George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

Survivor Plants

June 18th, 2024

   Way back when I was a Cub Scout leader, we started the year by having the boys discuss what the pack’s rules should be.

These inkberry hollies aren’t doing a very good job of surviving in this challenging commercial seting.

   The 8-year-olds’ first suggestion was, “No killing.”

   I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it was definitely a good place to start.

   That also happens to be a good place to start with your planting/replanting plans.

   Unfortunately, we kill way too many plants.

   A lot of it can be traced to a few key troubles, such as atrocious “soil,” erratic and extreme weather, bugs, plant diseases, and my most frustrating gardening challenge, animal damage (especially deer).

   Yes, a lot can go wrong.

   That’s why I’m a disciple of the Mayhem School of Landscape Design. Its leading principle is to first select tough plants that are likely to survive abuse, then worry about color, texture, forms, bloom times, etc.

   After all, a dead plant is a bad plant (except possibly for a Harry Lauder’s walking stick or a Japanese maple painted silver in an Ikebana arrangement).

   No matter how cool the plant looks in the pot or how common it is in garden centers, if it has a good chance of croaking, it’s not a great choice.

   Garden long enough and you’ll sort out the survivors from the wimps.

Pruning in Artful Ways

June 4th, 2024

   June is one of the busiest months of the year for pruning.

Pruning to many people means shearing the shrubs into “green meatballs.”

   It’s prime time to size-control the evergreens, trim the hedges, and thin out and cut back the flowering shrubs that bloomed earlier in spring, such as azaleas, lilacs, weigelas, and deutzias.

   For most people, pruning means getting out the power shears (or chainsaw) and “whacking back the bushes” into balls and boxes.

   While the resulting “green meatballs” might be quick to do and the norm in American landscaping, they’re not the ideal way to prune woody plants.

   All of that tight trimming encourages dense growth that shuts off light to all but the outer leaves and slows the drying of leaves in humid or rainy weather, which translates into more incidence of disease.

   Healthier and far more interesting pruning techniques are possible.

   Some of them can turn a plain green bush into a work of art, and most of them take just a little know-how and willingness to try something different.

   Below are a few novel ways to cut in the landscape. If any intrigue you, please do more research because not all plants appreciate (or survive) all of the following techniques.

This yew has been thinned and shaped, not sheared into a ball.

Thinning

   Rather than whacking everything back around the perimeter, this type of pruning is done selectively, cut by cut, with hand pruners for the small branches and loppers for the bigger ones.

   The idea is to open the plant so light gets inside the canopy and encourages growth farther in. In sheared bushes, look inside, and you’ll notice how the inner branches are bare, with almost all of the growth occurring at the tips.

   Opening the canopy also improves air flow, which is one of the best natural disease-fighting strategies.

   Thinning a tree or shrub is best done early in the season before the plant leafs out. You can see the branch structure much better then. But June is also fine for plants other than those that are in bloom or yet to bloom this season.

   First, look for crossing branches and cut out one of the competitors back to where it emerges from the trunk or a bigger branch.

   Then look for areas where several twigs or branches are coming out from the same general area. Identify the one that’s growing in the best direction and remove the rest.

   Third, look for branches that are growing inward. Remove those, too, or cut them back to just above a bud or branch that’s facing outward to re-direct the growth.

   Finally, stand back and look to see if the plant is evenly balanced and open evenly throughout. If not, remove or shorten branches until you’re happy.

   This type of pruning leaves you with more natural-looking plants, but it can be done with formal hedging, too. Thin first, then trim after you’ve opened each plant a bit.

This apple tree has been espaliered into three levels of “arms.”

Espalier

   Here’s a space-saving technique that looks a lot harder to pull off than it really is.

   Espaliering (es-PAH-lee-aying) trains plants to grow vertically and nearly flat upwards by 1.) tying selected young branches to a frame, 2.) pruning off everything that wants to grow out or back, and 3.) shortening the remaining branches each year to stay within the chosen pattern.

   The classic form is a double or triple cordon in which one branch is trained coming out to the right, one opposite it coming out to the left, and then one or two more layers a foot or two above that first set of “arms.”

   By tying branches to pre-installed frames, you can make those branches go up and out most any way you’d like – into candelabras, fans, or crisscrossing “Belgian fences.”

   This is a great way to dress up a wall or fence where you don’t have a lot of bed width to work with. Plus, it really makes it look like you know what you’re doing.

The Eight Most Important Things I’ve Learned About Growing Vegetables

May 21st, 2024

   I’ve been growing home-garden vegetables in Pennsylvania for 44 years now, which I suppose qualifies me as a seasoned, old, compost-stained soil jockey.

Good soil and raised beds are the two most important pathways to veggie-gardening success.

   Although I’ll admit I still can’t out-smart a groundhog or out-maneuver a deer, I have learned to circumvent many of the other obstacles that stand in the way of picking a peck of edible peppers.

   As we embark on a new growing season, I thought it might be helpful to pass along some of what I’ve learned before limping off to the old folks’ home.

   Here are the eight lessons I think are most important…

Success starts (or ends) in the soil.

   Hardly anyone has good soil, so success isn’t likely by just stripping off the grass and planting into virgin ground.

   Vegetables are mostly annual plants that start from scratch each year and need loose, well drained soil for those fledgling roots to graduate into dinner. Our typical array of shale, red/yellow clay, and “builder’s soil” (subsoil topped with six inches of clay and shale following home-builder grading) doesn’t supply that.

   To have a fighting chance, vegetables need deeply loosened soil (ideally a foot down) that’s thoroughly blended in a three-to-one or four-to-one ration with compost, rotted leaves, mushroom soil, aged cow manure, and/or similar organic matter.

   Also important up-front is investing in a do-it-yourself, mail-in Penn State soil test kit to get a read on your soil’s pH (acidity level) and nutrition breakdown to determine what fertilizer and other amendments might be needed (if any).

   Penn State soil test kits are available for $10 at county Extension offices, most garden centers, or online at Penn State’s soil-testing lab.

Raised beds are the way to go.

   An even better way to deal with the aforementioned lousy soil situation is to construct planting boxes and fill them with compost-rich soil mixes, bypassing what’s underneath altogether.

   Figure on at least six inches of depth (10 or 12 inches is better) if you’re going right on top the ground. A layer of cardboard, sections of newspaper, or similar decayable lining underneath will help kill off existing turfgrass and/or weeds.

   It’s also fine to create a “hybrid” bed by both digging into the soil and then adding four to six additional raised inches of “good stuff.” Just be sure to mix everything together rather than creating distinctive layers.

   Most people build boxes to contain the soil (stone, blocks, brick, recycled plastic timbers, or rot-resistant boards), but you can just mound up the beds without any edging.

   Four-foot bed widths are ideal to let you reach in from both sides without ever having to walk on and compact your loose, fluffy soil.

Read George’s PennLive column on how to build and fill raised-bed gardens

Plant varieties make a huge difference.

   Some particular varieties of each crop yield better, taste better, or fight off bugs and disease better than others. It pays to invest in the best performers to give yourself a genetic advantage right off the bat. Cheapie seeds are usually inferior.

   Research varieties, compare notes with friends, or experiment until you find the ones that do best in your garden.

   Or check out the list of my favorite all-time specific varieties for 24 different vegetables.

Not Your Grandma’s Flowers

May 7th, 2024

   If you’re like most gardeners, you’ll probably gravitate to the petunias, marigolds, zinnias, and begonias in the next few weeks because, well, that’s just what you plant every May.

Mecardonia Garden Freckles in bloom.

   Most of these old-favorite annual flowers still do a reliable job in filling the beds with summer-long color. But if you’re willing to try something different – or just plain tired of planting the same-old same-old every year – garden centers and greenhouses are offering way more choices than ever.

   Plant breeders have made big strides lately in improving under-used annual flowers, while plant hunters have introduced several new species that weren’t available at all in Grandma’s day.

   Here’s a look at 10 of these off-the-beaten-path annuals for your 2024 garden beds and flower pots:

Mecardonia

   This three- to four-inch-tall gold-blooming creeper came along only a few years ago and is scarcely known even by avid gardeners.

   However, it’s heavy in bloom, not attractive to animals, as good in the ground as trailing out of pots and baskets, and excellent in heat and drought (just avoid wet clay or too much shade).

   Gold Dust is a variety I planted and was impressed with.

Petchoa

   Petchoas are a new cross between the familiar petunia and the similar but smaller-flowered calibrachoa (also known as “million bells”).

   They offer the best traits of both parents, resulting in a heavy-blooming trailer with the flower power of petunias and the brighter colors of calibrachoa.

   These are best grown in containers or hanging baskets, in full sun to light shade, and they come in a wide variety of bright, pastel, and bicolor shades.

   Caliburst Yellow and the EnViva series are two good choices you’re most likely to run across.

White euphorbia in a pot and close up.

Euphorbia

   This mounded, white-blooming one- to two-footer looks like the popular wedding flower baby’s breath, but it’s actually more closely related to the poinsettia.

   Annual euphorbias hit the market about 20 years ago with the introduction of a variety called Diamond Frost. Now you’ll find multiple varieties that are both heavier blooming and more compact, plus a few pink-tinged beauties.

   Euphorbias are highly animal-resistant and grow best in full sun, in pots or in the ground.

Angelonia

   Also new in the past 20 to 25 years, angelonias send up 12- to 18-inch flower spikes that look like a cross between snapdragons and orchids.

   The flowers might seem dainty, but these plants are exceptionally tough in heat and drought and hardly ever bothered by bugs, disease, or animals.

   Angelonias come in purple, pink, white, bluish-purple, and lavender, and they do best in full sun. The Angel Wing and Angel Face series are excellent, and the Serena and Serenita series are superb compact choices.

Navigating Our New Gardening Weather

April 23rd, 2024

   When is it “safe” to plant the tomatoes and summer flowers?

Our frost dates are changing. It may be possible to get an earlier start to the season… but keep the row covers handy!

   That’s a question gardeners wring their compost-stained hands over every year at this time – especially the eager ones who don’t want to miss a day of potential frost-free grow time.

   Not that long ago, Harrisburg-area gardeners could rely on the long-held rule of thumb that the last frost of spring usually happened somewhere around early May. And so the word on the street was that you waited until after Mother’s Day to pull the trigger on the marigolds, petunias, tomatoes, and such.

   However, if you go by what’s been happening since 2000, that Mother’s Day milestone is outdated and in most years gives up two weeks or more of frost-free time.

   According to National Weather Service climate data from 2000 to 2023, the average last killing-frost date for the Middletown/Harrisburg area is April 11.

   Last spring, the Middletown/Harrisburg area had its last killing frost on April 9.

   You might be surprised at how early those dates are, but keep in mind that those are average and one-year figures.

   What can happen in any given spring is far iffier.

   That’s why gardeners – at least the cautious ones – still look to the all-time latest frost date when timing their planting of summer vegetables and annual flowers.

   In the Harrisburg area, that date is May 11 – or in other words, the Mother’s Day guideline.

   In the outlying regions to the north of Harrisburg, it’s still possible to get a rogue late frost into late May.

   The bottom line is that it’s a matter of how much risk you want to take before pulling the tender-plant trigger – or if you have enough sheets or floating row cover to cover those plants if you guess wrong.

   If you’re a data-driven person, the National Gardening Association has an interactive online tool that lets you type in your Zip code and then see what the odds are that the temperatures will go down to 32 degrees or below at various points in March, April, and May.

   And if it’s recent track record that you like better, the National Weather Service has a chart showing the actual last dates that temperatures went down to at least 32 degrees in the Middletown/Harrisburg area over the past 23 years.

   Here are those dates: