Category: Advice

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Ten Tips for Success with your Garden

Apricot rose and budding alliums by katewrightson

1. Be sure your vegetable garden is in a sunny location away from an area where there might be underlying roots of trees. And it is good to have a watering source nearby.

2. Be sure you have had your soil tested in the last 3 years and you have amended your soil with your extensions recommendations for the plants you want to grow. If you had it amended a few years ago, you can easily get a pH strip to see if the pH is still optimum.

3. Till in the ground cover that was on the soil where you want your plants to grow and work in good compost into the soil.

4. If it’s been more than a couple of weeks since you’ve turned the soil and prepared your beds, then they’ve probably crusted over from rain. Drag a rake over the area a couple of times to break up the crust (you’ll likely need to weed, too). (see here)

5. Make a diagram of your garden with the names of the plants you will grow. It doesn’t have to be fancy. But it will make you decide what you want and how much you need to buy and decide which plants are happy growing together. (see here)

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Mini Iris Problem

Mini Iris by jamesrjohnson

TheGardenLady received this question from Debbie.

My favorite “mini” purple irises have very little blooms this year? Do I need to expose the roots? More sun perhaps?

From the sounds of your letter, your favorite “mini” purple irises have bloomed for you in the past. You don’t mention if the plant seems healthy or not. I hope you checked to see if there is a problem with the plants’ health. If the plants look healthy, then we will make other suggestions.

If the irises bloomed before in the same location they are in now, then the roots were planted at the proper depth. ( You didn’t say if you had moved them to a new location. If you had and they are not blooming, you might have replanted them too deep.)

How many years have you had them in the same spot? Has the location gotten darker because of a tree that might be shading the irises? I find that my irises bloom much more profusely in the sun than in an area where there is shade.

Did you cut the iris leaves after they bloomed last year? You must NEVER cut off any leaves. You must ALWAYS leave the leaves after blooming to enable  the plant to build up the energy it needs to bloom the following year. But you should have deadheaded the flowers – cut off the stem where the flowers died so that they don’t set seeds. This is a minor type of pruning and encourages more flowering the next season.

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Eradicating Oxalis Corniculata

Oxalis corniculata by naturgucker.de (on flickr)
Oxalis corniculata by naturgucker.de (on flickr)

TheGardenLady received this question from Gay.

What do you recommend to eradicate Oxalis in coastal climate (SF Bay area)? This is not the ornamental type, it is invasive with a succulent flower stem and yellow blossom.

Oxalis – Oxalis corniculata L. , yellow wood sorrel is an invasive plant in California.

This GardenLady always tries to first recommend the safest method of  weed removal, which is hand pulling. If you aren’t overwhelmed with too many Oxalis on your property always try hand pulling first. Now the problem with oxalis is that it has a long tap root. Besides these tap roots it also sends out stolons. A stolon is a shoot that bends to the ground or that grows horizontally above the ground and produces roots and shoots at the nodes. And it has rhizomes. A rhizome is a horizontal, usually underground stem that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Plus Oxalis makes seeds. How is that for insuring species survival? So to eradicate the oxalis with all its alternative methods of growing into another plant, one has to get rid of all of its roots, stolons and rhizomes before it sets seed. That is very difficult to do. But one can try. If your soil is not rocky you can use a manual asparagus picker to get to the bottom of the tape root.  I hope you can still purchase these manual asparagus pickers. They have a handle and sort of look like a long screw driver with a V at the end which is what you use to cut. However,TheGardenLady does not know where to buy them. Mine is an antique from my parents’ farm.

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Saving Potted Daffodils

Daffodils by Poppins Garden (on flickr)
Daffodils by Poppins' Garden (on flickr)

TheGardenLady received this question from Cecilia.

I have some daffodils in pots and the flowers have already dried out. What do I need to do  to keep them healthy for next year? Or will theybe fine without my help?

When the flowers on your daffodils dry out, cut them off. This goes for daffodils growing outdoors, too. But NEVER cut off the leaves. After flowering the leaves continue to provide nutrients to the bulb. By cutting the flowers off you prevent the daffodil from setting seed. Unless you are a professional daffodil breeder or an avid amateur, daffodil seeds are more difficult to work with so you don’t want the plant to set seed. You want all the energy and growth to go into the bulb for next year’s bloom.

Now with potted daffodils, because the plant was forced- the bulb may no longer be any good. But you can try to save it and hope it is still ok. The daffodil you bought came in a small pot with limited soil which was depleted of nutrients when it was forced and bloomed. So even though the fall is the best time to plant daffodil bulbs, TheGardenLady would immediately plant the flowerless bulbs into the ground with the leaves still on. This way the bulbs may have a chance of living by getting some nutrients from the leaves as  well as from the outdoor soil. Mark where you planted the bulbs after the leaves die, so that you know where to look next spring to see if you saved those daffodils. Remember, plants want to live so that if you give them a good chance, they might comply. But, if they die, you know you tried.

Good luck.

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Dividing Dicentra Spectabilis

Bleeding Heart / Dicentra Spectabilis by bill barber (flickr)
Bleeding Heart / Dicentra Spectabilis by bill barber (flickr)

TheGardenLady received this question.

I have a huge Bleeding heart plant the I would like to divide. I see buds coming out about the size of a pinky nail. Is it too late to divide? I am afraid of killing it.

The correct time to divide Bleeding Heart, Dicentra spectabilis is in September. At that time the plant is going dormant. Now in the spring, the plant wants to send forth flowers and is putting its energy into flowering. You may not kill the plant which is fairly hardy, but you may prevent the Bleeding Heart from flowering this year. The fringed-leaf varieties divide nicely early in spring while they are emerging.

Read this about the Bleeding Heart plant.

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Winter Care for Encore Azaleas

TheGardenLady received a comment on her post Summer Care for Encore Azaleas from Mr. Gulius.

What should I do to my Encore Azaleas during winter month?

TheGardenLady sent this question o the people at Encore Azalea, and this is their answer:

As your Encores mature and get more established in their environment, they will be better able to withstand cold temperatures. Young plants are more susceptible to sudden, drastic drops in temperatures, and sustained cold weather (25 degrees or below).

Cold Protection
Mulch well (about 4 inches deep) in the fall. Reduce water for a
month or so before the first frost. Then, after a couple of hard
freezes, water well to provide moisture. This will help the plants to go dormant, or “harden off”.

As you would with any outdoor ornamental plants, Encore Azaleas may need some extra protection during sudden freezes and extremely cold weather. Sudden, drastic drops in temperature are more damaging than a gradual decline, especially to newly planted shrubs.

Burlap, old blankets, or sheets (any cloth material) can be used to cover upper plants. It is recommended that you drive stakes in the ground around your Encore and drape the cloth cover over stakes. Foliage in contact with the cover can be injured, so try to minimize cover contact with plant.

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Project BudBurst: Volunteering for Climate Change

TheGardenLady was once asked how climate changes have affected gardeners.  See here.  TheGardenLady responded that we have to wait to see.

Well, now TheGardenLady is asking her readers if they would be willing to volunteer to help find out what the effects of climate change are. Please read the column to see if you can help. If Foreign readers know where volunteers can help in their countries, please let TheGardenLady Blog know.

Project BudBurst Needs YOU

Taking the Pulse of our Planet: Volunteers Needed to Track Seasonal Signs of Climate change

Volunteers across the nation are being recruited to get outdoors and help track the effects of climate on seasonal changes in plant and animal behavior.

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Garden Shows in the US and Abroad

Philadelphia Flower Show

This is the time of year when everyone living in cold wintry areas want to rush the gardening season. To that end, to help with your dreams of your own gardens, there are Garden Shows coming up all over the country – and world. Plan your vacation around some of these Garden Shows. For example, the Philadelphia Flower Show in Philadelphia, PA and/or the Chelsea Flower Show in London, England are two flower shows everyone should attend at least once in your lifetime.

Philadelphia Flower Show

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How To Help Pollinators

Every reader of TheGardenLady knows the importance of pollinators to pollinate (pol·li·nate- definition of the verb; To transfer pollen from an anther to the stigma of (a flower)  flowers, vegetables and other plants, shrubs and trees.)

All agriculture depends on pollinators.  “Pollinators are essential to Life.”  We’ve read numerous articles about the problem called bee Colony Collapse Disorder (see here and here).  Or the drastic decline, globally, of butterflies (see here and here).  There is even a global bat decline (see here and here and here). All pollinators seem to be on the decline around the world.

TheGardenLady and her readers should try to do everything they can do  to help the pollinators. One of the ways to do this is to grow plants that pollinators like and need. If the pollinator is an insect, the plants you grow should encourage insects from the egg stage through the end or their lives. If the pollinator is a bat, the plants that bats would need are crucial.

Toward that end, a new website is out there. This is a new Ecoregion planting guide to attract pollinators from www.pollinators.org. On the website, the co-founder of the Pollinator partnership says “Farming feeds the world and we must remember that pollinators are a critical link in our food systems.”

This website is for the US. TheGardenLady hopes that this type of website would expand for the rest of the globe. She wishes readers  would let her know what similar websites are available in your part of the world.

Check out the website:  www.pollinator.org/guides.htm for plants you can put in your garden or farm.

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Taking Care of Your Mother-In-Law’s Tongue Plant

”]Sansevieria - Mother-in-law tongue or Snake Plant [Photo by Green Acres Nursery and Supply]TheGardenLady received this question from Donna:

I have a  that is turning yellow. I have had it for over ten years and it’s been in the same pot since. It has always done well, but here recently it is becoming sick. There hasn’t been any change to it to cause it. Any suggestions?

Since you say that you have had your Sansevieria Trifasciata plant, commonly called Mother-In-Laws Tongue or Snake plant, for over 10 years, I doubt that you have a gold variety like`Vandal Gold`, a Sansevieria that I have read about but do not know where to buy.

And I am amazed that you have a plant or anything that hasn’t had any change in all that time. There is nothing in TheGardenLady’s house that hasn’t changed in 10 years- including TheGardenLady.

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