Cherries!

If there’s anything happier in a garden than a cherry tree, I haven’t seen it.

The birds have been perched there a lot, and I thought maybe they were eating the cherries. Now I think they were just enjoying the view.

These are sour cherries, and they definitely live up to their name. Maybe the birds don’t like the taste. If you have the patience to seed them, and if there’s anything left afterwards, I’m sure they would be good in a pie (the cherries, not the birds).

May is such a glorious month in Virginia. The weeds are OUT OF CONTROL, but at least I can console myself as I weed by munching on strawberries…

And picking out flowers for the house…

There’s really nothing better than getting a bouquet of your own roses for Mother’s Day.

How not to win yard of the month

I see the carefully manicured yards all around me, especially at the new houses that replaced the 1960’s houses that preceded them. I pause and think, wow, look at all that neat mulch between those meatball shrubs. And I like it, I really do. So tidy. And then I come home.

We bought one of the 1960s houses that wasn’t torn down and have spent the last 3 years tearing out overgrown shrubs and layers of invasive plants. I mean who plants English Ivy on top of vinca in a bed of monkey grass and dots it with day lilies?  My garden design strategy, on the other hand, is wildlife habitat meets permaculture food forest meets experimental. How much shade can corn tolerate? Will the sugar snap peas climb up the trellis or merely wrap themselves around the onions? I’ll let you know.  Suffice it to say, we will not be winning any neighborhood awards soon.

Thanks to all this experimentation, I have found a few things I love.

Thing 1: Alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) as ground cover

 

 

This is an old permaculture trick to simultaneously block weeds while growing something productive. It is really good at blocking weeds, is gorgeous, and the strawberries are tasty. Just don’t confuse them with the little weedy strawberries that don’t taste like anything. Alpine strawberries are hard to start from seed, but once it gets going, it moves pretty fast. The section above was grown from about 4 seedlings planted two years ago. And yes, that’s kind of a sad little cherry tree surrounded by comfrey, another permaculture trick, growing in too much shade.

And here is a gross weedy area where I’m waiting for two patches of strawberries to grow together.

Thing 2: False blue indigo (Baptisia australis)

 

This is a native plant that supposedly fixes atmospheric nitrogen and eventually makes it available in the soil to other plants. We are starting it around fruit trees for that reason.  A very nice fellow gardener saw online that I was trying to start this from seed and gave me some shoots from her garden. The little babies are actually doing quite well. Here’s one of them:

Thing 3: American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)

 

Wisteria were blooming in California during our honeymoon 20 years ago, smelling glorious, and I’ve had a soft spot for them ever since. I didn’t want to plant the Asian kind since it’s invasive, but there is a native version. It’s beautiful, though sadly, has no smell. I think it’s pretty enough to justify its existence anyway.

Adventures in backyard espalier

Whenever we visit old gardens I’m always drawn to the espaliered trees. We have a pretty small yard without a lot of sun, so we’ve been experimenting with DIY espalier along our fence. It seems like it should be a good way to grow fruit without a lot of space, but like everything in the garden, it takes some patience.

We have three espaliered Asian pear trees. One is an expensive one with 4 types of pears grafted onto one tree. We bought it already trained from a nursery as a Christmas present in December of 2017.

This is what it looked like in Spring 2018. 

This is what it looked like in early spring 2019:

Pardon the low resolution. I broke my good camera and am working with an iPhone for the moment.

Here’s the tree in April 2019:

Lots and lots of pears, though I don’t know how many will make it all the way since the birds ate them all last year. The whole tree’s a little crazy right now because I’m not sure what to do with all of the new side shoots. The Royal Horticultural Society espalier site says to trim them back to three leaves above the basal clusters in August/September, so I guess I’ll wait for then. I’m a complete amateur at this.

Buying an expensive tree from the nursery is fun, but it feels a little like cheating. Here’s another one we bought from a big box store somewhat trained. This is what it looked like when we bought it:

Below is what it looks like now. You can see that I trained it to have a 3rd layer by letting one of the side shoots in the middle grow vertically. That’s why the “stems” are a little off center. 

We tied the branches to galvanized wire that is attached to our fence. That was more practical than the wooden supports it came with. There is a special type of green plastic tape for tying trees that doesn’t damage the tree like wire would.

For a final challenge, we bought one more tree that wasn’t trained at all. It was just a little one year old tree with a couple of side shoots. We trimmed it back severely last year to a height below the first wire and hoped it would live. Now we have new bottom side shoots that I’m slowly working toward horizontal.  I’m hoping the vertical shoot makes it to the next wire this year so I can start the second horizontal level. It will take several years to be as big as the others.

Espalier is a little like having an art project in your backyard.

Starting natives on the cheap

In my quest to start a native pollinator garden without breaking the bank, I’ve been experimenting with seeds. They’re a little trickier than, say, starting tomatoes in dixie cups under a grow light. My yard is a combo of dry shade and wet shade with some partial sun in places, so I’ve chosen Joe Pye Weed, Blue Vervain, White Wood Aster (for dry shade under large trees), Swamp Milkweed, and False Blue Indigo. I already have Obedient Plant, Cardinal Flower, and Blackeyed Susans, among others, and they’re all doing well.

The thing about perennials is that in nature, they would sit out in the cold wet winter for months before sprouting. So you kind of have to give them the same conditions. It’s called stratification.  The seed packets from Prairie Moon nursery give good instructions, but the process is still a little intimidating because it’s weird. I bought a little bag of sand,  wet it to the consistency of a wrung out sponge, mixed the seeds and sand in a sandwich bag, labeled when they would be ready (range was 10-60 days), and stashed them in the back of the fridge.

Now as they’re ready, I’m starting them normally in seed starting mix under a grow light. Note that some of them have to be sprinkled on top of the mix, not buried. The False Blue Indigo were ready to start a couple of weeks ago, and are just beginning to sprout. I’ve been watching them nervously pretty sure it wasn’t going to work. But it did, so that’s exciting. All of these plants range from $10-$20 at the nurseries and can be hard to find, making it well worth the effort if they all work.

Annuals, on the other hand, are easy peasy lemon squeezy. Little tomatoes, chives (seeds saved in the fridge from last year’s plants), parsley and basil are already going strong.

 

My insect manifesto

(Photo from humanegardener.com)

Remember way back when you would go for a drive and your windshield would be covered in smashed bugs by the end of the trip? Ever noticed how that doesn’t happen anymore? There are a lot fewer insects than there used to be. This is actually a huge problem. Did you know that in the 1980’s there were over 4 million monarch butterflies overwintering in California, and this winter, there are approximately 30,000?

We get used to thinking of our homes and our yards as little isolated rectangles. But imagine an insect flying over or an animal wondering through. Whatever bit of land you’re gardening, even if it’s just a balcony, is part of a much larger ecosystem. Insects have specific mouth shapes that let them only eat plants that have been in their area for a really long time (like eons). So if they fly over acre after acre of turf grass and boxwoods and corn and can’t find a native plant anywhere, they die out. And God forbid they land in a yard where a mosquito company has just sprayed. Those sprays kill everything indiscriminately, including the good predator insects.  And then imagine the birds who can only eat native insects. They die out too. Do we really want a world with no birds or butterflies?

Fortunately, the average home gardener can make a difference. Figure out what plants are native to your area and plant several varieties. The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center is a good place to start or look at one of the native plant nurseries.  Consider making your yard bird friendly. If you see insects on your beloved plants, take the time to learn what they are and if they’re actually harmful. A lot of insects don’t really hurt things unless they’re in huge numbers. Some kinds can just be pulled off by hand or doused in soapy water. If you do need to treat with chemicals, get expert advice from an extension agent, university, or master gardener to make sure you’re using the right chemical in the right part of the insect’s lifecycle to be effective.   Consider adding a little water feature. Leave a small patch of ground bare (for native bees) or unmowed with longer native grasses for other insects and little creatures. Have an open compost bin.

If enough people take these steps, we can undo some of the destruction we’ve caused.

 

 

 

 

Dixie cups and dirt

The more I garden, the more excited I get about starting plants from seed. I’m trying to fill our yard with native plants which ironically can be hard to find and expensive.  Trouble is, it’s easy to spend so much on seed starting supplies that the idea of economy goes out the window. That’s why I rely on Dixie cups, seed starting mix, old cookie sheets, and plastic wrap.  Just punch a few holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage.

 

The only big investment I’ve made is the grow light. I’ve tried to start seeds in a sunny window, but it’s never worked out too well. They’re leggy and unhealthy and don’t transplant very well. A good grow light is worth it. Plus the glow of the grow light will hypnotize you so much you won’t even notice the polar vortex outside. I just bought this second light from Amazon because I went a little crazy in the seed buying department.

The trick is deciding where to put them. Seeds need warmth and they need to not be knocked over by this:

or this

or eaten by this.

So you can see what I’m up against. The best place for our seeds is a teeny upstairs guest room that we affectionally call the monk cell. It’s warm and the light doesn’t bother anyone. The neighbors haven’t ever asked why the strange glow.

I won’t actually start our warm weather plants until March 1st, but if you’re somewhere warmer than zone 7, it may be about time to start yours. In the US, county extension agents will usually have seed starting guidelines on their websites. I really like this comprehensive vegetable planting calendar that one of the Virginia extension agents published: arlington-alexandria-garden-planting-dates-2013a. Or you can contact your local master gardener club or just Google your last average frost date and follow the instructions on the seed packets.  Happy planting!

 

 

 

5 Reasons to Love Winter

1. Ice sculptures

 

2. Greens that survive the cold

 

3. Native plant seed catalogs

 

4. Funky tomato seeds waiting to be planted

 

5. Winter berries

Trendy houseplants on a budget

Ever noticed how many home decor blogs, magazines, etc feature the same plants? Certain houseplants are trendy. Take the fiddle leaf fig, for example. Designer Emily Henderson declared it her favorite plant back in 2012 and it’s still going strong.  I’ve seen large ones on sale in our local nursery for hundreds of dollars. Or you can do what we did, which is buy a small one for $14.99 at Home Depot, put it in a sunny window, and wait.  This one is a couple of years old and 7 feet tall.

And once you have one (or your friend has one), you can make more with minimal effort. I took a cutting with a few leaves and dipped the end in rooting hormone.

Then I put the cutting in water and waited 6-8 weeks for roots to form. It’s best to either used distilled water or tap water that has been sitting out for 24 hours to evaporate the chlorine. Chlorine can prevent root growth.

I transplanted the cutting into potting soil, and voila!  Healthy baby plant. There are actually already roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.

You can do something similar with succulents. The only difference is instead of putting them in water, after dipping the cuttings in rooting hormone you leave them out to dry for a few days. Then you put the cutting directly into cactus soil. I’ve done this for a pencil cactus and other succulents.

I accidentally broke this one off of another plant when I was vacuuming. You can see the lower leaves aren’t happy, but there is new growth trying to find the light (mental note to move this one closer to the window).

My daughter wanted some low maintenance plants for her room, and we decided to propagate a couple rather than buying new ones. This little guy is newly transplanted this week, so we’re waiting to see if it takes.

My next goal is to learn how to propagate outdoor perennials. We still have a lot of space to fill this spring, without the budget to match. Nurseries do it, so why shouldn’t we? Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to supply all of our friends and neighbors one of these days.

 

It’s Electric. Boogie Woogie.

I’m taking a break from the green stuff this time to talk about something new and shiny and exciting. We recently sold this:

And bought this:

It’s electric! More specifically, it’s a 2016 BMW I3 electric car with a range extender.  The new ones are ridiculously expensive, but there are a lot of reasonable, low-mileage used ones on the market that came off of leases.

Pardon me while I geek out for a minute on electric car stats. The battery fully charged will run about 75 miles (the new ones have a longer range). If I run out of battery, there’s a little backup engine that holds a few gallons of gas and gets me another 50 miles or so. It sounds like a motor scooter when it kicks in.  I’ve been charging at home off an extension cord (about 15 hours to fully charge) or at one of the free charging stations around (4 hours for a full charge). The basic home charging is a Level 1. You can install a Level 2 charger at home similar to what the stores using 240V, but we haven’t gotten around to that yet. There are super fast DC chargers that are supposed to take about 30-45 minutes, but the closest one to us is too far away to be worthwhile.

Not only does it look pretty cool inside, it drives really well with crazy fast acceleration. The only strange part is that it doesn’t coast much. When I take my foot off the accelerator, it rolls to a stop. That means I never really have to use the brakes, but it also means I made everybody carsick the first week with the abrupt stopping and starting. So far my 6 ft tall husband and two leggy teenagers have been able to ride without too many complaints, though I guess we look a little clown car-like when we get out. Just wait until we squeeze the dog, cat and rabbit in there with us.

The I3 costs 3.9 cents per mile to charge at home compared to the 10.8 cents our regular car uses in gas.  I’m not even going to do the math for the Chevy truck because that was a short-term mistake which shall now be forgotten. At least we can feel a little better about not contributing to global warming at such an astonishing rate now. As soon as we can get our power from solar (hurry it up, Dominion), we’ll be doing even better. In the meantime, you’ll not find me sitting in a car service center because this puppy only has to be serviced once per year. Look for me instead wherever there is free charging in a great parking space.

 

 

 

 

Single male pumpkin flower seeking mate

There’s a category of homeowner called a “plopper” among Master Gardeners. It’s the person who buys a plant at the home center because it looks good and plops it in the ground without any thought to whether it’s the right plant in the right place. I had a moment of weakness this spring and spontaneously bought a pumpkin plant to put in a neglected sunny spot. In normal blogs, this would be the point where I would tell you about the gazillion pumpkins I have growing. Not so. Lots of pumpkin flowers but no pumpkins.

Pumpkins, like many squashes, have separate male and female flowers on the vine, and need pollinators to make baby pumpkins. Even though we have plenty of bees, I thought maybe I should help my pumpkins along using the old paintbrush method. You use a paintbrush early in the morning on the male pumpkin flower to pick up pollen and then transfer it to the female flower.  Unfortunately, I found no female flowers at all and I’ve been watching for weeks. This beauty is a boy.

So how do you tell the difference? This picture from the Missouri Botanical Garden (great site, by the way), shows the female flower with the little fruit-like bulge.

Possible causes of no females are too much nitrogen in the soil or hot and humid weather. Hmm. Does 90+ degrees and 90% humidity count? That’s what we’ve been having here in Virginia.

Anyway, nature is funny because I can’t grow things I try to grow, yet these cleome just sprung up out of nowhere and have been around for weeks.

So it looks like I won’t be harvesting jack-o-lanterns from my garden this year after all. I’m looking forward to plopping some other random thing in that spot next year.