Please vote in our poll. As we try to develop new solutions, it helps to understand how people are watering their gardens.
We had almost an inch of rain last weekend, and this week I couldn't get over how great the gardens looked. The soil was moist and the plants looked so HAPPY! Clearly they had been nourished by the rain in a way that no amount of hand watering could equal.
Here in Vermont, we are usually blessed with enough summer rainfall to satisfy most plants. My low-yield drilled well keeps me from watering more than about 20 minutes at a time, so I just use two French Blue Watering Cans. Using watering cans makes it clear how much water I'm actually applying. It also limits what gets watered: potted plants, plants in the greenhouse, transplants, and newly seeded areas in the vegetable garden. Planting thickly and keeping everything well mulched allows most plants to weather our dry spells.
We know that watering is a serious challenge for many gardeners. As we try to source and/or develop new watering solutions, it helps to understand how people outside of Vermont are watering their gardens. Please let us know by "voting" in the poll that's located in the upper-right corner of this page. If you have the time to elaborate, add a comment below. Thanks!
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
Deer fencing makes an excellent support for clematis.
For many years, I've tried to grow clematis on my Garden Starter Greenhouse. I tried string and other techniques, but this year's solution has proved to be the best so far. I used a 4-foot-wide piece of Heavy-Duty Deer Fence, and it works like a charm.
I was able to run the fencing from the base of the plant all the way to the peak of the roof—plenty of room for my vigorous Cardinal Wyszynski clematis. What's more, the inconspicuous, black netting is loose enough to allow the greenhouse roof vent to open and close. It's easy to cut with a scissors and I can anchor the base with Earth Staples. At the end of the season, it's easy to remove and pack away for another year.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
Online resources can help you find the best solutions for control of pests and diseases.
Beneficial praying mantises eat insects that damage garden plants. |
The azalea looked healthy and happy last week. The shrub was full of leafy new growth and loaded with flower buds. This morning, all that remains are the flower buds—every leaf has been stripped. What did this? The power of the internet makes my sleuth work easier than ever before.
University extension services offer some of the most extensive, thorough, and well-organized pest and disease identification guides. Their additional advantage is that most of them focus on the most common problems within their state.
If I lived in Florida, for example, I’d want to use a site about Florida pests. It so happens that the University of Florida and Florida Department of Agriculture teamed up to present an excellent site that features pests common to that state. It allows users to search for pests by affected plant or crop and common or scientific name.
A little further north, Clemson University is your site. The school offers homeowners an excellent and easy-to-navigate site called Home & Garden Information Center. Clicking on Insects, Diseases & Other Problems brings you a logically organized page that helps get answers and solutions quickly.
The Texas A&M University site also contains excellent photos, and pests are grouped by feeding method. In California, the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program maintains an extensive and thorough site.
Northerners, like me, might want to head over to the University of Wisconsin site. It’s sorted into categories, such as Beetle, Indoor Worms, Shrubs, and Fabric-Eating Insects. Each page features photographs of the insects and their damage, plus links to more detailed information.
In the Mid-Atlantic states, the web site at Virginia Tech is a good choice. The organization and photos make it easy to narrow the list of suspects. They also have a large, downloadable collection of excellent insect illustrations drawn by artist Kathy Borne.
Although not exhaustive by any means, these extension service and university web sites will help identify most insect pests. If not, Pest Control Canada has a terrific forum in which people can load photos of mystery insects and other users will identify them and add comments.
Some web sites focus on particular types of pests. For vegetable pests, Gardener’s Supply has a very helpful Pest & Disease Identifier with photos and earth-friendly control solutions, as does the National Gardening Association.
So what ate my azalea? The University of Minnesota had my answer—Azalea Sawfly larvae. Case closed.
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
What to do with bearded irises when the show is over.
Majestic, tall bearded irises reign in the early summer garden. Photo from the garden of Leo Vandervlugt, president of Dutch Gardens. |
By mid-summer, nothing remains of my bearded irises’ glorious color and fanfare. The tall, once-stately stalks hold nothing but shriveled brown flowers. Papery, canoe-shaped bracts protect the developing seedpods along the stems.
Removing spent flowers is one of my favorite gardening activities because the whole garden looks tidier when I’m finished. Deadheading irises is especially satisfying because the empty stalks look so forlorn. It’s also important to the vigor and future flowering of the plants. Removing the seedpods allows the plants to concentrate their energy on growing strong roots, rhizomes, and leaves. Large rhizomes produce more flowers.
Deadheading also takes a potential disease source out of the garden. Botrytis and other fungal diseases abound in damp weather. They proliferate on flowers that remain wet, turning them brown and mushy. The fungus can spread and cause brown spots on the foliage of surrounding plants.
As soon as the last flower has wilted, I use a sharp pair of pruners or scissors to cut the stalks down to where they emerge from the foliage. While I’m down there, I look over the rhizomes and foliage and check for potential problems.
The main trouble I’m looking for is iris borer. The grubs of this moth tunnel through iris rhizomes and allow disease to enter, which often kills the plant. The grubs grow to 1 to 1-1/2” length in midsummer, then leave the rhizome to pupate in the soil. Signs of iris borer infestation include watery streaks down the leaves, sawdust around the rhizomes, and foliage wilt. For more information on this pest, read Basic Borer Information from The Iris Garden, a New England-based iris group.
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When I’m cutting down iris stalks, I also look for crowded clumps that need dividing. The best time to divide bearded iris is in July and August, so that the replanted rhizomes have time to grow plenty of roots before they go dormant for winter. For good step-by-step photos of dividing irises, read Dividing Iris, from the American Iris Society's region 17, which is based in Texas. If you plan to add new irises to your garden this year, check out the selection at Dutch Gardens, where there are more than a dozen varieties, ready for shipping this fall.
For planting instructions and more on Iris care, read How to Grow Bearded Irises
For even more information, visit the American Iris Society. It's a great resource for more information and links to local iris groups.
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
Clover, ryegrass and other cover crops deter weeds, conserve moisture, and add nutrients to the soil when tilled under.
Clover, ryegrass, and other cover crops deter weeds, conserve moisture, and add nutrients to the soil when tilled under. |
I spent a fair amount of time on my aunt and uncle’s 100-cow dairy farm as a child. The patchwork landscape of the farm’s 500 rolling acres changed every summer as corn, oats, and alfalfa followed each other in rotation. Deep-rooted alfalfa brought minerals to the surface and added nitrogen to the soil. Its nutrient-rich stems and leaves fed the baling machine for a couple of summers before the tractor and disc plowed it under. Corn came next and grew strong on the enriched soil, its stubbled roots holding the soil during the spring rains. A summer of densely-planted oats reduced the weeds and provided straw and cattle feed before alfalfa’s return.
Using cover crops to feed the soil, build humus, smother weeds, and prevent erosion works on a much smaller scale, too. These plants not only help replenish tired soil—they can also increase the number and variety of beneficial insects and other organisms in the garden. Although many plants can fulfill more than one function, it helps to categorize cover crops according to their main contribution.
- Legumes, like alfalfa, clover, beans, and peas, have nodules on their roots that can capture nitrogen from the air and “fix” it in the soil. They improve soil fertility.
- Deep-rooted plants retrieve minerals from deep below the surface, making them available to other crops. These include buckwheat and alfalfa.
- Some plants, such as mustards, rapeseed and ryegrass, produce compounds that inhibit the growth of disease and pest organisms and weed seeds.
- Grassy and densely rooted cover crops, such as buckwheat and rye, prevent soil erosion and moisture loss by covering the soil. They also inhibit weed growth by shading the soil and competing for moisture.
To prevent the cover crops from becoming weeds themselves, it’s important to cut them down and turn them under before they go to seed. After they’ve been added to the soil, they decompose and release their nutrients.
To read more about building healthy soil, read Building Healthy Soil
For more information on cover crops check out some of the following web sites:
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
To make sure your garden is protected from groundhogs, get a fence.
The Animal |
We live in the city, but we still have plenty of wildlife. For many years, our big problem was woodchucks—also known as groundhogs. They'd come into the garden and chew prized perennials right to the ground. These herbivores preferred phlox, echinacea and asters. I tried repellents and motion-detecting sprinklers, which didn't keep them out. It seemed that the best choice was a fence.
Our backyard is already fenced, but it presented no obstacle for the woodchucks. They just crawled under the gap at the base of the fence and moved through our garden—as if it were a salad bar. At first, my partner thought the woodchuck was cute. He even gave it a name: Webster. But once the devastation became widespread, it was referred to as The Animal.
Because of The Animal and his family, our flower garden no longer had asters or phlox. Even the bossy perennial sunflower (Helianthus decapetalus), was mowed down. In fact, I had no idea that perennial was such an aggressive thug until after the woodchucks were gone.
Chicken wire, anchored to the bottom of the fence is buried to ensure that our back garden is secure. |
It was a hot, humid Sunday in July that I decided it was time to seal the perimeter. I went to the hardware store for 24" wide rolls of chicken wire and came back to start trenching. Using a spade, I dug a 1-foot-deep trench right below the wood fence, all the way around the garden. Then, I stapled one edge of the chicken wire to the bottom of the fence, placing the rest of it into the hole. I back-filled the holes and everything looked secure—or so I thought.
It wasn't long before The Animal penetrated my defenses and started in on the echinacea. How did it get in? After some careful investigation, I found a small gap where two pieces of chicken wire were joined. Just enough for it to squeeze through.
I tried chasing the woodchuck out of the yard, but had no luck. Because of the way the wire was bent, it couldn't get out the way it had come in. I tried herding it through the garden gate, but that didn't work either. Despite their fat, roly-poly appearance, woodchucks are very fast. My enhanced fence had made The Animal a permanent resident in my garden. The only solution was a trap. I got one of those humane live traps, baited it with broccoli and had captured The Animal by the end of the day. I put trap and all into the back of my truck and drove to the mountains to release the woodchuck, where he remains.
For the past few years, my phlox have been lovely, the echinacea flower abundantly, and there are plenty of asters for fall color. The garden is secure. Better check the perimeter again.
For more information, read Controlling Woodchucks and Animal Fencing Techniques. For products to control woodchucks, see the Garden Pest Controls department and the Fences department.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
Choosing locally adapted plants makes sense for many reasons.
Ferns add texture to woodland gardens and provide the background for colorful native flowering plants. |
Going Green means different things to different people. For Bill Cullina (pronounced kul-EYE-nuh), it’s literally about “green.” As the Director of Horticulture Research at the New England Wild Flower Society (NEWFS) for the past 13 years, he has promoted and advocated for planting native North American wildflowers, ferns, trees, shrubs, and grasses in our North American gardens and landscapes.
Choosing locally adapted plants makes sense for lots of reasons:
- They fit into the local habitat
- Support local birds, pollinators and animals
- More resistant to local pests and diseases
- Winter and summer hardy
- Tolerant of local soils and pH
- Easier to grow with fewer inputs
At the NEWFS Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Mass., visitors walk the paths through varied habitat and see what native plants look like and how they can be used in the landscape. In western Massachusetts, NEWFS operates a plant nursery called Nasami Farm, where landscapers and gardeners can purchase hardy native plants.
Cullina’s books make it easier for new and veteran gardeners to embrace native plantings. His first book, The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada, came out in 2000. Two years later, he published Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines, a guide to using, growing and propagating North American woody plants. In early 2008, he completed his native plant series with Native Ferns, Moss, and Grasses: From Emerald Carpet to Amber Wave, Serene and Sensuous Plants for the Garden.
Mosses and ferns are unfamiliar garden plants for most of us, but Bill promotes them as essential components in native landscapes. In a recent interview on Public Radio International's “Living On Earth,” he said, “Grasses in the sun and the ferns in the shade, and mosses too, really provide texture and background on which the wildflowers paint, so to speak. If you think about a meadow without grasses, it wouldn’t look wild, it wouldn’t look appropriate. And in the same way, in most places in the woods, what you see in the understory is ferns. You don’t see blazes of wildflowers. You see them scattered around and it’s the ferns that hold it all together.”
In 2008, Bill started a new job as curator at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay, Maine. He’s looking forward to developing a world-class botanical garden, including native plants, along the scenic Maine coast.
Cullina speaks on native gardening at events throughout the country. Visit his web page to see if he’s coming to a venue near you or stop by Garden in the Woods or the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden to see some of his work with natives for yourself.
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
Creeping phlox, saved from the compost pile, makes the perfect ground cover behind this new wall.
Creeping phlox, saved from the compost pile, makes the perfect ground cover behind this new wall. |
This spring, I hired a local mason to make a stucco wall to enclose a new patio at the back of my house. I had imagined letting the meadow grass grow right up to the wall, but once the wall was finished, I didn’t want to hide an inch of it.
The same week the wall was completed, I removed about 30 square feet of creeping phlox (Phlox subulata) that had been covering my rock garden like a lavender lava flow. I was able to lift big, 2-square-foot square sections intact, and stacked them on the grass nearby. Because I already have plenty of creeping phlox in other parts of the garden, I was headed to the compost pile with the first load, when I was struck by an idea. How about encircling the back of the new wall with creeping phlox?
The plants still had just enough lavender blooms to help me imagine the beautiful contrast I’d enjoy next spring: lavender against deep orange terra cotta. The soil behind the wall had been raked smooth in a 6 ft. wide band, ready for grass seed. Instead, I roughed up the soil and laid in big chunks of phlox, extending out almost 3 feet from the wall.
I watered it well every couple days and, three weeks later, it has really taken hold. My current plan, for keeping the meadow grass from taking over the phlox, is to place a 12” wide band of recycled rubber mulch on the smooth soil between the phlox and the meadow grass. I’m modeling it on a “burn belt” and am hoping that if I also add some edging on the outside of the mulch, it should keep most of the grass from creeping into the beds.
Having the phlox on hand made my plant choice easy. But I had also read that creeping phlox has been found to be one of the most rugged herbaceous ground covers you can plant. The recommendation came from a 5-year study of ground covers conducted by Cornell University and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
Plants in the study were evaluated based on their ability to thrive on roadsides, slopes and other difficult locations. Other ground covers (besides creeping phlox) that formed a dense carpet in these challenging sites, included Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis ‘Thriller'), Catmint ( Nepeta x faasenii ‘Walker’s Low’), Lamb’s Ears (Stachys byzantina) and coral bells (Heuchera ‘Chocolate Veil’).
Catmint, lady’s mantle and creeping phlox are deer-resistant, too!
Four years of Avant Gardener Newsletters. Priceless! |
Thanks to one of my very favorite gardening publications, The Avant Gardener, for bringing this information to my attention. Unfortunately you can’t access this monthly newsletter online, but you CAN subscribe to it for a very reasonable price and I guarantee you will find it to be an excellent investment! Send a check along with your mailing information to: The Avant Gardener, Box 489, New York, NY 10028. Subscriptions are $24 per year.
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
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