George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

Where the Rain Doesn’t Reach

August 10th, 2021

   Those summer rains can be a little tricky when it comes to keeping plants happy.

Just because we get a heavy rain doesn’t mean it’s reached all of our plant roots.

   Just because we’ve had a downpour doesn’t mean water has made it to where it counts, which is down to just below and all around our plant roots.

   Young and newly planted plants are particularly susceptible to these fakeouts.

   One problem spot is where the rains don’t reach at all.

   Tops on that list is under roof overhangs. These can sometimes reach out two or more feet over walls, blocking rain from falling on anything you’ve planted that close to the structure.

   Keep an eye on plants in these spots because you might have to water them even in rainy weather.

   A second sneakily dry area is under trees… especially big shade trees.

   For one thing, raindrops can be blocked and/or absorbed by the thick leaf canopies, limiting how much water actually makes it to the ground.

   Then the rain that makes it through the canopy has to penetrate the mulch layer that most people have around their plants under trees.

   Depending on how thick that layer is (and it shouldn’t be any more than about three inches around shrubs and one to two inches around perennials and groundcovers), it can take an inch or more of rain just to reach the soil surface under the mulch.

   Rain that gets soaked up by mulch is a factor anywhere, by the way… not just under trees.

Failure to Thrive

August 3rd, 2021

   Plants sometimes just aren’t happy where you put them.

This azalea is being stunted by big tree roots nearby.

   Good plants just sit there and seemingly sulk, barely growing or worse – starting down that road to a slow death.

   Once you realize you’re dealing with a “failure-to-thrive” situation, the best thing you can do (usually) is dig up the plant and try again.

   Sometimes just improving the soil and replanting in the same place is enough to make a big difference.

   Other times, moving the plant to a more amenable location turns the table.

   From what I’ve seen over the years, two main factors are behind most cases of stunted growth – 1.) lousy soil and 2.) wrong location.

How Native Do You Have to Go to Make the Birds and Bees Happy?

July 27th, 2021

   The designers of Penn State Arboretum’s new Pollinator and Bird Garden leaned heavily on research to determine the features, layout, and plant selection of this three-acre garden, which opened last month just down Park Avenue from Beaver Stadium.

That’s non-native yarrow and betony growing in Penn State’s new Pollinator and Bird Garden.

   Spots of it are very colorful already.

   But what struck me during my opening-day visit was that almost all of the showiest plants were non-native perennials – yarrow, Russian sage, catmint, salvia, and one of my favorite summer perennials, betony ‘Hummelo’ with its long-lasting flower spikes of pinkish-purple.

   What gives? Aren’t we supposed to be planting native plants if we want to attract pollinators?

   Well, yes and no.

   Just about everybody agrees that on the whole, native plants are the best bet for attracting the most bees, pollinating insects, birds, and hummingbirds.

   It’s hard to go wrong pollinator-wise if you load up the yard on nothing but natives.

   But the message that not everybody is getting is that many non-native plants – especially perennials – are also useful to pollinators.

   Dr. Douglas Tallamy, author of the ground-breaking “Bringing Nature Home” book (Timber Press, $19.95, 2009) says that of the top 50 pollinator-attracting perennials, 34 of them are U.S. natives… which means that 16 are not.

   That’s important because of the not-always-mentioned fact that a lot of native perennials just aren’t that great-looking to people.

   Some have unimpressive blooms, some have floppy, “messy” growth habits, many look “beat-up” at times (usually from the feeding activities of the desired pollinators), and some seed around to the point of weediness.

   When people aren’t expecting that and/or aren’t OK with that, the result can be a bad experience and a return to the traditional lawn.

   “The truth is a lot of pollinator plants are not that exciting to people,” said Dr. Harland Patch, a Penn State entomologist who’s director of pollinator programming at Penn State Arboretum. “So what we’ve done is interplant good pollinator plants with the best of the non-natives… Purism is not the point of this.”

That “Wow” First View

July 20th, 2021

   Real-estate agents often harp about how important it is for a house to have “good curb appeal” because that’s the first thing potential buyers see… and what forms their critical first impression.

This is what you see first when entering Karl Mattson’s Gettysburg back yard.

   The same holds true for a landscape. What you see in that first view tells you you’re about to behold something special – or will need a machete to get to the back yard.

   I mention this because I just saw a textbook example of a yard with a superb first view – the two-acre property of Karl Mattson in Gettysburg.

   Mattson’s yard was on the 2021 Dillsburg Garden Tour and was the pre-tour “don’t-miss” favorite despite being a nearly 30-minute drive from the rest of the pack.

   That puts some pressure on a garden right off the bat because expectations are high. I’ve found that hyped gardens often disappoint, not necessarily because they’re not good but because you’re expecting “great” and then even “very good” seems somehow ordinary or expected.

   When I pulled into the shaded driveway of Mattson’s yard right next to a section of the Gettysburg Battlefield, the front yard featured several large, neat, swooping, and diverse beds.

   Obviously, a plant-appreciator lived there.

   But that’s not what was the first view in my mind. To me, the real “first view” was when I walked to the end of the driveway and took a look into the back yard.

   Instant “wow!”

   The view was like a cover shot from Better Homes and Gardens magazine – a pond with waterfall in the foreground, flanking large black urns surrounded by magenta verbena, a tapestry of lush, multi-textured plants, and the coup de grace, a thatched wooden gazebo nestled between a pair of tall shade trees.

Delaware Botanical Gardens: More There Than I Expected

July 13th, 2021

   Sometimes I’m disappointed when I see a highly hyped garden for the first time or see a formerly superb garden that’s going downhill.

DelBot’s Oudolf-designed meadow is hitting peak form this summer.

   Other times, though, I’m pleasantly surprised by gardens that aren’t hailed or even much known at all.

   The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens falls into that latter category.

   So does the young 42-acre Stoneleigh Garden in Philadelphia’s Villanova area.

   Now I can add another entry to my “underrated” list – the new Delaware Botanic Gardens, located near the town of Dagsboro in southern Delaware, nearly a four-hour drive from Harrisburg.

   This 37-acre public garden was open only a year before Covid shut it down last year.

   It’s only now reopening under “normal” conditions four days a week after a second spring of timed admissions, mask rules, and difficulty recruiting the pre-Covid level of volunteers. (Hours are Thursday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.)

   For being such a new garden with a jinxed infancy, DelBot is surprisingly well along. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and found more there already than I had read and thought.

   The garden’s main claim to fame is a 2-acre meadow designed by the famous Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. Oudolf is best known for designs that use a quilt-like matrix of grand swoops and clumps of assorted colorful perennials and grasses.

   New York’s High Line and Battery parks and Chicago’s Lurie Garden are three of his best known US works.

   Getting him to design a fledgling garden nowhere near a major metropolitan area was a bit of a coup. But the ambitious DelBot planners asked, and Oudolf came, looked, and ultimately said he’d be honored to design the meadow.