Author Archives:

The Grand Rapids Press

on October 10, 2012 at 10:45 AM, updated October 10, 2012 at 11:23 AM

Brought to you by

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The $22 million Japanese Garden coming to Frederik Meijer Gardens Sculpture Park is on budget and ahead of schedule to open in 2015.

A Boulder Placement Ceremony for the Richard and Helen DeVos Japanese Garden was held recently to mark the foundational beginning and start of formal construction of the 8.5-acre garden created by Japanese designer Hoichi Kurisu.

Boulders form the skeleton and foundation of the ancient Japanese art form, symbolizing the permanency of a garden.

“The boulder placement is more than a ceremonial beginning of the Japanese Garden,” said Meijer Gardens president and CEO David Hooker. “It’s the foundation on which the garden will thrive for generations to come.”

A traditional art form in Japanese culture, a Japanese garden is an idealized depiction of a natural setting.

The Japanese Garden, located in the northeast corner of the 132-acre campus, between the Lena Meijer Conservatory and Michigan’s Farm Garden, will re-imagine existing features of the land, water, elevation changes and quiet surroundings with such elements as a tea house, bridges and waterfalls.

Patrons Richard and Helen DeVos and Lena Meijer were among those at the dedication on Tuesday, which included remarks by Kurisu and a video of him supervising placement of the first boulders at the site.

A native of Hiroshima, born in 1939, Kurisu grew up in the aftermath of the atomic bomb that the United State dropped on Japan to end World War II. The experience, he says, inspired him to make landscape design his life’s work.

Though in-demand as a designer, Kurisu said his first impressions of Grand Rapids convinced him to submit a proposed design, one of several that Meijer Gardens considered before awarding the contract.

“This town looks like everyone got together to do something,” Kurisu said on Tuesday. “This is a place I could do something.”

Kurisu has relocated his residence to Grand Rapids to supervise the three-year project.
“He is intensely passionate and about his design,” Hooker said.

Kuninori Matsuda, consul general of Japan, who was at Meijer Gardens on Tuesday, called the project a “historic, without exaggeration, occasion” that has been noted by his fellow countrymen and women, not only living in the United States, but back in Japan as well.

“I have no doubt the Richard and Helen DeVos Garden will be a must-see,” Matsuda said.

Creation of an international garden at Meijer Gardens was a longstanding goal dating back more than a decade at the cultural destination that has drawn 7.5 million visitors since it opened.

“This has been the most exciting opportunity I’ve had in my 16 years at the Gardens,” said Steven LaWarre, director of horticulture at Meijer Gardens.

About156 individuals, families, companies and foundations have donated to the project, which met its fundraising goal in May.

“The one thing they all have in common is the motivation and joy of giving,” Hooker said.

Original plans called for construction to begin in the spring of 2013. But successful fundraising and favorable conditions allowed work to move ahead, with Kurisu’s approval.

“He responded with grace and enthusiasm,” Hooker said. “We’re currently ahead of schedule by seven months.”

E-mail Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk: jkaczmarczyk@mlive.com
Subscribe to his Facebook page or follow him on Twitter @ArtsWriter

Pound Ridge Garden Club Slates Floral Design Demo

Leave a reply

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. – Susan Detjens, a recipient of numerous awards for floral design, will demonstrate how to create flower arrangements with holiday themes at the Pound Ridge Garden Club’s meeting Tuesday.

The 75-minute presentation, titled “Holi-dazzle-Designs for the Holidays,” will take place at the Pound Ridge Library, beginning at 10:45 a.m. The public is welcome.

Detjens, a landscape artist by profession and flower arranger by avocation, is an award-winning floral designer, judge and lecturer. Examples of her designs can be found on her website, www.flowerflinging.com.

The Pound Ridge Garden Club is a community service and educational organization founded in 1941 and affiliated with National Garden Clubs Inc., Federated Garden Clubs of New York State, Inc., 9th District, Section 2B. Membership is open to anyone interested in horticulture, floral design, environmental planting and resource conservation. For more information on the club, contact Mary Miranda, membership committee chair, at 914-764-0914.

All-America Selections honors landscape designers

Leave a reply

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

All-America Selections has announced the winners of the first Landscape Design Contest.

The contest is for AAS display gardens that incorporate AAS Winners both past and present.

To be considered, landscapes had to contain a minimum of 50 percent AAS winners. Judging was based on quantity of AAS varieties, overall attractiveness of the landscape design, promotion of the display to local media and garden visitors, creative use of AAS winners and more.

Here are the 2012 winners:

Category I: fewer than 10,000 visitors per year

First Place Winner: Mississippi State University-South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station, Poplarville, Mississippi. With a theme of “Bridging the Seasons with All-America Selections” the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station did a fantastic job of changing their plantings of AAS Winners according to the season. The judges noted how precise Mississippi State University was in their labeling of AAS Winners, their orderly submission of contest materials, the high quality photos, the pleasing plantings and even the video they submitted that aired on local TV.

Second Place Winner: LSU Burden Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Our judges were very impressed with the leadership of this project and how they so obviously put a lot of time and professionalism into their beautiful semi-formal garden design. By using twenty-three AAS Winners in a location next to their Le Jarden des Enfants, they were able to provide education to children focusing on vegetable, herb and butterfly garden plantings.

Third Place Winner: Parker Scripture Botanical Gardens, Cornell, Oriskany, New York. The beautifully constructed raised-bed design at this site, along with high-quality photographs made this garden a standout entry. From the beginning, the garden engaged the local Future Farmers of America (FFA) students to start the seeds then allowed the area’s Master Gardener Volunteers to tend to the creative garden plantings. Well-documented publicity reached a very impressive number of local students, master gardeners, home gardeners, educators, teen groups and others.

Category II: 10,001 – 100,000 visitors per year

First Place Winner: Horticultural Art Society Demonstration Garden, Colorado Springs, CO. With a theme of “Winners through the Decades” using AAS Vegetable Winners, the Horticultural Art Society took advantage of this contest to educate garden visitors on two main subjects: the All-America Selections trialing process and the many ways to grow vegetables in a home garden. They combined vertical gardening, raised beds, and square foot gardening then highlighted local sourcing since they were able to purchase 90% of the past AAS Winners from local retailers. Only 10% had to be ordered online. Our judges really liked how the Horticultural Art Society engaged the local community including hort clubs, students, bicycle tour groups, summer campers, plant sale patrons and their own 50^th anniversary celebrants. And the topper? They did all this with only one employee!

Second Place Winner: Agriculture Canada Ornamental Gardens, Ottawa, Ontario. Another garden to use a theme, this one being “Birds, Bees and Butterflies Buffet” which was a creative way to incorporate many AAS Winners that attract urban wildlife. They specifically chose AAS Winners that were tough, resilient and an excellent food source for the wildlife. Summer newsletters created by the Friends of the Central Experimental Farm volunteers featured several articles about the special AAS Winner garden along with activities held in conjunction with the contest.

Third Place Winner: Toledo Botanical Garden, Toledo, OH. The judges loved how Toledo Botanical Garden designed their display with youngsters in mind since their AAS Landscape Design area was situated right next to their Children’s Garden. And they sensibly mixed some of the newer AAS Winners with popular heirlooms to show and explain the advantages of both. With their stated function being “to provide people with inspiration for what they might be able to grow in their yard,” we think they were very successful in fulfilling that mission.

Category III: Over 100,000 visitors per year

First Place Winner: Rotary Botanical Gardens, Janesville, Wisconsin. First and foremost, the photos Rotary submitted highlighted their expertly designed garden beds that were bursting with color coming from the AAS Winners. The judges loved how engaged Rotary’s staff and volunteers were in this project and it resulted in an impressive amount of publicity in the area’s media. Rotary featured the contest in numerous press releases, blogs and Facebook posts. Plus, they used an impressive 127 AAS Winners in their landscape design—the highest number of any contest entry.

Second Place Winner: Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver, Colorado. Denver presented a very well thought-out design using the All-America Selections Winners in numerous color palettes, located in a high-traffic event area. This was one of the best examples of incorporating edibles into an ornamental display, which was a very clever way to use both vegetable and flower AAS Winners, made even better by the fact that the garden donated the vegetable produce to a local food pantry.

Third Place Winner: Marjory McNeely Conservatory, Minneapolis, Minnesota. By using their Welcome Garden as the focal point to the entrance to their conservatory, this impressive garden brought the AAS Winners front and center to their visitors. By creatively building around their already established perennial grasses, the Conservatory was able to create an eye-catching design offering perennials and annuals in a great combination using texture to its full advantage.

A complete collection of photos from all contest entrants can be found on the All-America Selections Flickr and Facebook accounts.

Rancho Cucamonga candidates tackle landscape maintenance rates

Leave a reply

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – The rates in the city’s largest landscape maintenance district was a key topic for City Council candidates at a recent forum.

Some in the district are opposed to the idea of a potential new election to determine whether to raise landscaping fees after residents voted to reject the idea of a $38 increase last year.

But city officials are initiating a $40,000 outreach effort, using funds from the landscape district, because only 30 percent participated in the election, and some residents said they weren’t aware of the consequences if significant service reductions are made to the area.

A survey next spring would determine whether or not to hold another election.

LMD 2 is an L-shaped area bounded by Etiwanda Avenue on the east, the 210 Freeway on the north, the halfway line between Milliken and Haven avenues on the west, and south above Base Line Road and Church Street in the eastern part of the district.

Officials may consider either a rate increase or a service level reduction because maintenance costs have risen substantially. Rates have not changed since 1993, officials said.

The city recently presented preliminary ideas such as increasing the annual rate by about $38 or decommissioning care for 1.5 million square feet of turf.

“That issue was brought back to the council in a council workshop because people in that community were uninformed about what was going on,” said Mayor Pro Tem Sam Spagnolo,

“so it was brought to the city to be opened up for discussion.

“That vote was done by the people and some of them had decided they wanted a second chance like other landscape maintenance districts had done. We’re governed by Proposition 218 and there’s nothing that we can do to sway a vote either way. We can’t have any input into that.”

Councilman Chuck Buquet’s term expires this year. Buquet was appointed to fill Mayor Dennis Michael’s council seat after the mayoral election of 2010.

“I’m telling you right now I will not support tax increases for city operations during my term on the City Council. Proposition 218 requires that any LMD rate increase is something voted on by the property owners, and I will respect that process,” said Buquet, who also said he supports more drought-tolerant landscaping for the area. “The city is trying to make sure and be as responsive as they can and inform the residents of the need for us to deal with the financial structural deficit that, quite frankly, the council should have been dealing with 16 years while I was off the council.

“You can’t roll over the same rate and not expect it to catch up with you later on.”

Other candidates said they were opposed to the idea of the city using resources after, they said, the 2011 election already decided the issue.

“The people understood it and it’s a free country and if they chose not to vote or they chose to vote and it ended up the city didn’t get it their own way and they won’t let it go,” said candidate Jim Moffatt, a local coffee shop owner who has run for council several times and for mayor in 2010. “Now they want to spend another $40,000 to send out another survey and get their money. It’s a waste of money.”

Candidate Anthony Rice, a small business owner, agreed.

“I pretty much agree with what Mr. Moffatt said,” Rice said. “I do agree that it’s a waste of city resources to redo the vote when the people have already voted no on it. What’s even the bigger waste of resources is putting palm trees in the center of roads, putting huge irrigation systems down the center of these roads, or down the sides of freeways, where it’s watering the streets and it’s wasting water.

“We need to take a look at the way we do landscaping in the city and the way to do it is only do native landscaping.”

Candidate Erick Jimenez suggested future developers should completely pay for landscaping through developer fees and also suggested the use of native landscaping that doesn’t require a lot of water.

“The election was the election, and you can’t go back and overturn the election results,” said Jimenez. “I think the big lesson coming out of this is development – and I know the city is 85 percent already developed and there’s about 15 percent left – but the big lesson out of this is that future development has to be sound. It has to be responsible.

“We have to make sure it’s completely paid for through developer fees and that we use native landscaping, something that is not going to use a lot of water.”

Candidate Marc Steinorth, who ran for mayor in 2010, said the decommissioning of turf would be problematic for the city.

“There were a lot of workshops that were held by city management. I believe our current city manager was the person conducting most of those and that’s with the public,” Steinorth said. “30 percent of the public voted no, and that is an issue because we’ve had elections with a lot lower turnout and some of them are elected officers and we haven’t decided, ‘hey by the way, it’s a very low turnout, let’s go back and re-elect those people.’ So it seems kind of odd that we would have that approach for a landscape maintenance district. Now having said that, I understand we want to make sure our neighborhood looks really good, and for me this is almost really a safety issue.”

The forum was held at the James Brulte Senior Center on Tuesday night.

Contact Neil via email, by phone at 909-483-9356, on Twitter @RanchoNow or on Facebook.

This entry was posted in landscaping ideas on by .

Paint your garden this summer

Leave a reply

.

Try sun-loving purple and white petunias.

Related Stories

Parks departments win big

Cape Town – Would you like a garden filled with pretty pastels, bold colour combinations or flamboyant purples this summer?

The warmer weather of spring has arrived, and now is the time to plant up a garden filled with annuals.

Landscaping with annuals is like painting with colour. There are so many different coloured annuals. If used boldly and creatively, you can make your garden look bigger or smaller. You can also develop a glorious backdrop to a children’s party or family festive-season gathering.

If planted now, annuals will be a riot of colour by November. If fed and watered throughout the summer, they will last until March. Annuals will help fill spaces in a new garden and gaps in the border, and brighten entrances, patios, pots and hanging baskets.

There are two ways to plant annuals:

* Sow seed or plant established seedlings now as bedding plants. If you are looking for seedlings, try aster, bedding begonia, bedding dahlia, browallia, celosia, cleome, cosmos, impatiens, lavatera, lobelia, marigold, nierembergia, torenia, verbena, vinca and zinnia.

* Sowing seed is the ultimate in gardening on a shoestring budget. Consider sowing alyssum, Californian poppy, cosmos, gaillardia, mignonette, marigold, nasturtium, Virginian stock or zinnia this weekend, directly into the beds where they are to flower.

Sowing seed is not difficult, but there are a few tips for success:

* Start by digging over the soil until it is crumbly and without any lumps.

* Add compost and a general fertiliser and rake before sowing.

* Water the soil well the day before planting.

Remember to sow seed in geometric rows, or scatter it for an informal, natural appearance. The soil will need to be kept moist until germination occurs, and the plants watered in dry weather.

For hot spots:

The low, spreading growth habit of sun-loving alyssum, mauve nierembergia, yellow and orange nasturtiums, and brightly coloured verbena and portulaca are ideal as edgings, in pots, on banks and between paving.

Zinnias are a popular choice for the summer garden because of their ability to withstand heat. They range in height from tall cactus-flowered varieties to dwarf Thumbelinas, in colours of pink, yellow, orange, red and purple.

Celosias (cockscomb) offer a contrast in flower shape and texture to zinnias, with silky plumes of pink, gold, orange and red.

Waterwise vinca hybrids (Catharanthus roseus) have a branching growth habit and round-petalled flowers in white, pink, apricot, lilac and grape, often with contrasting centres. They blend well with taller-growing white, pink, green, red and purple funnel-shaped flowers of nicotiana.

If you want a splash of red, you can’t beat Salvia splendens, but if this is too bright, these annual salvias also come in cream, pink, salmon and burgundy. Use them massed, as accent plants, and in containers. The annual clary sage (Salvia viridis) has upright spikes of white, pink or purple bracts.

Need height?

Plant a quick-growing annual climber on fences and over arches. Cathedral bells (Cobaea scandens) is a vigorous climber and needs space to show off its unusual flowers.

The bell-shaped blooms that give the climber its common name open apple-green, then change to mauve and finally purple.

Tall sunflowers are useful quick-growing temporary screens, and add height in a border. These are easy-to-grow annuals, given well-drained soil and sunshine.

Cosmos can be used as temporary screens and as “see-through” plants in a border, their silky white and pink petals held above lacy foliage. Baby’s breath (gypsophila) with dainty white flowers on wiry stems, and white lace flower are two more “see-through” annuals.

An elegant choice for the back of the border is cleome, known as the spider plant because of the shape of its narrow white and pink petals, and long seedpods.

The cup-shaped pink and white flowers of lavatera contrast well with the flowers of cleome. Attractive Salpiglossis sinuata grows 60cm tall with trumpet-shaped flowers of red, pink, purple and yellow, and prominent veining on the petals.

Colourful containers:

A variety of annuals in single or mixed colours can be planted in pots.

Grow ageratum, bedding dahlias, salvias, zinnias, marigolds and bush nasturtiums in the sun, and bedding begonia, impatiens, mimulus and torenia in light shade. Alyssum, lobelia and verbena are useful for spilling over and softening pots’ edges.

Annuals are also ideal as pot “fillers”, but for this to work, all plants need similar conditions of sun, soil and water. Lime-green coleus with blue torenia work well in light shade, as do ferns with white impatiens.

Try sun-loving combinations of ornamental grasses and gazanias, Carex “Frosty Curls” with dwarf orange marigolds, mauve angelonia with purple and white petunias, and purple lobelia, Browallia “Jingle Bells” and ageratum with neon-pink vinca, bright-pink petunias and red-purple verbena with silver-grey santolina, and lime-green nicotiana with pink mini petunias and nutmeg pelargoniums.

Indigenous annuals:

Many of the plants we grow in our gardens can trace their origins to wild flowers of the veld. Diascias, nemesias and lobelias are three well-known indigenous annuals, all with dainty flowers for edging paths, for mass planting and for pots.

Arctotis venusta is a reliable summer flowerer, with rounded bushes covered in large white flowers with mauve centres.

Gazanias, with their free-flowering habit and daisy-like flowers of yellow, orange, bronze and pink, are excellent as groundcovers for sunny banks, rockeries and pots.

It’s well worth a visit to a botanical garden or indigenous nursery for seeds or plants of the wild foxglove (Ceratotheca triloba), an annual that grows 2m in height with foxglove-like flowers of white and pink with lavender markings.

Flowering from November to March, this would make a delightful addition to a meadow-style garden, as would mauve-pink wild cineraria (Senecio elegans) and the straw flower (Helichrysum bracteatum). – Weekend Argus

Get our new, free Lifestyle newsletter – subscribe here…

This entry was posted in gardens and landscaping on by .

Slideshow: UF edible landscaping builds vegetable beds on campus

Leave a reply

Slideshow: UF edible landscaping builds vegetable beds on campus

Most people know about the campus bat houses, where about 300,000 bats live, emerging at dusk as a crowd of waiting people watch. Less well-known are the Student Agricultural Gardens, 77 plots of land next to the bat houses that students, faculty and members of the community can rent for $10 or $20 per semester.

Prev
Next

Sara Drumm/WUFT News permalink

On Sept. 30, UF’s new Eternally Edible Landscaping Club broke ground in the gardens and built a raised vegetable bed. The club will build a second raised bed at 4 p.m. Saturday, and interested students are invited to join in.

Sara Drumm/WUFT News permalink

Kelly Korman, left, and Rodrigo Castillo loosen the earth to prepare a six-inch deep foundation for the raised vegetable bed on Sept. 30. Korman, who is working toward her master’s degree in women’s studies, is the club’s president; Castillo, who is working toward his doctorate in building construction, is the treasurer.

Sara Drumm/WUFT News permalink

Korman rented a plot in the gardens last year. She said she enjoyed it but felt discouraged by the lack of interaction among gardeners. She began to think of ways to build a stronger community in the gardens, and that grew into the concept for this club. The concept became a reality when Korman received a grant to start the club through the UF Office of Sustainability’s Prairie Project for Graduate Fellows. “I think it’ll be really fantastic if we generate support for this,” Korman said. “It would be nice to regenerate the space. It’s being used, but it’s almost like it’s dead out there.”

Sara Drumm/WUFT News permalink

“I felt the plots were every man for himself,” Korman said. The club will work to build interactivity and raise awareness of organic gardening.

Sara Drumm/WUFT News / WUFT News permalink

Castillo takes a quick break while sawing planks of wood, which came from trees around campus, for the club’s first raised vegetable bed. Castillo said he grew herbs and vegetables at home in Venezuela, but he has never “seriously” gardened before. Korman, who is writing her master’s thesis on school gardens that she built in Alachua County, has more experience, but still hopes that people with specialized knowledge — such as how to combat pests organically — will take an interest in the club.

Sara Drumm/WUFT News permalink

Korman, Castillo and Mark Clark, left to right, an associate professor for UF’s Soil and Water Science Department, level out the foundation for the first raised vegetable bed. Clark is a faculty adviser for the Agronomy-Soils Club, which managed the Student Agricultural Gardens until recently. Now, the Office of Sustainability has appointed a garden intern, whom Clark oversees, to help manage the gardens. The Eternally Edible Landscaping Club will also help by posting useful information on a kiosk, hosting seminars and providing a contact list for those who use the gardens. Korman said she hopes her efforts will encourage people to work together and share ideas.

This entry was posted in gardens and landscaping on by .

Tips for Gardening in the Fall

Leave a reply

Fall is the best time of the year for planting. From exploring new fall foliage to adding color to the landscape, there are plenty of fall gardening activities to keep homeowners playing in the dirt all season long.

Pike Nurseries has plenty of tips and supplies for gardeners of any level. To help their loyal patrons achieve the best gardens this fall and make life easier next spring, Pike Nurseries offers these seasonal gardening tips:

Do you want a touch of green showing through the snow in spring? If so, you’ll want to select and plant your bulbs now. Tulips, hyacinth and daffodils are popular choices – perfect picks for that desired splash of color.

If you can’t wait until spring for some brightness in your garden, plant pansies or aster. These flowers will survive the frost and pansies will come back strong in the spring with new blossoms. Aster begins flowering in September and lasts into November.

If you’re looking for seasonal veggies to plant, now is the time to plant them. Try cabbage, lettuce, beets, turnips, spinach, radishes, collards and broccoli. You’ll be able to harvest these plants and enjoy the fruits of your labor throughout the fall season.

Fall is the time to tidy up things around the garden. To do so, cut back perennials, remove dead annuals and remove weeds along with leaf debris. This simple neatening will keep your garden healthy through the winter and help protect against pests.

Another way to keep your garden healthy through winter is to mulch. Mulching in the fall helps keep temperatures consistent and protects the soil against heaving, which can cause roots to break.

For Peachtree Corners gardeners, Pike has two locations in nearby Johns Creek, on State Bridge Road and Holcomb Bridge Road.

This entry was posted in gardening tips on by .

Things that grow bump in the night – Halloween gardening tips from expert …

Leave a reply

Things that grow bump in the night – Halloween gardening tips from expert George Long

4:04pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in Freetime latest news

By George Daniel Long

Things that grow bump in the night – Halloween gardening tips from expert George Long

Talented Sydenham-based horticulturalist George Long, owner of landscape design company Well Grounded Gardens, shares his Halloween column:

Things That Grow Bump in the Night

Your creative skills will be put to the test this month while carving out pumpkins for Halloween lanterns, but have you ever thought of growing your own?

Why buy them from the supermarket when you can cultivate them in your own garden, which will be much more fun for all the family.

Here are a few tricks to ensure you grow some treats for next year.

Varieties to grow

Pumpkin Aladdin is a great variety for lanterns.

If you want something different, even though white pumpkin seeds are harder to come by in the UK, Pumpkin Lumina or Full Moon will give you a ghostly white pumpkin with orange flesh.

And if you’re feeling really ambitious try the huge Pumpkin Dills Atlantic Giant.

Sowing the seeds

The ideal time to sow pumpkin seeds is between April and June.

Soak the seeds overnight to speed up germination.

The easiest way is to grow the seeds is in 5cm pots on the windowsill.

When the roots are visible at the bottom of the pot, transplant the seedlings into the garden.

Pumpkins can take up room, so when you put them in the garden plant them approximately two metres apart, if you have the space.

Care

Pin down long shoots in circles on the ground with bent wire.

Apply a top dressing of fertilizer or use tomato food.

Remove most of the fruits, leaving two or three so the plant can put its energy into growing a few good quality pumpkins.

Allow sunlight to reach the maturing fruit so they can ripen by removing leaves shadowing the pumpkins.

Harvesting and Storage

Leave the pumpkin on the plant as long as you can.

However, when the stem starts to crack they are ready for harvesting.

Cut the pumpkin off the plant, leaving as long a stem as possible.

Pumpkins should be left in the sun for 10 days to allow the skin to harden, but should be protected from any early frost.

If there isn’t enough sun or frost is present, leave them inside at a temperature of 27-32°C for four or five days.

Your pumpkins should now be ready for carving.

Happy Halloween!

Top tips for October

Planting

Plant the last of your shrubs, perennials and spring bedding plants.

Maintenance

Lift and store summer flowering bulbs, especially Dahlia.

Dig over empty borders (not when it’s raining as this can be detrimental for the soil).

Take hardwood cuttings.

Harvest the last of your fruit and vegetables for winter storage.

Last chance to trim coniferous hedges and repair/grow lawns.

Q A

From next month I am introducing a Q A section as I really want this column to be about Vibe readers.

Feel free to email any gardening questions to vibe@gardens.wellgroundedgroup.com and I will feature the best ones each month.

Feel free to contact Well Grounded Gardens directly for any advice or consultancy work.

This entry was posted in gardening tips on by .

George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week: Free plants, anyone?

Leave a reply

George Weigel Garden Tip of the Week
Free Plants Anyone? Don’t let all of your tender plants die in the ground when the year’s first frost hits. Many of them are surprisingly easy to start from cuttings, which can be grown inside over winter to produce free new plants to plant outside again next May. George Weigel shows you how in this week’s garden tip of the week video. Video by: Christine Baker, The Patriot-News
Watch video

Don’t let all of your tender plants die in the ground when the year’s first frost hits. Many of them are surprisingly easy to start from cuttings, which can be grown inside over winter to produce free new plants to plant outside again next May. George Weigel shows you how in this week’s garden tip of the week video.

For more garden tips, check out the links below.

Winners and losers in a garden of change

How to force bulbs to bloom inside in winter

To pull or not to pull that grub-infested grass?

Check out more gardening tips and tricks »

Look for George Weigel’s Garden Tip of the Week each Thursday. George Weigel is the garden writer for the Patriot-News and also owner of a garden-consulting business for do-it-yourselfers, garden-tour host, frequent garden speaker, Pennsylvania Certified Horticulturist and certified gardening nut.

This entry was posted in gardening tips on by .

Mesa gardening workshop will offer tips

Leave a reply

Cookies must be enabled to view articles on azcentral.com

This entry was posted in garden tips on by .

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer posts →