VIRGINIA BEACH – With Winter here, Spring can’t be far behind.  

It’s never too early to plan your garden and you can get the help you need at this weekend’s 2013 Virginia Flower Garden Expo, which is put on by the Virginia Horticultural Foundation.

“We’re returning to our roots with a focus on pure gardening,” says Laurie Fox, show coordinator. “This is a comprehensive event, promoting horticulture for home gardeners, professionals and anyone in between.”

Experts and knowledgeable professionals will be on hand Friday, Saturday and Sunday to discuss plants, plans, products and practices. More than 100 companies be at the Va. Beach Convention Center.

Children 12 and younger are free and can participate in activities that will educate them about flowers and gardens.

There are $2 discount coupons for the $10 adult tickets.

For more information and the coupon, go to the Virginia Flower Garden Expo Website.

EXPO HOURS:
Friday and Saturday (Jan. 25, 26)
10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sunday (Jan .27)
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Convention Center is at 1000 19th Street in Va. Beach.

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WITH sub-zero temperatures upon us, the RSPB is advising people to make sure their bird feeders and tables are full of high-energy foods. Hannah Stephenson examines what’s on offer

How long is it since you filled your bird feeder or replenished the water in your birdbath? If you haven’t done it for a while, there’s no time like the present.

“The sudden drop in temperatures across the UK will have been a big shock to birds’ systems after spending the past couple of months with few worries in terms of food availability,” says Richard James, RSPB wildlife adviser.

“Thanks to the recent mild weather, many natural food sources have been readily available and water has been easy to come by. Now the snow and ice are here birds will need all the help they can get to survive the winter.”

However, the range of bird seeds, fat balls and other so-called bird-friendly items can leave gardeners baffled as to what’s best for our feathered friends.

The RSPB suggests calorie-rich foods such as mixed seed, nyjer seed, fatballs, suet sprinkles, sunflower seed and good quality peanuts, as well as kitchen scraps such as mild grated cheese, rice and porridge oats.

There are different mixes for feeders and for bird tables and ground feeding. The better mixtures contain plenty of flaked maize, sunflower seeds, and peanut granules.

Small seeds, such as millet, attract mostly house sparrows, dunnocks, finches, reed buntings and collared doves, while flaked maize is taken readily by blackbirds.

Tits and greenfinches favour peanuts and sunflower seeds. Mixes that contain chunks or whole nuts are suitable for winter feeding only.

Pinhead oatmeal is excellent for many birds. Wheat and barley grains are often included in seed mixtures, but they are really only suitable for pigeons, doves and pheasants, which feed on the ground and rapidly increase in numbers, frequently deterring the smaller species.

Avoid seed mixtures that have split peas, beans, dried rice or lentils as again only the large species can eat them dry. These are added to some cheaper seed mixes to bulk them up. Any mixture containing green or pink lumps should also be avoided as these are dog biscuit, which can only be eaten when soaked.

Don’t feed the birds cooked fat from roasting tins and dishes, because the fat may have blended with meat juices which leaves a mixture prone to smearing, which is not good for the birds’ feathers, and is a breeding ground for bacteria, the charity warns.

Polyunsaturated margarines and vegetable oils are also unsuitable as birds need high levels of saturated fat to retain the high energy to keep warm, and soft fats can be smeared on to feathers, destroying the waterproofing qualities.

Lard and beef suet on their own are fine as they re-solidify after warming and are not as prone to bacteria breeding because they are pure fat.

Never give milk to the birds because it can result in serious stomach upsets or even death. They can, however, digest fermented dairy products such as mild grated cheese, which may attract robins, wrens and dunnocks.

If you want to give the birds coconut, only give them the fresh stuff in the shell, rinsing out any sweet coconut water before hanging it out, to stop black mildew emerging. Desiccated coconut should never be used as it can swell inside the bird, with fatal consequences.

Cooked rice without added salt can be beneficial to birds during severe winter weather, while uncooked porridge oats are fine for many bird species. You can also put out small quantities of dry breakfast cereal .

A supply of water is also essential for bathing and preening. In freezing conditions birds become more dependent on water provided in gardens, since many natural sources are frozen over.

The most effective way to keep the water in your garden from freezing is to pop in a light ball that will be moved by even a gentle breeze – a ping-pong ball is ideal.

Alternatively, pour on hot water to melt the ice to make sure the birds can get to it.

Put out enough food and you may see a wider variety of visitors during the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch (Jan 26 and 27), the world’s biggest wildlife survey.

For more information, visit www.rspb.org.uk.

Having planted seeds and growing things for as long as I can remember, I am often surprised when someone asks me how they can get their own garden started. Whether it’s a container garden or a backyard plot, I suppose I just assume everyone knows how to put a seed into the soil, give it a bit of water and light and just wait.

But if you’ve never done it before, I suppose just getting started can be a little overwhelming. So I decided to devote this week’s column to explaining the basics. Those of you who are seasoned gardeners might enjoy the refresher course as well.

Most of the questions I get come from young people who live in apartments and don’t have a lot of space to plant a garden. Their first question is, ”Can I grow vegetables in containers?” When I tell them, of course you can, the second question is, ”How do I do it?” My first question to them is, ”What do you want to grow?”

With a little questioning, I often find that it isn’t the idea of putting a seed in soil that is overwhelming. It’s everything else, including location, light, watering habits, fertilizer and where to find the best seeds or plants. Here are a few tips for new gardeners.

First, decide what you want to grow. Do you want containers of flowers all over the place or are you really serious about growing vegetables that you want to eat? If so, which vegetables? Many do quite well in containers while others are best left to backyard gardens with lots of space, such as melons, squash and corn.

If you are planning to harvest enough for winter storage, and you don’t have a backyard garden, don’t expect to grow enough in containers to get you through the winter months. Your best bet would be to visit local farmers markets and buy as much produce as possible and preserve that. Container vegetable gardening, although fulfilling and fun, will probably only net enough to eat fresh while it’s growing, unless you have lots and lots of containers. If you have enough space for that many containers, you probably have enough space to plant a backyard garden.

Or you can consider joining a community garden. Many communities and some neighborhoods have sections of land plotted specifically for public gardens. You register with the person in charge, get a space assigned and it is your responsibility to plant and maintain your space. That includes cleaning it up at the end of the season so you, or someone else, has a fresh plot to begin with the next season.

When choosing containers for your garden, it can’t be stressed enough that your containers have drainage holes. Plants that sit in water-logged soil will rot and develop fungal diseases. Once a plant has been attacked by one predator, other insects or diseases will sense this weakness and will attack as well. Sick plants can be suffering from more than one problem at the same time.

Seeds versus plants is another question I often hear. Seeds need only three things: soil, water and light. While soil and water are easy to come by any time of the year, light is a little more difficult until they can be moved outdoors in direct sun. If there is enough space inside, however, seeds can be successfully started under fluorescent lights. The light shouldn’t be more than two inches from the top of the container or, after germination, the top of the seedling. Seeds also shouldn’t be started too soon. Six to eight weeks before they are moved outdoors is adequate time for a young seedling to grow strong enough, so be sure to check the seed packet for the proper length of time to plant seeds before moving outdoors.

Not all plants have to wait until the last frost before they can go outdoors. Cool weather crops, such as lettuce, spinach, peas and spring greens, are among several.

A fun thing to do with container plants is to mix and match, and this includes vegetables. For example, a large container with vining peas in the center surrounded by a mixture of spring greens is a good way to save space.

I’ve been discussing gardening in containers quite a lot lately and plan to continue in future columns with topics on fertilizing, weeding and how a beginning gardener can easily plant a backyard garden.

kevanoff@tribtoday.com

Posted: Friday, January 18, 2013 11:18 am

Gardening Tips: Pruning fruit trees

By Matthew Stevens

RR Daily Herald

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0 comments

For fruit trees, your pruning strategy will depend on what type of tree you have.

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Friday, January 18, 2013 11:18 am.

The tomatoes I grew last summer were eaten long ago. So I turned to the grocery store for more red globes.

The picture here of the tomato is one of the tomatoes I bought. That “blemish” wasn’t there when I chose it at the store. It appeared days later and I watched it grow as it sat on the countertop.

Do you know what’s causing the blemish?

Since the tomato sat in the warm kitchen near a south facing window, filled with its own juice, the seeds had the perfect medium to sprout. And one of them did just that! It’s been fun watching it grow under its parent’s skin. You can see the root at the top and the two green leaves.

The seeds we buy don’t have that advantage. They’ve been extracted from their perfect growing medium, dried and kept in cool conditions until we humans decide when to let them grow.

Why do we start seeds indoors anyway? The number one reason is length of growing season. Most of the vegetables we grow are native to warmer parts of the world with much longer growing seasons. The Treasure Valley has the warmth in the summer to grow these plants, but not in the spring. Even the flowering non-vegetable plants we grow can get a head start by germinating indoors.

Starting seeds indoors also gives seedlings protection from things like hungry slugs, snails, bunnies, etc. Indoor germination also keeps seedlings safe from spring floods, late season frosts, hail and more.

To start plants indoors, you’ll need a starting medium (sterile potting soil, but never garden soil), enough light, warmth and moisture. You’ll also need pots.

A lot of things can be used for pots, but some things shouldn’t be used. Good pots are any plastic containers that are deeper than they are wide like yogurt cups or some sour cream tubs. A wider container is harder to keep warm in the center where the seed is. A shallow container doesn’t allow roots to grow deep.

Some people like to use old egg cartons, containers labeled as “peat” pots or newspaper formed into cups. The problem with these types of containers is that the roots tend to grow into the sides, then you either have to tear off tender root tips when removing the plants from those containers or plant the container with it.

If you do plant the container with the plant and the top rim of the paper-based pot sticks out of the ground, it acts as a wick and causes the soil to dry out faster.

That’s not good for newly transplanted seedlings. Tearing off the root tips isn’t such a good idea, either. While roots tend to grow into the sides of the pot, it’s difficult for them to completely penetrate those types of pots and grow out the other side.

In two weeks, I’ll present Part II of seed-starting techniques.

If you have particular questions about gardening you’d like to see addressed in this column, send them to highprairielandscapedesign@yahoo.com.

January 12, 2013

Here are gardening tips for the month of January from the Santa Rosa Extension Service:

Flowers

• Refrigerated bulbs such as tulip, daffodil and hyacinth should be planted in prepared beds.
• Start seeds of warm season flowers late this month in order to have transplants in March.
• There’s still time to transplant some cool season annuals such as carnations, foxglove, pansies, petunias and snapdragons.
• Re-fertilize cool season flowerbeds, using a liquid or dry form of fertilizer. Be careful not to apply excessive amounts and keep granules away from the base of stems.
• Finish dividing crowded perennials. Don’t wait until spring for this job.
• Plant bare root roses immediately after they are purchased.

Trees and Shrubs

• Plant trees and shrubs. This is an ideal time of year for transplanting larger specimens.
• Plant bare root plants such as deciduous ornamental shrubs and trees.
• Prune dormant shade trees, if needed.
• Stick hardwood cuttings of fig, grape, honeysuckle, Althea, Catalpa, Forsythia and Wisteria.

Fruits and Nuts

• Apply dormant oil spray to peach, plum, nectarine and other deciduous fruit trees. This practice is necessary when growing the stone fruits in locations along the Gulf Coast. Note: This applies to the flowering peaches and cherries since they are susceptible to the same pests as their fruiting cousins.
• Plant bare root deciduous fruit trees
• Prune dormant fruit trees if needed

Vegetable Garden

• Start seeds of warm season vegetables late this month in order to have transplants in March.
• Lime (if needed), and begin preparing vegetable gardens for the spring planting.
• Cool season vegetables that can still be planted in the garden are: beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, leek, mustard, bunching onions, parsley, English peas, Irish potatoes, radishes and turnips.
• Irish potatoes can be started from January through March by planting seed pieces 3 to 4 inches deep in rows. Always purchase certified seed potatoes.

Lawns

• Check soil moisture during winter and water as needed.

Comments

TOWNSEND — A myriad of labels can be applied to Roger Swain: television host, scientist, gardener, editor, writer, lecturer. But before Swain is anything else, he is an entertainer.

“It’s entertaining; that’s why I do it,” said Swain of his lectures. “I don’t call it a lecture, I call it entertainment and maybe you pick up some things along the way.”

Swain, who is nearly as famous for his cherry suspenders as he is for being the longtime host of “Victory Garden” on PBS, will be guest speaker at the Townsend Public Library on Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. and will lecture about backyard vegetable gardening. And attendees should expect to laugh as much as they learn.

“We have a lot of fun. I try to be humorous, but my lectures are based on almost 50 years of personal experience, so I’ve got a few tricks and I’m happy to share,” said Swain. “That’s the way most of us learned gardening is through other gardeners.”

Backyard gardening has been around since about 1944, said Swain; at the time, 44 percent of vegetables in the United States were being grown by amateur gardeners.

“That wasn’t even just backyard gardeners. That was front yard, side yard, city parks, city gardens,” he said.

The reason for the boom at the time can likely be attributed to World War II, said Swain. People would grow food to eat themselves, which in turn freed up rations to be sent overseas.

Now, victory gardens are once again coming back in style.

“I’ve been talking

about this for 45 years and all of sudden it gets trendy,” said Swain. “Everybody’s doing it, now I’m just encouraging everyone.”

Swain, who has been backyard gardening since he was 15, said the benefits are innumerable. First and foremost, you’re eating fresh, clean vegetables and you know where they came from. It’s good for the planet and cuts down on the miles that food travels.

Additionally, the hard work and exertion involved provides great physical exercise.

“You don’t need to go to the gym if you have a garden,” said Swain.

Gardening also provides better understanding and awareness of global warming.

“You have your finger on the pulse of nature,” said Swain.

And farmers markets are a great way to build up the community, he said.

“Being a gardener is so easy; it makes you generous and it makes you a lot of friends,” he said.

Whenever he can, Swain said if there’s something he needs, he prefers to buy it at farmers markets. Still, he goes to the grocery store just like anybody else.

“It would be a very boring diet; I would be eating cabbage all winter long,” he said.

Swain spent 15 years hosting 500 episodes of “Victory Garden,” the longest running gardening television show and a sister show to “This Old House”; Swain and host Norm Abram worked on the same property for their shows.

With each episode, the main message Swain wanted to impart was this: “You can do it.”

“You don’t have to pull up your whole yard. A single whiskey barrel gets you in the game,” he said. “I would rather have you grow a small garden and do it well than grow a large garden full of weeds.”

The best part of hosting the show, said Swain, was interacting with his viewers on the streets. As a lecturer, he gets to revisit this particular aspect.

“It’s talking to real people,” he said. “On set, you’re looking at 3.5 inch lump of glass trying to imagine millions of people out there in San Francisco and Tampa.”

Although Swain never gives exactly the same lecture twice, he said, he always tries to make it interactive and enjoyable.

“In a good lecture you start talking and you can guess the response from the audience. Then you know you’re on the same page and you’re going to have a good time,” he said. “When you start seeing people taking notes, you know it’s going to be a long hour.”

In addition to the show, Swain was also the science editor of “Horticulture Magazine” for 30 years, he authored several books and essays and he has instructed courses with the master gardeners program with the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. That’s how he became acquainted with Susan McNally and Carolyn Sellars, the two Townsend residents and members of the library’s gardening club who recruited him for the lecture.

“He likes to share what he knows and he likes people, he likes to talk to them,” said McNally. “He’s so entertaining, it’s fun to listen to him even if you’re not gardener.”

The cost is being paid for by local groups, namely the Friends of the Townsend Library and the Amanda Dwight Entertainment Fund.

“I think it’ll be a great thing for the community,” said Library Director Stacy Schuttler.

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.

If your New Year’s resolution includes having a better looking home and garden, here are some tips for January to help reach your gardening goals for 2013.

Pruning. Prune trees and shrubs to remove dead or unwanted branches from the middle of the tree. This will allow more light to penetrate and stimulate growth and new branch development.

Lawn Maintenance. Don’t allow leaves to accumulate on your lawn during the winter. Mow them back into the lawn or collect them for compost. Leaves left on a lawn can cause disease problems if the grass gets too wet or dark.

Vegetable Garden. Seed potatoes, asparagus and onion slips can be planted this month. Red lasoda and white potatoes along with 1015, white granex, yellow granex and red burgundy onions are now available.

Later in January you can plant cool season crops like radishes, spinach, carrots, broccoli, turnips and beets. For details on when and how to plant vegetables, stop by the nursery for a free copy of our 2013 Spring Planting Guide.

Freezing temperatures. Protect plants by watering them before a hard freeze. Water acts as an insulator and moist soil stays warmer than dry. Plant cells that are full of water will resist cold damage more easily.

Transplanting. If you are thinking of rearranging your landscape by transplanting established trees or shrubs, January is a good time. Be careful to dig away from the trunk so as not to disturb or damage the root system. Keep well watered and use a root stimulator to prevent transplant shock.

Happy Gardening

Even the sturdiest-looking trees can be brought down by high winds, heavy snow and ice, but there are ways you can limit the damage.

We asked experts on dealing with storm damage. Here is their advice:

• Stabilize trees around the house by cabling or tying them down, especially those that you know have structural flaws.

• Get to know an arborist or tree-care professional — now. When a storm hits, you’ll likely be prioritized as an existing customer.

• Get a pre-storm assessment to identify trouble spots. Decaying and leaning trees should be pruned, staked or removed, especially those threatening dwellings or utility lines.

• Think safety during cleanup. The stuff on the ground won’t hurt you unless downed power lines are involved. It’s what’s overhead that’s dangerous. Stress fractures or dead and broken limbs can come crashing down and do serious harm.

• Be especially careful when working with chainsaws. If a badly damaged tree is still standing, get professional help.

• Patience can be a money-saver when dealing with ice or snow loads on trees. Wait until it melts and the weight is removed to see what kind of damage was done. Trees are resilient and are capable of bouncing back.

• Plant native trees rather than exotics. Some varieties fare better than others in storms, especially trees with conical branching, those with strong branch connections and trees that are small when mature, according to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.

• There is strength in numbers. Trees planted in groups survive better in high winds.

• Learn how to assess damage. Trees that have lost a couple of branches of significant size but with trunks mostly intact likely can be saved.

Rose Crawford, author of the “Ask Rose” gardening column. CREDIT: Don Boomer/The North County Times

Q. My husband surprised me by building some elevated garden planter boxes. they are up on legs. However, I don’t know how to fill them and am getting all sorts of conflicting advice. I plan to grow vegetables in them. Some people have told me to put gravel in the bottom so the boxes will drain better. Others have told me that gravel is too heavy and would make the boxes collapse. They recommend that I just put a lot of holes in the bottom of the boxes. Others have told me to mix empty milk jugs and yogurt cups into the soil to keep it lighter. The boxes themselves are 4 feet by 8 feet, with lots legs in the middle and are very sturdily built out of cedar. Can you offer me some advice on how to use them? Thank you. — Pat

A. You certainly have been given some strange advice, Pat. I hope mine is a little more practical. You definitely need drainage but the best way to get it is to drill holes in the bottom of the beds. Half-inch holes every foot or so should work fine. To prevent your soil from falling through the holes, just cover the bottom with a fine screen. Set your boxes in a sunny location and then fill with soil. If your native soil is good quality, use about two-thirds soil and one third compost mixed together well. Let the mixture set for a couple of weeks before plating. If you feel that you need a little fertilizer, my recommendation is to get it from Gardens Alive at

gardensalive.com. Their fertilizers are organic and as well as all of the major nutrients they also contain the minor nutrients and trace elements.

Q. I just moved here from Ohio a few months ago. There are quite a few rose bushes around our yard. Much to my surprise, some of them still had roses in December. Should I cut them back as I did in Ohio or is there some other system that gardeners here use? — Edna

A. Growing roses in Southern California is quite different from growing them where the winter is severe and the ground freezes. Roses here still need to be pruned, usually this month before the new growth starts. But no, do not cut them down to the ground as you did “Back East.” Just remove approximately one-third of last year’s growth and take off any leaves. They do not always fall off in this climate. Of course, as in most other types of pruning, remove all dead or damaged wood and crossed branches. Volumes have been written about how to prune roses but there are several very basic rules that most everyone follows. Always cut to a bud eye that is facing outward. Cut out all small twiggy branches and old fragile canes. If a cane looks sick or tired, cut it back to the bud union. After you have done this, depending on the type of rose, you should still have about five strong canes left and your bush will be a fairly good size.

Rose Crawford is a certified garden consultant and a master composter who lives and gardens in Vista. She answers your gardening questions every other week. E-mail questions to askrose@cox.net