Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2019 från Horticulture

AS A CHILD OF PARENTS who loved traditional children’s books, I grew up surrounded by illustrations of magical gardens. You know, those Beatrix Potter drawings of towering foxgloves, and Barbara Cooney’s abundant drifts of lupines taller than a child’s head. As a young gardener, I wanted to recreate the sense of immersion and abundance those illustrations give. Unfortunately, neither delphiniums nor lupines grow large or abundantly in the lower Ozarks. Instead, we have false indigos (Baptisia). Drive through the Southern or Midwestern states in spring and it’s highly likely that you’ll encounter these fantastic plants. Eyes open, windows down, you’ll see them growing wantonly by the roadsides—you can’t miss these bright flowers in lilac, yellow and atomic blue. While I urge you to grow many different false indigos, the species…

I AM NOT SURE HOW I became such a big fan of persimmons. They kind of crept up on me. In my family, persimmons used to be just a post–Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner treat mixed in the fruit basket along with pears, pomegranates, big navel oranges and grapes. My siblings were (and still are) fussy eaters, and they did not like the soft texture, but my mom and I loved the sweet taste and beautiful pumpkin-orange color. We used to cut the persimmons into soft chunks if they were firm enough or scrape the more ripened fruit into a custard dish to be eaten with a spoon. When I was at an Army post in Missouri I saw smaller native American persimmons growing wild “in the field,” and locals showed…

First signs of spring are legendary, particularly in places blanketed in snow for much of winter. Where I grew up, near Washington, DC, we eagerly awaited the American robins’ arrival. They usually appeared in March, whistling a hearty tune: “Cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up!” The sight of Mama Robin bearing twigs for a secret nest was enough to carry us through the last weeks of winter and into spring. Maybe it was my family’s aversion to the cold, or our crazed school-year schedule that prevented us from realizing that robins don’t migrate. In fact, most robins, as well as many other native birds, butterflies and bees retreat to nearby wooded areas in colder months. Like their human neighbors, they seek protection in the places they know best and…

Catskill, a village of just over 4,000 people in rural New York’s Greene County, was founded in 1806. Thanks to the village’s location at the confluence of the Catskill Creek and the Hudson River, local industries in the 1800s and early 1900s included boat making, brick making and milling. These industries have long left Catskill, and like other upstate towns the village has struggled to find its identity and keep historic colonial infrastructure intact. With the surge of urbanites into the southern Hudson Valley spurring a sharp rise in property values, people are venturing further north for affordable housing. Now many of Catskill’s once vacant Main Street storefronts are occupied with coffee bars and restaurants. HiLo, New York Restaurant, Mediterranean Bistro and La Conca D’oro are favorite eating places. Boutique…

I’M A SECOND-CAREER, self-taught horticulturist, which means I had the luxury of learning the fun stuff I liked (plants, soil, design) while deftly sidestepping the rest (turf, plant ID). It also means that when I’m among classically trained horticulturists I’ve become nimble at moving the conversation to things I know and faking the rest. Basically, I’m a charlatan. A fraud. And I’m always paranoid of being found out. This is no way to live. But, if I’ve got anything going for me at all, I’ve come to know a wide palette of USDA Zone 6 plants, including many you won’t find on any garden-center menu. Early on, I figured I could observe and learn the common stuff anywhere. Rare plants had to be tried at home. Consequently, my garden mutated…

I KNEW A SECRET POND, hidden by tall rushes and overgrown with shrubs, with an abundance of bass in it. I took my fishing gear and drove the 40 miles from my home, pushed my way through the overgrown path to the water’s edge and cast my lure, dreaming of fresh fried fish for dinner that night. Within a couple of minutes, a guard bee who must have been protecting its nearby hive stung me on my little finger. Within another minute, my whole hand began to itch and red welts appeared. Then my arm was affected, so I decided to head for the car. By the time I started the motor, my whole body was itching terribly and I drove home in misery and dread that I might be…

BASIL IS THE MOST popular culinary herb grown in gardens, but with increased reports of diseases like downy mildew and fusarium wilt, it’s not always easy to grow. Growing disease-resistant cultivars, spacing plants to allow for air circulation and watering them in the morning to give foliage time to dry before nightfall are all steps you can take to encourage a healthy basil crop. Downy mildew is a recent disease that first appears as a yellowing on the lower leaves of the plant. Soon, a dark gray fuzz coats the bottom of the leaves and brown patches appear. The disease spreads quickly, especially in damp weather. The vigorous, compact and super-slow to bolt ‘Everleaf ’ offers intermediate resistance to downy mildew. The plants grow up to 18 inches tall with…

There’s a special pleasure in cutting flowers fresh from your own garden. That pleasure is tenfold when the flowers you cut grow in such abundance all season that taking some for the vase still leaves plenty in garden beds. For gardeners, this makes repeat-blooming garden roses an ideal cut-flower treat, with many considering David Austin’s fragrant English roses best of all. “Wandering the garden, cutting shears in hand, feels nearly decadent once the English roses begin to bloom,” says Michael Marriott, the longtime technical director of David Austin Roses in Albrighton, UK. “But it’s not really decadent, when the roses you’re cutting are covered in blooms from early summer ’til frost.” It’s the spontaneity of cutting from the garden that Marriott loves most: “I tuck my favorite secateurs in my…

Although keeping bees is described as the extreme sport of gardening, beehives are fast becoming a common feature in urban gardens. From the contented hum of a healthy hive, to the entertaining exploits of foraging bees, to the scent of pure honeycomb on a summer day, the rewards of beekeeping far outweigh the risk of a sting or two. Whether you hope to obtain honey or to provide struggling honeybees a home, understanding what it takes to get started in beekeeping is the first step in this exciting hobby. BEFORE YOU BEGIN Before rushing out to purchase your hive, you’ll need to consider a few matters that will affect your beekeeping potential, including your location, your abilities and your beekeeping goals. The primary consideration is whether local laws permit you…

AS THOUGHTS OF SPRING enter our minds, many people are starting to design and develop their perfect spring and summer gardens. For many vegetable growers, raised beds are a great choice because the soil they contain warms up more quickly than ground soil, which can prolong the growing season. Raised beds promote soil drainage, provide adequate space for root growth and they can also be quite beautiful. Lastly, individual raised beds can be managed differently, which allows for growing plants that require specific soil conditions, such as blueberries that need acidic soil. Temporary raised beds are tilled plots of land that extend 12 or more inches above the ground surface. They are not reinforced, so they must be reshaped over time, especially before each growing season. Permanent raised beds, on…

The wildfire problem is getting worse. Last year, California suffered its deadliest and its largest wildfires ever. And it’s not just California. Disastrous wildfires have occurred in Oklahoma, Colorado, southern Florida and eastern Tennessee in recent years. Even Canada and Alaska have been hit hard by fire events. What is a wildfire? A wildfire or wildland fire is a fire that starts in vegetation and at least initially doesn’t involve structures. Its cause can be natural, like a lightning strike, or manmade, be it accidental or deliberate. Although damage to wild areas may appear significant, naturally caused wildfires have been occurring for thousands of years and ecosystems have adapted to recover from them. The real problem occurs when a wildfire crosses the “wildlandurban interface” and enters human developments. More and…

PARTIDGEBERRY MITCHELLA REPENS This native groundcover can be found in the woodlands of much of eastern North America, making it a good choice for shade gardens there. Its broad, rounded, half-inch leaves form a dense, bright green cover all year. Small, four-petaled, fragrant white flowers with tubular throats appear in pairs above the foliage in spring. The scarlet-red berries that ripen in late summer can persist into winter. Partridgeberry may rebloom lightly in fall. HABIT: Creeping evergreen perennial to two inches tall. The stems root to the ground wherever they touch the soil. ORIGINS: Dry and moist woodlands, stream banks and slopes of roughly the eastern half of North America, from Nova Scotia and Minnesota south to eastern Texas and northern Florida. HOW TO GROW IT: Grow Mitchella repens in…