Giving the Gift of Spring

Pot your own bulbs for indoor blooms -- it's easy!

Tuck hyacinth bulbs into a pot of soil before chilling in the refrigerator for 13 to 15 weeks.

Flower bulbs are one of my parents’ favorite holiday gifts and something that they look forward to receiving each year. I'm not sure which they enjoy more: watching them grow or the ultimate flower display. Sharing the project with friends and family is no doubt part of the appeal, too.

Amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus are the easiest spring-flowering bulbs to trick into winter bloom because they don’t need any special treatment. Just plant the bulbs and step back! Potted amaryllis are hard to beat for the "wow" factor when their huge 5-7"-wide blooms open. Deep red varieties are Christmas favorites, but white, pink, striped, and even yellow-green are popular, too. We pot up the bulbs in 6-8"-wide pots filled with fluffy houseplant potting mix, leaving the top third of the bulb exposed. After tucking the fleshy roots into the soil, we water the pots then wait for green growth to appear. Usually, the tip of a leaf or flower bud begins to peek from the top of the bulb within two to three weeks. Either one may show up first, but both will eventually grow. Once they get going, the flower stalks grow so rapidly that you can almost see them expand! The first flowers open three to four weeks after the stalks begin to emerge. Paperwhites burst into bloom even sooner, often flowering within three weeks of planting.

To force hyacinth bulbs without planting in soil, set the bulbs on top of these special water-filled vases.

Hyacinths are another gratifying bulb to force for winter bloom and they don't even need to be planted in soil. I gave my parents a set of hyacinth forcing vases that support the bulbs above a water reservoir. The roots grow down into the water and the bulbs stay dry. Unlike amaryllis, however, hyacinths need a chilling period of 13 to 15 weeks to trick them into thinking it's spring. Preconditioned bulbs, which are available from some suppliers, have already been chilled, but conditioning your own is very simple. Add water to the forcing vase so that it will be just below the bottom of the bulb, then set the bulb on top. Put the vase and bulb in the back of the refrigerator, adding water as needed until it’s time to take it out of the cold treatment. When the chilling period is over, set the vase near sunny window and expect to smell a breath of spring in two to three weeks when the fragrant flowers open.

Not everyone on my Christmas list enjoys the process of preparing bulbs for forcing, but they still like the midwinter flowers. These lucky folks may find a basket of ready-to-grow daffodils and tulips in a FedEx box on their doorstep in December. Shhh, it’s a surprise!

For a list of best hyacinth varieties and more detailed instructions for forcing them, see the article at the North Carolina State University website.

For ready-to-bloom bulb baskets, visit Dutch Gardens or Gardener’s Supply.

-Ann Whitman, Staff Horticulturist
Gardener's Supply

Let Them Eat Blueberries!

Volunteers turn abandoned land into neighborhood treasure.

Two of the Park's most committed volunteers, Mel and Delona, took a quick break to show me a new section they've begun clearing. Charlotte told me later, that these two, and another volunteer named Terry, logged 136 volnteer hours during October alone. Left to right: Mel, Me, Charlotte and Delona.

Earlier this fall, I got to spend a couple hours with one of our 2008 Garden Crusaders, Charlotte Valbert of Tacoma, Washington. Charlotte won this year’s award for restoration, in honor of her efforts to convert a 20-acre abandoned farm—just down the road from her house—into a community park.

This new park hadn’t been just any old farm and the park certainly isn’t any old park. It’s a park filled with blueberry plants—4,000 of them to be exact!

The story of Blueberry Park begins in 1940 when the land was planted with blueberries to create a large fruit farm. The berry farm operated successfully for almost 30 years. Then, in 1968, the farm closed and the land was sold to the Tacoma School District to build a new high school. Due to a number of factors, the school was never built, and for the next 30 years the land and the blueberry plants became slowly engulfed by blackberries, Scotch broom and other invasive species.

Here is one of the areas that was renovated several years ago. The bushes are now neatly shaped, well-mulched and very productive. Blueberry Park is a place where everyone is welcome to experience beauty, solitude, community and free blueberries. What a terrific idea!

Though sadly neglected, the blueberry bushes continued to grow and produce. Local residents took advantage of the bounty, filling their buckets with free blueberries all summer long. Many would bring their own ladders to reach the berries, which were now clustered at the top of 20-foot tall “blueberry trees.” Charlotte told me, “People in this neighborhood have been picking these berries for generations. Many of the older residents earned pocket money that way.”

When Charlotte first moved to East Tacoma, 21 years ago, she and her husband would walk through the fields to reach shops on the other side of the farm. But by 1999, that wasn’t possible. “You couldn’t even get off the curb, that is how overgrown the land had become,” she said.

Charlotte felt strongly that this land, and the blueberry plants on it, were a community asset far too valuable to waste. The area is surrounded by 660 single family homes; thousands of adults and children without access to open space. Charlotte also knew that to clear the land and renovate the blueberry plants, she would need lots of help.

After consulting with a range of experts, Charlotte made a plan. First on the list was cutting down, digging out and hauling away the invasive plants. “As for the blueberry plants”, she said, “I was told that if we cut them down to about 12” high, they would re-grow and be producing again in three years.” Charlotte organized the first volunteer workday in May of 1999, and since then, 2,129 volunteers have logged 9,138 hours, and as of 2008 all but 600 of the 4,000 plants have been cleaned out and pruned back.

Charlotte goes out of her way to make sure that visitors to the Park recognize the donors and volunteers who have make its existence possible.

Thanks to Charlotte’s dedicated attention and boundless enthusiasm, Blueberry Park has become a region-wide gathering place. “People come from all over to the park. There are plenty of berries for everyone, and great diversity in the ethnic groups of our blueberry pickers,” she says. “When you’re out there picking, it’s a chorus of different languages. I think people need to be continually reminded that open space is necessary for mental health. It’s so important to have a place that is quiet, where kids can run around in nature. It’s just a marvelous use of open space,” she said.

Charlotte is the busiest and most energetic 80-year old person I’ve ever met. Driving around the neighborhood with her, touring the park, and listening in on animated conversations with friends and neighbors (all of which happened in a two-hour visit!) I started to get a sense of what a remarkable woman she is. We salute Charlotte and honor the time, energy and creativity she has provided to fuel the creation of Tacoma’s Blueberry Park.

Read more about all the 2008 Garden Crusader Winners.

-Kathy LaLiberte
Director of Gardening, Gardener's Supply

Kale Too Good to Eat

Leafy vegetable takes center stage as fall draws to a close.

This kale does get top-heavy and I've staked mine with bamboo canes. Due to my haphazard staking job, the plants have fallen flat to the ground a couple times. But I've managed to right them in stages, doing it right after a rain when the soil is moist.

One of the most impressive crops in my fall vegetable garden is a curly purple kale called 'Redbor'. I only have three plants, but they're located right in the middle of the garden and stand almost 4 feet tall. Though I planted them in late May, they didn't begin to assert themselves until September. As the tomatoes, peppers, beans and other warm-season crops made their way to the compost pile, these kale plants took center stage and in the cooler weather they really started to put on growth.

I will definitely plant more Redbor kale next year. Not because I like eating it (I find this variety a bit tough and prefer the narrow-leaved kale called Cavlo Nero). The reason I love this plant is because it's so beautiful at this time of year. In the summer when the gardens are filled with flowers, this plant wouldn't get a second look. But now you can see it from across the yard, silhouetted against the sky, or against the autumn foliage on the hillside. The leaves are dark purple—almost black—and they're highlighted with pink and lavender and blue. I've been using the leaves in arrangements for months now.

I used kale leaves to anchor this autumn arrangement and provide a foil for the bold reds and oranges of Asiatic lilies, winterberry and sedum.

-Kathy LaLiberte Director of Gardening, Gardener's Supply

Update on Bats

Make these mosquito-eating fliers welcome in your garden.

Bats taking flight from the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, home to the largest bat colony in the U.S.

Silverwing, one of the books my kids and I read when they were in middle school, made a lasting impression on us. The hero of the story is a young silver-haired bat named Shade. The characters are based on the lives of real bat species and the book takes readers through their adventurous, and often misadventurous, migration. Like many great books, this one tells a page-turning story while introducing the reader to a new dimension of the world. By the time we had finished the book and its sequels, our family had a stronger appreciation for bats’ roles in the natural world and the challenges they face.

Bats aren’t highly visible animals because they sleep during the day and are active after most of us have gone inside for the night. They play a critical role in the natural world, however. Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly and, surprisingly, bat species account for as many as 20 percent of the mammal species in the world. Most of the 47 bat species native to the United States eat primarily insects, many of them agricultural and economic pests, such as mosquitoes, leaf hoppers, June bugs, corn earworm moths, and stinkbugs. They can eat half their own body weight in insects each night, and nursing females eat twice that amount. Some are important pollinators, too.

Austin, Texas is one place that bats are quite visible and celebrated. The crevices under the Congress Avenue Bridge house up to 1.5 million bats during peak season in late summer. Tourists flock to the area to watch the bats take flight each evening at dusk and can even call a hot line for information about best viewing times and locations.

Bats roost during the day and hunt mosquitoes and other insects at night.

One way to help bats and bring these beneficial animals to your garden is to provide them with a place to roost. Bats need cozy cracks and crevices where they can hang during the day, safe from predators and weather. Well-constructed and properly placed bat shelters or houses are usually occupied within two years. For more information on bat houses visit the Bat Conservation International web site.

My kids have grown, but bats are back on my radar this year due to the wrenching discovery that thousands of them throughout the northeastern U.S. are dying mysteriously. Entire colonies of hibernating bats have been wiped out and threatened species are increasingly endangered. A species of fungus that thrives in the cold, called geomyces, appears on the skin and faces of hibernating bats, giving them a white-nosed appearance. Scientists are still working to find out how the fungus may be linked to the bat deaths. Read the latest research.

When I sit on my deck on summer evenings, I watch bats swoop gracefully after their prey and silently thank them for every mosquito they munch.

-Ann Whitman
Staff Horticulturist, Gardener's Supply

What to Eat in Mid-November

Even though cold weather has arrived, the garden remains productive.

Arugula

It's mid-November here in zone 4, and there's still plenty to eat in my vegetable garden. Most prolific and versatile is the arugula. I have been eating it almost every day since September and there's still LOTS. I eat it raw as salad, chop and sauté it with shallots and mix it into pasta or white beans. I eat it on pizza, put it in sandwiches, or just munch on it when I'm outside. My next door neighbor comes over once or twice a week to fill up a plastic bag for herself. Another friend does the same.

I planted several different types of arugula in the middle of August—filling in empty spots in the garden as other plants were removed. I could start nibbling leaves about a month later and it really started to come on strong around the end of September. Though the plants can take a light frost, by early October we're getting hard frosts. So I covered all the plants with hoops and GardenQuilt. They've been thriving in this little microclimate, which buffers them from temperature extremes than have ranged from 72 degrees to 18 degrees.

Kale

I could go on and on about my arugula but instead I'll mention a couple other vegetables that I'm still harvesting fresh: cavalo nero (lacinata kale) is at its best (I think!) when blanched and then sautéed in olive oil. I usually remove the center stalks. Gutsy in texture and flavor, it's one of those plants that makes your body say "YES!" when you eat it.

Leeks

There are also plenty of leeks, which I've barely started to harvest because I'm still finishing up the last of the sweet onions. Usually one of the vegetable garden beauties, they're now looking bedraggled on the outside, but the eating part is fine. I'll be banking them with straw this weekend so they'll still be in good shape for Thanksgiving dinner.

Beets

Then there are the beets, both golden and red. I'm partial to the golden ones because they don't "bleed". Johnny's Selected Seeds offered a new variety of golden beets this year (Touchstone Gold) that I was thrilled to confirm has a much higher germination rate than other golden beets. I planted most of my beets sometime in June, and though I could have started harvesting them in August, they are the most patient of vegetables and are just waiting their turn, getting sweeter by the day. I usually peel them first, cut into big chunks, toss with olive oil, cover with foil and roast in a 400 degree oven until tender. I sometimes add garlic or shallots, sometimes carrots, potatoes or squash. Roasted root vegetables make a great lunch.

These fall vegetables are not only free, organic, nutritious, fresh and right outside the door—they're also delicious. They feel like the right foods to be eating at this time of year—earth energy to fuel our bodies as we come indoors for winter.

-Kathy LaLiberte
Director of Gardening, Gardener's Supply

Leaf Shredding is Fun

Turn fallen leaves into a crumbly topping for your garden.

The Deluxe Electric Leaf Shredder. Adding leaves in small amounts ensures good results.

Even though I'm all grown up, I still get a boyish thrill from destroying things. The Deluxe Electric Leaf Shredder provides the perfect opportunity for some loud, violent destruction. And after a year of tending, coaxing, watering and weeding the garden, I'm ready for a little annhilation. The best part is that it's all for a good cause: The leaves get raked up and turned into a soil-enhancing, crumbly topping for my flower beds.

At first, I couldn't justify the purchase of a shredder because my small, urban yard has very few leaves. However, there's a community composting operation, Intervale Compost, located just down the road from my house, and it's the collection point for leaves from all over the county. The best part is, the leaves have been raked up by other people and are already neatly packed in those big brown paper bags. How convenient can it get?

The big haul: Pre-bagged and ready to shred!

You never know exactly what's in the bags, but if they're not too heavy, you can assume that they're filled with dry leaves. I arrived at Intervale Compost with an empty truck and drove off with 13 of those jumbo paper bags. I received a few strange looks from folks who were dropping off their gardening debris, but I got what I wanted without having to pick up a rake—definitely worth a little embarassment.

Before you start, make sure you have hearing protection and safety glasses. The shredder is loud, and debris can come flying out of the hopper. Long pants and long sleeves are a good idea, too.

Once you're all suited up, let the destruction begin! The shredder fits nicely over a 30-gallon garbage can, or you can collect the shreds in a tubtrug. I found that you can't dump great globs of leaves into the hopper because it gets bogged down. The best approach: Pour the leaves in slowly right from the bag, or add handfuls. If the machine seems to slow down a bit, reduce the rate. As soon as the motor hits full speed again, start adding more leaves. It's easy to get a rhythm going, and soon, your bucket is full.

The finished product

There are many ways to use shredded leaves. I use the leaves to top-dress my perennial beds. I spread a 1-2" layer and let it sit all winter. In the spring, I turn it into the soil. My rhododendrons, which are meant to grow in the duff that accumulates on the forest floor, get an extra-thick coating of shredded leaves. My friend Kathy uses the shreds to make leaf mold, which will, in spring, be ready for mulching her beds.

For now, the shredder is put away. But there are still leaves to fall ... I might make another trip to the collection center and get a few more of those bags. It's just so darn easy!

-David Grist
Online Content Coordinator, Gardener's Supply

Last-Minute Fall Chores

Bamboo teepee saves foundation plantings.

Step 1: Set up bamboo teepee.

In the winter, my foundation plants, both evergreen and deciduous, take a beating from the snow that comes off the roof of our house. Each spring they seem to be back to the same size they were three years ago when I first planted them. I have been planning to build some wooden shrub protectors, but this weekend I realized that it was already November and that wasn’t going to happen.

Instead of doing nothing, I decided on a plan B. I put three faux bamboo stakes in a teepee formation over the shrubs that typically sustain the worst snow damage. I then wrapped burlap around the outside of the teepee and tied everything together with twine. I am hoping this will be a successful low-cost (and last minute) way to help these plants get themselves established and actually put on some new growth next spring.

Step 2: Cover with burlap.

-Susan Romanoff
Creative Director, Gardener's Supply

Uncommon Groundcovers

Our staff gardener recommends four plants with a promising future.

European Weeping Larch

When I think of ground covers, I usually think of herbaceous plants, such as vinca, pachysandra and wild ginger, to name a few. If you are looking to cover a large area and wish to use something different than the old standby ground covers, you may want to consider using woody plants. In our display gardens in Burlington’s Intervale, we have a ground cover garden on a small, relatively steep bank. The garden features low-growing evergreen and deciduous shrubs that display a nice assortment of flowers, foliage and fruit.

Though this was only the garden’s second season, already things are starting to creep and fill the space. I’m sure by next year this area will be a mosaic of greens, whites, pinks, and reds. There are several plants in this garden that are worth mentioning.

Rose Carpet Indigo (Indigofera pseudotinctoria ‘Rose Carpet’) is a low-maintenance ground cover that can be cut right back to the ground in the late winter or early spring (as you might do with a buddleia). In June and July, the plant is covered with dark pink, pea-shaped flowers. The compound, pinnate leaves are covered with small leaflets, giving this plant a delicate presence. Rose Carpet indigo stays just 6-12" high, with a mature width of 2-4 feet. It performs best in full sun. Hardy in zones 5-8.

One of the shrubs just planted in the ground cover garden this past spring was Pawnee Buttes Sand Cherry (Prunus besseyi). This western U.S. native looks great through the seasons. It has fragrant white flowers in the spring followed by black cherries in the summer. The fruits are attractive to birds and if you can beat the birds, make great jam/jelly. In autumn, the foliage turns a beautiful bronze-red. The attractive silvery bark provides winter interest, when not completely covered by snow. Pawnee Buttes gets to an average of 15-18" high with a spread of 4-6 feet. Hardy in zones 4-8.

Common Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), also known as kinnikinnick, is another low-growing shrub that looks great in every season. This member of the heath family is native to North America, where it is found on relatively sandy, acidic soils. At maturity, it has an impressive spread of up to 15 feet, but it is a slow grower that stays quite low to the ground, topping out at just 6-12" high. The shiny, evergreen leaves are small and contrast nicely with the white/pink spring flowers and red berries in the fall. Bearberry has several traditional medicinal uses, as an astringent and as a diuretic to treat bladder problems. Bearberry is an all-around amazing plant! Hardy in zones 2-6.

The last ground cover plant to mention is European Weeping Larch (Larix decidua ‘Pendula’). This larch is often grafted into a tree form or staked so it grows more upright. When left to its own devices, it forms a beautiful ground cover. The delicate, feathery needles turn bright yellow in the fall and are then shed for the winter. Pendula is a fast-grower, so be sure to leave it plenty of space to roam. Hardy in zones 3-6.

So, the next time you are thinking about ground cover options, pass on the more aggressive growers, such as ajuga and pachysandra, and try one of these interesting, low-growing shrubs. I think you’ll be glad you did!

-Sarah Taparauskas, Staff Gardener
Gardener's Supply