GoodSeed Farm

Country Garden Center & Nursery
THE OPPOSITE OF
“BIG-BOX” SHOPPING

Contact Us


Plant Finder


 

SHOPPING FOR NURSERY TREES

We talked last week about successful tree planting and how important it is to pick the right kind of tree for your location. The next step is to actually shop for and select a healthy tree. A good place to start is a quality local nursery.

Things to look for are the overall condition of nursery trees and the way they are stored. Trees are dug in late winter before they have leaves and must be protected carefully to avoid transplant shock. Good nurseries “heel in” their trees under mulch and have watering systems to keep them moist. Trees that seem stressed in the nursery are more of a challenge to plant successfully. Trees displayed on hot parking lots or stacked too close together quickly attract pests or simply wilt in the hot sun.

Good nurseries stock shapely, well matching specimens that appear healthy. They also control weeds, pests and diseases in their inventory. You don’t need to be an expert to see the quality at a good nursery. Avoid merchants that try to sell you off-grade or “row run” material based on the cheapest price. Another risky proposition is buying trees at end-of-season auctions; generally the tree offered are the picked-over leftovers that no one else would buy.

“Row run” means trees bought and sold by the row, rather than selecting only good quality or matching trees. It’s much faster to start digging at one end of the row and harvest every tree instead of picking out individual trees to harvest. Since the row includes substandard and defective trees the cost per tree is averaged, lowering the unit price. Then it is up to the consumer to pick through and find the good trees in the batch. This is how discount stores can advertise nursery stock cheap.

There are ways to tell a good tree from a bad tree, and techniques to correct minor defects before they become major ones. Examples include bark-included crotches, girdling roots, improper pruning, insects or diseases, double leaders, truncated leaders, bad grafts and a host of other problems. The best growers routinely fix or cull problem trees. If you aren’t experienced in pruning and arboriculture, it’s best to invest in a larger tree that is already pruned and trained professionally by the nursery.

In the nursery industry there is actually a written quality standard or specification used to grade trees for certain qualities. Professional arborists and tree managers use these standards to compare trees in the nursery. Homeowners usually don’t know how to judge trees so they often spend their money on inferior quality plants. Retailers focused on price often sell “row run” trees. Unless you’re an expert, dealing with a professional is the most likely way to get your money’s worth.

Once you’ve actually purchased a tree, the first step to success is getting it home safely. This means protecting it from drying wind or sun. Professionals use a special mesh tarp. At highway speeds any part of the tree that is hit by wind will quickly dry out and get “wind burn”, which shocks the tree and can kill it. If the nursery offers delivery it is well worth the cost, particularly for big trees.

If you can’t plant your tree immediately, store it in a shady spot. Root balls of “balled and burlapped” trees should be protected with wet straw or mulch piled around the roots. Use a sprinkler to keep the roots wet, or set a hose to trickle water on the root ball. In next week’s column we’ll talk about step-by-step suggestions for successful planting.

CHOOSING HEALTHY TREES 

This week we start a four-week series of columns showing how to succeed with trees. This column will talk about selecting the right kind of tree for your location. Next week’s column will be about how to get your money’s worth when shopping for trees. Next we’ll talk about successful planting. The fourth column will answer frequently-asked questions about tree planting.  

It can be frustrating to plant young trees because so many of us have had trees die after taking time, trouble and expense to plant them. There are many reasons why this happens, some very technical but most quite simple. It all starts with picking the right tree for the location you have.

The first question to ask yourself is “what is this tree for? Why am I planting it?” Trees can be for shade, privacy, windbreak, or simply for decoration because they’re attractive.  The right tree can serve many of these purposes, but there are trade-offs between trees so you have to know which purpose is most important to you.

Next, figure out how tall and wide the tree can be when it’s fully grown. Do you have enough space for a big tree without overhanging your house, interfering with electric wires, or overcrowding other plants you already have? Imagine a big circle in your yard where you have room, with the tree at the center of the circle. Now measure how far across the circle can be. Now you have important information and can limit your choices to trees that will fit the space. Never plan on “trimming” or keeping trees smaller than God intended them to grow! There are plenty of trees that will fit the space you have when they are full grown.

Once you know what size tree you can fit, look at the growing conditions where it will be living. Your tree can’t move once it’s installed, if it doesn’t like the location. It’s stuck wherever you plant it. You need to know whether the site is wet or dry, sheltered or exposed, and how good a soil you have. Trees vary in how forgiving they are about drainage and soil conditions. The more you know, the better a choice you’ll make.

Once you know the size tree and what the growing conditions are, you can make the fun choices such as leaf and bloom color, shape, fall foliage color and so forth. There may be trees you’ve always liked that will work, or perhaps you might choose something you never thought of because it would be such a good fit for your particular spot. A good way to think about it is that you are a “foster parent” and you will learn to love any tree you select, but you want to know that you can provide a good home.

You’ll be surprised how many choices there are if you talk to a knowledgeable nurseryman or arborist. Whether you wind up choosing the same tree your neighbors have or find something new and different, taking advantage of a nurseryman’s experience with real-life situations will save you money, time and sweat. There are always exceptions, but it makes sense to follow time-tested rules when deciding on plants. You can avoid the pitfalls, save time and money, and enjoy a healthy tree for years to come.

Look for this column next week for practical tips on selecting quality trees in the nursery and getting them home.

KEEPING POND WATER CLEAR 

Summer is the most challenging time of year for pond and water feature enthusiasts. Keeping pond water clear and clean in 90 degree heat with sixteen hours of sunlight takes some advance preparation. This is because water temperature is the key to controlling pond algae.

Experienced water gardeners visit our store early in the year to stock up on annual pond plants, “floaters” like water lettuce and water hyacinth. These plants multiply rapidly on the pond surface, forming a living “umbrella” that casts shade on the water. Perennial water lilies are also very helpful in keeping sun from warming pond water. By August, vegetation should cover most of your pond’s surface.

Keeping water rapidly moving is another important aspect to controlling “green water” in your pond. Waterfalls and fountains mix in fresh oxygen to keep water from becoming stagnant. Pond water should circulate at least twice per hour to prevent “hot spots”, mixing cool subsurface water constantly. This means that a 100-gallon pond should have a 200 gallon-per-hour pump. To prevent “hot spots”, water should circulate completely from one end of the pond to the other, twice each hour.

Well-designed water features are lined completely with rock. Black plastic pond liners have only one-third the surface area necessary for algae-eating bacteria to colonize. Black liners soak up the sun’s rays, acting as solar water heaters. Rocks and pebbles equalize the night and day temperatures, cooling the water by day and warming it at night. Gaps between stones give fish a place to hide from predators, and act as natural filters.

Plantings along pond banks, particularly on the southwest side, shade the water during the hottest part of the day. Overhanging shrubs and ornamental grasses work well, and so do trees. Ponds in direct sun all day are the hardest to manage. There are lots of perennials that thrive along pond banks or in shallow water. These plants are called “aquatic marginals”. In addition to making a natural appearance, they help create a balanced environment around ponds that helps control algae.

A healthy living pond environment provides enough food for goldfish and snails, who help keep the pond clean. Fish wastes, in turn, help feed pond plants. Overfeeding of fish is a major cause of algae bloom in water features. We stock our pond with bait goldfish, and never add fish food of any kind. The fish thrive by eating mosquito and frog eggs, tadpoles, algae and insects, scrubbing the pond naturally.

Every water feature has “issues” with string algae, particularly during the summer months. We recommend several fish-safe, plant-safe algae control products that work very well, and use them in our own pond, but they are only one ingredient in a successful “recipe” for clean, clear water. The key to clear water is a healthy balance of good design, water circulation, plants and fish. These elements create a healthy environment similar to natural stream beds, where plants, insects and animals live in harmony in clean, clear water.

DOGWOODS

Dogwood trees are the most asked-for tree in our nursery, but they can be a challenge to grow successfully. They thrive in well-drained acid soil rich with humus, similar to the rich compost we see in established forests. You’ll rarely see a mature dogwood tree standing in the middle of a field, since they prefer some protection from wind and sun. 

Dogwood seeds sprout in the semi-shade and rich loamy soil at the edge of woods, and usually become one-sided and crooked reaching for the sun. If you look closely at a mature dogwood in the woods you’ll see it’s in pretty rough shape and wouldn’t look very good in your front lawn. Often the original main trunk died and rotted years ago and only one side (the sunny side) is still surviving. There’s a lesson in this. Dogwoods do best in filtered sun or partial sun, with protection from drying winds. 

The most common cause of dogwood death in landscapes is drowning from being planted too deep in heavy soil and then over-watered. Dogwoods really need to dry out between waterings. Bark borers and many types of fungus prey on dogwoods. Pests and diseases usually attack plants that are under stress and leave healthy plants alone. On older dogwoods in trouble we usually see damage to the lower bark, usually from lawn mower injuries that invite borers and girdle the tree.  

Field-dug dogwood trees in our nursery live can for years above ground, with mulch heaped around the root balls to keep them moist. They like sitting above ground because they have good drainage. Often they die within weeks of being sold, because they are planted in clay ground where they can’t drain properly. They start to wilt (a symptom of drowning) and well-meaning homeowners make the mistake of watering still more. We’ve had wilted dogwoods returned to us and tossed them on the “dead pile” only to have them revive once they have a chance to dry out. 

Most landscapes have less than ideal conditions for dogwoods, but with a little work you can compensate by preparing your soil to be more like the forest floor. Pick a location where there is some protection from the sun and from winter wind. Till a rich mixture of peat moss, Holly-Tone fertilizer and composted pine bark in a six-foot circle, and plant the tree a little high in the ground so it doesn’t drown. Mulch with pine bark each year so you won’t nick the bark with your lawnmower or trimmer. 

Fertilizing each year in early spring and again in mid-summer with an acid-rich fertilizer like Holly-Tone will help your dogwood grow rapidly and resist disease. Maintaining the mulch circle around it eliminates competition from lawn grasses, the major cause of slow tree development. You’d be surprised how rapidly dogwood trees grow in commercial nurseries where they are pampered! Growth of two feet per year is common if there’s no competition from turf. 

A strong suggestion is to be realistic about the growing conditions you have and consider different flowering trees that are more suitable. There are lots of small-to-medium sized ornamental trees to choose from. We like Hawthorn, serviceberry, white fringetree, crabapple, tree lilac, ornamental cherry and ornamental pear. All these trees are easier to grow than dogwood.

GOOD LANDSCAPING STARTS WITH GOOD DESIGN 

It can be frustrating to invest money and sweat into a home landscape and not get the “look” you dream about. It takes some imagination plus a dose of real-life experience to visualize landscaping that can transform your home to a showplace for the least possible cost. We all see well-landscaped homes and want the same finished appearance, but every landscape is different so you can’t simply copy someone else. 

Landscaping should have specific goals and benefits, and if you prioritize them a design will suggest itself. Examples are privacy, dust and noise control, windbreaks, shade, attracting wildlife, increasing property value or “curb appeal”. Each objective can balance the rest. If you concentrate on the most important goals, they will dictate the “backbone” of your landscape. You also have to consider traffic patterns for people and vehicles, shapes and sizes of plants that will to flatter the house, and the actual growing conditions you have in your yard. 

Most people start with small, easy-to-understand projects such as kitchen herb gardens, water features, container gardens, and smaller scale planting beds. The challenge is to have these “micro-landscapes” harmonize with the overall plan, sharing a common style. Having an overall plan helps these small projects work together and look more professional. A landscape plan also reduces mistakes; it’s no fun to have to remove something you already planted in order to get to the next step. 

Another challenge is to design with plants that are well suited to the soil, sunlight, wind and drainage conditions you have. It’s very difficult to permanently change sweet soil to acid, or clay to topsoil, except in fairly small areas for a specific plant or two. If you’re in love with a particular plant and you know it’s not well suited to your yard, you can make a special effort to prepare the ideal conditions for it. But the majority of your plants should be picked for the existing conditions or your landscape won’t do very well and your money will be wasted. 

We like to say “paint with the big brush first, then fill in around the edges”. This means stepping back and looking at the overall picture, and doing the things that will make the most difference first. “Big brush” projects can take longer and be more expensive, so it’s easy to put them off year after year if you’re not really sure what to do in the first place. 

We suggest getting some help from your local nursery or garden center. Many nurseries will help you with design ideas in order to earn your business on plants and materials. A good nursery wants you to succeed and your plants to thrive, so they can have your repeat business and recommendation. Just ask!

ORNAMENTAL GRASSES MAKE A DIFFERENCE FAST

Ornamental grasses make excellent screen plants to hide unsightly propane tanks and air conditioners, or for privacy around patios and decks. They develop faster than shrubs. Professional designers mix a variety of grasses with perennial flowers and woody plants, sometimes massing them for showy effects.  Grasses range in size from tiny pillows less than a foot tall to huge clumps over ten feet tall. They come in a range of colors from dusty blue to pink and purple.

A good way to compare grasses is by looking at the size they will be when they are fully grown. This way you’ll be sure to space them properly and allow enough space for them to develop to their fullest. Most grasses do best in full sun with plenty of moisture, but the most popular grasses are quite adaptable and will do well almost anywhere. Hardy grasses are perennials and will return each year larger. The only maintenance they need is to be cut to the ground in late winter each year and fertilized during spring and summer.

Here’s a rundown on some of our favorites:

Miscanthus, commonly called “maiden grass”, have a very graceful habit, softly drooping and waving gently with the slightest breeze. Some have “zebra stripes’, others have stripes along the leaves. Miscanthus are great for privacy or screen plantings, and come in many sizes.

Pennisetum, or “fountain grass” are another popular grass family. Most have showy upright seed heads. Pennisetums work well in perennial borders or foundation plantings, mixed with flowering plants and shrubs. Our favorites are “Hameln”, “Little Bunny”. “Karley Rose” and “Moudry”. Pennisetums have distinctive pink seed heads.

Some grasses have an upright form that works well in tight spaces. The popular “Karl Foerster” feather reed grass has attractive wheat-like seed stalks that stand straight up, great for mixing with foundation shrubs and hiding unsightly utility meters. Panicum “Shenandoah” gradually turns purple during the season, and grows in a tidy upright clump that looks great in foundation plantings.

Fluffy dusty-blue clumps of ornamental fescue grass are terrific mixed with low perennials in the front of the border. They are very drought-tolerant once they’re established, and stay nice and compact for years. Our favorites are “Elijah Blue” and “Boulder Blue”.

Pay attention to the hardiness zone when buying ornamental grasses, or you could buy varieties that aren’t hardy perennials in this area. People often ask us for “pink pampas grass”, shown often in mail order catalogs but not hardy in Ohio winters. Red Pennisetum is popular for planters. We think of both of these as annuals and pay less for them than perennial grasses.

HOME ORCHARDS MADE EASY

Many people dream of having a home orchard but keep putting it off. One reason is that there can be such a long time (and a lot of work) between planting and your first harvest of delicious fruit. Another reason is that so many things can go wrong in the meantime. Fear of the unknown discourages many homeowners from planting fruit trees.

It’s true that raising fruit at home takes effort, but probably not as much as you think. The key is doing things the easy way instead of wasting time and effort. It’s possible to have edible fruit the same year you plant, or the following year. The key is starting with real, living pot-grown fruit trees instead of ordering “bare root” from mail order catalogs. Planting bare root trees, particularly in spring and summer, is very unlikely to succeed for many reasons. For best results, start with the biggest, healthiest fruit trees you can find. They’ll cost more initially, but they are more likely to thrive and you’ll have fruit years sooner.

We’ve had great success raising our fruit trees in bio-degradable, earth-friendly fiber pots. This makes it possible to “plant the pot” at any time of year without disturbing the root system, a breakthrough for successful planting. As a bonus, fruit trees grown in fiber pots thrive while they’re in the nursery. Many of our pot-grown fruit trees are already loaded with fruit!

Choosing newer, disease-resistant varieties is another key to success with less effort. Modern hybrids reduce the amount of maintenance required to produce healthy, delicious fruit. The best apples for home orchards probably have names you never heard of. Look for “Certified Virus Indexed” (CVI) fruit trees, grafted from certified virus free mother trees. They need less spraying to produce healthy fruit.

“Semi-dwarf” fruit trees, which grow 12 to 15 feet wide and perhaps 10 feet tall, make harvesting easier. Tree size, hardiness, and clay soil tolerance are determined by the rootstock, not the variety. Most apple trees we sell are grafted to semi-dwarf rootstocks ideal for this area according to the OSU agricultural extension.

Most importantly, don’t waste time and effort by trying to start an orchard “on the cheap”. It will ultimately cost you more in time and effort, and probably in dollars also. Each tree should be securely staked, fertilized, mulched, and protected from deer. If you budget about $40-50 per tree, you’ll have enough for all the materials needed to make your orchard a success, plus start with good-sized quality plants. In the long run you’ll be money ahead.

PROTECTING YOUR TREES FROM CICADAS 

We’ve had numerous calls from gardeners alarmed about the invasion of 17-year Cicadas, looking for a way to protect their trees and shrubs. Adult cicadas aren’t hungry, so they can’t be controlled by the usual process of poisoning the plant leaves with insecticide sprays. Disposable plastic netting with ¼" hole size is the most effective way to protect valuable trees and shrubs from the Cicada bug infestation. Plastic netting can prevent the insects from laying their eggs in the twigs of small trees or shrubs.  

We looked to the nursery industry for a source, and one of our growers referred us to a company in Minneapolis called Industrial Netting. They produce a huge variety of netting products for virtually any purpose. Industrial Netting offers two grades of ¼" “Cicada Control” netting in various sizes; a lighter weight, lower cost netting, and heavier gauge netting, by the roll or packaged in pre-cut pieces. They take credit card orders by phone or online, and ship in 24 hours. You can call 800-328-8456 or better yet order online. Here’s the link: 

http://www.industrialnetting.com/cicada.html  

Cicadas live for 17 years, but they spend almost all of their lives underground eating roots. Cicada nymphs emerge from the ground in periodic cycles. They climb up trees and quickly shed their skins, emerging as adult, flying cicadas. Adult Cicadas do not eat. Their entire purpose in life is to mate and produce offspring. You can hear the males' mating "song" from early morning to nightfall. In heavily infested areas, the noise can be quite disturbing. Shortly after mating, the male Cicada dies.  

About five to ten days later, the female Cicada lands on twigs of deciduous trees, cuts slits in small pencil sized (or smaller) branches and twigs, and lays her eggs in the slits. She then goes on to another twig and repeats the process, laying about 24 eggs each time. A female cicada can deposit up to 600 eggs. The eggs hatch, producing tiny nymphs that fall to the ground. These nymphs burrow into the soil and feast on underground roots. They remain there for years, slowly growing, until their periodic cycle calls them to emerge again as adults.  

Where infestations are heavy, the egg laying process is repeated on a tremendous number of twigs. This causes the twigs (or ends of the tree) to die, and often break off. With a heavy infestation, it often destroys young trees and bushes. While the damage may look bad on large trees, a mature tree can usually survive the damage.

RETAINING WALLS THE EASY WAY 

The first step for many home landscape projects is to build a retaining wall, creating a raised bed. This is easy to do with interlocking retaining wall blocks available in many colors to compliment your home. Retaining walls give your landscape a neat, professional appearance, keep lawn grass out of landscape beds, and allow drainage. They can be filled with topsoil and mulch so that shrubs and perennials can be planted without digging down into the native heavy clay soil. This is very good for plants and easy for you. Retaining walls can also be used to prevent washouts and contain backfill next to your home. 

The most popular wall block is 12 inches long and four inches high, and weighs only 25 pounds. It is easy to calculate how much you’ll need by measuring along the outside edge of your wall project. For each foot of wall you will need one block for every four inches tall. If you’re building on a slope, figure the average height of the wall. One-foot blocks are recommended for walls no higher than two feet. 

For taller walls, and places where vehicles might touch your wall, we prefer “oversize” blocks like Allan Block Classic, Pavestone Highland Stone or Reading Rock Aultwall Oversize. Measuring eighteen inches long by six or eight inches tall, these can be used for walls up to four feet tall. Taller walls require “geogrid” reinforcement or other techniques. Allan Block has an excellent website with wall ideas and installation tips. 

Good quality blocks are molded with crisp, clean edges making them easy to stack straight, with a “split face”. Find a block supplier close to home (blocks are heavy) that stocks the same colors year after year, from a quality manufacturer that is careful about matching pigments. This makes it easy to blocks to your project or build matching walls in future years. A good supplier will let you return extra blocks if you over-estimate. 

The most important step in wall building is making a level footer or base. If your first course is level your wall will be level. Dig down a few inches deep and add crushed stone, tamping it thoroughly so your wall won’t settle. Make your footer trench wide enough so you can rake the stone smooth and level. Make sure there is a way for water to drain from behind hour wall. 

As you place each block, use a level to make sure it’s even with the rest. Place a block of wood on it and tamp with a sledgehammer or spud bar, checking with the level. When you lay the second course, give each block a thump to keep it from rocking. Make sure the wall is level from front to back as well as side to side. The more careful you are the better your wall will look. 

Once you get the knack of retaining wall building, you can make professional-looking walls quickly and easily. You’ll be proud of your work and you’ll soon see more places where the right wall would improve your landscape.

GROUNDCOVERS REDUCE WEEDING AND MULCHING

Regular readers of this column are used to reading that “the best weed control is complete darkness”. In other words, weeds can only grow if the sun is hitting the ground. That’s why we use mulch, and that’s why we have more weed problems in sunny areas than in the shade.

Using groundcover plants is a great way to reduce weeding and mulching requirements. Groundcovers look terrific. Many are evergreen, most have nice flowers, and they are all easy to grow. Groundcovers form a “carpet” of low-growing clumps or vines that enhance your landscape and look very professional. When installing new beds, we like to add groundcover plants spaced one foot apart in all the open spaces. It takes about three years for the plants to completely cover, and once this happens you don’t need to mulch any more so the installation pays for itself!

Most groundcover plants are available in “peat pots”, usually in flats of 50 or so, for about a dollar each. To install, simply pull the mulch aside and press the plant into the ground firmly and then replace the mulch. Keep the plants moist for a few weeks until they get rooted in.

Which groundcover works best depends on the conditions in your landscape. Pick groundcovers carefully for best results. Here are some of our favorites:

Pachysandra (Japanese spurge) is great in shady areas. It has glossy green foliage and little spikes of white flowers. Pachysandra spreads in the mulch and leaf litter, so you never have to rake leaves or twigs out of an established patch. It is shallow-rooted so it doesn’t compete with your perennials, shrubs or bulbs.

Vinca minor (also called Myrtle or Periwinkle) is great in full sun and on slopes, and also does well in shade. Once established it is very tough and trouble-free. It has delightful blue-purple flowers and dark glossy green leaves.

Liriope (lilyturf or monkey grass) makes a carpet of strappy dark green leaves with showy purple flower spikes. It makes a great border along bed edges and a filler in open areas, in full or part sun. Variegated versions with white or yellow stripes along the leaf edges are also popular.

English Ivy is traditionally used as a groundcover, and is a great way to cover large areas and “civilize” under trees where nothing else will grow. Ivy will climb trees and buildings and creep across paving. So make sure this is O.K. with you before planting it.

Euonymus coloratus (wintercreeper) is another climbing plant that makes an attractive groundcover. It turns bright red in fall and drops its leaves for the winter. We like planting it next to bare brick walls, where it climbs aggressively and makes a very lush background for specimen trees and shrubs.

Sedums (stonecrop) and delosperma (ice plant) of various kinds make great groundcovers in sunny dry areas, thriving with very little water or maintenance. Some of them are bright yellow-green, others are variegated, most have very showy blooms. They look great on slopes and in rock gardens.

There are many other groundcovers like creeping thyme, wild strawberry, hens & chicks, deadnettle, veronica and creeping phlox). All have their uses, and in the right situation will help reduce maintenance while providing a colorful show. Get suggestions from your nursery about which ones would work best in your situation, and how to plant them successfully.

ASPARAGUS PLANTING 

Asparagus is a perennial will grow larger and more productive each year and produce for many years with almost no maintenance, if you plant it properly. You can harvest handfuls of crisp, sweet stalks all during spring from an established patch. All you have to do is invest some time and effort to get your plants started, and patiently wait a few years for them to get established before you start to harvest.

Start with one-year roots or two-year-old potted plants. You can expect a half-pound of fresh spears per year, per plant, once they mature. The best varieties are Jersey Knight and Jersey Giant. Dig a trench one foot deep and about one foot wide, 1-1/2 feet long for each plant. Make sure your planting trench drains well. Asparagus roots do not like waterlogged soils that will lead to root rot. The best planting time is early May, once the soil temperature reaches 50 degrees.

Apply about 1 lb. of 0-46-0 (triple super-phosphate) fertilizer per 50 feet of row in the bottom of the trench before planting. Fill the trench half full with compost or aged manure, sprinkle on some 10-10-10 fertilizer or Espoma Plant-Tone, and plant the roots so that the base of the plant (root crown) is about four inches below ground level. Plant should be 1-1/2 feet apart, and if you are planting multiple rows the rows should be spaced five feet apart. Giving the plants lots of room helps prevent fungus diseases by letting air circulate to keep them dry. Carefully fill the trench, making sure the plant tips are showing above ground. If your plants don’t have stalks yet, wait for them to grow before refilling your trench around them.

Now you need to wait a year before you harvest. Let the plants grow all season, fertilizing occasionally and mulching to prevent weeds. After frost kills the tops cut them off. Repeat this the second year. Start harvesting next year, but only cut while spears are at least as thick as your finger. After harvest is over let the remaining stalks grow tall.

If Asparagus beetles are seen, spray the ferns with an approved insecticide. Asparagus beetles chew on the fern, causing the stem to turn brown and reducing the yield the next year.  For disease prevention, spray with an approved fungicide on a 7 to 14 day schedule beginning when the ferns reach a 3 to 4 foot height and continuing until mid September.

The best weed control is mulching. You can use straw or composted leaves for this purpose. If you have a problem with weeds, after harvest is over you can cut all the plants to the ground and then spray the row with Roundup to kill the weeds, and then let the asparagus re-grow.

Asparagus is a rugged perennial that will reward your hard work for up to 15 years. Each year you will get a longer harvest, and spears will become fatter.

TIME TO PLANT SWEET POTATOES 

Is there anything more delicious than a plate of baked sweet potatoes with fresh cracked pepper, salt and melted butter? Yes. The same dish made with fresh-dug sweet potatoes from your own garden! Sweet potatoes are easy to grow. The key to success in Ohio is an early start, since sweet potatoes need a long season of sunny days to mature.

Sweet Potatoes are in the same plant family as morning glories. They need warm soil, so now is the time to prepare your garden for these delicious tubers. You’ll need to make a raised ridge in a place with full sun all day, working the soil and perhaps covering it with some black plastic for a week or two to warm the soil.

Sweet potato plants are rooted cuttings; stems with a few leaves and well-developed roots sold in bunches. You can keep them in a jar of water until you’re ready to plant. After planting, water them regularly to keep the soil moist while they develop. Control the weeds in your row until the plants spread out enough to shade the ground.

Sweet potatoes will be ruined by frost, so make sure you harvest them as soon as they are ready. If an early frost takes you by surprise, harvest them immediately before the decay from the dead vines travels into the potatoes and rots them.

Which sweet potatoes should you choose? Here’s a rundown of the most popular varieties:

Beauregard has been accepted by farmers everywhere. Chances are this is the sweet potato that is available at your local market. The outside color is red-orange and the inside color is orange. The Beauregard is a quick maturing potato and has a good shape.

Centennial Perhaps the most widely recognized sweet potato, the Centennial has been used in many bake-off contests. It has carrot color inside with copper to orange outside skin, and produces "Baby Bakers" in about 90 days.

Georgia Jets provide extremely fast growth, producing #1 size potatoes in only 90 days, and extra-high yields. Five years of testing in the state of New York shows that Georgia Jets produce 2 1/2 times the yield of standard sweet potato plants. Yields in other sections of the country are even more exceptional. Jets have deep orange inside color with moist flesh and a marvelous flavor. The outside skin is so red it is almost purple.

O’Henry O' Henry is a white-skinned, cream-fleshed sweet potato that cooks up drier than other sweet potato varieties. Has a different look from the other darker-skin varieties.

"Bunch" Porto Rico is a favorite of  gardeners with limited space Also called "Bush" and "Vineless," the Porto Rico sweet potato has a copper-colored outside skin and light red flesh. With delicious "old-fashioned" flavor, it is an excellent baking potato producing "Baby Bakers" in 100 days.

Vardaman is another bush variety sweet potato. It has golden yellow outside skin that darkens after digging, and the deepest, brightest inside color of all sweet potatoes.

White Yams, sometimes called Triumph, Southern Queen, Poplar Root, "Choker" and White Bunch, are white as cotton inside and out, and sweet as sugar. One of America's oldest varieties, white yams are the driest sweet potato.

Set sweet potato plants 12 to 18 inches apart, preferably on a wide, raised ridge about 8 inches high. A ridge not only dries better in the spring but also warms earlier. Covering the ridge with lack plastic can speed early season growth by capturing and storing more of the sun’s heat in the soil under the plastic cover. The vines of spreading varieties need a great deal of space, so allow at least 3 to 4 feet between rows.

After early cultivation (which is not necessary with black plastic), sweet potatoes need minimal care to keep down weeds. Once the vines spread to cover the ground, little weeding is required. Irrigate if an extended drought occurs. Do not water during the last 3 to 4 weeks before harvest to protect the developing roots.

GROWING YOUR OWN FOOD 

I think vegetable and fruit gardening is going to become quite fashionable over the upcoming years. It’s a classic case of trends coming full circle; growing our own food is a tradition here in Adams County so suddenly we find ourselves on the leading edge.

Concern over food safety, inflation pressure on food prices, and a trend to home improvement instead of vacation travel all are contributing to a surge in home gardening. So is the “slow food” movement, a growing awareness of how important it is to really savor and enjoy what we eat. For those of us already accustomed to eating fresh home-grown fruit and vegetables, this is not a new discovery. What’s next? I predict a resurgence of interest in home canning. Imagine that!

The general public is starting to realize how much we’ve lost in our pell-mell rush to embrace factory-made “convenience foods” and the “drive-up” fast-food industry. After all, eating is one of the most important and central aspects of life, so why rush it? Why eat mediocre, dumbed-down adulterated processed foods? Particularly when we know full well that a processed food diet is a major contributor to obesity, sickness and disease?

Our grandparents set an example for us by growing and serving fresh vegetables and fruits at home, preserving enough to last all winter. They did it because they had to in order to survive; buying food wasn’t always an option. Today, most of us can afford to buy food produced by strangers and shipped thousands of miles, but the quality of home-grown and home-canned food is now a luxury. Maybe it’s time to rediscover the pride and satisfaction that come from managing a home garden.

Is there a better legacy we can pass along to our own children and grandchildren?

CONTROLLING FRUIT TREE PESTS 

For hobby orchardists with busy lives, the simplest approach to growing healthy fruit remains the all-purpose orchard spray applied every 10 days from bud break until harvest. All-purpose orchard spray is a mixture of insecticides and fungicides. Applied every 10 days to two weeks, it will kill a number of insects and stop some fungus growth. The most important aspect of effective pest or disease control is proper timing. Even the most effective material will not work if applied at the wrong time.

Fruit trees have many natural insect enemies, however it’s unlikely that they will be bothered by more than a few of these in a given season. Early control of the first generation of insects reduces the amount of control needed later in the season. The same is true of disease control. Most spraying is directed at diseases, which threaten trees all season long but can be minimized by early control. In other words, get started right now and keep it up on a schedule.

Disease pressure can be minimized by selecting disease resistant varieties. Old favorites whose names you recognize may not be the best choices. We always recommend disease-resistant apples like Freedom, Honeycrisp and Zestar, which require much less spraying. Another important step is annual feeding with trace-mineral-rich tree fertilizers like Espoma Tree Tone. A healthy, well-fed tree is less vulnerable to pests and diseases.

Growing fruit organically requires you to thoroughly study the interrelated cycle of fruit growth, pests, diseases and beneficial insects. Tree fruits are one of the most difficult crops to grow under a strict organic definition. Organic growers may have to accept a high percentage of crop loss to insect damage.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a middle ground between chemical control and strict organic methods. It requires a high level of understanding and record-keeping, which sounds difficult but actually eliminates a lot of unnecessary work. Understanding the natural balance is a good thing and well worth the effort.

Professional orchard growers take the time to thoroughly research, understand and document all the factors of insect and disease control in their orchards. For the home orchardist this may be overwhelming. The tried-and-true approach of regular spraying, pruning and feeding will give you a satisfying fruit yield with the least time spent.

PRUNING KNOCK-OUT ROSES 

In our neighborhood this is the perfect time to cut back shrub roses, including the popular “Knock-Out” series. Roses are just starting to sprout new growth, the weather is warming and we’re headed for another season of gorgeous color from May until frost.

“Knock-Out” shrub roses have proven themselves worthy of all the hype. They are rugged, easy to grow, perform well all season and are incredibly free of the typical problems that plague Hybrid Tea roses. The early spring “haircut” we’re about to describe is just about all the care they need to perform their best all year.

Put on a pair of stout leather gloves for this job. Start by raking some of the dead leaves from around the plant so you can see all the branches. Now take a good sharp bypass pruner and cut the main canes down to about half. Make your cuts just above a good, healthy, out-facing shoot, cutting on an angle just above the shoot. This directs the growth outward and doesn’t leave a stub that will rot.

Make sure you cut well below anything dead or rotten. The cut end should be green and healthy-looking. A good rule is to cut more and further rather than less. You can’t harm the plant by cutting too much; the remaining canes can be a foot or shorter and that’s fine. We call this “tough love”. You’ll be amazed how quickly the plant replaces all the little “busy branches” you are removing with healthy new canes.

Once you’ve trimmed off all the extra, look for stubs from last year that have died back and rotted, and cut them off at the base. Cut any canes that are lying along the ground. Now you can clean out all the dead leaves and weeds from underneath. This rotten stuff harbors disease and insects and will make your work harder if you don’t remove it.

Now you should fertilize with a good dry fertilizer. We like Espoma “Rose Tone” best. About a pound is enough for one feeding. Just scatter it around under the plant. Next you should spread a little mulch to keep weeds from getting a head start before the rose gets bushy and shades the ground. We prefer pine bark nuggets for roses because they dry out quickly; moisture encourages fungus problems with roses.

A good haircut right now will make your shrub roses bloom their best. Shrub roses bloom on new growth and a good pruning encourages new growth. Now you can enjoy a spectacular show for the rest of the year!

“Knock-Out” shrub rose before pruning

After pruning

        
MAKING SOGGY DIRT FLUFFY 

We’ve been able to plant successfully even when gardens are soggy and saturated the way they are now, from all the rain we’ve had. Our secret is adding two or three inches of peat moss on top and deep-tilling. Peat moss is bone dry and absorbs many times its weight in water, so tilling into wet soil dries things out immediately. It also mixes in lots of air, which is beneficial to plants.

Planting isn’t just about “digging a hole” and putting the plant into it. “Green thumbs” know they have to make the soil they’re planting in as close as possible to the rich, well-drained soil in the pot the plant was grown in. Plants breathe through their roots. This is one of the big gardening secrets that separates “green thumbs” from average gardeners. Compacted soil is the biggest reason plants fail to thrive, and there’s nothing you can pour on top of the soil that will help plants breathe.

Whenever we plant gardens or trees we always till in plenty of peat moss to break up the clay soil. Peat moss isn’t food, it simply adds organic matter to the soil to keep it from sticking together and permit air the reach the plant roots. We usually till in a mineral-rich bone-meal based fertilizer as well. We call this “making fluffy dirt”, and when we do it plants build healthy root systems quickly. It’s magic.

Soil compaction is the enemy of healthy plants (including lawns). Plants in compacted soil can’t breathe, and also water can’t soak in and simply runs off. Organic materials such as compost, peat moss and manure help open up air passages into the soil, and earthworm activity helps keep it loose. Mulch on the top helps also.

Try this method the next time you plant: scatter some Espoma “Tone” fertilizer on the ground, spread two or three inches of peat moss over it, and then till the whole area until you have fluffy topsoil six to eight inches deep. Pull some of it aside, set the plant in the middle and pull the soil around it, tamping it gently. Mulch and water, and then try not to walk on the soil close to the plant ever again. You are now a “green thumb”.

SPRING HOUSECLEANING FOR YOUR LANDSCAPE 

One of the first signs of spring is freshly mulched landscape beds. April is the month to get your landscape cleaned up and groomed, looking good before the weather gets hot and weeds take over. Yard work is much easier and more pleasant when the weather is still cool!

The first step is to cut a nice clean edge along all your landscape beds where the lawn has been creeping in. Bed edges should be out around the “drip line” of foundation shrubs. Lawn grass shouldn’t be allowed to invade your perennials. Take up a strip of sod along the bed edges and use it to fill erosion gullies and washouts, or pile it somewhere to rot so you’ll have a stash of rich topsoil later in the year.

If you see Japanese Beetle grubs as you dig, it’s a sign you need to treat to prevent an infestation later in the year, and for mole control. You can kill grubs with chemical insecticide, or a long-lasting organic biological control like Milky Spore.

Next, cut all the dead foliage off perennials. Most kinds can be cut to the ground. Ornamental grasses should be cut short before they start to green up; six inches is a good height for their spring “haircut”. Shrub roses should be cut at least halfway back. Cut stems off just above healthy buds that are facing outward, and cut of any dead stems even further, back to green healthy wood.

Shrubs should either be carefully pruned or have the scraggly tips sheared off nice and neat. There’s still time to “limb up” your trees, cutting low-hanging branches back to the trunk. Once all this is finished, rake up the whole mess along with any leaves and trash that have piled up during the winter.

Now it’s time to feed everything. Scatter dry fertilizer on the ground under shrubs, around trees, and over the root zone of perennials. Each plant has a preferred diet; we like to use “Holly Tone” on evergreens and acid-loving plants like hydrangeas, and “Plant Tone” on perennials and flowering shrubs. “Bulb Tone” has just the right nutrients for Daylilies, Peonies, Daffodils and Tulips. Spring rains will dissolve the powder so it soaks in gradually. Plants will start to feed as the soil warms up.

The last step is a applying a generous layer of mulch. The best weed control is complete darkness! This is why we mulch generously before weeds start to grow, in spring while the ground is still cool. Mulch prevents the sun from penetrating to the weed seeds, so they won’t germinate.

Weeding our landscape beds is the number one maintenance headache we face, so getting the jump on weeds is a priority for experienced gardeners. A spoonful of dirt can contain thousands of weed seeds. Bury them under three inches of mulch, and then take special care to avoid introducing soil on top of your mulch.        

PREVENTING DEER DAMAGE

Deer pressure is an increasing concern for gardeners. Many new landscapes become all-you-can-eat deer buffets, frustrating homeowners into giving up on attractive landscaping. Another problem is ‘buck rubs” during the fall rut season. Bucks can’t resist sapling trees and will shred them as part of their mating ritual.

There are two solutions. Good landscape design and plant selection should include deer resistance along with other design considerations. There are many beautiful plants that are not attractive to deer, and some that actually keep them away. We’ll have details about this in next week’s column.  

For now, let’s talk about how to discourage deer from destroying the landscape you already have. Deer are creatures of habit. Preventing deer damage before it starts is much easier than changing existing behavior. Deer control should begin whenever you add a new plant to your yard; deer will investigate newly turned dirt and you want to send an unfriendly message right away, before they get comfortable.  

We’ve all heard about folk remedies for deer control. Bars of soap, human hair, rotten eggs, garlic, fabric softener strips, dried blood etc. all have some value because they either “jam” the deer’s sense of smell or create a sense of danger. These methods often work in the beginning and lose effectiveness over time. One reason is that they are difficult or messy to manage over time. They can also attract other pests, such as rodents or dogs. 

Deer are also neophobic (afraid of anything new). Their five physical senses suggest five different ways to make them feel insecure. Changes in your yard put them on alert, and you can keep them off-base by rotating deer-deterrence tactics. Devices that move or make noise can work for a while. Physical barriers like electric fences can discourage them. Substances that taste bad will discourage deer browsing. For a thorough understanding of how to balance all these techniques, we recommend “Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden”, a book by Rhonda Massingham Hart. 

The bottom line is that there are many ways to discourage deer, most of which will help as long as you spend the time, effort and money to use them consistently over time.  

The easiest deterrent to manage over time is commercial deer-deterrent spray. We have had great success using “Liquid Fence”, a mixture of smells deer cannot tolerate, in an easy-to-use pump sprayer. We start by spraying liquid fence on any new planting, and reapply about once per month. Once it dries, “Liquid Fence” resists washing away and will continue to work for up to six weeks. During the growing season we apply it more often so tender new leaves are treated before the deer feast on them. We spray the trunks of all our young trees once per month during fall to prevent buck damage.  

Our experience has been that “Liquid Fence” works very well year after year, as long as we reapply it on schedule. We’ve never found any other solution that is as effective and easy to use.

PREVENTING DEER DAMAGE II 

Rural and suburban landscapes attract deer because they offer a neat little “buffet” of food deer love to eat. Rather than forage over a wide area, deer can “one-stop-shop” for a delicious meal all in one location. Good landscape design and plant selection should include deer resistance along with other design considerations. There are many beautiful plants that are not attractive to deer, and some that actually keep them away. These plants should be mixed in to any landscape if deer are a problem.

Deer instinctively know which plants are poisonous, but there are many plants they simply don’t care for. They are less picky in winter, when their native food supply is dormant or snow-covered. Plants with course, fuzzy, bristly or spiny textures, or intense aromas, discourage deer.

A good first step is to avoid plants that deer particularly like, such as Hostas, daylilies, tulips and Taxus (yews). Unfortunately deer are attracted to some of our favorite ornamental plants, but substitutes can usually be found for landscaping. For example, the following perennials look good in landscapes but are relatively unattractive to deer:

• Artemisia

• Bellflower (campanula)

• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)

• Bleeding Heart (Dicentra)

• Catmint (Nepeta)

• Columbine (Aquilegia)

• Crocus

• Daffodil (Narcissus)

• Fern

• Foxglove (Digitalis)

• Geranium

• Hellebore

• Hyacinth

• Iris

• Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla)

• Lamb’s Ears (Stachys)

• Lavender

• Liatris+

• Naked Lady (Lycoris)

• Peony

• Russian Sage (Perovskia)

• Salvia

• Yarrow

Deer also ignore most types of ornamental grasses. The following trees and shrubs are landscape favorites and don’t appeal to deer:

• Ash

• Barberry

• Boxwood

• Butterfly Bush (Buddleia)

• Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus)

• Cotoneaster

• Dogwood

• Forsythia

• Grape Holly (Mahonia)

• Hawthorn

• Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina)

• Holly

• Japanese Kerria

• Japanese Maple

• Juniper

• Lilac

• Magnolia

• Mimosa

• Mountain Laurel (Kalmia)

• Pieris japonica

• Rhododendron

• Smoke tree (Cotinus)

• Spirea

• Spruce

• Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)

• Sweet Shrub (Calycanthus)

• Viburnum 

A challenge to home gardeners and orchardists is that deer particularly crave virtually all fruit and vegetable plants. If you like apples, strawberries and sweet corn, or peas and lettuce, you need to take steps to protect your crop. Certain plants mixed in with your garden can actually deter deer, however. Surrounding and inter-planting susceptible plants with unpalatable or repellant plants makes them harder for deer to find. Here are some deer-deterrent plants:

• Catmint, Catnip

• Chives, Garlic, Onions

• Lavender

• Sage

• Spearmint

• Thyme

• Yarrow

Deer tastes vary from place to place, season to season and deer to deer. It may take some trial and error to find the ideal mix for your landscape. For a thorough understanding, read “Deer Proofing Your Yard & Garden”, by Rhonda Massingham Hart. Remember that newly installed plants are the most vulnerable, so using a deer deterrent is a good idea. The best one we’ve found is “Liquid Fence”, a mixture of smells deer cannot tolerate, in an easy-to-use pump sprayer. We recommend it for any landscape installation if deer are likely to be a problem.

RAISED BEDS MAKE GARDENING EASY

Can you imagine raising delicious vegetables without bending over? We know some master gardeners who have this luxury, and they rave about how healthy their crops are and how little work is involved. They have created raised planting beds, filled them with topsoil and compost, and harvested bumper crops year after year. Retaining walls are an ideal environment for ornamental beds also.   

For homeowners with clay soil or drainage problems, raised beds and retaining walls can be a lifesaver because they allow you to garden with well-drained soil. This is much better for plants and easier for the gardener. You can create giant “planters” filled with nice fluffy topsoil, and there’s no danger of your lawn eventually taking the beds over because there’s a wall between the lawn and the garden. The wall even gives you a place to sit while you work, and set things down so you don’t have to bend over! 

Whether you’re a vegetable gardener or you’re trying to grow healthy landscape plants, poor drainage is your worst enemy. Even if you till peat moss and compost into your soil, your plants will suffer unless there’s a way for excess water to drain away. Plants breathe through their roots, and excess water drowns them. The nicest garden soil is unworkable if it’s saturated with water. Raised beds allow extra moisture to drain away by gravity all year long, so soil is workable earlier in the spring. Another benefit is that your soil will stay nice and fluffy if you don’t walk on it, and gardening in raised beds keeps foot traffic away from plants.

Making raised beds is easy. Railroad ties or concrete retaining wall blocks work well for this. Pressure treated wood also works but it won’t last as long. Pick a spot with the right amount of sun for your plants (full sun for vegetable gardens, part sun for plants like Hydrangeas and Azaleas). First, apply Roundup to the area to kill any existing perennial weeds. Make sure there are no low spots that would trap water. You don’t need level ground; just start your wall at the lowest point and build until the top of the wall is level. Any shape will do, so try to harmonize your raised planter with the rest of your landscaping. 

The best soil for most plants has plenty of compost or peat moss. These materials allow plenty of air to reach the plant roots, and excess water drains away quickly. Organic peat retains just the right moisture for most plants. Soil with lots of humus, peat or compost is easy to dig and weeds pull right out, so gardening is a pleasure. Make sure you add fresh compost each year to keep the soil fertile. Mulching your beds with well-rotted leaves or composted mulch keeps away weeds, and adds fertility to the soil. 

You’ll find that raised beds produce better than conventional tilled gardens, in a smaller space. Once you’ve built them they will save you a lot of work.

PANSIES SHRUG OFF COLD WEATHER          

It’s easy to enjoy cheerful March-April color without worrying about frost damage. All you need is a flat or two of cold-hardy pansies. They come in a huge selection of colors from the subtle “Antique Shades” to traditional “Bingo” and “Red Blotch”, and these can be planted right now regardless of the weather. It’s hard to resist their velvety friendly faces. Pansies shrug off the cold, frost and snow.

A little-known fact is that most pansy varieties are perennial and will come back every year. Pansies like cool weather, so plants you install this spring will bloom again in fall and again next year if you protect them from summer heat. Pansies bloom vigorously from April until June, and when it starts to get really hot we just pull a little mulch over them to protect them from the sun. Another approach is to plant annual flowers around the pansies. These plants will shield the pansies from the sun all summer, and when the frost kills them the pansies will burst into bloom for the late fall.     

A popular variation on the pansy is the Viola, or “Johnny-jump-up”. We sell more of these every year and their dainty, pastel colored blooms are charming. Once established they will self-seed in cool, moist areas of your garden and you’ll have more every year. Like pansies, violas like cool weather or a shady location. They’ll fizzle out in early summer, by which time your annual bedding plants can take over. You’ll be surprised how they pop up next spring when you’ve forgotten all about them!

Pansies and violas are very easy to grow and easy to transplant. Work your soil with some peat moss before you plant, mix in a little Flower-Tone or other dry fertilizer with the soil, and lightly mulch the plants once they’re in the ground. Like most plants they will grow better in fluffy, well-drained soil than they will in hard clay.

A good way to rotate your planter pots and window boxes is to fill them with pansies at this time of year and then refill them with pansies once danger of frost is past. The pansies can be transplanted from your containers into a shady spot in your garden; they’ll give you an “encore” of cheerful fall color.

GROWING GREAT ONIONS     

It seems too early to be vegetable gardening, but experienced gardeners have their onions in the ground by St. Patrick’s Day. In order to get fat onion bulbs, you need to grow big healthy tops before the days get long. That’s when the plants switch from growing foliage to storing food in the bulbs, so planting too late means puny bulbs at harvest time. 

The easiest way to grow onions in the home garden is by planting onion “sets”, tiny onions that grow into big onions. We sell these by the pound in yellow, sweet white and sweet red. All you need to do is loosen up a patch or row with a cultivator, mixing in some 10-10-10 fertilizer, and then press the little onions into the loose soil two inches deep and two inches apart. We recommend “wide row” planting; instead of a single line plant six or eight rows two to three inches apart. Onions don’t mind being crowded, and later you can thin the weaker plants and have plenty of fresh scallions. Make sure to tamp the soil over your onion sets. 

If you get a late start or want bigger onions, splurge on young onion transplants. These come in bunches of about 60-70 plants, each the size of a pencil. Place the plant on your index finger and press the onion into the soil about two inches, then pull up slightly (so the roots will point downwards) and firm the soil around the plant. Starting with onion transplants gives you a “head start”, insuring you’ll get the biggest, fattest onions within the growing season. Favorite varieties are “Walla-Walla” and “Red Mars”, huge sweet globes.

Onions need fertilizer three or four times before harvest. Use 10-10-10, sprinkling the fertilizer around the base of the plants (fertilizer dust can scorch the foliage). Super-phosphate and bone meal are good for onions too. Fertilize when plants reach 6 inches, and again 3 or 4 weeks later. 

Thin every other plant, harvesting the weaker ones. Big, healthy tops mean big fat onions. Pinch off any seedpods, because if the plants set seed they won’t grow big bulbs. Once the days are long enough, healthy vigorous onion plants “shift gears” and energy from the big tops is transported down to make a bulb. Bulbs continue to grow until the tops wither and turn brown.  

They key to storing onions is drying them thoroughly after harvest. Uproot them and lay them out, protected from the sun, until you can brush the roots off easily. Turn them a few times as they dry. Store them in mesh bags so they can breathe.  

CARING FOR POINSETTIAS 

It is easy to get frustrated with poinsettias. If they aren’t handled right by the shipper and the seller, they can look great when you buy them yet turn yellow and lose their leaves in a few days. It’s important to buy them from a place that knows plants. Quality Poinsettias are a result of careful and expensive hybridizing. Good ones have a “pedigree”. Our favorite is “Freedom Red” developed by Paul Ecke Ranch, a huge Poinsettia breeder. “Freedom Red” has unusually large flower bracts of a deep, velvety red color, and is amazingly tolerant of drafts and cool temperatures. These are superior traits much sought after by Poinsettia breeders, and not found on mass market poinsettias in the “big box” stores.

Once you buy them, here’s how to make Poinsettias last for months and months:

First, avoid cold or drafts. Have the store wrap them in a plastic sleeve so they won’t get a chill on the way to your car. Even a short exposure to a cold draft will shock them and they will start losing leaves. A good rule of thumb is that if you feel a draft yourself, the plant feels it too. Poinsettias will hold their blooms longer at 60 degrees than at 75 or 80, but a draft will finish them off quickly. That’s why it’s so harmful to ship and store them like groceries or hardware, the way big-box retailers do.

Poinsettias need lots of light but don’t like much direct sun. An East or North-facing bright room is best. If they are in direct sun they will dry out quickly, so we suggest re-potting them soon in a larger pot with rich potting soil. Lack of sufficient sunlight will cause the plants to become spindly, with fading color and yellowing, small leaves. We keep our Poinsettias in a greenhouse with 50% shade cloth to filter the sunlight.

Greenhouse-grown Poinsettias are used to getting a little liquid fertilizer right along with their watering every day. The best way to feed them is to mix a little Miracle-Gro in their water.

Poinsettias like moist, well-drained soil. Their roots need to breathe, so it’s best to let the soil dry out between watering. Over-watering will make them wilt and drop their leaves, however if they get a bit dry they’ll bounce right back when you water.

Poinsettias are a tropical plant native to places like Florida and Mexico. They like mild, sunny weather and can’t stand cold. Keeping Poinsettias year after year requires a ritual of letting them go dormant and then come back, like a perennial. Unless you have a home greenhouse you can’t duplicate their native growing conditions so when the plants come back they won’t be nearly as showy as they are right now. The good news is if you follow our suggestions, Poinsettias can look good for months or even longer.
 

CHOOSING THE BEST CHRISTMAS TREE 

Instead of taking a fake Christmas tree out of a box and assembling it, treat your family to the magic of a fresh, live tree. Really fresh trees are clean, and aren’t a fire hazard. The most important thing is that the tree be truly fresh the day you bring it home.

WHICH TREE TO CHOOSE

In southern Ohio Scotch Pines are extremely popular for several reasons. They grow rapidly and are easily shaped, making them inexpensive to grow. We prefer Fraser Fir because the needles are soft and don’t prick your skin, plus they have lots of space between the branches. This makes your ornaments show up better. The best thing about them is how long they stay fresh: up to two months with very little needle drop. The needles are still soft when it’s time to take the tree down, which makes the job easier.  

KEEPING TREES FRESH

We recommend cutting off a bit of the bottom of the trunk and then “pencil-pointing” the bark with a kitchen knife to help the tree take up more water. This means trimming the bark around the cut end on a bevel, to open up the pink inner bark. This allows the tree to take up more water, since an old cut will be sealed with sap. If you’ll be away and can’t add water, add “Tree-Moist” granules to the water in your stand. This gels the water so it can’t evaporate, and has a tree preservative in it. Liquid tree preservative can easily be mixed with the water, extending tree life. We’ve found that a fresh tree will remain moist and fragrant well into January.

CHRISTMAS TREES YOU CAN PLANT 

“Live” Christmas trees are evergreens meant to be planted after serving as Christmas decorations. These trees are sold “balled and burlapped”, meaning they are dug rather than cut. Live trees are more expensive than cut trees, and are more trouble, but the payoff is that they can give you pleasure for many years.

Evergreens popular for live Christmas trees include Colorado Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce and dwarf Alberta Spruce. These varieties all make attractive Christmas trees and are good landscape specimens as well. Norway Spruce is very well adapted for clay soil, and it’s easy to find many mature examples in landscapes all around southern Ohio. We recommend Norway Spruce above all other evergreens for windbreak and privacy plantings all year long. 

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TREE 

Scotch Pines are popular as cut trees because they grow so fast, making them an ideal crop for Christmas tree growers. They make good Christmas trees but aren’t popular landscape trees, since older Scotch pines lack the graceful mature shape and appearance of Spruce. Fraser Firs are ideal cut Christmas trees but will not thrive when planted in this area for climate reasons. White Pine and Hemlock are nice for landscaping but don’t make good Christmas trees, because their branches won’t hold many decorations.        

The best live tree is a smaller tree. A five-foot Spruce with a good-sized root ball can weigh well over 100 pounds, and is bulky and hard to handle. Larger trees weigh even more. If the root ball is too small, the tree may be cheaper and lighter but will probably die. Getting a good-sized evergreen in and out of the house, keeping it watered and planting it in the dead of winter can be a lot of work.

TIPS FOR PLANTING LIVE TREES 

If you decide this is for you, here are some suggestions to help you succeed. First, keep the tree inside for two weeks or less. The transition into, and later out of a heated house should be gradual. When you take your tree home, keep it in a garage or screened porch until the week before Christmas. Spray it with “Wilt-Pruf” to reduce moisture loss, and keep the root ball moist.

Evergreens are dormant in December, and the heat in your home can fool the tree into thinking it’s spring. Once the sap starts to rise, putting the tree outside again will shock it. After the holiday, let it get used to the cold again in your garage or porch before putting it outdoors.       

We suggest placing a few bags of mulch over the spot where you plan to plant your tree, to keep the ground from freezing. Make sure not to plant it too deep or cover the root ball with soil. This will smother it and could kill it. After planting, water the tree well and spread mulch around it to protect the roots. Good luck, and Merry Christmas!

200 Storer Rd • Peebles, Ohio 45660 • Phone: 937-587-7021