A New Toy

You know you’re a real gardener when you think compost is a fascinating subject. ~Author unknown

  

I love dirt! I love making beautiful, sweetly aromatic compost and spreading it around the garden. I love raking Autumn leaves onto the garden beds, knowing they will protect roots from winter’s cold and keep spring’s weeds from growing. I love composting my garden trimmings, recycling them back into my soil. I love making my own ‘fertilizer’ since compost feeds the soil which in turn feeds plants. Making my own compost with trimmings (selectively of course) from my own garden protects me from buying chemicals, pathogens or weed seeds that can come with bagged store-bought compost. From piles on the ground to enclosed tumblers (which discourage rodents from living in the warmth of a compost pile) there are many ways to make and contain your pile of trimmings as it breaks down.

The healthiest gardens have dirt that is living. Living dirt is supportive of and alive with the organisms (worms, centipedes, pillbugs, earwigs, microbes, fungi and yes… even slugs) that breakdown organic matter (leaves, sticks, twigs, flower petals) making nutrients available to plants roots. If your garden can match what goes on naturally in the woods, it will be healthier. In the forest the soil is never bare. It is always covered, year-round by the decomposing debris that falls from the trees. Fallen branches, leaves and needles cover the earth and begin to decay. Decaying stumps are important too. Here in my Pacific Northwest timberlands there is a native species of huckleberry that prefers decaying stumps in which to germinate its seeds and take root.

Healthy dirt makes gardening easier and more rewarding. Healthy dirt produces healthy plants. That’s a win/win in my book, so it’s no surprise that I attended a seminar on soil science recently. While much of it I already practice, there is always something new to learn, right?

There was lot of valuable information in this seminar but my biggest take away was this, the value of wood chip as a mulch. Wood chip is not the same as beauty bark, which is just bark. Wood chip contains all parts of the tree or shrub and makes a valuable coarse mulch rich in nutrition.  

  

Coarse mulches allow water and air to move through it so as not to smother the soil or its living organisms below. I always knew wood chip was a good thing. Even better that arborists look for gardeners to give it away free to but a 20-yard pile of wood chip is more than I can use on my little 5000 square foot piece of property in a single season. But if you can use 20 yards or can share with neighbors and friends, a great source is chipdrop.com. Be sure to read all the information including the “expectations” page. It is a free service to recipients but understand that the arborists pay for the service so a nominal payment to reimburse the arborist is only fair. After all, $20 USD for a huge load of wood chip is nothing compared to buying bagged mulch and they deliver it right to your designated location.

At the end of the seminar one of the speakers briefly mentioned as a side note that she has a chipper, a small electric chipper. I’ve wanted a chipper for several years but I don’t have much room to store one out of the weather, nor do I want to fiddle with a gas-powered engine. So, my woody trimmings, too thick to chop up by hand, go into the collection bin that the city picks up. Did she say “small electric chipper”? Hmmm. It would sure be nice to have one. Now I am really interested! When I got home, I started looking online for used sources and found 5 right away! All the same type that is no longer being manufactured and in varying degrees of condition from looks-kinda-rusty to looks-pretty-darn-good.

Soooo….fast forward a week. I am now the delighted owner of my very own electric, 14-amp, 120 volt, 3300 rpm, capable of chipping 1½” diameter branches McCulloch garden shredder! Woohoo!! I’ve been gardening since I was about 5 years old. How is it I’ve never had one of these yet?

  

Turns out there much to learn about my new toy. McCulloch was made in the USA however, this chipper is no longer manufactured, and similar designs are now made overseas so finding replacement parts may be a challenge. I did discover a great source of info on http://www.robsplants.com/chippy.php. Read down through the comments section of his blog post…it covers conversations by owners of this chipper (affectionately named Chippy) as they navigate the replacement parts journey. Turns out parts are becoming available but they are made in China of possibly poorer quality materials so may wear out more often.

Since I bought it used, I figured the blades would need sharpening. There are four blades to keep sharp. Two comprise the upright one-piece “V” blade and then there are two individual horizontal blades which are reversible, extending their life two-fold. I read several opinions about sharpening vs. replacing blades on Rob’s site above but I decided to try sharpening. I just did a light job of it with a couple of files. It cut through my pile almost like butter. I had a lot of green material so the exit chute plugged once. Then twice I pushed dry material through too hard and fast so it jammed. Clearing a jam requires unplugging it and exposing the blades which is not difficult but takes time away from the work so I think a good rule of thumb is every time I have the cover off, I will also give it a quick sharpening. Sharp blades do the work so I don’t have to and most professional gardeners sharpen the blades of what ever they are using after every job or throughout the job. With more practice I hopefully won’t get a blade jam or plugged chute too often.

 There is so much to learn about composting, soil science and the right and wrong way to apply mulch. I’ve long advocated for naturally feeding the soil with compost and protecting the bio diversity of soil life by not using chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, or beauty bark. In the archives, under the compost label on this blog you can find 5 more articles that I’ve written on the subject. If you find compost, mulch and dirt as interesting as I do, I hope you will enjoy my other articles. I have provided additional resources below so you can educate yourself to your own degree of interest. These links provide answers to questions and debunk myths that circle around the use of woody mulch. I encourage you to read through them.

Thanks for reading!

For more information see…

gardening.wsu.edu

getchipdrop.com/expectations/

Another great source for all things garden is…

gardenprofessors .com and 

The Garden Professors page on Facebook is a collaboration of Horticultural Professors from around the USA

In bloom in my garden today: Crocus, Cyclamen coum, Hellebore, Sarcococca confusa, Viola,

Author’s photos

Raking for Gold

Earth knows no desolation. She smells regeneration in the moist breath of decay.

– George Meredith, 1828-1909, English novelist and poet

Happy fall day!

 

Fall season in the Pacific Northwest is synonymous with alternating bouts of soft rain showers, hard rain, rain deluge, wind, hail, warm-wet storms from the south Pacific competing with frigid northerly winds and more rain. But then the sun will come out and warm and dry us once again. We revel in the beauty of this season as we venture out for our fall walks and absorb the amazingly gorgeous leaf colors that this time of year brings to our little corner of the world.

It’s October. The tree’s leaves reveal their true colors that lie hidden under the chlorophyll as it dissipates with the ebbing sunlight, only to drop as bounty to blanket the ground in glorious color. I love the fall for its beautiful sunny days and the beauty and systematic purpose of creation as it gears down for a long winter’s nap. It also brings the promise of a time of rest for me from what can at times be the rigors of tending the summer garden.

To the savvy and frugal gardener it also means time to rake in the gold!

The gold I refer to are all those deciduous tree and perennial leaves that are beginning to drop. Beautiful, wonderful, nutritious, weed blocking, soil feeding leaves blowing around that land on your lawn and garden beds. If you are like me you purposely planted deciduous trees with small leaves like Katsura and Japanese maple varietals. Small leaves or leaf pieces are faster to decay without smothering and are easy to rake and distribute over your garden beds like a snuggly winter blanket that will become food for your soil by spring time. Food for your soil means food for your plants, which means free fertilizer!

I cannot help but shake my head when I see homeowners and hired groundskeepers blowing leaves away (and into the street only to clog storm drains and cause minor localized flooding…but that’s a rant for another post) or neighbors grumbling as they mow up or rake then dump their leaves into yard waste bins for the city to pick up and haul away. Those leaves go to a compost facility only to be treated like the gold that they are for some months before the compost they become is bagged and sold back to the gardener who then spreads it over their garden. Save your time and money friend. You’ve already done the job of raking it off your lawn, now instead of giving it away, just deposit it over your garden beds and let it do the work of natural decay.

Honestly, can anyone really say they prefer the deafening drone of a gas powered leaf blower over the soft scritch-scritch of a leaf rake? Ever been on a walk, reveling in the beauty of color and sun on a quiet fall day only to round the corner and encounter, well…which would you rather hear? Not to mention the cloud of dust, debris and pollen that blower stirs up…well hello seasonal allergies!

Now that the leaf blower has done its job, the soil is bare once again and awaiting any and all airborne weed seeds to come in for a landing and call your garden home.

Have you ever considered the normal order of the seasons in nature? Rarely if ever, do you see bare soil. The forests annually cover their feet and floor with leaf drop and the meadows clothe themselves with leafy ground-covering perennials. Mostly, where you see a weedy mess is where the ground is regularly swept bare and weeds are allowed to multiply because there isn’t someone or something to constantly monitor or stir up the area.

My entire back and side yard are garden and the only places I have to do regular weeding is along portions of the walkways where foot traffic and breezes push away my annually laid leafy mulch.

My leaf corralling tools are inexpensive and easy to acquire.

1. A garbage can of a size easy for you to handle when full. Dry leaves are very light weight so a full can is not terribly heavy, but if you have to rake leaves between rain showers like I did today, wet leaves can be much heavier so it’s a good idea for your container to be of a size that accommodates your abilities.

2. A spring rake or leaf rake. This is not a heavy plastic rake. This rake has metal tines that are thin, light and springy. They reduce the amount of effort by half (if not more) and actually flip the leaves up rather than dragging them across. Believe me, when you experience the difference you will see the value of this rake.

3. Snow shovel. Don’t you just love the value of a thing that has more than one purpose? I do! It sure saves room in the tool shed. Once you get your leaves into a pile with your beloved spring rake, your trusty aluminum light weight snow shovel is the perfect tool to scoop them and (tilted at just the right angle) pour them easily into your can. With the snow shovel you will get through that pile in no time!

  

That’s it! One rake, one snow shovel and one can. No gas that needs to be mixed with oil. No running to the gas station because the blasted thing is out of gas. No ear plugs. No straps to keep a heavy gas powered-smoke-belching-engine-way-too-close-to-my-head strapped to my back. No machine that needs to drained of the gas/oil (now-what-do-I-do-with-it) before it gets stored for winter. No electrical cords to trip over or curse at because you just. can’t. quite. reach. Ok…maybe just one little rant. Thanks for indulging me.

So now that my can is full, I pull it (mine has wheels 😊) to where I want and proceed to pour out and spread an even layer over the soil, thus putting it to bed for the winter. Initially those fluffy leaves can be a nice 6-12 inch layer. It will quickly settle to less than half. Care must be taken not to cover plant tops with all these leaves. The leaves (leaf mulch only) can be spread up to the stems of plants and it is ok to cover bare crowns of herbaceous perennials like Asparagus or Hostas once their leaves have died back. 

This should be an enjoyable exercise, not a chore. Consider getting out to rake every other day or so depending on your leaf drop (and the weather of course). You can get smaller amounts raked quickly with a modest amount of effort, equating to regular exercise not to mention the de-stress-after-work benefit. If you leave it all to the end when your trees have dropped all their leaves, much of them will have blown away, losing a valuable resource and the job will be more time consuming all at once making it possibly an arduous task that you don’t enjoy. The goal is not to end up with a five foot pile to deal with!

The benefits of this pleasurable activity are numerous…

1.  Weed control  so your plants aren’t competing for nutrients with weeds. Weed seeds that blow around from neighboring yards can’t find purchase on bare soil because yours is now not bare and it prevents seeds already on the ground from germinating. And who wants to spend time weeding anyway?
2. Protective layer for plants root systems that may otherwise succumb to freezing temps.
3.  Fertilizer. Compost and leaf mulch is well documented for its nutritious benefit to the garden.
4. Soil tilth. Soil microbes and worms and bugs seek out this decaying matter and turn it into food for your plants.
5.   Soil health and plant health. See 1-4 above.
6. Gardener health. Cardio, muscle building (hello abs!)and mental health as it’s so good to get outdoors.

It's WIN-WIN! Fall exercise for your body equates to winter protection becoming spring nutrition for your garden. Does it get any better than that?

Fall time in the garden should be enjoyable, savoring the last days of gardening for the year, putting your garden to bed for the winter and putting potted plants where winter’s freezing temperatures won’t harm the plants or break the pots. If you don’t already, please also consider leaving seed heads on certain plants to feed the birds that winter over in your region. Already I am enjoying watching the juncos feed on the seed heads of Liatris and Echinacea. If you need more convincing, please enjoy my previous post for benefit to less fall cleanup and more time to go on lovely fall day walks and take advantage of the mental healing time spent outdoors can provide.

Cheers!

Side note: If your trees have big leaves that does mean an extra step, because big leaves mat down like plates over one another and can smother neighboring plants and shed the rain off that you want to seep in to the soil. Big leaves need to be chopped smaller then corralled by a method of your choosing. A quick search online can give many options but I think the easiest is running your lawn mower over them with the catcher in place, then spread over your garden beds.

  

In Bloom in my Garden Today: Ajuga, Aster, Caryopteris ‘Longwood Blue’ (bluebeard), crocus speciosus (blue fall crocus), Cyclamen hederifolium, Daisy (white double), Eupatorium rugosum ‘Chocolate’ (joe pye weed), Fuchsia, Geranium ‘Mavis Simpson’, Heuchera, Hyssop, Kirengeshoma palmata, Lavender, Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ (catmint), Oregano vulgare compactum ‘humile’ (compact oregano), Phygelius (cape fushia), Rose ‘Shropshire Lad’, Rose ‘Reine de Violette’, Rosemary, Salvia garanitica ‘Black and Blue’, Solanum crispum

Authors photos

Spring Bulb Fertilizing

Growing tips break ground

A hint of green on gray branches

Spring unfolding

~ Marie B. Rice, 1932-2011, Haiku

Spring has sprung here in the Pacific Northwest, er… well, actually a couple of weeks ago if you consider all the bulbs that have come up and the number of early daffodils blooming today. So for us this post is timely for the tulips, muscari and other later bulbs just emerging, not yet blooming. As for the rest of the U.S., this post will give you the info you need for the upcoming thaw, it's coming...be strong a little while longer, and be ready to fertilize your bulbs when they emerge in the warming days to come.

When organically fertilizing flowering bulbs the nutrient of choice is usually fish bone meal, but rock phosphate is an alternative choice for the vegan/vegetarian gardeners reading today.

Both are great sources of phosphate for encouraging blooms and root development but the success lies in the application. If you are accustomed to applying synthetic chemical fertilizers, you are used to just scattering the granules on the ground and leaving them to dissolve. Easy yes, but if you want to do more to better the earth, soil health and your own health you will consider transitioning your gardening to organic practices whenever possible.

This brings me to today's topic. Fertilizing your spring flowering bulbs organically. A recent walk through the neighborhood brought this post to mind. This gardener sprinkled bone meal around their bulbs and flowering plants.

  

The bone meal is a good thing, but leaving it in big blobs like that isn't. They left out one important step...working the fertilizer into the soil.

Organic fertilizers need to be broken down by the naturally occurring microbes in the soil. So as you sprinkle your bone meal or rock phosphate you will need to lightly scratch it in with a rake, lightly working it into the soil surface so most of it comes into contact with the soil and its billions and billions of microbes. Easy enough to do but it takes a few minutes more of your time.

Now the granules are surrounded by microbes so those little treasures can do their very important work of breaking down the bulb food and making it available to the roots.

The time to apply the bone meal for spring flowering bulbs is when the leaf tips are breaking ground. If you can see where the bulbs are, you can work around the tender green tips and not damage them.

In Bloom in My Garden Today: Corylopsis veitchiana (winterhazel), Cyclamen coum (spring), Daffodils,Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’, Heath (Erica carnea ‘springwood white’), Hellebore, Hyacinth ‘blue jacket’, Primrose (double English)

Author's photos

Collards - A New Favorite

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, not to anticipate troubles, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.” ~Siddhartha Gautamav


First and foremost I want to thank all of you who still have my blog feed coming to you. I’ve been absent for many months and so appreciate you for hanging in there, waiting for me to get my stuff together and resume writing. Thank you so much.

It has been an interesting year since my last post; filled with sorrow and emotional soul searching while settling dad’s estate and clearing my parents’ house to prepare it for sale. However, peppered amongst all that was much joy and new beginnings for me.

I went back to work, this time at a nursery, doing what I love most…working with plants, helping people with their gardens and spending lots of time with people who love gardening like me. Thus far it’s the most rewarding job I think I’ve ever had.

In late August, one of my customers came in specifically to buy collard seeds. I remembered her as I’d helped her a few times throughout the summer but hadn’t really got to know who she is as a gardener. Turns out she is a weight trainer, and we got to talking about growing greens for a healthy diet. I’d sold lots of collard plant starts in the spring and knew it was very popular in Southern USA cooking. Now, I love greens… kale, beets, mustards, chard, etc but many greens contain oxalic acid which is fine for some folks but not for those concerned with calcium issues. I had never eaten collard greens nor paid much attention to them. So as she was extolling all the virtues of collard greens I asked her if she knew if it was high or low in oxalic acid. She didn’t know so I made a mental note to do research on it when I got home. Then she gave me one tidbit that sold me on growing collards myself. That it grows all winter in our climate, which means you can have fresh greens all winter and even snowfall doesn’t faze it. She said you simply knock off the snow, pick the leaves and cook them up. Wow, I want to grow some of that! I did some research and found them to be low in oxalic acid. Then I bought a bunch from my green grocer to try them. Yum! So I bought some seeds and got a few starts going. Today I have about 8 plants in various sunny places around the perennial garden to see which locations are best. 

Collards are cool weather plants. They are best grown in spring and fall, like spinach and some kales. I say some kales because I grew a new (new to me) variety of kale this year that wasn’t fazed by hot days in the 90’s F (32+C). But that’s fodder for another post. Today we’re talking collards. Collards can grow between 40-75F (5-23C) with optimum growing temps of 60-65F (16-19C) degrees, and as with many fall weather crops they taste sweeter after a frost. They are packed full of vitamins and minerals and rich in carotenoids. Naturally, as with many greens, they are high in vitamin K so if you have blood disorders they may not be right for you.

Collards are from the Brassica family therefore the cabbage moth is something to guard against. The minute mine were in the ground that little white rascal of a moth was flitting around laying her eggs on the undersides of the leaves. We still had warm, sunny days at planting time and the moths were persistent, so I mixed up some BT (Bacillus Thuringiensis) in my 1 gallon sprayer. BT is an organic pesticide that is used to kill leaf eating larvae and caterpillars. It degrades in the sunlight so spray it in the evening hours and re-apply every few days or once weekly, depending on your level of pest control needed. That’s why I mix it up in a gallon sprayer. I just keep it mixed and use the gallon over a period of several weeks. It makes it easy to do a quick spray when I get home from work or after dinner. Frankly the cabbage moths were making a mess of my kale too so every few days I’d spray the whole lot, concentrating on the underneath of the leaves.  And I’ll say this about the collards…the cabbage moths seemed to like the kale more than the collards. Way more egg laying going on with the kale. Now that the weather has turned cold and wet, the moths are gone, so the spray isn’t needed any more.

Fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer like seaweed extract organic liquid or a fish fertilizer since it’s the leaves you want and not flowers. I’m excited to see the plants getting bigger. And it is interesting to see which locations are growing bigger plants. Do you ever do that? Plant veggies in more than one location throughout your perennial garden areas? I’ve often done that when my veggie space fills up and am surprised to see some grow better where I least expected them to.

As far as cooking collards, I’ve seen many recipes and only a few ways to cook them. Thus far I have only chopped the de-stemmed leaves and sautéed them in olive oil and spices, just like I do kale greens. Quite delicious I must say. The flavor is hard to describe but for sure nothing like kale. Collard greens have an earthy flavor to me.

Our winter is forecasted to be warmer and drier than normal so I may not get the fun of knocking off the snow before I harvest them but I can’t wait to cook my fresh winter harvest.

Since I’m new to this beautiful green I’d love any and all thoughts on cooking and even your favorite recipe if you care to share.

Thanks ever so much for reading!

In Bloom In My Garden Today: Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop),

Alyssum, Cyclamen hederifolium (fall),Daisy(white double,) Daphne caucasica, Echinacea, Eupatorium rugosum ‘chocolate’ (joe pye weed),
Fuchsia, Heath (Erica carnea ‘springwood white’), Kirengeshoma palmata, Nepeta, Rose, old English ‘reine des violettes’, Salvia

 
Author’s photo

Tagro - Organic By Who's Standard?

Be the change you want to see in the world.

~Mahatma Gandhi

Often people ask me if I use Tagro. My short, politically correct answer is ‘No, it’s not organic’.  What I would really like to say is ‘I wouldn’t touch that stuff with a 100 foot pole.” Even better, I love it when people press me further as to why I won’t use it so I can extol the virtues of organic gardening to yet another person wanting to care for their little part of the earth. 

Tagro is the municipality’s solid waste division’s solution on what to do with human waste.   Some communities call it ‘sludge’ and residents fight to keep the counties from spraying a liquefied version into the forests and woodlands.  The city mixes it with sawdust and sand to give it a crumbly, compost like texture so it looks kind of like compost.  The city then advertises it with lots of tax paid advertising as a “Natural Yard Care” alternative to be used to amend your soil or raked across your lawn instead of fertilizers or natural compost.  Does your community have such a product?

The city touts it to be organic.  Understand there is more than one definition of organic.  Webster’s dictionary has several definitions of organic, two of which are “1. as relating to, or arising in a bodily organ; 2. derived from living things” which is how Tagro can claim a semblance of organic status.  Agricultural practices define organic as “a production system which avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and livestock feed additives.  To the maximum extent feasible, organic farming systems rely upon crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, legumes, green manures, off-farm organic wastes, mechanical cultivation, mineral-bearing rocks, and aspects of biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and tilth, to supply plant nutrients, and to control insects, weeds and other pests”.  Research shows organic practices result in regeneration of renewable resources in the soil whereas chemical practices result in dead soil, incapable of feeding plant life without further and continual chemical replenishment because the chemicals kill the living biology of the soil.

In reality, Tagro, sludge and its counterparts are all comprised of chemically treated human waste.  Organic only by a dictionary definition, not mine and certainly not the definition of healthy soil practices. Tagro has the most foul, sour acrid odor which I can smell blocks away if I have the misfortune to be down wind.  It smells nothing like the sweet, earthy smell of real compost or even composted steer manure.  Nor does it have the nutritive value or the tilth building qualities of real compost. 

What it does do is give a huge shot of nitrogen to what ever it touches, so if you rake it across your lawn you must mow your lawn twice a week to keep up with the out-of-control growth. I use a mulching mower which gives a nice shot of natural nitrogen to my lawn which I only have to mow once a week during Spring’s growth spurt.  Spring grass is naturally high in nitrogen so leaving the mulched (more finely chopped than regular mower blades chop) clippings on your lawn to decompose is all the fertilizer it needs.

Because Tagro is chemically treated human waste (along with everything else that gets flushed down the commode, for example pharmaceuticals) I believe it also kills the living organisms in your soil, and the worms.  Dead soil can’t support plant life so you have to buy and use a lot more fertilizer or Tagro. I want living soil microbes and worms in my garden soil. Living soil is what supports plant life, which supports bug life, which supports avian life and on it goes.

Recently I’ve seen Tagro’s potting soil mix experimented with in greenhouse growing operations. In pots it is very heavy in structure, not giving the plant’s roots a good air/water mix for healthy root growth. Also it is physically heavier so lifting pots is more difficult. More importantly the plants growth was stunted and the leaf’s color was off and splotchy. After planting with it for an hour, one of the staff (that would be me) complained of headache. All in all it got a bad report from the commercial growers.

If you want to support your community and utilize its in-house programs, better alternatives are Zoo Doo manure programs and community supported composting businesses. My city collects garden waste and it goes to a business that composts it, then sells it to consumers by the bag or truckload. It is always certified organic. The nearby Zoo Doo program is so popular with gardeners they always sell out quickly every spring. If your local zoo doesn’t have this program perhaps they’d be interested in your suggestion in their inbox.

There are so many healthy ways to organically amend your garden soil. Tagro should never be an option.

In Bloom in My Garden Today:  Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alyssum,Astilbe arendsii ‘Diamant’, Begonia ‘bonfire’,Borage,Coreopsis ‘moonbeam’,Daisy(white double), Daphne caucasica, Echinacea pallida,Echinacea purpurea magnus, Fuchsia, Gaillardia (blanket flower), Geranium ‘mavis simpson’, Geum, Gladiolus ‘Boone’ (heirloom 1920’s), Green Beans, Lavender, Lobelia, Nepeta, Oregano, Perovskia ‘little spire’, Salvia, Scheherazade oriental lily, Sedum, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), Thyme ‘foxley’, Zucchini, Tomato

Author’s  photo

Garden Tool Care

"To dig in one's own earth, with one's own spade, does life hold anything better?"
  ~Beverly Nichols, 1898-1982, British author of Down the Garden Path

As in any endeavor or hobby, having the right equipment in good condition makes the difference between enjoying your activity or not.

The winter months are the perfect time to get your tools cleaned and sharpened for the season ahead.  In a perfect world I’d be doing this in January, not mid April but alas…such is life, isn’t it…the best laid plans and all that? 

Imagine this, a steaming cup of your favorite beverage, jazzy tunes on the radio, all in your large garden shed complete with wood burning stove to keep you warm while the winds howl and snow swirls outside and you, cleaning, oiling, and sharpening your myriad of garden tools all neatly stowed on their proper wall hooks or in their tidy drawers…yeah I wish.  Something to aspire for but my reality is this.

No room for a wood stove but I do have the jazzy tunes going.  One wall gets all my larger tools in our little drafty garage.  A few drawers get the smaller trowels and weeding forks.  All this shared with piles of pots, bags of fertilizer, bee stuff, car stuff, bikes, oh and a car, which is why we have a Mini Cooper.  Crazy tight but it all shoe-horns in somehow.

Believe it or not, gardening tools are meant to be sharp.  Just as a dull kitchen knife makes chopping and slicing more difficult, so does a dull shovel make digging more strenuous. 

Naturally digging in the dirt, rocks and grit will dull your shovel, making you work harder.  The more you dig the more you may need to sharpen the edge.  In the case of pruners (secateurs) you could sharpen them after each full day of use or more likely on a monthly basis.  Sharpening frequency depends on how often you use the tool.  Once sharpened you should feel the difference.

Mostly people ask what edge gets sharpened?  If your new tool comes with a sharpened factory bevel right out of the package, take note of which edge and the angle of the bevel and only sharpen in the same way when you sharpen it again.  The angle of bevel will determine how sharp the tool is.  The more delicate pruner will have a sharper bevel angle than a shovel.   Also the sharper the angle the more often it will require sharpening.  A shovel is typically at a 45 degree angle on the top side of the edge.  A good average bevel for a hoe is at about 30 degrees, again on the top side of the edge. 

This is my stirrup (aka wiggle) hoe, my favorite tool for the weeding of large areas or mixing in compost or fertilizer at the soil surface.  (All organic fertilizers must be lightly mixed with your soil in order for the soil organisms to break down the fertilizer, making it available to the plants).  With a push/pull motion this hoe is designed to skim across, just under the top layer of dirt, slicing the leaves off from the stem or root of weeds.  Mine was not sharp at the point of purchase but in order for ease of use they need to be sharpened on both top edges of the flat, horizontal blade.  This one actually had blunt, squared edges so I used an electric bench grinder to get it to sharp edges.  Now that I have two beveled edges, I can just use a hand file to do the job.

I’ve tried several different ways to sharpen tools over the years.  The electric bench grinder is good for shovels and hoes.  You can get different stone grits, depending on how dull or nicked the blade is you need to sharpen, though a flat file will work well if it’s not in too bad of shape.  

For more delicate work like pruners I prefer this pocket size Corona tool.  Taking apart pruners is good practice once a year so you can really clean all the metal surfaces with steel wool and sharpen the full length of the blade.  But for the monthly touch up, I want a quick tool like the Corona tool. This is not a paid endorsement or any kind of endorsement other than I like it for its ease and pocket size.  I discovered this little handy sharpener at the greenhouse were I volunteer.  They keep several of them around.  Sharp pruners are a must.  Dull cutting edges will tear leaves and stems.  You always want a nice clean cut, otherwise pests and/or disease can enter the plants vascular system with the potential of death.  Additionally, a dull hand pruner will put added stress on your hands and wrists.

The long file shown below is too clumsy for me to use on small pruners.  The circular stone, which is inserted into a drill like a drill bit, works great but you need to take apart the pruner to get all the blade’s edge.  It works great for grass shears and the standard flat hoe. 

Don’t forget to lubricate the moving parts of your tools to keep them working well.  My favorite lubricant is a Teflon based synthetic oil lubricant, found at bicycling stores made for bike chains.  It’s slick and doesn’t attract grit.

The wooden handles need care too.  Barehanded, I rub the wooden handles of all my tools with linseed oil.  It is a natural, non toxic oil which smells wonderful.  Once it absorbs it protects the wood from drying out and leaves a nice feeling finish that water won’t penetrate.   In the kitchen linseed oil is known as flax seed oil.  The difference being the linseed oil at the hardware store is not strained enough or processed for consumption.

I prefer wooden handles for most of my tools, but I must confess to breaking two garden forks with wooden handles so for that particular tool I keep to the fiberglass handle.  One thing to note…if you live in the USA and can get to a Sears store, they still offer the life-time guarantee on their entire line of Sears Craftsman brand tools…that includes gardening tools.  I’ve broken a few wooden handles in my work and yes, I do take advantage of that guarantee.  Buying and replacing cheap brands is not frugal when you can get free replacement and a quality product.  You don’t need to keep receipts…Sears Craftsman tools have their brand name stamped on the handles.  (No endorsement here either, just good information)

Lastly, do your best to hose the dirt off your tools and let them air dry before you stow them away after use.  Rusty tools are long-lived tools. So sharpen your tools now and have a more enjoyable time in the garden this summer!

In bloom in my garden today: Alpine Strawberries, Anemone nemerosa ‘robinsoniana’, Bergenia ‘winter glow’, Brunnera macrophylla, Clematis alpina ‘jacquelin de pre’, Daphne caucasica, Daffodils, Clematis alpina ‘frankie’, Erythronium revolutum (fawn lily, trout lily, dogtooth violet), Fritillaria pallidiflora, Geranium phaeum ‘lily lovell’ (mourning widow), Hardy Geranium, Heather(Erica carnea ‘springwood white’), Hellebore, Hyacinth ‘blue jacket’,Kale, Pansy, Skimmia, Primrose (double English), Tulipa ‘gavota’

Authors photos

How Many Is Enough?

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food, and medicine to the soul.

~Luther Burbank, 1849-1926

Did you ever wonder how many plants it takes to create those full, overflowing, lush flowering baskets of annuals that you see hanging from the lamp posts on your local Main street?

This is basket week at the municipal greenhouse where I volunteer. We are planting thousands of plants in large wire and moss baskets that will eventually beautify lamp posts near and far on city streets. Just look at them…rows and rows of moss baskets. The baskets I planted today are destined to beautify Safeco Field in Seattle…home of our Mariners baseball team.

The pot pictured below is 20 inches (51 cm) in diameter. In it I have placed 20 plugs of differing but all cascading varieties of annuals. I have planted them in two offset circles, so as the plants closer to the center cascade they won’t completely cover the plant at the edge. In the center is a Begonia ‘bonfire’ which is upright but will also hang over as the stems lengthen.

At the greenhouse we plant ‘plugs’. As you can see below they are quite small but well rooted and used more in commercial applications because of volume and cost. At your local nursery you’ll find annuals often in ‘basket stuffer’ sizes, usually 2 inch (5 cm) pots. Even at that size you can still get 20 in this pot. Make sure to read the label and get everything in trailing or cascading varieties. Trailing lobelia, verbena, lotus vine, trailing begonia, calibrachoa, petunia, diascia, ivy geranium are all great for hanging pots. Something upright in the center will add height. Make sure all the plants you choose have the same light needs and are specified on the plant’s tags. If your basket is going to be in full sun be sure all the plants are labeled for full sun.

The brown plastic tubing lying in the pot is a part of the watering system Safeco Field uses. You definitely want to get that in place from the very beginning before the plants start to fill out if you are going to use a watering system like that.

Baskets need more attention to watering. Since they are made of wire and a mossy liner which allows more air flow and being suspended in the air and wind, they will dry out faster than terracotta or plastic pots. In mid summer, on a sunny, hot day you may need to water them two times a day.

Organic fertilizers are slow release naturally, so mixing in a handful of granular organic fertilizer before you put in your plants should feed your basket for 3-4 months. If you feel it needs a boost after 3 months or so you’ll want to switch to a liquid organic fertilizer, using every few weeks. Organic dry fertilizers need to be mixed into the soil, not just sprinkled on top. It will be too hard to mix in a dry type with all the plants and you don’t want to damage the lovely jumble of vines.

So now that your plants are in, all you need is sun, warmth, water and fertilizer and you too can have a beautiful, full hanging basket of colorful annuals this summer.

In Bloom In My Garden Today: Muscari (Grape Hyacinths), Hyacinths, Tulipa turkistanica, Corylopsis veitch (Winter Hazel), Hepatica, Daffodil, primrose (double English), Heleborus, Bellis perennis (English daisy), violet primrose


Author’s photos

The Potted Garden

"When in these fresh mornings I go into my garden before anyone is awake, I go for the time being into perfect happiness. In this hour divinely fresh and still, the fair face of every flower salutes me with a silent joy. . . . All the cares, perplexities, and griefs of existence, all the burdens of life slip from my shoulders and leave me with the heart of a little child that asks nothing beyond the present moment of innocent bliss."
~ Celia Thaxter, 1835-1894, New England poet and author of An Island Garden

The quote from Celia Thaxter above is one reason why I love gardening so. Years ago, at a particularly difficult time in my life, I stepped out my back door to begin yet another emotionally dark day. My burdens were too heavy. As I turned from the door toward the garage I heard my bubbling fountain, which caused me to look up. I hadn’t been looking up enough. I saw the sun was shining and my garden was there…in all it’s restful beauty. For a brief moment I stood there, looking and listening to the sounds of my garden and some of the burden slipped off my shoulders. I so needed that in that moment.

Everyone can experience that peace from a garden, whether it’s their own garden or a municipal garden or a park to visit. You don’t have to have acres of land or a big yard to have a garden. Many a garden is made up of pots. Big pots, small pots, lots of pots or just a few pots. The potted garden is just the thing if you are limited on time (far less weeding), space (think of balcony gardens), physical ability to reach the ground (easier digging and accessible by wheelchair) and easier to install than raised beds.

However there are some things to keep in mind if your garden is in pots.

• Water – pots can dry out faster than the ground, so you may be watering more often. You’ll need to dig down into the root area to see if the pot needs watering. Just looking at or touching the soil surface, which dries fastest, is not indicative of what the moisture level is at the roots. There are moisture meter probes available. I haven’t had the greatest success with them but they may be just the thing for you. I just worm my finger down into the soil an inch or two to test for moisture. Hanging pots or moss lined wire pots may need to be watered daily, especially if they are in windy or warm sunny places.

• Good drainage is life or death to potted plants. Roots need oxygen. Oxygen increases as soil dries out and creates air pockets. In the case of most plants if the soil never dries out, even just a little bit, the roots will drown and rot. I do not recommend keeping saucers under pots outside. The saucer will hold water which will wick back up keeping the soil too wet. Remove all saucers and if necessary add ‘pot feet’ under your pots. Pot feet lift the pot up off the ground so water will flow freely out. Depending on the surface your pots are on you may or may not need them. They come in many styles, shapes and sizes. You can buy specialty feet or just use a few bricks or flat stones. Rolling trays allow you to move your pots but if they are solid like a saucer, drill holes in them so you won’t have any sitting water. I find covering the hole with a small square of window screen material before you add the soil works better than stones or pottery chards which can shift and plug up the hole.

• Potting soil – Since I am an organic gardener I buy only potting soils and compost from organic sources. Organic soil companies are tested regularly so you can be sure you are not putting your plants into soil with petrochemicals that will leach out into your surrounding environs or taint your pot of veggies. I do not recommend any bagged soil or compost that has fertilizers added. You don’t know what they are using and the term ‘organic’ is being tossed around too freely and deceptively in the bagged soil industry. Buy your own organic fertilizers from reputable sources and add it yourself depending on the specific needs of the plant(s) in you pot. Potting soil has a neutral ph so if you have a pot for acid loving plants like blueberries, you’ll want to add some spent coffee grounds to raise the acidity level of the soil, and you’ll fertilize with an acid loving plant fertilizer.

• Fertilizer - There is no such thing as one fertilizer fits all. Depending on what you are growing, you’ll want an organic fertilizer that will boost flower and fruiting production, another to boost nitrogen for leaf production. Pots may need fertilizer added more frequently than garden beds because the available nutrients get pulled into the roots or flushed away with watering. Organic fertilizers break down more slowly than chemical fertilizers so you’ll be using a safer ingredient and fertilizing less often. Once in early spring and once in summer are enough for dry organic fertilizers, but synthetics may need to be added monthly or in 6 week intervals.

• The pots themselves – I prefer terracotta or glazed pots. I just like the look of them, but they are really heavy when filled, so they stay where they are. Terracotta can chip and crack. Every winter my terracotta pots show a bit more freeze damage. Some glazed terracotta is marketed as frost proof and will last longer with little or no damage depending on how fierce your winters are. If you need to move your pots, plastic may be perfect for you. Plastic is lighter and easier to move but deteriorates from the sun and becomes brittle over time. If your potted garden has perennials that you want to survive cold winters you’ll need to move them to protected areas. Pots do not provide the insulation from freezing to the root zone like ground soils.

• Moving pots - even if you don’t plan to move your pots, there are times it seems it must be done. If you are not Ms/Mr. Brawny, don’t happen to have a Mr. Brawny nearby, or are too impatient to wait for him to get his act together, treat yourself to a handy hand truck. Mine is small but has a 300 pound capacity. Try to find one with bowed support rungs in the back so your pot doesn’t go sliding off as you round a corner. You may want to strap your pot to it for better security. I wouldn’t get one with inflatable tires either, they always seem to be flat when you need it most. Solid, hard rubber tires or the like are fine, and the bigger the better if you have to go over bumpy ground.

For the sake of keeping this post from being pages and pages long I’ve not elaborated too much on several points. If I’ve left you with unanswered questions, please drop me a line in comments so we can chat more. Or take your questions to your local nursery where they will have pot feet and fertilizers and what you need to have an awesome potted garden.

May your garden be one of many sanctuaries of rest for you as mine is for me.

In Bloom In My Garden Today: sadly nothing to report


Author’s photo