New Garden Construction

Sunday, February 17, 2013

A cold, windy day here on the mountain. The temperature struggled to get to 10.2° and then faltered and slipped suddenly back to 9.3° and now it is slipping further. We are on the edge of a front that is moving up the coast and apparently delivering some snow but all we have here is the cold. Inside work is providing a chance to catch up on overdue thoughts and today it involves garden design. 

When Gail and I purchased the land on Route 2,  we wanted a place to reconstruct a very popular part of our business on the Peacham Pond Road. That involved an intensively planted shade garden that grew bountifully within the confines of an old barn foundation.The place had acquired a reputation and for us the good part was it sold a lot of hostas and associated shade plants when gardeners could see mature examples of what they were seeing in 1 gallon pots. I knew that recreating what was in place for +6 years was going to be a challenge in an age of gardeners wanting "instant big" and I knew folks would be disappointed for a while. Not only were they disappointed, they regularly shared their feelings!

 

The new land had what I thought was a great site and I learned the land as I learned how to pull stumps with a new tractor. Weeds and vines were thick, alders, both dead and alive, were everywhere and the land went from bone dry on the east side to damp-all-summer on the west. It was wrapped on two sides by the Winooski River but the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

I was working days back then so each night after work I'd cut brush and load the truck until it was full and another area was ready. When everything was cleared I began with herbicides to get rid of the weeds and vines. Then I came in with the tractor and rototiller and spent hours going back and forth to bring up hidden tree roots and stones. 

I cannot say it was easy but passing friends and people I have never met beeped horns and waved encouragement and I kept going. This was not a home sized garden by any means but the principles of good site preparation remain the same. You have to get to soil level, rid the area of unwanted vegetation and debris and then see what you have for soil, sun, shade and moisture.

With the soil well amended and a layout in mind, I began planting. Some mature hostas were brought in from our house while others I took from pots, grouping 3 to 5 together to form a showy example of each variety over time.

I added three varieties of maple trees for autumn color, some lindens, and some yellow leafed locusts and Nugget Ninebarks to contrast with the yellow hostas. I used orange flagging markers to lay out the paths so I could change them as the planting continued. By this point in the process I had a helper digging, labeling and crating hostas during the day and I was planting each night.

Now it's been five years since the garden was started. It's far from planted and atypical interruptions like the biggest floods in the history of Vermont slowed it's completion. But now the hostas are looking fine and the companion plants are maturing too. Most of the hostas on display are available for sale as potted plants and some are freshly dug depending on inventory.

The garden is worth a look-see if you are in the neighborhood as it provides lots of lessons in garden construction. I'm usually available for a tour but call or write ahead to be sure I'm there. Garden clubs are welcome too as long as Gail knows what's going. 

Questions about construction? 

 

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 grow your green thumb!

Plan For Butterflies

 Thursday, February 7, 2013

Just back from a walk with Karl the Wonder Dog. It's early yet and there's a slice of moon showing between the naked tamaracks and fir balsams and there are a few stars around. Trees are cracking in the woods from yet another night of below zero temperatures. The sky over Peacham Pond shows evidence of a clear and beautiful day ahead but I know differently. I always trust the Eye on the Sky Weather at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St Johnsbury and they are confirming we have snow coming late today and possibly into Saturday morning. It seems odd that over recent years, larger storms have settled in Boston than in Vermont but the two storms setting sight on New England will drop more on southern parts than here.

My pre-storm chores are already finished save for mounting the plow on the truck and that will happen this afternoon sometime. Everything is set in case we lose power as we did the other night. That leaves me today to continue updating our web page. Alex has some shopping he wants to do late morning and I don't know where that will take us. In winter when plants are dormant we have less of a schedule and that's really nice.

The latest series of trade and gardening magazines that have arrived have headlined using native trees, shrubs and flowers to lure butterflies and birds. I like that idea and have always kept it simple and productive. Years back--2004 I think it was--we put an addition on the house and part of the success was a steep bank outside my new office window. Long term I had plans for a patio affair but that part is still a thought, not a reality. What we did do was buy an assortment of 7 different spireas to hold the bank and bring in some flying beauty. It sure worked. All 35 spireas are now 3-5 feet across and each spring they put up new stems that turn  to white, purple, red, maroon, lavender and creamy yellow flower heads that lure in all sorts of bees and butterflies by day, night flying moths after dark. This was an inexpensive fix for a large area. Gail added a few clumps of daylilies here and there and I added some basic echinacea, some yarrows, rudbeckias, and liatris.

Many of these plants including the spireas self seed so over time the area fills in nicely and the insect actors multiply too.

From my experience, the plantings brought on smiles as butterflies arrived that I had not seen before and that made the project even more interesting. Today a few more milkweeds and mullein have worked their way in and although some gardeners see these rouges as just that, I find them to be season extenders that keep me in Monarch butterflies into September and goldfinches all winter feeding on mullein seeds.

So if the snow deepens over the next couple days at your home, think about plants that will bring a different level of happiness to next summer's gardens. It's not expensive and it is rewarding. Kids love butterflies too and it's a way to encourage an early understanding of our earthly neighbors and how we have to work together to keep things in balance.

Guess that's it for this morning. A large blue jay is looking in the window at me as if to say "Sunflower please." I do not speak blue jay but I can "see" the request. Be well!

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!

Lilies, Lovely Lilies

Monday, February 4, 2013 

11.3° here on the mountain with a 4 mph wind and puffs of large snowflakes covering everything in  2" of cotton candy-like fluff. The squall is supposed to end by mid-morning and then the temperature will rise into the twenties--for a change.

When you're in the gardening business, customers become family and sometimes you lose track of a few members once in a while but sooner or later they seem to return. Yesterday morning Gail was at the Cabot store buying me a jar of grape jelly for a batch of Super Bowl meatballs. An older couple came up to her and inquired "Hi,  aren't you Gail, the lily lady?" Gail has a great memory and she remembered them as customers who purchased a number of lilium every year for years and then probably lost us when we moved. She explained where we are now and what we grow and they said they'd come see us this spring. The meeting is similar to inquiries I am receiving lately about where did the lilies go. Readers know the answer but gardeners who have been absent for a few years might not. But that's how it is with gardeners. They come to a nursery year after year and then find a new pursuit or a new nursery. But sooner or later you often see them again.

Here are pictures of a few we used to grow just so you can see what might still be on the market if you want to give lilies a try. Of all flowers, lily hybridization is probably the closest to the floral industry. That's why available lilies change every year and why a few years down the road you might not be able to find a favorite again when voles think more of yours than you might. Florists have to be happy with new colors and sizes and that's the rationale. A tall yellow lancifolium is up top, Arena next down here.

Bellingham hybrid

Acapulco

Orienpet named Empress

Black Beauty

Gold Band

Golden Stargazer

Leslie Woodriff

Regale

Mona Lisa

Rosy Dawn

Smoky Mountain

Siberia

Uchida

There are lots of lilies out there and the North American Lily Society is a good place to begin to gather information before making a decision. Today is a good day to give lilies a look-see. Good luck!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where 17 morning doves just showed up for breakfast. I have to get going here. I 'm taking a friend to a doctor at 9--orthopedic surgeon--get the picture?

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!

Groundhog Day 2013

Saturday, February 2, 2013

I have the fire in the wood stove crackling' as the rest of the house sleeps on. Even Karl the Wonder Dog is deep in dreams of chasing red squirrels and not bugging me about a  first morning walk. That's a change. It's still dark outside but I know the sun is rising as the temperature drops, first to 3°, then zero, now -2.1°. At least for a change there is no wind outside and the quiet after three days of howling is probably why others sleep while I keyboard along. Quiet is nice.

Today is Groundhog Day and there's no hope that a woodchuck will even stir in Vermont. They may be dreaming about a vegetarian breakfast but clearly their hibernation of sorts will not be interrupted by temperatures this cold. Woodchucks are interesting animals that I have long had love-hate relationships with. As my gardening endeavors have grown, even the sight of a woodchuck causes bad feelings.There is nothing cute about a woodchuck in a garden.

As a young boy finally permitted to hunt by myself, I pleased the next door farmer by hunting his fields and eliminating hole diggers who created bad situations for the cows and horses. I learned later on that relatives in Connecticut enjoyed an annual barbeque and woodchuck hunt in which prizes were awarded for the most chucks shot and then the chucks were cleaned and barbequed for a very big feast. I ate woodchucks that I shot later on and I taught my son Adam not to shoot anything if he didn't intend to eat it. I think the first time he hunted alone he brought back a woodchuck and I taught him how to clean it. Life goes on.

But woodchucks are a nuisance and the aren't my friends. Last summer I spotted a female and I thought she had to go. Then I saw her with four kids and I thought they had to go. Then my entire field of perennial phlox--30 varieties strong-- was eaten to the ground and I knew they had to go. I was still in repair mode from prior year floods so the chucks took a lower priority and one day (odd that I saw this) the chucks took up moving across our fields and gardens, across Route 2 and up into my neighbor Gerry's fields. I had seen some coyote scat and didn't think anything of it but perhaps the coyotes hassled the chucks enough to get them moving. Kinda like the days when a friend would appear every Saturday morning with his Jack Russell who would hunt himself silly and keep the chucks moving to other places.

Woodchucks will eat your whole garden up and will dig holes under trees and sheds and rocks. They will surprise you with their whistles or with their offspring but they will distress you with missing plants. Relocation is important  to maintain sanity and live trapping is a possibility. Tractor Supply, Agway, or any of the farm stores sell humane live traps and woodchucks are not difficult to catch. The Internet has plenty of how-to information on this and probably the only caution is that there is a good chance that your woodchuck might turn out to be black and white when you go to check your trap. That's just another woodchuck insult as skunks garden along side woodchucks, especially if your lawns or gardens have Japanese beetle infestations. But that's another animal story.

Good luck with your gardens and your animals. Today in Vermont, good gardening books, the Internet and winter farmers markets are the best we can do for entertainment as it will not warm much. At the very least  we can be left by the fire contemplating "how much wood does a woodchuck chuck".

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where my coffee cup is empty and the Hearthstone needs another log. Stay warm! Picture above is a woodchuck hole along the Winooski River right next to my now missing in action phlox.

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!

Cold Vermont Gardens, Warm Winter Thoughts

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Hello gardening friends. I've been away from The Vermont Gardener since before Christmas and some have reminded me that they don't like my energy shift to Facebook. Some ask why I have a personal FB page under my name and then sporadic presentation on the FB Like page I named Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens. I call it "age" which has the inherent power to give and to take away time and thought. Age provides an opportunity for excuses. It can provide a reminder that it's expected that you'll forget certain things, some important, some not as important. Age also can make you more wise and in Spring 2012, I inherited some wisdom that had me sit down out in the beech woods one day and determine that I would begin doing some things for myself for a change. With that, I started spending a little more time away from the business and a little more time having a different kind of fun. I made three trips to Maine, two for hiking and looking at real estate and one for just sitting by the ocean and listening to tranquility play a beautiful song. Back home I worked up several cords of fire wood for next year and the year after and I finally began mapping and cutting a series of roads and hiking/snowshoeing/cross country ski trails on our +70 acres.

I spent some time trying to understand why my honey bees make a lot of honey but don't like me and I finally completed the purchase of a small bulldozer I had committed to a couple years ago. I never went trout fishing--not even once-- and I never finished the inside of the writer's cottage or the rest of the pine paneling on the office at the flower farm. I did climb up Owls Head four times, made it up Spruce Mountain once and loved it, got to a couple-three farmers markets, located a secretive triple waterfall that is ever so special and helped a friend rehab an old house when I had nothing else going on. But it was all great fun, a didn't get hurt doing anything and I met a lot of really nice people.

Many people begin writing blogs or series for newspapers, radio or TV and this takes a strong commitment larger than the average listener/viewer ever knows. Yesterday I was invited to help with a gardening media presentation which I would love to have helped with but I had to say no. From where I am at in my life right now, I want to be able to do a good job at whatever I choose to do as I clean up some chores that remain unfinished. Vermont Flower Farm is not close to the way I envision it and I still have two books that need to get further along than they are. 

But......There is a thing about life called interruptions. Iceberg-like interruptions which take longer than we expect. Interruptions which others might never have experienced and don't understand. This time of year I experience two interruptions. They are seasonal. One is our website and one is income taxes. The website is an important part of Vermont Flower Farm and it needs to be completely updated before spring sales. It's started but there's a long way to go. As for the taxes, operating a small business requires more paperwork than most folks understand. After almost 30 years of being in business, Gail has committed to doing the taxes this year. I am grateful, but it's still a major interruption....even bigger than losing a U-joint on the truck today.

With all that's going on, there are still some things that I enjoy and like to share with others. Up top is a hosta named Robert Frost that I have grown for years. It was grown by Bill and Eleanor Lachman and is a cross between Frances Williams and Banana Sundae.  Frost was friends with the Lachmans, hence the connection with my favorite poet. They registered the hosta in 1988. It's classified as a large hosta and it works well in anyone's garden.

I guess it was a little by luck yesterday that I opened a collection of Frost's poetry and came upon ten short poems Frost named Ten Mills (a mill was 1/10th of a cent). One poem that is appropriate to income tax time was Number VIII. The Hardship of Accounting. While you're trying to figure out if I'll ever get back to writing about gardens and flowers, remember that it's income tax time in America, and I really do have good intentions. Try to stick with me, despite the ...interruptions.

THE HARDSHIP OF ACCOUNTING

Never ask of money spent

Where the spender thinks it went.

Nobody was ever meant

To remember or invent

What he did with every cent.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where 9 mph winds adjust the current -4.4° temperature to -20°. Br-r-r-r

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 you grow your green thumb!

Using Signs

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Already after 2 PM and I still haven't warmed up from being outside working  from 8 until 1. The weatherman suggested that we are entering four days of bad weather so I wanted to finish up some wood cutting before the snow started. I misread the forecast someplace as it is still 20° outside and the 3 mph wind and falling snow make it feel even colder. I had layers of clothes on but after that amount of time I got chilled.

Gail had a hot lunch ready for me so I retreated to my office to check mail and munch away. I work on pictures this time of year, getting some ready for our website, putting others in folders, deleting others. I came across this one from the Spring of 2003. Click on it to enlarge. This was a shade garden I built in the year 2000 inside an old barn foundation on our property. The top 2/3's of the garden was hostas and the bottom quarter was astilbes. The balance was ferns, hellebores, pulmonarias, and primroses.

You'll notice an abundance of white signs which look out of proportion to the spring garden where perennials had just started to emerge. I want to mention these signs as they are an inexpensive way to mark plants in a display garden in a manner that is easy for visitors to read during garden tours. My intent at the time was to put together a nice garden of mature hostas so people could identify plants they might like to purchase after viewing mature heights and coloration. Some visitors said the place looked  like a cemetery but the majority repected it as being a display and many asked about the signs. Some said they thought the signs would be excellent to add during major events and then remove them for the balance of the season. Moving +500 signs is a bit bigger task than one might think but I hear their idea.

The signs shown here are Parker-Davis Step Signs. These are miniatures of the political signs you probably just got tired of seeing from Labor Day through Election Day. They are made of white or colored corrrugated plastic cardboard and the stakes are the same wire used to reinforce brick veneer on buildings.The sign material comes in a variety of sizes and colors and here in Vermont it holds up for about 5 years, sometimes a bit longer. I use Avery clear laser labels, not the more expensive weatherproof labels as the straight laser labels do the trick. I print black lettering on the transparent labels so the white sign shows through and reading them is easy even from a distance. The stakes are available in a variety of heights. I use the 36" stakes for medium and larger hostas and for all the daylilies we have growing in the fields.

Smaller metal stakes and markers are available from Eon Industries and from Paw-Paw Everlast Label Company. I use these too and still use the laser labels with them. In all cases you just have to be sure the sign material, corrugated or metal, is free of dirt before applying the label.

I guess signs are an eye-of-the-beholder thing but gardeners do like to know the names of new things they don't have and do want to add to their gardens. You can make your own decision. If you have other signs you prefer, please drop a note here so we can see what else is on the market.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the Redpolls and Chickadees are eating as if a big storm is on the way. Light snow continues.

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

Call Gail at 802-426-3505 for a holiday gift certificate. Nice!

Thoughts On Garden Planning

Friday, December 14, 2012

15.9° here on the mountain, windless, quiet. I have been out twice with Karl the Wonder Dog and he has now gone back to sleep in front of the wood stove. Snoring already. What a dog!   The weatherman promises a sunny day which is great because as soon as I shake off this sore neck, I will continue to push hard on outside jobs before the weather turns sour later on Sunday. The sore neck is from too much skyward observation last night of the Geminid meteor shower. I was never into watching the skies much as a kid but now I can't seem to miss these events even though Gail and Alex show little interest in accompanying me outside. I guess things do change as you get older.  Right now the sun is coming up, the stars have turned off and there's an obvious mackeral sky for as far as I can see.

As winter approaches it's time for me to do our website over so I begin scanning through pictures and making notes of things to change, improve, delete. This not-too-good picture up top caught my eye. With holiday gift giving approaching, gardeners often receive gifts of books and garden books lead to design thoughts which eventually lead to plant orders as spring approaches. But as I look at this picture of a little display Gail put together at the flower farm one day, I am reminded that not all pictures make good garden sense. Let's use this picture as an example of what not to do.

When Gail and I are asked to help design a garden, we usually try to get the gardener to do almost all of the work because the end product is so much better for them.  What we do emphasize, however, is attention to the plant/tree/shrub height, mature width, and leaf size, color and texture of the plants they are considering. Yes, flower color and bloom time are important too but the plant before and after it flowers is what the gardener and garden visitors get to see most of the season so those attributes are important.

The little display Gail put together included the use of two smaller hostas, Diamond Tiara and Golden Tiara. She used a couple different ferns in the front left of her display and a row of Gold Heart Dicentra (bleeding heart with typical flower shape and color but yellow foliage all season) in the middle. The design was an eye catcher and sold a number of plants but as part of your garden, it wouldn't have been the greatest plan. Here's why.

Now days it seems that most people have a lot to keep themselves busy and as such they like gardens that require minimal care. That translates to plants that don't need pruning or dividing as time goes on. Gail's design looks fine but has some issues. Gold Heart bleeding heart has been popular since it hit the market but the color contrast is what sold it to people. Nice pink heart pendants dangling from gold foliage....BUT...as this plant matures to +30" tall in a few years, its location, surrounded by shorter plants that it would block out---well---- that just won't work. On top of that, dicentras like this go into dormancy by late July which means that for the balance of the season you have a garden with a hole in the middle of it. That's not to say that Gold Heart doesn't have a place in your garden, just  in the display we put together it wouldn't work well. The shorter, fringed woodland dicentras that bloom most of all summer and are available in white, pink or various shades of red would be better.

The two Tiara hostas are very nice and always a good investment because they are vigorous growers and they can be dug and divided to spread their wealth among your gardens or friends. BUT...planting a vigorous grower near slower growers such as the ferns means that the size of the maturing hostas will overpower the ferns in time and you'll lose the benefit of the ferns color and texture.To keep them in better control, plant them in sunken pots one size larger than they were growing in at the nursery. That will maintain their size and allow direct watering and fertilizing right to the plant. These ideas will let the slower growing ferns  progress as they prefer and the whole display will come together nicely in a year or two.

As you read through garden magazines and books this winter, give this little lesson a thought. Some of it might well apply to gardens you already have in place that seem to exhibit some of these same characteristics. And above all, think of the notion that we look at the plants-trees-shrubs all year, and that's what we should consider as we plan. Happy planning!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the birds are begging for more sunflower seed while the crows are perfectly happy with scraps I just dumped on the compost pile. Gotta get going here--boy--already almost 8!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Find us on Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm & Gardens and also at George Africa
On Twitter at vtflowerfarm
Always ready to help you grow your green thumb!
Offering gift certificates year round. Just call Gail at 802-426-3505

Cutting Trails

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A quarter til 6 and darker than a pocket outside this morning. So far the only things that are bright today are the strings of Christmas lights that line the walkway. Someone forgot to turn them off last night but admittedly they did help me with two early morning dog walks with Karl the Wonder Dog. It will lighten up out in half an hour and then I can get going on my projects. 

For several weeks now I have been working in the woods cutting new trails, culling trees for firewood and trimming along woods roads that have grown out of control in recent years. 4-5 years ago some shear winds went through this area and in places there are living trees still growing well but growing at 25° angles. Those are all coming down no matter what species they are. 

Someone stopped by the other day and asked about how I map out possible trails before I start cutting. Do I use a GPS? Use any mapping software? I said  I don't use those tools until I am finished and they seemed disappointed. The analogy is the way I plant gardens such as the hosta display garden at the nursery. I have a sense of what I want to see as an end product and I just go for it. In the woods, I stop every once in a while and take a break and walk around to see what trees need to be taken out anyway and where I am heading. It always works for me.I know where I started and I know where I want to end when it's finished, I'm pretty much on schedule. Sometimes I'll find more or less wood when the trees are down and blocked up but that part doesn't matter. I sort the brush by hardwood and softwood and sometimes I leave it in piles for the critters of the woods. Other times I bring in the chipper and clean it up. There are theories to woodland management but in the case of our property, nothing has been done since Gail's father hired a questionable logger in 1992 to take out 25 acres of softwood. I am still cleaning up the messes that guy made. It takes time to work up wood and get the leftovers cut down to the point where it lays flat in the woods and will decompose quickly. Sometimes I'll work an area and then go back  a season later to finish the work.

Our land, like all land in the Groton State Forest area, is covered with glacial erratics of various sizes. These are boulder leftovers from glaciers that went through 15,000 years ago. Now the land here is highly acidic so all the rocks are well covered with various mosses and often with rock ferns too.  The boulders range in size and many are Volkswagon sized while others are like small buildings, 10, 12, 14 feet tall and equally as wide. This trail I am working on right now may be named "split rock trail"after the prominent rock that was split in two a long, long time ago. The trail winds along the bottom of a flat that rises above the back fields and holds a plantation of red pines that were so commonly planted back in the 40's and early 50's. Here's a picture from this past spring/early summer. The white, curvy  arrow in the next picture up is the proposed trail course on my current project.

If you have land of your own, making trails is a good way to look differently at your land, Cleaning up dead trees will bring in more sunlight, and wildflowers will probably sprout in a year or two and bring colorful surprises. Once the trails are finished it's a lot easier to get around so there are no excuses left. Your health and the forest's health can improve at the same time. Give it a try!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I'll start the day finishing up last night's tractor fuel filter change. I'm still thinking about the rest of the morning but there's no shortage of projects to complete before real snow arrives.

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
And always here ot help you grow your green thumb!
Give Gail a call at 802-425-3505 if you need a gift certificate as a holiday gift!

Fir Balsam Trouble

Monday, December 10, 2012

38.4° here on the mountain tonight. It's been pouring rain heavily since before 4:30 this afternoon and there's little hope that it will let up until after midnight. The wind has stopped but it's likely to start up again as the next front approaches in a few hours. Today's rain started in early morning and never really stopped all day. I have been working in the woods for a few weeks now, cutting hiking trails and woods roads but today's weather slowed me down. I dressed appropriately for the rain and cold but I didn't feel all that safe working with the tractor in such wet ground conditions so I gave up early. One thing I did notice today was the insect influence on mature fir balsams. Here's something to think about.

Balsams are a popular tree, native to the northeast and better known for use as Christmas trees and for making garland and wreaths. It's also a fast growing tree that has been used as pulpwood for the paper industry. It has a fairly short lifespan of under 60-70 years and much of the surrounding Groton State Forest contains trees this age. This is why the current condition of the trees is even more significant.

The tree at the top of this page  is an example of what I am seeing not only in our woods but in all adjacent forests. The mature trees are dying or already dead and many are topless and/or barkless as this picture shows. Closer inspection shows the insect damage that lead to a tree's death by girdling. I am not familiar with what insects are involved but there aren't very many older trees that are not affected .

Annually I cut and split a tree or two for kindling as at this point the balsams are already fully dried on the stump and they make good kindling. This is the second year that I have noticed a couple different kinds of worm inside the logs but I don't know what these become and what stage they are currently in. I brought in three pieces that had been cut last year and left in the woods. I spilt them to see if they contained the same insects and worms and they do so I assume the life cycle is greater than a year. Hopefully there's a forester or an entomologist out there who can help me on this.

I am mentioning the decline in the fir balsam because it is also a common tree to find in parks, town forests, even as part of the landscape in housing developments or back yards.In recent years it has been attacked by the balsam woolly adelgid and I fear we might face the same tree death that is occurring with a favorite tree of mine, the hemlock. If you have any balsams on your property or properties you care for, do a through inspection and ask for professional guidance on maintaining healthy trees.If you have any pictures to share, please do.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the rain is pounding on the standing seam roof. If today's rain had been snow, every snow groomer in the state would be working right now. Sadly for our snow industries (snowmobiling opens 12/15), almost no snow is in the next 5 day forecast.

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!
Gift certificates year 'round. Call Gail at 802-426-3505.

Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening

Thursday, December 6, 2012

20.5° here on the mountain this morning. The wind is a constant 6 mph and my two morning walks with Karl the Wonder Dog were expectedly shorter this morning as he doesn’t care for fresh snow and cold winds. Karl seemed to spend too long by the platform bird feeder trying to figure out why it was surrounded by deer tracks and not birds, but as a dog, the absence of bird seed would not register with him anyway. I figure I should set up a game camera and catch an image of the deer which must stand on their hind feet to lick off all the seed.

As we returned to the house I put a couple more logs on the fire and settled down to finish a great new gardening book by William Moss. I like Moss a lot and I like anything Cool Spring Press releases too!  I only have “Best Management Practices” left to read and can say how much I have enjoyed the read. Any Size, Anywhere Edible Gardening offers solid information on how to garden successfully just about any place. It is a confidence builder for those who need help growing a green thumb. It offers a format for success and William’s “how-to” information is so clear it will leave a picture in your memory to make garden building easy.

There was a time when gardening was taken for granted as almost everyone had experience as a gardener and people could identify fruits and vegetables without having to think. Back then was not like today at the supermarket when the clerk puts a turnip on the scale and asks “Beet?” or a zucchini and asks “Cucumber?” Some of that innate knowledge and experience from the old days is absent and books like Edible Gardening are needed to help us make a comeback.

Owning a nursery gives me ample opportunity to see the need for good gardening information and the need to help would-be gardeners build their confidence to take the first step. The current price and quality of store bought fruits and vegetables are also encouraging us to rethink “growing our own”. Media releases about contaminated food tell us that our home grown food is not contaminated and that encourages us to try gardening.

Edible Garden represents itself as “The No Yard, No Time, No Problem Way To Grow Your Own Food.” and Moss is very successful in his presentation. Our latest sociological research reminds us how many people are returning to suburbia and we know that those moves mean that gardening must be adapted to the geography that smaller space provides. This book discusses containers, both purchased and homemade, and how to fill them with the best growing mix for the best results. It offers descriptions and pictures of food crops that will produce well in containers and discusses the part of gardening no one likes—dealing with undesirable insects and surprise plant diseases.

If you have never gardened before, or know someone who has not gardened but might like to, consider Edible Gardening as a holiday gift. Maybe consider putting a copy of the book in a suitable growing container with packages of seed (William recommends many) or even a bag of good potting mix. It’s the kind of holiday gift that you can continue to complement during subsequent holidays and you’re guaranteed to receive ongoing feedback on how the new hobby is progressing. I’ll bet you might even get a chance to sample the produce!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the thermometer refuses to budge and the sun is having trouble breaking through the clouds. Might be a good day to go online and look at seed companies and think through what you might like to try in containers. Most companies now identify seeds that will produce plants that will succeed in containers. You could also check out Cool Springs Press, a printer I like because it bills itself as Growing Successful Gardens  

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

First Real Snow, First Real Cold

Friday, November 30, 2012

A cold morning here on the mountain, 2°, windless, bright with a nice moon reflecting off last night's 5" of fresh snow. This is the first real snow of the season and the coldest night so far. Karl the Wonder Dog took an abbreviated walk this morning and gave me a strange look as we reentered the house. He doesn't like cold  and already I am less impressed too.

The snow started yesterday about 2:30  as I was in the woods trying to finish the brush chipping and get the chipper put away for the season. At times the snow blew at weird angles but it wasn't until after six o'clock that it really began to fall. The mountains are now covered and there's no doubt that the ski industry is already happier than last year when snow flakes were hard to find and the snowmobiling industry really never even started.

An eruption of evening grosbeaks finally appeared yesterday, over a month late from their typical appearances, The Dolgo crab apples that they usually eat are long since gone, as they were food for the robins while they made up their mind where to spend the winter. Robins used to leave by Thanksgiving but last year they were here most of the winter. All the bird visitors seem to be off schedule a little but I expect the snow and cold we feel today will bring them out for us to see.

I now have about 15 piles of wood chips throughout the back woods and along the woods roads and new trails I have been making. These will dehydrate a bit and be ready for spring when I'll use them to mulch the daylilies in the growing fields. At the same time, they will serve as hiding places for woods mice and the nasty voles that never hibernate and always seek out the roots of my favorite shrubs and perennials.

As winter becomes obvious at your house, consider feeding the birds if you have not given that hobby a try yet. We enjoy seeing different birds throughout the winter and don't think winter would be winter without keeping the bird feeders full and trying to capture pictures of birds we have not seen before. Bird food is expensive now with black oil sunflower going for $23 a 40 pound bag and still $19 when on sale. I always use cracked corn on platform feeders and on the ground for the ground feeding birds and I have old onion bags filled with suet for woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches. I never clean up the echinaceas in the fall as the small birds like goldfinches love their seeds. Black thistle seed is expensive now so echinacea is a good substitute.  If you need some help learning more about birds native to your local area, try the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.

Karl is already asking to go out again and the fire needs another log. Have a great day, watch the slippery roads this morning, and take a good look at your gardens this morning. Another outdoor gardening season has come to an end.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the town snow truck has been by and two log trucks just headed down to pick up a load of saw logs.

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
At VFF we're always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Fall Hydrangeas

Thursday, November 8, 2012 

24.3° here on the mountain with a slight wind that whispers from 3 to 5 mph and back again. It's not as cold as the 15° we felt last night nor the 18° that was predicted for this morning but failed to occur. Karl the Wonder Dog and I hiked up to the old wolf tree this morning looking for wild critters but our time out was critterless. Just the same it was a nice walk and I spotted a maple that was lined with oyster mushrooms that I need to go back and pick soon.

I have been meaning to comment on hydrangeas in Vermont and similar zone 3 and 4 climates. This is a shrub that is growing in popularity and one which has been a good seller at the flower farm. It has also created somewhat of a hassle because many people see the pink and the blue hydrangeas advertised and that's what they are possessed to grow. Most folks don't care what the name of a plant is, they just see the color and visualize it growing in their gardens. Trouble with the pinks and blues in this climate, they are not dependable and I refuse to carry them.

We grow many of the paniculata types and I think Tardiva is actually my favorite because of the shrub and bloom shape. I especially favor one named 'White Moth'. Regardless of the variety, by this time of year the blooms are long past spent and have turned rusty brown and beg to be removed. That's where I need to insert a thought. Many hydrangeas bloom on new wood so cutting back hydrangeas this late in the season can have a negative impact on next summer's blooms. The problem is that cutting spent blooms in late fall leaves the stem cuts to feel the drying winds of late fall and early winter. That affords the potential that the bud material for next year will dehydrate. That translates to fewer blooms on a shrub that you are expecting to display a bounty of blooms from summer through fall. It's better to either wait until spring or do the trimming while it is still warm as soon as the flowers have faded and begun to rust. I had a lady tell me that she never trimmed anything and implied that I didn't know what I was talking about so make your own decision on pruning and my information. I always try to share experiences. What is your experience with your hydrangeas? If you comment, please include your zone.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where rifle deer season starts this Saturday and hunters have begun to scout the area. We have been wearing orange in the woods for a month now to insure that others see us. Not a bad idea!

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!