More Spring Flowers Facing a Chilly Weekend

We noticed today that the early spring crocus, the yellow crocus, joined the daffodils in their out of season blooming.  Patches out in the fruit tree orchard were blooming today.  We're in for a chill this weekend, with temperatures dipping back into the seasonal mid 20s over the weekend.  I wish I could reason with my plants and explain to them that they're up to early.  I hate the fact that they're putting all this effort into blooming when the winter weather is just going to nip the beautiful flowers. But plants cannot be reasoned with. They just are.  And nature, as I am fond of quoting, is resilient.

Composting Basics

Isn't it lovely? My compost pile

Oh, the glamor, the beauty, the awesomeness of a good compost pile. Composting basics are easy to learn. Most people can add a compost pile in the yard or garden.  Whether you purchase a compost tumbler, compost maker or another device or make on yourself, nothing beats nice, rich compost added to the garden soil.

Why is compost so great? First, it reduces the waste leaving your home in the garbage pail. Garbage added to a landfill doesn't do much good, and those rich scraps of vegetable peels, coffee grinds and eggshells are lost in the massive amounts of trash bulldozed under the landfill.

Secondly, and more importantly, compost adds nutrients, improves soil structure, and adds beneficial microbes back into the soil. You see, nature never intended us to dump pounds of chemicals onto the soil. Nature created an intricate cycle of life that ensures that nothing goes to waste. Plants that die decay back into the soil.  Compost is mankind's way of organizing and speeding up the process.

Situate your compost pile with a few considerations in mind. It must be close enough to the house so that on cold, rainy, or snowy days, you won't hesitate to step outside and dump the compost bucket. Keep a compost pail, bucket or bowl in the kitchen. If it sits on the counter top, keep a cover on it unless you like breeding fruit flies.  My compost bin is a unique contraption that fits next to the garbage pail.  I have a garbage pail in a sliding drawer that pulls out from under the kitchen counter.  There was a shallow plastic bin, probably for recycling, behind it. I had it converted into a compost pail. A friend cut a plastic rim for the pail. The pail is simply a plastic bathroom garbage pail from Wal-Mart. It's lightweight and washes up easily, plus it holds a lot, making for fewer trips to the compost pile.

Your second consideration is the potential for odors bothering your neighbors.  Here in Virginia, that is not a problem for me because I'm on 17 acres, but on Long Island my neighbor received complaints when his compost had a strong ammonia odor.  Odor means something is wrong with the compost pile. It could be too "hot" with too many fresh grass clippings, or the wrong materials were added.  He needed to turn and lime the pile to correct the odor problem.  Living so close together in our suburban neighborhood, however, made the odor worse for the neighbors who didn't garden and didn't understand compost piles. They called the town complaining he kept his garbage behind the house because they saw him throwing eggshells there.

Wherever you place your compost pile, you'll need two areas. One area is for 'fresh' materials added to the pile. Once these begin to decompose into compost, the fresh compost should be moved to the second area. Then you will always have fresh compost to use in the garden.

I only use compost outdoors, never bring it inside, as I'm terrified of what might hatch out of it.  All sorts of insects love compost and when you turn the pile, look for nice, fat worms (a sign of a great compost pile) and other insects.  These insects do eat the vegetative peelings and their droppings such as worm casings add to the excellence of the compost pile.

What can you add to a compost pile? Anything plant-based and some limited additional kitchen scraps:

• Grass clippings
• Leaves from autumn raking
• Flowers from the florist that die
• Vegetable peels such as potato, carrot other peels
• Apple cores
• Fruit peels
• Stems from vegetables
• Eggshells (rinse them first)
• Coffee grounds and filters
• Tea bags
• Shredded newspaper
• Cow, goat, chicken or horse manure

Don't add animal droppings from house pets such as cats or dogs. These attract vermin and may contain bacteria that you don't want to add into the pile.  Never add animal bones, fat or leftover meat.  You'll only create a smell and attract every wild animal.

Most books suggest starting your compost pile with a layer of corn husks, straw or hay; then layering manure, garden products, grass clippings, leaves etc on top like a lasagna.  The picture here is my pile. It's ugly. It's a pile of garbage. It works just fine.  I have to turn it every once in while, making sure that soil covers the peelings. The citrus peels take a long, long time to break down, so I bury them well.

My compost pile sits at the edge of the woods and has frequent visitors. The brown stuff you see on it are pine needles; not ideal, but the pines will drop them.  I used cinder blocks leftover from the house construction to build the walls of the two compartments.  I put out the compost in the evening while I cook dinner, and most of the grapefruit rinds still have pulp in them. The next morning they are absolutely picked clean. Banana peels have a habit of disappearing, as do pineapple cores. I suspect I have some very happy opossums in my woods!

What tips do you want to share with readers on composting?

House Plant Care

I spent time on Sunday fussing with my house plants. Poor babies have been neglected other than the weekly watering. My plant room faces north east, with most of the light bright, diffuse morning light.  Luckily I seem to be able to grow almost any house plant I want to in that room, and I even over winter my geraniums from the front porch window boxes in the plant room and in a spare bedroom facing the same light exposure.

This phaelenopsis orchid is still blooming. It's the one I rescued from Lowe's in late 2009.  It was on sale for a few dollars and had a big hole in the leaf. Well, the hole is still there, and it's still blooming. I've never grown an orchid before and this one is extraordinary. When the flowering branch is finished, the petals drop off like tiny moths, and a new flowering branch quickly forms. It's just stunning and I want to add more orchids to my collection.

The African violets, however, are taking over the house. Most are the solid purple colored ones.  The one fancy variety I received from my sister is still growing and it looked severely pot-bound, so I decided to repot it. Much to my surprise, it wasn't just pot-bound; there were four plants now instead of one!  I planted each one in a separate pot and am growing them under lights in the basement for the May Master Gardener plant sale, along with several purple ones I want to re-home.

I cleaned up some dead leaves, gave a few plants a good rinse to rinse out any salts that had accumulated in the pots, and general tidied them all up, ending by giving each one a shot of fertilizer.  One of our next household projects will be to create custom-build, tile topped plant bookcases under the windows.  My plant shelves consist of snack tables with a board over them.  It's ugly but efficient.  My very handy husband has since sketched out a custom build shelving system that will go around two walls of the room. Tile will fit on the top and keep moisture off the wood.  Underneath, room for more books.  On top, room for more plants.

Does he know me, or what?

Blooming Out of Season

There are so many garden plants blooming and budding out of season right now that I thought I would capture this in photographs. The steady warmth and spring-like days in January fooled many of the early spring plants to bloom as early as mid January, and now we have others starting to bud and bloom before their time. I want to tell them, "Hey! No peeking!"  Below are pictures I took today, February 3, 2012, around the garden.  Most of these plants are blooming or budding approximately two months earlier than they should.  

The question I used to get when I worked the phones at the garden center many, many years ago when such a winter occurred was, "What can I do to save my plant?"  Because if a hard frost or snows comes before the true spring dates, we'll certainly lose the flowers, and potential fruit on many of the trees, for instance. 

The answer is, "Nothing."  Nature has gone through this type of winter once before, if not thousands of times before in the history of the plant kingdom.  The plants will survive.  It's going to be an interesting spring, however.

Lilac bud

Daffodils. They're in a micro climate near a clothes dryer vent, but still don't usually bloom until April.

Candytuft, typically blooms in late April - May in my garden

Phlox...almost always blooms in mid April

Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop in Prince Edward County, Virginia

The Heart of Virginia Master Gardeners group is hosting a free fruit tree pruning workshop in Farmville, Virginia (Prince Edward County.)  It's co-presented with the Town of Farmville.  The event will be held on Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 1 p.m. at the town fruit orchard at the YMCA, 580 Commerce Drive, Farmville (near the Lowe's.)  Dress for the weather and bring your own pruning shears for some hands-on learning.  The program is free and open to the public.  And yes, if all works out, I'll be there with the Master Gardeners.

Growing fruit in the home orchard is a great way to raise your own organic fruit.  You don't need a huge amount of space, either. Dwarf varieties take up only a little room - maybe as much room as a dogwood tree. Many fruit trees have beautiful blossoms in the spring, offer attractive shade during the summer months, and produce fruit in the summer or fall.  It's like The Giving Tree in your own yard!  Friends of mine planted fruit trees in their front yard, all along the walkway leading from their driveway to the front door. They purchased mature dwarf trees from the nursery and each tree has so far produced delicious fruit within a few years.  Edible landscapes are wonderful.

Consider planting a fruit tree suitable for your climate and location. Remember to check a good reference book or with your nursery and garden center on whether or not you'll need one tree or two of different varieties. Some fruit trees are self-pollinating, meaning that one tree will bare fruit even if it's standing sentinel in your yard.  Others require a tree of a different variety for pollination. In our apple orchard, for example, we planted two varieties specifically for pollination at either end of the stand of 10 trees.  This way, we figured at least some pollinators would find their way around.

Check with your local County Cooperative Extension Office for more information on fruit tree growing in your gardening zone.

Time to Order Tomato Seeds

It's time to order tomato seeds, and as I began to think about choosing which types of tomatoes to grow in the garden this year, I started thinking about all the tomatoes I have grown over the years. I'm partial to big, juicy beefsteak tomatoes. I like to slice them up and put them in salads. I live on tomato sandwiches for most of the summer, which makes it easy to lose weight. When you put giant, juicy slices of tomatoes between lettuce and sprouted grain bread, you're going to lose weight, although you won't go hungry!

This year, I'm sticking with the tried and true varieties.  The cherry tomatoes will be Sweet 100s.  I am not a huge fan of cherry tomatoes. We always have more than we can eat, even if I sit around snacking on them all day.  But my husband loves them, so I will plant a nice flat of them. Any extra plants will go to the Master Gardener plant sale at the Heart of Virginia Festival in May.  By the way, any of my extra seedlings plus a whole bunch of perennials from the gardens here at Seven Oaks are going to be donated to the plant sale, so stay tuned and check back here in April for the final list.

The other old favorite I'll grow is Early Girl. You really can't go wrong with Early Girl. My dad grew it, Mr. Hoffman next door in Floral Park grew it, we grew it in Huntington and it grows fairly well, although not great, here in Virginia.

I want to try one new variety but I am going to leave that until the last minute.  I plan to choose one of the Virginia recommended varieties from my master gardener manual and test it against Early Girl to see if it healthier, hardier or tastier.

I can hardly believe that it's February.  It's another 60 degree day and I've got heather, pansies and a perennial whose name escapes me blooming merrily along outside. The daffodils are 4" up and growing in the orchard and I have peach trees that look like they're going to bud at any second. I keep hoping they will hold off, since budding now means no fruit (or at least I think so) - the pollinating insects aren't ready, and I'm sure we will get another frost before April!

But I can order those tomato seeds.  Time to log onto my favorite catalog site and get going!

Gardening in January

Garden entrance - in warmer days!

Gardening in January sounds like wishful thinking, but I found myself outside today in the flower garden for a good two hours today doing just that - gardening in January. Normally at the time of year in our Zone 6B garden the ground would be frozen solid, and it's likely there would be a few inches to a foot or more of snow covering the ground. Not this year. This year, the crocus are already pushing up through the soil, as are the tulips. Even the tulips nearest the garage that are in a bed I consider "cool" because it doesn't get direct sunlight until late afternoon are starting to break the soil. The forsythia look like they'll bud at any moment, as do the peach trees.  I've got yarrow blooming.  Yarrow.  And hollyhocks and foxglove with green, healthy leaves.

The weather patterns here in the Piedmon region are unpredictable. Some winters our garden is more like the gardens closer to the Blue Ridge Mountains - cold and snowy.  Then periodically we get a winter like this, where I can be outdoors in my sweatshirt on January 28, trimming perennials back (that I should have done in the fall), fixing fallen peony and plant hoops, and pulling up some of the weedy grasses that sprinkle throughout the garden.

Doing the garden cleanup chores in January, when all of the perennials have died back, yielded several surprises. First, it was easier to see where my nemesis, the blackberry, had invaded the flower beds. I was actually cutting back the Rudbeckia and reached down to grab the dead canes when my thumb was stabbed with a sharp, shooting pain.  Now you have to understand that my gardening gloves, which are less than a year old, are so worn that I have gigantic holes in the thumbs and a few fingertips.  I looked down and had blood welling from the thumb; there was a huge thorn embedded in it.  "What the heck?" I wondered, since Black Eyed Susan, the common named for Rubeckia, is thornless.  I dug a bit under the fallen leaves and there it was, the blackberry cane.  I was able to snip it back down to soil level.  I'll have to dig it up if I want it truly out and gone, but at least I can keep them clipped back if I know where they are.

I was also able to see where a whole new crop of garden volunteers have self-seeded.  I've got Buddleia sprouting everywhere, more Gaillardia, and coreopsis.   As part of my volunteer hours for the Virginia Master Gardener program this spring, I'll pot up some of those perennials and bring them to the Heart of Virginia sale in early May.   I'll post a list of what I'm sharing from my garden as part of the fundraiser as we get closer to spring.

It already feels like spring.  It's 55 degrees outside now, and I've got the windows open in my office.  I've been feeling down in the dumps lately, but my energy and happiness is back thanks to a few hours spent under the soft rays of winter sun with a clear blue sky overhead and soft breezes unraveling my pony tail.  When I came inside, I brushed out my hair, and Rudbeckia seeds tumbled out.  It makes me feel like spring can't be far away.