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Gardening Tips: Extension website offers way to ask garden questions

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Posted: Friday, July 5, 2013 11:10 am


Gardening Tips: Extension website offers way to ask garden questions

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

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A few years ago, extension services nationally partnered to develop a website — www.extension.org. It serves as a portal to unify the extension services that exist in each of the 50 states. In addition to publications and news articles, the site also offers an Ask an Expert feature. Through this feature, users can ask questions and their question will be sent to a local or subject matter expert. Here are some of the questions I’ve been asked in the past week or two, along with my answers.

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Friday, July 5, 2013 11:10 am.

Filed Under: gardening tips

GCFM Meets; Summer Garden Tours

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By Carol Stocker

At the recent annual meeting of the GCFM in Mansfield, outgoing President Heidi Kost-Gross was lauded for her efforts championing the fight against electronic billboards. She reported that the 13,000 membership of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts was up slightly from last year.There were also reports on efforts to stem the Asian Long Horn Beetle South of Worcester and about its top notch Flower Show School.

The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program will host the opening of several private gardens new to the tour, including five in Bristol County, Saturday, July 13, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. These are the Coolidge-Goldman Garden, 340 Barneys Joy Road, Dartmouth, The Meadows, 189 Smith Neck Road, The Meadows at 191 Smith Neck Road, both in South Dartmouth, Anne Almy’s Garden 1100 Horseneck Road, Westport, and Penny Garden, 246 River Road, Westport.

The Meadows was designed in 1910 by Warren Manning for ambassador Alanson B. Houghton and his brother Arthur and their families. In 1937 The North House garden was redesigned by the celebrated Ellen Biddle Shipman and is currently being restored by the present owners. James O’Day has written a new book about the estate.

There will also be an Open Day program Saturday, July 20, 10 a.m.to 4 p.m. in Middlesex County, which will include Glenluce Garden, 18 Marlboro Road, Stow, A Secret Garden at 19 Washington Ave., Sterling, Rock Bottom Garden, 47 Marlboro Road, Stow, Maple Grove, 16 School Street Boylston, and the must-see Brigham Hill Farm, 128 Brigham Hill Road, North Grafton.

For more information on all of these, visit www.opendaysprogram.org and www.gardenconservancy.org.

The Boothbay Region Garden Club of Boothbay Harbor in Maine will host its Home and Garden Tour July 26 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased through the Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce (207-633-2353).

Filed Under: gardening tips

Speaker to offer tips on local gardening

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Posted: Wednesday, July 3, 2013 11:12 am


Speaker to offer tips on local gardening

By Stacy Trevenon [ stacy@hmbreview.com ]

Half Moon Bay Review

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Pescadero resident and master gardener Jack McKinnon will discuss gardening specific to the Coastside at the next regular meeting of the Coastside Garden Club, to which the public is welcome.


The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, July 8, at the Coastside Adult Day Health Center at 645 Correas St. in Half Moon Bay.

The meeting will introduce the club to gardening lovers on the Coastside who would like to become involved. “It’s an opportunity to visit with us and get to know us,” said the club’s vice president, Lynn Gallo, who playfully described the club’s motto as “Where friends meet friends to play in the dirt.”

The Half Moon Bay-based club, which has been in existence for roughly 10 years and is currently under the leadership of president Teresa Adam, consists of 25 to 30 adults from Half Moon Bay to Montara, with a few from the Peninsula.

It is educationally focused, said Gallo, presenting regular lectures, offering two to three workshops annually on projects like holiday wreaths, terrariums and more.

Club members also participated in activities focused on and for the community, including maintaining the gardens in front of the Adult Day Health Center where the club meets and also maintaining “Melita’s Garden” outside the historic Johnston House. Named for the mother of James Johnston’s wife, Petra, it is a flower garden with roses and other flowers.

The club also provides floral bouquets that go with Meals on Wheels deliveries for those in need on the coast, along with personal notes.

For information about McKinnon’s upcoming presentation or about the club, email info@hmbgarden.com.

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Filed Under: gardening tips

July Gardening Tips

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It’s July and gardens are full of colour. There is still plenty to do, but don’t forget to sit down and enjoy them during the long summer evenings.July Gardening Tips

Remember to take care when working outdoors in the sun for long periods. Make sure you have plenty to drink and take regular breaks. Plants also need to be protected from the heat, ensure they get the water they need, in particular hanging baskets and bedding plants as well as trees and shrubs planted during the Autumn and Winter. The best time to water plants is early in the morning or evening when it is cooler.

Early flowering shrubs such as, philadelphus and weigela should be pruned into shape as their flowers fade if this was not done last month.

Roses can be deadheaded to lengthen their display or prune back to a bud in a leaf axil to encourage new growth and prolong the display from July into the Autumn.

New growth on Wisteria should be cut back this month to within five or six buds of the main stems.

Throughout July rim conifer hedges to keep them under control and encourage a strong thick growth.

Keep removing weeds from beds and borders to stop them going to seed.

For more information please check out our Monthly Garden Planner at www.briary.co.uk

Filed Under: gardening tips

Mid-summer gardening tips

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If you didn’t get a chance to start your garden yet, fret not. Thanks to a rainier and cooler-than-normal spring, you can still enjoy some fruits of labor this season, said Frank Fernicola Jr. of the Fairfield Garden Center, Fairfield.

New flowering plants available this summer include Plum Passion hydrangea.

“We didn’t have a typical spring this year, and we haven’t had many hot days, so the growing season got off to kind of a late start,” he said. He offered some tips to get the most out of the weeks and months ahead in the garden.

FERTILE GROUND

If you’re starting from scratch, take a good look at your soil. Is it sandy or clumpy? Dark and rich? A do-it-yourself test kit ($4.99-$34.99) will tell you the acidity and alkalinity levels, which will help determine what, if any, products you should use.

Fernicola suggested using a time-released fertilizer with a top dressing of organic compost. “Organic materials contain micronutrients, enzymes and fungi that build the soil and help fend off insect attacks and drought naturally,” he said.

Mohammed Hussain, the manager at Corrado’s Garden Center, Clifton, agreed that adding organic matter is always beneficial. “This can include peat moss, composted plant material or cow manure,” he said. “All are available at garden centers and come in 40-lb. bags, or 1- and 2-cubic feet sacks.” Prices range from $2.99 up.

FEED ME!

There are four main types of fertilizers:

• Organic fertilizers are made from natural substances and have a slow release. Their ingredients must be broken down by soil microorganisms to gradually release nitrogen and other elements.

• Dry, granular fertilizers are the most popular type and release small quantities of nutrients each time the plant is watered.

Filed Under: gardening tips

Shape up with kind cuts

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Winter pruning should include thinning branches and cutting back wayward foliage to encourage bountiful fruit.

Winter pruning should include thinning branches and cutting back wayward foliage to encourage bountiful fruit. Photo: Tomasz Kopalski

Are you ever overwhelmed by the bushiness or the odd shape of your fruit trees when they have lost all of their leaves. A challenge lies ahead but with a sharp pair of secateurs, a saw and a pair of tree loppers you can reshape all of your trees to become fruitful in the coming summer season.

Thank goodness we have plenty of bright sunny days during winter as the sunshine lifts one’s spirit for this quest.

Begin by taking out any broken and dead branches. Stone fruits tend to produce more little dead shoots than the pome fruits. Prune off all suckers that have grown up from the base rootstock.These shoots, growing from the base of nearly all fruit trees, will not produce true-to- type fruit. The rooting stock is a hardier varietal used for grafting. Cut right back to the base and do not leave any stumps.

Broken branches are often the result of the tree carrying a heavy crop last season. It is sometimes heartbreaking to see a big branch just hanging off the main trunk but you have no choice but to remove it completely and leave a clean cut behind. It is therefore important to remember that thinning in late springtime should always follow the wintertime pruning. If your trees are well established, height is the next important consideration. Unless you wish to use ladders to pick fruit, trim off all the last season’s shoots that rise above 2.5 to three metres.

Pear trees are among the most vigorous with their vertical branches. Cut back hard, either removing the new growth completely or to an outwards- facing bud, so that you will force the tree to spread out to secure its shape.

Then we come to shaping the tree and the related goal of influencing the overall fruit- production levels. This vital aspect relates to taking out entire branches or trimming back the length of branches. You need to eliminate overcrowding, address branches that are crossing over and rubbing on other branches, and also cut back branches that have just grown too long.

When tip pruning or shortening a branch, always cut to a set of buds. This avoids any dead ends appearing. Choosing buds that are growing outwards will contribute to better tree shaping.

Peach, nectarine and plum trees that are well cared for will grow lots of new branches each year and the one-year-old branches will begin to produce fruit in the next season. Pruning may take some time as you choose which of these to remove and which to leave. Generally thin to leave at least a hand width (20 centimetres) between each of the remaining branchlets and cut back the remaining ones by about 50 per cent. This will mean that you have much less to thin off in late spring, in order to harvest good-sized stone fruits. Apple and pear trees produce on two-year-old wood, so you will have longer to wait for a crop and careful pruning becomes more critical. Take out narrow-angled competing shoots that have begun to grow near any selected side branches.

Most apple and pear trees are spur bearing. The spur is a very short-branching stem situated along main branches carrying fruiting flowers. Guard these spurs and allow new ones to develop.

There is one group of apple cultivars that produce their crop differently. The golden delicious, Fuji and Jonathan are the best-known lateral-bearing apple trees, producing their fruit mainly along lateral branches. For these trees, leave some new lateral branches untouched each season to allow the fruiting buds to grow.

Apple and pear trees lend themselves to being trained and shaped. This is quite an important consideration with backyards with limited space. Vase-shaped trees can be grown when you have plenty of open space and would like to sit in the shade of a fully grown tree. Plant four metres apart and train the branches to form a V. This will allow lots of sunlight into the entire tree, brightening up the fruit. In the following years, keep pruning to outside buds to further develop the vase shape of the tree. Orchards have more recently adopted the centre-leader shape, where the main trunk is vertical and there are a number of side branches, which carry all of the fruiting spurs. In your pruning, remember that the more horizontal a branch is, the more fruit it will generally carry. Vertically growing branches will produce lots of leaves and less fruit.

Commercial orchardists use separators or physically tie down branches to establish trees in this manner. Hedgerow systems are a useful alternative for backyards, where space is limited. Many European orchards are now planting in hedgerow formations, sometimes in double rows. Each tree produces less fruit but you can secure a good overall yield and have variety in a smallish area. Apple and pear trees can be planted as close as 1.2 metres apart, perhaps along the back fence.

Finally, for the dedicated artists, there is the espalier form – sometimes referred to as the palmette. Here, you will take the time to tie down and train each branch to form a multi-tiered piece of artwork. Branches can be trained horizontally or at 45 degrees, using a wire structure. In time, fruiting spurs will grow along the branches.

The advantages are that the trees will tend to produce fruit more quickly in the tree’s life and all of the ripe fruit can be easily harvested.

This week

■ Plant broad beans directly into the garden bed at a depth of five centimetres and with 10 centimetres between seeds. To get an early spring crop of peas, sow into growing tubs to secure germination. Keep in a sheltered sunny location. When the seedlings are 30 millimetres to 40 millimetres high, plant in the garden and protect from birds and visiting rabbits.

■ Select a good sunny location in your garden to prepare a deep, rich bed to plant out asparagus crowns and rhubarb sets.

■ Prune all two-year-old brambleberry and raspberry vines.

■ Spray citrus trees with white oil or a horticultural oil to control leaf and scale pests.

Owen Pidgeon runs the Loriendale Organic Orchard, near Hall.

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Gardening jobs this month: July

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From Country Living gardening editor Stephanie Donaldson:

In the greenhouse
● Begin removing the lower leaves on tomato vines to aid ripening and encourage the plants to put their energy into fruit production. Most other plants can be moved outdoors for the summer
● Keep greenhouse air moist to prevent red spider mites

Garden care
● Keep picking sweet peas and remove any seed pods so that plants remain productive
● Liquid feed all container plants regularly and, where possible, place saucers under pots to conserve water
● Cut wild flower meadows to 8cm after they have seeded; remove clippings to keep fertility low.
● Divide crowded groups of bearded iris once they have finished flowering.
● If water-lily leaves are crowding the surface of the pond, cut off half of them well below the surface of the water and remove them.
● Pinch out the tips of runner beans when they reach the tops of their poles.
● Take semi-ripe cuttings of shrubs such as hydrangeas, lavatera, viburnium and cistus.
● Trim conifer hedges but resist cutting into old brown wood as regeneration comes from newer growth.
● Cut back on long laterals that have grown on wisteria since flowering. This allows sunlight to ripen the wood and encourages bud formation for the next year.
● Tie in blackberry canes.
● Net fruit and brassicas to protect them from birds and/or cabbage butterflies.
● Sow green manure in empty beds in your vegetable garden.
● In hot weather, remove your mower’s grass-collecting box and allow the cut grass to act as a mulch on the lawn.
● Water the garden in the evening, preferably using a hand-held hose rather than a sprinkler, which is much more wasteful of water.
● Pick cutting-garden flowers regularly.
● Spread perennial weeds out to dry on paths – once they are shrivelled and thoroughly dry they can safely be added to the compost heap

Fruit and veg
● As strawberries finish producing, cut back the old foliage along with straw mulch and put on the compost heap, remove runners, then give a top dressing of compost or fish, blood and bone and a fresh mulch
● Sow late cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli.
● Lift autumn-sown garlic and onions and dry in the sun before storing.
● Lift and dry shallots.
● Harvest and prune blackcurrants.
● Thin apple and pear crops. Leave them unthinned if you prefer a large crop of smaller fruit.
● Support heavy branches on plum trees.
● For big pumpkins, allow two or three to grow on each plant. Pick off others as they form.
● Water runner beans regularly at the roots. A handful of lime added to the water aids flower set and pod formation
● Dig a trial early potato plant – if tubers are large enough, commence harvesting, otherwise soak once a week to encourage further growth

Planting and sowing
● Collect ripe seed from forget-me-nots and foxgloves and sow in pots or scatter in shady areas.
● Sow parsley for cropping in winter.
● There is still time to sow beetroot, lettuce, peas, radishes, radicchio and turnips.

Pruning
● Prune plums, apricots, peaches and sweet cherries
● Prune side shoots back to four leaves on gooseberry and redcurrant bushes to help the formation of next year’s buds
● Trim holly and yew hedges

From Prima gardening expert Ann-Marie Powell:

● Prune wisteria back to six buds from the main stem to encourage flower buds to form
● Deadhead annuals, perennials and roses to encourage new bloom
● Pick sweet peas regularly to encourage more flowers
● Sow biennials (foxgloves, sweet rocket, sweet Williams and wallflowers) to flower next year
● Ensure tall perennials are supported with bamboo canes or pea sticks.
● Prune back faded lupin flower stems to their side shoots.
● Cut back long whippy growths on wisteria towards the end of the month.
● Plant autumn-flowering bulbs as they become available.
● Check plants for signs of pest and disease.
● Feed plants in pots or containers.
● Deadhead annuals, perennials and roses.
● Ask a neighbour to water your plants if you’re away.
● Deadhead any faded, dead blooms on herbaceous perennials to encourage more blooms.
● Start saving seed from annuals and perennials that have finished flowering, storing them in labelled envelopes.
● Take cuttings from pelargoniums (annual geraniums) and from shrubs such as hydrangea.
● Prune early-flowering shrubs (forsythia, lilac, philadelphus, deutzia, exochorda and weigela) to encourage new flowering growth for next year.
● Water hanging baskets and patio pots every day.
● Sow salad, spring cabbage and winter spinach in the veg garden
● Peg down runners of strawberry plants into pots for easy, free plants
● Prune summer fruiting raspberries as soon as they’ve finished fruiting
● Regularly remove side shoots from tomatoes to encourage plentiful fruit
● Sow or plant out marrows and courgettes.
● Tie in tomatoes, pinching out any side shoots as you go.
● Sow a late crop of French beans.
● Net your soft fruit to keep the birds off.
● Lift and divide overgrown clumps of iris.
● Earth up potatoes as they grow.
● Sow beetroot, endive, kohlrabi, lettuces, radish, salad, turnip, winter spinach, dwarf French peas and beans, carrots and cabbages.
● Keep tomatoes, aubergines and peppers well fed and watered. 
● Pick ripe and swollen plums from your trees to keep a good succession of fruit.

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Filed Under: gardening tips

I gave some helpful gardening tips – now I’m suddenly the ‘expert’

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MT agony uncle Jeremy Bullmore

MT agony uncle Jeremy Bullmore

By Jeremy Bullmore
Friday, 28 June 2013

I had a chat with a colleague in the office kitchen about gardening. Now I’m being accosted on all fronts and I’m feeling the pressure.

Q: I had a chat with a colleague in the office kitchen about two months ago and she started asking me questions about gardening. I consider myself knowledgeable and so gave her some advice. This has evolved into an almost daily session with her. I didn’t mind at first but the word has got out that I’m green fingered and I’m being accosted left, right and centre by people with questions about growing vegetables and how to keep blackfly off their roses. I’m flattered but am also starting to feel taken advantage of.

JEREMY SAYS: This is why doctors and lawyers often conceal what they do for a living when meeting new people at parties; otherwise they get pinned into corners and expected to give free professional advice to total strangers.

What you need to do is construct some sort of notional division between your day-to-day work and your ‘gardening consultancy’. So I suggest you design a mock poster and put it up on your office notice board. It should say something like: ‘Maggie’s Gardeners’ Question Time. Every Thursday 5.30-6.30 in the main meeting room (or Coach Horses).’

So next time you’re ambushed in the office kitchen, you can just grin and say you’ll be only too pleased to see them on Thursday evening. Nobody could take offence at that. And if your ‘consultancy’ begins to become too burdensome and you still feel you’re being taken advantage of, you could always suggest a seedling or two (or maybe even a drink) as payment in kind. Don’t give it up altogether: you enjoy it too much.

– Jeremy Bullmore is a former creative director and chairman of J Walter Thompson London. His book Another Bad Day at the Office? is published by Penguin at £6.99. Address your problem to Jeremy Bullmore at: editorial@managementtoday.com. Regrettably, no correspondence can be entered into.

READ MORE PROBLEMS FOR JEREMY:

 

– My colleague constantly sniffs and grunts 

– I overheard a conversation about redundancies and I’m in shock

– I shaved my manager’s head. Did I overstep the mark?

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Gardening Tips: Pollinators important to food we eat

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Posted: Friday, June 28, 2013 11:00 am


Gardening Tips: Pollinators important to food we eat

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

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As much as I try to write articles that are timely, sometimes topics fall through the cracks or there are too many ideas for a single week.

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Friday, June 28, 2013 11:00 am.

Filed Under: gardening tips

Gardening guru shares his top tips in Biggenden

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Topics: 

biggenden,

gardening,

tom wyatt

Trisha Hansen, Prue Leng and Susie Keune meet Tom.
Trisha Hansen, Prue Leng and Susie Keune meet Tom. Erica Murree

FORGET about a lamb roast with Tom Cruise, the flavour of the month in Biggenden is Tom Wyatt and his recipes for getting rid of the bugs in your garden.

The ABC gardening guru was in town on Saturday and delighted and entertained his audience with his sense of humour and his practical answers to their questions.

Councillor Lofty Wendt was over the moon after the visit.

“It was a great day,” he said.

“What impressed me was the number of people who turned up from Gayndah and Mundubbera.

“Tom had the crowd absolutely enthralled.

“When Tom left Saturday afternoon he said to me ‘I’ll be back’.”

Mr Wyatt said it was great to meet such enthusiastic gardeners during the visit.

“I was surprised at the wide range of plants grown in the area and how well they tolerated the elements,” he said.

“You don’t know what will grow until someone tries it.”

Of the rose gardens in the main street, Mr Wyatt said their biggest problem was they needed “a prolific feeding program”.

“Everyone has an opinion but I wouldn’t be pulling the rose bushes out,” he said.

“Instead I would be fertilising them and pruning them back to get more prolific growth for flowering and then sit back and enjoy the colour.

“I’m after the wow factor for people to talk about.”

On Saturday afternoon Mr Wyatt helped the businesses in Edward St plant up their adopted pots.

“In eight to 10 weeks they will be at their magnificent peak,” he said.

“I see Biggenden as one of the future lifestyle centres in Queensland.”

Filed Under: gardening tips
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