Starting A New Garden

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

 

 

5:30 PM and the rain is pounding the standing seam roof and sending Karl the Wonder Dog into a frenzy. He doesn't like the sound of wind or rain any more than I do. Regardless of the rain, a large doe just brought her twins from last season into the lower field with her for a supper of barely green grass. They are busy eating and occasionally paw three or four times in the same place apparently trying to dislodge a root, maybe a piece of chicory which they really like.

 

During the past two weeks I have had two email inquires asking for guidance on starting a new garden. In each case the writers had hayfield kind of situations they wanted to turn into new gardens and I could tell they wanted the gardens to look garden book perfect before this season is over. Last week I attended the New England Wild Flower Society Northern Gardening Symposium at Vermont Technical College. During a presentation by Miriam Goldberger who was introducing the topic of wild flower gardening with her new book Taming Wildflowers, she was asked the same question with a little more detail. The inquiry included a hillside of weeds that the gardener wanted to turn into a wild flower garden so it no longer had to be mowed, had some nice color and did not succumb to erosion during the growing process.

So-o-o-o with this persistent, annual question in mind, here is my response which is probably in line with what many others have said. In any case there is the long way and the short way, the chemical way and the non-chemical way. No matter what method you employ you will find that over time weed seeds will infiltrate again and pieces of weed root, even if rototilled to theoretical oblivion, will find the strength to root and grow again.

Let's start at the top with the picture. I took this picture in 2007 when I just purchased the five acres which has become the "new" Vermont Flower Farm on Route 2 here in Marshfield. If you look closely you can see wet areas, swamp grasses of various types, bittersweet, Joe Pye weed, alders, willows, box elders, a few elm and three butternuts. There were dozens of  terrible weeds too but I had a vision that this could become a shade garden and a wet garden of sorts so I was prepared to change it. Today it is still a work in progress. At times it has discouraged me because for three consecutive years it has been the brunt of terrible attacks by Mother Nature ranging from Tropical Storm Irene to two additional major floods and a major wind event last May. Just the same it is making progress and I maintain a vision of where I want it to be. Keep the picture in mind if you stop by to compare notes.

With a project of this nature, the big stuff must go first and then you work into the grasses and small shrubs. I chain sawed all the alders and other small trees and removed all the trash trees like the box elders that had to go. Box elder is a member of the maple clan and they self seed easily as if big families are the way to go. The female trees encourage bazillions of box elder beetles--not nice-- and the trees have a short life span which means that as soon as they get tall and provide the shade you were looking for, they begin to rot and topple over on the plants that you covet the most. Just a fact. My neighbor suggested I make a big pile of brush and wood and grass and torch it all but I loaded it on the truck and each night took home a load to put into long term decay at the house. That was a laborious task but your goal on a new garden is to get the area as clean as possible before you even touch the soil.

Getting rid of the well established grasses is a chore, no two ways about it, and you can go several routes. Now days people are very impatient and want everything yesterday. That's why many folks like to resort to chemicals. I have no intent of starting a war here on use of chemicals. I want to mention two and you go from there.

A widely know herbicide by the Monsanto Company, Inc. named Round Up came into use years and years ago. It was one of the first non selective herbicides billed as human safe and it came after 2-4-D (the Agent Orange of Viet Nam) and other herbicides that worked well with American impatience in years before they knew what they were up against. It always surprised me how quickly it was put into use even though the impact of DDT was still obvious everywhere. 

 In about the year 2000--don't quote be on that --the patent was up and many other companies began manufacturing the product under their label. The main ingredient, a salt named glyphosate, was mixed at a rate of 47-52% per volume and the price fell from the days of Monsanto's production. I will say a couple things about Round Up. I have used it, I don't like it, it does kill plants and it may be the choice you make for opening up a quick plot of land with a one time application to knock down the top weeds and shrubs. Before you use it you might want to read Jane Goodall's book, Seeds of Hope. She discusses Round Up/glyphosate and in not too many pages you will be enlightened.

Another herbicide which you might consider is named GreenMatch. It is OMRI  (Organic Materials Review Institute) certified and it's available in Vermont from North Country Organics in Bradford Vermont. It's chief control agent is d-limonene which is a residual from the citrus industry where rinds containing a lot of oil used to go to waste. d-limonene is now used a great deal in the cleaning industry--partially because of its citrus fragrance but it is also used as a non selective herbicide which can be used right away in areas where food crops for human consumption are scheduled to be grown. The OMRI background info is well documented and this offers another possible solution to your weed and grass problem.

If chemicals are not for you, covering the plot with plastic and waiting for the sun to burn the plants to death will work too. I have written about plastics before. Construction grade 6 mil plastic comes in white, black and clear and each has benefits. The clear degrades from the sunlight the quickest, the black the slowest. The clear heats up the quickest and shows the quickest results but be sure to get the plastic rolled up and disposed of within 6 weeks or it will be a mess of pieces everywhere. The black blocks out all sunlight so it holds in the heat, encourages the weeds to grow quickly in their search for sunlight and at the same time dehydrate and die.

If you are still impatient, don't like chemicals and don't want to wait for the plastic covering to work, you can rent a flame torch and fry the weeds. I have no idea what the cost benefit is on the rental, the LP gas and the stress of carrying around 30 pounds of gas and trying not to set your place on fire.....but....the result is the same as with the plastic only quicker.

Some gardeners think that plowing and harrowing or rototilling with a tractor or with a smaller rototiller is the way to go. I am not sure. I did this at the flower farm and found that reseeding by weeds and their roots occurred in years two and three after I planted flowers and the problem was that the weeds came on quickly. There is more and more documentation now on repeated tilling and plowing of our soils. Two thoughts that have always come to mind with me is how much of the important soil organic materials and beneficials does tilling bring to the surface where they can be blown away or are killed through immediate exposure to air and oxidation. I'm not sure about this but I am experimenting this year with greater use of leaves and wood chips for mulching. The leaf mulches are a good idea, the wood chips not a good idea because they require rob lots of nitrogen from the soil as they oxidize.

The list of alternatives goes on and on. Your goal is to have soil that is free of stones, roots and other debris. Healthy soil that is well amended will grow fewer weeds and better people crops than poor soil and that soil health should be your concern. There's plenty to read on the subject and I suggest that be the place to start. I also know I don't like the old saying "There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to do it over." We should enjoy our gardening or our farming and that means being knowledgeable stewards. It's not easy but give these options some thought.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Gail is mad at a neighbor who has been target practicing for an hour with a very big handgun. We shoot too but not at dinner time.  I have to scoot. If you have questions about starting a new garden, pass them along. I'll attach this to Facebook and Twitter too so more gardeners get to offer thoughts. Happy gardening!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Always here to help you grow your green thumb!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

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NEVER TOO MANY FLOWERS

A beautiful morning here on the mountain. The mourning doves are cooing to each other from various white pines around the house and the morning is busy with male goldfinches wearing their new colors. Robins are ferreting out the last of the crab apple seeds from shriveled fruits dangling from the tree branches or scattered about the ground where early winter's irruption of gosbeaks left them. It's a great time of year because we have broken through the below zero cold and the big snow storms and although we will have more cold and perhaps more snow, it is apparent that our thoughts can turn to the flowers that many of us cherish.

New gardening books precede the spring season and they encourage us to reevaluate how and what we garden. There is something about fresh pictures and new ideas that jump starts us into the planting season again even if the real labor early each spring includes raking and till-turning chores that provides aches and pains along with the reward. It matters not as we accept those responsibilities in our quest for "There's no such thing as too many flowers."

This coming Saturday, April 19th, the New England Wild Flower Society reappears at Vermont Technical College in Randolph, Vermont like crocus in the spring. This year the Northern Gardening Symposium will feature three outstanidng speakers including Miriam Goldberger, author of Taming Wildflowers. Although the event is only a few days away, registration is still open and I encourage you to rethink your plans an get to this special event. Miriam has titled her presentation  "Taming Wildflowers From Seed to Vase:  A Celebration, Guide and Users' Manual". 

I have read Taming Wildflowers twice through which must seem crazy for a guy who already has lots of irons in the fire..... but......Miriam writes what needed to be written and she writes in a manner suggesting that you're standing in a field at her flower farm picking flowers for yourself, a friend, your table, a wedding. The feeling of "being there" is as welcome as the way the text flows and you absorb the detail, the instruction, the encouragement to go do it all yourself. 

Everyone has plant favorites and Miriam offers up 60 of hers but not before explaining seed germination instructions for "No pre-treatment Necessary", "Seed Needs Scarification" and "Cold, Moist Stratification". These are incedibly valuable words to my ears because the world of wild flowers has led more and more gardeners to try growing them from seed each year. I know this first hand as being a flower farmer myself, I am open to questions from everyone and Gail and I field weekly questions including "Why didn't my seeds grow?" If you know that your zone is apporpriate to growing a plant to maturity and you know how to bring it into germination in the first place, you're on your way to success.

Taming Wildflowers mentions pollinators with some good descriptions and appropriately so. As we all become more aware of the problems facing our planet, we want more information on how to exist with the pollinators, their pollination work, and resulting seed dispersal. These are all very important to insuring that the perennial plants you coax into growing the first year will grow again and multiply in subsquent years.

Miriam mentions anual flowers and grasses she likes and she offers an excellent section on design work and flowers for weddings. I really hope that she will write a book soon just on flowers for weddings because this is a very popular topic now and there is so much that brides need to understand before embarking on the "let's do our own flowers" route.

I'm happy that Miriam mentioned two of my favorite wild flowers, Veronicastrum virginicum, Culver Root, and Vernonia fasciculata, Ironweed. There are many varieties of each of these. They are tall flowers in nature with strong stems and they provide the designer with that tall verticle opportunity that affords easier design mechanics and show stopping attention.

I knew before I even opened  Taming Wildflowers for the first time that it would not disappoint. I had heard great things about St Lynn's Press and I knew for certain that Miriam's experience and St Lynn's perfection would be the match that it has become. So buy the book right now but jump on-line to the New England Wild Flower Society and register for this Saturday's symposium. It will be very special! I guarantee it! Gail and I will look for you there!

Writing from the mountian above Peacham Pond where the morning temperature now reads 65.7° and a 3 mph wind melts the snows of winter and encourages me to head to our flower farm to begin uncovering our potted perennials. Come visit!

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm

On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens ( Like us)

Also on Facebook as George Africa for more gardening ideas

And always here to help you grow your green thumb!

NEW BEDS

Monday, March 11, 2014 

The temperature has finally made it to 36.0° this morning and last night's 4" of snow is melting off the trees, car and truck. I just plugged in the glow plug on the tractor to get it started up as it's been sitting for several days. Alex and I are heading to the writers cottage later with a load of siding. People keep asking why the project is not finished yet but if you know me, you know I have a lot of irons in the fire and this is a lesser project to me now as it serves the purpose for which it was intended, with or without the siding.

The weather forecast seems to be up and down. Yes, we will get some snow tomorrow but how much is the question. Yesterday I heard everything from 8" to 24" but today it appears more like 8"-12" if you listen to the Burlington weather folks. I suspect it could be closer to a foot here on the mountain but I'll make a more firm prediction later today. A fine wet snow just started outside but it's still warmer than it has been for some time and a good day to get some outside work going. I have vowed to get to the nursery this afternoon and cut some Japanese fantail willows and some curly willows. Gail is begging for some forsythia to force too but the snow is so deep here around the bushes and I am not yet in the mood to put on the snowshoes to make her happy. Unless I get into some trouble with her this afternoon, I am putting the forsythia on the back burner. I've been known to be able to mess up a perfectly good day with her real fast so if you stop by and there are forsythia on the table, you'll know the story.

Sometimes people come to the flower farm and start amassing a collection of nice plants. I always interrupt things and ask where they are going. It's probably none of my business but you might not believe how many people wake up on a Saturday and say "I'm going to plant a garden today."  It's like they have been thinking about this for half a century and they want one to appear instantly. Drawing  from the singer Seal, they want "perfect imperfection", they just don't know it.

At times I  have volunteered to put the pots back in their displays while the would-be gardeners return home to get the garden ready for the plants. I discourage purchases--even though I love sales--to people who have to go home and dig up sod and remove roots and stones and debris, amend the soil, etc etc and then plant. It just doesn't make any sense not to have the soil fully prepared before you buy plants.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is what to do with the sod. It has to go  but the question is how to remove it without leaving roots around that will reroot in time and cover the new garden with grass and weeds among the plants--all within a couple years.

There are probably three ways to get started--maybe 4 if you could rototill yourself unconscious for a few weeks as you run over the proposed site for hours on end with a rototiller. The problem with that thinking is that the roots of everything you grind up are being ground up too. That means you'll have freshly tilled soil full of little pieces of weeds and grasses which will root within a couple weeks.

I recommend a different approach. They basically have the same outcome but each comes with a different philosophy. Plastic, serious herbicide use, or organic herbicide use.

Buy a piece of 6 mil plastic at a farm and garden, box store, ...that kind of place. It comes in clear, white or black. I use the black because it lasts longer and can be used on other projects before it gets torn and ratty and needs to be tossed. I like black because it heats up and holds the heat in so it actually cooks the weeds. I feel that being black, it absorbs sunlight faster and holds the heat longer into the night. There are proponents of clear plastic as the sun goes right through and fries the plants, grasses, weeds all at once. My problem with clear plastic is it appears to dehydrate quicker and when clear plastic begins to break down you have a mess of pieces flying around the yard. I don't care for it.

Roll out the plastic and weight it down with anything-- smooth stones, old lumber, logs. It takes about 4-6 weeks to completely cook the weeds and grasses to the point that rototilling can begin. The good thing about this method is that you have not added anything to the process by way of chemicals and you have eliminated problem vegetation. The heat and moisture at the beginning may have germinated some of the seeds but weeds and grasses have a way of working themselves into the soil over time and laying dormant. So although this process will eliminate most vegetation, some will return via seed.

Herbicides are not always a popular item to discuss but they work. The most well known and probably detested is Round Up. It is a non selective herbicide so what you spray it on days. End of story. There is lots of information suggesting that it never breaks down in the soil, is a giant polluter, causes cancer, etc etc. I am not prepared to debate the use of Round Up. I have used it and I will continue to use it for plants that I cannot have around that are very difficult to eradicate. Poison ivy is one example of that. If you are using Round Up it does not have to be mixed the way the label says. I use one third the recommended strength and still see the results I want. Before you even crack the cap on a container, be sure you are properly clothed, have plastic gloves on and have a full respirator and eyeglasses. be sure the respirator's filters will accommodate the type chemicals in not just Round Up but any product you might ever be spraying. When you are finshed, dispose of the gloves and wash your clothes and mask and change the filters so it's ready for the next use. Again, remember that this chemical does not discriminate so if you spray it, ti will die.

There are some very good organic herbicuides on the market now. They are more costly than even Round Up but they are organic and they have an OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) certification. One of these is named GreenMatch which is a citron or lemon grass derivitive. In our area of Vermont it's available at North Country Organics in Bradford,Vermont. It is a nonselective horganic herbicaide but again, it does not a weed from an expensive flower plant so use care. It does work!

There's another organic certified product named AXXE. It kills moss, liverwort, bittercress, bluegrass and other nuisance plants. I have not used it but the OMRI certification is interesting and something you have to be aware of if near a water source. Look into this one some more yourself and broaden your search. A new garden needs to be weed free at the start so you can manage it for the future. Questions? Drop me a line

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Always here to help you grow your green thumb!

My Modern Design

Sunday, March 9, 2014

A bright morning with a clear sky, pink showing through the trees and crows talking loudly as they head for the reservoir. I have been busy--out twice with Karl the Wonder Dog, have fed the birds and have written three notes answering flower questions about potential orders from our website. Life is fine today!

The daylily pictured here is named Modern Design. I have liked it since I first saw it and it grows well. I don't think Gail got around to potting any more last fall but it is growing in the lower garden and available if you are interested. It is a dormant tetraploid so it grows very well into zone 3, probably zone 2, it's 26" tall, offers a 4" flower size and this past fall I was impressed with how long it blooms into cooler weather. Think about trying one.

What caught my attention this morning was the name as I am often asked about how I design gardens. Some of you may have seen me standing with a couple customers scratching out a plan on a clipboard with a pencil that never seems sharp enough. I employ what I call "modern design" but really it's just "my design."

New gardens to me have to give consideration to New England weather. When the snow melts, the back roads are muddy and the cold gives suggestion of leaving for good, people like to see color appear. They deserve it, they want it, they admire it if they don't have it. As such I try to think about what provides jump starts to the gardens and to birds and insects as weather warms and we see all kinds of animal life.

Native wild flowers are great additions and most have been hybridized now so they offer stronger and larger plants and different colors than we might be accustomed to. I favor trilliums and remember when I began an interest in them,  I referenced all my research to a book by  Fred Case and his wife Roberta. It was simply titled Trilliums and was published by Timber Press. At that time they spoke of 42 varieties but now days there are probably a couple times that many, perhaps more. Hepaticas are another plant that is becoming extremely popular. The colors and sizes make you want to forget the costs and just buy some.  Ashwood Nurseries in the United Kingdom is an example. Then there are Galanthus, our favorite snowdrops, that are like a hit on the music charts or a best seller on the NY Times list. They cannot be beat and no longer are just the whites we remember as kids as colors now include greens and yellows and fringes and doubles and all sorts of spring happiness. There are a couple very good snow drop groups on Facebook: Snowdrops and Galanthophiles,  and Snowdrops in American Gardens.  Trout lilies follow suit with some great hybridizing and orchids, oh the orchids by super hybridizers like Michael Weinert . This list goes on but the point is native wild flowers can get a spring garden going with a little effort. If you add spring bulbs, the colors and fragrances will carry on until the pulmonarias are working well, hummingbirds return (around May 5-6-7 here) and the other more familiar flowers, trees and shrubs bud and bloom.  Don't think about my "modern design, give yours a try!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I notice that the American Goldfinch males are showing some minor color change and woodpeckers are pecking for insects underneath the plywood of my platform feeders. If you have some time this afternoon, get out and get some sunshine and look for the steam from a sugar house. Another sign of spring.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also my personal page George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
And....... always here to help you grow your green thumb!

BUY SMART, BUY LOCAL!

TUESDAY, MARCH 4TH, 2014

-14° here on the mountain this morning. Clear as a bell, windless, quiet except for two crows sitting atop the aging white pine, apparently suggesting to each other that I hadn't made it to the compost pile yet with yesterday's food scraps. Crows are very intelligent birds and I marvel at their behavior. There is one at the flower farm that was born last year and all summer it showed no fear of me and actually landed by me many times as I worked. I always made it a point to speak to it and to look straight at its eyes. This helped with any bonding that occurred. Scientists have studied crows in their pursuit of facial recognition which has become such a big part of anti-terrorism efforts. In the next few years as our credit cards fade into more sophisticated means of financial transactions, our eyes, our finger prints will become more important. Crows are already ahead of us and have actually helped with the road we are taking.

So just as crows may be playing a part in how we recognize each other and how we do business, there is a movement in America to look more closely at the distance between consumers and what they need to survive. I am not certain where the Buy Local movement started but it was probably related to food production and probably was encouraged by pollution, contamination, food delivery costs and other negative factors. Bad things often spawn good, the common example being that the tragedy of wars has led to some of the greatest medical advances, the best medical equipment developments in the world. 

A couple times a year I break out the box of letters for our road sign and put "BUY LOCAL" up top. I have never seen people stop because of what it says nor have I heard a customer ask my opinion or ask why I put the sign up. I am guaranteed of getting a lot more comment when I suggest on the sign that voters turn down a budget or postpone buying a new piece of equipment I don't think the town really needs. I continue to put out "BUY LOCAL" anyway in hopes that I might convert just one more family to thinking about where they buy their flowers. Movements  start slowly, take some time and require the faithfulness of the sign maker in me I guess, hence I continue.

I like to have people think about buying flowers locally for several reasons. The perennial flowers that we sell are flowers that we have grown on before we ever sell them. We like to insure that our plants have truly been zoned accurately as opposed to being marketed as if they are hardy for any climate. We like to be sure that what people buy will grow as successfully for them as it has for us. We like to sell things that haven't had regular baths in chemicals and we like to be able to provide the little pieces of growing information that doesn't come from a big box store plant tag or a  sales person that was working in the plumbing department yesterday or the appliance section the day before. 

Buy Local is not easy, especially with anything a farmer is involved in, flower farmers included. People have this thought that it's cheaper if it is local and it's cheaper if it's from a farmer. That may or may not be true. Sometimes people have no clue what anything costs and their only prior experience is buying fruit or vegetable produce that has been labeled "organic" which they determine translates to expensive. 

Buying locally grown flowers for example has advantages and disadvantages. If you are purchasing perennials, local should mean that the producer knows about the temperate zones and can assure you that the tree, shrub or perennial flower or herb will grow and be successful where you live. Locally grown annuals such as cut flowers offer positives and challenges depending on what flowers you want. Two days ago I received a call for sunflowers for a July 5th wedding. I cannot do this and the flowers will have to come from California, Mexico or South or Central America where the growing season will permit a good looking flower to be available then. Absent a greenhouse and sixty days prior growing time, there's no way I could come across with sunflowers by July first since we still have frost into early May here and the math just doesn't work. If you want roses, they need to be shipped in, if you want lilium they need to come out of a Vermont greenhouse, ...the examples go on and on. But during that rather brief window of late June into October there are flowers in Vermont that are being grown and will look very good at your special event. They will look better, last longer and be cleaner than anything else you can find and for those flowers there should be no choice in your mind but to buy local.

So as Spring approaches and you think more and more about your gardens, give local farmers more of a chance to teach you what they grow and what you might be very happy with. Respect the shortcomings of a zone four climate and the influences of a fluctuating jet stream and higher  (or lower) temperatures. If you are thinking about local flowers for an event later in the summer, plan ahead, find a local grower, discuss what you think you want and learn what will likely be available and what might be considered as back up should weather change, insects arrive, or critters eat the beautiful flowers you were counting on. Each of these examples can happen and that's what farming is all about.

I cannot guarantee whether or not it will rain on July 28th this year but I can guarantee that by discussing your proposed flower needs with a grower, you will get an up-front view of what is possible and you will know if those opportunities meet your needs. As we get a little closer to  mud season I'll try to write a few suggestions about what else is involved in buying local flowers for special events. It's not difficult but your goal is to have people say nice things about the flowers you use for special events, and to get there takes a little planning. We'll help!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where blue jays call for more food at the feeders as doves pick up odds and ends from the snow covered ground as flocks of grosbeaks come and go.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm & Gardens  and as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
And always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Planting a Hosta Garden

Monday, February 24, 2014

22.8° here on the mountain after a roller coaster of temperatures for the past four hours. The wind is a constant 6 mph and that makes it a lot colder. Alex just brought in some more wood for the stove so I guess he noticed the temperature too. Karl the Wonder Dog is in front of the wood stove, apparently oblivious to anything at all. Gail just packed the car and headed to a friend's to get advice on a bear paw quilt she is making. I think she is going to squeeze in a few lessons on making penny rugs too. It should be quiet here!

I have promised myself that I will bring my hosta display garden back into the direction it was headed before the Tropical Storm Irene disaster in 2011 and this will mean redoing a lot of work that I have already done three times over. Some of this might interest those considering a hosta garden themselves.

The location of any hosta gadren should be done with more care than I provided when I started my project. I think I stood at the top of the hill looking towards Marshfield village, saw the Winooski River snaking around the eastern part of our new land and convinced myself this was the perfect place. It was an absolute mess of a swamp and water, willows, box elders and a few elms but I learned long ago to see through problems and look positively to the future. It took all one fall and most of the following season to clear the land but in the end I had myself convinced it would be fine. I still hadn't recorded the wind and temperature influences on the land and assumed the sunlight that seemed obvious would do what I neded through the entire piece of land. Not so. At that point I still hadn't noticed that the wind came every day from the west and that meant during cold spring and fall, frost settled right on top of what would be the most leafy plant I grow. Hostas. Not good!

When I began planting, my errors began to show. The land had once been a staging area for the town and the state to stockpile sand and gravel for the adjacent Route 2. Over the years the river had flooded and left 2 feet of alluvial soil on top of the sand but I didn't learn this until the first hole was dug. 

Hostas are an easy plant but that still means that you should plant them well and they will prosper. They benefit from moist soil but what I had was not the dream it first appeared. The alluvial soil was basically clay loam with a small amount of organic leftovers from ten miles above us at the source of the Winooski. There was little in the soil that retained moisture and although it looked deep brown-black when wet, it was really not worth much. The land below leached water when the water table was appropriate but when dry times came or the river was reduced by a nearby power plant, the sand and soil dried quickly. As poor as this might sound, the situation was workable, it's just that more compost was needed than I planned for. 

I overdug every hole about three times the width of the plant I was adding. I removed soil and sand well into the sand mix and insured that the sand was spread away from the holes so it would not go back in. Then I added a foot of composted maple leaves and manures with the manure mixed with the top +1 foot of soil and three handfuls of lime per hole. Then I watered each hole well, planted each hosta, topped with a layer of compost and wood chips to hold everything in place and I watered with a mix of Epsom salts and 10-10-10 fertilizer. I stomped each plant in well and then circled each with one last handful of lime.

Since that time the hostas have prospered and so have the weeds. Following my original plantings and prior to the floods I had a friend spend a week spreading 6 inches of decomposed wood chips on top of the entire area. I brought in tons of crushed granite and made pathways. It truly did look fine before the flood took it away.

During the planting I intentionally left some clumps of native eupatoriums. I thought the color of the foliage and the height of the plants would contrast well with the hostas. It did and it didn't. The eupatoprium spread all over the place and I was forever digging up more and more. I had the same experience with several ferns with hay scented ferns being the biggest nuisance. Then there were the leftovers from the floods. Weeds cropped up everywhere, some I had never even seen before. Unlike many organic vegetable growers along the Winooski, I was spared the trouble of major seeding-in of Japanese knotweed. Just the same, the weeds I did inherit were more than enough to keep the tiller tilling for two summers. Things are now on their way to recovery. 

Looking back on four years of experience I am pleased the garden still exists even though by now I intended it to be one of the nicest hosta displays in the east. I lost over 250 hosta varieies as well as companion plantings of cardinal flower, 4 varieties of trollius, ligularias, rodgersias...the list goes on. But 2014 will be a different year as the rebuilding continues. Some of the box elders will last for a few more years and those that need to come down will head to my friend Paul in Peacham for eventual turning into bowls. Box elders have a beautiful red fungus that colors like a flame and holds fast after being turned. I will plant a few more lindens and hybrid maples for shade replacement and will plant Ninebark 'Diablo" and 'Nugget' against the outside of the back fence to provide for the shade lost when shear winds toppled scores of tall, shade producing trees. 

Gail has been growing on many replacement hostas in 15 gallon pots and these will be reintroduced. I have orders coming from out of state hostas growers that will be sizeable plants within two years when we add them to our sales list. In the interim they can be on display for folks to see. Visual in the garden is many times better than  looking at catalog pictures even if the plant has not reached maturity yet.

If you are passing by this summer, stop and see how we are doing. Gail reminds me there is some type of natural disaster to this land every year but I'm still optimistic. All farmers, any kind of farmers, even flower farmers have to share smiles with their friends.  Happy gardening!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun is coming out, the wild turkeys have left and the feeders are filled with hungry song birds. I have to get some more seed out to them.

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm  (site under reconstruction)

On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens. Like us!

On Facebook as George Africa

On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Visible on LinkedIn

Always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Hostas Compete With Roots

 Sunday, February 23, 2014

27° here on the mountain this morning with a 2 mph wind. The moon is surrounded with a foggy looking halo while a minor number of stars still twinkle here and there. Strong winds went through last night knocking down tree limbs along the road and around the house. Today is supposed to be the last good day before the temperature drops for the balance of the week.

More and more people are trying to grow hostas now and often they come with a list of questions. Many do not understand how much shade is too much shade and many, many times we hear "Can you help me pick some hostas? I want to plant them under a _____ tree."

When planting hostas you have to consider that they still need sunshine to grow well and they need moist soil to  keep their leaf mass turgid and healthy. When planting hostas under trees, the tree roots will likely already be so well established that in short order the hostas will begin to grow smaller and smaller instead of bigger. This is a waste of time, effort and money. Here's a solution.

Back in 2004 a shade garden I was working on in an old barn foundation was coming along nicely. It had reached the front of the foundation and there were apple and maple trees on the perimeter.  I wanted to continue to plant more and more hostas but I  knew the trees were already too well established to plant hostas. 

A friend with lots of hosta experieince told me about using oversized nursery pots--those large plastic pots that trees and shrubs come in, say 15-20-35-30 gallon size pots. I took what I had and began a garden using them. I can't say this was easy work as digging holes into root systems that have been in place for years requires some energy. I took out all the roots and rocks, inserted the pots in the holes and then filled with mixes that would hold moisture and provide feed for some time to come. Then I planted the hostas. 

The project got a lot of publicity and the outcome received more. In time I really liked the idea because the pots held moisture and fertilizer in place and prevented the tree roots from encroaching. I recommend it. A lot of work and a few bucks? Yes! But the outcome is worth every penny and if for some reason you want to  move a plant, it's already potted. Give this plan some thought if you have a similar situation.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where juncos and blue jays are competing at the feeders as the gray sky offers no firm prediction of today's weather.

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm

On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens  Like us!

A personal FB page with gardening thoughts named George Africa 

On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

And always here to help grow your green thumb!

Green Is A Garden Color Too

Friday, February 21, 2014

31.1° here on the mountain and pouring rain. I just returned from a quick walk with Karl the Wonder Dog and he is less than happy with what's going on outside. He loves the warmer morning but right now he cannot shake enough to get dry. I expect in a couple minutes he'll be in front of the wood stove sleeping.

Although it's not too nice outside, this is the time of year when we finalize plant orders and work on our list of what has to be done come Spring before those orders begin to arrive. I spoke yesterday with a great hosta grower and supplier in Michigan and since it was raining cats and dogs there, I knew it would be here today. My call was about adding some new hostas to our display garden to get more mature plants ready for customers and visitors to see in a couple years. There's an email waiting for me this morning and I'll see what they are suggesting. We already have a very nice selection but bad weather here for three years running has kept us so busy that we haven't expanded what we grow and offer. Gail spent a lot of time last year potting up more hostas to offer larger plants for instant gratification and I'm trying to get reorganized too.  This is the year!

If you have read many of my blogs you might remember that I am a proponent of designing gardens based on the size, shape and texture of the plant when it is not flowering. Although we buy plants for their colorful blooms, most of the season we are looking at foliage and to me that is an important concept to understand. Along this same line, I think we often forget that green is a great garden color too and as such we should incorporate more and more plants with leaves of different sizes, different shades of green and different textures. 

Take a look up top here and you will notice a grouping of rodgersia. This is a plant not often seen in gardens but it has an important job to serve. Heights vary and the creamy white blooms offer lots of attention. But it is those season long leaves that break up other parts of the garden backdrop and allow us to plant in front and around them. 

Hostas have always been thought of as those leafy green plants that don't do much for a garden and get carried away with self propagation until big clumps of solid green or white fringed green are evident. That may have been true a long time ago but hostas continue to be the number one best selling perennial in the world and there are over 6000 varieties on the market now. I believe the best hostas ever are being released to us now and they are so beautiful there should almost be a garden mandate to look them over and give a few a try. Old perceptions are difficult to change!

I'm not trying to prove a point, only share a message and an opinion that you consider green as a good garden color and try to work more with it this summer. If you have questions or want to see the direction I am pursuing, stop by the flower farm or drop us a note. Our new business email is vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com. Gail's personal email is vtflowerfarm@outlook.com  

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where wet birds are arriving at the feeders for a breakfast buffet that needs a little attention this morning. I have to get going and feed my friends!
Safe travel  this morning. If your roads are like ours, you might have a late start today.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm (Patience, reconstruction under way!)
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens, a Like Page
On FB as George Africa offering gardening thoughts
And always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Valentine's Day

 

 

 

Thursday, February 13, 2014

 

 

The dishes are washed, the news is over and it's finally quiet here for a minute. I just checked outside and the storm has taken a breather. It's 24.2° but the wind starts and stops and 5 to 9 mph is what we are seeing now. When the wind sneaks around my office window it creates tall whirls of snow that spin ghostlike over the steep bank and down onto the field below. There are probably 5-6 inches of snow right now, an accumulation from around 1 PM. There's no telling what I will have to deal with in the morning but Alex and I put the plow on the truck knowing that it will be needed.

 

When morning breaks, it will be Valentine's Day. I have no idea how much revenue the day creates in sales from candies, flowers, jewelry, dinners out and various fancies. Valentine's Day seems not as big as some special occasions but it has its place.

 

When I think of Valentine's Day I always think of the perennial flower named Bleeding Heart. I can remember the common variety growing in the gardens of the farm ladies next door to us when we moved to Vermont. Likewise I remember when they gave a piece of root to my mother who loved the plant and in a couple years had something to brag about when it reached comparable size to those plants at the farm.

 

Up top here is a  Springtime picture of bleeding heart when it gets started. Some might have trouble  recognizing what it looks like before the flower scapes rise and the tiny hearts begin to take shape. Over time the plants can grow very large and this should cause notice to you to fertilize them well and on occasion in the spring or fall, divide them and share the wealth with a gardening friend.

 

The stems can be cut and brought inside to enjoy but you'll doubt this when you first cut a stem and smell something unusually bad. Take a match and singe the end of the stem and it will encourage the turgidity to hold strong for a few days and you can enjoy the hearts displayed by themselves or mixed with other spring flowers. No, bleeding hearts don't flower for us in February but they do appear in our gardens when other nice spring flowers brighten our days. Give them a try if you wish but remember one other caveat to planting them. Over time they grow large like Oriental poppies....and like poppies, they suddenly go dormant and leave us with a big yellow hole in our garden that looks odd. Plant the bleeding hearts towards the back of gardens where their dormancy will not matter. In spring when they bloom, other flowers will not be as advanced and the hearts will be the standout--certainly for you to enjoy--maybe for someone you love...too. 

 

 

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where with a whistle of wind the snowfall has returned, leaving no doubt that I will be plowing snow come morning.

 

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm

On Facebook as George Africa and also as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens

On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

And always here to help grow your green thumb!

Gift certificates always. Call Gail at 1-802-426-3505

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUST GOOD FOOD



4:30 PM, windless, quiet. This afternoon’s snowstorm has brought darkening skies sooner than I wished for. A couple hours ago the snow began to rain out of the sky and it continued to the point that the birds left the feeders and never returned. The critters of the woods and the birds all know the weather better than I will ever learn.  Snow is frozen rain and rain has not been plentiful in recent years in the west but has been “over plentiful” at our flower farm for parts of a couple years. Growing anything has been a challenge.

 

People like to honor new years with predictions and resolutions. I have never been set on doing either but often will offer a thought if pressed.  I did this with the Super Bowl and I doubt I’ll be asked for my opinions on that again. The only compliment I received that day was for the blackberry-peach jam marinade I made for one of the batches of chicken wings. Now those were special!

 

Lately I have been relating thoughts of our food supply to gardening. For three years now all our horticultural trade magazines have suggested that sales of fruit trees and shrubs as well has vegetable seeds have shown excellent increases. Gail and I have personally found this to be true. The year that berry bush sales were predicted to increase by 17% we gave raspberries and blueberries a try and they all sold. The next year sales were predicted to increase by +50% so we backed off and let the competition handle the increase here in Vermont. Everyone did very well. But with the positive come some concerns.

 

During the past few years we have seen weather conditions change. In the west drought prevails and widespread fires have taken down tens of thousands of acres of cover. Some water supply networks that historically served people and farms have closed off all water to farms.  Some researchers document that the west is the driest it has been since 1580. Many western cities have issued new rules involving water use and this is not setting well with a country that is used to turning on the spigot for cows or faucet for itself….and then letting it run …...forever.

 

The Farm Bill just passed and Congressmen are bragging about their participation. Vermont's own Sen. Patrick Leahy drinks a glass on milk on a TV spot and says we did fine. Just the same, there are things in America I cannot understand and don’t care for. The FDA just approved importing poultry from China because America cannot produce enough chicken to meet our needs. Chicken is one of those foods whose production has been mechanized to the point that few human hands are required. Apparently we cannot find those “few” hands. Here in Vermont dairy farmers have hired large numbers of migrant workers because they cannot find local labor. It may be wages, it may be benefits, it may be living costs, it may be that Americans find farm work demeaning but it’s all a surprise to me since farmers were the lifeblood of a new country before America had its own name.

 

Then there’s the friend or foe thing known as Genetically Modified Organisms. I recall many years back learning about GMO potatoes which were developed to counter the Colorado Potato Beetle I had grown up with. As a kid I remember being instructed to dust the potato plants which I did........"Dust until the leaves are white." they said.  The chemical used was DDT but other seriously dangerous dusts were used to kill the pink colored larvae as they devastated potato plant leaves. Looking back, I have no idea why those chemicals didn’t kill me. Probably there’s still time as chemicals have longer lives than people.

 

Potatoes went through an entire evolution of genetic change while at the same time US potato consumption has decreased. GMO potatoes are no longer a concern because potatoes are more often grown as a crop used in making starches to combine with food as opposed to being eaten as food.  Those starches are being used for processing paper and for making industrial lubricants, glues, pastes, and things I probably don’t want to know about. As a result of the change in use, fungicides and insecticides are not needed in the same quantity because getting starch from a potato does not require a clean skinned, tasty, good looking potato. And where are the latest, largest Frito-Lay potato growing fields in the world? China. And how are the Chinese pumping up potato production while minimizing time from planting to harvest? Water. Through extensive irrigation systems. Maybe we need a big government focus group to map some of these changes out.

 

And then there are honey bees, bumble bees and other pollinators needed for production of our foods even before we can talk about harvesting and processing and counting food shortfalls.  Again, there is a problem. Systemic chemical insecticides are thought to disrupt a honey bee’s life cycle.  We don’t seem to understand it and researchers are not sure they have all the pieces of the puzzle yet. They are certain however, that honey bees are in decline and this is serious. I raise honeybees and I can vouch for the fact that they do some weird things like swarming when they shouldn’t and trying to fly at night. Beyond chemical interference there is interference from GMO plants like corn. Focus on this for a minute.

 

Cattle food, whether for dairy or beef, has become very expensive. Domestic grain production for US farms has diminished in recent years, much more grain has been exported and corn has become the main crop. Lots of corn has gone to ethanol production and the rest has been increased to replace the grains. But corn just like potatoes, is susceptible to insects and corn was ripe for being genetically modified. Now GMO corn is planted all over and the same bee pollinators that are in decline are having more of a problem existing. Fields that were planted in grain crops that bees pollinated are gone and bees must go to GMO corn which is killing them.  Farmers have learned efficiency of field management and have planted corn to the corners of their fields with no margins for other crops key to bees. So think this cycle through. We grow grains which get too expensive so we export them to make money, grow GMO corn, kill pollinators to other foods humans need to live. With limited water, problems getting people to work and the impacts of climate change this whole food production thing has become difficult.

A thought for now is what can we do about safe food production for ourselves and world neighbors? We know how to farm and we need to get back at it. We need to cut out the subsidies paid not to farm certain crops and we need to grow more safe food that is better for us to eat. We can do that but it will require some training from school kids on up. Kids learn and question better than some adults.

So take a minute in the next few days and think about what you and your family eat, where your food comes from, how safe it is and what you would do if it fell out of supply. If you can
grow some food yourself, learn to do it. If you can grow food for yourself and others, do that too. Make a different kind of change for you and your family, your neighbors and your planet. You can, I know you can!

 

 

Monarch Butterflies

 

 

Saturday, February 1, 2014

 

 

14.9° this morning which is a great surprise after almost three weeks of zero to far below zero weather that began with a high temperature of +52° in Burlington, Vermont.  That left us shaking our heads. We have some much nicer weather coming soon and there's somewhat of a promise for some snow to help our winter sports industry that we depend on so much. At this very same time, maple syrup producers around the state are in their sugar orchards cutting up downed trees and cleaning things up for new tap lines, repairing line damage caused by staggering moose and chewing red squirrels. Some sugaring always starts in February and lots is up in the air this year because the weather has been so odd.

 

There has been lots of talk about last year's monarch butterfly population and I have beaten this up enough on my Facebook pages. Check out my personal George Africa page or our Like page for Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens. All I want to repeat here is brief mention of some plants that do the trick in luring in Monarchs if they are in the neighborhood.

 

Pictured up top here is some eupatorium, commonly known as Joe Pye Weed. I think that one is maculatum 'Gateway'. Besides the natives that grow wild and over lots of New England, there are some fine hybrids like Gateway which grows to 10 feet tall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eupatorium maculatum 'Reisenschrim' pictured here coming into bloom is a real Monarch magnet. I haven't found it for sale in a few years and have some large plants for sale in limited quantity. It maintains a 5 foot height, sometimes to 6 feet.

 

 

There's no doubt that color is important to Monarchs including anything close to the bright orange they display. One year--perhaps in about 2008-- I was preparing more land for daylily gardens. I always use flagging markers in various colors that I can see from the tractor as I rototill. That afternoon I was using orange markers--no special reason why--and by the time I got them lined out and got on the tractor, I noticed most of them had a Monarch butterfly sitting on top. Quite a surprise for me!

 

 

Another flower, this time an annual, that draws in any Monarchs if they are passing by is Tithonia. This is like a giant Mexican zinnia and the color is special. I first grew it when we gardened in Shelburne Vermont in an old barn yard and farm pasture. It grew so tall--10 feet anyway--that Gail and I needed ladders to cut it for the markets. Back then, it was always a cloud of Monarchs.

 

Finally there is milkweed. The wild species is very common in Vermont although much of it has been destroyed as farm fields have become roads or developments. It is easy to grow and it does best where there is some moisture to the soil. We leave it to produce wherever it is already growing. Here's a picture.

 

 



 

There are many lists of other suitable plants available on the Internet. Look closely and make sure they are zoned for your area and also be sure you are not adding to an invasive problem you don't want to see. If you find some good plants that work for you, please drop us a line and share what you find!

 

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where it's windless and still too dark out to see.......anything.

 

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm

Always here to help you grow your green thumb!

 





Buying Big Equipment

 

Thursday, January 30, 2014

 

 

Ever so quiet here on the mountain this morning. +1°  which is such a pleasant surprise after so many days in the seriously minus range. Karl the Wonder Dog snores by the wood stove after his first walk of the day and I am settled in with another cup of Dark Magic from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. If Karl stays quiet for a while I can get some work done.

Today is the final day of the Vermont Farm Show in Essex and if you haven't been yet, it's worth the trip. All states have spring garden shows and farm shows and if you are contemplating an equipment purchase or just want to fend off Seasonal Affective Disorder a little longer, get out and see what's available. The Vermont show gets bigger each year and they really do a great job. Just because it's billed as a farm show doesn't mean you have to be a farmer to go and see lots of neat things, meet some great people, see some animals--and bees this year-- and leave with smiles and lots of information.

Pictured up above is a New Holland tractor I bought 7 years ago from the Greenwood boys down in South Royalton, Vermont. I have +800 hours run time on it which isn't much for a farmer but for me and our flowers, that represents a lot of new gardens, a lot of lawn care, a lot of moving things around. I settled on this particular tractor after  looking at a number of similar tractors and talking with 3-4 vendors. I bought this one because I felt the best about the answers and the price. I always measure big purchases as "number of returns to the vendor for problems" because a two-person operation affords absolutely no downtime trying to get someone to fix something again and again. Knock on wood but I have not had a single problem with this tractor and the only time I had Greenwoods return to see me was three years back when I had a cruise control added to compensate for a right knee problem on the operator--that would be me! Love it!

I bought this tractor with the front bucket, a 5 ft rototiller, and a 3 bladed rotary mower. I have picked up a York rake and a ditching blade since and have added a brush hog,  a commercial sprayer and a wood chipper to my collection of add-ons. The tractor/bucket price is the big part followed by the chipper. Nothing is cheap so some things I buy used, somethings only new. I never buy anything without talking with current owners including people who might use a similar product commercially.

So if you are thinking that this is the year you absolutely need a tractor, look around at farm shows and make the rounds to vendors. Oh yes--one more thing. When you think you have settled in on a choice, do something that may not come to mind at all. Check out how to service the machine. Begin with the filters and the oil ins and outs and see if these are easy things to get to. Sometimes in today's world, the person creating that new wiz bang design has never climbed aboard the thing that will mean so much to you. Think about it all. Then  buy what will handle your needs, and then just a little bit bigger if you can afford it. You'll smile!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the juncos are coming out of the forest darkness to clean up sunflower feeds and speak enough birdish to lure in chickadees and blue jays and other birds of the morning.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Always here to help you grow your green thumb!