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Create a Cutting Garden
25 Jan
Let’s have a show of hands: When you go to the grocery store, do you grab that beautiful bouquet, or wish you could? Then plant a Cutting Garden.
I love having fresh flowers to bring inside the house and to give to friends and neighbors all summer long. It is simple to grow beautiful flowers to cut. The key is planting the right flower or seed in the right spot. Don’t have the right spot, full sun, or the time? No worries! You can always sign up to get Mel’s Green Garden Flower Share all summer long.
But to try your own Cutting Garden, here is the secret to my success:
1. Plant in the right spot. You must have a lot of sun to get the best bouquets. So sometimes that means planting behind your garage, where you don’t get the benefit of seeing it from your kitchen window. But hey, that makes cutting it that much easier.
2. Plant into good soil. For insurance, whether planting seeds or a flat of flowers, I always add some new, good-quality soil or humus in with the old.
3. Plant the right plant. In more than 12 years of gardening, I’ve bought the wrong plants, the high-maintenance ones, and planted the impossible seeds. But after years of learning from my mistakes, I can offer some great show-stoppers for you to try. If I can do it, you can do it! To make a great bouquet plant the following:
Lilies
Dahlias
Snapdragons
Grasses
Ornamental Millet
Autumn Joy
Hydrangeas (Annabelle and Limelight are my favorites.)
Celosia
Cosmos
Peonies
Zinnias
4. Practice succession planting. A great way to have blooms all summer long is to plant both the plant and the seed. I do this with snapdragons, ornamental millet, cosmos and zinnias. Buy the plant and the seed. Plant the plant in the ground and sprinkle the seed around it. By the time your first plant has matured and been cut into a bouquet, your little seedling will be up and growing, almost ready for your next bouquet.
Never forget: Flowers are most beautiful when they are given away!
Propagation 101
31 MayPropagation is a favorite part of gardening for my kids and me. It is so fun to multiply your plants, and it’s also a great way to share your bounty with friends and family. I’ve had success with propagating three different ways: rooting, collecting seeds and dividing.
Rooting
Rooting is basically cloning. There are several methods of doing this. My method is to take a piece of the plant and put it in a clear glass jar of water in a somewhat sunny spot. Make sure to pull off any leaves that are immerged in the water. Within several weeks you will see roots and voila! There is your new plant ready to be potted. We have successfully rooted all sorts of coleus, geraniums, jade plant, basil, rosemary, thyme, begonias, jasmine, Persian shield and others at the Tracy house. We keep trying new plants, and it is always exciting when we see new roots.
Collecting Seeds
Collecting seeds is a fun activity for all ages. Just when the gardening season ends, you can collect the dried seed pods off of the plants. We used to collect them right into an envelope for winter storage. Now we collect so many seeds we use buckets! It is easier if you use scissors to collect the dried seed heads from the flowers. Seeds make a great gift for grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
Dividing
Another great way to multiply your existing plants is to divide your more mature plants. After I have had a plant for 3 years, I usually divide it. I divide spring-blooming plants in the fall and fall-blooming plants in the spring. Dividing is super easy. You just cut the plant in half with a shovel and dig around the outside of one half and then move it to its new home. You can also dig the whole thing out, divide it and then re-plant the parts. Your plants will be much healthier and happier being divided every few years and so will your relatives or friends you share them with.
Gardening has been a very joyful activity for the Tracys to do together, and propagating is a fun way to spread the joy.
Houseplants – Indoor gardening – Part 1
1 Feb
I must humbly confess, I have not always had a green thumb. I killed every single plant I brought into our Boston apartment on Beacon Hill when we were first married. 15 years later, I know what I did wrong: I over watered them.
You will kill more houseplants from over watering than you will from under watering. Gardening outdoors taught me how to garden indoors. Many of my houseplants are simply plants I like to grow in my garden, but they are not hardy in my Wisconsin Zone 5 and cannot stay outside during the winter.
Houseplants offer a variety of benefits. They look great; they clean your air for free, providing everyone with a healthier living space; they help add humidity to a dry winter house; and they give you something to care for, which makes one feel better.
The following is a list of great plants that I currently grow:
Ferns
Foxtail Fern, Asparagus Fern, Boston Fern, Elephant Ears, Cordyline, Peace Lily, Coleus, Banana Plants, Sweet-Potato Vine, Jade Plant.
Herbs
Rosemary, Basil
Houseplants that flower
Christmas Cactus, Hibiscus, Orange Trees, Mandevilla, Geraniums, African Violets, Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile, Begonias, Clivia and Orchids
Houseplants love to be outside in the summer. You can move them outside when the nighttime temps are in the 50s and 60s consistently. Start by placing them in a shady spot, or they will get a sunburn just like we do if we lie in the sun all day after a long winter. Slowly move them into sunnier conditions.
If they do get sunburned, don’t give up and discard them. They will bounce back in 3 weeks and remain strong, vital houseplants. I have sunburned many a houseplant to the point where they look completely dead with no hope of returning, but I let them be and continued watering and they always made a strong comeback. So never give up!
Since I am green, I do not use any chemicals and I always start off with a good organic potting-soil mix. Never use topsoil or dirt, as it will harden like clay in a pot and kill your plant. I probably do not fertilize enough, according to textbooks or experts, but nature seems to take good care of my plants and they seem to be living a long and happy life. I sometimes add earthworm castings to my potting mix when they are outside for the summer, but only in the earlier part of the summer. It is best to let your houseplants take a rest in the winter, by watering less and not fertilizing.
To give you additional incentive to add more houseplants to your life, here is another great article from Organic Gardening:
Weeping fig and fatsia work day and night to remove contaminants from the air.
Findings: Two common houseplants reduced aerial concentrations of volatile formaldehyde by 50 percent in two hours or less, according to a joint study by Korean and U.S. researchers. If you’re wondering ‘What does this have to do with me?’ you may be dismayed to know that formaldehyde is emitted from products found in most homes, including carpet, plywood, particleboard, curtains, and adhesives. Formaldehyde levels are several times higher in new houses than in older ones, the researchers report. Aerial parts of the plant–the leaves and stems–absorb the volatiles during the day: the root zone continues the work at night.
Our advice: Take a tip from Stanley Kays, Ph.D., of the University of Georgia, one of the study’s authors, and place a houseplant or two in every room to improve air quality. Kays also recommends Boston fern and areca palm.
Paperwhite and Amaryllis Bulbs – Forcing Bulbs Indoors
28 Jan
Paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs are two terrific bulbs to force indoors with very little effort and very low maintenance. I have forced both indoors for over 11 years with a 0% failure rate.
I have bought these bulbs everywhere from White Flower Farm and Johannsen’s to Sam’s Club, Home Dept and Target. They are usually all great, but for a unique amaryllis, higher-end stores have a wider variety.
For paperwhites (part of the narcissus family, like daffodils), you simply plant the bulbs in potting soil, rocks or even cranberries in the container of your choice and water well, making sure not to let them dry out. Within 2 to 3 weeks, you will have beautiful flowers. Simply discard the bulbs after they are done flowering, as the paperwhite bulb is a one-shot deal.
For the amaryllis bulb, plant in a pot, not burying the entire bulb; the tip-top of the bulb likes a little light. I have had mixed results with how long it will take to grow and bloom, but often you get more than one cycle of flowers on one bulb. When the amaryllis is done blooming, trim off the blooms and treat as a houseplant. You can get the amaryllis bulb to re-bloom again next year by treating it like your other houseplants until August/September and then placing it in a closet or basement and allowing it to rest until Thanksgiving. Then bring it back out and expose it to warmth, water and sunlight, and it should bloom again.
It is nice to plant these bulbs every two to three weeks starting in October to have constant blooms throughout the winter months.
Potting!
17 MarWhen it is too early to start digging in your garden outdoors, but you are ready to plant, grab a pot! Pots are great no matter where you live – condominiums, apartments, houses or farms. Here are some basic tips to a successful pot.
The Basics
1. Start with a great pot
I really like Target’s copper and metal pots for around $40. They are unbreakable and my plants really grow successfully in them. You can also get a very large Terracotta pot for around $25, Terracotta is classic and timeless.
2. Pack them full!
Cram in as many plants as you can. It is always very interesting to see in the end which one is your favorite and which ones grow the best. Mother nature can surprise you. You can move the plants around later in the season if you don’t like it. I let my kids pick out some at this point. They get me to try new plants and plant combinations all the time, and their picks are often my favorites.
3. Stay organic
Use earthworm castings for fertilizer along with organic potting soil, or potting soil without chemicals so your kids can help! If you have a pot that will be neglected, use coir. It will hold water and release it slowly back.
Fill it with Love
You can do so many different things with pots. It’s really just a small patch of your garden. Here are a few ideas to get you started, but please add your own ideas in the comments.
1. Think vertical
Clematis, jasmine, old fashioned climbing petunias will all grow upward with some help from obelisks or garden stakes. I tried morning glory and moonflower together in a large pot this past summer because one blooms in the morning and one blooms at night.
2. Put a tree in a pot
Pots can really accent trees nicely. They can always be moved into the ground in the fall or left for holiday decorations. I planted boxwoods and arborvaite in pots last summer. My best tree in a pot ever was several summers ago when I planted a very large healthy hydrangea limelight in a pot, it was so beautiful and got rave reviews from all the neighbors.
3. Plant early in the season
Get a head start and do one or two cold weather pots. At the beginning of the season I like to pot up snapdragons and pansies, they are tough and can handle a drop in temperatures here and there. Another idea I saw on a gardening show today was bibb lettuce with pansies around it.
4. Think in 3′s
Each large pot should contain a thriller, a spiller, and a filler. I have learned this concept from Fine Gardening magazine and their container gardening issue. It is a concept many garden magazines and shows talk about.
Thrillers I have grown in pots include, banana plants, elephant ears, different varieties of grasses, including a very successful king tut grass, different varieties of Cannas, I like the ones with black leaves and the varigated leaves and Cordyline.
Fillers I have grown and recommend include, coleus of all kinds, petunias of all kinds, rosemary, begonias and caladium.
Spillers I have grown and recommend include nasturtium, black sweet potato vine, green sweet potato vine, purple heart or , Tradescantia and Dichondra.
5. Move pots around throughout the seasons
Move evergreens by the front doorway in winter and add white lights.
The Don’ts
1. Don’t use garden soil
Never use garden soil in a pot because it will compact as hard as clay and will not be able to drain and your roots will not be able to flourish and grow.
2. Don’t let your pots dry out
They won’t always recover. However, don’t give up! If it looks like you lost it, because it dried out give it a drink of water and a cool night can revive the deadliest looking plant.
Elephant Ears
10 Mar
Elephant Ears (or Colocasia) are one of my favorite tropical plants and make an excellent addition to any home. Elephant ears are very easy to grow, they come in several sizes and varieties, and you can take them in and out of the house depending on the season! Don’t be afraid to garden outside your zone either. If you are willing to get your elbows dirty, elephant ears can be a lot of fun, and you can enjoy them year around both in your yard and indoors as house plants.
1. Terrific Flexibility
Elephant ears are terrific in pots as well as the garden. Their biggest strength is that they will do well in full sun, partial sun and even shade.
However, they will not survive in cold temperatures. If you do decide to plant them in your garden (and you don’t live in zone seven), you’ll need to dig them up at the end of the season. This year was the first winter I decided to pot them and it was a great treat enjoying them indoors. If you don’t have room to keep them as a houseplant, the bulb can be dug up and stored in a cool, dry space such as a basement.
2. Price to size ratio
You’ll love the price to size ratio! That is, without spending a lot of money, you can get a beautiful plant that covers a lot of room in your garden. They can get extremely tall and full, which makes them a great tool for the garden in that they can fill an empty spot while you wait for your perennials and shrubs to mature.
3. Great varieties
I have grown several different varieties, but my favorite variety is Illustris, it is black with hints of green down the middle. I also love the black magic. It is smaller in size then the Illustris but completely black which adds a real boldness to your garden.
4. Getting started
A nice way to plant a group of them in the ground is to buy one growing plant, more expensive, and then several bulbs, much cheaper. Then plant the bulbs around the plant – this way you have some instant gratification and color. This also helps you to remember where you planted the bulbs while you wait for them to come up, an you’ll be less likely to disturb that area.
I have purchased Elephant ears from a variety of stores (including, Walmart, Home Depot, Bruce Company, Johansons, Logees and Costco) and had a lot of success. It speaks to the overall ease with which they can be cared for.
Right now Costco is offering 6 bulbs for $12. I also recommend Logees as a nice place to buy them as it will arrive as a potted plant – a black magic is $9.95 and the illustris is $10.95.
Tip of the Day – More on Rooting
9 MarI love creating the feel of a garden indoors. Especially in the winter. It can be tough surviving the long Wisconsin winters! One way I do this is to experiment and take new cuttings of my indoor plants to see what will root. There is a lot of gratification to be had growing new plants. It is a fun way to expand your summer garden and/or share plants with friends and neighbors.
As I’ve talked about previously, I’ve had success with herbs – rosemary, basil and thyme – but I’ve also enjoyed success with coleus, geraniums, and christmas cactus. I just simply take a piece of the plant, pull off any leaves, except for the tip-top ones and put it in a glass container in a sunny spot. Save your baby food jars, Fizzy Izze bottles, olive jars, pasta sauce jars. Any glass jar works great for rooting and it is nice to have different sizes for different sized cuttings.
Typically, growing plants will migrate from a jar to a potting, and finally out to the ground. But things don’t always work out this way. One year, I ended up on bedrest for most of the year and was never able to pot up my cuttings. The cuttings wound up going straight from my jars to the yard and they turned out great. So……if you don’t have time to pot them up, no sweat.
