Do you know The Garden Song? Written by David Mallett and recorded by Pete Seeger and many others singers, it well captures the satisfaction of planting and growing one’s own produce. However, there’s also the Anti-Garden Song that well captures the frustrations of gardening that make some people want to throw in the trowel.
Here at Garden Harvest Supply we want to make gardening as enjoyable as possible for you by offering the best selection of fall vegetable plants, along with fertilizer, natural pesticides, garden tools and everything else you’ll need to have a bountiful harvest. We know you are gearing up to plant your fall veggies, so this newsletter consists of a step-by-step guide to fall vegetable planting. Though simple enough for a beginner, some veteran gardeners might also find things of value in it.
Soil Testing Is the Way to Grow
The first step to a successful fall harvest is to test your soil. As we mentioned last time, a soil test these days only costs about $1.50, and it’s worth ten times that for these two important reasons:
First, you’ll learn your soil’s pH, information that will enable you to know which crops will do best in it. If the crops you want to plant require a different pH, you’ll be able to immediately amend your soil to create more favorable growing conditions for them.
Second, the soil test will tell you whether your soil needs amendment. If the test indicates that your soil is fertile, you can proceed with confidence. If it reveals a deficiency, you can then choose a fertilizer that will give your soil exactly what it needs.
Since this can sometimes be a complex decision, especially if you have to both provide essential nutrients and also modify the pH of your soil, we have a master gardener on hand who would be happy to advise you. Send her an email describing your situation and Karen will reply with the solution.
Gathering Information
Along with the results of your soil test, you’ll want to gather four additional pieces of information: the ideal pH of the plants you’re interested in, how much time they take to mature, how hardy they are, and the first expected frost date for your area.
These first two items can be found on our website at the bottom of each of our vegetable plant pages. A hardiness chart can be found here, courtesy of the University of Illinois extension. The average frost date for your area can be found at the Farmers’ Almanac site, courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center. You might also want to consider the Climate Zone you’re in and read up on what grows best in it.
Factoring In Hardiness
If your plants are ranked as hardy, they can overwinter, so you hardly need to consider their growing time at all. Semi-hardy plants can withstand a first frost but not repeated frosts, so you have to be sure they will be ready for harvest before the freezing weather really sets in. And with plants that are ranked as tender or very tender, you’ll definitely want to aim for a pre-frost harvest.
It’s best that you plant some from each category in order to extend your harvest into the winter, and to make sure your root cellar will be loaded with a variety of produce that will last until spring.
Preparing the Soil
Once you’ve decided what you are going to plant, order from us online or call us at 888-907-4769. We guarantee that they’ll arrive healthy, and, by the way, we’re proud of the extra care we put into our growing process, such as our use of large pots to ensure healthier root systems. We also sell a wide selection of vegetable seed, which has been certified organic by our friends at MOSA, the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service.
While you’re waiting for your plants or seed to arrive, go out to your vegetable beds and give them a thorough weeding. You’ll also want to remove any old crop residue, as well as plants that have become overgrown. These can all be composted, but any plants that show signs of disease or insect damage must be thrown away.
Wait until your soil is fairly dry—so that a clump of it will crumble easily between your fingers—and then thoroughly till your rows to a depth of at least 6–8 inches. Mix in compost, and if you need to fertilize or modify the pH of your soil, this is the time to add soil amendments, closely following the directions on the package.
If you’re starting new beds, we suggest a convenient spot near your house that receives full sunlight and can easily be watered. The soil should be fertile and drain well so you don’t get puddles after a rain. While good air movement is a plus, avoid windy areas. Also, if the location you choose contains grass, you’ll need to totally remove the old turf because you won’t be able to get rid of it by digging or tilling; the grass sprigs you’ve plowed under will cause you trouble for years to come. So get out all that old grass, and, while you’re at it, remove any stones, as well.
Planting Time
When the mail carrier arrives with your carefully packed GHS order, it’s time for the rubber of your wheelbarrow to hit the rows. If you’re planting from seed, be especially diligent that the soil has been well broken up so as not to form a hard crust over the seeds. In any case, carefully follow the directions that came with your order and remember that your seeds or transplants will need plenty of water, especially during the first two weeks. Depressions or basins around each transplant can be filled as needed with water, or just use a sprinkler.
Seeds as well as roots of plants need to be kept moist but don’t let them remain sopping wet or they will develop root rot and mildew. Once you’ve made it through the critical first two weeks, your seeds will have started to sprout and your plants will have enlarged their root systems so that active growth will begin.
We hope you enjoyed this little guide to fall vegetable growing, and most of all, we hope that your upcoming gardening experiences will leave you wanting to sing the Garden Song, not the Anti-Garden Song. From all of us at Garden Harvest Supply, happy planting!
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Newsletters.
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In this newsletter we offer some growing tips for asparagus and strawberries, and also some fun facts and interesting history about them. So read on to learn a few things we bet you didn’t know about these two culinary all-stars.
Asparagus’ Ancient Roots and Current Appeal
Did you know there is an asparagus recipe dating back 1,600 years? That’s right: back when Augustine was writing his Confessions in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, some unknown gourmand wrote down recipes that were preserved in the oldest surviving cookbook, the Apicius. That a chapter on asparagus was included is not surprising; asparagus had been cultivated for more than two millennia by the Greeks, and the Romans later brought it with them into the lands they conquered. From there, this unassuming member of the lily family spread all over the world.
Asparagus dishes have always been popular because of their unique taste and texture, but we now know that asparagus is one of the most nutritious vegetables, loaded with folate, and an excellent source of Vitamins A, C, and K.
For the gardener, asparagus is most appealing because it remains productive for an extraordinarily long time: once it’s producing, you’ll be able to cut it every year for up to two decades! No other “cut-and-come-again” veggie can top that.
Tips on Growing Asparagus
Asparagus grows best in rich, well-drained soil that receives full sun. Before you plant your crowns, choose the location carefully because it’s near to impossible to successfully transplant them later. Extension specialists such as Norm Myers, director of the Oceana County Extension, recommend that you test your soil before you plant so you’ll know exactly how to amend it to create ideal growing conditions. As he explains, asparagus requires a high pH; 7 is ideal, or even a bit higher. Your local extension office can help you out with soil testing, or you can do it yourself by getting hold of a soil testing kit.
To build up the pH of your soil, mix in lime, but start early because it takes time to turn acidic soil around. Mr. Myers also points out that asparagus grows best in sandy soil; if you have clay, plant on a hilltop or hillside. Enriching the soil with organic matter such as compost and manure is always a good idea, but, beyond that, let your soil test be your guide.
Of course, many gardeners don’t perform a soil test, and if you fit that description, know that asparagus generally needs a lot of potassium, but very little nitrogen, and it only needs significant phosphorus during the year that the crowns are set. For this reason we recommend adding phosphorous at the time of planting. Any high-phosphorus fertilizer can be used but triple superphosphate 0-45-0 is the most concentrated, and the form that is most readily absorbed. Later you can apply more compost and, if you think your soil needs further enrichment, use a high-potassium fertilizer. With its 3-4-6 profile, Espoma Tomato Tone works well for this purpose.
The name “strawberry” itself is very old, dating back to the streowberieor streawbergan of Middle English, words that suggest a berry whose runners are strewn along the ground. It’s a name that proved especially apt, because when strawberries began to be cultivated around the time of the Renaissance, straw was commonly used to mulch them—a practice that continues to this day.
Strawberry folklore abounds, for instance, it is said that Madame Tallien, a legendary social figure in Paris at the time of Napoleon, bathed in the juice of fresh strawberries, using 22 pounds per bath. One wonders if she bathed alone: further folklore tells us that strawberries have often been used as an aphrodisiac. Surprisingly, Native Americans played an important role in the invention of strawberry shortcake. They were in the habit of crushing fresh strawberries into a cornmeal cake; when the Pilgrims tried to do something similar with their own shortbread, they hit on a desert we still delight in today.
Tips for Growing Strawberries
Like asparagus, strawberries like well-drained sandy soil and full sun. In this case, the ideal pH is 5.8 – 6.2. In addition they need good air circulation, which is why some people plant their strawberry patch on a hill or other raised area. As with asparagus, it’s a good idea to prepare the soil in advance. Remove any weeds and sod, mix in your compost, and then cover with black plastic until you’re ready to plant.
When you plant strawberries, pay special to depth. You want to place the crown—the fleshy portion of the plant between the top grown and the roots—into the ground so that the middle is at soil level. Paul James of HDTV explains this and other planting procedures in depth in his article “Growing Strawberries.”
Strawberries consistently need 1 – 2 inches of water per week to produce truly juicy fruit, so be prepared to offer them that if you don’t get much rain. Many people continue to mulch the berries with straw but, as Blair at the Clean Air Gardening Blog notes, the straw can attract slugs. He recommends you spread a generous amount of crushed eggshell around your strawberries, or create a sand barrier to deter them. Blair offers other tips in his article Organic Strawberry Secrets, so you might want to check it out.
That’s all for now. Happy planting from all of us at Garden Harvest Supply.
This entry was posted
on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 7:37 am and is filed under Newsletters.
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If you’ve ever planted flowering perennials, you know there are hundreds to choose from. So how do you know which ones are the best? One easy way is to consider only those that have won the “Perennial of the Year” award from the Perennial Plant Association (PPA). The PPA looks for perennials that are not only beautiful, but hardy, and easy to grow and maintain. In short, you can’t go wrong if you choose from the PPA’s winner’s circle, providing you pick plants that are matched to the light and soil conditions of your garden.
In this newsletter, we profile the best of the best: twelve great perennials from among the twenty-one perennials that have won the PPA honor over the last two decades. At the beginning of each profile we list what zones it will grow in, and provide info on the light and soil conditions it requires. (By the way, if you don’t know what zone you’re in, you can find out here.) We then describe that perennial, drawing on the great information that the PPA makes available.
We’ll start with the earliest winners, and work our way up to the 2010 Perennial of the Year.
Light: Full sun in northern gardens to partial shade in areas with very long, hot summers.
Soil: Well-drained and generously enriched with organic matter.
The Coral Bells ‘Palace Purple’ Heuchera plant was one of the first of a myriad of purple colored Coral Bells and it is still among the most popular. Now considered a classic, its bronze-tinted dark green leaves emerge in the spring, changing to a rich purple with red undertones as the season progresses. The signature creamy bell-shaped flowers appear on slender spikes in early summer. There are few diseases and pests that trouble this perennial, and there should be no problem with fungus as long as the soil is well-drained. Though it will grow in full sun, it does best in at least partial shade.
This perennial has luxurious glossy green foliage, and a long bloom period during which it sports 18-24 inch violet-blue flower spikes that butterflies love. These “elegant spires of color,” as one fan described them, look especially pleasing when grouped with white, pink, or yellow flowered plants. Easy to grow and requiring minimal maintenance, they are often massed at the front of borders. After growing them, you might just concur with the gardener at the GardenWeb Forum who wrote, “blue spikey flowers are why I garden.”
Soil: Average to dry garden soil; dislikes winter wet
A wonderful perennial that blooms long and prolifically, it produces dazzling violet-purple flower heads that arise out of large rosettes of dark green aromatic leaves. It produces abundant flowers from late spring or early summer (depending upon zone), until the first frost, and is renowned for re-blooming with sustained performance if it is carefully deadheaded. It has a height of 18” and a spread of 18-24” and stays in excellent compact form. Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds love it, as do most gardeners who consistently describe it as “a winner,” and “a keeper.” It makes a great companion plant for rose bushes, as well as for coreopsis.
The Coneflower ‘Purple Magnus’ Echinacea plant is a bold, beautiful summer-into-fall perennial with carmine, non-drooping flowers. It blooms in mid-summer on 2-to-4 foot sturdy stems. Butterflies love these large purple flowers. Excellent for cutting, and the flowers, leaves, and stems can be brewed to make a cold-fighting herbal tea or decoction. One of the hardiest varieties of Echinacea, it is highly drought tolerant once established, and self-sowing. It easily re-blooms with deadheading, and the seedheads provide food for birds in winter. It makes for a very nice border planting, and also looks great when placed in the back of the bed. It combines very well with Phlox paniculata ‘David’.
Acclaimed internationally as one of the most popular perennials for the past fifty years, the Goldsturm’s bright flowers contain 1-2 inch golden-yellow petals which encircle a nearly black cone of disk flowers. The leaves are coarse, dark green lanceolate to ovate, 3-6 inches long; stem leaves are smaller, almost bract-like. The “gold storm” blankets the tops of 18-30-inch tall plants from mid-July to October. It is a long-blooming, low maintenance, long-lived perennial which tolerates clay soils and mild droughts, but grows best in well-drained, consistently moist soil. Remarkably hardy, it is one of few perennials that will grow in all zones, and has few pest or disease problems.
Soil: Well-drained soil amended with organic matter and a neutral to slightly alkaline pH
The Pincushion ‘Butterfly Blue’ Scabiosa plant has lacy lavender-blue 2-inch flowers with a paler domed center covered with stamens that give the appearance of pins in a pincushion. It blooms on rigid 12- to 15-inch stems above nearly flat grayish- green basal foliage that hugs the ground. This long-blooming perennial grows best in well-drained soil. The foliage remains clean and unblemished throughout the season and the delicate blue flowers add softness to the garden when massed with bolder-colored plants of yellow, bright pink, or red. However, despite its delicate appearance, ‘Butterfly Blue’ is a sturdy plant, and its nectar-rich flowers will attract butterflies in the summer.
Soil: fertile soil with sufficient moisture yet well-drained
This highly acclaimed cultivar is one of the most versatile, attractive, and low maintenance ornamental grasses. The deep green, shiny foliage of this cool season grass appears in early spring and lasts until early winter. Loose, feathery flower inflorescences appear in June and are initially light pink in color. As the seed heads mature, they become very narrow with a golden tan color that lasts through the fall season. The growth habit is vertical with a tuft of foliage 2-3 feet tall and flower stems to 5 feet in height. It’s a long-blooming, long-lived perennial that will tolerate heavier clay soils and drier sites. Sometimes called “perpetual motion grass,” it is set in motion by the slightest breeze.
The Garden ‘David’ Phlox plant is a particularly showy variety. The pristine flowers of purest white grow bloom out of bell-shaped mounds amid thin glossy leaves. The fragrant white flower panicles are 6 to 9 inches long and 6 to 8 inches wide with 1-inch diameter florets. These eye-catching mounds rise on durable stems above the foliage of the main plant and rarely need staking. Many landscape designers call ‘David’ “the backbone of the summer border.” It provides great garden color and fragrance from July through September. If you are looking for a winning combination of fragrance, color, mildew resistance, and long season bloom, this is it.
The enticing clove-like scent of this low-growing evergreen ornamental make it a great choice for planting along walkways where passersby who brush against it will stimulate the release of its scent. Its brilliant purplish pink flowers with white centers grow on a broad carpet of bluish-gray silvery foliage.These pert, bright blooms also make Firewitch a perfect choice for the rock garden or for planting in wall crevices. This species will tolerate short periods of drought.
Walker’s Low catmint has become increasingly popular due to its lovely blue-violet flowers and their long bloom time, attractive grey foliage, ease of propagation, lack of pest disease problems, and low maintenance. It has crinkled, aromatic, silver-green foliage with prolific, small, dark blue-purple flowers clustered densely on upright arching stems creating a charming and colorful effect, even from a distance. Walker’s Low catmint will bloom almost continuously from May until frost, and has many landscape uses, due to its lovely color and vigorous, billowy habit.
Light: partial shade in hot climates; moderate sun in cooler areas.
Soil: Moist, humus-rich, well-drained
Pronounced ha-KON-eh-klo-ah MAK-rah, this perennial is more commonly known as Japanese Forest Grass. Though preferring moist conditions, it is highly adaptable to drier conditions. If you live in the north you may want to give it a little more sun exposure to bring out and maintain the signature golden color. That golden hue changes to pink and shades of red in the fall, adding color when other garden plants are fading to brown. Growing in clumps, this variegated grass develops a graceful, waterfall-type habit that is even more beautiful when breezes blow.
The False Indigo or Wild Blue Indigo ‘Australis’ Baptisia’s newly emerging shoots produce violet-blue, lupine-like flowers in erect 10- to 12-inch racemes atop flower stems extending well above the foliage mound of clover-like, trifoliate, bluish-green leaves. The spring flowers are present for three to four weeks. The flowers give way to inflated seedpods which turn charcoal black when ripe and which flower arrangers consider to be ornamental. This perennial is happy in just about any type soil and climate, and once established, it is drought resistant and moisture tolerant. Blue false indigo grows three to four feet tall and three to four feet wide in an upright habit. This exceptional perennial is one of the most adaptable native species.
So there you have it: twelve great perennials, the best of the best.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 10:12 am and is filed under Newsletters.
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Considering that there are more than 4,000 varieties of tomatoes available, it can be quite a project for a gardener or farmer to decide what types and varieties to grow. In this newsletter we’ll summarize—or should we say “boil down” or “condense”—the vast amount of tomato info so that you won’t have to try to digest it all yourself. J And to help you determine which types are best for you, we’ve come up with a handy quiz that will quickly determine whether you should concentrate on open-pollinated types or hybrids.
All right, now you know which of the two broad types of tomatoes are best for you. The next step is to determine which varieties to get within that category. To help you determine this, read on, skipping to the category that best suits you.
Open-Pollinated Tomatoes
Technically speaking, open-pollinated are tomatoes that were pollinated naturally by the bees and the wind. The only breeding they have been subjected to is the selection process that has naturally taken place as growers saved seed from plants they were happy about, and discarded seed from plants they did not much care for. Thus over time, varieties that exhibited the best qualities were replanted and preserved, while plants with less desirable qualities “fell by the wayside.”
That a grower would be able to save seeds used to be a given, but with the advent of hybrids (which produce plants that are not “true to type”), being able to save seeds is now is considered an advantage of open-pollinated varieties. People generally save seeds in order to reduce expenses, live more self-sufficiently, and support crop diversity.
Many people like to grow open-pollinated varieties because of their superior taste. Other enjoy their unusual size, shapes, and colors. For instance, the Green Zebra Giant is famous for its flavor, as well as for its size and coloring. Some open-pollinated varieties do exceptionally well in certain areas, because that’s where they’re from. For example, the Old German Heirloom and Oxheart Orange Heirloom hail from Virginia, and the Tiffin Mennonite Heirloom originated in Tiffin, Ohio.
Heirlooms are simply open-pollinated varieties that have been handed down for many years. How long a variety has to be handed down in order to be called an heirloom is not strictly defined, but the range is generally considered to be between 50 and 100 years. Some heirlooms date back even longer than that such as the Brandywine Red, which has been around since 1855!
One of the interesting things about heirlooms is that you are not only growing a tomato but you’re tapping into a history. Often that history is quite elaborate, and there are some fine books available that go into depth as to the origins and history of the most notable heirlooms.
Master Gardener Renee Shepard writes that the Brandywine Red is “widely considered the tastiest heirloom,” but other heirloom experts beg to differ, even if only slightly. In her beautiful coffee table book The Heirloom Tomato From Garden to Table, acclaimed food writer Amy Goldman discusses the origin and history of two hundred heirlooms, comparing and contrasting them, and also rating them. We carry three varieties that she ranks among the very tastiest: Brandywine Yellow, Great White, and Black Krim.
Hybrids are the direct result of crossbreeding two or more different varieties with some specific purpose or purposes in mind. For example, a highly disease-resistant variety might be combined with a strain that produces very tough skins to produce a disease-resistant tomato with a thick skin: just what a commercial grower who ships long distances would need. And, in fact, big producers grow hybrids almost exclusively because there are varieties that are high-yield, disease-resistant, and produce highly uniform fruit that travels well and will not split.
Though some hybrids developed in the last ten years are bioengineered and might even be considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the hybrids we carry do not fall into that category, and have proven themselves over time as being among the very best. For example, the Burpee Big Boy, which was released in 1949, still is a bestseller due to its abundant yield of flavorful fruit. We also sell the Big Beef, which tops even the Burpee Big Boy in productivity. The Better Boy is another great hybrid whose superior disease resistance offers it protection against the triple threat of Verticillium, Fusarium, and nematodes.
Mountain Fresh Plus is one of the few varieties that is not only resistant to Fusarium and nematodes, but also to early blight. If you want to choose a variety based on its resistance to a particular disease or pest challenge, you will find this chart from the Cornell University Department of Plant Pathology to be very useful.
All of these cherry tomatoes will thrive with less attention and care than full sized tomatoes, and because the fruits are lightweight, most cherries will grow just fine without the need for staking.
Don’t miss our next newsletter which will be chockfull of additional information to prepare you for the next growing season, and will include another quiz to help you further narrow down your growing choices.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Newsletters.
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You Can Cook Sweet Potato Leaves—and Other Fascinating Sweet Potato Facts and Lore
As the growing season approaches, sweet potato plants are one of our tops sellers. It’s easy to understand why: they’re a highly prized crop, especially in the South, but they’re not so easy to grow from “from scratch,” which, in this case, means sprouting some sweet potatoes and then growing the sprouts into “slips” until they become plants. Once the plant stage is reached, the growing process is straightforward, but articles on growing sweet potatoes deal mainly with what comes before, because that’s the trickiest part.
At Garden Harvest Supply, we mail the plants to you: field-grown, moss-wrapped, and certified disease-free. We guarantee them to arrive in perfect condition and include specific growing instructions based on your zone. If you’ve never gotten sweet potato plants from us before, we hope you’ll preorder a box or two now, and find out in the spring what a pleasure it can be to grow sweet potatoes. And to celebrate National Sweet Potato Month, we’re offering a 10% discount on all our sweet potato plants until March 3. Just enter the promotional code SP2010 when you check out.
You Can Cook Sweet Potato Leaves
That’s right, sweet potato leaves are edible greens that are used in certain Asian dishes but perhaps it’s time we started to cook them up here. According to NutritionData, they are “a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and manganese.” This stellar vitamin profile puts them in the same league nutritionally as spinach and collards.
Harvest sweet potato greens the same as you would turnip greens, and prepare them as you would spinach or collards. Before cooking, cut off the tough stems, keeping only those that are tender. Rinse the greens in cold water, and then steam, boil, or sauté. They can also be substituted for spinach in casseroles or other baked dishes. In fact, in addition to Sweet Potato Lasagna it might even be possible to make Sweet Potato Leaf Lasagna. We haven’t tried, but if you do, let us know how it turns out, and send us the recipe if it turns out great.
Sweet Potatoes Contain More Beta-Carotene than Carrots
A medium carrot contains 10,000 IU of beta-carotene, while the average sweet potato contains 16,000 IU! That’s right: sweet potatoes top the list of foods with the most beta carotene. The varieties of sweet potato that contain the highest beta carotene content are those with orange flesh such Georgia Jet, Beauregard, Centennial, Jewell, and Vardaman.
But hasn’t beta-carotene’s reputation been tarnished a bit lately as a result of new scientific research? Actually, no, it’s beta-carotene supplements that have been called into question. Scientists have found that beta-carotene as it appears naturally in sweet potatoes and carrots is accompanied by many other carotenoids that work together to produce a powerful antioxidant effect. When isolated in the laboratory and manufactured synthetically, it just doesn’t deliver the same results. Much better to eat sweet potatoes, and a lot cheaper too!
Sweet Potato Casserole and Other Great Sweet Potato Recipes
Last Thanksgiving, the New York Times reported that the recipe the greatest number of people searched for the day before was “Sweet Potato Casserole.” As the frontrunner in thirty-six of the fifty states, this search left Pumpkin Pie and other Thanksgiving favorites “in the dust.” Apparently, people love to eat sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving more than is commonly realized.
But why wait for Thanksgiving? The Pilgrims didn’t, in fact, sweet potatoes were the main source of nourishment for early homesteaders as well as for soldiers during the Revolutionary War. George Washington himself used to grow them on his farm in Mt. Vernon, Virginia. Considering that their nutritional profile outshines that of potatoes, it’s less than ideal that Americans these days eat on average less than five pounds of sweet potatoes per year while consuming more than 125 pounds of potatoes annually.
To help return sweet potatoes to being the staple they once were when our foremothers cooked them up over their open fireplaces, here are five great sweet potato recipes that demonstrate just how versatile and delicious this wonderful vegetable can be:
Before he died in 1943, George Washington Carver had created more than one hundred products from the sweet potato including seventy-three dyes, fourteen wood fillers, seventeen types of candy, five pastes that were safe enough to use on the back of postage stamps, five breakfast foods, four flours, and three types of molasses! His love for the sweet potato was eclipsed only by his love affair with peanuts, the one that gave us peanut butter among hundreds of other peanut products.
In light of his remarkable achievements, it’s worth thinking a bit about his life philosophy, which he summarized in the following saying:
“It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.”
Here at Garden Harvest Supply, we measure our success by our excellence in serving you. Though we can’t claim to have invented any new uses for sweet potatoes let alone for peanuts, we hope to supply you with everything you’ll need to have a bountiful harvest this spring in a way that meets or exceeds your expectations. So if it’s sweet potato plants you’re after, take advantage of our National Sweet Potato Month Sale by entering the promotional code SP2010 when you check out, and if you want to pick up some Jake and Amos Sweet Potato Butter while you’re at it, we’ll give you a discount on that too.
The theme of our next newsletter will be tomatoes: a topic that will be of interest to most of you, and one about which there is much to say. Until then, from all of us at Garden Harvest Supply, happy growing and happy eating!
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on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 11:27 am and is filed under Newsletters.
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“Nature deficit disorder” is becoming an increasing concern these days as kids spend more time playing video games and watching TV than exploring and enjoying the great outdoors. Only a relative few will have the experience their parents or grandparents had of climbing trees, swimming in the creek, catching frogs and fish, and helping out in the garden.
In his book The Last Child In The Woods, Richard Louv documents this growing chasm between children and nature, citing everything from summer camps that involve no camping to a TV ad that “depicts a four-wheel-drive SUV racing along a breathtakingly beautiful mountain stream—while in the backseat two children watch a movie on a flip-down video screen, oblivious to the landscape and water beyond the windows.”
The good news is that many people are working to help restore children’s connection with nature. The Children and Nature Network has succeeded in passing “No Child Left Inside” initiatives in 27 states. On a regional level, people have created programs such as the Edible Schoolyard through which children develop “a deeper appreciation of how the natural world sustains us…by growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce.”
In our own small way, we at Garden Harvest Supply also consider ourselves part of the solution by selling child-sized tools that enable children to garden from their earliest years, and insect kits that stimulate their curiosity about the natural world.
It doesn’t take much to get young ones interested in nature; in fact, scientists such as E. O. Wilson believe that children have “an innate tendency—an instinct if you wish—to affiliate with nature, to observe it, to live near it, to understand it, to have it within reach.”
What’s more, most children will enjoy gardening if a key Montessori principle is followed: “Child-sized, everyday objects and tools set children up to be successful in their projects, and build a more equal relationship between a child and his or her environment.” Montessori believed that “children have an innate desire to do the tasks and work of the adults in their environment,” but that they need to be comfortable to master these skills.
Child-Sized Garden Tools
That’s why we’re proud to carry Little Farmer Garden Tools. These tools are not like the plastic gardening toys you might see at Wal-Mart or Target: each one is made of steel with a sturdy hardwood handle. Children can really use them to garden!
The Little Farmer Garden Tote ($16.50) includes a spade, a short-handled shovel, short-handled rake, and a matching watering can. These all fit into a sturdy canvas tote which has two handles and seven pockets.
The tools in the tote can be used by children as young as 2, and will continue to fit their hands until they are about 4 or 5. (Of course, the manufacturer warns of a choking hazard for children under 3. But we’ve never heard of a child choking on a garden tool, even a child-sized one.)
We also carry the Little Farmer Kids Tool Set that contains a spade, a short-handled rake, and a short-handled shovel. At $5.95 it’s a real bargain.
For children ages 5 and up, you might want to get individual child-sized tools with long handles. In this category we carry hoes, leaf rakes, garden rakes, and shovels, all of which have handles that are about two and a half feet long. Each individual tools sells for $5.95.
We’ve also just gotten in the Seymour Junior Wheelbarrow ($30.45) which children as young as 3 will be able to manage, and yet which they won’t outgrow until they are eight or older. Here’s how one satisfied customer put it: “Most children’s wheelbarrows out there are too small for ‘big kids.’ This one is big enough for my 7-year-old and its sturdy construction has been put to the test. He loves it.”
Actually, the only bad thing we can say about the Seymour Junior Wheelbarrow is that it’s too bulky for us to ship it with any nice packaging. Just a wheelbarrow in a box—but what fun your little helpers will have with it!
Insect Lore
We also carry educational kits made by Insect Lore that can be very useful stepping stones for getting children more involved with the natural world. Using these kits, children can get up close and personal with their favorite critters, whether we’re talking about butterflies, ladybugs, beetles, spiders, ants, or earthworms.
For example, put the Garden Spider Web Frame ($11.95) outside in an easily observable spot and a spider will soon make herself at home on it—or you can simply find a spider and place her down on it. From the spider’s point of view, it’s just the right size to spin a web, and when she discovers the built-in hideaway that will protect her from predators, she might even lay her eggs there, just as Charlotte did in the barn doorway.
The great thing about the Insect Lore kits is that they allow children to closely observe an entire cycle of nature from start to finish. For example, the Earthworm Nursery ($20) allows children to watch baby earthworms hatch from earthworm cocoons, dig and grow in the multi-chambered greenhouse habitat, and then reach maturity, at which time they can be released outside. Likewise, the Butterfly Garden ($16) allows children to watch caterpillars metamorphose into chrysalises, and eventually become butterflies.
Children’s Books About Butterflies
Speaking of butterflies, we just got in the Little Butterfly Puppet Finger Puppet Book ($8.50), which features a loveable butterfly character, colorful art, charming rhymed text, and best of all, an adorable finger puppet that peeks through each of the 12 pages of this board book. Recommended for infants and toddlers.
For children ages 4 – 8, we have Butterflies and Moths ($6.75), a book that “excels in vivid color close-up photos, with an intriguing text” according to Children’s Bookwatch. 32 pages long, it is written in language that this age group will understand, and contains a good mix of photos, fun facts, and more in-depth information.
For the 6 – 12 crowd, we have The Life Cycle of a Butterfly ($7.45), part of a larger series that School Library Journal praised as containing “an abundance of clear, colorful, attractively bordered photographs and illustrations that enhance the fact-filled texts.” According to the publisher, “A monarch born in the fall has two major challenges. In addition to metamorphosis, these butterflies fly 4,000 miles on a two-way migration trek! This book explains butterfly metamorphosis and migration in simple terms.”
Children’s Books About Birds
Finally, we also have some great books for the bird-loving children in your life.
B is for Bufflehead contains an eye-catching and humorous photograph of a bird species for each letter of the alphabet. The photos, letters, and names are perfect for the earliest learners. The accompanying text is intended to intrigue young children with a few fun facts about each bird. For older kids there is a section that offers detailed information on each species, including range, habitat, and diet. Just this month, Birder’s World Magazineincluded it in their year-end roundup of “new books worth reading…that belong in your library.”
Bird experts making use of the resources of the world-renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology have created an innovative series of hardcover titles about birdsongs each of which includes a digital audio player that faithfully reproduces the songs described in the texts. Though intended for adults, these books make great gifts for older children with a serious interest in birds and their calls.
Finally, do you remember ever getting a colorful sticker of a cardinal or robin on your homework when you did a good job in elementary school? Well, those stickers are still around and, in fact, they gotten even better! The North American Birds Sticker Book ($8.50) will delight any child who loves both birds and stickers…in fact, you might want to get one for yourself and “time release” the 60 reusable stickers as rewards.
The reward for you when you give any of the gifts discussed in this issue is the knowledge that you are helping to nudge the children you love towards a greater connection with the natural world. The renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton recently commented that, “The tragedy we are facing in this generation is that there is no time for children to explore, to play, to go outside.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. Even Richard Louv agrees that in order to counter the problems he describes in his book, “all you really have to do… is get your kid out in nature now and then—it’s not brain surgery. It’s actually fun, and it’s fun for parents.”
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In our last issue, we discussed how you can help birds make it through the winter by providing them with food and water. Today we’ll discuss that third essential that birds share with all animal life: shelter.
Birds generally build their nests in the spring. But if you put one up now, it will weather and have a comfortable smell and feel to the birds by the time spring comes. What’s more, needy birds will probably come and use it before then to escape the vicissitudes of winter.
Birdhouses vary widely in design and price, depending mostly on which species they are intended for. You can get a nice wren house for less than $10, but a housing complex built to shelter a purple martin colony can cost more than $600. Therefore the first thing to consider before buying a birdhouse is what species you want to attract.
Wrens
If the answer is wrens, we carry eight different models, all of which are under $20. Most are made of cedar wood, (which repels insects, mold, and is resistant to bad weather), and have a removable section to allow for easy cleaning. You can choose between a natural cedar model such as the Woodlink Audubon Cedar Wren House, or a painted model like the Home Bazaar Little Wren House which is white with a brown roof.
We also carry the Decorative Metal Roof Wren House that has been hand painted to give it a weathered look, and the Rubicon Recycled Wren House, which is made from recycled plastic jugs and has a lifetime warrantee that covers it against rotting or splitting. For children, we have the Songbird Cedar Wren House Kit, which makes for a great kid’s project, and is only $6.99.
Build Your Own
By the way, if you’re good at woodworking, you can find specs and instructions online for building your own birdhouse at such places as the Maine Cooperative Extension Service and the Okalahoma Extension. Specs for building birdhouses for twenty-four different species including four kinds of woodpeckers and three kinds of owls, may be found on this Bird House Dimensions Chart. You can also buy complete plans for building purple martin houses from Purple Martin Central.
Bluebirds
Many people want to attract bluebirds because they are beautiful, helpful, peaceable, and have an enchanting song. Furthermore, due to loss of open space and exposure to pesticides, bluebirds are in serious decline. Besides the personal enjoyment you will get from hosting them, putting up a bluebird house is also an act of conservation. As the Michigan Bluebird Society says, “A bluebird box is perhaps the easiest and most rewarding way to do something good for the environment.”
Another popular songbird are purple martins, the largest American swallow, and one of the few birds that can be considered semi-domesticated in that they will return year after year once they have established a home, along with their offspring who will live in the same quarters or as nearby as possible.
Like bluebirds, purple martins are also facing survival challenges, in fact, according to the Purple Martin Society, “purple martins east of the Rocky Mountains are completely dependent on humans to supply their nestboxes (birdhouses) in order to breed today.”
Purple martin birdhouses are the most expensive kind of birdhouse you can get, as they are designed to contain multiple rooms to accommodate a whole colony of martins. Furthermore, these types of houses have to be mounted on poles, so the purchase of an additional pole kit becomes necessary.
People who set out to attract purple martins consider it a hobby, and some get into it quite deeply. In fact, more than a few of our customers who consider themselves “empty nesters” have decided to change their status by attracting and caring for a purple martin colony.
If you’re handy at building things but don’t want to attempt to build a purple martin house from scratch, we recommend the kits made by Heath, which can be ordered with as few as six and as many as twenty-four rooms. You can start out small and expand as needed. We sell a six room house that includes a pole system for $100.00.
Note that the manufacturer describes them as houses but we call them kits. This is because they are time consuming to put together, in fact we have received reports of customers spending all day on the project. That initial challenge is their main disadvantage, although their design also makes it somewhat difficult to access the interior spaces for cleaning and nest checks, and they offer no protection against winged predators or competitors like starlings and sparrows.
Our top-of-the-line models by Lonestar come fully assembled, and their design provides some protection from winged predators. They can be ordered with crescent starling resistant entrance holes (SREH), if you anticipate starlings being a problem. They also have other features that “purple martin landlords” seek out: expandability, easy access to interior spaces, and a design that maximizes occupancy. Their main disadvantage is their price: the Lonestar pole system alone is $225 and the houses range from $259.95 for the 8-room Goliad Jr. to $389.95 for the twelve-room Goliad.
If you don’t mind an hour or less of assembly, the Heritage Farms Quad Pod boasts what we think is an even better design than the Lonestar models, and we are offering it at a specially discounted price of $156 for a four room house, plus $198 for the pole system. Heritage Farms worked closely with the Purple Martin Conservation Association to create purple martin homes that incorporate all of its recommendations, including full protection from winged predators as well as nesting competitors, something that none of our other martin houses fully provide. We therefore consider it to be our best purple martin birdhouse and, with the discount we offer, a very good value as well.
There’s more to say about birdhouses, but the main thing is just to be sure to get one or build one and put it up! Whether you are attracting bluebirds who, to paraphrase Thoreau, carry the sky on their backs, or purple martins with their “”loud, rich chirruping,” to quote W. M. Tyler, or the wren whom William Shakespeare called “the most diminutive of birds,” you will not regret your decision to provide them with a home.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 9:33 am and is filed under Newsletters.
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November chores include bringing things in: houseplants, tools. But there’s something you’ll want to put out at this time: birdfeeders. Many varieties of birds are looking in nature’s pantry for something to eat right now and finding it as bare as the trees that such a short time ago were covered with leaves and fruit. By making an effort to keep our feathered friends well fed, you will provide them with much needed sustenance, and they will provide you with a source of delight all winter long. As Jennifer Brennan of Wilmette, Illinois puts it, “having eight cardinals to enjoy with your winter coffee makes living here worthwhile.”
But the satisfaction of feeding birds goes beyond their visual appeal and delightful songs. As Chris Packham explains, “It makes me feel good about myself, knowing I could be helping a bird survive the winter and go on to raise chicks next year…. You can see the good you’re doing the way the birds just pile into your garden looking for food.” He knows of what he speaks: as vice president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in England, he is well aware of what birds are up against in the winter.
Birds that have been weakened by illness or injury will not have the stamina to migrate. Other birds migrate through areas that have been built up to the extent that green areas are far and few between. They need a little help to survive from the biped species that paved over their habitat. Other birds are non-migratory, but they still face slim pickings in the winter, especially if a snowstorm has buried their food. Imagine their relief when they find a birdfeeder stocked with seeds or suet!
Some people worry that birdfeeders might disrupt migration patterns or increase nest predation, but major environmental organizations such as the Audubon Society give birdfeeders an enthusiastic two thumbs up. In fact, in an article entitled The Winter Feast, published by Audubon Magazine, Steven W. Kress argues that bird feeders have such a positive impact on bird populations that ideally every household should have at least one.
If you’re looking for a feeder, we have an more than one hundred: everything from window feeders like our best-selling Window Café, to feeders designed to attract specific birds such as finches, to an all weather feeder that will keep seeds dry even in horizontal rain, to artistic feeders with various stained glass designs, to novelty feeders that look like barns or carriage lamps, to those popular wire-mesh No No Feeders that can hold more than two pounds of seed.
If you want to solve your squirrel problem by feeding the little guys (and gals) directly, we also sell squirrel feeders. Heck, you can even throw a squirrel party with our Food For A Crowd Squirrel Feeder, which is only $12.75. If any squirrel comes to you and complains that he and his friends are still hungry after you stick a bunch of ears of corn onto this feeder, we’ll refund your money, no questions asked!
Birds Cannot Live By Seed Alone
Besides food, birds also need water—especially after ponds and puddles freeze, and the fruits and berries that served as secondary water sources are no longer available. Making water available will attract an even wider variety of birds than a feeder, and the combination of a feeder and a birdbath is unbeatable, especially in the winter.
We sell a heated birdbath that will stay ice-free all the way to 20 degrees below zero! It can either be placed on the ground, or mounted on a rail or post, and comes in terra cotta or blue powder finish, depending on which model you choose. In any case, the bowl is easily detachable: a key feature, as you’ll want to change the water and clean it regularly.
To be frank, if you’re serious about providing birds a place to drink and bathe year-round, you might want to go with another model that isn’t heated, and simply place a de-icer into it during the winter. The reason is that no single birdbath contains all the features recommended by ornithologists, yet it is possible to get a birdbath that has everything but a heater.
For example, the Birdbath and Solar Fountain almost has it all: the pedestal design keeps the bowl off the ground and thus out of reach of cats and other animals; the weathered stone base makes it unlikely that any animal will knock it over (unless you have bears around). The bowl is 2” deep and rough inside, just what the pros recommend, and—best of all— the water does not sit around but circulates constantly, propelled by a solar powered pump.
This last feature is important for several reasons: besides the fact that birds love moving water, standing water needs to be changed much more often, and when the weather warms up it provides mosquitoes a place to breed, including those that might carry West Nile disease. Thus getting a birdbath with a fountain is definitely the way to go for year-round use, and having it be solar-powered eliminates the need for a cord or batteries. For tips on birdbath placement and care, see this helpful guide.
In writing about the needs of birds, we’ve covered food and water, but we’ve left out one more essential: shelter. Next issue, we’ll discuss what you can do on your property so that visiting birds will not only stop for a meal and drink, but possibly to spend the night—or many nights.
We’ll close with a little poem by the nineteenth-century British novelist Thomas Hardy that articulates a bit of the winter birds’ plight that we spoke of earlier:
Birds At Winter Nightfall
Around the house the flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone
From holly and cotoneaster
Around the house.The flakes fly!—faster
Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster
We used to see upon the lawn
Around the house.The flakes fly faster,
And all the berries now are gone!
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 11:42 am and is filed under Newsletters.
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Of course, most people recognize that trees protect the soil, help to keep the air and water clean, and provide valuable shade and windbreaks. Less well known are the economic benefits. For example, the strategic placement of trees near a home can reduce heating and cooling costs by as much as 25%, and increase property values by 15% or greater.
Whether people are in stores, offices, gyms, hospitals, clinics, or nursing homes, they are happier if they can see trees. Children need a few trees to climb to be at their best. Salespersons are more cheerful when there is greenery around, and shoppers spend more at such businesses.
If all this makes you want to plant some trees, don’t hesitate: early fall is prime time for planting deciduous trees, especially if you’re not too far up north. As Jessica Kelling of the ReTree Project explains, “many tree species are able to quickly establish their root systems thanks to fall’s lower temperatures and reduced humidity. This allows young trees to prepare for the upcoming winter and gives them a jump start on spring growth.”
Tree Planting Pointers
There are many excellent Cooperative Extension materials available that will tell you everything you need to know about tree planting in your area. You might also want to watch one of the short tree planting videos that are available on the internet. Both Tree Planting Tips and How To Plant A Tree are pretty good.
You don’t want to begin to plant your trees and then find out that you don’t have all the materials to complete the job. So here’s a list of what you’ll need:
If your tree came in a container or wrapped in burlap, you’ll also need a utility knife to cut the container or the string around the burlap. Gardening gloves and safety glasses are also a good idea.
The most common mistake beginning tree planters make is to dig a hole too deep or too narrow. A tree should be transplanted at the same depth as the root ball or container it came in. The hole has to be two to three times wider than the root ball or container so that the roots can easily spread into the soil with which you will fill the hole.
Keep in mind that these roots will eventually extend beyond the circumference of the hole, and they could have difficulty doing so if the surrounding soil is very hard. To avoid this, score the sides of the hole to facilitate root entry.
Once the tree is in the ground, it’s critical to water the tree regularly, and giving it mulch and fertilizer is important also. Since we covered these topics in our Fall Tree Care Guide, you might want to review it before you proceed.
Stake Your Trees Only If They Need It
The good news about staking trees is that you probably won’t need to do it. The exceptions are if your tree came with its roots exposed, if its top growth greatly outweighs its root ball, or if it is being planted in a location that is subject to strong winds or other adverse conditions.
Staking a tree when it doesn’t need it actually stunts its growth and makes it more likely to break or fall over. What’s more, many well-intentioned treestakers forget to remove the stakes when the necessary amount of time has elapsed, resulting in additional problems for the tree. Before you stake, educate yourself as to the issues involved by reading this informative article by Chris Beasley.
If you determine that your tree needs to be staked, carefully follow Chris’ guidelines as well as those offered by forester Steve Nix in this article. Once your tree has been staked, mark your calendar so as not to forget to remove the stakes after one growing season, or after the passage of a year, depending on the tree. Generally speaking, no tree should be staked for more than two years.
To simplify the staking process and provide our customers with materials that meet the standards of professional arborists, we carry Lawson Tree Stake Kits. These kits contain all the parts you’ll need to do a first rate job, including rubber support straps that will not damage your trees the way wire or cord sometimes do. They are a snap to take off when the staking process is complete, and, in fact, you can remove them each time you mow and then easily reattach them afterwards.
Pruning Trees When They Are Dormant
Fall is the all-time best time for pruning deciduous trees. Why? Because the cuts you make in your tree when you prune it will be able to heal without complication or interference by critters and disease-bearing fungi. Also, the lack of leaves provides a better view of the tree’s form, making it easier to identify weak branch joints and dead or broken limbs. A successful pruning will do away with any dead wood or other problematic branches or limbs, encourage positive branching patterns, promote balanced air circulation, and open the tree up to receive optimal amounts of sunlight.
As with staking, you need to know what you’re doing when you prune, especially if you are working with oaks or elms. The U.S. Forest Service has produced an excellent 12-page guide that is worth studying before you get out there and start cutting.
You’ll be pleased to know that we stock all of the pruning tools the Forest Service recommends: bypass and anvil pruners for smaller branches, lopping shears for slightly thicker branches, and a long handled tree pruner to get up high. We also have a variety of tree loppers, some of which also have a long reach. For thicker limbs, you’ll want to use a limb saw. Chain saws can be used on the thickest limbs, but not if you need to get up on a ladder!
While you’re busy trying to figure out whether to make that hole a little wider before you put the tree in, or whether to use a lopping shear or a bypass pruner to take down a branch, it’s good to pause for a moment and appreciate that you are being a steward of the earth—an earth keeper, to use more modern language.
As our friends at the Arbor Day Foundation will tell you, trees are needed on the planet now more than ever. You are helping to meet that need. Considering the life span of most trees, the trees you plant today may very well provide benefits to future generations. For some people, that’s the most spiritual aspect of tree planting. As Elton Trueblood writes, “A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.”
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on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Newsletters.
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People tend to think of trees as a part of the landscape—as self-sufficient as brooks and almost as permanent as boulders. Yet trees can be quite vulnerable, especially when young. Extension educator David J. Robson likens trees to children and argues that in order for them to get off to a good start, they need the right kind of care—not just for the first few months but for the first few years. “Make an investment in your trees,” he writes, “and hopefully they’ll be around in your old age.”
So what do our trees need in order to live long, healthy, and productive lives? Not very much, it turns out: mostly just sufficient water and periodic application of fertilizer. Of course, certain trees will need to be pruned or trimmed, and newly planted trees might need to be staked. But that’s about it, unless a tree becomes diseased. But that’s all the more reason to give your trees good preventive care to keep them as healthy as possible.
Water Deeply and Weekly
Some people water their trees for the first couple months after they’ve been planted and then assume they’ll be fine after that. Actually, trees need to be watered for at least the first couple of years. The amount of water has to be right also: enough to penetrate to the roots, but not so much that the root systems become soggy or even rotten. If your area gets a substantial rainfall once a week, that should be sufficient, but if not, water your trees deeply on weeks when it has been dry. Also, try to get out and give your trees a last fall watering before that first freeze occurs, especially if they are conifers.
Established trees should be watered to a depth of six to eight inches around the perimeter of the thickest part of the root zone; newly planted trees need this kind of deep watering throughout the entire root zone. Either way, it amounts to a lot of water, especially considering that established trees have root zones that extend 1 1/2 to 3 times beyond the tree’s canopy.
One way to conserve water is to drive a few Deep Drip™ Watering Stakes around the perimeter of the canopy. These will deliver water directly to the tree roots without any being lost to run-off or evaporation. Watering Stakes also improve soil aeration and enable fertilizer to penetrate deeply, making for stronger, healthier roots. You’ll find that you’ll be able to water less often for shorter amounts of time.
Fertilize Around the Root Zone
Fall is an excellent time to fertilize your trees. Professional arborists devise a fertilizer application schedule based on how quickly a tree is going, but it’s safe to say that your trees will probably need fertilizing in the fall, unless they are located in a forest where leaves and other organic matter are decomposing around them, or on a lawn that is being fertilized two or three times a year. In the former case, Mother Nature will provide the fertilizer, in that latter case, your trees will soak up enough lawn fertilizer to nourish them.
The procedure for fertilizing a tree is pretty straightforward: you just need a 3/4 inch piece of rebar at least two feet long, a heavy hammer, and a cup. Place the bar down at a point along the drip line of the tree and hammer it to a depth of about 18 inches. Pull it out, and continue making holes every three feet around the entire perimeter of the tree. After you’ve done that, move three feet inward and do the same thing; then move six feet outward and repeat the procedure once again. Finally pour about six ounces of fertilizer into each hole.
The tree fertilizer we recommend is the tried-and-true Tree Tone, made by Espoma, a company that has been producing organic fertilizers for eighty years. Espoma also makes fertilizer especially formulated for specific types of trees: both their Citrus Tone and Palm Tone are excellent.
Mulch To Keep Weeds Down
Mulching should be part of your fertilizing efforts: spread a doughnut of mulch six inches from each tree trunk extending out a couple of feet. Besides enriching the soil, mulch will keep weeds to a minimum and discourage the growth of fungi and other sources of disease.
The easiest source of mulch for tree owners are the fallen leaves themselves—rake them up, or use our super-duper leaf sweeper, and then run your lawnmower through the pile to shred them. You can also put them in a garbage pail and use a week whacker to break them up. Then mix them with grass clippings, shredded bark, wood chips, pine needles, or other compost. Put down a few layers of newspaper (no color print) and then apply the mulch on top. Repeat this procedure in the spring and summer.
If you want to avoid this step and opt for a more manicured look, try our Perm-A-Mulch Mats. Made from recycled rubber, these mats surround the tree trunk and resemble hardwood mulch. Like organic mulch, they impede weed growth and yet allow water and nutrients to pass through. Yet they will not be damaged by lawn mowers or trimmers—in fact, you can mow right over them. The only care they need is to be rotated a quarter turn once or twice a year.
Some people have environmental concerns over the use of ground coverings such as synthetic turf, but Perm-A-Mulch Mats will not shed any tiny pellets or other matter than could mix with your soil and contaminate it. They are all of one piece, and are so durable that they hold up for ten years or more. In any case, I have used them on my own trees, and would never want to do without them.
Protect Your Young Trees from Animals and Machines
If there’s a chance your young trees or shrubs might get damaged by animals or machinery, surround them with some protective material. Nowadays, lightweight products such as Clark’s Vinyl Tree Guards and Gardeneer® Tree Guard™ Protective Wrap are available that have replaced the wire mesh and hardwire cloth of the past. Wrapping the trunk with a commercial tree wrap such as Clark’s Tree Wrap will prevent sunscald. Put the wrap on in the fall and remove it in the spring after the last frost. Wraps should only be used on young trees.
Give Your Back A Rest
Finally, we’d like to tell you more about the leaf sweeper we mentioned in passing earlier, because it’s such a unique and interesting new product. For generations, the rake has been the tool of choice for tree owners in the fall, and there’s certainly something to be said for getting the exercise. But raking can become a burden to elders, as well as to new parents and busy career folks and anyone who just doesn’t have the time to get out there and do it.
The Lambert Deluxe Lawn Sweeper—31” Push Sweeper takes the hassle out of raking: you just push it over your lawn and it collects the leaves automatically into a bag. When the bag is full, you dump it, and then continue pushing it around your lawn, just like an old-fashioned push lawnmower, but easier. The only sounds you’ll hear will be the crunching of the leaves and the movement of the mechanical parts. It also works on driveways, sidewalks, and parking lots. As a special introductory offer, we’re offering the Leaf Sweeper for $220 this month, a $50 discount off the usual price.
That’s all for now—we will be in touch mid-month to discuss two other essential aspects of tree care, pruning and staking, and we’ll also give you some advice about tree planting. Until then, enjoy the fall weather and take advantage of a 25% discount on all other products mentioned in this newsletter: just order before October 8th and enter code 2009TD at checkout.
This entry was posted
on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Newsletters.
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Have a gardening question you can't find the answer to?
Some of the most popular tender and semi-tender crops are beans, cantaloupes, cucumbers, eggplants, okra, peas, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, tomatoes and watermelons. Hardy and semi-hardy crops include beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, kale, lettuce, onions, and turnips.
been well broken up so as not to form a hard crust over the seeds. In any case, carefully follow the directions that came with your order and remember that your seeds or transplants will need plenty of water, especially during the first two weeks. Depressions or basins around each transplant can be filled as needed with water, or just use a sprinkler.
Considering that there are more than 4,000 varieties of tomatoes available, it can be quite a project for a gardener or farmer to decide what types and varieties to grow. In this newsletter we’ll summarize—or should we say “boil down” or “condense”—the vast amount of tomato info so that you won’t have to try to digest it all yourself. J And to help you determine which types are best for you, we’ve come up with a handy quiz that will quickly determine whether you should concentrate on open-pollinated types or hybrids.
Heirlooms are simply open-pollinated varieties that have been handed down for many years. How long a variety has to be handed down in order to be called an heirloom is not strictly defined, but the range is generally considered to be between 50 and 100 years. Some heirlooms date back even longer than that such as the 
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easy to grow from “from scratch,” which, in this case, means sprouting some sweet potatoes and then growing the sprouts into “slips” until they become plants. Once the plant stage is reached, the growing process is straightforward, but 
Last Thanksgiving, the New York Times 
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In our own small way, we at 
We’ve also just gotten in the 
Speaking of butterflies, we just got in the 
Wrens
Many people want to attract bluebirds because they are 
People who set out to attract purple martins consider it a hobby, and some get into it quite deeply. In fact, more than a few of our customers who consider themselves “empty nesters” have decided to change their status by attracting and caring for a purple martin colony. 
Besides food, birds also need water—especially after ponds and puddles freeze, and the fruits and berries that served as secondary water sources are no longer available. Making water available will attract an even wider variety of birds than a feeder, and the combination of a feeder and a birdbath is unbeatable, especially in the winter.
Planting, Staking and Pruning Deciduous Trees in the Fall
Fall Tree Care
The tree fertilizer we recommend is the tried-and-true 
If you want to avoid this step and opt for a more manicured look, try our 
Finally, we’d like to tell you more about the 
