. Have patience with me as I sort out the bugs and bytes to make this happen (hey, I'm a gardener, not a computer guru) :-) The next step is to get the size of that picture under control and once that happens, then I can send pictures of some of my plants/gardens to you as some of you have requested. And yes, that's me.

Speaking of the website (which we weren't) :-) let me tell you I added another couple of articles this past week. One was on butterfly gardening with plant lists and the other was on money plant (Lunaria). I also started one on perennial garden plans but haven't uploaded any plans yet. It is likely worth checking out for a few suggestions I made.

Interesting Link This Issue

You might find this site of interest. It describes (with great pictures) how Longwood Gardens moved two fully grown trees using a helicopter. I've seen the sizes of trees that both Longwood and Disney have moved and taken back-stage hort tours of both places but this is pretty spectacular and worth a look.

Helicopter Planting

We Get Questions

I'm glad to answer questions for readers. If you have a question, it helps if you ask them in this way:
1) Hit return on your email browser to get the right email address.
2) Please **delete** all the newsletter text so I don't get it all back and have to hunt through it for your text.
3) Give me your location. The answer to a question often is determined by where the garden is located.
4) Have patience. I'll answer as many as I can in the newsletter but there's way more of you than there is of me and I simply can't get to them all. I'll do my best

I have a question. I have day lilys planted under my sunburst locust tree and they have not bloomed well in the past few years (I transplanted them a few years ago). They get some afternoon sun. I would like to replace them with something else. I also have hostas, adjuga, solomon seal, japanese anemone. What would you suggest to replace them. I would also like to get reid of my hostas in a few years as they always get eaten by bugs. Any suggestions? Thanks.

A: There's an article about shade plants on the website as well as several on shade plants at www.simplegiftsfarm.com/marticle.html

One of the problems with shade is that there are so many lovely plants to choose from it is tough to make a decision. From some early blooming campanula to late blooming toad lilies (I'm now working on an article about them for the website) the choices are many. Throw in some astilbe, rodgersia, trilliums, arisaema, hellebore and you are in a gardener's delight.

And trying to grow plants like daylilies ( a sun lover but will tolerate light shade) under shade trees is a recipe for gardening unhappiness. Locust trees do not generally produce deep shade but they do restrict the water available to plants underneath them. You will have better success with your plants if you water deeply twice a week.

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SORRY I'M COMPUTER ILLITERATE AND DON'T KNOW HOW TO DELETE THE TEXT. I HAVE A YELLOW TRUMPHET VINE APPROX. 3 YRS. OLD THAT NEVER BLOSSOMED. I PLANTED MORNING GLORIES FROM SEEDS AND HAVE BEAUTIFUL VINES BUT NO FLOWERS. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? I LIVE IN CORINTH, NY. SINCERELY, JOYCE

A: OK - let's deal with the plants first. If you tend to get all leaves and no flowers on plants, the culprit tends to be over feeding with Nitrogen. We most often see this when plants are grown next to lawns and get some of the high nitrogren lawn fertilizer. So, if you used some form of garden food on your plants, you may have overfed them. Also, both of these plants are sun lovers (although the trumpet vine will tolerate shade) and if they are in shade, they will not bloom heavily.

Re the computer - I have two suggestions. The first is to unlock your caps key and type in lower case. All caps on the Net is SHOUTING!. Second, to delete the newsletter, simply highlight it with your mouse and then hit the delete button - works every time. :-)

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A: A LOT of people asked me about planting perennials, shrubs, and trees and the timing for each of these. The rule of thumb is

Perennials - get it done in September
Bulbs - get them planted in late October
Evergreens - get them planted before the end of October
Woody Trees and Shrubs - get them planted before the ground freezes.

Those are the general guidelines. My experience is that planting outside of those time lines reduces the survival rates of the plants.

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I have a William Baffin rambling rose. It is quite overgrown. Could I prune it at this time of year or should I wait until spring.
Also, my perennial border is against a cedar fence that is soon to be replaced. As the perennials will all have to be removed to put up the fence, would it be better to put up the fence in the spring or fall?

A: I like to prune the Explorer roses in the spring. This is certainly the case in cold climates when you might lose a cane or two in the plant. If seriously overgrown, do chop it back next spring.

Perennial moving - if you can do it in the next few weeks - go ahead with fall. Otherwise wait until spring if the objective is to move perennials safely. I note that if you work in the garden at this time of year, you can stomp down perennials with no detriment to the plant. They're going dormant anyway. So as long as you don't have to physically harm the plant by driving a post through it - you can work away in that area. If the fence is being replaced - with posts going in the old holes, go and do it without moving the perennials. Naturally, you can replace fences right up to ground freezeup and as long as you aren't messing about with the *roots* of the plant, you'll be fine.

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Doug, We went away for three weeks in August and did not water our potted plants at all during that time. We live in a condo (very sunny) south west view. The shrubs did not seem dead when we first returned. They were nice and green (a bit dry). After I started watering they seemed to go very dry and now they seem to be dying. Is there anything you can recommend so that we can save them? They are evergreen shrubs (not sure exactly what type). The other plants (perennials) were dead but they are now growing back. Lucie

A: Sorry - get out the chainsaw. You didn't say what kind of potted shrub is was but generally when evergeeen shrubs start to turn brown, it is time for the compost pile. Some perennials will tolerate drying out and will bounce back when watered - some won't. I see this all the time at discount plant stores that don't water their plants very well. The pots are bone dry but the tops are green. When the customer takes them home, the green tops slowly turn brown no matter how much water is put on. The roots were dead from the drying and it took a while for the needles to finally succumb.

Tip- get a bigger pot for your evergreens so that you can go longer without watering.

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am a new gardner - this is my first year to work in a flower bed. I planted some lariope as a border around my front flower bed. They are very small plants because that is what I could afford at the time,and I figured they would grow. Your current (Set. 14 ) email said something about moving perennials. I thought they could stay where I put them. Obviously my question is why would I want or need to move them? Thanks for your help, Pam in Tulsa, OK.

A: You know sometimes I have to laugh at myself. I forget that not everybody puts their plants on wheels like I do. :-) You *don't* have to move your perennials if you are happy with where they are growing. You *can* move perennials around if you want better combinations or you want to divide them because they are getting too big. Thanks for setting me straight that there are gardeners out there that don't move stuff around. :-)

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Hi Doug - Greetings from England. I find your mail really interesting and look forward to your letters. Have a small problem which you may help with. Have sawn down a fir tree which had died this year. Am left with a stump about 10inches in diameter. How can I ensure that the roots are dead? Can the stump be treated in any way? Keep up- the good work. Best wishes== Bob

A: Nice to see the newsletter is international! :-) Fir shouldn't send suckers up and the roots should simply rot away. You can dig them up of course if your back is up to the task (mine isn't) :-)

Rotting can be encouraged. The old timers used to drill holes in the stumps as deep as possible and then stuff the holes with fresh manure. You could use compost and garden soil (the soil should contain lots of bacteria and microbes) if you don't have access to fresh manure. This is much cheaper than the stump-rotting agents you can purchase at garden centres and equally effective.

You can also go to a rent-all store and rent a stump chipper. This portable saw will grind up a 10 inch stump and major root trunks in a few minutes of work and bring it right down to ground level quite quickly.

My Books

In case you wanted to see how I set up my book on designing and planting a perennial garden to bloom all summmer, I put together a webpage that describes the contents of the book.

Now I know that many of you are buying or thinking of buying tulips now. You know that you want to wait until late October to plant them but you need to buy them now so you'll get the best selection. You certainly don't want the neighbours to have a better show than you do next spring! Because after all, what is spring without tulips? More than that, what is spring without a continuing flow of tulip flowers right from early spring through to early summer. It is easy to extend the bloom time in your garden with a bit of planning. So, here's a quick reference guide to the kinds of tulips you are looking at on those gaudy, colourful boxes.

For the most part, the species tulips bloom the earliest. You'll know they are species because they have those fancy Latin names on the labels. You'll see name like "greigii", "kaufmanniana", and "tarda". While they bloom earlier than the hybrids, they are also the shortest so do make sure you plant them at the front of the garden. And, if you want a naturalized looking garden, the species tulips are the most natural looking and will tend to self-sow in your garden. I know that I actually had to start weeding Tulipa tarda out of my garden and it only came under control when a large evergreen started shading the patch out. It was a cute weed though.

As a rule of thumb, the later the tulip blossom comes, the taller the flower. So, the next earliest bloomers are only slightly taller than the earliest species tulips. Blooming at twelve to eighteen inches are the mid-season bloomers. You'll see names like "fosteriana", "single early" and "double early" on those enticing labels. Most of these have sturdy stems to hold the flowers upright in spring storms so you can plant them almost anywhere in the garden. Do note that most of the colours of these plants fall into the red, yellow and orange part of our colour wheel. Colours near and dear to guys but designers use them because they provide an exciting dash of spring colour and contrast well with the emerging leaves of nearby perennials.

Then we come to the late season tulips. These big guys bloom towards the end of May and you'll find names such as "lily flowering", "single late", "double late", "viridiflora" and "parrot tulips". Most of these later tulips reach for the sky and hold their flowers eighteen to twenty four inches above the ground. They also come in the widest range of colours. This means that guys can't plant them. Unless the gardening guy can co-ordinate the colour scheme of the bulbs with the emerging spring perennials in the garden, that guy should be told where to plant them. To make the point clear, these bulbs bloom at the same time as early perennials and planting a hot red tulip next to a delicate pink blooming perennial will not be a good combination.

Because we are going to plant them in our perennial gardens. There are few things nicer that planting bulbs as part of a mixed garden scheme. They do give you that early spring boost in colour and with a bit of foresight, you can have your tulip and enjoy it too. To begin with, ensure your bulbs are planted in an area that gets a full hot four to six hours of sunlight each day. This is the most critical during the post-flowering period when the leaves are soaking up sunshine and turning that energy into next years flower. Without the sunshine, your bulbs are annuals. In the perennial garden, plant them deeper than the package says. As a rule of thumb, plant them three times as deep as the bulb is high. So, if your bulb is two inches across at its widest point, plant the little fellow six inches deep. I sued to plant mine eight to twelve inches deep so they wouldn't be in the way when I was digging and moving perennials around. This deeper planting seems to help bulbs survive the extremes in heat, drought and cold we are experiencing in our gardens now.

Planting them in a perennial bed also takes a bit of planning about the numbers to plant and where to plant them. Let me suggest you plant in clumps of ten to fifteen bulbs. Put all these bulbs in one spot and let them make their spring show. Plant summer blooming perennials next to them so that when the bulbs are finished with their month in the spotlight, the perennials are just about to start blooming. Don't let them compete for your attention if you can avoid it. Remember that mass planting is much better, giving you a more impressive show than sprinkling a bulb or two here and there throughout the garden. Be bold in your planting. A rule of thumb if you want to make a superb spring show that will green up the neighbours as well as the garden is to average one bulb per square foot of garden space. Remember you are planting them in clumps so while a hundred square foot garden will have a hundred bulbs, they will not be spread over the entire area but concentrated in clumps of 15 bulbs each.

Finally, let me suggest two alternate planting schemes for colour selection. The first is to restrict your selection to three colours such as red, yellow and orange. Pick colours that go well together but only three of them. The alternative is to pick from the entire colour range so the garden becomes a kaleidoscope, a riot of colour that deliberately doesn't match any other planting scheme you have chosen. Both systems will provide you with excellent show garden qualities