Index:

Gardening Web Links:

• Botanical 'hotspot' to visit (July 6, 2003)
• www.yardener.com (December 20, 2005)
• song of frogs (February 2, 2004)
• native plant and green landscaping sites
• Fine Gardening - The Feb. 2006 issue has great content. (December 12, 2005)
• Royal Horticulture Society
• Dependable perennials - recommendations (February 1, 2003).
• The Woodland Garden: Planting in Harmony with Nature (March 18, 2004)
• Shade Gardening Newsletter (March 3, 2004)
• University Of Vermont Horticultural Site (August 1, 2004)
• Hole's Nursery Information series on-line. (July 21, 2003)

Gardening Practices:

Mulch and Feeding Tips

• Mulch and Feeding Tips (June 17, 2004)
• Mulch "Volcanoes" Endanger Trees and Shrubs (July 6, 2003)
• Hold the Mulch a While Gang! (April 8, 2004)

• Planting technique reminders. (June 3, 2004)
• Early Season Gardening (April 8, 2004)
• Cultivate carefully around seeding ephemerals. (July 6, 2003)
• Cutting back/dead-heading perennials. (July 21, 2003)
• Using MYKE for Bonsai (July 21, 2003)
• What Grows Under a Mature Spruce Tree? (August 4, 2004) (Posted 3/30/06)

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Gardening Web Links:

Botanical 'hotspots' to visit (July 6, 2003)

I accidentally landed on web site of a botanist/geologist while searching for information on ephemeral plant examples. I encourage you to at least briefly visit it and bookmark it for future use. It is full of web sites of botanical 'hotspots' to visit, ideas on gardening naturally, and ideas for kid's gardens ... and much, much more.

Click on the following: http://raymondwiggers.homestead.com/Botany_Links_Page.html

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www.yardener.com ( December 20, 2005)

The Ottawa Horticultural Society newsletter editor recently asked for assistance in preparing an answer to a member's question. While preparing my answer I took an electronic stroll through the internet and found a very informational web site (www.yardener.com) which has extensive practical and helpful gardening tips.

The site's home page proclaims "The vast majority of yardener.com is a comprehensive database containing information to help yardeners care for all the plants on their property.

The 3000 internet pages are the equivalent of 12 separate books that have been integrated into a single powerful site. Included on the site is info on:

Caring for the lawn
Caring for trees and shrubs
Caring for perennials, annuals, and bulbs
Caring for groundcovers, grasses, and vines
Growing vegetables and culinary herbs
Growing fruits and berries
Solving all weed problems
Solving all pest insect problems
Solving all plant disease problems
Solving all pest animal problems
Consumer advice for almost every product category in the lawn and garden industry

The site's chief horticultural writer is Jeff Ball, author of many books including Rodale's Landscape Solver.

For more on Jeff click on the following URL: http://www.yardcare.com/region/region1_bio.html

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Frogs

Interested in the song of frogs? (February 2, 2004)

We receive a a newsletter (Amphibian Voice) from the Toronto Zoo which has an interesting web site to learn about identification of frog from their songs. Click here fo down-loadable songs of the various frogs found across Canada. Very instructional!

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More Winter Reading Suggestions: (January 1, 2006)

The first two links are to a US government site (Environmental Protection Agency) containing many excellent links to organizations. One provides " fifty slides selected for their ability to define natural landscaping and explain its benefits, to illustrate applications of natural landscaping, and to demonstrate installation and management techniques." 

1. Green Landscaping with Native Plants

2. Greenacres: Other Great Native Plant Sites

The following site has an interesting story to tell - check it out.

3. Beet juice extract alternative to traditional spraying

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Web Site Bonanzas (March 1, 2005)

1. Water Gardening Information from MacArthur Water Gardens

This southern USA business has a wonderful selection of articles on all aspects of water gardening.

2. Garden Information from Yvonne Cunnington

Yvonne is a Canadian garden writer living in the Hamilton area. Her web site has a great array of interesting articles. She and her husband have a large garden which is open to the public - hours of operation are on her web site.

3. Fletcher Wildlife Garden

The Fletcher Wildlife garden, located on the Central Experimental Farm grounds east of the traffic circle on Prince of Wales Drive, is a demonstration project of the Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club. They have a good education program, how-to information on their site, and a need for garden volunteers.

4. Wild About Gardening

This is a web site of the Canadian Wildlife Federation. They are establishing a wildlife-friendly and native plant gardens surrounding their corporate offices on Michael Copeland Drive in southern Kanata.

Their web site has much information on creating wildlife-friendly gardens, composting and water conservation techniques. They also have a program of certification of wildlife-friendly gardens that we think is a great idea. Click here to go to their Backyard Certification Program.

To facilitate the creation of wildlife-friendly gardens across Canada, they have produced a colourful garden planner called "Creating Habitat for Wildlife". Brimming with advice and vibrant watercolour illustrations, it is as beautiful as it is useful. There are sections on attracting birds, choosing plants, composting, and managing insect pests, just to name a few. The planner also provides a habitat checklist and record pages for birds, butterflies, perennials, trees, and shrubs.

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Do You Subscribe to Fine Gardening? The Feb. 2006 issue has great content. (December 12, 2005)

According to responses to my early summer questionnaire on magazines to which our readers subscribe, few recipients of this e-letter subscribe to Fine Gardening. I've just previewed our copy of February's Fine Gardening and like the 'big picture' focus of many of the articles. The articles Rethinking Foundation Plantings; Matching the Colors of Your House & Garden (reminds me of the decades-old approach in Color Me Beautiful that is still on Carole's book shelf); and Silver Plants Enliven a Garden have thoughtful information on color coordination. Even the extensive 'Book Reviews' section has two pages devoted to 'big picture' gardening books. Other useful articles are Sedges; Thinning a large Shrub; and a column 'Simply Soil' containing The Jury is Still Out on Compost Tea in which the author (Lee Reich) "digs beneath the surface to provide a close-up look at soil, the most important component for healthy, happy plants".

Want to subscribe to Fine Gardening? Click here to order directly from the publisher.

You may be wondering if we directly benefit by pointing you to Fine Gardening. Simple answer ... No. There is no commercial link between us and the magazine. It is our favourite magazine and it nearly always echoes our approach to gardening.

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Royal Horticulture Society

Customer Peter Oakey suggests looking at the Royal Horticulture Society's web pages (http://www.rhs.org.uk/). Loads of good gardening information on this site.

I downloaded their article on Spireas With Coloured Leaves for future reading plus enjoyed looking at a list of 200 plants commemorating their 200th anniversary. Two hundred years – that’s a lot of gardening history.

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Dependable perennials - recommendations (February 1, 2003).

While cruising the net I came across an Allan Armitage recommended listing of perennials with a record of being great performers.

Any  list is only as good as the author's experience ... right?  The credentials of this list's author are impeccable. Allan Armitage is undoubtedly one of North America's most recognized authors and a university researcher/teacher. He is also a feature speaker at numerous horticultural trade shows.  Try typing his name into Google's (or any other search engine) search dialogue box and see what pops up!

I'll be using his list to round out our 2003 plant orders from suppliers!

Click here for Dr. Armitage's recommended plants: _

P.S. Unfortunately one plant making his list -Polemonium 'Brise d' Anjou' (a variegated Jacob's Ladder) - is a poor performer in our northern gardens. Once again there's nothing like local experience to help in weeding out locally-known poor performers. Polemonium 'Snow and  Sapphires' is touted as being superior  to Brise d' Anjou'  and we will stock it this season.

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The Woodland Garden: Planting in Harmony with Nature (March 18, 2004)

By the calender spring begins in just a few days. Those with woodland or shade gardens will soon be rewarded with some of the earliest flower displays - that's the way of nature. This e-letter highlights two opportunities to learn how to mimic natural woodland environments.

My casual reading opportunities are diminishing as the days grow longer and more outdoor time is devoted to getting ready for a new retail season. But last week I did find time to read a garden design book borrowed from the Centrepointe Library. I enjoyed it and thought you might too. The following is my brief review of the book.

The Woodland Garden: Planting in Harmony with Nature offers a rare ecological perspective to designing a garden. I liked the authors’ (Roy Forester and Alex Downie from Vancouver) approach of analyzing a garden’s existing or evolving environmental parameters and then recommending appropriate plants for those conditions. For example, they advise choosing plants that are appropriate for acidic or basic soils (depending on what a gardener’s site provides) and point out that gardeners will have more success when matching plants to their growth needs.

The authors also advise working with plants tolerant of a site’s natural moisture conditions – both seasonal soil moisture and rainfall patterns. In a woodland setting, many plants are biologically geared to flowering and seed production during spring’s abundant moisture and before a full canopy of leaves create dense shade at ground level. The authors point out that it may be necessary to strategically remove some of a site’s existing trees to provide more sunshine for later blooming plants to thrive.

The aspect of the book that I most appreciate is the recognition that a woodland has three tiers: canopy (the tall shade trees), understory (shorter trees, tall shrubs and vines), and woodland floor (flowering plants, small shrubs and groundcovers). The authors provide extensive tables of appropriate plants for each of the three tiers. This practical information helps the gardener mimic what is found in nature. Gardeners can select from the tables those plants designated for their hardiness zones.

The authors spend minimal time on designing paths and naturalistic rock outcroppings that often characterize a woodland garden. However there is enough on these topics to help the gardener put together a realistic woodland garden on a scale appropriate to the reader's property.

Want to read the book? Here are the bibliographic details. The Woodland Garden: Planting in Harmony with Nature. 1999. Roy Forester and Alex M. Downie. Raincoast Books. Vancouver. 180 pages.

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Shade Gardening Newsletter (March 3, 2004)

The My Shade Garden web site originates from a landscape company which focuses on shade plants and shade trees.

You can click here to get a free monthly My Shade Garden newsletter packed with information on the shade plant of the month, seasonal gardening tips, new book reviews and other topics of interest to gardeners. Hydrangeas: The Untold Story is this month’s feature article.

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University Of Vermont Horticultural Site (August 1, 2004)

While in New York City at the Perennial Plant Association's Annual (2004) Symposium, I attended a lecture on over-wintering perennials. The info dispensed in that session was geared to nursery operators, but I also learned about an extensive web site of general gardening information that you might like to check out. The web site, the domain of Dr. Leonard Perry (the session's speaker) is the University of Vermont's horticultural web site. Since Dr. Perry and his students/staff garden in northern Vermont (USDA Zone 4), his gardening info is very appropriate for Ottawa-area gardeners. Click here to go to Dr. Perry's Web Site.

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Hole's Nursery Information series on-line. (July 21, 2003)

Who doesn't have a Lois Hole book in their collection? When in Edmonton a couple of years ago, I visited Hole's Nursery to get a handle on the scope of their operation. I am pleased to see they also have on-line gardening information sheets applicable to Ottawa-area gardeners.

Hole's home page, with their list of gardening fact sheets, can be obtained by clicking here.

Click here for Hole's Planting & Growing Instructions for Trees and Shrubs.

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Gardening Practices:

Mulch and Feeding Tips (June 17, 2004)

In our gardens, we continue our program of feeding all of our beds with sea shell compost and then mulching, for moisture conservation, with shredded bark mulch. In the past week I have added plants to some of this season’s previously mulched beds and have been delighted to see just how moist the soil is under the mulch layer. Normally, after the exposure to the amount of drying wind and sun experience by mid-June, the soils under our maples would be bone dry. Not this year. With the protection provided by the over-lying two inches of bark mulch, the surface of our clay-based soil remains sticky-wet. Perennials are perky-looking and noticeably growing vigorously. 

Some plant maintenance is in order at this time of season too. I have already deadheaded and severely shorn arabis (rock cress) and some pulsatillas (pasque flower). In each case, some maturing seed heads have been left to fall to the ground to self-seed for better showiness next year. The phlox subulata (creeping phlox) will get the same heavy shearing in the next day or so. After the cranesbills (perennial geraniums) have finished blooming, they’ll be likewise shorn. All of these plants are clipped back in height to about two inches from ground level. At the same time the plant is reigned in, in terms of spread, by digging out excess plant mass. Within a couple of weeks the remaining stems are full of new leaf buds and within a month there is a fresh-looking clump of the plant filling the void created by the shearing. The bonus to this shearing is that in the following year you get more vigorous bloom from your plants. The dug out portions – take a generous shovelful of soil to move these plants successfully – are then relocated and soaked well for quick re-establishment.

This is also major weeding time too. In some gardens we’ve got lots of young identifiable seedlings to dig and relocate. (Remember, we don’t do an early season weeding just for this reason – we want to give self-seeding varieties a chance to show themselves.) Some gardens, over-run with lungwort and bleeding heart seedlings, need a real heavy weeding to see what else can be seen! Am I ever enjoying the short-handled version of the winged-weeder that we sell. It is so easy to use and the cutting edges are staying sharp through the many hours of continual use. We have two in stock and I’ll be ordering in more today. Click here (and scroll down) for info on the winged weeders.

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Mulch "Volcanoes" Endanger Trees and Shrubs (July 6, 2003)

The following item on "Mulch Volcanoes" is from the Perennial Plant Association's June 2003 newsletter - I hope it prevents a phenomenon which is becoming quite wide-spread.

Have you noticed more and more tree trunks surrounded by thick mounds of bark mulch circling their bases? Many homeowners and landscapers have recently developed the mistaken notion that mounding bark mulch directly against the bases of trees and shrubs is good for the plants. It is not! In fact, these "volcanoes" are making the trunks of trees and shrubs susceptible to rot from fungi, microorganisms and insects. The mulch also promotes the growth of secondary roots which can encircle the trunk and choke off the tree's main roots. Tree and shrub trunks are designed by nature to be exposed to the air, not to the constant moisture of bark mulch.

According to both Dr. Greg Lowenberg, education director of the New England Wild Flower Society, America's oldest plant conservation organization, as well as experts at the national Arborist Association, too much mulch can even smother a tree's root system. So what's the proper way to apply mulch? First keep any mulch at least six inches from the the trunk. Add a 2-4 inch layer of organic matter over the plant's root system (wood chips, bark mulch and compost are all good). The roots of most trees and shrubs extend out to at least the drip line of the branches, but if you want some lawn under the tree, then just make the circular band of mulch cover as large an area as you can. Adding a layer of mulch over tree and shrub roots helps conserve moisture and keeps the soil cooler in summer, but more of a good thing is not necessarily better! Remember, no more than four inches of mulch is needed, kept well away from the trunk. If your tree is already mounded with mulch, you can carefully excavate and pull back the material, clipping away any small secondary roots that have formed."

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Gardening Practices:

Planting technique reminders. (June 3, 2004)

A few days ago Carole and I had the opportunity to visit a customer’s garden. Our discussions got around to winter plant losses and we traded lists of plants that didn’t make it through the winter/spring season. In our gardens, we related that we’ve lost some usually very dependably hardy varieties such as coneflowers, daisy family members, coreopsis, and even yuccas. Our list seems to be longest for plants preferring well-drained and sunny sites!

In considering plant losses, we got on to the topic of how our customer planted her plants. Sometimes appropriate planting techniques get shunted aside in the zeal for getting the job done in the shortest time possible.

Following is a refresher primer on how to plant newly purchased plants.

As background, consider the potting soil your purchased plants are in. It is lousy soil! It is a very lightweight, artificial medium suited to holding regularly applied water and nutrients at the nursery. The medium has virtually no nutritional value to plants. It is very porous to provide ample air spaces for good root development in the nursery. Notice I am stating it is good as a rooting medium in the nursery where we are tending the plants on a daily (sometimes more frequently) basis.

At planting time, what should be done?

First the hole for the plant should be prepared. We suggest watering the hole three times such that the hole is filled with water, drainage occurs and the process repeated two more times. This assures plenty of water below the new root system – a good environment for the root to grow into. The first hole watering should have some fertilizer in it. We suggest using a fertilizer with a formula approaching 15:30:15 – one that favours root development. We no longer recommend 10:52:10 as high phosphorus (the 52) appears to negatively impact the growth of beneficial fungi that assist in root establishment.

Now for the potted plant.

Un-pot each plant and figure out a way to remove as much of the pot soil as possible so that the plant roots are in contact with your garden soil – the soil in which it is to grow in.

In cases where there is little tangled root growth, just get your fingers into the soil mass and gently open up the root mass and gently shake the plant and root ball so that the soil falls off the developing roots. Don’t put that potting soil in the hole! Let it fall around the planting area though. The nursery-added nutrients in the potting soil can work there way into the soil and your plant eventually.

For extensive root systems, you may need to be a bit more forceful in opening up the root ball. Don’t be shy about the task! Get the root mass opened up. If you have to rip apart a few roots circling the soil mass – do it. If the roots mass is so dense it is really difficult to open up the mass, take a sharp knife and cut into the root mass to a depth of about 1/4 inch. What you are trying to do is force new root growth to go outwards from the existing root ball. Injuring existing roots actually helps accomplish this objective! In the healing process, new roots quickly form and grow away from the existing root mass.

Once the root system is opened up and a good proportion of the nursery soil is off the root system, plant your plant at approximately the same depth it was planted in the pot. Back-fill with your garden soil (don’t compress it with your hand or foot) and water the soil again to settle the soil around the root system. All you want to accomplish is getting air away from tender roots – you simply want wet soil to gently settle around those roots.

After-planting care.

The most important task in planting new plants is to keep them well watered during their establishment phase. (N.B. Well-watered doesn’t mean watering every day!) Your chore is to keep the deeper soil around developing plants moist while allowing the surface soil to dry out between waterings. We aim for re-watering once the top 2-3 inches of soil have become dry. This interval influences the roots to dive deep for the available deeper moisture rather than ‘hang in’ until the gardener arrives with another surface sprinkling.

How long is the establishment phase?

This is difficult to answer as it depends on the growth rate of the roots of your particular plant. It also depends upon all the other environmental factors impacting your plant – drought, rainfall, temperature, amount of sun exposure, wind exposure, etc.. In some cases (e.g. larger trees and shrubs) the ‘establishment phase’ can extend into the second season of growth. Suffice it to say that the gardener should at least be monitoring recently planted individuals for wilting – a sure sign of requiring immediate moisture. Also, as fall approaches, many plants need to have moist soil to become conditioned for a winter’s survival. In our area, many falls are periods of little rainfall. Watering, even after the first frosts have been experienced, may be required to give plants the ability to over-winter successfully.

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Early Season Gardening (April 8, 2004)

With gardening season just about here, garden improvements and plant purchases are probably on your minds. You’ll soon be out in the gardens doing some tidying up, taking away last years litter and having the urge to scuff up the soil to make it neat. But avoid the soil cultivation urge for a while – especially if you want to save some plant money. Why? Because there are likely lots of valuable seeds from last year’s plants just waiting to germinate (or that have already germinated). They can fill in your gardens (or be relocated) without spending money on plants you can have for free.

In our gardens, we hold off the soil cultivation chore until about mid-June to let the seedlings identify themselves through developing mature leaf shapes. That way we can identify whether the seedling is a weed or something we want to multiply. It’s amazing how many valuable seedlings you can harvest for transplanting.

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Cultivate carefully around seeding ephemerals. (July 6, 2003)

Do you want plants like Old-Fashioned Bleeding Hearts, Virginia Bluebells and Pasque Flowers to proliferate naturally in your gardens? The seeds of these plants (and many others) are in the process of falling to the soil and they will germinate almost immediately. They'll send a primary root into the soil to get established but you won't see this germination taking place because no above-ground sign of the seedlings will be visible. If you would like many seedlings of these plants to survive and fill your gardens next spring you have to protect them now. How? Don't cultivate the soil in the immediate area around the parent plant. If visible weeds are developing in the area around the parent plant, remove them individually rather than with a hoe or cultivator both of which will destroy the invisible developing seedlings that you would like to preserve.

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Plants, especially those overwintered in your gardens, respond favourably to warmed soils. Mulches applied too soon in the spring keep the cold in the soil by insulating the soil from the sun’s rays. Decay and disease organisms flourish in cool soils. Active plant growth (in warmed soils) can better ward off decay and disease. Not adding mulch to cold soil helps your plants get a better start to the season.

When is it time to add moisture-preserving mulches? Our mulching rule: Mulch in mid-June after harvesting the spontaneously germinated seedlings for transplanting.

Cutting back/dead-heading perennials. (July 21, 2003)

In our gardens we are busy with our secateurs (a British term for pruners). We are dramatically reducing foliage mass on many early-season blooming plants and dead-heading spent flowers.

Cranesbills (geraniums), rock cress (arabis), creeping phlox (phlox subulata) and silver sage (salvia argentea) clumps are being reduced in over-all spread as well as height. We cut them back to about 4 inches above ground level. In some cases the plants look almost leafless when we are finished, but the plants will regenerate new leaves very quickly. These rejuvenated plants will flower profusely next year.

Dead-heading (removing spent flowers) is a also a regular maintenance chore. Removing finished flowers is an energy-saving benefit to the plants. Instead of directing energy to producing seed, energy goes to developing stronger root systems. If we want a particular plant to produce seed for rapid increase in that plant's numbers, we leave one or two flowers on a plant (or a plant clump) to allow some self-seeding to occur. Remember, many hybrid plants do not come true from seed. From these we remove all spent flowers to maintain the genetic purity of the parent plant.

We are now cutting down our delphiniums - right back to the ground. This severe pruning actually stimulates new stem growth and in September we will be rewarded with a second crop of delphinium blooms. The plants will be shorter in height, but any bloom in September is a treat.

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Using MYKE for Bonsai (July 21, 2003)

In the bonsai world, the use of mychorrhizal fungae to grow better bonsai trees is well promoted. The Toronto Bonsai Society web site contains the article Making Better Bonsai With Mycorrhizae. Click here for this informative article.

What Grows Under a Mature Spruce Tree? (August 4, 2004) (Posted 3/30/06)

A Customer's "Question of the Week"

I was wondering if you would have any recommendations on what sort of plants would grow under a very large Spruce tree. The entire garden is under the canopy of the spruce branches. Part of the garden is mostly shade, but maybe half gets the late afternoon sun.
Thanks. J. G 

Phil's Response

My plant recommendations vary according to whether you plan to provide regular moisture to the planting area or leave the soil on the dry side.

With just the provision of moisture, you have many more plant options than if you plan on gardening in the naturally dry conditions. The next limitation would be how the spruce is limbed ... do the branches nearly touch the ground or are they limbed high enough that you can stand under the overhanging branches. With the first condition, the portion closest to the trunk would be almost ungardenable. There just would not be enough light to allow plants to grow in the dense shade. With the branches limbed higher, early or late day sun could provide enough light for some plants to eke out an existence. Finally, whatever plants you choose will greatly benefit from adding a source of nutrition to the already nutrient-depleted soil under a mature spruce. As you are already a regular customer purchasing our bagged sea shell compost, I'll simply recommend the continued application of this fine nutritional soil supplement. But in this application, I'll suggest applying a two-inch layer of the sea shell compost to the gardening area, mixing the supplement plus any other available composted organic material into the top 4 inches of soil and then giving the soil a thorough drenching before planting.

Successful gardening in shaded areas requires a good understanding of the limiting conditions of soil, light and moisture conditions in your potential gardening area. Rather than write a tomb on these topics, I'll point you to the following excellent web site from the University of Missouri. We are not exactly in Missouri conditions around Ottawa, but the principles are the same.

Click here for some useful shade gardening info from the University of Missouri:

Then, click here to explore Landscape Ontario's listing of suggested plants for shaded areas.

Hope all this info gives you the guidance you requested.