Posted: Friday, May 2, 2014 1:55 pm

Gardening Tips: Dealing with lots of moisture as a gardener

By Matt Stevens

The Daily Herald, Roanoke Rapids, NC

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Some of you may have noticed that we’ve had a little bit of rain lately. Well, more than a little bit, I suppose. With three major storms in a week’s time on top of an already wet spring, most of the area is sopping wet. Thankfully, it looks like we’ll have a break from the rain for at least a few days.

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Friday, May 2, 2014 1:55 pm.

One of those “do as I say not as I do” topics is reusing potting soil. I can give you some really good reasons not to reuse potting soil. Fresh potting soil is usually a soilless mix that is weed-free, pest free, sterile and ready to go. This lessens problems with soil-borne diseases, pest larvae in the soil, weeds in the soil mix and time-consuming preparations. So, yes, fresh potting soil is the best choice for any container planting.

The reality is that I can’t say that I never reuse potting soil. It just seems so wasteful to dump that nice planting material into the garden. I do use fresh potting or seed-starting mix for any seeds, delicate transplants and any plant that I know is difficult to grow.

What about the rest? If I have had a fungal or soil-borne problem with a particular container, I dump the soil. If I have a window box or container that had a mass of annuals or vegetables that performed well last season, I’ll probably reuse the soil.

A second tenet of the “do as I say not as I do” topics is that when reusing soil, it should be sterilized. This usually involves heating the soil to destroy any organisms (spores, seeds, larvae, bacteria, and so on) that may have wintered over in the soil. I’ve heard of people using their ovens — really bad idea, or their grills — almost as bad, to heat the soil. It probably works, but the dirt and stench is simply not worth the effort, at least not to me.

So, is there a middle path? Yes. I empty the containers into a large bucket or pail, break up the clods and remove any obvious dead plants or large roots. If I’m really ambitious, I sieve the soil. This produces a fine mix ready for this season’s plants. I trade off sterile, weed-free soil for economy and convenience of reusing the old stuff.

This season I remembered a long-ago purchase, a compost sieve that has been sitting, unopened, in the shed. It is a cylindrical pan with a heavy wire bottom, legs that elevate it about a foot above the ground, and a crank that moves a rod through the soil. It made the work go a lot more quickly but is no longer available online. There are, however, plenty of manual soil/compost sieves or riddles for sale and free plans to build your own online, usually just a large set of screens.

I still buy fresh potting soil each season, usually a compressed bale or two of ProMix. We grow quite a lot of things in containers and always need fresh potting soil. We have plenty of deer, groundhogs and rabbits that are eager to dine on anything set in the ground.

Mother’s Day ideas

I’ve been asked for a few ideas for those with mothers who garden. I’ll start with a few things that aren’t really good gifts:

•Plants: Don’t assume that a particular plant, especially a large tree or shrub, is just what mom wants. Unless you know she’s been wishing and searching for a particular plant, give a gift certificate to her favorite nursery rather than a plant.

•Tools: Don’t go for those cute/fancy hand tool sets. If she really gardens, most of those tools will break during their first use. If you want to get tools, pick a replacement or upgrade for something she already has and uses, or something she has specifically asked for.

•Books: Don’t buy a book unless you know a specific author or topic that mom is interested in. Most of us have plenty of beautiful but not very useful coffee table books or weird topic volumes cluttering our homes. The same guidelines apply to subscriptions to magazines; they are wonderful if the recipient is interested in the topic but just wasted trees and more recycling if they aren’t.

•Statuary: Don’t buy some adorable lawn ornament if your mom doesn’t already have a few. Statuary is as personal as plants; they need to suit the site and the person. Unless you are really sure she can’t live without it, offer to go on a shopping trip to pick something out together rather than just showing up with another humorous frog or hilarious cutout.

So what makes a good gift? Something that you know she needs, wants and doesn’t already have.

•Hats: A gardener needs a good hat — or two. One wide brim hat, usually woven for working out in the bright sunlight and another, preferably cotton or other washable fabric, that gives you somewhere to spray the insect repellent.

•Gloves: While it certainly is possible to go without gloves, they do offer protection from a variety of irritants. Check for sizes, not all women have tiny hands so note if mom has large hands or long fingers and size up to assure a good fit. Lightweight washable gloves work well for light weeding and pruning or harvesting. Medical gloves are great for really messy work, mixing or using chemicals or fertilizers, or even under other gloves if your mom is someone who values a good manicure. Heavy work gloves for protection when doing heavy pruning, heavy labor such as raking or shoveling, clearing out gutters or other messy work.

•Shoes: Take her with you when purchasing any type of footwear. Closed toe shoes with good traction are a must. A thick rigid sole protects the foot from painful injuries or bruises to the arch when digging or working on a ladder. Boots for working in the muddy spring, the summer garden after a few days of rain, the cool wet fall and the icy slippery landscape of winter.

•Toiletries: Avoid any heavily scented lotions or sprays—they just make mom the target of constantly buzzing pests. Insect repellant, sunscreen, hand lotions, nailbrushes, and emery boards—all these make good filler gifts.

•Plants: Yes, they are listed in the not a good idea list, but there are exceptions. If mom really loves geraniums and fills the front containers every year—then buying a flat or two of her favorite annual and offering to spend an afternoon working with her in the garden can be a great idea. If she collects African violets and you see an unusual plant that you know she doesn’t have, go for it.

My idea of a favorite gift for a mother who gardens would be to take her for a nice breakfast or lunch at a favorite spot. Then, on to a leisurely visit to a favorite nursery (with a gift certificate or monetary gift). Followed by an afternoon in the garden sharing her love for the garden.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Unusually cold temperatures took a toll on our plants.

“We are not sure if we have lost them yet, but blue atlas cedar, lots of questions about ivy and lots of questions about boxwood and even rhododendron,” said Post-Gazette gardening expert Doug Oster. “And rhododendrons are the toughest of all the ones we talked about.”

Oster suspects he lost several rhododendrons at his home.

Although a plant may look helpless, Oster says a few green leaves could mean it’s still salvageable. It might just mean that it’s still not warm enough for new spring growth if it looks brown.

“Boxwood, you know, when those start to green up, we are just going to give them a haircut,” Oster said. “And like I said, in two weeks – and you still see brown all the way down, that has to come off.”

However, if you take ivy for instance, little, shiny leaves indicating new growth means put the shears down.

“Anything that is just about ready to bloom, if you start trimming it, you are going to lose those flowers,” said Oster.

One of the biggest reasons gardeners are losing plants, is we buy things that aren’t supposed to grow here.

“That’s an opportunity for us as gardeners to try something else, something new,” Oster said. “It’s actually a really good lesson for us that we really need to stick with the plants that are assigned to our planting zone – our zone.”

If you feel like you have to do something though, you can always add fertilizer.

“Throw a little bit of fertilizer down there, sit it out, wait, wait ‘til things warm up into the middle of May, maybe even third week of May and see if you get any new growth off there,” he said.

And don’t lose faith in your green thumb.

“Part of gardening is plants die,” Oster says. “And once you accept that, it makes gardening so much easier. It was nothing that we did. It was mother nature and there’s nothing we can – we can’t control that.”

RELATED LINKS
Grow Your Own Spring Herb Garden
More Reports by Rick Dayton

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter

MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio, May 1, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Advancing Eco Agriculture is pleased to announce being featured on cleveland.com, www.roadtripsforgardeners.com, and www.backyardbrevard.com.  Advancing Eco Agriculture’ John Kempf provided information regarding the care and treatment of home gardens and how to maximize yield and maintain a sustainable plant lifecycle.  Advancing Eco Agriculture is dedicated to advancing the collaboration of shared goals between individuals, communities, and different sectors of commerce and business.

Advancing Eco Agriculture’s gardening tips are different than most commonly found and discussed gardening tips.  Typically when focusing on gardening tips articles will mention care and growth of seedlings and tenders in different environmental conditions.  While the advice of Advancing Eco Agriculture’s tips focused more on the optimization of plant health and soil biology to increase the yields of plants and crops while increasing their nutrimental and beneficial value. 

Advancing Eco Agriculture is pleased and excited to be featured by any and all websites.  Focusing on improving and integrating communities with the benefits of raising a garden and in creating supportable ecosystems and food supply is of major importance to Advancing Eco Agriculture as they grow and advance. Of the websites to feature Advancing Eco Agriculture, cleveland.com is unique that it is not a niche or a specialty website completely devoted to the dissemination of gardening information, rather cleveland.com is a leading source of information and news for every aspect of living in Cleveland and Ohio, providing up-to-date news and information regarding local, national, and international news, sports, entertainment, lifestyles, politics, and business. 

John Kempf is the founder and CEO of Advancing Eco Agriculture, a leading crop nutrition consulting company.  Advancing Eco Agriculture focuses on a systemic approach to agronomy emphasizing the improvement of crop quality.  The stated mission of Advancing Eco Agriculture and John Kempf is in assisting farmers in growing healthier crops, regenerating soil health, and improving farm economics through education, individual attention, and research.  

Media Contact: John Kempf, Advancing Eco-Agriculture, 800.495.6603, john@advancingecoag.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE Advancing Eco Agriculture

RELATED LINKS
http://www.growbetterfood.com

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ – Do you have gardening and landscaping questions? Come to the Friends of the Library’s Spring Meeting on Thursday, May 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the East Brunswick Public Library for the answers.

Clara Rivera-Pacheco will offer ideas and best practices on selection, planting and maintenance of popular New Jersey perennials and annuals. Ask your gardening questions, get handouts of tips and suggestions and perhaps win a plant to take home with you.

Rivera-Pacheco is finishing the Rutgers’ Master Gardeners program. She is an active volunteer at Rutgers Gardens and consults on landscaping projects. This free program is art of the Friends of the Library’s Spring Meeting.

For more information, please call 732-390-6767 or go to The Library’s website at http://www.ebpl.org and click on “News Events.” Follow us on Twitter and Facebook: twitter.com/EBLibrary1, facebook.com/eastbrunswicklibraryPage

 

By Wayne L. Westcott
For The Patriot Ledger


Posted Apr. 27, 2014 @ 7:00 am

By Wayne L. Westcott
For The Patriot Ledger


Posted Apr. 27, 2014 @ 7:00 am

After an especially harsh winter, spring has returned to St. Louis. Gardeners across the region are planting and planning for the growing season.

But the plants are still feeling the effects of the unusual cold, said Missouri Botanical Garden horticulturists June Hutson and Elizabeth Spiegel.

“It’s done its damage,” said Hutson, who is a consultant and designer for the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening. “We continue to have to monitor things to see if they’re alive or dead, it’s that critical. And so we fear that some things have really been injured and at best you’ll have to cut them down to the ground and hope they come back from the base. But other things seem unscathed, but it’s a lot of dead wood out there on everything.”

And all that dead wood means a special focus on pruning is needed. Hutson said it is best to wait and make sure branches of trees, shrubs and bushes are truly dead before pruning.

“Keep scratching [the bark] and where the green ends, that’s where it is dead and you can cut right there,” she said.

Despite the rash of extremely cold days, the spring season hasn’t been delayed by repeat frosts. That means it’s not too soon to start your planting your vegetable garden, said Spiegel. She already has peas, carrots, lettuce and beets planted. She is waiting until the night temperature stays around 55 degrees to plant her tomatoes and peppers, however.

Advice for First-Time Gardeners

One way to get a leg-up as a first-time gardener is to get your soil tested, said Hutson. That way you can find out what nutrients your soil is lacking and target your treatment accordingly. The Kemper Garden offers a soil testing service, she added. Just bring in two cups of soil in a paper bag.

Before going to the nursery, “look at your garden and see how much sunlight it gets,” said Spiegel. “Know whether the soil stays moist or dries out quickly.”

Listener Questions

Hutson and Spiegel answered numerous listener questions on how to help plants doing poorly, including azaleas, magnolias and squash. They also gave tips on the best way to handle pests ranging from cucumber beetles to lawn grubs to voles.

As chief bee keeper at the Missouri Botanical Garden, Spiegel gave advice on how to capture a swarming bee hive.

Got a Slug Problem? Find a Sweet Gum Tree.

For all of you out there with a slug problem, Hutson suggested finding a neighbor with a sweet gum tree. Evidently it hurts slugs to crawl over sweet gum tree balls.

Related Information

Missouri Botanical Garden Hotline: 314-577-5143

For more gardening tips, including information on how to build a rain garden, visit the Kemper Center for Home Gardening website.

St. Louis on the Air provides discussion about issues and concerns facing the St. Louis area. The show is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer and hosted by veteran journalist Don Marsh.

By Wayne L. Westcott
For The Patriot Ledger


Posted Apr. 27, 2014 @ 7:00 am

The most-asked question from new gardeners is, ‘How often do I water the potted plant, once a week, twice a week?’ My stock answer is place your finger in the soil. When it is dry, water. When it is wet, don’t. The frequency of needed water will be determined by environmental conditions.

The warmer weather has finally given gardeners the urge to get out and plant something. Recent conversations with many of them have revolved around the subject of container gardening. They have had a lot of questions so I thought I would dwell on the subject today.

When considering container gardening, start by determining where you want to place your pot. Sun or shade conditions will determine what kind of plants you will put in the container. If you are not familiar with many plants, go to your local garden center and ask a lot of questions.

The pot size used will be determined by the number and size of the plants you put in the pot. You want to put a large enough plant or the right number of small plants in the pot so that roots from the plants will fill up the pot. If you put a small plant in a large pot it is very difficult to not overwater the plants.

Using the right soil in your pot is critical. Do not use a potting soil. It is usually too heavy and will hold moisture. Use a potting mix.

I would recommend using a potting mix that does not have moisture control in it. If we have a rainy season, chances are the moisture control will result in too much moisture staying in the potting mix and the plant roots will rot.

I don’t like fertilizer added to the potting mix by the manufacturer either. Different fertilizers will react differently to soil temperature and will also will affect the potting mix pH.

You want to control when you fertilize and what you use, not a manufacturer who lives in another state. Their growing conditions will different from yours.

After you have selected the pot and the potting mix, it is time to get to work. Fill the pot with potting mix. Next, remove the plants you are going to pot from their growing container. Then open up the root system of the plant with your hands, a knife or a jet of water. You want the roots to spread out and not continue to grow in a circle.

Place the plant in the potting mix and tamp the soil mix around the root system. This gives the soil good root/mix contact. Make sure that when you are finished planting there is enough room at the top of the pot so that potting mix surface is about 1 inch below the top of the pot. This will make watering much easier.

Next water in your newly potted plant with a soluble fertilizer such as a 9-58-8. The high middle number, phosphorous, will encourage the plant to spend most of its energy on producing roots. A good root system is the needed foundation for good plant top growth.

As the season progresses, fertilize your plant about every other week. Alternate the 9-58-8 with a 20-20-20. The will provide a good balance of root growth and top growth.

The most-asked question from new gardeners is “How often do I water the potted plant. Once a week, twice a week?”

My stock answer is place your finger in the soil. When it is dry, water. When it is wet, don’t. The frequency of needed water will be determined, by environmental conditions.

I would suggest that you have a tendency to under-water. Remember the phase at the gym. “No pain, no gain.” A plant stressed a bit will have a tendency to thrive versus one that is constantly overwatered.

Container gardening can be enjoyable for homeowners and for apartment dwellers.

With a little effort the results, whether it be a beautiful red tomato or a gorgeous geranium, will be outstanding.

Happy gardening in 2014.

Plant food and potting mix available at Sunny Hill Gardens and Florist help keep your plants healthy and beautiful throughout the season.