Home & Garden issue of Oasis

Nurturing Your Garden

Tips and Tricks

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GardeningRelationships...

Karla Dalley is a garden writer and speaker from West Hartford. kdalley@comcast.net. gardendaze.wordpress.com

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GardeningRelationships...

To Help nurture your Garden!

Nurturing let’s faCe It, It’s Been a lonG, HarD WInter. And, for those of us who love gardening, it’s prob-ably been even harder! There are only so many times we can find beauty in snow on tree branches or nicely pruned hedges before we get anxious to be back into the garden. As the weather begins to warm up, let’s remember not to rush out into the garden too soon. As excited as we are to get back to our gardens and plants, there’s nothing more harmful than work-ing in wet soil. And many of us in this area have clay or compacted soils already

Issue NO. 2 2014 west hartford magazine 55

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so we need to take extra care not to work in those wet soils or we will have a much worse problem. What can we do on those lovely warm early spring days? If we have garden paths, we can take those to tour our yards and see what needs to be done once that warm sun dries the soil a bit more. Surely after all the snow and ice this winter, we will need to prune broken branches at a minimum. While it may not be apparent immedi-ately, some of our plants may have died this past winter. While this can be heart-breaking, it can also be an opportunity. If the gardens are too wet to work in, head out to your favorite garden center. Spend some time now, in the early spring, before the mad rush in May when it may be difficult to get as much individual at-tention as you’d like. There are always new plants com-ing onto the market but sometimes the “tried and true” plants are better for your location. I know from a lot of experience that variegated plants don’t do well for

me--they can be genetically weaker and I have a very tough site to begin with. So I either avoid them altogether (a tough decision because there are some great

ones out there) or I put them in a shel-tered location to give them a real chance to thrive. What I just said is “I’ve killed an aw-ful lot of variegated plants to come to that conclusion.” But in early spring, the great folks with lots of experience at your local garden centers can help you avoid the same adventure--unless you like that sort of experimentation. Spend some time talking to them about what your conditions are like: sunny, hot and dry; shady and dry; shady and wet--you get the idea. If it’s possible--and often it is because many of these places stay open late at least one evening--try to go during a slower time so they have some time to

spend with you. You’ll find it a reward-ing experience and you’ll understand the value of shopping locally as well as com-ing away with a better understanding of some plants. While you’re at the garden center, pick up some early spring flowering plants for a patio container. They don’t have to be pansies, although they could be. There are lots of great choices like nemesia, alyssum and diascia. Or, try some early perennials like hellebores. In fact, you don’t even need to have flowers. You can put together a great container of edibles that will take some frost and still give you a great looking planter. Plant some decorative leaf let-tuces--a 6 cell pack of mixed leaf lettuces will do so long as you have a nice mix of textures or leaf colors. Pick up a 3 cell pack of parsley (flat leaf or curly leaf, which ever you prefer) while you’re at it. And if you can find an alpine strawberry to tuck in there, that’s good too. And I

would add in some small-flow-ered violas--organic, if I could find them (or calendulas) so that I’d

have some color and some edible flowers for my salad. All those things go into a shallow 8” container so you’ll have lovely color and some fresh greens to augment your sal-ads right into June or so! Meanwhile, you will have learned about some plants, trees, shrubs, peren-nials, or maybe roses for your garden (or whatever you were asking about when you were talking to the garden center staff ). And once your soil dries out, go back and purchase some of those plants you learned about. Maybe you’ll see some new ones to ask about. June and July are great times to wander around garden centers too. This is how garden-ing relationships are born. n

Start with container gardens. You don’t even need to have flowers. You can put together a great container of edibles that will take some frost and still give you a great looking planter.

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This is the time of year that gardeners live for…even those who just purchase a few packs of annuals or a hanging basket or two! Everywhere you go, the

world is a riot of flowers, plants, flowering trees, fruit and berry bushes, herbs, vegetables plants, some with full grown fruit already on them. The bounty is overwhelming! By making some thoughtful choices now at the garden center, your garden upkeep for the rest of the season can be made much easier. First, decide on the type of gardening you will be doing. Do you need to replace some plants that have died over the winter? Are you filling some spots with annuals for color? Are you plant-ing edibles (herbs, vegetables or perhaps some berry bushes)? Are you renovating an existing garden? Knowing this will help you focus on what you need at the garden center and keep you from getting distracted by all the alluring choices. Check the sunlight in your garden area. Due to a rough past winter, many trees have come down in yards and what might have been a shade garden in the past, could now be a full sun garden. Different plants might need to be chosen for that spot, and some of the existing plants may need to be moved. Plan your bloom time. When thinking about purchasing plants for a new garden, (or any that you might be renovating) make

several trips to the garden center at various times of the season. If you purchase all the plants in April or May, you’ll have a lovely, spring blooming bed that will be nothing but foliage for the rest of the season. Even if all of the plants you’ve chosen do bloom in spring, this type of garden can be lovely for the rest of the season if you choose some plants with ‘colorful’ foliage: variegated leaves, chartreuse leaves, or darker burgun-dy or purple leaves. Plan accordingly. When planting, remember to leave proper spacing between the plants to ac-

commodate their mature size. During the first season the garden may look sparse. Mulching in between the plants will help unify the bed, or planting smaller annuals in-between for a year or two might allow the plants to fill into their mature size without being over-crowded. Remember a few things about newly purchased plants. Take those size and spacing requirements liberally. Sometimes a plant straight from the garden center will behave dif-ferently the first year in the garden than it will in succeeding years. A plant may grow taller, or shorter as in the case of mums and asters, for example, than the tag indicates. With respect to ultimate height, remember how big a 6’

shrub can be. Nursery pot size can sometimes be deceiving with shrubs. Those shrubs that look cute and dwarf can still grow large, if that is what the cultivar is designed to do! Edibles are all the rage now and most are colorful and decorative enough to be incorporated into existing landscape beds or planted into pots. Just be sure that no pes-ticides are used in these gardens…you don’t want to go through all the trouble of growing your own food and then mistakenly spray it with poisonous herbicide! Herbs grow beautifully in pots and some

even prefer to grow this way. Basil, as well as some of the other Mediterranean herbs like thyme and rosemary seem to love container culture. Best of all, as long as you have a sunny spot near the kitchen, the herbs are always in reach.

And, as far as decorating with fresh flowers, remember that many perennials have a long bloom time, and of course, annuals bloom through most of or all of the summer. Fresh flowers are an easy summer decoration both indoors and on the patio or porch. If this is something that appeals to you, choose flowers at the garden center accordingly. My home is rarely without cut hydrangeas from my gar-den, for example. And while flower arranging isn’t my strong suit, they do look lovely with a large cut hosta leaf or two behind them. Finally, family owned garden centers are becoming a rare commodity these days. As gardeners, we need to do all that we can to help them thrive. n

Edibles are all the rage and most are colorful and decorative enough to be incorporated into existing landscape

beds or planted into pots.

GardeningTips and Tricks for planting in Prime Season!

Prime Time

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