Happening in the Garden This Week

The four-letter weather-word has shown up on our forecast for tonight: SNOW! If it happens, we will be ready for it.

One would think with the arrival of cold weather that we'd be hanging out the "Closed for the Season" sign, wouldn't one? One would be wrong! We have quite a bit of activity going on around here.

Fall Broccoli - 2013

1. The Kitchen Garden - The Third Season is in fine form out in the Box and Block Gardens. The raised beds in the Box Garden are sporting carrots (harvested the first three of the Fall last week), lettuces (3 kinds...my fave being the Red Sails), spinach (coming in fast and furious), beets (a little late here...had to replant), broccoli (pictured, right), cauliflower (replants), collards (replants), and one lone cabbage (a replant...all its friends succumbed to the dreaded cutworms, which were the cause of the replanted brassica). The Block Garden has been completely surrounded by a temporary fence (no worries...I can "open" one side of it...:-) that is supporting a good stand of (English) peas ('Wondo'...just picked some of those and popped them in our pot of soup)...and enclosing the rows where stands one lone surviving Red Cabbage plant (yes, cutworms again...you better believe I will be using cardboard collars come Spring-planting time!).

All the raised beds are sporting winter-weight row covers (purchased two years ago from Gardeners Supply...and still showing up for duty...:-), clothes-pinned to the hoops that bend over the plantings, so they should be OK down to 28 degrees. Mr. T came up with the clever idea to corral all the leaves that our neighbors are steadily gifting us with inside the fence around the Block Garden...brilliant, indeed! They provide protection to the peas...better than straw...and, of course, that lone cabbage must feel coddled, like being wrapped in a warm blanket.

We got most of the spent plant materials pulled up and into the yard waste toter, including the 5 pepper plants and the lone eggplant. Because of the high risk of overwintering of pests and pathogens on the members of the Solanaceae family (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.), I don't compost this debris...I get it off the property. Good riddance to blights, I hope!

[By the way, I finished my latest Master Gardener article yesterday, written about the End-of-the-Season Clean-Up. Be sure to check it out here if you have the time...and LIKE and SHARE it if you are on Facebook! (If you have arrived on this post before that link is active, check back later. Thanks!)]

2. The Orchard - Granted, there isn't much activity going on amongst the fruit trees...and, since the squirrels and their pals picked all the fruit before it ripened, there wasn't much clean-up required. Still Mr. T harvested the seed pods from the zinnias and pulled up the remaining flower stalks, while I planted 6 pineapple lily bulbs (from Lakeside Farms) in the new-this-year Pollinators Garden. When the front-porch mums are finished with their blooming, I will plant them here.

I also tilled up a long bed in the back of the Way Back, across the Orchard and the Berry Patch, and planted 110 daffodil bulbs (that have been hanging out in the garage fridge for 6 weeks, as directed). They will be putting on a show, come Spring...fingers crossed; toes, too!

Seeds of the butterfly weed
Asclepias Tuberosa - 2013

We have several wonderful outcroppings of butterfly weed, Asclepias Tuberosa, in the Orchard...planted by either the birds or the wind. And, now is the time to harvest the seeds which have broken out of the pods following the recent frosty nights [shown in the picture Mr. T snapped with his iPhone (right)]. Aren't they just amazing? They are designed to be wind-dispersed, with fluffy, silky tufts. We'll keep them in a paper bag in the garage fridge until Spring, then plant...and cross our fingers and toes because butterfly weed is notoriously difficult to grow from seed. We shall see...

3. The Berry Patch - All is quiet on this tasty front. Mr. T has filled the blueberry boxes 3 (raised beds, containing the 9 blueberry bushes) with bags and bags of our neighbors' shredded (mostly oak) leaves...remember, blueberries love an acid soil and oak leaves can help maintain that. I also tilled up and refurbed another strawberry bed, this one containing the newest Ozark Beauty runners. (No snakes were found this time!)

4. The Rose Garden - All of the hybrid teas, the grandifloras, and most of the David Austen ("English" shrub) roses are winding down, forming as many rose hips as rose buds. The two notable exceptions are the coppery 'Pat Austen' and the lemony 'Molineaux.' So, when you look toward the Rose Garden from another part of the Way Back, you will see the colors of Fall: orange and yellow. Beautiful combination!

Additionally, the 'Mardi Gras' floribunda rose bush (located just outside of the Rose Garden, in the Rondel) is still budding, producing the flamboyant pinks, oranges, and yellows...all swirled together into colorful blooms. Makes for fabulous bouquets, especially when you add the prolifically-producing 'Gethsemane Moonlight' mums that now dot several corners of the property. I pruned the original 6 plants after their first growth spurt in the Spring, in order to assure lush flower production in the Fall...then dipped the "prunings" into rooting hormone...lo and behold, WORLDS of new plants. Gotta love propagation!!

The rest of our weekend activity revolved around general cleaning up and taking relaxing breaks in the swings. Since it has been a difficult week around our house, we needed some time for rest and contemplation.

And the garden is the very best place for it.  Happy hoeing!

Tomatoes from Suckers in Ten Easy Steps

Tomatoes in Row Garden, May 25

Hopefully, by now your tomato crop is coming along nicely. Ours is too, thank you very much for asking.

Row Garden, June 1:
Tomatoes in center row

Here in our Zone 7 Way Back Garden, the 6 transplants (two Celebrity, two Goliath, and two German Johnson...in foreground of picture, above/right) that were planted April 5th...ten full days ahead of the "optimum" time (AKA: the average last date of frost for the Piedmont, which is usually quoted as 4/15)...are growing strong and tall and bearing beautiful green fruit already. Even though we had to use row covers to protect the lot of them on a couple of occasions when the temps dipped below 45 degrees, I gambled and went against what I said in the recent Master Gardener program I did on Totally Tomatoes: "to be on the safe side, wait a week to ten days after ALDF before you plant your tomatoes." So much for playing it safe...and for "do as I say, not as I do."

Bush Early Girl, June 1,
in container on deck;
56 days after transplant

All the other tomatoes in the Row Garden (9 online-orders from Burpee added around 4/23: 3 Sun Golds, 3 Big Daddy hybrid, and 1 each grafted OPs Brandywine Pink, Brandywine Red, and Mortgage Lifter; 11 started indoors from seed, added about a month later: 3 Lemon Boys, 4 Roma, 2 Jet Stars, and 2 Juliets) are coming along well also, with a couple of those online-order Sun Golds fruiting up remarkably well already. The four bush varieties in containers (2 Early Girl bush, 1 Goliath Bush, and 1 Ace 55) are loaded with green fruit and yellow flowers. The Bush Early Girl that was planted 4/5 in a container on the deck actually has a red tomato (pictured left), only a couple days away from being my first BLT of the season.

In addition to bearing fruit (and tomatoes are fruits, botanically speaking, of course), tomatoes also go to great lengths to reproduce themselves by creating whole new plants...right there in the crotches between the main stem and a lateral branch. Those little suckers are known as, well...suckers.

Many folks who grow tomatoes see suckers as annoyances, as they can redirect the main plant's energy from producing fruit and must be pruned or removed, especially in the lowest 1-2 feet of the plant. But those same suckers can be a source of joy for the serious tomato gardener. Where some people see "more work," others see "more tomatoes!"

It's easy to start new plants...which will be clones, retaining the same genetic make-up of the parent plant...from those suckers you have to remove anyway in order to maintain the optimum production of the parent. That's a even-better proposition than trying to reproduce the characteristics of your favorite hybrid from saved seed, because hybrids notoriously are unreliable in this effort. Plus, with the high price of decent-sized so-called 'heirlooms' (a better name might be 'open-pollinated'), getting an off-spring with very little work cuts the cost in half. Because you will start with a 6-8" "cutting," you will have a jump-start on replenishing your mid-summer tomato crop, should one or more of the parent plants succumb to disease or insect invasion come late June or July.

Here are ten steps to get your new tomato crop started:

Removing a sucker from
hybrid tomato,
planted in Row Garden 4/23

1. Pick an overcast day, preferably after a good, soaking rain (which will "plump up" the parent tomato), to remove a sucker for rooting. Suckers are those new stems that grow at the join of each lateral branch on a healthy tomato main stem. If you wish to start a new tomato by taking a cutting, allow the sucker to grow on the healthy parent tomato (no evidence of disease, please) to about 6-8 inches long, then gently cut the stem off just above the joint where it is starting, using sharp floral scissors (see picture). If the suckers have started flowering, that's OK.
   
   Helpful tip: Be sure to make a plant marker, showing the name of the parent tomato and the date you took the cutting...especially if you are taking more than one sucker-cutting from more than one variety of tomato.



2. For each sucker, fill a container with a mix of good potting soil and compost, avoiding soil from your garden.  Any suitable container deep enough to accommodate one-half of the length of the sucker plus one inch will do. [For instance, if your sucker is 6" from cut to top, choose a container that is at least 4" deep: (6/2=3)+1=4.] You can use a commercial potting mix with fertilizer, if you wish, but fertilizer is not necessary to root tomato suckers. Still, it can be a time-saver after the sucker has rooted in the container.
   
   Another time-saving tip: always have a prepared container or two ready to receive a cutting.


3. Gently snip off any branches or leaves on the lower half of the sucker, leaving at least 4 leaves at the top of the sucker. Avoid stripping any of the stem as this can create a pathway for pests.
4. Dip the end of the sucker in rooting hormone and tap off any excess. Do you absolutely need to use rooting hormone? No. Does rooting hormone give your cutting a jump-start on developing a good root system? You betcha! Plus, I find that I get more successful rootings, increasing my plant count.
5. Poke a hole in the soil in the prepared container with a chopstick or a pencil, and then push the sucker into the hole in the soil, being careful not to knock the hormone powder  (if used) off.   Plant the sucker at least halfway in the potting soil, with the leaves left on the upper portion above the soil line.  Gently firm up the potting mix around the sucker's stem.
6. Water the container thoroughly. If necessary, add some more potting mix to maintain the proper depth of the sucker. Place the plant marker in the container to help you remember the variety.
7. Place the container in a shaded area, providing protection from the harsh rays of the sun.
8. Water daily to keep the soil moist while the sucker is rooting.  Don't worry if new tomato wilts for the first couple of days. By Day 3 or 4, it should be standing straight again.
9. After about two weeks, begin checking the new tomato to see if roots are developing, by gently tugging on the stem.  In about three weeks, roots should have developed enough to  (a) move the new tomato to a larger container, if necessary to accommodate the root system, and (b) begin exposing the new tomato to direct sun.  You should also give the new tomato a feeding of diluted fish emulsion at this time.
10. After 4-6 weeks, sun exposure should be up to "full sun" (6-8 hours/day) and the root system should be developed enough and to move the new tomato to a permanent location.  Congratulations! You have rooted a new tomato from a sucker!

New plants from rooted tomato suckers

Here is a shot of my own Sucker Garden to date (left).  I have rooted cuttings of the following varieties:

Sun Gold (in the purple containers)

Goliath

Celebrity

German Johnson (an open-pollinated 'heirloom' variety)

Brandywine Pink (an OP 'heirloom' that I ordered as a grafted tomato)

So far...so good! Only problem...where am I going to plant all these new garden members, hmmmm?

May Arrives!

Another basket of leaf lettuce...and an onion

The month of May has arrived, with welcome sunshine and much calmer weather.  I don't know about you and your garden (wherever that may be...:), but we are happy for the respite from the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes of April.

So, how is our garden doing these days?  I've neglected this blog for a variety of reasons, one of which is that I've spent more hours in the sun than I have at the keyboard.  And, that's as it should be...this time of the year.  From April 15th (often quoted as the Average Last Frost Date for this area, although there is data to show that it's as early as April 3rd for High Point) onward, there is something going into the ground almost daily.

Speaking of the Last Frost Date, I broke the rules and put five tomato plants in before April 15th. Three of them succumbed to the blistering hot temps and high winds we had the day after I put them in the ground, but two of them survived...and are thriving! Here's hoping for some Better Boy tomatoes by July 4th!
And with the more-than-an-inch-every-week rains we have been experiencing, the lettuce (photo, above), onions, carrots, beets, and peas are leaping out of the ground.  As are a wide variety of weeds.  Sigh.  I wish I could say the same for the spinach, which is sadly stunted.  Still, I mustn't complain...for, this time last year, we had no lettuce, peas, or spinach.  The bunnies had eaten them all.  The onions shriveled up and died from a dry spell.  And, the carrots never even made it up through the hard-packed Piedmont clay soil.  So, all-in-all, our 2011 Spring Garden is a winner already!

Why no bunnies this year? you ask.  Well, remember...we put a temporary fence across the back property line so that the dogs can now go into the Way Back garden without fear of their wandering away.  I believe that the bunnies don't care for the scent of the hounds...or, else, it's because I've planted onions everywhere this year, and the bunnies don't like that scent.  Whatever.  All I know is that we are harvesting lettuce in '11, thank goodness.

The potatoes plants are rising higher and higher, in spite of being covered with 5 bags of leaves.  I think we will have to mound some dirt on them to keep them from getting too much light.  And, I may have to wait until Fall for cabbage; but I'm not pulling up the plants just yet.  We'll see.



Strawberry bed...loaded with blooms...
looking toward the lettuce and onions

Oh, and I really should mention our strawberries.  I created a small bed (photo, left) and put in several plants last year, which did not flower due to how late I got them in and how hot and dry the Spring weather was in general in 2010.  So, just like it says in all my garden books, all the energy went to developing runners (or "daughter plants").  After I enlarged the bed last Fall, by incorporating the space formerly occupied by the sweet potatoes,  I transplanted the daughters.  They over-wintered under straw and row covers...and apparently settled in rather well.  Additionally, I allowed the 7-Top turnip greens, in the rows adjacent to the strawberry bed, to continue to grow from last Fall's crop through the Winter...right on into Spring.  They had loads of beautiful yellow flowers, which attracted lots of bees and other pollinators...who went right to work on the strawberry flowers as soon as they appeared last month.

Well, we have loads of berries that should begin to ripen this weekend!  What a treat that will be, to go out to the garden and pick strawberries for our morning cereal bowls.  I'm already picking so much lettuce every-other-day that I've threatened to start serving salads for breakfast (!).  Berries would be better, for sure.

Speaking of berries...the 3 new blueberry bushes we got at the 4-H sale are loaded with berries, too.  And, the 2 thornless blackberry bushes are flowering and showing signs of putting on berries.  The "naturalized" blackberries (the ones with the wicked thorns...:) have tiny flowers, too, so we shall see which have the tastiest fruit soon.

I noticed today that the pole beans I planted recently are beginning to pop up, as is the corn.  I had covered the corn with row covers to protect the tender shoots from the crows who frequent the garden, but the recent high winds just whipped the covers right off.



Mardi Gras Rose bud -
Way Back Garden, April - 2011

I did get some herb transplants in the bed that runs along the side of the center path:  sage, dill, parsley, basil, oregano, and thyme.  I planted some nasturtiums there, too, after I nicked the seed-pods with a nail file (called "scarification").   Then, I planted some zinnias and marigolds from seed we collected from last year's crop.  I started a new bed next to the picket fence with some gladioli corms and more zinnia and marigold seeds. We currently have roses blooming (photo, right), along with iris; soon, we will have daylilies abloom.  I think herbs and flowers are every bit as important to our garden as the fruits and vegetables.

Coming up this week...the Annual Master Gardener Passalong Plant Sale at the Guilford County Extension Center on May 5-6. I've been tending several "babies" that I started in the Propagation Workshop we had in March.  I've also been working on a Culinary Herbs display for the Festival area. 

Going in the ground next:  the rest of the tomatoes, the peppers, the squash (yellow, zucchini, and patty pan), the cantaloupes (which are really muskmelons...:), the watermelons (3 kinds!), and the eggplants.  All of these are currently growing in the controlled environment known as the plasticized screen porch.  Then, I'll purchase some sweet potato slips, and lastly I'll plant some okra seeds and some purple hull (AKA: Southern) peas.  And, then it should be time for the pumpkins to be planted.  It's so exciting!

OK, that's the Garden Report for the first week in May.  If you'd like to see what you should do in your Piedmont garden this month, be sure to check out my article on GoGreen.com:  http://gogreentriad.news-record.com/content/2011/04/29/article/mastering_the_possibilities_of_may.  I'm sure it will have a short shelf-life, so look quickly!

Happy Hoeing!

This Week in the Garden

New Beginnings:
Southside Community Garden
in High Point

With apologies to the Chinese...

Give a woman a vegetable and she'll eat for a day.  Teach a woman to garden, and she and her family can eat well forever.

OK, so I trampled that Chinese proverb about fish(ing) for my own purposes.  Sorry.

Still, it says what I want to say about my latest Master Gardener volunteer activity, working with the Southside Community Garden here in High Point (photo, right).  Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.  Let me take it back a couple of paragraphs.

Last week was a busy one, gardening-wise.  I got the seeds started for some tomatoes, green and cayenne peppers, eggplants, and more herbs.  They are all currently basking in the glow of the light-tube on the shelf in the plasticized screen porch (AKA:  our greenhouse), as I mentioned in my last post. 

Thomas and I tilled up rows for more lettuce and carrots, and I planted a row of beets.  I purchased some red-leaf lettuce plants, some cabbage (3 kinds) and broccoli plants and got them in the ground just before the rains came, along with three kinds of potatoes:  Kennebec, Irish Cobbler, and Red Pontiac.  Whew!

On the Master Gardening front, I had lots on my plate.  On Tuesday, I was the assistant for the Speaker at a presentation on Culinary Herbs to a group in Whitsett (a very long way from High Point...:).  I really enjoyed this experience and hope I'll be able to do Speaker's Bureau more often throughout the year.

Wednesday was our regular class day, with the topics being Flowers and Houseplants.  Then, on Thursday, I found out that my article on "What To Do in the Garden in March" had been published online at GoGreen.com. Yippee!  Writing gardening articles is another activity I enjoy...and hope to continue.

Also on Thursday, I assisted with another speaker's bureau presentation...again on Herbs...but this time beyond McLeansville.  A really, really long way away.  I had no idea Guilford County was such a whopper!



Move that mountain of mulch!

 Then, on Saturday, I got to help get that new community garden going...this one, right here in High Point!  I loved working with the folks who are just starting...or, in some cases, returning to...their own gardening journeys.  Such a joy! 

My job for the day was to help move a mountain of mulch that the city of HP had delivered to the site...one wheelbarrow-load at a time (photo, left).  When someone mentioned how wonderful the mulch smelled, I realized that it was because of the Christmas trees.  Yep, our Christmas tree had indeed been recycled into mulch for the garden paths at the new Southside Community Garden.  How great is that?  (Sealed the deal on whether to have a real or an artificial tree...:)

Back on the home front, we got over an inch (!) of gentle rain, so everything is looking happy and healthy.  I'm already seeing the spinach and the peas popping through the clay crust that is our soil.

Chores for this coming week:

• Pull the weeds in the strawberry patch.  Rake away some of the straw mulch.
• Keep checking on the seeds in the greenhouse.  Remove the protective covers when they sprout.
• Empty the compost barrel onto the garden; mix into the soil.

Happy hoeing!