GROW TO EAT

Is it the economy or the “Green Talk”?  My mailbag has been full of questions about growing fruits and vegetables.  This type of questions indicate that many people are interested in growing them for the first time.  Many indicate it is the economy.  Others say
they hope their children and grandchildren will start eating vegetables, if they help grow them.

One person indicated she turns green with envy while admiring her neighbor’s garden.  “But I don’t think my thumb is green enough”.  My answer, “Anyone can develop a green thumb as long as they’re willing to invest a little time, patience and energy”.

Good planning is essential to successful gardening.  Start your garden off right by selecting a location that receives at least six hours of direct sunlight daily.  Check the site for good drainage by making sure water doesn’t tend to stand after a rain or irrigation.  Try to steer clear of trees and shrubs that would compete with your garden plants for water, light and nutrients.  Walnut trees in particular produce a substance called juglone that is toxic to some garden plants.


If your vegetable gardening is limited by insufficient space or an unsuitable area, consider the
possibility of raising fresh, nutritious, home-grown vegetables in containers.  A windowsill, a patio, a balcony, or a doorstep will provide sufficient space for a productive mini-garden.

Many vegetables lend themselves well to container gardening.  With some thought to selecting bush or dwarf varieties, almost any vegetable can be adapted to growing in a pot.  Vegetables that take up little space, such as carrots, radishes and lettuce, or crops that bear fruits over a long period of time, such as tomatoes and peppers, are perfect for container vegetable gardens.

What you can grow in a container vegetable garden is limited only by the size of the container and your imagination.  How about a Summer Salad container?  Plant a tomato, a cucumber and some parsley or chives all in a large container.  They grow well together and have the same water and sun requirements.

Container gardening allows you a degree of control not available to those planting in the ground.  If the plant is not getting

enough sun, it can be moved.  If it is not draining properly, add more holes to the container.  Watering is more efficient, because it must be done by hand, making a patio garden ideal in a drought situation.

So is it the economy or green?  I don’t know, it probably is a little bit of both.  I think growing your own fruit and vegetables is a fun family activity that results in fresh, healthy produce and little harm to the environment.  This rewarding chore doesn’t require a
kit if equipment, experience or expertise, nor does it even require you to own or have access to any land!  As with  most things in life, you can muddle by as a beginner and your garden may still flourish if lavished with your love and attention.  Even if you’re all thumbs, they may become green thumbs.  Good Luck!


March Gardening Tips

•  If you’d like to try your hand at growing your own plants, March is the  time to start indoor seeds of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and other warm-season veggies.  Tomatoes are best started late in the month to avoid ending up with leggy plants come May.

•  Remove mulch covers from roses, azaleas, clematis vines and other tender shrubs once nighttime temperatures rise into the 30’s (be prepared to recover if a late cold-snap hits).  Leave mulch around spring flowering bulbs and tender perennials, however, as it will provide protection to emerging shoots against cold, crying winds.

• Trim back winter-killed rose canes to one inch below blackened area and all rose canes to about six inches above ground level.  Cut back any perennials that weren’t cleaned up last fall, as well as ornamental grasses.


Tom McNutt is a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University. and retired NBC4-TV resident green thumb

LEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF LOVE AND FLOWER "The Rose Knows"

  If you say it with roses on Valentine’s Day, are you sure of what you are actually saying?  Every rose color has its own special meaning expressing many different feelings and sentiments.  To speak the language of roses, remember these color clues:

Red Roses:  “I love you.” They also stand for respect or

courage.

White Roses:  “You’re heavenly.”  They also convey reverence and humility, innocence and purity, secrecy and silence.

Red and White Roses together:  Unity.

Yellow Roses:  Joy and gladness.

Yellow and Orange Roses mixed:  Passionate thoughts.

Red and Yellow Roses combined:  “Congratulations!”

Coral or Orange Roses:  Enthusiasm or desire.

Pink Roses:  Grace and gentility.  Use them to say:  “You’re lovely.”  Deep pink roses say “Thank you;” light pink conveys admiration.

Pink and White Roses together  “I love you still and always will.”

A Single Rose:  Perpetual love.

Sweetheart Roses:  “You’re sweet,” and hybrid tea roses say, “Ill remember you always.”

Pale Colors:  Friendship.  Send peach to a tennis partner, lavender to the neighbor who keeps your spare key.

Two Roses:  Taped or wired together to form a single stem, signal an engagement or coming marriage.

         

PLANTS ARE LIKE PEOPLE

      

 Every year when we put our gardens to bed and get ready for a new year, I think of all the similarities between plants and people.  Both respond to tender loving care.  I wonder if plants make New Year’s Resolutions?  I read somewhere that each American makes 1.9 New Year’s Resolutions.  If that is true around the world, think how many millions of people resolve to improve!  I wonder how many of those resolutions deal with losing weight, exercising more and smoking less.  We all want to be healthy, do things better and become better people.  Plants would probably resolve to produce more and help clean our environment.

 

   People depend on plants for nearly everything, including food, clothing and shelter.  Plants, like people, need nurturing to flourish.  This nurturing requires attention, vision, respect, opportunities and protection.  Nurturing plants requires a good understanding of the nature and potential of different species and the purpose for which a plant is cultivated – for flowers, foliage or fruit.  This aspect of nurturing a garden reminds us of our need to nurture our own bodies by means of good food, reasonable exercise, adequate water, proper rest, cleanliness, and fulfilling our own personal goals and inner nature.  We know we must weed out the influences in our lives that sap our energy and stunt our own growth.  We know we must supply new ideas, knowledge and creative stimulation, to fertilize our minds.  We know we must prune back excessive worries, unneeded products, and old habits so that we might renew ourselves and experience vital rebirth.  We see how a neglected plant withers and dies.  As we become more skilled at nurturing plants, we begin to apply these principles to our own bodies and minds.

Nurturing Is A Year Round Chore

        

         Yes, you can garden in the winter.  Actually, it is the best time for making plans, as well as viewing your landscape and making decisions about what wonderful effects you want to create in your garden next year.  When the leaves fall and the annual flowers are gone, you can see where a nice arbor or water feature might go.

 Assess your landscape for winter interest.  Does snow cling to evergreen branches?  Do seed heads from ornamental grasses and last year’s flowers dance in the wind?  Do the birds swoop in for a cocktail of fermented berries from the trees and shrubs?

 When the landscape looks like a black and white movie, count on conifers to colorize your world.  These cone-bearing evergreens have needles and come in all sizes, shapes and colors.  Yes, colors!  Consider the popular Colorado blue spruce, the gold thread-leaf Sawara Cypress, the orange golden eastern arborvitae.  Pines and junipers boast a paint store palette of greens, plus shades of blue, yellow and hints of red.  With some, the color varies by season.  With all, the color lasts year-long.

  Some broadleaf plants also are evergreens.  Boxwoods, Hollies, Rhododendrons and Wintercreeper (Euonymus) are options for color through winter.

   Ornamental grasses provide a terrific vertical element in summer and then take center stage in fall and winter.  Grasses offer structure, style and movement in the landscape.  They also vary in height, color and plume.

     Landscape plants should be pruned to maintain or reduce their size, to remove undesirable growth, to remove dead or damaged branches and to rejuvenate older plants to produce more vigorous foliage, flowers and fruits. In some cases, pruning is necessary to prevent damage to life and property.

   Late winter or early spring, before new growth begins, is generally considered the optimum time to prune most plants.  This is when the plant wounds heal quickly, without threat of insect or disease infection.  However, plants that bloom in early spring (before June 10), such as forsythia, magnolia and crabapples, should be pruned later after their blooms fade.  These early bloomers produce their flower buds on last year’s wood, so pruning early will remove many potential blooms.

        

Plant Talk

         I have been asked many times if talking to plants increase growth.  I don’t know but I think it helps to the growth of the person doing the talking.  Over the years we have learned the language of love and plants and what works with both of them.

         A new year is a new beginning, because it is one where people evaluate their lives, plan and resolve to take actions to make the attainment of happiness more real and possible.

         This is a good time to take our values more seriously, sow those seeds and values and provide the nutrients for your life and the joy that it can and should be.

Tom McNutt is a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University and a retired TV garden expert.

WINTER GARDENING

 A new year means a new garden season.  Weather you are growing houseplants indoors, feeding the birds, ordering seeds or shoveling snow, there is plenty of garden activities even in January. Keep the spirit of Christmas growing during the gray months of winter by watering the yuletide plants.  Amaryllis and Poinsettia need to be watered when the surface is dry to the touch.  Water the soil until it runs freely out of the drainage hole in the containers.  If a saucer is used, discard any water that collects in it.  Do not leave the plants standing in water.  Overly wet soils lack sufficient air, which results in root injury.

  Examine houseplants for signs of pests, focusing your attention on the new growth,

GREEN THUMBS AND GARDENING GIFTS

If holiday gift shopping makes you feel like a Grinch, don’t despair.  ‘Tis the season for giving, so why not give a gift that lasts all year, whether practical or just pretty, garden gifts aren’t just for dedicated gardeners. 

 A plant is a special gift that brings beauty to the home and to the heart as you help a living thing grow. Holiday plants might open the door to the enjoyment and pleasure of nurturing other plants indoors throughout the winter.  Just remember:  a green thumb is simply a positive state of mind.

 

 Indoor plants keep us in touch with nature and in a sense bring the outside in.  Working with living plants provides some new and exciting challenges, but by paying attention to a few simple details, it is possible for almost anyone to have beautiful indoor plants in winter – and year around.

 The secret to growing houseplants is providing the right conditions.  As much as today’s homes need plants, houses can be a hostile environment:  low light, desert-like dryness, heat, drafts and infrequent watering compensated by over-watering.

  If you have a holiday plant, the easy first step is to identify it.  Then learn light, watering, humidity, soil-type and fertilization requirements.  If you can meet these conditions, chances are good that the plant will flourish under your care.

 

 Typically, poinsettias reign at Christmas.  But, numerous other plants are highly desirable for indoors.  Look for cyclamen, kalanchoe, azalea, Christmas cactus, orchid or miniature rose.

 When buying, select plants that will grow in your environment.  Picking the right plants is easy; changing conditions in the home is not.

  If there are no bright, sunny windows, do not select plants requiring lots of light.  If the air is hot and dry during the winter, avoid plants requiring cool temperatures or high humidity.

 Select plants that appear to be insect and disease free. Check the undersides of the foliage and the axis of leaves for signs of insects or disease.  Select plants that look sturdy, clean, well-potted, shapely and well-covered with leaves.  Plants which have new flowers and leaf buds, along with young growth, are usually of superior quality.

NOVEMBER CHILL IS THE LAST CALL FOR WINTERIZING GARDENS

   Falling temperatures have reminded us that our time of illusion is over and winter will be here soon.  We don’t need to watch the nightly TV weather forecast to know that there is a chill in the air.  Plants feel it too and like people, need to bundle up for the winter.

 

    The first step is to clean up the total landscape.  Fallen leaves and twigs can become hazardous.  Lawn grasses need air and can’t thrive under a coating of wet leaves.  As leaves decay they create slippery spots on walks and patios, and those leaves can lead to falls.  (Another one of those reasons for the name of the season?) Keep garden litter raked up this month and throughout winter.  Discard any diseased leaves, but place healthy leaves in compost piles to decay over winter and provide excellent mulch in spring.

IT’S TIME TO FALL AHEAD

Just because summer is a fading memory, don’t let our green thumb rest.  Next year’s success begins right now.  So get busy and focus on three fall chores:  sanitation, pruning and planting.

                                                    Good Garden Sanitation