Last October the guest speaker at the River Valley Garden Club meeting gave us a talk and demonstration on how to layer different varieties of spring bulbs in a single pot and how to force (persuade) them to flower before their normal season. I was interested to try this method as I had only done this with a single variety in each pot.

To accomplish this I went to Halifax Seed where they had an overwhelming variety to choose from. I was also hoping  for some advice as to which bulbs would be the most suitable but unfortunately their horticulturist was away that day so I was on my own. I had selected a pot which was 10 inches high with a circumference around the top of 34 inches tapering to 20 inches at the base. After a great deal of soul searching, I chose 6 pink hyacinths, 12 daffodils, 6 yellow crocus and 6 white crocus. I wanted the daffodils to have small flowers as I thought the heavier heads of standard varieties would flop over, and I also wanted the centres to be darker than the petals. I also looked for shorter varieties of daffodil which would help to keep them upright.

When I got home I planted them at once starting with the hyacinths, which were the largest bulbs, at the lowest level, evenly spaced around the edge. I covered these with about an inch of soil mix followed by the daffodils spaced between the hyacinths and in the centre. After adding soil mix to cover them I arranged the crocus evenly around the pot alternating the colours and again covered them with enough soil mix to bring the level to just below the rim. After giving them a good watering I had to decide where I would put them as I was going away for almost a month. As the pot was too large for the refrigerator I decided to put it out in the garden in a shady place covered with newspaper. When I returned home there was no sign of any growth but the soil mix was still damp and not saturated, so I felt that things were probably progressing. I gave them another thorough watering and brought the pot into my unheated porch still covered with newspaper. After about two weeks shoots were appearing and I decided to bring them into the warmth. They should flower 3-4 weeks afterwards and, in fact, by January 9th the hyacinth and white crocus were showing colour while the daffodil buds were just forming. The picture was taken on January 20th when the hyacinths, white crocus and half the daffodils were in full flower. I think I failed to turn the pot and half the daffodils grew more slowly as they had had less light. It took them no time at all to catch up and as I write this on February 2nd the hyacinths are past their best but the white crocus and daffodils are still looking good. However where are the yellow crocus? I have  fine healthy leaves but no sign of flower buds. Somewhere at the back of my mind someone once mentioned that yellow crocus couldn’t be forced indoors. If you wanted them in the house, the pot had to be buried outside and could only be brought inside when the flower buds had formed. From my experiment it would appear that this is true. I have asked several professional gardeners but nobody has the answer. Please, if anyone can give me a definite answer I would appreciate it and in the meantime I shall have to wait and see if the yellow crocus will flower later.  On February 8th there is still no sign of flower buds on the crocus!

Preparing for Spring – Part One

Most of the seed catalogues arrive around Christmas and now is the time to decide what you would like to grow this gardening season. Every year the seed companies produce something new for us to experiment with. However, unless you can produce the right conditions for growing plants from seed indoors you may find the results disappointing. For this reason, I leave the growing of tender annual flowers to the professionals. The nurseries have a wide choice of variety, colour and size, all ready for planting outside at the appropriate time. I restrict my choice of annual flower seeds to those that can be directly seeded in the garden and essentially look after themselves. If they re-seed themselves next year that is a bonus.

Local naturalist and birder, Jim Wilson spoke at the January River Valley Garden Cub Meeting about 'Living in Harmony with Wildlife on your Property'. Pictured above: Garden Club President Tracy Parker and Jim Wilson.

Bachelor’s Buttons (Black Bull) is one that I will try this year. It has chocolate flowers and grows to 30 inches. Calendula (Scotch Marigolds) now come in a variety of colours from pale yellow to bronze and if dead headed regularly will flower all summer until frost. Cosmos come in all shades from white to dark red. They tend to be tall, 3-4 feet.  New this year is “Sensation Candy Stripe,” white with rose edges and pale stripes.  Morning Glories make a good addition to trellises and fences growing 6-8 feet. New this year is “Carnival” which is candy striped in shades of blue, white and pink. Nasturtiums are good value as leaves and flowers are edible adding interest to summer salads. The flowers come in all shades of cream, yellow, orange and red and the leaves, depending on the variety, are various shades of green. One is marbled green and white.  One of my favourite annuals is the poppy. They come in all colours and sizes, both single and double, and will reliably reseed the following year. To keep them flowering all summer they need to be dead headed but remember to leave some seed heads for the following year. New this year is the California Poppy “Purple Gleam” which has the usual attractive blue/green foliage but the flowers are deep lilac instead of the usual cream/yellow/orange. Sunflowers are spectacular and easy to grow. They now come in shades of red as well as the usual yellows. Children love to grow them as they grow so fast. The varieties that provide bird seed are a bonus. (Beware the racoon!) I love sweet peas but have had little success with them in the past. I shall try again this year. There is a perennial sweet pea (Lathryus Latifolius) which might be worth trying as it is said to be salt, wind and drought tolerant and at a height of 6-8 feet, can survive where little else will.

Perennials grown from seed are very good value for money. They can be started early in the spring or later in the summer. I find I have more success by planting later as growing conditions outside are easier to manage than inside with our “dry as a desert” and” low light” conditions. Very few perennials will flower in their first season but  seeds germinated in summer will produce healthy plants which, if set out in the garden, will make a wonderful display the following year for only a fraction of the cost of buying from nurseries. I see that there is now available a Coneflower (Echinacea) mixture “Paradiso”, a mixture of white, pink, red, yellow and orange blooms, guaranteed to flower from July to October and hardy to zone 3. Perennial asters (September Ruby – tall and “Pinkie – short) are easy to grow and are beloved by butterflies and bees as is Butterfly Flower (Asclepias) which is available in pink and white. This will flower the first season if planted early.

For this column I have consulted two catalogues specific to Atlantic Canada and one from Ontario. They were Vesey’s, Halifax Seed and Dominion Seed House. There are many others which are available on line and have interesting and unusual offerings. Have fun!

I have just returned from nearly a month away. We have obviously had frost as all the leaves are down except for the oaks which can hang onto their leaves until well into winter. The deer have noticed the lack of human activity and the absence of the family dog and have eaten everything green that was left in the vegetable garden.

The main jobs at this time of year are lawn care and leaf removal. Now is a good time to aerate the lawn as the plugs left by the machine will break down over winter and act as a top dressing for next year. Leaves, if they are chopped fine with the lawn mower, can also be left on the lawn and with the grass clippings will also provide nutrition for the following year. Anyone who insists on a perfect lawn at this time of year can collect all this material and add it to the compost pile.

I find many people are reluctant to have a compost pile in their garden. There is a fear that it may be a habitat for undesirable wildlife. Rats are frequently mentioned. If no animal products are included – meat, fish, fats and milk products – the compost pile will be of no interest to these creatures. It is also important that no waste from cats and dogs be included. The commercial composting facility includes these products because they process their compost at a much higher temperature than we can achieve at home and will destroy any parasites that may adversely affect human health. I hope any readers will forgive me for indulging in a lecture on the value of compost but it is such a valuable additive to both the vegetable and flower garden and, as the components are free, it is well worth the effort to include a compost pile even in a small garden.

There are four main requirements for a healthy compost pile – air, water, nitrogen and carbon. The nitrogen and carbon elements will also contain trace elements and micro – organisms which help to break down the pile until the original components become unrecognizable and all that is left is a fine, black, soil-like substance. With all the leaves and garden waste available at this time of year, now is the best time to build the piles. For anyone who has little time to build a formal pile it is perfectly acceptable to pile everything together in a haphazard manner. The pile will take longer to decompose but in the end, the result will be the same.

For those people who would like to build a more formal pile I  have some suggestions. The ideal size is 5 ft x 5 ft x 5 ft. A pile this size will be large enough to decompose well into winter. The ideal balance of ingredients are 1/3 nitrogen to 2/3 carbon. The nitrogen is composed of a mixture of green vegetable matter, kitchen waste, farmyard manure and weeds with soil attached to their roots. The carbon is composed of a mixture of dead and dry plants, leaves, sticks, wood shavings, pine needles and straw.  At this time of year there is an abundance of carbon.  In order to keep the pile within bounds and to prevent leaves from blowing around I surround my chosen area with a cage of heavy pig wire held in place with posts at each corner, the front being left open until the pile reaches the desired height. Snow fencing is also a good choice. I then build the pile using a mixture of leaves and grass which I collect with the lawn mower. When the pile is around 2 ft high I water it with the hose until it is damp but not soggy.  I then add a layer of dry stalks from the flower garden and any sticks that have been used to support plants. This layer allows air to remain within the pile. I then continue to build the pile until it reaches the desired height when I give it another watering. If the contents of the pile contain about the right balance of carbon to nitrogen the pile will begin to heat up within 24 hours and the pile will begin to sink. If you put your hand into the pile, steam will rise out of it. As the pile shrinks add more vegetable matter and more water if it appears dry. The pile will stay warm and continue to work well into winter. The neighbourhood cat will be very happy to spend his days sleeping on top of this warm pile! And the value of all this work will be obvious when the compost is available next year.

Preparing for Winter- Part Two

When this article goes to print, November will be here but there is still lots of work to do in the garden before Winter closes everything down. Before the first frost I take inside any tomato plants that are still producing and hang them upside down in a dark corner of the basement where they will continue to ripen naturally and maintain their flavour until December. I  pick the remaining cold sensitive vegetables – squash, peppers and beans and use them up as soon as possible, consigning the remaining plants to the compost pile. Root vegetables, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Leeks, Broccoli, Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts can be left in the garden longer where they will continue to produce until daytime temperatures fall to just above freezing. The only caveat with root vegetables is to watch for the second infestation of carrot fly which riddle the roots with tunnels making what appears to be a healthy plant, virtually inedible. Covering Spinach and Swiss Chard with a protective row cover will lengthen the growing season. Raspberry canes that have fruited this year should be pruned to the ground and the new canes cut down to around 5 feet (1.5 metres). All small canes should be removed leaving up to six healthy canes per clump. I then tie bundles of canes together making “teepees” which helps to prevent damage from wind and heavy snow. When the leaves fall I add a good covering to the ground between the clumps of canes. These will rot down over the next year and help to conserve water during the summer months. I also add a good mulch of leaves around currant and gooseberry bushes at this time. It is suggested that a mulch discourages the Currant Sawfly which hibernates around these bushes.

In the flower garden the tender annuals will have been killed by frost so consign them to the compost. It may be a little late to split and replant overgrown perennials but if you are still working to get this done you can give the roots extra time to establish by surrounding the plants with a mulch, two to three inches thick, which will keep the soil from freezing for a few more weeks.

There are differences of opinion as to what should be done in the flower garden. Some people think that all the stalks and seed heads should be left in situ until Spring to help hold the snow and to add interest to the Winter landscape. Others think that all dead and dying material should be removed as to leave it may encourage disease.  I fall somewhere in between the two opinions. I cut the seed heads off all plants that may self seed as the new seedlings that germinate in the Spring may bear no resemblance to the mother plant. Examples of these plants are Phlox, Maltese Cross, Bee Balm and Monkshood. The remaining stalks can be left until the Spring. With Siberian Iris and Daylily I cut back the top growth to the crown. I find removing these stalks and leaves in Spring when they are wet and slimy an unappealing experience! I have also found they are, if left, a perfect place for mice, slugs and snails to spend the Winter. Then I spend time removing any annual and perennial weeds that may have become established during the Summer. If they have no seeds they can be put on the compost heap. Now is a good time to remove any perennials that have not lived up to expectations. When these jobs have been completed it is a good idea to draw up a new garden plan listing the name, size, colour and season of flowering of the remaining plants so that when the 2010 garden catalogues arrive it will be easier to order new plants which will blend well with the established plantings.

All we need for this time  of year to be a pleasure in the garden is the blessing of the Weather Gods.

One day last spring, passing where the caboose used to be on River Valley Drive, I saw a small group of busy people. Most were women dressed in typical gardening garb.  They were fully absorbed in the task at hand: preparing a flower bed on the edge of the road. It was part of Grand Bay-Westfield’s beautification programme. I stopped the car at a safe distance and snapped a picture.

Early in September, three months later, I went back. There were no gardeners, and the place they were working was overflowing with plants in full bloom put there by those community-minded people for us all to enjoy.

What kind of people take on a project like this? When I thought about this question I realized that a lot of lessons in citizenship can be learned. Beyond that, the same ideas, principles and rules that can create a roadside garden in Grand Bay can also make successful restaurants, theatres, churches, large corporations and even governments.

Here are some of the main ingredients:
-          Seeing the need
-          Coordinating the inputs (for a garden this starts the previous year)
-          Planning the garden with knowledge of what the plants will look like at maturity
-          Devoting  time
-          Maintaining the garden (in this case it is mostly done by Town employees).

Unless all of these things happen, there is no garden. Many people wait until someone else gets things started, and some of us join in. But most of us have the ability to start something constructive. Maybe not a garden, but something.  It is quite easy if you start small, and the results, like this garden, can be rewarding. There is no shortage of needs in the world. Think about something you can do, somewhere, and give it a try.

Preparing for Winter – Part One

As I write this September is half over – days are significantly shorter and cooler and nights longer. Frost warnings have already been given but thankfully haven’t yet hit my garden.

Even though the season is winding down there is still a great deal of work to do in the garden to prepare for winter and the future gardening season of 2010. The secret, for all us busy people, is to decide what are the most important jobs – those that must be done before winter arrives.

For myself, the No 1 job is to pot up plants that I want to overwinter inside if they will not survive our harsh cold weather conditions. If these plants are already in pots I move them closer to the house – inspect them for insect damage – give them a good wash down with the hose – spray them with insecticidal soap – remove dead or damaged leaves and shoots and give them a dose of fertilizer. If I feel that the soil may contain pests I soak the soil with insecticidal  soap or a bleach solution (15 ml/1 L water) until the solution runs out of the bottom of the pot. Wait 30 mins to 1 hour then soak the pot with clear water until it runs out of the bottom of the pot. If I am using bleach I wait another hour and rinse again with water as bleach may damage the roots.  When temperatures fall below their comfort level, I move these pots into my unheated, sunny porch where they are further observed for any unwelcome guests until they need to be brought into warmer conditions.

It is a little different for plants in our flower and vegetable gardens. I prepare containers not already clean and sterilized by washing in soapy water followed by a soaking in a solution of bleach (30 ml/4L water) followed by rinsing with water. I dig up the plant – shaking off as much soil as possible. I follow this by washing the roots and the top growth to remove as many “guests” as possible. Any damaged roots should be pruned and the plant repotted using a sterile potting mix. I then water it well using a soluble fertilizer at half strength. It is a good idea to prune away about 1/3 of the top growth as the root system may not be able to support it. Afterwards treat the plants in the same manner as the plants already potted before moving them into the house. I do this for Parsley, Tarragon, Basil and Rosemary as I find they add a touch of Summer to our Winter food. Basil will not last long and Rosemary always looks sick towards the end of February but makes a surprising recovery when planted outside in the Spring. Keeping up the humidity with a spray of water twice daily and turning the heat down to around 15 degrees C at night helps. Our houses, in winter, are as dry as a desert!

Flowers I bring in are Geraniums, Fuchsia, Begonias and Heliotrope – all for taking cuttings for the following year.

Professional gardeners encourage us to remove the faded blooms from annuals to keep the plants tidy and to prolong the flowering season. The main object of all flowering plants, both annuals and perennials, is to make seed. In the case of annuals they die following seed production but perennials will go dormant until the following year.

Plant breeders have produced varieties of  lilies and iris that will bloom twice in a season. However many other common varieties of perennials will flower twice with a little care. Examples of these are Centurea ( Corn Flower), Foxglove, Lupin, Veronica, Maltese Cross, Yellow Loosestrife, Mallow and some Campanula and Balloon Flowers.  The secret is to prevent these plants from producing seed. In doing this we may have to sacrifice a few of the topmost flowers but I find the second flowering in September and October is worth it. It takes about two months for the plants to produce a new crop of flowers so the later blooming flowers (Phlox, Delphiniums, Perennial Asters and Chrysanthemums) which would rebloom in warmer climates, will not do so here.

For most of these plants just cut off the faded flower down to the first upper set of leaves. To encourage new growth give them some compost and some all-purpose fertilizer. New growth, including new flower buds, will grow from the leaf axils. The flower heads will be smaller than the first flowering. With Centurea and Lupins, after cutting off the flower heads the new growth will start from the ground and the original stems will die back. When the new growth reaches 6 inches, cut back the old dead stems to the ground. Mallows should be cut back almost to the ground as they have healthy lower leaves below the flower stalk.

Even if the plant will not flower a second time, faded flowers should be removed as producing seed taxes the strength of the plant and any seedlings produced may bear little resemblance to the parent plant.

“The Second Time Around” also applies to the vegetable garden.  Spinach, leaf lettuce, radiccio and endive can be cut down leaving the lower leaves and will sprout again.  With summer cabbage, cut the heads leaving the lower leaves, cut a cross on the stalk and four small cabbage heads will grow. Broccoli will produce smaller shoots in the leaf axils after the main head has been cut. Broad beans, after harvest, will throw up more flowering stems. Cut off the old stalks when harvest is finished. As with flowers vegetables will benefit from a boost of compost and fertilizer to encourage production.

Success, of course, depends upon the Weather Gods.  Good luck.

Barb McKelvey, Lisa Donald & Brenda Carpenter

Even though it’s been a garden centre for the last ten years, Shades of Green is still affectionately known as ‘The School’.  Even the staff, including the four women who run it, call it that. And those women are known by many as ‘The Girls at the School’.

The ‘girls’ are Brenda Carpenter, who co-owns the business with her mother-in-law Judy Carpenter. Brenda’s sister, Lisa Donald has been part of the operation for the last ten years. Probably the best known of the ‘girls’ to customers is Barb McKelvey, who’s been in charge of the greenhouse since day one. Together with a staff of 25 at peak season, many of them with the company for years as well, they operate a successful gardening business out of the old Ketepec Elementary School. Shades of Green is a full service business that includes the greenhouses, landscaping and maintenance, commercial indoor plant care and Christmas design and decorating. It’s a big, year round operation now but it didn’t start that way.

The late Saint John businessman Glenn Carpenter purchased the school after it closed in 1997. His plan was to turn it into an incubator for small business, an inexpensive, short term space where entrepreneurs can start a business. Along with Shades of Green, the school was home to a fitness centre and a senior care business. Eventually they left and the garden centre expanded and soon took over the entire building. But you could never separate the old school from the business.

Ketepec Elementary was built in 1954 and remains virtually unchanged from its school days. The blackboards are still in the classrooms that now serve as offices and storage rooms. The children’s footprints are still painted on the floor in the old gym. And until recently, the buzzer that rang the bell for recess, still worked. They had it disconnected because sometimes kids would sneak into the building and push the button. Even now the building is a treasure trove of school memorabilia. Behind every heating rad in the building they’ve found rulers, notebooks, report cards and an impressive collection of old baseball and hockey cards, including an old Pete Rose and Larry Hillman of the Leafs. Every summer former students of the school, some returning from the west where they’ve lived for many years, stop in and ask if they can look around. Brenda Carpenter says they always let them and it brings back happy memories for them. “There’s always a corner somewhere that they’ve visited,” Brenda says with a laugh.

Besides being housed in a school, Shades of Green is also somewhat unique because it’s a totally women driven business. Even though they weren’t trained in business, they hold a combined wealth of knowledge in gardening and landscaping. And they aren’t afraid to get dirty, laying sod and patio stones right along with their male employees. They also say as women they feel they get to know their customers maybe a little better than a man could. People seem to open up to them and they know their customers names, children and even their pets. Women in particular, like dealing with other women.

They say it’s been a fun ten years and they’re looking forward to another ten. They’re hoping, as the business becomes more successful, to do more community work like volunteering to help the Nature Trust of New Brunswick with plans for the Blueberry Hill property. The ‘girls’ say they have no regrets and they feel Glenn Carpenter would be pleased and proud of their success.

I always think of the Easter Weekend as the start of Spring and the herald of the gardening season. Not so this year! Freezing rain, snow flurries, winds roaring around the house and the river whipped up into whitecaps. Come the beginning of the week, however, when everyone is back to work and despite the remaining piles of snow in sheltered areas, Spring arrives!

I spent a few hours walking around the garden inspecting the damage of Winter. Lots of debris on the lawn – a gift from the surrounding trees. Much unacceptable evidence of the family dog which has to be disposed of and damaged and broken shrubs which have to be pruned. There was a lot of shrub damage this year due to the layers of ice deposited during the warmer episodes of winter and the piles of snow removed from the drive by the snow blower.

First I pruned the broken branches. In the case of roses down to the first outward facing bud. They should recover and flower as well as usual as they are Rugosas and very adaptable. The other damaged shrubs I mostly trimmed the broken branches down to the main stem. If cutting out the whole branch destroyed the shape of the bush I just pruned to an outward facing bud if there was one. New shoots will develop from this bud and will eventually hide the damage. Any pruning of Spring flowering shrubs at this time of year will remove the flowers and should be avoided except for the damaged branches.

My old lilacs had been “weighed down” by the heavy snow. Later in the year, after they have flowered, I shall cut out some of the oldest branches to about 6” (15cm) above the ground to encourage new growth. Sadly, several of my mature February Daphnes have died. To make sure a shrub is really dead I do a “scratch test” with my thumb nail which involves scraping the bark on one of the stems. If the layer under the bark is brown, that part of the bush is dead. Don’t despair! Scratch lower down and if the layer under the bark is green that part of the shrub is still alive. Just prune away all the dead wood and hope for the best.

In the fruit garden there was a jungle of bent and broken raspberry and blackberry canes. This was my fault as winter arrived before I had cut out the old fruiting canes and tied the new canes into “Teepees”. In cleaning up the mess I had to cut out many of the new canes which were too damaged to survive and might encourage disease if left.  I cut the tops of the remaining canes to 5 ft (1.5m)  to encourage branching and fruiting.  When I had finished everything looked quite good and we should have enough berries for our needs.

The black and red currants were undamaged and were already showing flower buds. I just cut some of the 3 year old branches to ground level. I have three Northern Kiwi vines which need heavy pruning to keep them in order. Many branches I cut back to the main stem. The remaining branches I cut back to 2 buds. At this time of year the buds are just indentations on the stem but soon they will produce lovely red stems and shiny green leaves. Some will produce flowers in June and fruit in September. In August I have to do some equally brutal pruning to contain the growth which strangles everything it touches.

The next job is to deal with all the debris on the lawn  -  my least favourite job of the year!

Now that we are well into January and the Holiday Season far behind us, what is there for the “Virtuous Gardener ” to do?  Well, the “VG” can enjoy the pleasures of a fireside chair and all the gardening catalogues and magazines that have appeared in the mail since last December.  For the rest of us who have not completed the chores left over from the last gardening season there is work to be done.

I am ashamed to admit that, lurking in one corner of the garage, there is a wheelbarrow full of dirty, rusty and splintery gardening tools.  In another corner is a pile of dirty flower pots and containers just waiting to be prepared for the 2009 season, and around and about is the lawn mower and other power tools totally neglected since last year and waiting for attention.

What to do?  Where to start?

Getting rid of the pots and containers is a simple job. Wash them in soapy water to remove dirt.  Then rinse them in a bucket of bleach  solution (2 Tablespoons/1 gallon water or 30 ml / 4 litres water)  When all the pots have been washed and bleached rinse them in fresh water (plant roots are damaged by bleach) and stack them according to size.

Tools take more effort and time  but a small amount of care will increase their life.  Wash them in soapy water to remove dirt.  Inspect working surfaces and handles for damage.  Clean metal surfaces with steel wool to remove rust.  Sharpen spades, hoes and edgers with a mill file using the coarse side first then the fine side for smoothing the final edge.  Wipe them with an oily cloth to prevent rust from forming.  Wooden handles should be smoothed with sandpaper to remove splinters and oiled with linseed oil.

Shears, pruners and loppers should be disassembled to clean and sharpen them properly.  This is easily accomplished with wrenches and pliers available in most households.  Scrub each part with kerosene using an old toothbrush.  This will remove sap that has built up over the season. I then sharpen them using a diamond sharpening stick which is fine enough to give them a nicely sharpened edge without removing too much metal. When this is done reassemble them, oil the hinges and put grease on the springs.

Pruning saws I just clean and oil.  Many now come with replaceable blades and it is cheaper to replace the blades than to get them professionally sharpened.

If you have a greasy thumb, a degree in engineering, a comprehensive set of tools and/or  a masochistic streak, there is no reason why you cannot service the power equipment yourself. I find it much easier to take my machines to the service centre. January is an excellent month to do so as they are less busy than in the Spring and the machines will be returned in good time for the start of the gardening season.

When all this work is completed the now “Truly Virtuous Gardener” deserves the comfortable fireside chair!

From The Greenish Thumb.