June 2011

Planters Punchlines
Men's Garden Club of Wethersfield
June 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANNUAL PICNIC - Monday June 27th, 5:30 -8:00 p.m. at the house of VP Tony Sanders, 281 Garden St., in Wethersfield. Wives, dates, potential members are cordially invited. The club will supply hot dogs, hamburgers, etc., beer, wine & soda. Please bring an appetizer, salad or side dish if, alphabetically, you are between Sey Adil and Charlie Officer – and a dessert if you are between John Oldham and Rick Willard. Also please bring your own lawn chairs. A short business meeting to select the new slate of officers for 2011-12 will precede the festivities. Please call Tony @ (860) 529-3257 to let him know how many people & what you are bringing.

The Nominating Committee proposes the following Slate of Officers for 2011-12.

President: Tony Sanders
Vice Pres.: John Swingen
Secretary: Fred Odell
Treasurer: Richard Prentice (aka RK)

Don't forget - Mondays with Rocco @ the Weston Rose Garden - 8:00-9:30 am
Fellowship, witty conversation, public service and a modicum of exercise, followed by coffee and more conversation at a local bistro. Questions - Call Rocco Orsini (563-3246)

Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan

One thing that I have learned about gardening is that there is always something to learn, for example - several plants that Marsha and I have perennially treated as weeds, are in fact valuable commodities.

For as long as I can remember, plants resembling asters, with sturdy stems, narrow leaves, and dozens of tiny white flowers in clusters have invaded two or more of our flowerbeds. They are kind of pretty - delicate looking even - but they are always in the wrong place at the wrong time. (One of the classic definitions of a weed).

At first, probably because there were not a lot of equally attractive planned plants in my landscape, Marsha and I tolerated them. But over the years, as our vision of our backyard Eden became clearer in our minds and closer to reality, I began to hunt them down - resenting their affront, and disdaining their meager attempts at flowers. Each growing season I would rip them out. Only to have them return in different, or sometimes even the same location, year after year after year.

This year I learned at the Mens Garden Club plant sale that these previously anonymous attackers actually had a name - a fancy-schmanzy Latin name even - Boltonia. (Of course the notorious Roman Emperor Caligua also had a Latin name, so we know how much those monikers are worth.)

They also have growing instructions, and people who sell them - actual professional people who raise them at their nurseries - not amateur horticulturalists like myself and my fellow club members who uproot stuff from our own personal gardens and attempt to foist it (with some totally fictitious provenance and a few Photoshopped pictures) onto the unsuspecting customer base that comes to our event in search of our rare and valuable "homegrowns".

Then there is that fast growing, ground cover with purple spikes that appears along the outer edges of all my perennial beds - and sometimes in the middle of them. I have now learned that it is called "ajuga" or "bugleweed". This incessant invader also has a Latin appellation - for all that's worth - "ajuga reptans". I have no idea what "ajuga" means but I think the rest of the name has something to do with disgusting, lowlife, snake stuff. Since the beginning of time I have been ripping it out of my yard. There is no room for reptiles in my Eden. It was, of course, at our plant sale.

And there are the faux Phlox. Every year Marsha and I spend countless wasted hours trying to differentiate between our potential Phlox crop and a look-alike weed that wants to share the same growing space. The goal is to eliminate the imposter before the stalks get to be higher than an elephant's eye. Usually we get it right. And then forget how we determined the differences when the next spring rolls around.

Both of these plants were available for purchase also.

All of which leads me to believe that maybe a weed is really just a plant with a bad publicity agent. With a little marketing expertise our club's plant sale could probably make a fortune just selling the contents of my garden throwaway pile.

Horti-Culture Corner
By Jim Meehan

Pretty much every time that I cut my lawn the same ritual performance occurs.

Pecking and stepping
in the mulch of new-mown grass
the birds come to dance.

Cutting Back Perennials to Get More Blooms
M.H. Dyer (eHow.com)

Vigorous perennial plants are often the heart of the flower bed, serving as anchors for each spring's new set of colorful annuals. Even though perennials have died down by the time winter rolls around, the plants return in spring, energized and ready for a new growing season. Once planted, most perennials will live for many years with only moderate attention. Cutting back perennials will result in healthier, more attractive plants and more robust blooms.

* 1 Pinch your perennials in May or early June to encourage full, bushy growth. Using your fingernail or a pair of garden shears, remove the tip of each shoot, down to the uppermost leaf. Pinching is a way to cut back only a small portion of the plant. Most perennials will benefit from occasional pinching throughout the growing season, especially in midsummer, when plants often become leggy.

* 2 Use garden shears to cut back early bloomers such as candytuft or creeping phlox immediately after the first blooming, to encourage a second flush of blooms. Cut the plants back to about half of their height. Some plants such as salvia, Shasta daisy or delphinium can be cut back to the bottom set of leaves.

* 3 Cut back summer- and fall-blooming perennials before the plants begin to set buds in early summer. Most perennials can be cut back by 12 to 18 inches. As a result, many perennials will continue to bloom until September.

* 4 Deadhead wilted flowers regularly, using your fingernails or garden shears. Remove the spent bloom and the stem down to the next bud or leaf. Allowing wilted flowers to remain on the plant will cause the plant to stop blooming early, as the plant's energy will be used to develop seeds.

Oddball Plants Add Interest to the Garden
by Dulcy Mahar - The Oregonian

Beds of conventionally pretty flowers can benefit from an oddball flower here and there just to stir things up. It matters not whether the plant is pretty in the conventional sense. What's important is that it's interesting and engaging.

Sometimes, but not always, these plants are a bit more expensive. But you don't have to plant in drifts; buying just one is usually fine, and often preferable. I just can't imagine a drift of spiny Eryngium, for example.

Here are some offbeat perennials that might look as if they're from another planet but are really quite at home in our drippy climate:

Acanthus spinosus (bear's breeches): Strange, hooded flowers that stand up in spiky spears with a hint of purple last from early summer to fall. The leaves are spectacular, large and shiny and quite architectural. Most people grow A. mollis, but A. spinosus is easier and hardier. It will have baby plants after a while but is not grossly invasive. (4 feet; sun or light shade)

Angelica archangelica (wild parsnip): Remember those old movies where ants became giants after being exposed to A-bomb testing? Imagine this happening to a stand of parsley. Angelica has flat, greenish-yellow lacy flowers. Although a biennial, it freely seeds itself -- a little too freely, in fact -- so pluck out the babies you don't want. (7 feet; sun)
Arisaema: The most famous is A. triphyllum, Jack-in-the-pulpit. Arisaema is a lovely woodland plant that should be grown more frequently, especially in our moist shady conditions. (18 inches; shade)

Cardiocrinum giganteum (giant lily): It's hard to believe a lily grows this big in shade. Huge, gorgeous, trumpetlike white flowers are scented as well. It takes seven years to bloom if grown from seed, so try to find a start. (10 feet; semi-shade)

Crambe cordifolia (colewort): A showstopper in June. Imagine a 4-foot-high spray of lacy, white flowers resembling baby's breath, rising from broad, rhubarblike leaves. A great border plant. (6 feet; sun)

Dactylorhiza (marsh orchid): Put on your sunglasses when this one flowers like a brilliant lilac corn dog on a stick. English gardeners use them to great effect. (2 feet; light shade)
Eremurus (foxtail lily): Striking, tall flowers would definitely make the basketball team of plants. Dramatic flower spikes show to best advantage against a dark backdrop such as a hedge. Leaves are insignificant and strappy and die down after flowering. Crowns should be mulched for winter protection. Shorter varieties also come in pink and yellow. (7-9 feet; sun)

Eryngium: An otherworldly family. Most common varieties have amethyst-colored spiny flowers with a metallic gleam, but if you really want to try a strange plant, look for E. agavifolium, which looks like a cactus with pine-cone-like flowers. You'd think it needed a desert, yet it comes back year after year in my soggy garden.

Eucomis (pineapple flower): Bearing an uncanny resemblance to a soft-hulled pineapple, these unusual plants are easy to grow from seed and make dramatic pot plants. In fact, planting them in pots and putting them under shelter is a good idea because they don't like wet winters. (20 inches; sun or light shade)

Euphorbia characias wulfenii: All Euphorbia varieties are great, but this one has big, chartreuse fists of flowers. (4-5 feet, sun)

Phlomis russeliana: Funny, hooded, yellow flowers encircle oddly square stems. Sometimes classified as a sub-shrub because of the stiff stems. I grew it years ago, thought it was homely and took it out. Then I saw phlomis in other gardens and wondered what had gotten into me. (3 feet, sun)

Primula vialii: The only thing that tells you this is a primrose is the leaves. But the shocking-pink-tipped purple flower spires bear little resemblance to the pretty primrose posies you see at the grocery store. Easy to grow, great in rock gardens. (10 inches, sun)

Salvia argentea (silver sage): The oddball of the salvia family, a single rosette of furry silver-white leaves about the size and shape of fat cabbage. Most people grow it up front as a low foliage accent. Prolong its short life by cutting off the thin stalks of flowers before they bloom. (Flower stalks to 3 feet, sun)

World Naked Gardening Day
wngd.com

[Okay. We missed our opportunity to participate in the 2011 WNGD - but we have almost a year to prepare for the next one. Our calendar was such a big success - just imagine how many internet hits our video would get. Here's the skinny.]

Get ready for the Sixth Annual World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD)! People across the globe are encouraged, on Saturday, May 14, 2011 to tend their portion of the world's garden clothed as nature intended.

Gardening has a timeless quality, and anyone can do it: young and old, singles or groups, the fit and infirm, urban and rural. An elderly lady in a Manhattan apartment can plant new annuals in her window box. Families can rake leaves in their back yard. Freehikers can pull invasive weeds along their favorite stretch of trail. More daring groups can make rapid clothes-free sorties into public parks to do community-friendly stealth cleanups.

Why garden naked? First of all, it's fun! Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude. Moreover, our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment. Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us--even if only for those few sunkissed minutes--that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.

"The body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one's flesh like radiant heat, making a passionate ecstatic pleasure glow not explainable." - John Muir, founder of The Sierra Club

All that's involved is getting naked and making the world's gardens--whatever their size, public or private--healthier and more attractive. WNGD has no political agenda, nor is it owned or organized by any one particular group. Naked individuals and groups are encouraged to adopt the day for themselves.

Events like WNGD can help develop a sense of community among people of every stripe. Taking part in something that is bigger than any one household, naturist group, or gardening club can move gardeners with an au naturel joie de vivre toward becoming a community. And in the case of WNGD, it's fun, costs no money, runs no unwanted risk, reminds us of our tie to the natural world, and does something good for the environment.

So what should you do? First of all, on May 14, 2011 find an opportunity to get naked and do some gardening. Do so alone, with friends, with family, with your gardening club, or with any other group collected for that purpose. Do it inside your house, in your back yard, on a hiking trail, at a city park, or on the streets. Stay private or go public. Make it a quiet time or make it a public splash. Just get naked and make your part of the botanical world a healthier and more attractive place.

Secondly, tell someone about your experience. No one owns this event, so it does not really matter whom you tell, but tell someone . Tell your friends about your day of naked gardening; write down what you thought of it and email it to your local newspaper; post your thoughts and images onto an Internet site; submit stories and photos to your club newsletter.

WNGD will be the first Saturday of each May. Visit the WNGD wiki site for updates, reports, and more info as May 14, 2011 draws near.

How to landscape with edible plants (excerpts)
By Marion Owen - plantea.com /edibleland.htm

Have you ever wanted to get more out of your garden? You can, by landscaping with edible plants. Edible landscaping, especially when paired with organic gardening practices, enhances any yard, garden or landscape. Is that great, or what?

If the idea of edible landscaping sounds a little far-fetched, you're not alone. Until recently, such applications were limited to apple orchards and quiet rows of raspberries. Yet, edible landscaping dates back to the gardens in ancient Egypt where flowers, grape arbors, vines and fruit trees were blended with places to sit and enjoy the scenery. By the Renaissance era though, things had changed. Gardens became more formal and segregated as gardeners planted herbs, orchards and vegetables in separate areas. Mixing and matching edibles with other plants became a thing of the past, at least for a while.

Then came the 1970s and edible landscaping experienced a comeback as people strived to do more with their land. Publications like Mother Earth News featured (and still do) back-to-the land success stories. Sales of fruit-bearing shrubs and trees, and the popularity of herbs reflected the renewed interest. The introduction of unusual vegetables to the home gardener by seedsmen like Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden has also played a big role in how we arrange our gardens.

Today, edible landscaping is alive and well in warm climates as well as cool ones. Did you know that Manhattan's Central Park harbors several dozen edible plants? And one out of every 5 plants--more than 500 species--in the Sonoran Desert provides good eating. Plus it's an easy way to provide healthy food for the table.

The combinations are endless. Uncommon fruit trees such as quince, persimmon, and pawpaw can enhance the most bland and stubborn landscape. That said, let's not forget the common but often overlooked edibles. Like rhubarb or gooseberries. European gardeners and gourmets have appreciated gooseberries for years, and in the U.S., gardeners are re-discovering gooseberries as an worthy home fruit. Thomas Powell, editor and publisher of The Avant Gardener (PO Box 489, New York, NY 10028), is a gooseberry cheerleader. "They may never supplant blueberries and raspberries as America's favorite garden bush fruits, but gooseberries are handsome and highly productive edible-ornamental."

With small, maple-like leaves that blush nicely in the fall, gooseberries look well in borders and foundation plantings, and they can also be espaliered. As for flavor, the berries have been likened to kiwi, grapes and even tart apples, which makes them suitable for jams, wine, catsup and as a sauce baked with chicken or seafood.

More overlooked varieties include globe artichokes, red, black and white currants, which can be trained into attractive, compact hedges. Rhubarb too, with its bold red stalks and crinkly green leaves, is a show-stopper. And at the table, rhubarb recipes are also show-stoppers. Rainbow chard and the rich tones of Russian red kale add bursts of color to any grouping. And don't forget chives, fennel, thyme, lady's mantle, and other herbs. They deserve to be looked at in a whole new way.

There are many good books on the subject of edible and organic landscaping, such as Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School (Rodale Organic Gardening Book) and Rosalind Creasy's, "The Complete Guide to Edible Landscaping." Both are available through Amazon.com.

When it comes to edible landscaping, there are no hard-and-fast rules to follow, except to experiment with the amazing number of ways to combine food-producing and ornamental plants. The following plant combinations work well in full-sized gardens, raised beds, as well as containers and window boxes:
* Curly parsley and yellow pansies (Violas)
* Red leaf lettuce with yellow and orange calendulas
* Red chard and New Zealand spinach
* Dwarf curly kale with dusty miller, pink nemesia, and dianthus
* Curly parsley with trailing blue lobelia
* Oregano with red chard and trailing white lobelia
* Curly parsley and strawberries

And for plants with their incredible edible flowers:
* Sugar snap peas (white or pink-purple flowers, depending on the variety)
* Fava beans (white and burgundy)
* Pole beans
* Chives (lavender)
* Dill (yellow-green)
* Nasturtium (orange, red, yellow)
* Sage or salvia (colors vary, but mostly purple, blue and lavender).

Some plants deserve a second look. Various kinds of cabbage, kale, leeks, onion, and sage for example, come in shades of gray and blue. Beets, chard, red cabbage, and purple mustard greens feature colorful shades. Carrots, endive, lemon balm, thyme and nasturtiums sport variegated or mottled shades of white, yellow and light green foliage. Yarrow, dill and fennel have lovely green fernlike leaves that invite touching.

On the smelly side, the most fragrant edibles include chamomile, chives, fennel (brush your hand against it), mint, oregano, parsley, sage, and thyme. Basil, peppers and tomatoes are also quite sniffy.

So the next time you're thinking about improving your garden or yard, consider making it do double duty for you and your family by landscaping with incredible edible plants.

Garden Q&A: Ground Cover, Within Limits
By Stephen Orr - NY Times

Q. I'm finally getting around to tackling my overgrown backyard. I want to get rid of the ivy and put in a more interesting ground cover. Any ideas?

A. It's a common problem: a ground cover like English ivy, which must have seemed an easy planting solution to someone decades ago, now threatens to overtake an entire property.

Cayleb Long, a plant curator at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, had just such a situation behind his house in Brooklyn. He wanted to break up the space visually, add a greater variety of plants and, most of all, make the area more family-friendly with a small lawn.

"The ivy was a real monoculture, covering about 20 feet by 70 feet," he said. "I cut the entire thing at its base with electric hedge trimmers, rolled it up like a huge carpet and hauled it off."
After yanking up the roots, Mr. Long was left with a bare patch of soil. He wanted a species that would fill in rapidly without becoming invasive - always something of a horticultural balancing act. It's important to do your research because species act differently from region to region. What behaves demurely in one part of the country might run rampant in another.

Mr. Long chose a variation on the venerable but aggressive Asian pachysandra, the well-behaved native Allegheny spurge, or Pachysandra procumbens, $15 for a 3.5-inch pot from Asiatica, (717) 938-8677 or asiaticanursery.com. The leaves of this recumbent species come in a lighter shade than those of its Asian cousin and have a mottled, silvery mosaic pattern.

In the Northeast, another option is May apple, or Podophyllum peltatum, $4.49 to $7.29 a plant, based on how many are ordered, from Prairie Nursery, (800) 476-9453 or prairienursery.com. A native that spreads by rhizomes in shade, it has umbrella-like leaves and white flowers followed by golf-ball-size fruit. If you have curious pets or young children, be aware that the unripe fruit and the leaves are poisonous.

For those who love ornamental grasses, Carex laxiculmis (Bunny Blue), above, $8.95 for a quart pot from Avant Gardens, (508) 998-8819 or avantgardensne.com, has dainty silvery-blue blades and does well in sun or shade. Mr. Long also suggested Hakonechloa macra (Albo Striata) from Japan, $8.50 each at Digging Dog Nursery, (707) 937-1130 or diggingdog.com, which has white and green variegation and is good in between lower ground covers.

For dry shade, he recommended Epimedium grandiflorum (Lilafee), $8.50 each from Digging Dog, which has bronze-tinged spring leaves and large violet-purple flowers, and E. x perralchicum (Frohnleiten), $11.95 for a 4- to 5-inch pot from Heronswood, (877) 674-4714 or heronswood.com, which has bright yellow flowers that dangle between its reddish leaves.

Asked which species to avoid, Mr. Long was reluctant to ban any ground covers outright. But after being reminded of the rogue's gallery of houttuynia, vinca minor, liriope and even the beloved lily of the valley, he conceded that some plants can perhaps be too agreeable when it comes to colonizing. And he admitted that he'd like to be able to garden without taking out the power tools again.