Grasses, Cosmos and the BEST time of year in the Garden!

Breathtaking. This morning in the garden was just unbelievable.

As I poured fresh rain water (we had lots over the weekend) into a bucket for my morning ritual... watering our 25 chickens, picking up the Toronto Star at the end of the lane... I was dumbfounded by the appearance of light fog over the property. The sun was not quite up over the trees on the east side of our property, the sunflowers not quite conscious of a dawning day.
No wind.
I saw one of our hummingbirds, yes the one of the many that my wife Mary is fed up of me pointing out: I saw one of them hovering over a hosta, ready to pounce on some nectar.

A snapshot of a gardening season in progress... on the high side of middle age, I would say (the garden, not me!). I feel that way because the ornamental grasses are tasseling (or, flowering). This is a sign that summer is nearing its end and autumn is pulling up from behind with its own surprises.

I don’t know why we don’t see more ornamental grasses in Canadian gardens. Just when you return from your summer vacation or cottage, the kids go back to school, the evening air turns cool and morning dew gets so heavy that you really need rubber boots to go for an early walk: this is the time of year that gardeners should reward themselves with some real action in the garden. Ornamental grasses deliver.

My two berms feature 150 Maiden Grass, Miscanthus Sinensis ‘Rotsilber’. I planted them 5 years ago this fall from one gallon pots. They have grown 20 fold, as near as I can determine. And they are so thick that I hardly have to weed them any more.

There are so many gorgeous ornamental grasses to choose from.

The ones that come back each year are available in generous numbers. Look for Sea Oats, Chasmanthium latifolium for a unique look that matures at about one meter high. Or Feather Reed Grass, Calamagrostis acutififlora ‘Karl Forester’ which was the 2001 Perennial Plant of the Year. I have a bunch of these down by the pond. They grow to 1 ½ meters high and behave themselves.

These are just a few of my favourites… there are many more. Take a look at your local retailer and keep two things in mind - you are looking for a variety that is winter hardy in your area AND (this is most important!) ones that Do NOT travel…. Some of these rascals are very aggressive.
Like Ribbon Grass, Phalaris arundinacea. My sister Sue fell in love with this colourful, easy to care for grass and gave it away to unsuspecting friends and neighbours. She was an ornamental-grass-goodwill-machine for about 4 years. Then it dawned on her and others that she had been giving away a weed.
In time she did the only respectable thing, and moved out of town.

Don’t make the Sue mistake.

Keep in mind that all ornamental grasses need sun. The more the better. (Just one reason why they love the prairies!)

People that planted cosmos earlier in the season are getting their just rewards. Wow! And you can do this from seed….!

Echinacea is attracting countless finches as they chow down on the maturing seedheads. Watching them hang up-side-down is kind of fun. They almost seem drunk…..

To the lawn for a moment: the grass seed that Rudy and I sowed over 3 weeks ago is germinating and growing very well. How is yours? Don’t forget that this is a great time to lay sod too.

And it is a great time to build a composter. Why not, you are handy enough – come on! Besides, before you know it the leaves will be falling and you will need a place to put them. And don’t even think of putting them out to the curb side. That is paramount to pouring money down the storm sewer…. Your leaves are God’s gift to the gardener. Compost them or put them on the surface of the garden soil.

More on that later, as we get closer to the composting season.

Meantime, lots to do and even lots not to do – like doing nothing but enjoying the sights and sounds of your garden. The clock is ticking. We will be indoors enduring bad Leafs hockey soon enough.


Keep your knees dirty!

Mark

http://www.markcullen.com/

Cedar hedges: an investment that grows.

One of the ‘most asked’ gardening questions that I get is, “Is it o.k. to trim my cedar hedge now?”

Cedars (Thuja) are one of the most versatile evergreens in Canada. There are very few areas of the country where you cannot grow at least one variety of cedar and they always lend themselves to ‘trimming’ and make a great looking hedge.

When can I trim?
The truth is that you can trim a cedar hedge most any time of the year – you just cannot hurt it by pruning it at the ‘wrong time’ even in mid winter. However, there are better times of the season than others for pruning/trimming and this would be the best time of year, if you ask me.

Most cedar trees grow relatively consistently throughout the growing season. From late in the summer until early fall they push new growth, as long as there is moisture in the ground and the temperatures are not too high (say, over 30 degrees C). By pruning cedars this time of year you are giving them the ultimate shape that you desire and will still benefit from a slight ‘filling in’ of the foliage before winter sets in. This is akin to getting a hair cut and waiting a couple of weeks before you get your picture taken.

You know how your hair looks just after a trip to the barber? Kind of severe. A couple of weeks later, it has filled in a bit and looks pretty ‘natural’. Not a bad time for picture taking! Your hedges behave much the same way.

What Kind of Cedar makes a good hedge?

In Central Canada the native White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis) is the most popular of all for use as a hedge. It is inexpensive and often is dug from ‘native plantations’ almost bare root. They sit for a year or two in your garden before growing but when they do you can expect up to a meter of new growth each year. This usually occurs in the 3rd year.

Other Cedar tips:

- Autumn is a great time for planting all cedars!
- Prairie gardeners can choose from the ‘almost winter hardy’ Emerald Cedar (Thuja occidentalis ‘Smaragd’) (which will need to be planted on the east side of your home or wrapped with burlap in late fall for protection) and the much more hardy ‘Brandon Cedar’ (Thuja occidentalis ‘Brandon’).

- B.C. coastal gardeners can choose from many cedars including the native B.C. Cedar otherwise know as (Thuja plicata).

Pruning tips:
- When pruning, always shape the bottom of the hedge wider than the top. This allows even exposure to sunlight and helps to keep the entire cedar hedge looking thick and healthy.
- Use sharp, quality shears. I recommend ‘Mark’s Choice’ pruning shears. Guaranteed 5 years and made in Canada.
- If your hedge has been ignored for several years you can still bring it under control by removing up to 1/3 of the foliage each year until it looks the way that you want it to.
- A cedar hedge will live for 30 to 60 years depending on the variety and its’ location.

It is not true that cedars attract mosquitoes: they get this reputation from growing in low/wet land where mosquitoes tend to breed. It is their environment that can cause mosquitoes to grow in numbers, not the cedars themselves.

It is true that cedars are your best bet for a fast growing, evergreen hedge in most parts of the country.

Planting cedars:

- Mark your line with a string or garden hose, to get the hedge straight.
- Dig a trench ½ meter wide and 1/3 meter deep.
- Back fill the bottom of the trench with triple mix (1/3 top soil, 1/3 peat and 1/3 compost) or Mark’s Choice planting mix (the best that money can buy!).
- Stand your cedars upright in the trench before piling the remainder of the triple mix on their roots.
- Once the cedars are lined up straight, plant them using triple mix and step firmly on the soil as you plant, making firm contact between the soil and the roots of the new trees.
- Water thoroughly and stake every 2 meters with a ‘T’ bar or 2” X 2” stake, using heavy gage wire to secure them in place.
- Most important! Don’t be too ambitious when choosing your new cedars! New trees about 1 meter high will establish much more quickly than large, 2 meter high specimens, unless the large trees have been nursery grown.

Be patient! Your cedar hedge will grow and mature into a thing of beauty as time passes – and you attend to the annual trimming (yes, only once a year will do the trick!) AND you will have an investment that grows in value each year – unlike installing a fence!


Keep your knees dirty!

Mark

http://www.markcullen.com/

Of Flower Bulbs, Nursery Stock and a Quiet Garden

Why is it that when the kids go back to school the atmosphere changes?
We have just finished the finest summer of recent times: lots of sunshine, tolerable heat throughout most of the days and an adequate amount of rain.

To the garden and some things to do of importance if you want yours to look good and feel good as it matures into the autumn:

- Lawn. A great time to apply lawn fertilizer. Not the ‘fall’ fertilizer yet: you will apply it in late October or November and it IS the most important application of the year. In case you didn’t hear that before.
o This is still the best time of year to start grass seed or lay sod (the ‘season’ for this one is mid August up to the end of September for most parts of Canada).
o Use Mark’s Choice Lawn Soil and spread Golfgreen Grass seed (weedfree/Canadian) at the rate of one pound per 400 sq. ft. or ½ kilo. Per 50 sq. meters.

- Perennials: Dig and divide. You can successfully dig and divide many perennials now. I dug up a bunch of ‘Monarda’ (Bee Balm) in spite of the fact that they were still in bloom (sort of). Now, I would generally discourage this sort of thing… digging up and dividing perennials in bloom. But this is one tough plant species and the truth is, you will have a hard time killing it. Just make sure that you water the root zone thoroughly before you dig up the plant and after you have planted it. AND make sure that you plant in good quality soil.

- Apples and pears are ripening now. I picked my first truly ripe apple (vs. the sour ones that I kept handing to the kids saying, “try this and tell me what you think.”) It was a ‘Liberty’. Quite good. The point of course is that you should pick fruit while it ripens on the tree – as close to its peak of ripeness as possible. However, it is better to pick fruit before it reaches its peak vs. after. Unless you like a mouthful of rotten apple/pear.

- Tomatoes are now ripening to beat the band. Be sure to pick them as they ripen too, whether you plan on using them right away or not: otherwise the over-ripe ones that rot on the ground and fill with earwigs will just harbor more of the same for the more desirable tomatoes. No point in letting them rot/get eaten by bugs before they ripen to your kitchen plate!

- To market, to market! If you can’t pick your own, go to one of the many local farmers markets that have sprouted up (weekends) across the country. This whole idea of the ‘100 kilometer’ diet and ‘locavors’ is an idea that is catching on. My brother in law Guy is a ‘pick your own’ farmer (www.farintosh.com) and he tells me that the number of people coming that he has never seen before is quite noticeable. He puts this down to the new trends. Especially among young consumers (would you care to qualify that please? I assume that you mean anyone under 60).

- PLANT! the first week of September marks the beginning of the autumn planting season… the best time of the year to plant trees, shrubs, evergreens and (if you can get them) roses. These winter hardy plants will put down roots before our winter hits home which will support substantial growth come spring. Fall planting provides much more satisfying results than spring planting. AND many retailers are selling at discounted prices to move stock before winter. They would literally rather have you plant now than have to overwinter excess stock.

- The Bulbs are in!! Yes, the Holland bulbs arrived at garden retailers across the country this week and believe me that this is the best time to shop for them. The selection will not get any better as (the truth is) they all arrived on a boat from the Netherlands and they do not send more over later. One boat: one chance at the best selection. Go to http://www.dutchbulbs.com/ for more information (likely more info than you want!). More to follow in upcoming blogs.

Last weekend I had a very pleasant day with two of my kids – we took our bikes over to Toronto’s Centre Island. Our favourite part of this trip is to slowly ride around the quiet pedestrian streets of Wards’ and Algonquin Islands. The cottages are remarkable for their architecture, and in some cases they are in such poor repair that it is remarkable that they are still standing! In any case, the gardens alone are worth the day trip.

With the kids back in school – take time to enjoy some quiet and to enjoy the beginning of the most restful season in your garden – fall.

Keep your knees dirty!


Mark
http://www.markcullen.com/

A '101' Tutorial on Lawn Care

Judging by the number of lawn questions that I am getting at http://www.markcullen.com/ it seems to me that the season of seeding, sodding and lawn fertilizing is here in earnest.

For several years now I have been saying that late August and early September is the best time of the year to thicken an established lawn or start a new one. Many of my associates in the business have been saying the same thing.

The heavy dew in the evening, the cooler temperatures at night (generally) and the regular rainfall of late summer/early autumn combine to create the perfect conditions for grass seed germination and the ‘putting down of roots’ of freshly laid sod.

Here is a short tutorial on late summer lawn care. I offer the information in the form of answers to the many excellent questions that I am getting on my web site:

How do I control Creeping Charlie, plantain, dandelions etc in my lawn without the use of chemicals?

Answer: Compete them out of existence by spreading fresh grass seed over the weed infested area.
Think of lawn weeds as competitors… nothing more. You give them the space in your lawn to put down a root and they will take the opportunity to thrive and multiply.

How useful is it to dig or pull weeds out of my lawn?

Answer: A good weed puller can be useful when bringing weeds under control but if you do not overseed with fresh grass seed at the same time you are often just postponing a bigger lawn weed problem. The ‘hole’ in your lawn that the weed leaves is an invitation for the remaining root to re-grow and other weeds to put down a new root.


How do I sow grass seed in an established lawn for best results?

Answer: Spread a 2 cm (one inch) layer of triple mix (1/3 top soil, 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost) over the area that weeds are thickest.
Broadcast quality grass seed over the area at the rate of ½ kilo per 40 sq meters (one pound per 400 sq. ft.). I spread the seed by hand but you may opt for one of those hand-held whirly gigs. In any case just make sure that you spread the seed as evenly as possible and incorporate the seed with the triple mix by raking it in lightly and then stepping on it with flat soled shoes to get firm contact.
Use only the best quality grass seed. I only use Golfgreen.

Is this a good time of year to fertilize my lawn?

Answer: if you have not fertilized since spring (within the last 8 to 10 weeks), now is an excellent time of year to do it. Fertilizer is not a substitute for good quality soil, but a quality brand like Golfgreen, So Green or Green Earth will provide the elements that your lawn craves the most.
Note: The most important application of lawn fertilizer all year is in the late fall – about 8 to 10 weeks from now!

Should I use an organic fertilizer?

Sure. There is no reason why you shouldn’t. However, keep in mind that you will not get the ‘lasting’ results of a sophisticated synthetic based fertilizer and as a result it will not last as long. I use Green Earth 9-3-4. It contains natural kelp for a broad range of nutrients.


How often should I water my lawn?

Answer: If we enter a period of more than a week without substantial rain (over a centimeter) and with no rain in the forecast, I advise that you apply water from a quality lawn sprinkler once a week only. Leave your sprinkler on for 2 to 3 hours to allow the water to sink deeply into the ground: the goal is to get to the root zone.
A daily sprinkling of water on your lawn accomplishes nothing and encourages shallow roots that are not drought tolerant.

How should I cut my lawn?

Answer: Cut it high (at least 6 to 7 centimeters) and use a mulching mower.
The taller the grass blades the deeper (and more drought tolerant) the roots.
The mulching attachment on your mower returns the natural ingredients in the raw grass clippings to the root zone of your lawn where they break down, providing nutrition and an insulating layer that protects against the drying effects of the sun.

How can I produce the ‘perfect’ lawn?

Take a page out from the British: cut your lawn with a ‘reel type’ lawn mower, like the one pictured. Or use a manual reel type mower. Keep the blades sharp and clean.
And for added effect, put down a line of string that is 90 degrees diagonal, follow the line for the entire area of your lawn and repeat the process going in the opposite direction.
This way, you will end up with a ‘look’ that is professional: like the ball parks on TV that use natural grass.

For me – I will stick with my Honda powered Yard Man. And I will cut it only once.

Thank you very much.

Keep your knees dirty!

Mark
ww.markcullen.com

Flower Arranging for Klutzes

“I dig: therefore I am”.

I can relate to this statement as a gardener. It is the joy of digging that draws me to the gardening experience more than anything. I wrote about this in my book A Sandbox of a Different Kind: Personal reflections on the Canadian gardening experience. (‘I Love to Dig’, chapter 43). http://markcullen.com/buyers_guide/books.htm

Cutting the bounty of all that digging and planting to bring indoors this time of year is not second nature to me. I am a flower arranging klutz.

But having said that, I sure enjoy seeing the fruits of my gardening labour displayed indoors in a deep vase full of water. Years of listening to the professionals has taught me more than a thing or two about what to cut, when and how to display it to best advantage indoors.

So, in a nutshell, here is everything that you need to know about cutting flowers and arranging them, just as long as you are not trying to win awards. Like they say in the Tim Horton’s ads for pee wee hockey: the primary idea, after all, is having fun:

Think Fresh. With apologies to another national advertiser for stealing a good line, when you are out there in the garden doing a tour in search of the best flowers for cutting, keep in mind that the plants that are currently coming into bloom will provide you with the longest show of colour. In other words, if the plant has been in bloom for some time, the flowers will not stand up in a vase for very long.

Use a limited range of colour. Say what you will, mixing up colours without regard for how they look together is hard to pull off without producing a mish-mash. Stick within a narrow range of colours when cutting flowers for a vase. If you have lots of different colours to choose from in your garden pallet, then create more than one arrangement. Think ‘monochromatic’ – tints and shades of the same colour.

Take a long stem. The most common mistake of all is cutting too short a stem for the flower for the vase/arrangement. The heavier the flower, the longer the stem. (I made this mistake years ago when cutting peonies in June... the whole bunch were wasted.) Also: the larger the flower the lower it should be placed in the arrangement.

Greenery? What greenery? When you buy cut flowers at a florist they always through in some asparagus fern or leather fern or what-have-you. No need for this stuff when you are cutting flowers from the garden. For the most part the flowers speak very well for themselves without the addition of greenery. Many flowers have leaves that add plenty of interest on their own.

Use a deep vase. You want your cut flowers to last as long as possible indoors, right? The best way to do that is to use a good, deep vase and fresh, cool (not cold) water. Change the water every couple of days to prolong the life of the flowers.

What would Mother Nature do? It is a simple question, but the answer is not always so obvious. Take your time to observe how nature arranges flowers in a meadow or how they mature in your own yard. Take your design cues from her. They are effective and free.

Have fun. You are arranging flowers for the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of your gardening labour indoors. Even if you are making a special effort to do this for expected company, remember that you need to be satisfied with the look of it, above all.

Right now my garden is awash in colour from Echinacea (purple cone flower), several varieties of rudebeckia (Brown Eyed Susan), and Veronica, all of which make for great flower arranging.
Fyi – daylilies, while they look great in the garden, do not perform well as cut flowers.

Give it a shot. Maybe, like me, you will find that you CAN do it and get a lot of satisfaction from it, even if you are a klutz.

Keep your knees dirty,

Mark
http://www.markcullen.com/

I am in a good mood these days.
The fruits of my spring labour are finally coming to fruition. With emphasis on the ‘fruit’ part of the fruition.

The tomatoes are awesome. No, really. I don’t know what I am going to do with all of them, if they don’t keel over before I get them all picked I will have enough here for the entire Blue Jays baseball team. Plus a few baseball fans!

I have 200 or so tomato plants: 4 kids, 21 chickens and a wife.

You do the math and you can plainly see that we do not need all of these tomatoes.

Alas, we live in prime tomato growing country (that is why Heinz planted their tomato processing plant in south western Ontario – they grow great tomatoes).
While I don’t live near Leamington, the home to Heinz, I do live within a ½ days’ drive. So I think that Stouffville qualifies for ‘great tomato growing’ territory. Besides, the 20 yards of fallen leaves and 6 yards of finished compost that I churned into the soil this spring must count for something in the fertility department!

Now I must confess that I don’t pick ALL of my tomatoes.
Rudy – my Grenadian friend and right hand culprit gives me a lot of help.

Truth is, I would much rather grow them than pick them.
Can’t tell you why, I just experience more pleasure from the former rather than the latter.

We are picking from our 3rd crop of snap beans now. And pulling some mighty nice carrots too.

If you have not ‘grown your own’ this summer (maybe you just enjoy reading about growing your own?) then I encourage you to look for the locally grown produce in your neighbourhood. Truth is, it doesn’t matter where you live in this great land of ours, you are never too far from some great ‘home grown’ fruits and veggies.

If you look around you will find that a lot of farms will deliver their produce to a market near you: if you live in an urban centre.

In Toronto I am hearing great things about the Brick Works Saturday market. Go to http://www.ebw.evergreen.ca/ for more info.
And if you live in Ontario you may find copies of ‘Harvest Ontario’ still available at your local Home Hardware. It is a 120 page book that directs you to pick-your-own farms, farmers markets and bed and breakfasts’ across the province. Go to http://www.harvestontario.com/ for more info.

For the rest of the country go to http://www.harvestcanada.com/ for more info.

Remember ‘Plant A Row/Grow a Row’ for the hungry.

It is simple and works like this: you grow more veggies and fruit than you can eat and you take them to your local food bank. They LOVE the fresh, perishable stuff, in spite of what you have been told about ‘non-perishable’ etc. It is good for them- food bank clients, just like it is good for you.

In the ornamental garden, I continue to look for perennials that need cutting back. After they have finished blooming the plants seem to go into hiding. Without the eye attracting colour of the bloom you have to wade into your garden seeking them out.
But there they are – right now the Shasta Daisies are standing there waiting for autumn, bloomless.

If you cut off the finished blossoms and about 25 cm or so of the stem you will be amazed how they often re-bloom later in the season. This is true of gardens located in the north.
In fact, the further north that you go, the more likely that you will experience re-blooming of your perennials. You see, northern gardeners enjoy longer days, longer.
In other words, more daylight hours than their southern neighbours.
Of course this is made up for during the winter when they have shorter days, longer. But that is another story. Let’s just say that they have earned the long growing season!


Keep your knees dirty!

Mark
http://www.markcullen.com/

Extra Bounty? I have the answer.... and gardening advice to live by.

As we enter the mid life of this years’ garden you are anxious to pick your first tomato. Right? And why not: I know that I was! Pleased to say that I picked my first ripe tomato yesterday. I brought it in to the kitchen with pride: big smile on my face, and presented it to Mary.

She poached 3 lovely eggs that she had plucked from their mothers’ warm bosom that morning and presented me with the tomato, cut nicely into 6 wedges, ready for the fresh ground pepper.

mmmmmmmmmmm. Heaven.

And so the journey begins. Harvest season is upon us.

Soon I will be bringing tomatoes in from our garden by the quart, then the bucket and finally the bushel. At which point Mary will throw her hands up in the air, take a deep breath and scream: “enough! Enough – I can’t use anymore…….. tomatoes!”

Another deep breath.

Our infatuation with some vegetables is longer than others. The zucchini, for example, are not as lucky as the tomatoes. In fact from the first zucchini delivery to the kitchen I get this look that says, “Is it THAT time of year again?”

What to do with extras….

So the perennial question of course is, “what do I do with all of the vegetables (and fruit) that we produce each summer that we cannot eat or prepare in jars or freeze for ourselves?” I would not be the first to suggest that you can leave the zuch’s in a basket at the front door of a neighbour, or someone that you don’t like very much. Or in the front seat of a convertible car, with the top down. Great for a laugh.

To be serious, lots of Canadians have the same problem each summer. And I have the answer: give it away to people who want it, can use it and will benefit measurably from its’ consumption.

A Great Canadian Success!

In 1988 a couple in Winnipeg by the name of O’Donnagh found themselves long on pears from their backyard pear tree. They looked at each other and said, “why not” and took the extra lot to the local food bank on the off chance that they would pass them on to people in need of pears.

The plan worked – the O’Donnaghs were greeted with open bushel baskets, which were soon loaded with the pears. Many thank you’s later and they were on their way back home. Days later the two of them got the same idea: if giving fresh produce to the local food bank provides a worthwhile service in the community, then why not spread the word and get our neighbours to donate their excess produce too?

And so it began.

More than 2 decades later the whole continent is jumping on the bandwagon. The ‘program’ is now called Plant a Row Grow a Row for the hungry. The Garden Writers Association, of which there are over 600 members (I am one) receive regular e-bulletins from the organization asking us to remind our readers/listeners/viewers to please remember that the food banks ALL love to receive fresh garden produce. Go to www.compost.org for all of the details.

Last year alone Canadians donated several hundred tones of fresh garden food to food banks.

There is no form to fill out.

No organization to join.

No fees to pay.

Just pick the food and deliver it to your local food bank. They will take care of the rest. Clients of food banks generally have a diet that lacks in fresh produce. Processed foods, often high in salt and fat, are easier to store and often cheap and, therefore, accessible. Fresh produce not so much.

I urge you to do this. And take a moment to reflect on the fact that it was a Canadian couple who started the whole thing…. Understated and modest.

Another great Canadian success story that most of us are not aware of.

Now, while I am on the topic of tomatoes, a very important message: prevent the #1 scourge of tomatoes by applying Green Earth Bordo mixture now. Do not leave this too long. Truth is early blight (which is related to the blight that attacked potatoes that began the Irish Potato famine in the mid 1800’s) can spread so fast that you will barely see the signs of it one day and your tomato plant will collapse the next. Unless you have sprayed with organic based Bordo.

What is in Bordo that is so effective? Copper.

Is Bordo banned for use in provinces with pesticide bans? No. It has been recommended and used by organic gardeners for years. Truth is, there never was a chemical spray that proved to be as effective in preventing early blight, to my knowledge.

For the BEST tomatoes:

Remember: pick your tomatoes as they ripen. If you allow them to become over ripe on the vine the plant will not produce as much ripe fruit as it otherwise would.

Stake tomatoes off of the ground: you will double your crop.

If you allow tomatoes to rot on the vine you are inviting diseases that can wreak havoc.

Words to live by: ‘If it ripens, pick it”

This is true for any fruit bearing plant. Beans, peppers, eggplant, apples, pears, cherries: you get the idea.

What to do with the extra produce that your garden is spewing this time of year?

Ideas!

- preserve it in mason jars

- dry it for future use (either buy a dehydrator or hang upside down like you would herbs or like pioneers did with apple rings)

- ‘salt it away’ like they did for long voyages across the ocean

- Have a ‘preserving party’

What ideas can you share that would help the rest of us put our excess garden produce to good use?

I would love to hear from you: just send your ideas to us at www.markcullen.com and click on ‘contact us’ – we would love to hear from you!

While you are at it, remember that we are always looking for recipes for green tomatoes. What do you do with yours?

Looking forward to hearing from you...

Keep your knees dirty!

Mark

www.markcullen.com

Pruning and Loafing

In a recent article in the Toronto Star I suggested that this is the time of year to take it easy – sit back and drink in the benefits of all your spring time activity in the garden.
Hammock time is what I called it.

Evidently not all of you took the advice.

I am getting a lot of questions about moving plants from one place to another. ‘Bleeding heart, Japanese maples, peonies, day lilies’ – that was just today! Some people want to move these established plants to other, more appropriate parts of the garden and some want to split/divide and give away parts of established perennials.

My answer: don’t.

Not now, anyway.

In most parts of Canada we have enjoyed ideal growing conditions for most everything that grows in the garden. As a result there is an incredible volume of new foliage that is just hanging out there drinking in the benefits of the sunshine and rain (or water that you have applied).

Let that foliage do its thing. Our opportunity to move plants will come soon enough. Foliage that has grown on perennials, shrubs, trees and roses this spring and early summer needs time to ‘harden off’: to do it’s primary job of strengthening the plant through the miracle of photosynthesis. Come September and October our chance to dig them up, divide them and move them around will come.

Grunt work has it’s time and place.

Same goes for starting grass seed. If you have just noticed that your lawn needs some thickening or you want to compete your lawn weeds out of existence as I have suggested that you can in earlier blogs: don’t do it. Not for a few more weeks.

The ideal time of the year to start fresh grass seed is just around the corner – the ‘window of opportunity’ is generally mid August through late September. When the correct time comes, I will tell you how to produce a fabulous looking lawn, right here. So stay tuned.

Pruning.

If you are still not satisfied with loafing around the yard, enjoying some bird song, watching the ‘flying hogs’ (as my friend Joel Marks likes to call them) drop free fertilizer indiscriminately all over your garden, then do some pruning.

Pruning Fruit Trees.

I am getting a lot of enquiries about fruit that is rotting on the tree. Apples, pears, cherries: it doesn’t really matter the species, this is a common problem. It is related to the lack of air circulation through the branches of the tree and a lack of sun being able to filter into the centre of it.

The breeze that moves through your fruiting trees discourages the growth of mold and disease, the likes of which causes fruit to rot and mildew to grow.


Likewise, the sun that filters into the crown of a tree helps to dry up the moisture that hangs on fruit and foliage far too long for the trees’ own good.

Using a sharp ‘green wood’ pruning saw (Mark’s Choice at Home Hardware product #1062-860 retail $12.99), get into the ‘heart’ of the tree and remove up to 1/3 of the old wood. Best to stand back and look at the over all shape of the tree before you start hacking away. Remember that the goal is to open the tree up, creating a series of arching branches that appear to be reaching for the sun – or, in the case of many apple trees, the branches will grow more or less horizontally.

Raspberries that have finished bearing fruit need to be pruned back to 10 cm high within the next 6 weeks.

Strawberries that have finished fruiting, and have been planted for more than 3 years, should be dug up and re planted into a separate part of the garden. The soil that you are moving the plants into should be tilled or dug up, weed free and the plants mulched with 10 cm of clean straw to help hold moisture and reduce weeding.
Your existing strawberry bed should be tilled under.

Blueberries should be given another dose of powdered sulfur and a shot of Green Earth blood and bone meal to encourage one more flush of growth before they begin to harden off for the season.

Matter of fact, this is an excellent time to fertilize all of the flowering shrubs and roses in your garden with the same blood and bone meal granules. About a handful per plant.

These suggestions should provide you with enough activity to keep even the most restless gardener happy. Go nuts! If enjoying your garden means never sitting down to enjoy it. For others, mid July is the ideal time of the year to relax and drink it all in.
Hammock time.

I don’t plan on traveling too far from my garden just yet... I am still pinching myself that this wonderful time of year is finally here. The time of year that I spent all winter dreaming about.

Keep your knees dirty,

Mark
http://www.markcullen.com/

Looking Out for the Bad Guys

My 19 year old daughter calls men who make not-so-subtle sexual remarks ‘creepers’.
I use the same expression for the green worms on my roses.

The English language is interesting, no?

She could care less about the creepers on my roses and I care very much about the creepers that she calls creepers. We live with our priorities. Someday she may be a parent and understand.

Speaking of green worms on roses, there is a generous quantity of creepers on a lot of the plants in my garden right now. Judging by the questions that are left on my website, there are a lot of garden creepers out there.

Not just bugs but diseases too.

Good Bugs.

My response to this, first off, is to remind you that 99% of the bugs in your garden are ‘good’ bugs. They are performing a function that is essential to the long term health of all that is going on both in the soil and on your plants. Many bugs are eating the bad bugs (e.g. lady bugs eating aphids) and many others are assisting in the complicated business of breaking down organic matter in your soil into humus – the foundation of all good soil (e.g. earth worms, sow bugs, centipedes etc.)

Now, when you find ‘bad bugs’ that exist in numbers too great for the good bugs to control, then you may have to call in the infantry. This can take a number of forms. On my potatoes, I hand pick the Colorado potato beetles for a while (how did they ever get to my garden anyway, over 4,000 kilometers from their home?). But let’s face it, there is a limit to that. For one, you may not have the stomach for squishing the larvae in your fingers –even with gloves on. Also the potato bug can grow in numbers very quickly and literally get out of control.

Potato Beetles.

As an organic gardener my ‘infantry’ for the potato beetle is ‘Dio’ or diatomaceous earth. Harmless to the earth, kids, pets and you. It is sold everywhere as a powder. You just puff it on from the squeeze container and make sure that you get it under the leaves of the plants where the bugs ‘harbor’ (which means “mate” and “eat”) and do most damage. The goal is to make contact with the potato bugs. They walk on it and their under bellies dry up and they die of thirst. (Would you rather squish them with your fingers? O.k., so it pays not to think too much about the details.) Reapply when it rains, if the problem persists.

For the green worms on my roses I use Green Earth insecticidal soap. This is not to be confused with Palmolive or whatever – it is a scientifically selected fatty acid with insecticidal properties. It does most of the work for you where insects are concerned and is considered safe for use around pets and kids.

Spider Mites

One ‘hard to kill’ insect is the dreaded ‘spider mite’. Common to Dwarf Alberta Spruce and many garden variety flowering plants, this one hates water. To find spider mite on your plants, hold a piece of white paper under the plant while shaking it. If tiny coarse ‘grains of sand’ drop down onto the paper – especially grains of sand that move, you do not have sand but mites.

I discourage mites by using a strong blast of water from the end of the hose – the pistol grip hose attachment works well. Or just hold your thumb over the end of the hose for a coarse spray. I find that this works until my thumb goes numb from the cold and the pressure. Spray the infected foliage with water every day for a week, every second day for another week. Keep your eye on this one.

I continue to cut down young weeds with a sharp hoe. Use a ‘bastard’ file to sharpen your hoe every time that you use it. This makes the difference between hard work and a barrel of fun. O.k., not a barrel, but a bucket. A small bucket.

I am busy deadheading roses and peonies and staking my helianthus and delphiniums. Anything that has grown tall enough in your garden to risk being blown over by high winds should be staked. I like the new heavy wire ‘link stakes’ that you can purchase from Home Hardware.

I think that the garden is about 2 to 3 weeks away from its peek in colour production. If your garden is dominated with annual flowering geraniums, petunias, impatiens, etc. then yours will ‘peek’ later than mine, which is mostly flowering perennials and roses.
Keep all of this in mind with your camera not too far away. A visual record of your garden in progress will be an inspiration come winter and will spur you on with all kinds of ideas for change come next spring.

Which is one of the great beauties of gardening as a hobby. Every year provides additional opportunities to change and improve on the previous years’ garden. Winter is our time to dream. Spring our time to plant and sow. Summer is our time to wallow in the fruits of our labour – both the edible kind and the eye candy. And to keep an eye out for the bad guys.

Enjoy! And keep your knees dirty.

Mark
http://www.markcullen.com/

So You Think You Can't Garden

I was watching ‘So you think you Can Dance’ (http://www.ctv.ca/) the other night and I thought to myself, “There is no way in the world that I could do any of that stuff on the dance floor.” To which my wife responds: No kidding!

When you are all feet and no rhythm, you know what I mean, middle aged white guy that I am.

The thought occurred to me that there are some people out there who think the same thing about gardening: why plant it when you know that you are going to kill it anyway.

I have heard it all: “I have black thumbs.” “I kill everything.” “My Mom was the gardener.” and my favourite, “My wife is the gardener” As much as to say: why start, I am only going to fail anyway.

To which I respond: there are no failures in the garden, only composting opportunities.

So, off to the golf course they go to churn up someone else’s’ lawn with their divots and donuts (circles in the turf made by turning hard on the wheel of the power cart while tromping on the gas peddle circling the ball).

For readers of this blog who are inclined to think that gardening is for everyone else, a message:

If you breathe, you will get a kick out of gardening.
If you can hear, you will get a lift from the songs of birds in your garden.
If you can feel, you will sleep better having nurtured and grown the clean air machines that we call plants in your own yard.
If you can see you will pause during your ‘work’ in the garden and become temporarily breathless as you observe a hummingbird sucking nectar from a flower.
If you still don’t get it, go back to the top and re read.

My friend Sarah Rurka at the Home Hardware location in Lloydminster, Alberta sent me this wonderful quote from the book ‘Second Nature’. I think that you will like it:
Sarah says that “This book of narratives is a book of tales of failure, overcome.”

And from the book, “All of the accomplished gardeners I know are comfortable with failure... and understand that, in the garden at least, failure speaks louder than success... his failures have more to say to him. The gardener learns nothing when his carrots thrive, unless that success is won against a background of prior disappointment. Outright success is dumb, disaster frequently eloquent, at least to the gardener that knows how to listen.”

The idea that a person cannot or will not pick up a spade or a trowel and plant something in the soil out of fear of failure is a foreign concept to the successful gardener. Failure, as Sarah and the author of Second Nature reminds us, is what we do.

Imagine if you met someone at your next cocktail party who introduced themselves as a failure. You might look for a quick exit from that conversation.

And yet I know the feeling of failure and the exhilaration of learning from it. Oh, the high of getting it right after learning from a good failure!

While in business it has occurred to me that we waste a lot of time talking about our successes. Look at the financial pages these days and you will read lots of stuff about people who have profited from the down turn in the economy. I would ask, “Who has a failure that they wish to talk about – and what did you learn from it?”

A ‘failure’ forum might just draw a big crowd and who knows, maybe we would learn more from a few of these shared experiences than all of the successes put together.

Gardeners who have been at it for a few years get it: we work to fail so that we can succeed the next time. It is a cycle that keeps us going.

Maybe that is why gardeners live longer.
Our bodies are more flexible and our minds more open than non-gardeners because we exercise muscles that seldom get a workout otherwise. Under normal circumstances we go out of our way to get things right (think child-rearing and careers).

As Sarah rightly points out, “Weathering the recession in this market has been an interesting experience for our family. The fear/intimidation that we feel in business is no different than that of new gardeners just setting out to plant their first garden.”

It is early summer everywhere in Canada and a great time to sink a spade into the soil and plant. Anything. Prepare the soil with some compost. Water the new plant. Nurture it. And if you fail, give it another shot (most retailers now guarantee plants against death anyway, regardless of the reason why).

Keep your knees dirty!

Mark
http://www.markcullen.com/