Welcoming Birds

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.

By the way, we carry all the fixin’s: sunflower seed, peanut seed, Nyjer seed, and suet. To keep seed from littering the ground and attracting squirrels, we sell the ingenious Seedhoop Seed Catcher. We also have a variety of squirrel-proof feeders, including the award-winning Heritage Farms Absolute II, which is another one of our bestselling birdfeeders.

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. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Fall Tree Care

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. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Planting Mums and other Good Ideas for September

Fall is a time for taking stock, and battening down the hatches for winter. But it is also a great time to plant perennials, shrubs, and trees. In this issue, we’ll let you know what chores need to be done to prepare for the next growing season, and we’ll also fill you in on planting mums, the world’s most popular perennials, which we have on sale until September 25. Order before then and get a 15% discount by entering the code FM09 at checkout.

Your Farmer’s Almanac

First to the chores….one interesting one that is often neglected is to write down what worked and what didn’t work in your garden this year. If you can figure out why and write it down, that’s even better. By taking these kinds of gardening notes, you’ll be able to learn from your mistakes and won’t have to rely on memory to reproduce your successes. Get yourself a notebook and start your own “farmer’s almanac.”

Out With the Old

Now is the time to pull up what’s left of crops you’ve harvested. Pests and disease spores can overwinter in the residue, so it’s best to get rid of it now. Likewise in flower gardens, you’ll want to remove any dead plants or plants infected with powdery mildew. Otherwise, the infections will recur in the spring. Likewise for potted plants, plus you’ll also want to remove any used (and thus depleted) potting soil. If you were using any ceramic pots, prevent them from breaking by putting them away in a place where they won’t freeze.

Keep Mowing

Grass grows quickly in the brisk fall weather, so you’ll want to keep mowing your lawn until that first freeze. Position you blade to be at least 2 inches high, and if you have partially decomposed roots and stems matting up your lawn from previously cuttings, you’ll want to get rid of them also. Naturally, you’ll want to rake your lawn regularly to prevent the autumn leaves from suffocating your grass. By the way, we have a new product called a Lawn Sweeper that really makes raking a pleasure. (More about this next month.) If your lawn has any bare spots, there is no better time to reseed. Many people also fertilize their lawn in September.

Compost What You Can

This is also a fine time to start a new compost pile with your grass clippings and the leaves that have started—or will soon start—to fall. If you shred those leaves with your lawnmower, they’ll break down faster, and be more absorbent. This will increase their nutritive value by making their carbon more available. It also gives them the capacity to soak up excess water. Some people with low levels of carbon in their soil keep a garbage pail full of shredded leaves in their garage, and use it as garden mulch. You can also compost any dead but otherwise healthy plants, as well as weeds as long as they don’t have seed heads.

Add Fall Color

Now we come to the fun part: planting perennials! The perennials you want to plant are the kind which bloom in the fall, so you won’t have to wait until spring to add some much-needed color to your garden.  The most overwhelming popular of these are mums, which, as we said at the start, are on sale until September 25th.

Both our Belgian Mums and Yoder Mums will do well in the fall and winter, with the Belgian being the most hardy. If you live in the southern part of the country (hardiness zones 7,8, 9) you could opt for Yoder, which are the most popular of all the mums we sell, while people in the northern regions (hardiness zones 4,5,6) will do best with Belgian, which are also wonderful. To determine your hardiness zone, simply enter your zip code on our hardiness zone page.

The Belgian Mid Mums and Yoder Mid Mums should burst into bloom next week and continue blooming through the beginning of October, while the Belgian Late Mums and Yoder Late Mums bloom in early October and stay in bloom throughout the month. Lighter colors bloom a little bit earlier, while the darker reds and purples bloom are the last to bloom, so you might want to pick a variety of colors so that there’s always something opening up. We ship all of our mums in 8 inch pots, so they’re all ready to go, and are guaranteed to arrive healthy and ready to plant. Use the code FM09 at checkout to receive your 15% discount.

If your mums arrive in full bloom, know that, unlike certain other flowers, it’s fine to transplant them. Just be sure to give them plenty of water at the beginning. At the same time, you might want to order some to keep in pots, as they make attractive additions to decks, porches, and patios. In this case, water them sparingly to avoid root rot. The only place mums won’t flourish is indoors—they need full sun to keep from becoming yellow and droopy.  

Finally a word about asters—these are also a great choice right now if you can find a variety that has yet to bloom. We’re happy to report that we have one: the gorgeous blue Aster Peter III which blooms in late September. Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up and see these lovely flowers? So, remember, if you don’t want to limit yourself to mums, there’s always a morning aster! (snare drum roll, cymbal crash).

In our upcoming newsletters, we’ll give you more tips on dealing with fall leaves, and we’ll go into detail about tree planting and tree care in general. Until then, be well, and enjoy the change of seasons. As summertime slips away, we can all look forward to the delightful sights, sounds, and smells of autumn.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 9:48 am and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

This month we’re celebrating organically grown food, and the hardworking people who grow it—including many of you. As a way of saying thanks for doing a favor to the soil and the environment—as well as to the health of those who eat your delicious produce—we’re offering a 10% discount off of our entire inventory between now and August 31. Just enter the code NWS081709 in the box marked “discounts” when you are checking out.

Recently there was a lot of hoopla in the media about a British nutritional study that compares organically grown food with food that was not grown using organic methods. We’d like to inform you about the findings of this study, and set the record straight concerning them.

The first thing to understand is that it was a meta-study, a study that analyzes other studies, and not one that collects original data. Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) funded by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), a part of the British government set up “to protect the public’s health and consumer interests in relation to food,” examined data from fifty years of research papers. Led by Dr. Alan Dangour, they came to the conclusion that organic food and “conventional” food are so similar nutritionally that any differences between them are unimportant.

But wait!—the British researchers did in fact find that organic food is nutritionally superior! Here is an excerpt from the opening page from their executive summary:

Significant differences in content between organically and conventionally produced crops were found in some minerals (nitrogen higher in conventional crops; magnesium and zinc higher in organic crops), phytochemicals (phenolic compounds and flavonoids higher in organic crops) and sugars (higher in organic crops).

Let’s analyze this ourselves for a moment.

Organic produce is sweeter—OK, some might say that is only a taste benefit, but if people are offered peaches that taste like wood and tomatoes that taste like cardboard, they are not going to want to eat their “5 A Day” servings of fruits and vegetables.

High levels of nitrogen in crops have been associated with negative health effects, so that is another good reason to go organic. Increased levels of magnesium, zinc, and phytochemicals are all positive findings—especially phytochemicals (which include flavanols and polyphenols), since many people buy green tea, blueberries, cocoa, as well as expensive supplements, in order to boost their intake of these valuable antioxidant substances.

Considering all of this, it seems hard to believe that Dr. Dangour and his team would have concluded that, “On the basis of a systematic review of studies of satisfactory quality, there is no evidence of a difference in nutrient quality between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs.” The explanation, however, lies in their use of the words “of satisfactory quality.”

These researchers considered 162 relevant articles published in professional peer-reviewed nutritional journals. However, they judged only 55 of these studies to be of “satisfactory quality,” and disqualified 107 studies for various reasons, most frequently because they did not go into enough detail as to which organic growing methods were employed.  They therefore omitted the data from these studies before drawing up their final conclusions.

Needless to say, this was not welcome news to organic advocates such as Peter Melchett of the Soil Association who lamented that “the review rejected almost all of the existing studies of comparisons between organic and non-organic nutritional differences.” Dr. Carlo Leifer, a professor of ecology at Newcastle University and the head researcher of an equally important European study that recently found organic food to be nutritionally superior, also took issue with Dangour’s methodology.

After noting that the data Dr. Dangour analyzed was similar to his own findings, he commented, “With these literature reviews you can influence the outcome by the way that you select the papers that you use for your meta-analysis….My feeling—and quite a lot of people think this—is that this is probably the study that delivers what the FSA wanted as an outcome.”

Does the FSA might have a pro-agribusiness agenda?? They claim not to, although their chief executive, Tim Smith, was a powerful figure in agribusiness and the food industry for decades before assuming the top position at the agency. Nor does it seem unreasonable to wonder if agribusiness lobbyists pressured the FSA to not preference organics just as the sugar lobby in the United States pressured the USDA for years to not remove sweets from the fats-oils-sweets trio at the top of the food pyramid.

In any case, the FSA seems to be ignorant of the reasons people buy organic, as well as of the larger health and environmental benefits that would result if more growers used organic methods.

Most people buy organic because they don’t want to ingest pesticide, herbicide, or fungicide residues. Some prefer the heirloom varieties of seeds that organic growers often use, and want to stay away from crops grown from genetically-modified “frankenseeds.” Others like the freshness and taste of organic and the fact that the produce at their farmer’s market is locally grown. They feel good supporting the small farmers in their community. Still others are opposed to farm workers being exposed to toxic chemicals, and object to the treatment of “factory-farmed” animals.

When we look at the big picture, organic farming methods improve the soil, keep contaminants out of the ground water, and are a sustainable form of agriculture. Indeed, if soil depletion continues, none of us are going to get much nutrition from our food. As Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry warn in a recent New York Times op-ed, “Civilizations have destroyed themselves by destroying their farmland.”

So, as one of our customers, give yourself some a few kudos for doing your part to preserve the environment. Unlike other garden supply centers, And we at Garden Harvest are proud as well to sell organic fertilizers like Espoma and Neptune’s Harvest, and natural pesticides such as diatomaceous earth, which is one of our longstanding bestsellers.

In our organic seed section, you will find a wide selection of organic vegetable seeds including heirloom varieties such as the popular Bradywine Pink. We also have eighteen varieties of organic herb seeds.

So take good care of your little piece of the earth, and save some money between now and August 31 by using our discount code NWS081709. We’ll be in touch again in September with a newsletter to help you get your fall garden off to a good start.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 8:43 am and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

How would you like to serve your own homegrown potatoes and squash at this year’s Thanksgiving meal? In this issue of the Garden Harvest Supply Newsletter we’ll give you some tips on how to have the best fall harvest—and most delicious Thanksgiving dinner!—ever. Plus we’re offering 10% off on all our vegetable plants for the month of August: just enter the code FV09 at checkout, coupon expires 08/31/09.

Know Your Frost Date

The rule of thumb when planning for a fall harvest is to choose plants that are likely to mature by the time the first frost hits. That approximate date can be found by consulting the Frost Chart at the Old Farmer’s Almanac online. Then check our website to determine the number of days your plants will require to mature.

For example, the Butte potato is listed on our site as taking 110-135 days to mature. If you live in, say, Portland, OR, the Farmer’s Almanac will tell you that the average first frost date in your area is Nov. 15. This means that if you plant in early August, you should be ready to harvest in early November, just ahead of the first frost.

But what if you live in Cedar Rapids, IA where the average first frost is October 6? In that case, it may be best to switch to a plant that matures more rapidly. Our “Coronado Crown” Broccoli requires only 58 days. If you put it in the ground in early August, your broccoli should be ready before the first frost.

Know Your Plant’s Hardiness

Another factor to consider when planning for a fall harvest is plant hardiness. Though tender plants will be damaged by a frost, plants that are semi-hardy will tolerate a light frost. And if you choose hardy plants, you no longer have to be hamstrung by the cold weather.

Planting Fall Strawberries

Strawberries are also a hardy plant. Many people associate them with spring planting, but if you plant them in the fall, they require less care and you won’t have to wait until the next year for them to bear fruit: they will overwinter and be ready to harvest the following spring.

We offer two varieties of strawberries that can be planted in the fall, even though they’re categorized as “June bearing”: the Sweet Charlie, which matures the fastest, and the Chandler, which takes about a week longer. We ship both kinds out as guaranteed disease-free potted plants, with 25 plants to an order. Shipping begins the first week of September, but if you preorder now, you’ll be the first to receive them.

Once the plants arrive, soak them in water for 10 minutes before planting. If you only want to grow about 50-75 of them, check out our Pyramid Space Saver Garden. It has a built in sprinkler system, and can be purchased with an aluminum support frame and heavy-duty plastic cover to help guard the plants against frost.

To avoid Verticillium rot, don’t plant strawberries in a place where potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant have recently been grown. Remember also that fall-planted strawberries must be mulched before the first frost to prevent injury to the plants. Repeated freezing and thawing of the ground can heave un-mulched plants out of the soil. Straw makes an ideal mulching material, and pine needles work well too. For more information about planting strawberries in the fall, click here. 

Cover Your Plants

Yes, even hardy plants need some protection in freezing temperatures. Many gardeners simply throw old bed sheets or towels over their vulnerable plants when the nightly news predicts a cold snap. To improve on this method, support your cover materials with stakes or wire. Individual plants can be protected with gallon milk jugs with the bottoms cut out, and root crops can be covered with 18 inches of hay, straw, dry leaves, or pine needles.

Of course, there are many products on the market that are engineered to provide optimal cold-weather protection, and they often have other benefits as well such as weed and pest control. Some of the the popular are the Wall O Water Plant Protector for individual plants, and Haxnicks Easy Tunnel Row Cover for entire rows. Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower can be planted through black plastic mulch, which also works well for strawberries planted in the fall.

A more permanent solution to the problem of frost damaging your plants is to use a cold frame or hot bed. For more information on this, try these links from the extensions of Cornell University, the University of Missouri and Ohio State University.

Keep ‘em Moist

Watering is always important, but if you live in an area where August means long, hot, dry days, you’ll want to really stay on top of this. Most master gardeners agree that your plants will need one or two inches of water per week at this time if you want your fall garden to get off to a good start.

Horticulturist B. Rosie Lerner warns that in late summer, a hard crust might form over your seeds, which can interfere with their germination, especially if the soil is heavy. She also notes that seeds of lettuce, peas, and spinach may have difficulty germinating if the soil temperatures rise to 85F or above. To keep the seeds cooler and moister, she recommends planting them slightly deeper than you do in the spring, and applying a light mulch.

One final tip about watering: if you’re going to be away on vacation, or just want to reduce the amount of time you spend watering, give our Terra-Sorb Water Saving Granules a try. They absorb up to 200 times their own weight in water, and then release it as the soil dries out, watering your plants from below so that you don’t have to water them from above. Because they supply moisture in a more efficient way than ordinary watering, they also reduce water usage significantly. 

Mum’s the Word

Late summer is a great time to plant garden chrysanthemums. Not only are they one of the easiest flowers to grow, but when everything else is barren and bare, they will still be smiling brightly at you through the frost.

Mums typically bloom from September to the end of October or sometimes longer, depending on the weather. If you protect them from the cold and choose a hardy variety, they will do well in even the coldest climate zones. As the gardening experts at Home & Garden Television say, “Keep your mums well watered through the first hard freeze. After that, add a thick layer of mulch to protect them through winter. For trimming back, there are a couple of schools of thought. In warmer climates, it’s fine to cut back. In colder climates, leave the dead stems; they work perfectly as a cage. Stuff leaves inside to add extra protection.”

When it comes to mum varieties, there are plenty to choose from. Both our Belgian Mums and Yoder Mums will do well in the fall and winter, with the Belgian being the most hardy. If you don’t want to think about matching colors, consider getting one of our finished Mum baskets, full of an assortment of fully-grown Belgian mums in a variety of matching colors.

Looking to Fall

There’s a lot more to say about fall gardening, but we’ll leave it for our September newsletter. Until then, enjoy the “dog days of summer,” and don’t believe that recently-publicized study which claims that organic crops are no better for you than crops produced using chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Organic fruits and veggies may not have significantly more vitamins and minerals than their non-organic counterparts, but they are free of chemical pesticide residue—an important health factor that the researchers did not even take into account. Furthermore, organic growing methods are better for the soil and for the planet.

The best thing, of course, is to eat your own fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden, grown using the safe and natural products we sell here at Garden Harvest Supply. There is a health value to that kind of wholesomeness which scientists have barely begun to investigate.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 at 8:54 am and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

If you believe that diet pills are the best way to lose weight quickly, you probably also think that the most efficient way of getting rid of garden pests is to use powerful chemicals. It’s the same mindset: wanting a quick fix without regard to long-range consequences, or even long-term effectiveness. Here at Garden Harvest Supply we can’t advise you on how to best shed pounds, though gardening will help keep you fit, but we do believe in a moderate, safe approach to getting rid of pests.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM), the approach we recommend, is actually an umbrella-term that refers to a variety of sensible and sustainable gardening practices that are highly effective when implemented together. You don’t have to be a serious gardener to follow IPM; it’s really just common sense, or, rather, the kind of earth sense you would develop if you lived close to the land and had worked it for years, observing and learning. To help you get started with IPM, we’re going to focus on four of its main pillars, which we will discuss individually in the sections that follow.

Go Native

Did you know that by planting native species you will be much less likely to run into pest problems? As the gardeners at Growing Hope explain, “Native plants are better protected by their own ‘immune systems’ and their relationships with other plants and animals in the area.” Thanks to websites like enature.com or wildflower.org, it’s easy to find which plants are native to your region.

Within the native plants, you can zero in on those that are the most pest-resistant. Toronto Master Gardeners have compiled a list of the most pest-resistant flowers. To learn about the most pest-resistant varieties of fruits and vegetables, try this Wikipedia list.

The Buddy System

Companion planting is based on the principle that plants can complement each other in mutually beneficial ways. For example, aphids will tend to stay away from tomatoes if chives are planted alongside them. Likewise, planting marigolds next to your pansies will help to keep slugs away. Companion planting can even help to discourage big pests like raccoons. As David Beaulieu explains, if you plant corn and squash together, pesky mammals wanting a sweet corn treat will be discouraged by the prickly squash vines crisscrossing their path. To learn more about companion planting, check out this article from Organic Gardening Magazine, or, if you just need to know what goes well together and what doesn’t, try the Home and Garden Site. For personalized attention, don’t hesitate to contact our master gardener Karen.

If You Plant It, They Will Come

If you encourage good critters such as ladybugs, lacewings, ground beetles, birds and bees, they will help to take care of some of your pests for you. In Ecological Gardening, Marjorie Harris writes that the larvae of the ladybug “can down 25 aphids a day, the adult 56 a day. And one coupling will produce from 200 to 1,000 offspring. They can get into areas no spray could possibly penetrate.” To create an inviting environment for this most welcome garden guest, plant one or more of the following:  alfalfa, angelica, caraway, cilantro, clover, dill, fennel, marigolds, nasturtiums, or yarrow.

Songbirds will go after many of your beetles, grubs, and flying insects. To attract them, gardening expert Theresa Forte recommends a border of fruit-bearing shrubs such as serviceberry, dogwood, viburnum or rosa. Since birds also look for sheltered spots to nest, they will use evergreen shrubs such as spruce, cedar and juniper if you make them available. Bluebirds will be happy to both sing for you and eat your pests but they are cavity-nesters so you’ll need to provide them with a house, such as this popular top viewing model. Ms. Forte’s final suggestion is to get a birdbath—something that birds as well as bees will love. We sell some beauties, such as this Aspen Leaf Birdbath.

Natural Pesticides

The IPM approach allows for the prudent use of organic biodegradable pesticides because the interventions discussed above won’t always solve pest problems completely. However, the use of inorganic pesticides can harm your pets and even you and your family. The larger picture is that when these substances find their way into the groundwater, they contribute to the pollution of land and water. On the other hand, natural pesticides can be highly effective without doing any damage.

Our favorite natural pesticide is diatomaceous earth (DE), sometimes referred to as fossil shell flour. It could also be called microscopic razor wire because when magnified 1000 times, each particle is shown to have extremely sharp edges. When insects eat it, it cuts up their insides and simultaneously dries them out. If they get dusted with it, it also cuts into them when they scratch themselves, and, again, dries them out. Yet it will not harm pets, in fact, food grade DE (which is what we sell) is often given to animals as a parasite treatment. It is so pure that it can even be given to children for this same purpose: a teaspoon a day should do the trick.

DE works on just about everything— ants, aphids, whiteflies, loppers, mites, leafhoppers, cockroaches, silverfish, bedbugs, fleas, box elder bugs, crickets, ticks, slugs, snails, even scorpions. Just be careful to use only food grade DE for gardening or internal consumption. There is another kind used in swimming pool filters that is treated with harmful chemicals. We sell food grade diatomaceous earth in five or fifty pound bags. You can apply it yourself (use that mask you bought for Swine Flu), but for larger area you might want to buy a Dustin-Mizer Garden Duster. This duster works great for spreading DE, and is well worth the $35 investment.

If grubs are what’s eating you and your plants, we recommend a product originally developed by the USDA: Milky Spore Powder. Though nontoxic to humans and animals and harmless to the beneficial insects in your garden, one application will do away with grubs for a guaranteed 10 years, and possibly up to 20 years! These results are possible because Milky Spore Powder infects the critters with a bacterium to which only grubs are susceptible. After two or three weeks they die, but the spores remain in the soil, ready to infect future generations of grubs that might happen to find their way into your garden.

Keep your Mind on the Roses, Not the Thorns

We’d like to leave you with the thought that there are 200 million bugs for every human being on the planet. This puts things into perspective doesn’t it? Consider also that 95% of the animal species on the earth are insects. So pest control is really a matter of peaceful coexistence, isn’t it?

Make your garden a happy place for the good critters, use IPM to keep the pests away, and try to enjoy yourself despite the problems, big and small, that inevitably come to us, even in our gardens.  As someone once said, “Don’t grumble that roses have thorns, be thankful that thorns have roses.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

It’s Spring. The bulbs you planted last fall are sprouting, the grass is growing fast, and new leaves and buds are covering your trees. If you haven’t done so already, you’ll want to grab a rake and shovel to clear out the garden beds for the lush summer season ahead. This is a critical time to apply soil amendments, so in this, our first newsletter, we’d like to give you some tips on how make sure your plants receive the nourishment they need during this active growing season.

General Fertilizers: Synthetic vs. Organic

What many gardeners do—and this is certainly the easiest thing—is to get hold of a good general fertilizer. However, we would recommend you choose one that is organic, because, as gardening expert Sharon Lovejoy puts it, “chemical fertilizers give plants a quick fix, but they can also burn your plant roots, build up salts, and destroy beneficial bacteria in the soil.”  What’s more, organic fertilizers contain micronutrients that are not found in synthetic fertilizers, and they often include microbial agents that help your plants better absorb those nutrients. Finally, and most importantly, organic fertilizers are safe for your family, your pets, and the environment. If your pet or toddler gets into them, you don’t have an emergency on your hands, and there are no harsh chemicals that will eventually find their way into the ground water.

Neptune’s Harvest

Fish emulsion and seaweed fertilizers were developed to take advantage of the vast storehouse of nutritional treasures found in the ocean. However, fish proteins and oils tend to smell, and the way they are typically processed damages their nutritional value. Neptune’s Harvest got around that by developing a cold process that minimizes the odor while preserving all the micro and macro nutrients. The result is a super fertilizer called Neptune’s Harvest Fish & Seaweed Blend that increases yields and improves the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. Its ingredients are so pure that it has been listed with OMRI for use in USDA-certified organic farming operations. This doesn’t surprise us: Neptune’s Harvest gets its fish parts from Ocean Crest Seafood, which produces some of the best fresh and frozen fish fillets on the East coast.

Plant-Specific Fertilizers

Even if you’re using an organic product, different plants have differing nutritional needs. That is why some companies offer plant-specific fertilizers. Espoma, the most trusted name in natural organics, was one of the first to do this. After scoring a huge hit with Holly-tone sixty years ago, they went on to formulate Tomato-tone, Rose-tone, Flower-tone, Tree-tone and other plant-specific preparations. You can be sure they know what they’re doing: Espoma has been making organic fertilizers since the current owners’ great-grandfather released the company’s first product, Espoma Organic, in 1929!

Soiling Testing for Professional Results

If you really want to get professional results, have your soil tested. Many people know this and yet don’t do it—perhaps they don’t want to go through the trouble of contacting the nearest cooperative extension or land grant university. However, thanks to new and inexpensive technologies, you can now test your soil yourself using an electronic soil tester, and it will take you less than a minute. Once you have the results in hand, you can develop a customized fertilizer plan based on your soil’s specific needs and the climate and plants you’re working with. Our master gardener Karen will be happy to help you.

The Best Fertilizer

The bottom line is that whether you’re using a general, plant-specific, or customized fertilizer, your plants will appreciate the extra care you’re giving them. And you will appreciate the results, when you see your garden thrive! Just enjoy the anticipation—which some claim is the best thing about gardening—and keep on with your watering, weeding, and mulching. Ultimately, as the old adage tells us, “the best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.