Planters
Punchlines
Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield
May 2016
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEXT MEETING – PLEASE NOTE
SPECIAL DATE, TIME AND LOCATION
Monday May 9, 5:30 pm @ Tony Sanders house @ 281 Garden Street,
Wethersfield. (Rain Date – if Plant Sale
is rain delayed, then this is rescheduled
for May 16) Reminisce about
sale. Pick from the leftovers for your
own use or as a really cheap belated Mother’s Day present. Hot dogs, beer & soda will be available.
Donate
some perennials from your personal collection to the Plant Sale
Plants should be split and potted ASAP to look good for the
sale. Please label all plants. Contact
Fred Odell (860.529.6064) for official pots
and plant labels.
Plant
Sale Saturday May 7th (Rain Date May 14th)
7:00 - 9:00 Set Up Deliver homegrowns, unload plants, price
plants, set up tables
9:00 - 1:00 Sell Help customers, total up sales, answer
questions
1:00 - 2:00 Close Clean up, break down tables, pack up
leftover plants
Volunteer! Contribute your own
“homegrowns”
President Tony Sanders will make
the “go or no go” rain decision and get the word out.
Weston
Rose Garden
The Rose Garden was opened and
weeded on April 16. On April 30 @ 8 am
we will remove & replace the dead bushes & cut more deadwood. This year each club member is asked to
volunteer to maintain one of the small plots on their own schedule. A plan of the garden will be at the plant
sale & May meeting for signing up. This is the club’s major civic volunteer effort
– please participate!
Annual
Picnic
The annual Club Picnic will be held on
Monday, June 6, on the grounds (and porch) of The Solomon Welles House, from 5:30 until 8:00 pm. More to come.
Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan
I
am a long time time fan of the Henry David Thoreau’s writing – especially his
thoughts on nature. Not so much his aphorisms on the importance of the
environment, but his descriptions of how he felt working in it - e.g. hoeing
beans in his Walden garden. His message seemed to be that nature was not something
magical to be viewed with awe and wonder, but instead needed to be interacted
with in a sustaining and nurturing way in order for both it and man to have
their full significance.
Just
before we bought our first and only house forty years ago I was reading quite a
bit of Henry David. Then, one month
after moving in, our entire landscape went from a collection of non-existent or
short-and-orderly bystanders to a run-amok mob of thigh-high grass and rapidly
growing unfamiliar flora. And my neophyte hopes of a cooperative and spiritual
relationship with Mother Nature changed to the terrifying fears of a sinner in
the hands of an angry goddess. And
reading time took second-place behind survival.
But
partially because of Henry David's words I was gradually able to settle on a
combination of methods, techniques and tools - like hand-tilling the gardens,
creating my own compost, organically treating the yard, hand-trimming the
bushes and hedges, and my beloved mulching mower - that allowed me to gain
control of, and then re-shape our tiny topography into a place where Mars, I,
and (hopefully) the flora and fauna of our outside world feel at home. It is
still a work in progress, and always will be to a certain degree - that is
after all the fun of it.
As
Thoreau said, "What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable
planet to put it on?"
A Tolerable Planet
Bare hands gently place
Compost 'round roots from a friend.
Three lives are enriched.
A Desert Hardy That Can Bloom in New
England
By Amy D’Orio – NY Times
EVERY
spring, John Spain of Middlebury is notified of the same death. A friend calls
to tell him that the garden Mr. Spain started for him did not survive the
winter.
And
every year, Mr. Spain visits a friend's garden and proclaims the cactuses,
although shriveled, very much alive and no worse for the snow, harsh winds and
sub-zero temperatures.
It
seems even Mr. Spain's friends have a hard time believing his cactus claim:
hundreds of varieties of cactuses, including the well-known prickly pear, can
be grown outdoors in Connecticut and survive the winter. There is even a cactus
that is native to Connecticut, a wildflower. But Mr. Spain is doubted still;
the plants are perceived as much a symbol of the desert as rattlesnakes and
scorpions.
A
retired Uniroyal training executive, Mr. Spain says he has one of the largest
collections of winter-hardy cactuses in the country. He grows hundreds of
varieties in his backyard, a slice of the Southwest that is only a few yards
from rhododendron and fern.
The
cactuses may seem out of place, but they thrive north of the Mason/Dixie line
and can carry a bed all by themselves. They come in various shapes, sizes and
blooms of yellow, orange, pink and red. A 60-foot-long bed of cactus only is
the centerpiece of Mr. Spain's backyard garden.
For
the size of his cactus garden, he said he puts in few hours; cactus, of course,
require little water. Also, few diseases afflict them in the state, and they do
not seem to be part of the food chain for beetles, deer or other pests. But,
for all these assets, outdoor cactus gardening in Connecticut is, well,
novel.''People are always surprised,'' Mr. Spain said.
Most
people in the state, including experienced gardeners, know little about cactus
and generally assume they can't grow them outside, he said.
Mr.
Spain is always eager to correct misconceptions, and people who meet him soon
learn that cactuses grow near the Arctic circle and in trees. They can be 20
years old and still no bigger than a golf ball, and the plants are native only
to North and South America.
Some
gardeners are aware that cactuses can be grown in Connecticut, but are often
mislead at nurseries where the perceived wisdom is that only one yellow-blooming
variety is hardy to the region, he said.
Before
Roseann Richard, owner of Walnut Hill Greenhouse in Litchfield, met Mr. Spain
about 10 years ago, she knew of no one who grew cactuses outdoors year-round in
the state, and she did not think it possible.
''He
proved you could if you treat them a certain way,'' she said. ''Nobody knew
which ones you could grow until he came along.''
Through
trial and error for more than three decades, Mr. Spain has assembled a list of
plants that can grow in cold climates, and he has developed ways to help them
adapt.
When
he started, he said, he found only two suppliers of winter-hardy cactus in the
entire country. Unlike someone trying to grow roses, Mr. Spain was not going to
find answers to his horticultural problems in the local library or nursery.
Due
to this dearth of information, for almost as long as Mr. Spain has been growing
winter-hardy cactuses, he has been educating the public about them. He and a
few others successfully lobbied the Northeast Rock Garden Society to accept the
cactus as a legitimate alpine plant, with a rock garden pedigree.
Mr.
Spain, a resident of Connecticut for 24 years, is also a founder and first
president of the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society. He published a book
on winter-hardy cactuses, helped many gardeners start their own collections,
and is on the garden-club-speaker circuit.
''He
has definitely been the introducer of winter-hardy cactus in the state,'' said
Jack Phillips, the current president of the cactus society. ''He has been
willing to share time with anyone interested in this hobby.''
Mr.
Spain's passion for cactus developed by chance in 1966 due to a greenhouse too
small for his ambitions. He said he wanted to spend his hours coaxing blooms
from orchids, but could not because of the expense involved, and was frustrated
with begonias because they took too much room. Then he found the cactus.
After
a trip to Colorado, he returned with a few cactuses for his three young boys.
Though thrilled at first, the boys lost interest in about 20 minutes. ''So then
they were mine,'' he said. ''I discovered I could have a whole lot of them and
you don't have to water every day.''
Easy
care is essential for a gardener who travels frequently and has a spouse more
interested in needlepoint than horticulture.
Soon
after, Mr. Spain, then living in Michigan, met a person who grew cactus
outdoors and that was the start of his winter-hardy passion.
To
keep costs down, he has grown many of his plants from seed. While some grow
fast, others can take a year and a half just to be the size of a matchstick
head.
Mr.
Spain said there are three main families of cactus that grow in cold climates:
echinocereus, coryphantha and opuntia. However, within these families, there
are hundreds of varieties.
To
survive the Connecticut climate, the cactuses need full sun (at least five
hours) and excellent drainage. He suggests mixing a lot of sand and gravel into
the soil and using raised beds.
Mr.
Spain said cactuses do like humus-rich soil though.
''They
will be growing out of a rock, but don't be fooled, because inside the soil is
black as can be,'' he said.
A
few favorites growing in his own outdoor gardens include one that is 11 years
old ''and still that tiny,'' he said, pointing to a plant no bigger than a
small loaf of bread.
He
also dotes on one particular opuntia fragilis, Bronze Beauty, which has pads
that turn bronze in winter.
He
likes it because he got to name it. The plant is unlike its closest relatives
and Mr. Spain has been unable to find any documentation of it, so he took the
honors of giving it a name.
And
even though he grows a few orchids now, he is more apt to talk about his
opuntia polyacantha Crystal Tide.
It
has a near-white flower with a blood red center, and he unequivocally calls it
the most beautiful of the opuntia blooms.
''I
am really not an orchid person,'' he said.
Think Foliage, Not Flowers, When
Planning an Ornamental Garden
Jef Cox – Press Democrat
It’s
not what most gardeners think of right away when planning an ornamental garden,
but foliage should be considered first, even before flower color. Here’s why.
Unless
you just want to pack in as much riotous color as possible until your property
looks like a holiday light display, you’ll want to put together a tasteful and
restrained use of flower color. Some of the most tasteful and elegant gardens
in the world don’t use much color at all. Think of Japanese gardens, the most
admired of which don’t include flowering plants. The most admired of them all,
the Zen Garden at Kyoto, doesn’t even use plants.
For
elegance, then, you’ll want to avoid heavy displays of annuals that pump out
bright colors all summer long.
Perennial
flowering plants are much more restrained, with quiet beauty. Most perennials,
though, don’t have long seasons of bloom. Wisteria, for instance, is gorgeous,
but it gives you 10 to 12 days of bloom at most. From the exquisite bleeding
hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) of spring to the delicate Japanese anemones
(Anemone japonica) of fall, we’re lucky to get more than two or three weeks of
bloom from our choicest perennials.
When
they’re not in flower, all we see is foliage. Since most perennials have such
short seasons of bloom, and flowering trees and shrubs as well, it behooves us
to design first for foliage and let flower color — as important as it is — take
second place.
What
does it mean to “design for foliage?”
It
means to be aware of the many characteristics of leaves within certain
categories and then to combine them in the garden in ways that are
aesthetically pleasing.
Shape
is a primary category. Within it we find the thin blades of grasses and
grass-like plants. Examples are Maiden Grass “Morning Light” (Miscanthus
sinensis), whose thin grassy leaves seem to light up when backlit by the sun,
so plant it where it will erupt into sunbeams when you step outside on sunny
morning. Other ornamental grasses include the pennisetums and panicums. One of
the best grasslike plants, suitable for a shady spot, is golden Japanese forest
grass (Hakonechloa macra “Aureola”), which looks like a yellow-gold waterfall
of grass blades, all arching in the same direction.
Leaf
shapes also range from spear-point to oval; from wide like Fatsia japonica to
fan-shaped like Gingko biloba; from straight and slender like mondo grass
(Ophiopogon japonicas) to round like water lily leaves. Some are single leaves
emerging from stems or bulbs, others resemble the fingers of a hand, like
Fingerleaf Rodgersia (Rodgersia aesculifolia).
Size
is a category filled with every possibility from the tiny, foamy foliage of
Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila paniculata) to the very long strap-like leaves of New
Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax); from the very narrow strands of Blue Fescue
(Festuca glauca) to the huge leaves of Gunnera manicata and lotus leaves.
Color
is dominated by all shades of green, due to the function of leaves converting
sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen by means of green
chlorophyll. There are many other leaf colors, from the dark oxbloods of
myrobalan plums to brick red sedums, chalky purple Coral Bells (Heuchera
hybrids) and yellow-streaked phormiums. No matter what the leaf color, there’s
green chlorophyll in there, even when it’s hiding. The shadier the spot where a
plant with colored leaves is situated, the more green it’s likely to show, so
if you want interesting, odd leaf colors, use sun-lovers and site them in a
sunny spot.
The
chief rule when designing for foliage first is to contrast these
characteristics. A garden filled with plants with leaves of similar size, shape
and color isn’t very interesting when out of flower. But if the little leaves
of creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) are planted under the wide leaves of
pincushion flowers (Scabiosa atropurpurea), the association looks good
throughout the growing season.
Similarly with color. An even
more striking pairing using creeping thyme would be to plant it with the
sun-loving succulent Aeonium arboretum “Zwartkop” whose fleshy rosettes of
leaves are almost black.
In
the shade, the dark green leaves of Daphne odora — the species, not the common
hybrid called “Aureomarginata” — make a beautiful marriage with Hakonechloa
macra “Aureola.”
Another
excellent companion would be to underplant the daphne with the silver-grey
leaves of dead nettle (Lamium maculatum “Beacon Silver”), whose bright, almost
white leaves will light up the shadiest corner of your garden. If the daphne
likes its spot (it must be well-drained), it will reward you with the most
exciting fragrance in February, a fragrance that will carry 100 feet or more.
In
other words, plant opposites: big with little, slender with wide, light with
dark, color with its complement, and vary the shades of green.
Of
course, there are cultural considerations as well as visual and aesthetic ones.
A plant has to like its spot to do well. Lavender is beautiful, but it’s not
going to love being planted where the soil stays wet from irrigation.
Shade-lovers will burn out if planted in a sunny spot. You have to know the
conditions a plant likes, and then plant contrasting forms and colors using
other plants that like those same conditions.
Your
best resource when planning for fabulous foliage is Sunset’s Western Garden
Book. It has many pages devoted to lists and photos of plants by foliage color
and type as well as flower color, and an encyclopedic description of how to
care for and site those plants.
Let's All Start 2016 Right: 5
Resolutions for Tomato Lovers
By Craig LeHoullier motherearthnews.com
Ah,
the calm before the storm. It is smack in-between Christmas and New Year Day.
Music is playing, some coffee cakes are baking in the oven. Oddly, it is in the
mid-70s in Raleigh NC – a few very confused plants are blooming (a weigela, an
azalea, and a spirea). Below are some still-growing tomatoes with the spirea in
the background, living green Salvia Guaranitica, and dead brown leaves...quite
a juxtaposition!
This
is a perfect time for reflection and planning, because the 2016 gardening
season is peeking around the corner. Seed catalogs are arriving. I am sure that
all of us are really missing freshly picked tomatoes. Don’t despair – we will
all soon be busy, and the work of planning and seeding, transplanting and
planting, and the regular gardening tasks of maintenance will lead quickly to
the summer harvest.
In
the spirit of the annual custom of making New Year resolutions, here is a brief
list of 5 ideas for your 2016 tomato growing efforts.
1.
Try Some New Varieties
It
is human nature to return to those things that we’ve grown attached to. Whether
it is a favorite food item, article of clothing or piece of music, there is
great comfort in familiarity.
When
it comes to tomatoes, we are fortunate to garden at a time when the choices are
truly endless. Be it maturity dates, sizes, shapes, colors, flavor
characteristics or plant habits, there is really no reason to NOT add some
variety to your plantings.
If you are a fan of hybrid
tomatoes, consider adding in a few heirloom types. 'Big Beef' is a really good
tomato, as is 'Better Boy,' 'Lemon Boy,' and any number of other tasty,
productive hybrid varieties. Think of trying Andrew Rahart’s 'Jumbo Red' or
Aker’s 'West Virginia' for that old-fashioned, red beefsteak type. Hugh’s or
Lillian’s 'Yellow Heirloom' are spectacular bright yellow varieties. I’ve not
found an exact flavor substitute for the wildly popular orange hybrid cherry
tomato 'Sun Gold,' but 'Lemon Drop' and 'Egg Yolk' are right up there in
addictive flavor and insane productivity.
2.
Give Your Plants More Room
It
is so hard to abide by the planting distance guidelines when tiny seedlings, or
seeds, leave so much space seemingly unused in the garden. We are all so
anxious to fill up our baskets with overflowing crops and wish therefore to
maximize our garden’s productivity.
Overcrowding
can lead to some serious issues, particularly for tomatoes. Health is far
easier to maintain when there is good air circulation and sun exposure
completely around each plant. Many tomato foliage issues arise from fungal
spores that blow or splash onto foliage. Air and sun helps dry the foliage more
quickly, preventing or slowing the ability of the spores to take hold.
3.
Grow Some of Your Plants a Different Way
If
you’ve always planted your tomatoes in garden soil but are experiencing disease
or yield issues, consider container or straw bale gardening – at least on a
small scale, at first. Often, especially if a garden size prevents good crop
rotation, diseases build up in soil that reduce the success of the tomato crop
each year. Sometimes it is the effect of trees growing taller, limiting
sunshine.
Any
type of tomato can be grown in a container or bale, as long as you size and
space them appropriately. Indeterminate varieties will do best with a minimum
10 gallon container capacity. Dwarf or determinate varieties will be just fine
in a 5 gallon pot. If using straw bales, limit your planting density to two
plants per bale, no matter which type of tomato you choose. Often, the best sun
exposure on your property is on a location not suitable for a traditional in
ground or raised bed garden. Considering containers or bales simply allows you
to bring the tomatoes to the best sun location in your yard.
Of
course, the reverse is true as well. If containers or bales are too costly (due
to materials or watering needs) or simply extra work, and you have a nice spot
of land where you can dig a garden that will have adequate sun exposure, grow
them in the ground. You may appreciate a lower maintenance crop – the ground
holds nutrients and water more effectively than containers or bales, meaning
less frequent watering and feeding.
If
you typically stake tomatoes, try using cages. Consider how you prune as well.
Staking requires quite a bit of work, but creating and storing cages leads to
other considerations. Caging eliminates the need to prune, however. Like most
things related to gardening, it is all about the trade-offs.
4.
Spend More Time “Reading Your Plants”
I
find little in life more enjoyable than my daily walk through my garden. Truth
be told, it is usually more than once a day. There is much to learn from
watching your plants grow. Aside from the fascinating types of observations –
relative foliage shape and color and flower form on each particular variety,
growth habit, numbers of flowers per cluster, and so many more – the plants
have much to relate regarding their well-being, or challenges.
Tomato
plants are speaking to you through their leaf shape. Is it supposed to be what
it appears to be? The plants tell you about their health through foliage color.
Yellow or brown or black spots or splotches on leaves or stems always mean bad
news. Wilting plants on a hot sunny day are like wilting people – they are
thirsty. If the wilt doesn’t go away after watering, it means something else.
And if the wilting is accompanied by any color other than green, you got it –
trouble.
Curling
tomato foliage could mean disease, but it could also mean insect damage. Get up
close and personal with the leaves – turn them over and look for small insects
– aphids, or perhaps whitefly. Missing parts of plants indicate a hungry
critter, and if it is a tomato hornworm, you often have to spend a bit of time
searching for it.
As
you read your plants, enjoy the fresh air, listen to the music of nature –
crickets, birds, tree frogs. My wife loves yoga as a way of relaxing, and we
both like kayaking. But for me, a solitary few hours among my tomato plants is
both therapy and education, often leading to future success.
5.
Put on Your "Inner Scientist" Hat and Devise a Project
I
am often asked questions about the impact or benefit of various nutrients and
additives, planting times, and cultural choices such as pruning. Use of a
solution of powdered milk as a spray to ward off fungal diseases is just one
tip I often hear; another is application of Epsom salt solutions for improved
plant health. Then there is winter sowing, or planting by the phases of the
moon, or various pruning techniques (removal of various numbers of suckers or
side shoots) and the effect on yield, plant health, fruit size, and flavor.
If
you think of your garden as a big laboratory, and are a person who is not only
curious, but likes the answers to questions, please consider picking out an
idea and treating it as an experiment or project. Last year I had two projects
going; growing all of our Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project releases growing in
straw bales, and carrying out some new crosses that will lead to additional
dwarf varieties.
The
most important thing to keep in mind is to try to vary only one factor so that
you can clearly see the impact of your idea or test. If you want to explore the
effect of Epsom salts on tomato health, grow the same variety in the same area
of the garden, starting with plants of the same age. The only thing that you
should do differently to one of the plants is apply a solution of Epsom salts.
Feeding, watering, pruning, staking – everything else should be the same. Take
good notes, and at the end of the season, you will have the beginning of an
answer – a tangible difference or improvement, perhaps. If it looks like
something of great promise, repeat it the following year to confirm the result.
Another
interesting project would be to grow two indeterminate varieties exactly the
same way, in the same area, but prune one to a single center stem, and let the
other plant develop a number of fruiting branches. At the end of the season,
compare the size and number of tomatoes, and the flavor.
These
types of little mini projects help to cut through the vast amount of gardening
folklore – techniques handed down from year to year, but often without evidence
to back up their real value. If you pick out a few nagging questions that
you’ve been dying to answer, turn them into a little project. You will find
that your love of gardening only increases, that your desire to jump out of bed
to “see what’s happening out there” only gets more intense.
Oh
– and don’t forget to share your results. Gardeners are wonderful sharers – of
seeds, plants, tomatoes, and information. Whatever you learn from your project
will be of great value to others.
Horti-Culture Corner
With rake and seeds and sower,
And hoe and line and reel,
When the meadows shrill with "peeping"
And the old world wakes from sleeping,
Who wouldn't be a grower
That has any heart to feel?
~Frederick Frye Rockwell, "Invitation," Around the Year in
the Garden, 1913
