Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

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Author: JESSIE KEITH

Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.

How Do I Protect My Potted Hydrangea in Winter?

“What am I supposed to do with my potted hydrangea in the winter? It’s too big to move around. I did cover it with leaves and pine needles. It lost all its leaves. Is that normal?” Question from Kriss of Steilacoom, Washington.

Answer: Most hydrangeas are deciduous, which means they drop their leaves in winter. Potted specimens are most often big leaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla), particularly in the mild regions of the Pacific Northwest. They display big clusters of showy blue, pink, or white blossoms in summer and have large, robust green leaves. There are many cultivated varieties of these hydrangeas that vary in hardiness, most withstand winters in USDA Zones 6b to 9, so they should be well protected in your USDA Hardiness Zone 8 or Sunset Zone 5 location. In areas with colder winters, they can survive but typically die to the ground and don’t reliably flower. This is because they typically bloom on the previous year’s wood.

It sounds like you are doing the right thing. Protect your container specimen through the winter with protective cover, like leaves, straw, and needles. When the leaves start to appear on the stems in the spring, remove the cover, and keep a lookout for any stem dieback. If there are any dead stems, cut them off to keep your specimen looking nice. If you want to shape the shrub for good looks, wait to prune further until it has finished blooming. (Click here for a full tutorial on how to prune hydrangeas).

Otherwise, keep your shrub watered, fertilized, and replenish old mix with a quality outdoor potting mix, such as Black Gold® Moisture Supreme Container Mix. These shrubs grow best in full sun to partial shade.

Happy hydrangea growing!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

 

 

 

Can I Grow Palm Trees in Georgia?

“Can I grow Palm trees in Georgia?” Question from Debbie of Norcross, Georgia

Answer: Yes! There are several palms and palmettos that will grow well in your USDA Hardiness Zone 7 to 8 location. Most won’t reach the grand heights of palms grown in truly tropical regions, but all will add interest to your landscape. I opted to include palms in my list rather than scrubby palmettos.

Five Hardy Palms

Pindo Palm Tree (Butia capitata): This slow-growing palm bears edible fruit that can be used to make jelly. Mature specimens can reach 15 feet.

Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei ‘Bulgaria’ or ‘Columbus’): If you are looking for a more classic looking palm, plant windmill palm, which is hardy up to Zone 7. Average specimens reach 25 feet.

Sago Palm Tree (Cycas revoluta): Though not a true palm, this cycad is hardy in Zones 7b-11 and has elegant, palm-like good looks.

Blue European Fan Palm (Chamaerops humilis v. cerifera): This very hardy palm reaches a maximum of 10 feet and is hardy up to Zone 7a.

Mexican Fan Palm (Washingtonia robusta): This large palm can reach 70ft – 100ft, but its Zone 8 hardiness puts it just on the edge of hardiness where you live. But, if you have a protected sunny location near your home, try planting one!

Good sources for these and other hardy palms include Plant Delights and Palmco. If planting your palms in large pots, make sure your mix drains well and has a slightly acid to neutral pH between 6.2 and 7.6. Black Gold® Natural & Organic Potting Mix with added perlite is a good mix choice.

Happy palm growing!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

How Do You Keep Spring Bulbs from Rotting?

“How do you keep spring bulbs from rotting?” Question from Pam of Fort Worth, Texas

Answer: There are several reasons your spring bulbs could be rotting. Here are a few possibilities and solutions.

Warm Zone Spring Bulbs

Your USDA Hardiness Zone 8 location is just on the edge of spring bulb-growing country. Most old-fashioned, cherished spring bulbs, like standard crocus, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips, won’t survive in zones warmer than 8. This is because they require the chill of winter over a certain period of time to complete their life cycle. If winters are too warm and short, spring bulbs can decline and eventually rot.

Thankfully, there are some great classic spring bulbs sure to grow really well at or above Zone 8 without prechilling. These include specific tulips, like Apricot Impression Darwin hybrid tulip, Red Emperor tulip, and Yellow Golden Apeldoorn tulip (click here to read more about growing and planting tulips), as well as Narcissus ‘Ziva’,  Peruvian scilla, Spanish bluebells, ornamental onions, and poppy flowering anemones.

Soil for Spring Bulbs

Bulb soils must be fertile, raised, and amended with quality soil amendments, like Sphagnum peat moss and compost. Larger bulbs are generally planted 6-8 inches deep, and they will not tolerate excess moisture at the root zone. Too much moisture will encourage bulb rot.

Bulb Diseases

Certain fungal and bacterial diseases will also cause bulb rot. Be sure that the bulbs you plant are firm, healthy, and show no signs of damage or rot. Cool, wet weather and saturated soils encourage these diseases.

I hope this information helps!

Happy bulb growing!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

 

 

How Do You Start Raspberries from Canes?

How do you start raspberries from canes? Question from Deborah of Los Lunas, New Mexico

Answer: Raspberries are one of the easiest fruits to propagate from canes or cuttings because they readily root, even without the help of rooting hormone. In fact, if you let canes naturally weep to the ground in your garden, they will root as they touch the ground. In time a single plant can become a brambly thicket of rooted canes, which is why these plants need to be pruned and maintained each season.

If you have rooted canes, all you need to do is cut at least a foot of top growth from the rooted segment, dig up the root ball, and replant the berry wherever you wish. If you want to root cane cuttings, here’s what you need to do:

Rooting Raspberry Cuttings

Materials

  • Sharp bypass pruners
  • 1-gallon pots
  • Rooting hormone with added fungicide
  • Quality potting soil, such as Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Mix
  • Raspberry cane cuttings (these can be dormant or actively growing)

Method

Use your pruners to take tip cuttings from your raspberries. Make sure they are about 1-foot long and cut from fresh, healthy stem tips. If you like, you can hasten rooting and protect the cuttings from rot by dipping them in rooting hormone with added fungicide. Place the cuttings about 3 inches down in 1-gallon pots filled with OMRI Listed potting mix formulated for organic growing. You can add up to three cuttings per pot. Water the pots in, keep them moist, place them in a cool spot with filtered light, and the cuttings will root in a matter of weeks.

I usually wait for two weeks, and then give the cuttings a small tug to see if they are rooted. If they resist being pulled out, they have set roots. Once new leaves start to appear on your cuttings, and they have clearly rooted, you can separate the rooted cuttings from the pot and plant them where you like.

To learn more about growing happy raspberries and other brambles, click here to read an article about growing them. Be sure to amend the soil where you plant them. I suggest OMRI Listed Black Gold Garden Compost Blend as the best all-around garden amendment.

Happy raspberry growing!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold horticulturist

When Do I Start My Garden Seeds?

“How early can I start seeds in lower Michigan? Question from William of Southgate, Michigan

Answer: It depends on whether you are growing, annuals, perennials, summer vegetables or spring vegetables. Here’s what I suggest for your USDA Hardiness Zone 6 planting area. (These suggestions may also apply to other gardeners, based on their own specific seasonal planting windows.)

Spring Vegetables: I recommend starting cool-season broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, and spring onion seeds indoors as early as late January, or a month and a half before the spring soil can be worked. Arugula, beets, cilantro, spring carrots, peas, radishes, and turnips should all be starting in-ground as soon as the soil can be worked. Be sure to amend the soil well with compost, label rows, and cover newly planted seeds with a light layer of compost before watering them in. Keep them just moist and they should sprout as the soil gets warmer.

Summer Vegetables: Warm-season vegetables and herbs, like basil, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos, should be started indoors as early as the start of February, or three or more months before planting them outdoors. [Click here for an article about growing tomatoes from seed.] Fast-growing cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and squash can be planted indoors or out. I prefer starting outdoors in well-amended beds after the threat of frost has passed. Beans, corn, okra, and summer beets (click here for a beet-growing video) and carrots can be started by seed outdoors after the threat of frost has passed. (Click here to search for the average frost date in your area.)

Perennials: If growing any perennials from seed, start them as early as January. Once they are ready to plant in late spring, they should be large enough for outdoor planting. Keep in mind that many perennials won’t bloom first year from seed, while others will. [Click here to read an article about easy-to-start perennials that will bloom first year from seed.]

Annuals: Wait until February to start flowering annuals and March or April to start vining annuals, which often grow very quickly and can take over your indoor growing area. To learn more, watch the video below for annual seed-starting tips.

Happy seed starting!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

How Do I Get Rid of Squash Bugs?

“How do you get rid of squash bugs?” Question from Judy of Louisville, Mississippi

Answer: Surely these are some of the most annoying and destructive of all summer vegetable garden pests. To manage squash bugs (Anasa tristis), you need to understand their life cycle.

Squash Bug Life Cycle

These true bugs attack squash and relatives, like cucumbers, pumpkins, and zucchini. They spend their winters sheltering under garden debris, leaves, rocks, and logs. Sometimes they even enter homes for refuge.  When spring weather warms, they seek out squash plants, mate, and lay eggs on developing squash plants. The clusters of brownish-orange eggs hatch in just 5 to 10 days. Bug nymphs emerge and develop into adult squash bugs that suck the juices from squash stems, leaves, flowers and developing fruits. Badly infested plants will show signs of wilt and have poor fruit output and development.

Squash Bug Management

Squash bug eggs are brown to brownish-red.

The first thing you can do to protect your garden is to remove all infested plant material from your beds in fall. Good garden sanitation will destroy winter cover for these bugs, which will decrease their populations during the cold season. In spring, keep a lookout for their eggs. If you see any on leaves or stems, scrape them off immediately and smash them. Once you begin to see adults, remove them by hand or spray them with an OMRI Listed insecticidal spray approved for organic gardening, like insecticidal soap, neem oil, or horticultural oil. [Click here to read more about using horticultural oils.]

It also pays to plant squash-bug-resistant varieties, which include most butternut varieties, ‘Early Summer Crookneck,’ ‘Improved Green Hubbard,’ ‘Royal Acorn‘, and ‘Zucchetta Tromboncino’.

I hope this helps! Happy gardening.

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

Should I Fertilize My Vegetable Garden in Winter?

“What is the best nutrient to use when preparing for a vegetable garden in the winter months?” Question from Denise of Clemmons, North Carolina

Answer: Vegetable fertilization regimes always depend on the plants you are growing. Winter crops for cold frames or hoop gardens tend to consist of cold-tolerant greens, herbs, and root crops. Nitrogen is the best fertilizer for growing leafy crops, while phosphorus and potassium support strong root growth.

If you do not plan to plant winter vegetables in your garden, wait until spring to add an all-purpose granular fertilizer for vegetables. Or you can also consider planting a nutritious winter cover crop, like winter wheat or buckwheat. This article lists a few good cover crops that naturally feed the soil.

There is one more point to consider, your choice of organic versus inorganic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers generally contain nutrients that are converted into accessible forms by soil microbes before plants can use them. These microbes are less active in the cold, to the nutrients will be less available to plants, so inorganic fertilizers will make nutrients more readily available to winter crops.

Happy Gardening!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

How Do I Tend Old Grape Vines?

“Do you have any advice on tending to old neglected grapevines?” Question from Shelby of Covelo, California

Answer: Old, overgrown grape vines look like a nightmare to tame and manage, but getting them back under control is a relatively quick task.  All it takes are some sharp bypass pruners, sharp loppers, a little know-how, and new trellising, if the old trellising are longer supports the vines. And, you can always save the cut vines for wreath making.

It is necessary to hard-prune mature grape vines yearly to minimize vine growth and maximize good fruit output. This means removing an average of 90% of the previous year’s growth yearly. There are several pruning methods for grape establishment and maintenance. Your method will depend on your trellises and how your grapes are growing. To learn more click here to read this useful article from WSU Extension on grape pruning.

Minimizing foliar overgrowth through pruning encourages airflow, which discourages fruit bunch rot, among other common fungal diseases caused by vines that are too dense. Many more diseases plague grapes, which is why choosing disease-resistant stock is important. [Click here for a full online guide to grape diseases from Canadian Food & Ag.]

It is also essential to weed around your grapes and create open space that makes them easier to tend in the long run. Adding a layer of protective mulch at the base is also helpful. If you have wine grapes, click here to read my article about wine grape growing.

Happy grape growing!

Black Gold Horticulturist

Jessie Keith

When is the Best Time to Plant Roses Up North?

“When is the best time to plant bare root roses and potted roses?” Question from Deb of Lynbrook, New York.

Answer: In northern climates like yours, the best time to plant roses, bare root or potted, is in the spring. This allows new roses time to become fully established over a season. By the following winter, they will have set good root systems to help them weather through the cold of winter.

For certain rose-growing success, be sure you plant roses hardy to your USDA Cold Hardiness Zone. Also, give them the best care possible, especially when they are becoming established. For good all-around rose growing advice, see the organic rose-care video below.

Happy rose growing!

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist