George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

Fall Foliage in Pa.’s Grand Canyon

August 28th, 2018

   So many of you were interested in doing a foliage trip this fall that our Oct. 25 Lowee’s Group Tour to Bucks County sold out.

Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon in fall.

   So we’ve added a new, second option for Fri., Oct. 19… this time to see the fall foliage in the stunning Pennsylvania Grand Canyon of Tioga County.

   A surprising number of people have never seen the gorgeous mountains and water features of Pa.’s Grand Canyon, located near Wellsboro almost to the New York border.

   We’re timing our visit to try and hit peak fall-foliage time when the maples, oaks, beech, and birch should be aflame in color.

   We’ll start with a turkey or haddock meal at Wellsboro’s Penn Wells Hotel, then take an afternoon horse-drawn wagon ride through the canyon and part of the Pine Creek Rail Trail.

   We’ll then do a late-afternoon stop in Williamsport to tour the Rowley House, one of the elegant Queen Anne Victorian mansions that make up Williamsport’s Millionaire’s Row.

   The cost is $139, which includes transportation, lunch, and the wagon and home tour. More information and sign-ups are available by calling Lowee’s Group Tours at 717-657-9658 or toll-free 1-888-345-6933 or by emailing CKelly@Lowees.com.

   If you’re interested in garden- and nature-related travel, Lowees and I plan to unveil our 2019 lineup of trips on Sun., Oct. 28, at 1 p.m. at the West Hanover Twp. Recreation Building, 628 Walnut Ave., Harrisburg, near Central Dauphin High School.

   I’ll be doing a PowerPoint preview of our planned trips to the American Midwest, England’s Chelsea Flower Show, garden tours in Alexandria, Leesburg, and Wilmington, Del., and much more.

   The program is free, but you can qualify for door-prize tickets by registering in advance with Lowee’s at 717-657-9658 or toll-free 1-888-345-6933 or by emailing CKelly@Lowees.com.

See the Gardens of Texas… and Magnolia Market, Too!

August 21st, 2018

   I’m not a big fan of all of those house-hunting/house-fixing shows that run one after the other on HGTV these days.

Here’s part of Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Market.
(Credit: Culture Map Dallas)

   I liked HGTV better back when the “G” in the name meant something, and the network actually ran some gardening shows. They ought to call it HHTV now.

   Anyway, I’m apparently in the minority because several of the house shows are very popular – especially “Fixer Upper,” starring Chip and Joanna Gaines.

   When Lowee’s Group Tours and I were planning our 2018 lineup of gardening trips, we thought San Antonio, gardens of Texas, and the LBJ Ranch would make a nice, warm destination as the weather turned cold here. Jo Peachey at Lowee’s suggested that as long as we were in the area, we could head over to Waco where Chip and Joanna have a unique business called the Magnolia Market at the Silos.

   We plugged in an afternoon visit as part of a six-day Texas package and put it out there.

   Wouldn’t you know, I heard more “Oooohs” and “Ahhhhs” on that little side trip out of anything else in the whole year’s lineup. Even my wife, Sue, was more excited about seeing the famous Silos than any of the gardens or Texas landmarks.

   Not surprisingly, the trip has all but filled up. Last I heard, only four more seats are left. So if you’d like to go, call Lowee’s ASAP at 717-657-9658 or toll-free 1-888-345-6933 or email CKelly@Lowees.com.

   The trip runs Nov. 26 through Dec. 1, and the cost is $1,950 per person double, which includes airfare, five nights lodging, and 11 meals.

Antidote to the Seed Goliaths

August 7th, 2018

   In a scenic Finger Lakes valley best known for New York state wine, Petra Page-Mann and Matthew Goldfarb are growing home-garden seeds the old-fashioned way.

Dahlias and other trial crops grow in wide rows in Fruition Seeds’ scenic Finger Lakes valley farm.

   Their Fruition Seeds is a throwback to an earlier era when people got their seeds from small farmers growing varieties best suited to their home regions.

   Like so many enterprises, that approach has been dying as bigger and bigger and fewer and fewer companies have replaced the smaller, regional operators.

   These days, more than half of the world’s seed supply is controlled by just three mega-companies.

   Germany’s Bayer AG last year merged with Monsanto to create one of them. American behemoths DuPont and Dow Chemical also merged to create a second (DowDuPont Inc.). And China’s state-owned ChemChina bought Swiss Syngenta AG to create a third.

   Yesteryear’s small, independent and local seed producers are bit players more than ever.

   Upstarts like Fruition are sort of a seed-throwing David, going up against a wall of Goliaths.

   I got to see Fruition on our group tour in late July to Garden Walk Buffalo (America’s biggest garden tour) and came away impressed at Page-Mann’s passion.

   Page-Mann, who got interested in seeds as a little girl collecting them from her father’s garden, invested her admittedly “not-much life savings” to start Fruition in 2013 along with Goldfarb, a former Cornell Extension educator. A $30,000 Kickstarter campaign helped open the little farm near Naples, N.Y.

   The duo is throwing their hearts, souls, and lives into seeds because they’re convinced the pendulum needs to swing back the other way. This is their way of doing something.

   Fruition’s seeds are grown organically, most are open-pollinated ones that can be saved by home gardeners, and many are heirloom varieties that are foregardeners had been growing for generations. None are genetically modified.

Lingering Effects from All of That Rain

July 31st, 2018

   Besides the mulch and soil washouts and rotting tomatoes from last week’s record-setting rains, we could be looking at some additional subtle and long-term water-related issues in the yard.

Some people got upwards of 10 inches of rain last week.

   Yet to be determined is the effect that all of that water had on plant roots — not to mention how much more we’re going to get this week with rain in the forecast every day into the weekend.

   If you have good-draining soil or stuck to wet-tolerant plants in sometimes-wet areas, you’re probably fine. In that case, the rain was a plus – better than our usual hot, dry, July oven.

   On the other hand, if you have poorly drained areas that were water-logged for more than a day or two, some of your plants may suffer.

   When rain doesn’t let up, water fills air spaces in the soil faster than it drains out, depriving the roots of oxygen. Roots need oxygen to live, and without it, they start to die.

   Some plants are adapted to deal with soggy conditions better than others. Bald cypress and willow, for example, can be submerged for months and come out fine. Red maple, sweetgum, sycamore, river birch, lobelia, Joe Pye weed, and turtlehead are among those that can slough off weeks of soggy soil.

   But others start to suffer within days. Most annual flowers and vegetables aren’t keen on being water-logged for long, and plants from Mediterranean or dry-climate climates absolutely hate it, such as lavender, artemisia, lamb’s ears, and dianthus.

   The extent of the damage depends on the plant and how long it sat in water-logged soil.

   With limited damage, plants will grow new roots and recover as drier, sunnier conditions return. However, if too many roots rotted, the plant is a goner. This may not be apparent in evergreens and conifers for months down the road – and possibly even next spring if sufficient roots aren’t in place to meet the demands of peak growth.

   Ironically, a sign of trouble from too much water is the same as not enough – wilting.

   In this case, wilting happens because roots died from suffocating in the oxygen-deprived, soggy soil. Without roots, the plant’s stems and leaves can’t take up water – even if there’s plenty of it in the ground.

   So don’t be faked into thinking that wilting plants always mean the plants need a drink. Stick your finger into the ground around the plants to determine whether the soil is wet or not. If it is, don’t add more water.

Radical Plant-Whacking

July 24th, 2018

   I know it sounds counter-productive, but sometimes, whacking a plant almost to the ground during the growing season is the best thing you can do for it.

This formerly mildewed phlox is already starting to grow new leaves after being whacked to a few inches two weeks earlier.

   Near-total whack-backs seem like a bad idea, but done at the right time with the right plant, they can lead to better performance – or even saving a plant’s life.

   The best example this time of year is cutting back diseased perennials.

   Some species are notorious for coming down with fungal infections around the time they’re done blooming.

   Peonies often get botrytis blight, lilies-of-the-valley keel over from anthracnose and leaf spot, daylilies suffer from leaf streak, phlox and beebalm usually white out from powdery mildew, and black-eyed susans are increasingly turning all black by mid-summer from septoria leaf spot.

   The result is the same – ugly plants that are discolored, collapsing, and generally an eyesore in the July/August garden.

   Veteran gardeners know severe cutbacks aren’t death blows (usually). Rather, many plants push up clean, new shoots from the stubs in a matter of weeks.

   They usually go on to look fresh and uninfected the rest of the year, and in some cases bloom again by early fall.

   Yeah, growing a second set of foliage taps into a plant’s energy reserve. And any wound – intentional or not – costs energy in the sealing and healing of the insult.

   On the other hand, dead or dying leaves aren’t doing a plant much good anyway.

   Removing them rejuvenates the plants, resulting in new leaves that can absorb sunlight to fuel the re-energizing of the roots.

   By getting rid of the diseased leaves and stems, you’re also removing the spores (the fungal equivalent of seeds) that could lead to a new infection.

   Give plants a good soaking, a dose of fertilizer, and maybe even a topping of compost after a whack-back, and you’ll boost the recovery.