George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

This Plant Is Itching to Get Us

August 20th, 2019

   Plants are generally pretty docile and defenseless creations.

Here’s a clump of poison ivy growing up a chain-link fence.

   If your dog wants to dig up a daylily or you feel like decapitating a cabbage for dinner, there’s really not much the plants can do about it.

   Then there’s Toxicodendron radicans, better known as poison ivy.

   This is a plant that not just defends itself but goes on the offensive.

   Judging from the number of people I’ve heard complaining about it, this season seems to be a banner year for this gardener’s plague.

   Poison ivy’s key weapon is a potent oil called “urushiol,’ which causes an annoying to dreadfully painful skin rash in an estimated 85 percent of people who come into contact with it.

   The plant itself is a tough, adaptable, native vine that lurks most everywhere, from shady wooded areas to roadside banks to that forgotten corner of the backyard.

   The dreaded itching usually begins within 24 to 36 hours of getting the oil on your skin. Exposed areas turn red and may blister, then typically crust over and heal within two weeks.

   That’s bad enough. But for about one in 10 people, the rashes are severe, painful and in extreme cases, even life-threatening.

   Randy Connolly found that out when he was 7 years old. He nearly died when he breathed in smoke from a neighbor who was burning brush that included poison-ivy vines.

Survivor Landscaping

August 13th, 2019

   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.

Too many plants meet this fate.

   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.

   Many factors contribute to this botanical destruction.

   The leading problem is flat-out horrid “soil,” which in most yards is more like a clay-shale blend or subsoil left behind by earth-moving equipment.

   That can be mitigated by working 2 or 3 inches of compost or similar organic matter into the loosened top foot, which gives you slightly raised and more root-friendly beds.

Read George’s articles on rethinking how we plant, part one and part two

   The second killer is too-deep planting. Way too many trees and shrubs are buried rather than planted, which has the effect of suffocating roots.

Read George’s PennLive post on how to correctly plant a tree

   A third killer is water – or lack of it.

   Planting in poorly drained areas rots out many landscape plants. So does overwatering to the point of sogginess. That’s just as deadly as not watering enough.

   Packing on too much mulch (2 or 3 inches is plenty) or stacking it onto trunks is a fourth good way to kill plants.

   And those are just “operator-error” factors that don’t count killers such as deer-munching, ice slides off the roof, uprootings in wind storms, bug attacks, and assorted plant diseases.

   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 leafless 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’s got a good chance of croaking, it’s not a great choice.

“Real” Impatiens Are Back?

August 6th, 2019

   Maybe I’m a little premature, but me thinks good, old-fashioned impatiens are back.

These Beacon impatiens are looking pretty good — and mildew-free — at Penn State’s Trial Gardens.

   Impatiens walleriana were our top-selling annual flower up until 2012, when a deadly downy mildew disease swooped in and killed just about everybody’s plants in a matter of weeks.

   Because the water mold that causes the collapse is as durable overwintering in the soil (5 years or more) as it is virile in spreading by wind, planting impatiens has been a risky/lost cause ever since.

   This spring, Syngenta Flowers introduced the first new line of impatiens that purportedly has a high degree of natural resistance to downy mildew. It’s called impatiens Imara XDR.

   Coming on the heels of that is another line of resistant impatiens from PanAmerican Seed called Beacon. These are a U.S./Dutch collaboration due out next spring.

   I’ve been trialing Imara ‘Rose’ this season in my home garden, planted next to an older variety of cheapie rose-colored impatiens I bought at a grocery store.

   The Penn State Trial Gardens in Lancaster County are trialing eight colors of Imara impatiens and seven colors of Beacon impatiens in containers alongside a few old-style impatiens for comparison.

   In both places, all of the newcomers are chugging along nicely while the older types are going downhill to downy mildew.

   The older ones are yellowing, stunted, dropping leaves, and displaying the telltale sign of a grayish coating on the leaf undersides. Late July is when mildew symptoms usually start to show up.

   I also saw Beacon impatiens growing nicely in the trial gardens in Buffalo, N.Y., and at Burpee’s Fordhook Farm trial gardens, although those gardens didn’t have older impatiens nearby as a control.

Surprise Waterfalls

July 30th, 2019

   I like waterfalls.

Damage from the waterfalls I didn’t know I had.

   They make dramatic or soothing landscape features, and ones like Niagara and Iguaçu are some of most impressive features on the planet.

   However, I don’t care for waterfalls that materialize out of summer downpours and carry away everything in their path.

   It turns out that’s the type we have in our new Pittsburgh back yard.

   Like most of the other disasters we’ve faced since moving, no one mentioned the torrents that come gushing down our back bank every time it rains heavily.

   Water pours in an 8-foot-wide sheet from our neighbor’s property above, then cuts three snake-like channels into the bank as it rushes down.

   At the bottom, three muscular waterfalls shoot over a retaining wall that somehow has managed not to collapse. The force carries soil and mulch as much as 20 feet into the back yard.

   The pumpkins and sunflowers that I planted on the bank there in place of weeds didn’t stand a chance.

   The sheer amount of water coming down is enough to create a solid sheet of water that runs across the lawn, down a sidewalk, and down steps to the driveway, creating gushing falls on the steps, too.

   We’re not talking drainage here. These are torrents with enough force to move landscape stones the size of hoagie rolls and tear asphalt off the road at the end of my driveway.

   This has happened five times now since we moved six months ago.

“Friendly” Bug Control

July 23rd, 2019

   Bugs.

   We like it when those pretty little skippers and monarchs flit around the flowers.

We like this bug, but not so much when it comes to Japanese beetles and stinkbugs.

   And more people are coming around to the idea that bees are a good sign in the garden and that spiders do more good than not.

   But pretty much everyone is aghast when Japanese beetles swarm all over the roses or when stinkbugs decide to head inside for the winter.

   It’s a gardener’s dilemma.

   Can’t we have it both ways… welcome the “good” while keeping a lid on the “bad?”

   Yes. Or at least maybe. Here’s a 10-point game plan to a “friendlier” way to deal with yard-bug problems:

   1.) Plant bug-resistant plants. This is by far your best bet.

   Relatively few landscape plants run into serious insect problems, so if you steer clear of those (spider mites on dwarf Alberta spruce, scale on euonymus, adelgids on hemlock, for example), you can virtually plant-select your way out of spraying.

   Penn State Extension has an excellent booklet on what bugs attack which landscape plants.

   Pittsburgh’s Phipps Conservatory has a helpful list of dozens of the best “sustainable” plants for Pennsylvania.

   I’ve posted lists of both my Bottom 10 and Top 10 plants and have an 18-page “Survivor Plant List for Pennsylvania” online ($5.95 download) that steers you toward the least problematic choices.

   2.) Let nature work for you. The bug world is surprisingly well equipped to police itself. Given time, beneficial and predatory insects keep most pests in check.

   Tip the scale in your favor by planting enough diversity to attract beneficials. Especially pay attention to picking plants that bloom throughout the season. Dr. Douglas Tallamy’s book “Bringing Nature Home” (Timber Press, 2009) is one good resource.

   Then knock off spraying as much as possible. Spraying kills the predators along with the pests and puts you in the control seat since pests typically return first. (Without that pest-bug food supply there first, predators would starve.)

   3.) Let you work for you. Follow pest-discouraging practices in your yard care.

   Don’t whack into bark with your string trimmer and leak sap that attracts pest bugs.

   Pick up bug-infested fallen leaves at the end of the season to get rid of overwintering eggs.

   And above all, keep your plants as healthy as possible. It’s typically stressed plants that pests go after first. That means improve your lousy soil before planting, get plants in the site where they’re ideally suited, keep them watered in dry weather, and test every now and then to be sure the soil nutrition is optimal.