Gardening

Honey, The Plants Are Home

/ Kevin / 6 Comments

They’re baaaaaack.  I don’t know if this happens where you work, but at my job, co-workers are carrying out their potted plants to return them to the yard after a winter in office exile.  For me,  it means loading up crates, cleaning the office, and hoping that the plants will reacclimate themselves to outside living.  Right now, they all look pale and sparse and leggy — sort of like me after a long winter’s night.

This is the geranium I grew from seed several years ago. It is now sitting in the backyard, getting ready for summer blooms.

The question, though, remains.  Why do northern gardeners go to such great lengths to save their plants?  For some, it might be the value of the plant, or the challenge of being able to cheat cold temperatures of their delicate herbaceous victims.  For me, it’s more about the story behind the plants that I save each year.  So here is a piece of my story, as told by my plants.

First, there’s the philodendron which I have had since I was a pre-adolescent!  This plant actually came from a cutting  from a plant that my mother had in the kitchen of my childhood home.  I think I had decided at some point that I wanted a plant in my bedroom.  I thought it was pretty cool that I could take a piece of this plant, place it in a cup of water, and then watch the roots grow.  Since then, the plant has traveled with me from my parents’ house to the current home I share with Joe to my office and to the backyard.  We’ve been through so much together, it seems kind of cruel to leave it outside at the end of the growing season.  Continue reading →

Carnivorous Plant Devours Long Island

/ Kevin / 8 Comments

The other day, my friend Rachel presented me with a gift: a carnivorous plant.   In my mind, carnivorous plants could only be found in two places: a primordial soupy rain forest swamp or a sci-fi film (think Little Shop of Horrors or The Day of the Triffids).  In all honesty, it’s kind of cool to have a carnivorous plant in the yard.  It’s also a little intimidating.  Does this mean I have to barbecue steaks for me, Joe, and the plant?

Eric Kunz is the man behind Wowflowers, Long Island’s largest supplier of carnivorous and unique water plants, as well as the only licensed grower of these endangered and protected species in all of New York State.  He is passionate about his plants.

According to Mr. Kunz, the plant I own is “Jersey Girl,” a type of Sarracenia purpurea, or purple pitcher plant.  The plants are native to North America, and can be found living in bogs throughout New England and along the Canadian border.  He also assures me that caring for these other worldly perennials is easy.

Continue reading →

Peony, When You’re Not Strong

/ Kevin / 10 Comments

When I woke up this morning, I saw that one of my peony plants had bloomed overnight. 

Then, I saw the rain.

It’s safe to say that I have a love – hate relationship with rain, very unlike my love relationship with peonies. 

I actually look at most rainy days with a sigh of relief, especially today’s since it’s been dry for a whole week.  It means that I have a day off from watering.  (In the same way that I’m one of the last hold outs in the lawn mowing department, I also drag a hose and sprinkler all over the yard.  That’s a whole other post.)  So I bring all the flower pots out from any sheltered areas and let them soak up the moisture, because a good rain is much more quenching than my Gunga Din efforts. Continue reading →

Mowing In The Deep

/ Kevin / 14 Comments

It's not easy being green.

I did some laundry today.  What has that got to do with gardening?  Well, aside from the fact that I like to do laundry almost as much as I like to garden, I was washing my grass-stained work clothes from this past weekend.  On Saturday, I gave my lawn the first cut of the season.  I still like to mow my own lawn, but every weekend, when I look around my neighborhood, I can’t help but think, “Am I the only one?”

When the landscapers arrive, my street looks like a neighborhood under siege.  Trucks and trailers are everywhere.  Engines rev, blowers whir, and hordes of men mow over every blade of grass.  But not in my yard.

Continue reading →

My Momma Always Said

/ Kevin / 4 Comments

I am a creature of habit, and Sunday morning is my time to go food shopping.  I am the second person in the supermarket.  Because I live in a bustling and over-crowded suburbanopolis, this 7:00 am ritual creates the illusion for me that I actually live in a small town.  I get to visit with Sue the cashier, and Diana behind the deli counter.  I also get to say good morning to the first shopper in the store.

But on this particular Sunday, the parking lot filled up early.  All men.  As they stumbled from their cars and walked slowly and stiffly to the doors, it looked like a scene from Morning of the Living Dead (if there was such a movie).  This is Mother’s Day.

If your family is anything like mine, Mother’s Day is the unofficial start of planting season — at least that’s how it is here on Long Island.  Every nursery and garden shop is packed with flats and bushes and shrubs and hanging baskets.  And that idea led me to think about gardening and mothers. Continue reading →

I’ll Show You My Plants, If You’ll . . . (Part II)

/ Kevin / 4 Comments

These are Cherry Splash Hybrid Impatiens (left).  I started the seeds in February.  Everything I’ve read indicates that impatiens seeds need light to germinate, so do not cover them with soil.  Each time I’ve done that, the results have not been great.  Two years ago, I began to cover the seeds lightly, and this appears to work much better for me.  I think it helps to keep the seeds moist.  In any event, it is always very exciting when plants bloom while in the greenhouse.

 

On the right is a group shot.  On the left, the plants with the red blooms are Easy Wave Red Petunias.  Moving upward are Gerbera Daisy Crush Mix, and Blanket Flower Arizona Red Shades.

 

Here we have a variety of geraniums: Orbit White and Horizon Red Ice.  The grassy looking plants just below the geraniums are Gazania Daybreak Petticoat Mix.  These were also planted in late February.  Actually, I find growing geraniums by seed relatively easy and rewarding.  The seeds are large enough to handle (as opposed to the impatiens seeds), and I usually get a nice return.  When I begin the seeds, I plant about five of the seeds in a single pot.  It’s also important to water from the bottom to keep the soil from compacting and allowing the roots ample space to grow.  At this stage, the seedlings have been given their own space in which to grow.

 

These are various zinnia, cosmos, and sunflower seeds.  These are the easy seeds, which can be planted where you’d like them to grow.  I planted some of these outside already.  I’m not sure, though,  if the weather has still been too cool for successful germination, so I planted extra seeds in these flats — kind of an insurance policy.  After they develop their first set of true leaves, I’ll move them into the garden.  The seeds are: Zinnias Elegans Queen Red Lime, Zinnia’s Pastel Cutting Mix, Italian White Sunflower, and Cosmos Double Click Cranberries.

 

This is Coleus Carefree Mixture.  Coleus is one of those plants that bring me back to childhood.  I like the variety of colors.  I like the texture of the leaves.  I like being able to pinch them to encourage branching.  And I really like the ease of propagation: clip, water, root, plant.

 

I  purchased Caladium bulbs while on vacation in Florida.  They’re a souvenir — a very colorful souvenir that will eventually be planted in very large pots that receive dappled sun. 

 

Well, that’s the tour of the greenhouse and what’s growing inside.  Here’s hoping to a season of sun, just enough rain, lots of blooms, and very few pests.

I’ll Show You My Plants, If You’ll . . . (Part I)

/ Kevin / 42 Comments

Everyone I know keeps asking me, “What are you growing in your greenhouse?”  So for this post, I thought I’d try something different: less words and more pictures. 

First, this is the greenhouse/potting shed.  I started most of  the seeds in February.  This, of course, depends on the seeds.  I will break up the planting schedule based on germination time, bloom time, and last frost date.  See the Library page for my guidebooks.  There is a space heater in there, as well as heat mats for the seedlings.  I have hung plastic to keep the heat in the growing area; the other area is for storage of yard equipment.  The best times are when it’s snowing outside, and I’m in the shed in 75 degrees.  There is no running water, so I carry water in. Continue reading →

Friends Reunite In The Garden

/ Kevin / 8 Comments

This weekend, I hosted a reunion of sorts — removing  tender bulbs out of storage and reintroducing them to the garden.

Newly planted elephant ears. They started to sprout while in storage.

Each fall, right before the first frost, I cut back my tender plants, dig them up, cure them, and place them  in paper bags along with peat moss to cover.  It’s actually a tough thing to do.  The plants are still full of life.  We’ve spent so much time together.  And then I have to be the mean girl, decimating the friendship just when they thought they could trust me.  Cold and heartless doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.

Once hacked and packed, I carry them into the bomb shelter.  My house was built in the ’60s, and behind a closet and under the front steps, there is a cement crawlspace, a bunker which we refer to as the bomb shelter.  It’s cool and dry all winter, conditions that allow the tenders to go dormant.

My effort to trick nature and turn Long Island into a summer tropical paradise began several  years ago when a friend gave me a brown paper bag with canna rhizomes.  She said just keep them in the garage and plant them in the spring.  That didn’t work.  The garage was too cold and too damp, and when spring arrived, I had a bag of smelly and shriveled canna. Continue reading →

Dreaming Of A Clean Spring

/ Kevin / 14 Comments

Now that we know each other, I feel it’s time for me to make a confession.  I . . . Well, I did something I never did before.  I contracted with a landscaper to do my spring clean up.  Please, don’t judge me.  I have my reasons.

I don’t have a large yard, but what I do have are lots of trees.  And the property behind my house is not developed, so that means more trees.  And the street where I live is actually a “T,” which means when the wind blows, all of the leaves from the intersecting block are deposited on my lawn.  So my fall weekends are spent raking and bagging.

At this stage, I have a pretty good system.  I use an old garbage can, put in a recyclable plastic bag, rake everything into a pile, knock the can onto its side, shove in the leaves, tie off the bag, carry it to the curb, and start all over again.  I can do that 40 times each weekend.

Then, spring arrives, and it’s a cruel joke.  After the snow melts, there are still more leaves to be raked.  They blew into my yard all winter long when I wasn’t looking.  My partner, Joe, is always after me to hire someone to rake up the yard.  But I take my stand.  I convince him, as well as myself, that I love to rake and clean the yard.  Continue reading →

To Plant A Seed And Wait, Is To Believe

/ Kevin / 16 Comments

A few years ago, a friend gave me a plaque with this inscription and a bag of muscari bulbs.  I was struck, because I am by no means a holy roller, but I did hang the plaque on a wall in my potting shed.  And each day when I worked in the shed, I stared at that nine-word phrase, and I gained a greater understanding of why I enjoy gardening.  So, as my first post, I again look to that plaque as a starting point, because what better way to start than with a seed.

I love seeds.  They come in all sizes and shapes, and each one holds so much promise of growth and color and bounty.  My favorite part of winter is actually after Christmas, because that’s when the seed catalogs arrive.  I spread everything, including myself, out on the living room floor, surrounded by pages and pages of color photographs and plant descriptions.   I am like a child again studying the Sears and Penney’s Christmas catalogs.   And after I go through the catalogs once, I start all over again.   And let’s not forget about the free gifts.  I would never purchase my own tomato seeds–but a free sample??  That’s a gift for me and for my father on Father’s Day.  I make a wish list, and then edit it down to something that’s more manageable and realistic.  In my head, I am a LAND owner.  In reality, space and time are very real limitations. Continue reading →