Coleus, Not Impatiens

 Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Good morning from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the snow has just begun. An hour ago friend Carlene wrote from mid Vermont to say that there was an inch on the ground and it was snowing. I took Karl out again and a couple flakes drifted to earth but before I just got back to the house the snow was pouring from the sky. At this rate I can envision an inch an hour and with the temperature at 28.8°, the snow will be plentiful and the possibility of rain should diminish.

 If you read my Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens Facebook page (Like it?)  or my personal George Africa FB page this week,  you'll have seen my comments about avoiding impatiens this summer. For a bazillion years impatiens have been used in shady places and half sunny places as a dependable annual with plenty of blooms and lots of color. But in the past couple years Downy Mildew and other plant maladies have struck and not long after the impatiens are planted and have caught on nicely, they seem to fall over and die. For a year now the word from the plant production world has been to think differently about your bedding plants and avoid spending time and money on something that may well fail.

Coleus are one of the substitutes and there is no shortage of color and leaf styles to substitute for your favorite impatiens. Gail has always bought in coleus from her friends at Clausens' Greenhouses in Colchester and we have never been disappointed. Each year new varieties are released to the market and it's not that difficult to have something that fellow gardeners have not seen or grown.

 The leaf styles are intriguing and leaf size ranges from petite to 10"-12" leaves 3"-4" wide. Some coleus can be trained to 5 feet tall and a couple feet wide and those "big guys' look great in the background or planted in large containers.

I'll make an album on Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens to show a full dozen coleus we grew last year. I suspect the flower show in Essex this weekend will have a good display too. If you want to replace impatiens and haven't tried coleus before, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where mourning doves are feeding heavily on cracked corn and millet as two red squirrels circle the bottom of the feeder eating leftovers. Safe travel!

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 we are always are here to help you grow your green thumb!

Red Squirrel Visits

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Just finished plowing two driveways to be sure I have room for snow if the impending storm turns out to be snow instead of a mix here on the mountain. The forecast has changed for three days now but something is coming this way so I wanted to have things cleaned up. I try to keep in front of the mailboxes clean for Lois the mail lady as I don't like to make it harder for her to reach from her driver's seat with that long pincher thingy she uses to get the mail in the box. She's still the kind of mail lady who will bring anything to the door that doesn't fit in the box and she's always certain that Alex gets his books at the door because she knows he counts on them.

I've been in my office a lot lately because I've been wrapped up in a cold virus that just wouldn't quit. It seems a lot better today and I am already grateful not to be coughing. Many reminded me that it was a three week virus and it looks as if it will end in about that amount of time. Being inside I have had time to begin making changes to our website that Gail wants completed before I report an updated version. None of it is difficult, it just takes time and I am making progress. I should have it ready to post later in March.

Being in the office means that I have been able to watch the platform feeder. A flash of feathers causes me to turn for a look-see and thus far there is nothing new from the bird world but I have seen lots of birds. As the snow here deepens, the bird population increases and of all the birds I have probably seen more woodpeckers of late coming out of the forests for suet. 

During the past month the number of red squirrels has increased to six and I cannot say they please me. They are always hungry and they scare away the birds. They refuse to feed on the ground despite my attempts to leave plenty of food by the holes they leave in the snowdrifts. They are used to me now and when I approach with a morning buffet for the birds, they seem annoyed to have to move out of the way.

Red squirrels can be a real nuisance if they get in your house but so far we have never had the problem. I contend with their ravenous behavior and enjoy  their smiling faces, sometimes reminding them to behave or face death. A neighbor told me that last year he relocated dozens but frankly I have no time for live trapping and squirrel relocation programs.

As thoughts turn to spring and this weekend's flower show in Essex,  I still have a few more orders to place. We need a few more hydrangeas and there are a few common perennials I need in quantity to finish the swaths of color I am planting along the river fence. Check it out next summer for a display that is more colorful each year.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where blue jays just succeeded in taking over the feeder from a very irritated squirrel. Best gardening wishes! Write us with design questions.

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!

 

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.