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GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — The late spring shouldn’t have a huge impact on home gardeners, according to Barb DeGroot of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

DeGroot says the Arboretum’s experts say the best indicator of when to plant is soil temperature.  Different plants require different temperatures for optimum growth, so you may want to invest in a good soil thermometer.

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum offers a variety of classes for beginning and expert gardeners.  Saturday and Sunday May 18th-19th the Arboretum will feature the annual Auxiliary Spring Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

For those who just want to view the plants, DeGroot says the tulips are out and gorgeous.

(Copyright 2013 by KARE. All rights reserved.)

Avid gardeners look to the coming summer as a time to tend to their patch of earth – harvest the ripe, nurture the growing, or yank the weeds.

It’s also a good time for investors to take advantage of lower trading volumes and do some portfolio gardening. Toron Investment Management reviews client portfolios in much the same way to spot the stocks that have reached their potential and should be sold, those that require more patience, and the losers that should be plucked.

“At least twice a year we try to go through all the different assumptions that led to the initial valuation and the original decision to purchase the stock, and make sure that everything we thought still applies,” says Toron partner Karl Berger.

For stocks that have gained in value, Toron looks at how their prices compare with the company’s earning potential. “We look at the valuation to see if the evolution of the business continues to support the stock price it’s trading at,” Mr. Berger says. If the price is consistent with or below earnings, it likely stays. If it outpaces earnings, Toron brings in the harvest.

Mr. Berger says India-based ICICI Bank is one example of a stock that was ripe for the picking. The stock nearly doubled in value from when Toron purchased it in 2005 to November of 2011 when it was sold. Over the next six weeks it fell 37 per cent. “You basically had to assume the Indian economy was going to grow at low double-digit rates for the next 20 years to justify the valuation that was required for ICICI to be trading at that level,” he says.

Canadian National Railway, on the other hand, is an example he uses as a stock that has gained but has more room to grow. “There’s never been a reason to sell it, even though the price has gone up, because the underlying business has continued to evolve.”

In some cases Mr. Berger says he will prune part of a position in a stock that has grown if it begins to dominate a client’s portfolio.

Dealing with a stock that has lost value requires some soul searching and a degree of humility, according to Mr. Berger. “When stocks go down you have to be really vigilant to see if the premise you purchased the stock on still exists or whether it ever really existed.”

One option is to admit you were wrong and sell at a loss, he says. Another is to reassess. One stock that got a second chance in the Toron portfolio was Japanese PVC pipe-maker Shin-Etsu Chemical. The stock was purchased in November of 2007 on the eve of the U.S. housing meltdown. When it lost half its value by the following March a decision was made to hang on. In less than two months it regained half its value and has since surpassed its former high. “It was a sound company with sound fundamentals but we got the timing wrong initially,” he says.

However, when good stocks go bad he has a warning for investors looking to buy more. “The notion of averaging down just to reduce your cost base I think is folly. But if you have a business that was solid and for whatever the reason the entire market as a whole has traded down for reasons that are unlikely to affect the performance of the company, then it’s fine to rebalance that position back up to a neutral weight.”

He recommends the same sort of evaluation when stocks flounder in a narrow trading range and uses Microsoft as an example. The stock hardly budged from mid-2010 to 2012 but it managed to grow its dividend yield to nearly 3 per cent. “They were making cash hand-over-fist and doing exactly what we wanted them to. The market just wasn’t recognizing it for whatever reason.”

Toron’s nurturing investment style isn’t for everyone, though. When it comes to tending the portfolio, Barometer Capital Management portfolio manager and head trader Diana Avigdor says it’s survival of the fittest. “Our basic tenet for our investment strategy is: Keep your winners, dump your losers.”

Barometer grows the winners and snips the losers by placing trailing stop losses below a stock’s current market price, which triggers a sell on the first whiff of a decline. “We only buy stocks that are on an upward price pattern. We buy on the way up and we sell on the way down,” Ms. Avigdor says.

Her disciplined investment style is exemplified by Apple, which she initially bought in the $500 range and let a stop loss trail it up to around $700. When the stock retreated to $600, a sell was triggered. At one point she even shorted Apple to the $400 range until another trigger got her out of position. “If it starts being the best performing stock again we may get back in,” she says.

What about good stocks that go bad in a broad market drop? She says natural-gas provider Keyera is an example of a hardy stock in her portfolio that gets knocked down by market winds and keeps getting back up. “Over the last few years we got shaken out of it – once when it was not performing relatively during the financial crisis,” she says.

The flounderers that trade in a tight range are often spared from Barometer’s heartless stop loss. Ms. Avigdor says the big Canadian banks are a good example where basic analysis – and a bit of compromise – are required.

“It would behoove you to take some profits as it moves lower but not sell out the whole thing because there is still a fundamental reason to hold it … so cut it in half. You can always get back.”

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GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — Gardening can be a relaxing and rewarding thing, but it also can be expensive.

There’s more to keeping a beautiful landscape, or even a small vegetable garden, than a little soil and sunshine. Tools, seeds, plants, mulch, water, pots, fertilizer and decorative elements all come with a cost. It’s not uncommon to walk into a home and garden store with a grand wish list, only to be discouraged by sticker shock.

However, there are ways to save money on each phase of the gardening season. All it takes is a little planning and creative thinking.

When Denver-based Master Gardener Jodi Torpey bought her current home, she had grand landscaping plans. She talked with a designer, made a list of plants and supplies, and marched down to her local home and garden center, eager to get started.

As her cart started to fill up, Torpey saw her bill rising. After a while, she became so discouraged that she returned home empty-handed. Her budget didn’t match her plans, so she went back to the drawing board.

“Gardeners, we always want to jump in and we want to create these huge gardens. We want to do too much too soon,” she said.

But Torpey found if you start small and build up to your ideal garden over time, it will save you money in the long run.

Container gardening is one way to do that. Gather pots of different shapes and sizes, and plant flowers or vegetables in those. You can move them in the sun when they need it or in the shade when it gets too hot. That saves on watering costs, and the small footprint of the pots will save soil, fertilizer and mulch, too.

If potted plants aren’t your thing, start with a small plot in your yard and build onto it each year. That way, you can determine which plants do well in particular locations and which ones don’t.

“As you can afford to plant more, expand the space and keep adding to it,” Torpey said.

The idea of starting small also applies to the plants that you chose for your yard. For example, young, skinny trees are less expensive than mature trees. Buying a mature tree will not only cost more, but it will take more water and care to get established in your yard. The smaller the tree, the quicker it will take to your soil.

“When I first started, I wanted to have a mature landscape practically overnight,” she said. “And that doesn’t happen.”

Gillette resident and Master Gardener Sharon Chyr Murphee said she plants hearty plants native to the region so she knows they’ll thrive in her yard. That saves her money because she doesn’t have to pay to replace plants that don’t take to her soil.

“We also have perennials so we don’t need to plant more year after year. They just come back every year,” she said.

Everything from mulch and seeds to plants and tools can be found for little to no cost if you get creative and search hard enough.

— Create your own compost: If you don’t have a compost pile, start one. Instead of throwing away those old banana peels and leftover greens, mix them in with soil and let them decompose. It will produce hearty compost year-round at no extra cost to you.

Grass clippings, manure, fallen leaves and coffee grounds are great to add to your compost pile. If you don’t like the look of it in your yard, Torpey said you can always bury banana peels alongside flowers during the planting season.

“Those peels are fertilizing as they decompose over the season,” Torpey said.

— Build a worm bin: Use a plastic, solid-color bin. Drill holes in the bottom, line the bin with newspaper and put your organic kitchen waste inside. Add some worms, and you have a simple way to get low-cost fertilizer. It’s a nice alternative to a compost pile.

— Grow plants from seed: Start your seeds indoors early in the season, and when the weather warms up, you should have sprouts ready to plant in the garden. Many flowers and vegetables are hearty enough to grow from seeds, including marigolds, poppies, peppers and eggplant.

“Those of you who are afraid to grow from seed, I encourage you to at least try,” Torpey said. “You can grow all of the same plants that you get at the garden center.”

Gillette resident Janis Price grows lettuce and peppers from seeds in the winter and then plants them in her vegetable garden when the weather gets nicer. She yields a larger batch that way, which saves her money at the grocery store, too.

— Save seeds at the end of the season: Heirloom tomatoes are ideal for harvesting seeds to use next season. You won’t have to buy new tomato plants or seeds the next year. If you use heirloom seeds, it will be the same fruit every year.

To save seeds, scoop out the seeds along with all the goop when tomatoes are ripe. Put them in a cup with some water and cover it with plastic wrap. Let the goop ferment so the seeds separate from the rest of the plant. Once they separate, strain out the seeds, let them dry completely and put them in an envelope to store in a cool, dry place until next season.

And tomatoes aren’t the only plants that you can re-seed.

“I do the re-seeding. I’ll take cantaloupe seed and dry them and then plant them the next year. I did that with my peppers, too,” Price said. “I like to grow things that I eat.”

— Divide plants: Echinacea, hostas, iris and day lilies make great plants to divide and replant as they grow larger. It’s as easy as digging them up, separating the roots and replanting sections in another part of your garden. That way, you don’t have to spend money on new batches of the same plant.

— Get creative with planters: You can use just about anything that has holes in it for drainage as a planter.

Compost bins, stacks of tires, cracked bird baths, leaky kettles, shoes, trash cans, even thick trash bags can serve as planters. They may not look as pretty as painted clay pots, but they do the trick.

“I planted potatoes in a trash bag and had pretty good success,” Torpey said.

— Hit garage sales and thrift stores: Garage sales, auctions and secondhand shops are a great way to find anything for cheap, even gardening tools and decorations.

Make sure you read the plant information before you put it in the ground. Some take a lot of water while others take little, and some need sun while others need shade. If you group plants together based on their sun and watering needs, they’ll be more likely to survive the season. You’ll save money by not over-watering and by not accidentally killing your plants.

“This is something I learned the hard way,” Torpey laughed. “If you put the right plant in the right place the first time, you won’t have to spend money to replace your plants.”

Before you go to the store, stop and think about anything you may have laying around at home from seasons past. Check your shed, garage or basement before buying something you may already own.

— Re-purpose and repair: Reuse hanging baskets, pots, window boxes and garden decorations every year. Add a fresh coat of paint and repair cracks in clay pots.

Recycle bottles or use existing rocks as edging around garden beds rather than buying stones.

Get creative. Use old chairs or other furniture to create planters and garden art. The seat of an old chair can be converted into a planter and serve as a nice conversation piece.

— Build it: Use sticks found in your yard to build a trellis. Eight long pieces can be zip-tied together in a grid and propped up anywhere in the garden. It’s inexpensive and functional, and you have the freedom to construct the size and shape that fits your needs best.

As Torpey said, “I never met a stick I didn’t like and couldn’t use.”

You also can buy rocks in bulk to build up larger or terraced flower beds, rather than paying a landscaping company to do it for you. The same goes for trimming shrubs and trees; do it yourself rather than paying someone else.

Campbell County resident Gayle Kuhbacher is reinforcing her raised beds with cement bricks. They’re inexpensive, and they’ll make the beds last longer than if they were lined with wooden planks that can rot.

“I get a lot more produce out of raised beds,” she said, which means she can spend less at the grocery store.

“I thoroughly enjoy it. I raise tomatoes, mainly because I like to make salsa,” she said.

— Spend where it counts: When you do buy new, buy things you know are going to last and buy plants that will grow well in your climate.

— Save money by saving water. Plant in sunken beds to reduce water runoff and direct water to plant roots with slopes or by positioning plant beds under downspouts. You can also use rock, sand or gravel mulch to catch and slow water flow, giving your plants more time to absorb the moisture they need. Any type of mulch prevents water evaporation, so cover your beds with mulch.

Another way to save water is to be sure your irrigation system is the right fit for your landscape, and be sure to maintain it year after year.

Murphee follows xeriscaping principles to save water in her yard. She particularly likes using drip irrigation for her smaller plant beds.

“With drip irrigation, the water goes right down to the roots, and we only water about two or three times a week,” she said.

There are so many tools that you’ll only use once or twice a year in your garden. If you start a community tool library, you and your neighbors can share the costs rather than all purchasing your own supplies.

If you’re thinking of undertaking a big project, like building your own plant beds, see if your neighbors want in. Buying supplies — like large rocks for flower beds — in bulk and splitting the cost and materials will help you all save money.

“When you band together, you can get a lot more done,” Torpey said.

Develop a relationship with the a local County Extension Office and master gardeners. They are a good resource for beginners or those who have gardened for years.

“The master gardeners do the Farmers Market in the summer. It’s very nice that they do stuff like that, and everybody is so helpful with ideas and answering your questions,” Kuhbacher said.

Gardening is fun and easy to build a community around.

___

Information from: The Gillette (Wyo.) News Record, http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com

It’s been a long, hard winter and now many of us are getting ready to get out in the garden and get our hands dirty. Kimberly Lacy from HGTV’s “Curb Appeal – The Block” is with us this evening with some gardening tips.

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Get Daily discounts and offers on sporting events, plays, concerts, museums and other events around town

Interested in cultivating your gardening skills along with your garden? Do you enjoy a lovely afternoon tea?

Join renowned landscape designer Maureen Haseley-Jones for her continuing ‘Garden Earth’ lecture series on Wednesday, May 22.

The series is designed to “reconnect people’s hearts and hands with the nourishing energy of Mother Nature’s life giving gardens,” according to the Riverfront Community Center.

Hasley-Jones is a lecturer, writer and radio gardening expert. She is also known as The English Lady, and will offer cutting edge gardening tips.

Wednesday’s talk and tea will take place at the Riverfront Community Center, 300 Welles St., from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Assorted teas and light refreshments will be served.

All ages are welcome. Interested parties can sign up in the community center office. The cost for the event is $5.

Get Daily discounts and offers on sporting events, plays, concerts, museums and other events around town

By Carol Stocker
Mother’s Day weekend is the best time of the year to find plant sales by garden clubs and plant societies. Rarities and bargains dug from thousands of local backyards are yours to seek out:

May 11, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. and May 12, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Historic New England’s Casey Farm, 2325 Boston Neck Road, Saunderstown, RI.

May 12, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Robin Hollow Farm, 1057 Gilbert Stuart Road, Saunderstown, RI, is having its annual open house this weekend in cooperation with Casey Farm. Usually not open to the public,Robin Hollow is a charming privately owned farm which grows herbs and specialty cut flowers of exceptional variety and quality, and is known for its wedding work. You can buy plants here that you will find nowhere else – and at very reasonable prices. A perfect day trip for Mother’s Day. 401-294-2868.

May 11, 8 a.m.-noon, The Milton Garden Club Perennial Plant Sale, in front of The Milton Library on Canton Ave.

May 11, 8 a.m.-noon, The Amateur Gardens of Milton Annual Plant Sale, in front of Milton Town Hall on Canton Ave.

May 11, 9-11 a.m., The Marblehead Garden Club’s 82nd annual plant sale, benefiting the Jeremial Lee Mansion, at the Gerry 5 VFA, 210 Beacon St., Marblehead.

May 11 9 a.m.-1 p.m.: Billerica Garden Club Plant Sale, 25 Concord Road, Billerica.

May 11, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., The Garden Club of Concord Plant Sale, Middlesex Bank, Main St., Concord.

May 11, 10 am. to 1 p.m., Kingston Garden Club annuual spring plant sale, Faunce School, 16 Green St., Kingston.

May 11. 9 a.m. to noon, Bridgewater Garden Club Plant Sale, Bridgewater Cole-Yeaton Senior Center, 10 Wally Krueger Way, Bridgewater off Rte. 18/28.

May 11, 9 a.m.:Easton Garden Club Plant Sale, Yardley-Wood Rink, 388 Depot St., S. Easton

May 11 The New England Daylily Society [www.nedaylily.org] is holding a Plant Sale on in Wakefield at the First Parish Congregational Church, 1 Church St. Sales tables open: 10:30-12:30. Auction of more expensive daylily hybrids at 12:30.

Members of the New England Daylily Society will be there at the sale to answer your questions or help you to choose a daylily for your gardens. Hundreds of daylilies will be available for purchase. Be there at the start of the sale for best selection.

Daylilies are not Lilies or bulbs. They are herbaceous perennials. Daylilies grow very well in average garden soil and although they perform better when watered during the growing season, they are drought tolerant.

If you have questions about the sale, please contact NEDS president, Adele Keohan at akgabriel22@comcast.net
For more information about daylilies, visit the American Hemerocallis Society at www.daylilies.org.

Plant warm-season grasses, such as Bermuda, Buffalo, Zoysia and St. Augustine.

Plant hot-weather annuals, such as lantana, moss rose, daisies, sunflowers and marigolds.

Thin fruit on peaches, apricots, and plums to five to six inches apart on the branches.  The result will be larger, better quality fruit.  

If flowers are spent, prune your spring-flowering shrubs and vines to shape them.

Prune climbing roses and once-blooming antique roses to restore good shape and reduce overall height.

Cut off old blossoms on spring-flowering annuals such as pansies and snapdragons to prolong the flowering season.

Allow foliage of spring-flowering bulbs to mature and yellow before removing.

Pinch back the terminal growth on newly planted annual and perennial plants.  This will result in shorter, more compact and well-branched plants with more flowers.

Fertilize plants in containers and hanging baskets with a complete, balanced fertilizer, such as a 20-20-20. 

Fertilize established lawns of warm-season turf grasses, such as Bermuda, Buffalo, St. Augustine, and Zoysia with a high nitrogen fertilizer, such as a 20-5-5.  If the blades of grass are yellowish but the veins of the blades remain green, an application of an iron fertilizer might also be necessary.

Fertilize trees, shrubs, vines, and groundcovers, making sure NOT to use a “weed and feed” type fertilizer, which will damage these plants.  Be sure to water thoroughly after fertilizing all plants and follow label directions for application rates. 

Turn the material in your compost pile to speed up decomposition.  Water when needed.

Replenish old mulch or apply new mulch in flowerbeds and around shrubs to reduce weed growth and conserve water.

Sow seeds of warm-season vegetables, such as southern peas, okra, peppers and tomatoes directly into the garden. 

Posted: Friday, May 10, 2013 11:03 am

Gardening Tips: Wet weather pushes plant growth back

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

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For the past three weeks or so, we’ve been stuck in a period of cooler than usual temperatures with a fair bit of rain.

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