Click here for details on our Fall Clearance Sale.
We’ve all heard that the microbes in soil are helpful and can actually make you feel better. There are some nasty ones hiding there as well, as I found out recently.
The back story-
Working outside on April 30th I accidentally cut my thumb which required 8 stitches to close (I never did get that whole “cut away from yourself thing.) Ten days later, all was fine and I had the stitches removed. A few days later after it appeared to be healed, I started potting up some plants in the nursery.
The next day a few spots appeared along the incision filled with pus. Not thinking much about it, I applied some triple antibiotic ointment and bandaged it. A few days later, I bumped it and the incision broke open. Treating it the same way for another week or so, it wasn’t getting any better, so I broke down and went to the doctor.
After the obligatory “Why did you wait so long?” (hint- because I’m a guy) question, He cleaned it out, took a culture sample and prescribed two antibiotics. One or both of them laid me out for two weeks in which I was able to eat little and do even less. As soon as the course of pills were done, I started feeling better. Eating yogurt and backfilling my system with probiotics helped some. The only bright spot was that I did lose 25 pounds in that two-week period of having little or no appetite. Not a diet I would recommend, however.
Needless to say, I’ll be using gloves when potting plants for a while, but there goes the whole “Dirty Fingernails” for which our nursery is named.
We plant a lot of things in the garden that will aid wildlife in the summer, but in the cold depths of winter, food sources can be scarce, especially for birds, that’s why we have several feeders with different types of seed set up in our back yard. This year, we’ve also decided to make our own suet cakes with this Suet Cake Recipe. The suet cake that are sold in the stores will work fine also, but with this recipe, we know what’s going into the product, plus it’s an easy and fun project for the kids on a snowy day.
Squirrels can be an issue with bird feeders, they’ll clean one out in no time at all. We have a large baffle on ours that they can’t get by, but this Squirrel vs. Slinky video shows an ingenious way to deter these little varmints. Don’t worry about them, though. There’s lots of bird seed that makes it to the ground for them to scavenge.
“I’m not buying any Mum’s this year; I never have any luck with them.”
We hear this all the time, people are frustrated when they buy so-called “hardy mums,” plant them and they don’t come back in the spring. Honestly, we’ve been just as frustrated with these beautiful flowers- sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t return.
While chrysanthemums are hardy in most zones, the hardiness can vary greatly between various cultivars.
Also, a lot has to do with the quality of the plants that are purchased. In the fall, you will see mums everywhere from garden centers to gas stations, often in full bloom. Most of the time these are also in 8” or smaller pots and sold at a low price. Fact is that these plants have been grown quickly and forced to bloom so that they look good on the rack. They are meant to catch your eyes and money, not to last long. And honestly, if the plants are not at an independent garden center or nursery, they probably haven’t been cared for very well.
Things to look for when purchasing mums-
- Heathy, well-watered plants. If the foliage looks limp or there is a gap around the edge between the potting soil and the pot, it means that the plant hasn’t been watered properly and has been allowed to dry out.
- Check the pot size. As mentioned above, many mums are grown in small pots to give the illusion of big healthy plants that are overflowing the pots. What you are really getting is a plant that’s been forced to grow in a small pot that doesn’t have enough soil around the roots to keep it well hydrated.
- Tight flower buds. Look for plants that are not in full bloom. These plants will last the longest and give you the most enjoyment.
- Blooms that have bright color. Blooms that are starting to fade are old and won’t last long once you get them home no matter how much you water or feed them.
Planting your mums-
Gardeners are a group of optimists. We always want to believe that we can work miracles with plants. Cathy and I are no different, she will save every little broken piece of plant and put it in water to see if it will root, and they usually do for her, too.
So, if you want to plant your mums in the hope that we’ll have a mild winter, and they’ll be back next spring, here are a few tips.
- Wait until the blossoms have all died, keeping the plant well watered.
- Once that happens and the ground isn’t frozen, find a spot that has well drained soil. Good drainage is probably the most important item here. You don’t want the plants roots sitting in water.
- Cut the foliage back and plant the mum like you would any other plant with the hole twice as big as the pot and half to three quarters as deep. Loosen the roots a bit, especially if the plant was pot-bound and mound the dirt around the plants roots so that it is covered as deep as it was in the pot.
- Mulch the plant with a couple of inches of mulch. Leaves are fine and there are plenty of them around this time of year.
- Watch the plant over the winter, especially when there is no snow cover, for frost heaving. This happens when the ground freezes and forces the newly planted mums out of the ground. If this happens, try to push the plant back in if the weather warms, or cover it with some soil or more mulch.
Follow these tips and you will give your mums the greatest chance for survival.
Those of us in the nursery business know that there are no shortcuts when it comes to growing plants. If we want to have good looking plants in June, they have to be planted well before that.
Having a garden with flowering perennials is no exception. Take our blueberries for example. If a customer buys the plant in May when it’s in bloom or has started to set berries- that plant will most likely lose the blossoms or berries when they transplant it, that’s the plant’s reaction to being pulled from a pot and placed into the ground, and all plants suffer from some degree of shock when they’re transplanted.
Spring is the time when we all have the urge to plant things. Our gardens are a blank canvas that we want to fill with colors. But if we really want to have a beautiful garden or landscape with perennial plants, the time to plan and plant is in the late fall. At that time of year, the ground is still warm and the soil can be worked much easier than in early spring. The plants are also entering their dormant stage for the winter, so the shock of transplanting them is reduced. Even though the plant is going dormant, the roots will settle in and start growing, and the plant will be ready to go in the spring.
Mulch around the plants (there’s plenty of leaves around in the fall) with a heavy layer, but keep it away from the plant’s stem. You can protect the stem from animal damage with a short section of split foam pipe insulation. It the spring, rake back the mulch and remove any stem protection when the weather starts to warm. Of course if the plant is one that usually dies back completely, the stem protection can be disregarded.
Purchasing and planting perennials in the fall will shorten the time it takes to get the full enjoyment from your plant investment that you are hoping for.
This link is an excellent guide to Planting Trees & Shrubs.
Unlike annuals, which are mainly purchased in the Spring and early Summer and only last for one season, perennials are best planted in the Fall. Autumn planting gives the plants time to get settled in, grow roots and be ready to go in the Spring.
Many times, gardeners, especially new ones, buy their plants in the spring when they are in bloom. And often times these plants have been grown in warmer climates and shipped North so they are in bloom when they hit the garden centers. They may have also been treated with growth hormones to force them into bloom.
When the gardener gets them home and transplants them, they are often disappointed that the plant wilts and the blooms fade and die quickly. This is due to transplant shock. The plant senses that something has changed and goes into a survival mode to grow roots, the result is the plant shuts down the blooms and puts it’s energy into growing the roots necessary for it’s survival.
Planting perennials in the fall avoids this disappointment. The plant still experiences an amount of transplant shock, but due to the cooler and wetter Autumn climate, the amount of shock is lessened. Also since the plant doesn’t have blooms to support, all of it’s energy can be put into growing roots and getting ready for next spring.
Trees and shrubs can be transplanted right up until the ground freezes. Other perennials will benefit from the warmer ground temperatures of early Autumn.
Your new plants will still need to be watered if we experience a dry Autumn, but fertilizing them should be delayed until the next spring, you don’t want to encourage new growth when the plant is about to enter dormancy for the winter.