Trading garden tips
From the ground up
A successful garden starts with good soil. Blogger and author Shawna Coronado (shawnacoronado.com) says her formula is one-third your soil, one-third rotted manure and one-third kitchen or leaf compost. The result, she promises, is “fantabulous gardens.”
Easiest indoor garden
The Aerogarden has so much to recommend it. This amazing contraption lets the garden-deprived grow herbs — and lots more (cherry tomatoes, flowers, lettuces) in a small space. Its streamlined operation keeps the process so manageable — the mechanically challenged won’t be intimidated.
What’s more, those living in climes that aren’t conducive to year-round growing will get their gardening fix no matter what is happening outside.
Aerogarden has continued to offer additional options, including a seed starting tray. It’s not cheap (grow lights need to be replaced on occasion, etc.) A variety of sizes and prices are available. Go to aerogarden.com.
Try strawberries
Alpine strawberries are, again, easy to grow — they make a great ground cover in a sunny spot, they’re very pretty, they flower and, if you keep your expectations simple (think topping your cereal, not making jars of jam), they’ll reward you with an amazing-tasting treat. They’re also perfect for kids.
Watch your hands
Sue Markgraf, founder of GreenMark Public Relations, which focuses on green issues, needed a new pair of gloves before tackling a long weekend of gardening. She says it was a bit like looking at the cereal aisle in the grocery store, with myriad styles in the garden centers.
How to choose? Markgraf says, “My takeaway tip: The right glove for the right project is just as important as the right tool. Consider both comfort and safety to protect those precious hands. Many gloves have Velcro closures and are made of breathable fabrics for comfort, while leather palms and fingers cushion against branches, stones and even insects.
“Choose light gloves for simple tasks like planting annuals and containers. Select gloves with leather palms and fingers for pruning, deadheading and working mulch into soil. Heavier-duty gloves like these also are a must for more intense projects, such as light landscaping work, planting trees and dividing perennials. For roses, heavyweight gloves with cuffs protect against thorns.”
Think young
Get kids involved in growing vegetables and fruits as soon
as possible, suggests longtime gardening writer Lynn Petrak. “My two youngest were amazed to see blackberries growing from what we had planted the year before. Between those and the lettuce and pumpkins, they
Lawn and garden tips from Home Depot – WLUK Fox 11
TOWN OF HARRISON – The birds are chirping, the grass is green and many people are thinking of lawn and garden care!
FOX 11’s Emily Deem spent Sunday morning outside doing some yard work!
Mike Hesler with The Home Depot joined Emily on Good Day Wisconsin to share some great lawn and garden tips.
To find a Home Depot store near you click here.
Click on the video to the left for Emily’s Good Day Wisconsin lives.
Tips to ensure the survival of your palms
Planting a palm can be a rewarding and enjoyable way to spend your afternoon. Not only do you get to make a palm more comfortable by taking it out of its restrictive and limiting pot, but you also get a chance to watch it grow from a juvenile to a mature plant.
Many times, palms experience diseases that could have been avoided if planted appropriately. Following a few essential guidelines for planting will encourage healthy palm growth.
First, it is essential to plant at the right time of the year, between April and September.
Palms do not go dormant, and they continue to grow throughout the winter season. Planting a palm in the winter months can damage the young bud, cause bud rot and lead it to an untimely death. By April, cold weather is usually long gone. After September, the palm won’t have enough time to establish itself before the cold weather returns.
A juvenile palm stays warm and healthy through the winter when protected from our occasional cold snaps.
Second, it is important to plant the palm at the right depth — just above the root zone. The best spot is about a pinky fingertip above the highest roots.
Gardeners tend to plant palms too high or too low. If a palm is planted too high, it may be healthy and survive, but it will be unstable. With heavy winds, the palm may not be able to support itself and may fall over, most likely snapping along the way. In addition, since the root initiation zone is out of the dirt, roots won’t be able to grow as readily. The palm may not be able to take in enough water and nutrients, leading to deficiencies and higher vulnerability to diseases and pests.
If the palm is planted too low, the roots will suffocate, stop functioning and begin to rot. This will ultimately kill the plant.
Once the palm is placed at the right depth, it’s time to fill in the hole. The third tip is not to put mulch or dirt in the crown of the palm. This often happens when a hole is being filled in. Palm growth is initiated at the heart of the palm, where all the leaves meet below the crown. By placing mulch or dirt in the crown, pests and diseases may be introduced into the heart. This can lead to bud rot and, if left untreated, the plant’s death.
Now that the planting is complete, it is important to water. If the palm was planted during the wet season, it may not be necessary to water by hand. I usually water a few times regardless of the season just to ensure that enough water is getting to the roots. It is important to get water to the roots often, about four times a week for the first few weeks. Then, begin to taper off to once a week. After two to three months, the palm should be established, and watering by hand is not crucial.
The fifth and final tip is not to spray the juvenile palm with herbicides. Herbicides can be detrimental to soil organisms that will help your growing palm take in nutrients. During this transition period, it is essential that the palm receive as much help as possible. If weeds are an issue, instead of spraying chemicals, weed by hand. Weeding can be relaxing, meditative and, on a nice day, a pleasant way to enjoy the weather.
Planting a palm at the right time, at the right depth, without putting mulch in its crown, watering it and not spraying herbicides will decrease the risk of the palm getting sick in years to come. These five guidelines will help your palm become established and increase its chances of growing into a beautiful, strong landscape ornamental.
Sara Edelman is palm and cycad manager at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Learn Garden Tips At Rolling Meadows Library
Posted: Friday, May 3, 2013 12:00 pm
Garden fundamentals will be the focus of a presentation at the Rolling Meadows Public Library.
“Growing Edibles for Fun and Flavor” is planned for Wednesday, May 8, at 7 p.m. The program will offer tips on planning, planting, maintaining, and harvesting a variety of nutritious and delicious produce. Emphasis will be on organic growing techniques including pest management, soil fertility, and crop planning.
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Garden Tips: Hanging Baskets And How To Keep Them Healthy
(WHNT) – Hanging baskets are beautiful – and they make a wonderful gift for Mother’s Day.
(It’s Sunday, May 12!)
To ensure your hanging basket will last through the summer, start with more soil to make sure the plant keeps growing.
George Bennett of Bennett Nurseries says plants in hanging baskets are ‘hungry’. You need to water them nearly every day, and because of that, the fertilizer will often get used up more quickly. So, fertilize your hanging baskets more often to account for this.
Bennett suggests you use an acid-producing fertilizer to offset the pH of the water you’ll be giving the plant so often.
AS bee populations continue to dwindle due to bad weather, experts offer tips …
PA Photo/Thinkstockphotos
AS bee populations continue to dwindle due to bad weather, experts offer tips on how gardeners can help conserve these vital pollinators
Reports that our bee population is at crisis point as numbers have been hit by bad weather and particularly long winters should prompt responsible gardeners to protect our bees by creating a prosperous environment for them.
Last year’s annual survey by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) indicated an increase in losses of honey bees and the organisation is concerned that losses may be even greater this year if the long winter is anything to go by.
“Much longer winters mean that bees are potentially running out of stores,” says Gill Maclean, BBKA spokeswoman.
“We don’t yet know what the losses will be for this year but we are concerned that they are going to be greater than they were last year.”
Weather-related impacts such as cold spells affect colony development and queen-mating. Honey bees don’t forage in very cold or wet weather, so their winter stores were depleted last year.
The honey bee is the only bee to maintain a colony throughout the winter, reducing its colony size in autumn and relying on its stores of honey to last it through the winter months when it is too cold for foraging or there is no forage available. Some colonies may have since been lost simply by running out of stores.
However, gardeners can do their bit to help bees, says Maclean.
“Planting the right sort of plant is important and try to plant in drifts. There are so many bee-friendly plants including thyme, oregano, mint and viburnum. Plant some trees for bees as well, including spring-flowering cherries, apples, plums and pears.”
All blossoms are widely visited by bees including blackthorn, cherry, plum, damson and crab apple. Other trees that are widely visited are the horse chestnut for its nectar and sycamore for its pollen.
She also advises gardeners to set aside part of the garden as a decorative wildflower area which will be a magnet for bees, planting white and red clover, borage, thyme, bugle and other bee-friendly plants.
“Bees also need water, so you can do something like fill a pot lid with water and put stones in it and netting over it so that they can drink without falling in.”
Gardeners should make sure they provide a succession of bee-friendly plants which will flower between February and November, to give bees the best chance of building up their stores.
Last year, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) launched a guide as part of its Perfect for Pollinators initiative, listing more than 200 wildflowers, such as corncockle, teasel and wild parsnip, that provide plentiful pollen and nectar for pollinating insects.
It advises gardeners to:
:: Avoid plants with double or multi-petalled flowers, which may lack nectar and pollen, or insects may have difficulty in gaining access.
:: Never use pesticides on plants when they are in flower.
:: Where appropriate, British wild flowers can be an attractive addition to planting schemes and may help support a wider range of pollinating insects.
:: Observe the plants in your garden. If you know of plants with blooms that regularly attract insects, let the RHS know.
:: Choose flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer and fall, such as coreopsis, Russian sage or germander, in order to provide pollen and nectar resources to the native bees of all seasons.
:: Encourage bees by keeping honey bees yourself or allowing a beekeeper to place hives in your garden. Nest boxes containing cardboard tubes or hollow plant stems, or holes drilled in blocks of wood will provide nest sites for some species of solitary bees. Such nests are available from garden centres or you can make your own (holes/tubes should be in a mixture of sizes with a diameter of 2mm-8mm). Place these nest sites in sunny positions. Some solitary bees nest in the ground, either in bare soil or short turf. They will find their own nest sites, so tolerate the small mounds of soil deposited by the female bees when they excavate their nest tunnels.
:: Provide nest sites for bumblebees: Bumblebee nest boxes can be purchased but they are often ignored by queen bumblebees. They prefer to find their own nest sites down tunnels dug by mice or in grass tussocks. The tree bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum, has recently colonised in Britain and will often use bird nest boxes
:: If you want to become a beekeeper, details of county beekeepers’ associations and training courses can be seen on www.bbka.org.uk
May Gardening Tips – Cedar Creek Lake
by Stephen Gent, Owner
McDade’s Nursery
Stephen has 14+ years of experience in horticulture as Publisher and Marketing Director for Nursery Management and Production, Greenhouse Management and Production and Garden Center magazine.
An avid gardener with a lifelong passion for plants, he enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with customers.
May is a month of transition in your garden as cooler weather plants should be replaced with varieties that like warmer temperatures. For example, verbena, petunias, purslane, pentas, vinca and zinnia can all be planted in sunny spots during the month. In shady areas try ferns, begonias, impatiens, nicotiana, hostas and caladiums to provide an interesting mix of color and greenery.
If you want to attract birds and butterflies, plant milkweed, butterfly bush, red yucca, zinnia, hibiscus, lantana, salvia and vines like trumpet, passion and honeysuckle.
It’s important to maintain a regular fertilization and pruning schedule for your yard. Now that Spring bloomers, like azaleas, have dropped their flowers, prune and fertilize in order to help buds set for next year.
St. Augustine, Bermuda and other warm-season turfgrasses can now be planted. Keep new grass moist until well established. If laying sod, use a root stimulator to help the grass develop a healthy root system and don’t fertilize until after the second or third mowing.
In early May, you can still plant in your vegetable garden summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, okra, corn, cucumber, eggplant, cantaloupe and watermelon. But don’t wait too long as young plants need to be well established before the summer heat hits.
Caladium bulbs are considered tropicals and are typically planted around Mother’s Day when the soil temperature is warm enough for germination.
Midday Fix: Tulip tips from Jonker’s Garden
Dirk Jonker
Jonker’s Garden
897 Lincoln Ave
Holland, MI
(616) 392-7234
www.jonkersgarden.com
Event:
Tulip Time Festival
May 4-11
Holland, MI
www.holland.org
Tulip Potting and Planting Tips:
When potting tulips, we try to place ten bulbs per ten inch pot with the flat side to the rim. This will produce a “Full” display after months of cold treatment and forcing.
For indoors, look for Peat Perlite Potting Soil, it will help keep soil moist
Outside, try to plant 5 tulips per square foot for optimum display in the garden.
Plant combinations of bulbs with the tulips to insure a colorful spring flower bed.
Outside soil is fine.
Midday Fix: Spring garden tips from Lurie Garden
The Lurie Garden Spring Festival and Plant Sale
Saturday, May 11
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
The Lurie Garden in Millennium Park
www.luriegarden.org
Spring Garden Tips
Replace some annuals with perennials.
Attract wildlife to your garden by choosing plants that provide nectar and pollen to attract and feed wildlife, like Calamint.
Plant grasses for fall and winter interest.
Space perennials about 15 to 20 inches apart.
Do not plant deep!
Avoid hardwood mulch or use with perennials; opt for leaf mulch or natural clippings
Don’t over-fertilize. Only fertilize if plant is showing signs of nutrient deficiencies.
Water between late evening and early morning, use drip irrigation or soaker hoses to direct water to roots where moisture is needed.
Check plants weekly to control pest and disease issues.