Planters
Punchlines
Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield
October 2016
Next Meeting: Monday
October 24 @ 7:00 pm in the Pitkin
Community Center, 30 Greenfield Street, Wethersfield. Carol Quish of the UConn Home & Garden
Education Center will speak about “Insect Pests in the Garden.” The talk is free and open to the public.
Mark your calendars –
Holiday Party Monday December 5.
I am away on vacation for most of October so the Planters
Punchlines newsletter is early this month.
Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan
For most of
the 39 years that Mars and I have gardened at our current location we have
tried to attract butterflies and hummingbirds – with limited success.
It started
in earnest with a butterfly house that our son Bram gave me. Both he, who was a teenage non-gardener and
had no reason to know better, and I thought that the homestead itself was the
draw. And that soon after it was put
into place atop the pole with which it came, kaleidoscopes (aka swarms or
rabbles) of large fragile-winged, colorful insects would literally flock into
our yard to reside in our brand-spanking-new Lepidoptera dorm.
We forgot
the basic law of real estate, “Location! Location! Location!”
Not the
street address – rather the physical location within which the landing pad was
placed. “Surroundings! Surroundings!
Surroundings!” We needed a butterfly
garden to surround our butterfly house.
The wooden
dwelling with vertical slots is intended as a resting place for insects, which
happen to be in the area for another reason –an overnight pad within which to
crash after an all-day nectar binge garden party.
Not a
problem. There was no shortage of lists
of what to grow in your butterfly garden.
We initially went, as I recall, with the usual suspects: butterfly bush
and bee balm added to the daisies, cardinal plants, and false dragonheads that
already occupied the area. We also acquired some kind of “prairie flower”. I remember that the nurseryman imitated its
movement in a breeze by flailing his arms back and forth and twisting his body
like the inflatable “air dancers” that advertise the presence of car dealers
and other roadside retail businesses.
We planted
the garden in early spring. By autumn
the prairie flowers had been swallowed up by their fellow plants and never were
seen again. A few butterflies came by
for a look and a quick sip – roughly the same number that came before we put in
our alfresco nectar saloon. None stayed
overnight as far as we could tell. But
then again it would have been dark and the insects would have hidden themselves
within their narrow bed apertures – so who knows?
To help
with the attempt, my in-laws gave us a “Butterfly Growing Kit” with a cup of 5
caterpillars, caterpillar chow, and a cardboard container within which to grow
them. When the time came, on a warm
summer morning, we released the quintet of Monarchs into our butterfly
garden. They surveyed the offerings and
left.
Sometime
during the first couple of years the butterfly bush was pushed out by its neighbors
– and over time we have added and subtracted various other butterfly attractors
– such as loosestrife, hollyhock, Queen Anne’s Lace, sunflower – with no
appreciable increase or decline in the count of Lepidoptera.
I know I
shouldn’t take it personally. Most
butterflies have only a few weeks of life as an adult, winged creature so they
are really pretty focused on eating and mating during the short time that they
have. Even the well-traveled Monarch has
a brief and very busy life. Those born
in the summer breeding season live only 2-6 weeks. But the ones that migrate to
Mexico are born in late summer, stay alive all winter, and migrate north the
following spring – so whatever extra time they have is spent planning their
vacation (getting passports, shots, directions, etc.) None of them have the time to be your friend.
But I have
not given up just yet. On the web I came
across suggestions and recipes for “butterfly bait” to draw the little flitters
into our yard.
“Many
butterflies prefer rotting fruit, tree sap, dung, carrion, urine, and other
non-nectar sources of nutrients. [And who wouldn’t?] You can allow fruit from
your fruit trees to decay on the ground, leave your pet’s droppings where they
lie, or place a bit of raw meat or fish in a discreet part of your garden.”
Or perhaps
just blend them all together and spray a thick coat of the resulting liquor all
over the body of a purple-and-red thrashing air dancer man that is tethered to
the spot where the butterfly house once stood.
And as a
side benefit we might get a good price for our two decade-old cars.
Keeping Heirloom Apples Alive Is 'Like A Chain Letter' Over Many
Centuries
By Melissa Block @ npr.org
It's apple
season, and if you go to the supermarket you'll find the usual suspects: Red
and Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, MacIntosh. But these big, shiny, perfect
apples often look better than they taste. Thankfully, there's a whole world of
heirloom apples out there — fruit that may look funky, but tastes fantastic,
with flavors unlike any you've tried before.
Ezekiel
Goodband, orchard manager of Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vt., has devoted his
life to these heirloom apples. He's spent decades carefully grafting and
tending historic varieties — some of which date back hundreds of years.
Sprightly, with twinkly eyes and a long gray-brown beard tucked into a
well-worn sweater, Goodband shows off his acres, which boast 100 different
apple varieties.
Some apples
are round and tiny; others are lobed or pear-shaped. They range from acid green
to mousy freckled brown to rosy pink. And they have exotic-sounding names like
Winter Banana, Red Astrakhan, Chenango Strawberry and Pitmaston Pineapple.
One tree
bears a mutant-like fruit that only a mother could love: Goodband describes
this Knobbed Russet as "a tree of shrunken heads." The fruit is
gnarled, warty, brown and shriveled, but — Goodband promises — it tastes great.
Goodband
compares these Knobbed Russets to shrunken heads. Others say potatoes or toads.
They're all gnarled and warty and brown, but don't be intimidated: They taste
great when ripe. They originated in Sussex, England, in 1819.
Goodband is
helping to preserve historic varieties like the Knobbed Russet that have been
handed down over the centuries. Like farmers for generations before him, he has
painstakingly collected cuttings and grafted them to root stock. That's the
only way to do it, to keep the exact DNA of these apples alive.
"It's
sort of like a chain letter, and I like that connection," he says.
Like many
of us, Goodband grew up on Red Delicious apples. His father grew them, and
they'd eat them year-round. But he won't touch them now. Those leathery,
indestructible behemoths were cultivated to be ever redder and bigger, but at
the expense of flavor.
These days,
lots of people are ecstatic about the Honeycrisp, a newish apple, created at
the University of Minnesota in 1991. It explodes with juices and a crackling
crunch.
Goodband
grows Honeycrisp, but he isn't a huge fan of it himself. It's too one-note, he
says. And get this: He claims that even his pigs don't like it. If he puts
Honeycrisps in their trough, he says, they'll tip it over. "They just have
gotten used to more complex flavors," he jokes. "They're interested
at first, but then, you know, I can tell in their eyes that they're looking for
something more."
The picking
crew on Scott Farm is made up of six men, all from Jamaica, in their 50s and
60s. They'll pick 22 tractor-trailers of apples over the course of a season.
Then, it's home to Jamaica and their own farms, where they raise sweet
potatoes, sugar cane and bananas.
Their
devotion to this place — and to Goodband — is clear: Some of the men have
worked for him for more than 20 years. The workers say they're proud to know
all of these uncommon apples, and they treat them almost with affection. When
they prop their wooden ladders against the treetops they maneuver them gently,
and they're careful with the fruit.
On this day
— as they pick Hubbardston, Holstein and Red Cortland — they sing Bob Marley as
they harvest fruit from the treetops.
With ripe
fruit all around, you might think they'd be tempted to snack, but Michael
Johnson says that's not the case. The apples at the top of the trees call to
him, he says, and "it's fun to get them." And then: "Into the
bin!"
Self-described
apple geek Rowan Jacobsen traces his "apple awakening" to Goodband's
fruit, which Jacobsen discovered years ago at his local food co-op. Jacobsen's
new book, Apples of Uncommon Character, is an homage to these heirloom varieties.
Jacobsen
has brought a new apple — the Pixie Crunch, developed in a 1970s university
apple breeding program — back with him from a trip to Washington state. It's
small, round and bright red, the perfect size for a child's hand. Jacobsen
thinks this small apple has a big future.
But these
trends can be hard to predict. Jacobsen describes a conversation he had about
this apple with some big industrial growers out in Washington: One grower was
convinced the Pixie Crunch was the next big apple. The other grower was
skeptical that they could find demand for such a small fruit.
"There's
really this tension right now, even among big guys," Jacobsen says.
"Some of them have this old-school mentality of what the market wants.
There's kind of a disconnect — because the market that I know actually likes
small apples, and likes different apples."
As for Goodband, he's not interested in the Pixie Crunch —
too sweet, he says. And he's not interested in apples designed to travel well
for long distances. His is small-batch agriculture, sold locally. His apples
cost more than conventional fruit, but Goodband only grows fruit that delights
him.
"I've
got to be dazzled," he says, and, he wants his customers to be dazzled,
too.
He hopes to
reintroduce people to fruit that customers might remember their grandparents
growing. Or to introduce them for the first time to fruit that doesn't make it
to stores because it doesn't ship well or because it is only at its peak for a
week or two. This, he says, is the experience he's looking for:
"When
I give people one of these apples, they'll come back next week and say, 'Oh,
that was the best apple I've ever had in my life. I didn't know apples could
taste like that!' "
At 61,
Goodband says the heirloom trees he grows will last beyond his lifetime. Now,
he says, it's his turn to teach someone else — someone younger — how to keep
them going.
To Cut or Not to Cut
National Gardening Association @ garden.org
That is the
question -- the one you ask yourself in the fall as you survey your flower
garden, pruners in hand. Which perennials should you cut back and which should
you leave standing? Although your initial impulse may be to cut all your
herbaceous plants back to tidy things up when the weather turns cold, leaving
the tops of some plants in place over the winter can add interest to an
otherwise bleak landscape and provide food for seed-eating birds. It can also
help some plants make it through the winter more reliably. But there are also
good reasons for cutting back certain perennials as soon as their tops are
killed by frost. Here's some advice on when to wield your clippers and when to
wait.
Add Winter
Interest: Some perennials that grace the garden with beautiful blossoms early
in the season continue to enliven the garden with their interesting seedpods in
fall and winter. Baptisia's elongated black seed pods stand out against the
snow, as do those of Siberian irises, and both are useful in dried arrangements
indoors. The dried flower heads of yarrow (Achillea) add a horizontal note,
while plants such as 'Autumn Joy' sedum and Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium), with
large, rounded flower clusters, remain as lacy globes over the winter.
Ornamental
grasses are some of the most dramatic plants in the winter landscape. Tall
plumes feather reed grass (Calamagrostis) and switch grass (Panicum) add
vertical accents to the winter landscape. Just be sure to cut plants back in
early spring before growth emerges to avoid damaging the new shoots.
Benefit
Birds and Butterflies: Goldfinches and other feathered visitors will stop in
winter to dine on the seedheads of plants such as black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia),
heliopsis, and purple coneflower (Echinacea). The seedheads of many annuals
will also provide treats for passing birds if blossoms are allowed to go to
seed and remain through the winter. Cosmos, coreopsis, bachelor's buttons, and
zinnias are some of the flowers whose seeds will feed sparrows, finches and
juncos. But do keep in mind that plants like rudbeckia and purple coneflower
may self-sow enthusiastically and you'll need to be prepared for some ruthless
weeding come spring if you let their flowers go to seed.
Perennials
left standing can also provide spots for butterflies and other beneficial
insects to overwinter, either as pupae, caterpillars, or eggs, and offer them
cover from predators like birds and spiders.
Offer Cold
Protection: Some perennials are more likely to survive winter's cold if they
aren't cut back until spring. Frikart's aster (Aster frikartii), Montauk daisy
(Nipponanthemum nipponicum), chrysanthemums, agastache, and red hot poker
(Kniphofia) all benefit from the insulation that the old foliage provides to
the crown of the plant.
Leave Basal
and Evergreen Foliage: And finally, there are those plants that produce a clump
of new basal leaves late in the season, like Shasta daisies and globe thistle.
You can cut down the spent taller growth or bare flower stalks, but leave the
basal foliage undisturbed. Also, don't cut back low-growing evergreen or
semi-evergreen perennials, like some hardy geraniums, heucheras, hellebores,
dianthus, and moss phlox. These can be tidied up in the spring, if need be.
Mark Late
Sprouters: A few perennials are notorious for their late emergence in spring.
If you leave at least a portion of the tops of butterfly weed (Asclepias
tuberosa), rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), and balloon flower (Platycodon
grandiflorus) standing, you won't lose track of their location and accidentally
damage them by digging into them before they sprout in spring.
Start
Cutting!: Daylilies look pretty raggedy by the end of the season. They don't
add anything visually to the winter garden and getting rid of their browning
foliage and bare flower stalks improves the appearance of the landscape. The
foliage of other plants, such as brunnera and veronica, turns black and becomes
mush after its been hit by frost and from an aesthetic standpoint is best
removed. I've also found that it's much, much easier to cut down the tops of
plants that don't have tough leaf stalks, like daylilies and Siberian irises,
when they are still relatively crisp and upright in the fall. By spring their
leaves have become a fallen, sodden clump that can be a real challenge to cut
away.
The tops of
some perennials, such as bearded iris, peonies, bee balm, and garden phlox,
often serve as reservoirs for overwintering insects or disease spores and are
best cut down and consigned to the trash or sent to a municipal hot composting
operation. It's a good idea to cut back and destroy any disease-infected or
insect-infested plant debris. When I'm not sure if the pest organism
overwinters in or on plant material, I err on the side of caution and get rid
of it.
What About
the Rest?: For many other perennials, it's up to you whether to cut back now or
in spring. You'll offer the most benefits to wildlife if you leave the most
plant material standing until spring. But spring is also a very busy time for
most gardeners and you may choose to take advantage of the slower pace and
pleasant weather in autumn to get at least some of your garden clean-up chores
out of the way.
Weed: My most unwanted plant
by Cortney Moore (fortcollinsnursey.com)
The word
weed makes me cringe. It makes my skin crawl. I am not talking about the weed
that has been on the minds of most people in Colorado this year. The weed I am
talking about is a plant growing where I don’t want it. It is a plant growing
vigorously or in some cases in an invasive manner.
Last year I
started a major project in my yard. Think Bobcat Skid-steer Tractor, 7 tons of
flagstones and a whole lot of soil moving going on. So much soil was moved from
one area to another that by the end of the season the weeds had gotten out of
control. At this point, I thought I needed to do something about them. I yanked
as many as I could. While I was playing tug of war with the nasty buggers, a
million lovely little pepper speck seeds dropped to the ground. I waited too
long. I felt defeated, but fall was too busy to do much about the new problem I
had created.
Through the
winter I stared out the kitchen window and contemplated bringing in truckloads
of mulch or covering the ground with cardboard to suppress the seeds. I never
actually got around to this and with March upon us, the amount of moisture in
the ground and all those seeds out there are on my mind. Visions of weeds
springing to life as temperatures warm haunt me. In order to get a jump on the
weeds before they become the headlining plant in my yard this year, I concocted
a plan to take care of these green devils. I am determined to make my yard an
enjoyable place fit for entertaining this season. Read on to learn my plan of
attack.
Depending
on what the weather decides to do, I will apply a pre-emergent product sometime
in March. Pre-emergents do not kill seeds; they destroy young weed seedlings so
the product must be present prior to germination. Initially I thought about
using corn gluten, but the research I read said corn gluten is most effective
as a pre-emergent weed control in an established lawn and is less effective in
open and disturbed soil like my yard, so it appears that for my application I
will need a chemical type. Pre-emergents stop all seeds from germinating and I
am planning to sow a cover crop so I will have to be aware of the amount of
time the product is active in the soil before I put my cover crop seed down. I
am still deciding which cover crop to use and need to do more research.
My next
line of defense will be post-emergent. I will incorporate as many post-emergent
methods as necessary to put the smack down on these monsters. I prefer
mechanical methods, such as using my long handle weeder, hula hoe and spreading
mulch or other weed barriers. I know I have some fairly aggressive weeds out
there and some chemical warfare will be necessary, especially on the cotton
wood suckers from the tree my neighbor cut down last year. Yes, they are weeds
too. Remember: A plant growing where I don’t want it.
I love my
long handle weeder. I love it so much that I have been known to give it to
friends who come over and have never had one. Part of the joy of gardening is
sharing. So I just give it to them and buy another. This type of weeder doesn’t
always get the entire root, but it can pop baby dandelions out as they emerge.
The Hula
hoe is another one of my favorite tools for mechanical control. I also consider
it a bit of an upper body work out when I use it so I can skip the gym that
day.
Mulch is a
must have in my yard. It not only suppresses weeds, it improves soil, conserves
water, and has many other benefits. (Join us for The Magic of Mulch class on
Sunday, May 18th to learn more.) For large areas I load my truck at free pick
up locations. This leaves me more money to buy plants. When I want something
more decorative or a specialty mulch, I visit my local garden center.
While I
prefer mechanical weed control, I do occasionally reach for the bottle. The
products listed below are what work for me. Please read labels thoroughly and
talk with your nursery professionals before using any of the products. That is
the only motherly warning you will hear from me today.
Fertilome
Weed Free Zone is my go to for getting an early start. It works in cooler
temperatures so I like it as weeds start to green up in the spring and the
mornings are still in the 40s and 50s.
Fertilome
Brush and Stump Killer is potent but it is necessary for suckers when your
neighbor takes an ancient cottonwood out and don’t kill the entire root system,
or you try to dig honey locusts, choke cherries or aspens and they just keep
coming back. I always try my trusty shovel on suckers first and use Brush and
Stump Killer as a last resort. A word of caution: Brush and Stump Killer is not
Sucker Stopper. It will kill the entire root system and plant. Do not use on
suckers that are attached to a desirable plant.
Now don’t
get the impression that I am a manic welding a sprayer full of poison. I am a
realistic gardener who attempts all other methods before going for the heavy
hitters but sometimes it takes what it takes.
I advocate
for controls that are citric acid or acetic acid based too. They don’t kill the
root and often have to be applied more than once. If you can burn the top
growth enough the root won’t get fed and presto! No more weed.
As long as
I stick to the plan, I imagine I will emerge the victor in my war on weeds. I
figure it will take a full season of diligent weeding to really make a
difference. The thing that keeps me going is inviting all my friends to see the
progress and enjoy the relaxing setting of the living flagstone patio, mini
orchard and various other garden rooms. I am always looking for more garden
friends so connect with me and maybe you’ll get an invite!
For more
gardening and more connecting with Cortney Moore check out mooregarden.com.
How to Plant Chinese Dogwood From a Seed
Sometimes called kousa dogwood, the Chinese dogwood (Cornus
kousa) is a deciduous shrub species prized for its showy flower bracts and
purple autumn foliage. It is widely grown throughout U.S. Department of
Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 to 8, where it is used as an ornamental
tree or shrub.
1. Gather
Chinese dogwood seeds in autumn after the fruit ripens to a bright, raspberry
red color. Collect two or three fruit and place them in a plastic bag. Gently
crush the fruit with a rolling pin to loosen the seeds.
2. Place
the crushed Chinese dogwood fruit in a bowl of water. Soak them overnight,
stirring occasionally. Pick out the oblong, light-brown seeds and discard the
remainder of the fruit.
3. Fill
a plastic sandwich bag with moist sphagnum moss. Bury the Chinese dogwood seeds
in the sphagnum moss and seal the bag. Store the bag in the refrigerator for
two to three months to cold-stratify the seeds. Remoisten the sphagnum moss, as
needed.
4. Sow
the Chinese dogwood seeds in individual 6-inch greenhouse pots filled with a
mix of equal parts sterile compost, loam and perlite. Sow them at a depth of
1/10-inch. Water them to a 2-inch depth after sowing.
5. Place
the potted Chinese dogwood seeds inside a lightly shaded, unventilated cold
frame. Warm the pots with a germination mat set to between 70 and 75 F. Turn
off the mat at night.
6. Check
the moisture level in the growing mixture twice daily during the germination
process. Thoroughly moisten the top inch of the soil whenever the surface feels
barely moist. Do not allow it to dry out completely on the surface.
7. Watch
for signs of germination in approximately three months. Turn off the
germination mat after the Chinese dogwood seeds sprout. Open the cold frame to
increase air circulation around the seedlings and to acclimate them to normal
outdoor conditions.
8. Move
the Chinese dogwood seedlings to a sheltered area of the garden after the last
spring frost. Provide 1-inch of water each week, if no rain falls for one week
or longer. Protect the seedlings from direct midday sun until they produce
several sets of mature leaves.
9. Grow
the Chinese dogwood seedlings under light shade during their first summer to
prevent heat stress and dehydration. Water weekly to a 1-inch depth. Acclimate
them to direct sun in early autumn to prepare them from transplant into the
garden.
10. Transplant
the Chinese dogwoods into the garden in autumn after the first rainfall. Choose
a sunny or lightly shaded planting site with moist, draining soil. Space
multiple shrubs 15 to 30 feet apart.
11. Things
You Will Need: Plastic bag, Rolling pin, Bowl, Plastic sandwich bag Sphagnum moss, 6-inch greenhouse pots, Sterile
compost Loam, Perlite, Cold frame, Germination mat
Horti-Culture Corner
"Along the side
roads the bright gold of thin-leafed wild sunflowers
gleams from its dust
covering and attracts the eye as quickly as mention of easy money.
Purple ironweed is diminishing in the
pastures;
thistles are down to
their last silken tassels;
goldenrod pours its
heap of raw gold into the general fund."
- Rachel Peden
