Hope your fall gardening is going well. There’s lots more life in the garden yet!

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OH! OH! Did it again! And once again, I stand corrected by a sharp-eyed reader. And you’re right – let me suggest however that the 40:1 ratio still holds true when measuring insecticidal soap – 40 ounces of water to 1 ounce of soap. And I’m told by conversion systems the scientific measurement is 133.22784 ounces in a U.S. gallon. The Imperial system has 160 ounces to a gallon (Canadian and U.K.) The Canadian gasoline gallon is larger than the U.S. gallon and we’re not even talking metric here.

Dear Mr Green I realize we gardeners can't know all plants...as in the fall lily bulb issue. However Canadians also don't know the American measurement system...correction to this newsletter...1 gallon is 128 ounces not 160 as mentioned in your insecticidal soap instructions. Enjoy your newsletters and have passed on some of your info to my gardening friends. A fellow gardener, From Iowa,

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This little article needs no explanation other than to say that researchers substituting organic diets in elementary school age children found the levels of organophosphate insecticides such as malathion and chlorpyrifos decreased to undetectable levels.

But when conventional chemically produced diets were started again, chemical residue levels in the children rose again.

I guess it depends on whether you and your children feel comfortable carrying around chemical insecticides.

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/8418/abstract.pdf

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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.

Pond air pumps

Vegetable garden design

Green roofs

Growing Lemon BalmM

Lists of coloured tulips This is the main page for the lists

Growing Rugosa Roses

The dreaded double digging article

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

Your Questions Answered

*** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** Doug, you wrote:

"I'm sure I'm also about to make the acquaintance of the neighbourhood squirrels as well. My new thought on these rats with tails is to relax and feed them a bit as well. We'll see how long that sense of live-and-let-live lasts."

Yes, you're right that you'll make the acquaintance of the squirrels. It's only natural that they'll appear where the food is.

Here is what I found helpful in keeping them out of the bird feeders: scatter seed in a broad band on the ground under the feeder, and include nuts still in their shells. The squirrels are usually too busy on the ground to climb up the (wooden) pole feeder or up the tree to the hanging feeder, where they would just sit and pig out. The broad band keeps them occupied eating *slowly*, and it even allows for birds to eat on the ground while the squirrels are there; whereas, in a feeder, once the squirrel sits itself there, the birds can't get a purchase. The advantage of nuts in their shells is that they slow down the squirrels' eating; they have to sit still for a few moments to shell the nuts, instead of gorging themselves on seeds, and many times they scamper away with a nut to bury it elsewhere. In short, distract them from the feeders by keeping them occupied on the ground, eating more slowly, with bird seed, whole nuts, and squirrel seed mixes.

This has worked for me for several years, although every now and again a squirrel is still certain that the "grass is greener" up in the feeder, and then I have to get out my water pistol.

Pat

A: Great idea! I’m going to do exactly that. And I did notice a cat was sitting in the backyard yesterday – hunting the squirrels. He was far too slow but a great little deterrent. Unfortunately, I doubt he’ll distinguish between the squirrels and the birds.

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Doug: I so enjoy your newsletters, thank you for them. Question: I have some Autumn Joy sedum which is beautiful right now, as always, here in northeast Indiana. But I have another variety with white flowers and lighter green foliage which is gangly and kind of dumb looking. It splays out and kind of flops over despite sparse flower heads. The funny thing is that the white flowering sedum is right next to my sturdy better-looking Autumn Joy. What to do? Barbara

A: Sedums are often touted as living in part shade conditions and in fact, they do live. Unfortunately, they also tend to flop around if you give them shade.

Some cultivars such as the white flowered ones or variegated ones flop easier than others. Full sun is the real rule for the taller varieties.

Another “floppy” producer is overfeeding sedums. Actually in the case of sedums, overfeeding usually means any garden fertilizer or compost at all. It grows much more firmly if completely ignored and underfed.

Treat them nicely and they flop. My best advice would be to treat sedums (all of them) a little on the lean water and feed side.

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Can I pull out my tomato and pepper plant and let them rot untill spring and turn them over into the soil. I had read something about tomato plants not being a good idea for this.

A: You can leave plant debris in the garden and simple turn it over in the spring. Farmers have been doing it for centuries.

However…

There are however two downsides to doing this in the home garden. The first is mechanical. If you leave tomato vines on the ground over winter, there is a very good chance they will not rot completely. Running a tiller over them will wrap the vines around the tines and then you have to cut them off. Not a great way to start spring. (been there – cut them off)

The second is horticultural and disease related. In the farm, there is crop rotation and tomatoes are seldom grown on the same ground two years in a row. This gives the land a break and interrupts the pest and disease cycle. Tomato pests have nothing to feed on so they die off. In the home garden, you don’t separate your crops by as much distance as they do in commercial farms. So even if you’re not in the same bit of ground, you’re very close. This means the diseases found on the leaves stay in the garden and get a chance to build up.

Removing the leaves and composting them takes care of both issues. It breaks up the vines and it removes potential pathogens and insect egg cases from the garden area.

On balance, yes you can leave them but good garden practice indicates you’ll take them away and turn them into compost.

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Want a Better Lawn than the Neighbors?

You mentioned in this week's newsletter about overseeding lawns in September with about 2 lbs of seed. How short should the grass be and should the seed be covered with compost or peat moss/sand? We have had the grass fairly high for the summer, cutting with a reel mower and leaving the clippings. Thanks

A: Not a problem with how tall the grass is. Tall is good (well, hay field tall might be a little tall) :-)

If tall, let me simply suggest you water the lawn well after seeding. That will wash all the seeds down and out of sight.

And no, you don’t have to cover them up at all.

But adding compost to the lawn at the rate of 50 pounds per 1000 square feet is a GREAT idea in the fall anyway.

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how do I grow babys breath in the winter? do I keep it indoors in pots or do I cut back & let it go domant or do I cut out root & put with my summer bulbs & replant in spring? we do get -40 to -50 in the interior of Alaska. any help you can give will be greatly appricated

A: The question is an interesting one and points directly to several dilemmas we gardeners face.

Can we overwinter plants in harsh climates. Well, sometimes. And sometimes not. The easiest way to overwinter plants in this case is to mulch heavily. If the ground is shallow, over rock, this won’t help much but if deep, then it stops the up and down temperature swings that do the major damage in spring and fall. Deep temps are not normally a problem for zone 3 rated plants but variations in temperature can be deadly.

I’d be mulching it heavily and pulling the mulch away first thing in the spring when the mulch thaws out. We pull the mulch away from the plant in colder climates because if we don’t, the soil temperatures will tend to warm up a little too fast sometimes and the plant will start to grow under the mulch. If this happens, you have a growing plant under the mulch that is not frost hardy – a combination with disastrous consequences in a cold climate with late frosts.

Can you bring a plant indoors? Sure, but you have to let it go dormant. It *wants* dormancy and will not grow well with lowered light levels. It will simply peter out and you won’t be happy. I do this all the time with potted perennials. Grow them until they get heavily frosted and then put them in a frost free but cold area where they won’t grow until spring.

If this were mine, I’d be letting it freeze this fall and then laying down a 12” layer of straw or peat moss to help with overwintering.

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is it best to trim the roots that come out the bottom of the container if you are not going to transplant it, and is there any way to water a rootbound plant? Water seems to run straight thru without the plant getting any.

A: Good question. Is it best to trim? I never do unless I can’t get the plant out of the pot. Heck, I want my plants to have all the roots they come with so I won’t cut anything back that isn’t damaged.

Water a rootbound pot – sure. Stick it in a small pail of water. Or a pan of some kind that will hold water around the bottom of the pot. Fill up the pail or pot so the water has to soak up through the drainage holes. It will take a while to do but it sure works. I used this technique last week on a potted ginger that got a little dry. The roots are way too thick and I’ll have to chop it apart this fall so I just threw it into the small pond in the backyard for a few hours. It was fine when I took it out. That might be a little drastic for some gardeners but it worked fine for me. The pail and/or the roasting pan type of container work just as well – and you’d probably be thought to be a gardener where I’ll just be thought of as lazy.

From My Garden To Yours

It is coming up to the time of year to clear off a few simple questions. Somehow I always seem to have a full inbox of interesting types of queries that I can never seem to answer. So here goes a few.

Yes, those small funny shaped pods on your plant where the flowers used to be are seed pods. While it may seem pretty basic to experienced gardeners, those who are just beginning in this wonderful world of gardening may not recognize a seed pod from a seed pack. Apparently this year, the trumpet vines are throwing seeds like crazy around and so are the impatiens. I don’t have a trumpet vine but my impatiens are setting seed like mad on my front doorstep. I really like the impatiens because the seed pods are corkscrew shaped pods and when they open, they do so explosively, sending small impatiens seeds flying several feet away.

You can collect plant seeds and store them for next spring’s use. Understand that impatiens seeds will not likely come true to this season’s colours and growth habit because they are very seriously hybridized (one of the most intensively bred garden plants on the market). If you keep them cool and dry, they’ll quickly germinate next spring. Same with the trumpet vine seeds, keep them cool and dry until next February and then sow them, you’ll have a bajillion little trumpets to share with the country. The trumpet seeds can also be scattered in the garden but do understand that a trumpet vine is one of the Attila the Hun plants in the garden. It is very weedy once established and will self sow like crazy all by itself. If you leave the impatiens seeds out however, all you’ll have is dead impatiens seeds; tropical plants and seeds do have to be protected from frosts.

The Himalayan Impatiens (I. glandulifera) is another of my favourite garden plants although I don’t have any in this garden. I much prefer it in other’s gardens because it does the same thing as its smaller cousins; it shoots seeds everywhere but they are hardy. If left unchecked it can become a bit of a weed. I like its bold growth and flowers and even though it is 5 feet tall, it is a gorgeous thing in the shade, or sun, or anywhere it can find a small section of ground to call its own. If you pick out the volunteer seedlings, it is manageable but forget to do so and you’ll have a forest. This is as close to a plant thug as it can be without being unmanageable. In a warmer garden area than ours, it could really explode and be a danger if left alone for a year or two.

Yes, plant your bulbs in October but not in September. Remember the bulb needs a good growing time before cold weather sets in. But not too long or they will start to throw flower buds and then die when the cold weather finally does come. Figure six to eight weeks before ground freezeup and if you can tell that, you’re a better weather prognosticator than I. I also intend to repeat my tulip pot growing experiment of last year but this year, I intend to watch the watering and temperature so I don’t kill the pot just as it is coming into bloom. I will leave the potted bulbs outdoors right up until the soil starts to freeze and then it goes into the spare bedroom (no heat there) until spring when it will start to grow.

No, you can’t store your spring flowering bulbs out of the ground over the winter for planting next spring. You could plant them now, take the flowers in the spring and allow the leaves to die down; then, you could dig them up and give them away as presents. Once those leaves have died down, you can dig and move them but storing them over the winter is not an option in the normal house. The other option to having spring bulbs next year is to purchase them as potted plants in the spring (I know this is much more expensive) and simply plunge the pot into the ground to give you instant colour.

Sometimes stink bugs will attack tomatoes and just when you think you want to harvest them, they’ll come away from the vine rotting from the inside. Not a nice thing. I also stand corrected on my note about the raccoons eating my friend’s tomatoes. They were deer; the friends sat and watched the deer come out of the bush and finish off the patch in front of them. Stink bugs or bambi, take your pick this week.

How do you get chives out of your garden once you’ve let them in? Darned if I know; except by a very persistent shovel and its constant application. Remember that chives self-sow so perhaps the desired option is to pick up one of the sterile hybrids (www.richters.com) that won’t become a nuisance in the garden. Otherwise don’t let it set seed. Planting it inside another pot won’t work as it does for mint, the seeds will escape, not the plant.

What do I do about pests in the house? Well, if you’re not talking about my kids, but the insect kind, then I use insecticidal soap on them. If I’m growing basil or one of the herbs I want to eat (and don’t want insect protein in my salads) then I’ll spray it every week with the soap to kill off the pests before they become a problem. Then I can use the plant by simply rinsing off the leaves under clear water. Once the pests become established, then often the only remedy is to turf the plant outdoors – pests and all.

And that’s the questions for this week.