George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

My Least-Favorite Gardening Jobs

October 11th, 2022

   As I was finishing off the last few bucketfuls of my most recent 10-yard load of mulch, my back reminded me why I’m not a fan of this labor-heavy activity.

I’d rather have this spread on the ground than be king of the mulch mountain.

   Mulching might be great for discouraging weeds and keeping moisture in the soil, but it’s not much fun.

   “Brutal” better describes it when you have to carry five-gallon buckets of the stuff up steep slopes.

   The experience got me thinking about the gardening jobs that I like a lot better – ones that don’t involve ibuprofen.

   That led me to make a list of 14 gardening jobs and to rank them by how well I enjoy doing each of them.

   That was a worthwhile exercise because as I age, I realize I’m going to have to start reducing, eliminating, or hiring out some of the work. And I’d prefer to start by getting rid of the jobs I don’t like (or have a harder time doing) while hanging onto the jobs I like best for as long as possible.

   Your list might well be very different, but here’s how I rank the 14 jobs – from least favorite to most favorite. I’ll give you my seven least-favorite below and finish up with my seven most-favorite jobs next week.

   14.) Mulching. I like the look of newly mulched beds in addition to the weed-fighting, soil-feeding, and moisture-retaining benefits, but it’s just getting to be too much for an old guy.

   I seem to have a quota of about 100 bends in my back per day these days. Beyond that and it starts to hurt, as if warning me that something bad is going to happen if I don’t knock it off soon.

   Mulching puts me over the 100-bend limit before the first cubic yard is down.

   This is a no-brainer as the first job I’ll hire out.

Read why it always rains five minutes after George gets a mulch delivery

   13.) Emptying the compost bins. Composting is at the heart of good gardening. It’s an important thing to do, and I don’t mind the making part at all.

2023 Philadelphia Flower Show Is Back Inside, and the Theme Is “The Garden Electric”

October 4th, 2022

   Those of you who wanted the Philadelphia Flower Show to go back inside after two years of COVID-forced outdoor shows will be getting your wish.

“The Garden Electric” is the 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show theme.

   The 2023 Philadelphia Flower Show will take place March 4-12, 2023, inside its former home of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12^th and Arch streets in center-city Philly.

   Show officials announced on Friday that the 2023 theme will be “The Garden Electric,” a topic that aims to capture the “spark of joy” that often comes with giving or getting flowers.

   Lowee’s Group Tours and I plan to host five day trips each weekday to the “shocking” 2023 show. We’ll “plug in” the details as soon as they’re ready on both my Talks and Trips page and Lowee’s Garden Series page. (OK, no more electric jokes. Promise.)

   The 195-year-old flower show, which is America’s biggest and the world’s longest-running horticultural event, had been staged over 10 acres of the Pennsylvania Convention Center since 1996.

   The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, which operates the show, was happy with that arrangement and was drawing some 250,000 visitors from around the world to see each year’s show.

   But then came COVID, and show officials had to decide whether to go to a Plan B or scrap the show altogether. They chose Plan B and held a pair of June shows outside over 15 acres of south Philly’s FDR Park in 2021 and 2022.

   Some people really liked the outdoor version and actually preferred June shows in FDR Park to end-of-winter indoor shows at the Convention Center.

Three More Deer Failures

September 27th, 2022

   Deer-plagued gardeners employ lots of tricks that supposedly work to keep deer from devouring the landscape.

This low-to-the-ground fishing-line barrier didn’t work for me.

   I’m here today to cross three more of them off the list.

   I don’t know if my deer are smarter, hungrier, or more persistent than the average deer, but my furry eating machines seem to be unstoppable short of everything but serious fencing and the religious application of proven repellents. Even then, I have to quality that with, “So far.”

   I’ve been trying all sorts of anti-deer measures for nearly four years now since moving from my deerless Cumberland County yard to the deer haven of the Pittsburgh suburbs.

   Despite selecting plants low on the deer-preference list and doing my best to discourage browsing, I’ve had a lot of surprising and seemingly random deer damage.

   My latest effort involved three strategies that at least some people say worked for them. All failed for me. Here’s what happened…

Editing the Landscape

September 20th, 2022

   One of the best ways to continually improve a landscape is to take stock of how things are going each year and then make changes and additions based on what you like – and don’t like.

I’m constantly on the lookout for ways to “edit” the landscape.

   September is an excellent time to do this “inspecting of the troops.”

   It’s good timing because we’ve had most of another whole season to see how things are going, plus it’s a good window for both planting and transplanting most plants.

   In central Pennsylvania, early fall is a time when temperatures cool, rain usually becomes more plentiful, and the soil stays warm enough long enough for good root establishment.

   I’ve long used this time to walk around the landscape with a critical eye and a clipboard to make notes on what changes I’d like to make.

   Even if I don’t do the deed this fall, I have notes ready to go for next season’s plantings and transplantings.

   Some things to look for while on inspection:

   1.) Plants that are struggling or dead. I’ve saved many a plant by recognizing early on that it’s in a bad spot or otherwise failing to thrive. Digging, improving the soil, and/or moving a struggler altogether is better than just letting a doomed plant slide downhill until death.

Read more about this in my post on “Failure to Thrive.”

   2.) Plants that are spreading too far or getting overgrown. This is a good time of year to assess this.

   One of the ways I’ve expanded my flock at no cost over the years is dividing and moving perennials. I’ve also filled many a new bed by transplanting young shrubs and evergreens that I otherwise would have had to start pruning to maintain size in their tighter original locations.

   I should mention here that most plants (especially young ones) transplant better than most gardeners think. Read my post on “Transplantaphobia” for more on how to maximize your success when moving plants.

Chip No Drop

September 13th, 2022

   I’ve used fresh wood chips for a variety of mulching jobs around my yard in the past, so I was eager to try a young web-based service that matches tree companies that have wood chips to get rid of with gardeners willing to take them.

Waiting for my load of wood chips to show up.

   The way it works is that you sign up for free on the ChipDrop website, then the service adds your name and address to a list that area arborists can access when they need to dump trees and branches they’ve chipped.

   I signed up June 22. However, after more than two months of waiting for a load, I gave up. I had to use my fall-back plan of paying $30 a yard for a delivery of shredded hardwood from the landscape supply company.

   I was hoping ChipDrop worked out because it’s a win-win idea that gets gardeners free (or very cheap) mulch while saving arborists the travel time and cost of disposing of chips.

   To its credit, ChipDrop does warn up front that there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get a delivery.

   The service says you can increase your delivery odds by being willing to pay the $20 fee that arborists otherwise are charged to access the drop-off list. I signed up to cover the $20.

   Despite that, my little marker bucket sat in the driveway for weeks with no chips in sight.

   Every few weeks, ChipDrop did email me a “sorry” notice and asked if I wanted to renew the request, which I did a couple of times.

   Maybe I just timed it badly or maybe not many arborists are using the service in my area. Maybe I’ll have better luck next time.

   At any rate, it didn’t work out for me. Have any of you had any experience with ChipDrop or other ways of getting free wood chips?