Monthly Archives: October 2008

Dig Once, Plant Twice

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Layered bulb-planting ensures a lively springtime display. Large crocuses and early Tête-à-Tête daffodils bloom together and can be planted in the same trench. Daffodil bulbs from half a dozen different mail order companies landed on my back porch, followed by a couple of 50-bulb tulip collections. The garden center had some new Asiatic and Oriental lilies I couldn’t pass up. And somewhere in my travels, I’d purchased a hundred or so muscari, scilla, chionodoxa, and allium bulbs. Read more [...]

Fighting Fruit Flies

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It’s tempting to think of these pests as alien invaders, but they’re actually natives. Uncovered fruit bowls attract the swarm. Fruit flies win the “Most Annoying Pest” contest hands down. They live in the kitchen, crawling around and breeding on food, and then fly into hard-to-swat, in-your-face swarms when disturbed. If that behavior isn’t a category winner, I don’t want to see the competition! Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) invasions usually coincide with the ripening Read more [...]

Where My Tender Plants Spend the Winter

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It’s easy to see how this idea of overwintering tender plants indoors can quickly get out of hand. It’s easy to see how this idea of overwintering tender plants indoors can quickly get out of hand. The first year it was one bamboo and two cannas. Now those original plants have multiplied and I’ve also become attached to a few other tender beauties. Last week we had a couple nights in the mid-20s and it was definitely time to make the big transition into the basement. The list Read more [...]
Grape juice in cocktail

Great Grape Juice

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Long ago, I used to grow vegetables, but I don't anymore. The problem: guilt. I felt bad for not using and preserving the overwhelming bounty of August. I just couldn't keep up. So, there are no edibles in our small, urban yard—except for a concord grape vine. I planted the vine to cover an arbor I'd built. I had little interest in the fruit. In a valiant effort, I tried making grape jelly one year, thinking it would make great holiday gifts. It was a big mess. Plus, I cooked the juice too Read more [...]

Fall Deals at the Garden Center

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If you're thinking about adding or replacing any trees and shrubs in your yard, Fall is a great time to do it. If you're thinking about adding or replacing any trees and shrubs in your yard, Fall is a great time to do it. Most local garden centers are offering deep discounts on plants they’d rather sell than over-winter. Here are a couple things to keep in mind when you're shopping. If you were shopping at our nursery here in Vermont, you could pick up this beautiful Cotinus for Read more [...]

Growing Garlic

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I tried it for the first time last fall, and it's easy as can be. Garlic bulbs contain four to 12 cloves around a central stalk. When planted in the fall, each clove will form a new bulb that's ready to harvest next summer. This old dog learned a new trick! And it was so embarrassingly easy I don’t know why I didn’t try it decades ago. After more than 30 years of gardening, I finally planted garlic for the first time last fall. The obstacle to growing garlic, as it turns out, was Read more [...]

Easy Overwintering

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Save treasured tropicals for next season's garden. They'll be bigger and better! Panache canna I used to save quite a few plants through the winter. I had dreams of plants that would be more grand and beautiful with each passing year. Well, overwintering isn't always as easy as it looks. In some cases, there are pests to contend with. My Meyer lemon tree was constantly plagued by scale insects. Bulbs and tubers can be tricky, especially if they are finicky about moisture levels. These Read more [...]

Greensand for Greener Gardens

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Compost is queen in organic gardening, but it’s not the only soil-improvement tool in the kit. Leafy greens contain lots of potassium, a major nutrient found in greensand. Compost is queen in organic gardening, but it’s not the only soil- improvement tool in the kit. Healthy soil includes plenty of minerals and micronutrients, as well as organic matter. That’s where Greensand comes in. Greensand is a rich source of marine potash, silica, iron oxide, magnesia, lime, phosphoric acid, and 22 Read more [...]

Big Bananas

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In the north, growing bananas isn't about the fruit, we do it for the huge leaves. My Abyssinian banana (Ensete maurelii) gets bigger every year. When it comes to getting that tropical look in a northern garden, there's nothing like banana trees. They grow fast and tall. And because it's fairly easy to bring them through the winter, you can get bigger and bigger plants each year. Just don't expect any fruit—they need 18 months of warm weather for that. For me, the huge leaves are enough. When Read more [...]