George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

Eight Weed Mistakes

July 26th, 2022

   One day earlier this month while down on my knees doing battle with the oxalis, it occurred to me that a lot can go wrong in a gardener’s weed-fighting efforts.

Oxalis is one of my many new weed nemeses.

   A lot can go wrong anywhere in the garden, for that matter. But narrowing it down to weeds, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or even make things worse by not pulling the right levers.

   On the other hand, this is one battle we can win if we do enough things right.

   After 34 years of tending my previous Cumberland County third of an acre, weeds were little more than a minor annoyance.

   To get there, though, I muddled and botched my way through plenty of lessons. I thought I’d share eight of them with you here… on the off-chance that you’re getting fed up with a never-ending stream of green invaders by now.

   1.) The curse of bare ground. Ever hear the saying that “weeds are nature’s way of healing bare soil?” It’s true because bare soil erodes, and the way nature conserves soil is by putting something there to keep it in place.

   That “something” is usually the first plant that can seed or creep its way into an opening and then muster enough gumption to fend off competitors. Weeds fit that description.

   The solution is to fill all ground with plants that you want, whether it’s grass in a lawn, wall-to-wall shrubs and perennials in a border bed, or groundcovers under a tree.

   You might’ve heard the saying that “if you have too many weeds, you don’t have enough plants.” That one’s also true.

   If you don’t/can’t be fully planted, the second best thing is to keep the ground covered with enough organic mulch that it keeps a lid on the germination of new weed seeds.

   2.) Never let a weed go to seed. It’s easy for weed troubles to spiral out of control if you run low on yanking stamina, hurt your back, get busy on other things, go away for two weeks in June, or any number of other weed-diverting activities.

   Weeds are such prolific seeders that if you let them mature enough to produce viable seeds, a single plant can sometimes lead to thousands of new weeds.

No Blueberries for Me

July 19th, 2022

   I’m beginning to think that maybe nature has banned me from the blueberry list.

The blueberry production I used to get.

   At my previous place in Cumberland County, I harvested quarts of tasty berries every summer from five blueberry bushes I planted along my western backyard border.

   The main thing I learned was to drape and secure a sturdy plastic mesh net over the plants just as the berries were forming so the birds wouldn’t get them first.

   One year I experimented without a net and didn’t get a single berry. Birds ate every last one a few days before each berry was about to ripen.

   With a net in place, I found blueberries to be reliable, trouble-free producers that needed very little care and no spraying. I even considered them to be the easiest fruit crop to grow in a home garden.

   Ah, the good old days.

   Fast-forward to my Pittsburgh “landscape,” and my harvest from seven plants this summer has been a smattering adding up to little more than a pint.

   Like everything else here, it’s been an uphill battle in the blueberry patch.

Cracking the Deer Plant-Monitoring Network

July 12th, 2022

   I’ve long suspected that deer have some sort of sophisticated, yard-monitoring network that lets them take maximum advantage of the plants that gardeners set out.

How did deer pick out hostas from behind a juniper planting, above a three-foot brick wall, and hidden between bleeding hearts and hellebores?

   Now I’m sure.

   There’s just too much efficiency going on to assume that simple-minded deer happen to wander by and find certain target plants for dinner almost as soon as they’re in the ground.

   I think the truth might involve satellites and a scent-driven radar system.

   Four episodes in one night nailed it down for me.

   One was the six-pack of ‘Denver Daisy’ rudbeckias that I planted in two different spots of my front yard – one of them within five feet of my front bay window (not a spot where you’d think a deer would want to go).

   Rudbeckia isn’t a species deer particularly like. Yet three of my new ‘Denver Daisies’ didn’t even make it until the next morning. A neighborhood deer – probably a low-ranking one in the local squadron due to the risky window-side location – devoured the ready-to-open flower buds and stems in the cover of darkness.

These ‘Denver Daisy’ rudbeckias didn’t even make it unscathed through 12 hours in the garden.

   The fact that the deer didn’t eat all six tells me that he/she wasn’t very fond of the plants. My hunch is that he/she was assigned to send me a “we’re-in-charge-here” message, but he/she couldn’t quite stomach the full assignment.

   You could argue this was happenstance, that deer were passing by and were astute enough to pick out these newbies from the hundreds of other plants in my front yard (all ones low on the deer-preference scale and ones that haven’t already been eaten in the past three years).

   But I’ve seen and heard so many reports of instant devouring that I think a more logical explanation is that higher-ranking deer back at headquarters are monitoring our planting activities, most likely using satellites.

Are You Suffering from These Gardening Diseases?

June 28th, 2022

   Gardeners are prone to all sorts of medical and psychological afflictions not faced by the “normal” population.

This poor soul is suffering a bout of chlorophyllosis.

   Maybe it’s the price we pay to conquer the many threats and curveballs involved in getting things to grow.

   I thought I’d go over nine of these maladies that aren’t even well known in the medical community.

Chlorophyllosis

   This is a gardener’s disease that usually strikes in May and involves an uncontrollable urge to dig out turfgrass and replace it with landscape plants. It tends to be chronic.

   Symptoms include sudden bursts of adrenalin on weekends plus confusion and temporary loss of judgment at nurseries and garden centers. If uncontrolled, it can lead to bank overdrafts, and in severe cases, roof-top gardens.

   Treatment: Chlorophyll cream and lavender aromatherapy. Otherwise, move to a new home with a large bare lot, and get a second job.

Furraphobia

   This is an obsessive-compulsive disorder that involves an irrational fear of furry, four-legged, herbivores (especially deer, groundhogs, rabbits, and voles). Also common is a compulsion to examine plants for chewing damage every five minutes.

   Other symptoms include anxiety, irritability, insomnia, and night sweats (sometimes day sweats, too, after chasing furry intruders out the yard).

   Treatment: Anger-management therapy and possibly blood-pressure medication.

An attack of Cram Disease in progress.

Cram Disease

   One of the most common gardening disorders, Cram Disease is recognized by an inability to understand and follow written planting instructions.

   Symptoms include sore wrists from trowel overuse and garden beds packed so tightly with plants that even raindrops can’t get through.

   Treatment: No cure is known, and relapses are common.

Cliptomania

   Characterized by an uncontrollable urge to clip seed pods and tip cuttings from others’ plants, this psychological disorder gets worse with age and seems to strike females more than males.

   Symptoms include green fingers and a swollen purse.

   Treatment: Casts on both hands and avoidance of all cutting implements.

Nice… but Take Me Back Inside

June 20th, 2022

   I liked the new streamlined layout of the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show, which ended Sunday after being held outside for only the second time in its 194-year history.

The flower-lined beds leading into the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show.

   I also thought the display gardens were a cut above the 2021 ones, and I liked the spread-out conditions of FDR park’s 15-acre venue over the cattle-herd packing inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the show’s usual venue in non-COVID times.

See George’s Photo Gallery of scenes from 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show.

   That said, I’m ready for the show to go back to its “natural habitat” inside in early March.

   The one big thing an outdoor Philadelphia Flower Show in June can’t beat is the wow-inducing awe of going into a flower-scented, blooming-on-all-cylinders, 10-acre plant heaven when it’s still cold and dark outside.

   To me, that – and the amazing expertise of what the designers create on bare concrete in late winter – is what makes the Philadelphia Flower Show so special.

   No wonder the show is the biggest, longest-running, and, I’d argue, the best indoor flower show in the world.

   The show’s producer, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, hasn’t said yet what it plans to do next year. An announcement reportedly is in the works this week. (Update: PHS announced that the 2023 show will be going back inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center March 4-12, 2023.)