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Dressing Up Your Mailbox
Adding a vertical look to your yard or driveway can add an aesthetic look to your landscape. A vertical structure will naturally draw your eyes up. The next step is to create a look around the structure that initally pulls your eyes in that direction. You can add a vertical structure, but why not capitalize on the ones already in place such as a mailbox or a lamppost and dressing them with flowers or vines.
If the landscape between the vertical structure and the home is attractive, consider using vines or another type of plant that grows upward to dress the mailbox or lamppost. If the view to the house is not as attractive, use the vertical structure as a concentration point by skirting the area with attractive ground cover and a large concentration of flowers for color.
Dressing your mailbox or lamppost will create an inviting entrance area to you home. Use your imagination and capitalize on the benefits of that vertical structure.
That Poor Drainage Area
Unless you have a yard or garden that has been landscaped perfectly, you may have an area that has poor water drainage. A good example is the area where the rainwater from your roof drains to or collects. Others may be low spots or at the bottom of a slope. Here are a couple of ideas to help with that poor drainage area.
To improve the soil in a poor drainage area, add organic matter. Dig up the area and work the organic matter in to incorporate air into the soil. This will loosen the soil and help it to dry faster. An alternative is to build a raised bed in the area, adding new compost soil to the raised bed. If necessary to help with additional drainage, slope the raised bed slightly or create a tiered set of raised beds. Plant the area with plants that are tolerant of more moisture.
With a little ingenuity and practical application, you can turn that poor drainage area into a new garden.
Official Start of Summer is When?
The other day I heard someone ask the question “When do you feel the official start of summer is? For you, is it Memorial Weekend or the traditional calender day of June 21st?” In our country, that can be a debatable question. School is out by Memorial Weekend and the temperatures finally reach the level that you can comfortably wear shorts during the daytime. Our grandparents used to tell us, as a rule of thumb, not to plant the garden until Memorial Weekend because it is safe by then. But……
I remember freezing tempatures clear into the middle of June. We just had our last snow a couple of weeks ago. I also remember sitting at baseball games with a coat, earmuffs, gloves and a blanket just to stay warm. That is what makes it debatable. I did plant my Bloommaster planters, though. I am so very ready for flowers and summer. I am hanging the planters on railings and setting the pots out on posts to brave our erratic weather. Barring any freezes, hailstorms or windstorms, they will be a joy to look at in a few weeks.
When you you consider summer to start? Is it Memorial Weekend, June 21st or even sooner?
Spring Soil Temperatures And Planting
It has been a very busy couple of weeks and I have truly neglected my updates to this blog. It is now the middle of May and I want to start planting outside, but in the last two weeks we have had six inches of snow and many freezing nights-and we are not even in the mountains! On our radio station we get updates of the soil temperature for the local farmers. I decided to look into this further.
Our soil temperature has been hovering around 50 degrees for the last couple of weeks with periods when it goes down to as low as 40 degrees. This is, on average, 8 degrees below normal. At this temperature, I can plant cool weather vegetables such as lettuce, kale, peas and spinach and that is about it. It seems late to wait on my other plants, but the soil and air temperature rule when it comes to that decision.
How do you measure soil temperature? Using a glass bulb thermometer or a soil thermometer that reads as low as 40 degrees, you need to first make a pilot hole with a screwdriver down into the soil about 4-6″. Place the thermometer in the hole, making sure that it is firmly touching the soil and allow a few minutes for the temperature to register. If the sun is bright, shade the thermometer with your hand to keep the reading accurate. Take a reading in the morning and late afternoon, then average the two readings. If it is a large area, take readings from different spots within the area.
The air temperature needed for germination is warmer than a plant’s growing temperature. Once a plant is growing, it will be able to handle colder air temperatures if the soil temperature is wam enough. Measuring air temperature is as easy as placing an outdoor thermometer or clock/thermometer combination in your garden or yard.
Spring may be here, but the temperature doesn’t show it yet. Know your soil and air temperature requirements for the plants you want to seed/plant before you begin.
Using The Cooperative Extension Service For Help
You may have technical questions to ask about your yard and garden, your plants and trees, and your soil and water, but you don’t know who to go to for answers. Your local or state Cooperative Extension Service is available to provide help in those areas. The Cooperative Extension system is associated with every state land-grant university and is a network of local or regional offices which are staffed by one or more experts-Extension Agents-who can provide answers to yard and garden technical questions. Their expertise can provide practical, useful and research-based information.
Cooperative Extension Agents provide teaching, research and informational services to the public regarding many aspects of plant horticulture, plant physiology, entomology, soil science, botany, and fertilizer and pesticides. They are available to answer questions, provide diagnosis, and provide training and information based on the local area based on years of experience and research. Best of all, they are accessible either in your local or regional area and generally provide their services for free or for a minimal fee.
Areas of technical expertise provided by the Cooperative Extension Service include gardening, fruits and vegetables, trees, bees, lawns, plant health, insects and pesticides, soil sampling and fertilizer, water quality and plant disease. The Cooperative Extension Service is especially helpful when insects or diseases are new to an area because of their up-to-date study and research.
For gardening enthusiasts, many Extension Services have a Master Gardener Program. This program provides extensive classroom training in horticulture, entomology, soil science, botany, plant pathology and pesticide safety. In exchange for this training, the Master Gardener agrees to further volunteer their time to the community using the knowledge they have gained. This program provides valuable training and is very rewarding.
We are fortunate to have experts to assist us who are trained and available to the public without requiring a costly investment on our part. Generally, the only charge is for materials and outside services, i.e. sampling or lab fees. If you have questions about your yard or garden, consider contacting your local or regional Cooperative Extension Service-they are available to help you.
What Are Companion Plants?
Companion planting is the practice of planting two or more species of plants close together because those species of plants have a relationship whereby one plant will beneift the other plant(s). This can work well for small garden areas and also for organic gardens. There are four basic types of benefits of companion planting.
Trap cropping is the practice of using a plant that attracts pests away from another plant. An example of this is to plant collards to draw the diamond back moth away from cabbage.
Legumes are nitrogen fixating which can benefit plants close to them. Legumes, such as peas, beans or clover are nitrogen fixating because they pull nitrogen from the air for their use that also benefits plants in close proximity. An example is to plant beans intermixed with corn.
Some plants release chemicals that suppress or repel pests which protect neighboring plants. A common example is the marigold that releases thiopene which repels nematodes, making it a good companion for garden vegetables.
Some plants are more shade tolerant and will work well with a taller plant, creating a spatial relationship. The tall plant provides a canopy for the shorter plant that prefers more shade, therefore, making good use of space for both species. An example of this companion benefit is corn planted with squash or pumpkins.
There some plants which are not compatible and can retard the growth or production of other plants. Examples are: 1.onions with beans or peas, 2.cabbage with strawberries, pole beans and tomatoes, 3.beets with pole beans, and 4.potatoes with pumpkin, squash, tomato, cucumber and sunflowers. There more non-compatible combinations not listed here.
If you are planting in a small area such as a raised garden , a backyard garden or in containers, do some research on good and bad combinations of companion plants to get the most out of your garden. Use these combinations for pest control, maximum production and best use of space.
Part I – My Bloommaster Planting
I started to plant my Bloommaster side planter pots this week. The weather is finally starting to show signs of spring, the birds have migrated in and the trees are budding, so I have decided it is time.
It actually takes me more time to decide what I want each pot to look like than it takes me to plant them. Do I want an elegant look, a brilliant flowery look, a full, heavy look or just the basic-one flower will cover the whole pot? One of my pots is going to be planted in different colors of coleus’ and dark potato plants. It will not be a brilliant colored pot, but very interesting in texture and style. I really like pots of petunias, full of body and color-after they have grown and in full bloom. I just have trouble planting them that way when I see all the other plants that would add “this texture” or “that color” to the scheme. That is why this pot is planted with more than just petunias.
Since I am using small plants, the pot doesn’t look very interesting right after planting, but in a few weeks it will explode with growth. On the sides, I have planted trailing petunia plugs. (Plants in plugs and six-packs are small and take more time to grow, but are easier to place in the side holes.) I have supplemented the sides with a few “Midnight Blue” Lobella. The centerpiece of this pot is planted with Dianthus, surrounded by Blue Phlox and Double Floribunda Petunias.
Since I never know if my “concoctions” will turn out as I plan, I will just have to wait and see what the results are. If the results are as I planned, I will post a new update at a later time.
A Garden For Birds And Butterflies
You can develop your landscape into a refuge for birds and butterflies if you do a few things to make them feel welcome. Because butterflies are a cold blooded insect, the will be most active in a warm, sunny area. Birds like an open area where they can watch for possible predators and be able to retreat from them. Both birds and butterflies need water, so the addition of a birdbath or small pond along with the right plants and possibly a bird feeder will add a lot of company to your garden.
Birds will prefer shrubs or small trees that provide food and shelter such as Dogwoods, Ninbark, Serviceberry, Beautyberry, Juniper and Viburnum. They also like sunflowers. Not all birds eat seeds. Hummingbirds like to sip flower nectar. Good plants for hummingbirds are Cardinal flower, Honeysuckle, Hosta, Bee Balm and Sage. Butterfly attracting plants are Butterfly Bush, Garden Phlox, Purple Coneflower, Cosmos, Lantana, Tithonia and Zinnias.
There may be other plant varieties that will keep these visitors coming back to your garden-ask your local nursery. Remember to place plants, bird baths and feeders in an area that is easily observed from a window in you house so that you can enjoy their beauty and antics even more.
Spring Cleaning – Container Planters
This week we had some beautiful days. Days that make you think that spring is here. With spring, I start thinking of spring cleaning and, being a gardener, that includes cleaning and disinfecting my container planters. Containers, old and new, need to be clean and disinfected to protect your new plants from contaminates such as chemical residues, salts, pests, molds, fungus and other contaminates.
Plastic pots are the easiest to clean, while clay pots can be the most difficult. If the residue on the container is hard, you may need to soak the container for a few hours to loosen up the debris. Wash the container with water and a mild detergent, scrubbing to remove any debris or salts that remain attached to the container. Then rinse the containers with a bleach solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water to disinfect. If it is a porous container, you may need to soak it in the bleach solution for a few minutes to fully disinfect. Lastly, rinse the container in clean water again to remove any bleach residue.
Cleaning your container planters will save some heartache after you have planted your new plants. Plants that come from a nursery or greenhouse can bring hidden contaminates that you don’t want to carryover into the new season. Also, old debris can also harbor such contaminates. Start the season with spring cleaning your container planters.
A Children’s Garden
Since vegetable gardening has become one of the hottest new trends, why not get your children involved. Children have such a curiosity and excitement to learn about the environment around them. You can culture those traits, create a lifelong love of gardening and create some wonderful memories by designing a vegetable garden just for them.
When planning a children’s garden, choose a size that is reasonable for a child to handle. An area that is 6ft square up to 15ft will provide them with plenty of planting opportunity, but not overwhelm them. I like to use a raised garden bed so that the children know what their garden bounderies are. Another idea to make a garden easier to plant is to divide it into small sections with either string or small boards. Plant a different variety of plant in each small section, avoiding the necessity of planting in rows. Children love to plant seeds, but do this with varieties that germinate easy. For other varieties, use seedling transplants. Provide the children with a small watering can to use or add a sprayer nozel to your hose that has a soft spray and a shutoff valve.
Good plants for a children’s garden include beans, radishes, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes (or cherry tomatoes), squash, peas, gourds, pumpkins and sunflowers. You might add a few easy-to-grow flowers such as petunias or marigolds for some color. You may find that when the children grow their own vegetables, they tend to eat more of them!