joene's garden » GOOPs-Gardening Oops

Poorly screened compost … a Gardening Oops

joenesgarden — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:17:14 +0000

A topdressing with compost is a great way to begin the process of refurbishing an aging and abused lawn. A little bit, just a quarter inch, spread and raked into a grassy area provides nutrients and introduces beneficial soil organisms. My husband took on this job for a high traffic area of our lawn. Unfortunately, the task involved a bit more work than anticipated, making it the topic of my Gardening Oops – GOOPs – post for May 2012.

I believe that all gardeners make mistakes. If you are out there playing with plants you are bound to forget something, mis-plant something, or have a gardener's brain freeze that results in a GOOPs. I also believe too many people refrain from trying an idea or a new task because they are afraid of making a mistake. But if we, as gardeners, admit and share mistakes we might make new gardeners … or even each other … more comfortable with investigating the activity of growing plants.

My GOOPs this month is about purchased compost.

I make compost … as much as I possibly can. I use it in vegetable and ornamental beds and mix it into planting medium for container plants. But I have yet to make enough compost to meet all our needs, nor have I met another gardener able to do so. This forces compost users to seek other, preferably local, sources of quality compost for tasks like topdressing a lawn.

Our lawn has taken a beating over the last few years and is screaming for our attention. Lawn is not the top priority in our landscape – we tend toward the easiest form of lawn care, but we do want what's there to be healthy. So my husband found a local compost source, paid his money, and brought a pick-up truck load of compost home.

Compost for topdressing lawn should be screened to a quarter-inch or less. Do you see the larger chunks of material in this blend? These are not clumps of soil. Take a closer look.

This is the size of the partially composted material we had to hand screen, one wheelbarrow at a time, from the truckload.

This is the method I use to screen all the compost I make for my gardens, but I do small batches at a time. This job required hand screening a truck load of compost all at once, and getting it spread before ensuing rain.

The lesson here? Either make sure the compost you are purchasing has been processed through 1/4 inch screen or be prepared to do the job yourself.

Do you have a GOOPs to share? Don't be shy. Tell your tale in a comment below or share your GOOPs on your own blog and leave a teaser below.

I've declared the first of each month GOOPs day at joene's garden. Here's a peek at past GOOPs. I hope you'll join the GOOPs party. If you've not had a gardening faux pas you've not gardened hard enough.

For more information on organic lawn care peruse the information provided by the Northeast Organic Farming Association's organic land care website. You may find Introduction to OLC particularly useful. You can even download a free copy of NOFA's Introduction to Organic Lawns and Yards.

Garden thoughtfully … may my GOOPs prevent your GOOPs.

Categories: Gardening, GOOPs-Gardening Oops, Soil, Techniques.
Tags: compost, gardening in Connecticut, gardening oops - GOOPs, topdressing lawn.

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My Silly Gardening Oops for April 2012

joenesgarden — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:48:50 +0000

I should have known better. I've gardened for more than 30 years. I know that early spring emerging plants can handle cold. Still, my mothering instinct beat out my common sense instinct when faced with the idea that my white lilac buds might be harmed by the a hard frost that visited my Connecticut gardens last week. The previous stretch of unusual record warmth caused a growth explosion in lilacs and other spring bloomers. Then, true to typical New England weather, the temperature dropped just as gardeners and gardens were feeling comfortable with the early warmth. I should have known better than to try to protect the larger of my two white lilacs from the freeze. This is my Gardening Oops, GOOPs for short, for April 2012.

All gardeners make mistakes. It doesn't mater how long you have gardened, you'll still make mistakes. That's why I started this Gardening Oops blog meme. On the first of each month I share one of my Gardening Oops, GOOPs for short, and I ask other gardeners to join me. Some are too shy or simply don't want to publically admit their gardening mis-steps, others are brave and self-confident enough to play along with me by acknowledging and sharing their GOOPs.

The GOOPs I'm sharing this month will have me asking, «What were you thinking?» for a long time.

When a hard freeze was forecast for last week I wondered how well the foliage of many of my perennials would fare. I know they are used to growing in cold temps, but after a week of temperatures reaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit caused their unusually rapid growth I wondered if this new growth would be damaged. New England weather can be cruel. The adage that you know you're a New Englander if you've used your air conditioner and furnace in the same day holds true.

When temperatures had fallen to 34 degrees by dusk leading to that cold night, my mothering instincts led me to cover many of my perennials with overturned apple baskets and large pots … not unusual and generally a sound idea when early spring temps drop to the 20's. But I was still worried about the white lilac so, in a last ditch move I secured a sheet over it hoping to protect it. I did this even when a nagging voice in my head said don't.

I should have listened to the nag.

The buds on the lilac I covered now look like this:

Sad, isn't it. This is frost burn. The sheet I placed as protection rested on these buds and captured the cold enough to cause leaf burn. The sheet transferred the damp cold to the lilac buds and held it there. My nagging voice kept trying to tell me this would happen. Obviously I was too deaf to listen. Now, just outside the windows of my house, in an area passed frequently going to and fro, I get to look at the browned tips of lilac leaves. For quite some time this will be a daily reminder of my early spring GOOPs.

At the opposite side of this stretch of garden is another white lilac. One I purposely did not cover. I wanted to later compare how well the covered lilac bloomed as opposed to the one left uncovered.

Here's how the buds of the un-mothered lilac look:

Exactly as they should.

And the perennials I covered? They are fine and look no different, so far, than those left uncovered.

Gardening is a constant learning experience. Sometimes even seasoned gardeners, like me, need to be reminded to listen to their nagging voice and leave things be.

I hope you'll consider playing this GOOPs game. All you need to do is muster up enough strength to admit a Gardening Oops and share it in a comment below. If you share your GOOPs on your own blog, then leave a teaser comment below so readers can head to your blog to read your GOOPs.

Here's hoping you learned from my GOOPs … I sure hope I've learned to listen to my nagging voice.

Garden thoughtfully,

Joene

Categories: Gardening, GOOPs-Gardening Oops, Seasons.
Tags: freeze protection, gardening in Connecticut, gardening oops - GOOPs, lilac buds.

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Gardening Is Not Static – My March 2012 Gardening Oops (GOOPs)

joenesgarden — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

If you think gardening is static, think again. Plant a garden bed one year and there's a really good chance it will not look the same the next. Plants grow, get eaten by creatures, attacked by disease, crushed by weather and planted in less than optimal spots. These gardening situations all fall under my Gardening Oops – GOOPS for short – meme.

On the first of each month I tell all about a GOOPs in my gardening life. Some months I tell of mistakes I've made, other times I recount a GOOPs that is not entirely my fault. I also ask other gardeners – that's you - to recount a GOOPs tale.

Why? Because every gardener has been unsuccessful at some point. This can be discouraging but, sometimes, it helps to know that other gardeners have faced similar GOOPs. It's a misery loves company thing.

My March 2012 GOOPs tale goes through the history of one garden bed on my property and many GOOPs.

Fourteen years ago my family moved into our new home on newly cleared land. After getting the driveway paved I envisioned a nice garden in the space between the driveway, a walkway and a lawn area.

The very young garden started like this in 2000.

That's a white lilac in the center left , bayberries at the back of the bed, and a variegated red twig dogwood on the far right. Artemesias, red coleus, and Siberian iris are planted throughout.

All would have been fine but deer love coleus and the variegated dogwood – I was just learning about deer faves – and that floppy silver mound Artemisia had to go. All GOOPs.

I expanded the bed and did some rearranging so it looked like this by the spring of 2004.

The bayberry (Myrica pennsylvanica) and Siberian iris remain and the white lilac (in bloom) went to the right side of the bed along with a new PeeGee hydrangea paniculata. On the left I added Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald Gaiety' as a ground cover and a dwarf burning bush (Euonymus alatus 'Compactus'), not knowing at the time that burning bush are invasive. A GOOPs. In the center there's a variegated lacecap hydrangea macrophylla, a plant I've always adored but, it turns out, so do deer. Another GOOPs. Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina), common chives, different sedums, some small ornamental grasses and pansies filled in. (The lawn was due for reseeding when I took this shot)

I did not like the shape of the bed so I expanded it again. By May of 2005 it looked like this.

The hydrangeas and lilac survived due to winter fencing to prevent deer browsing. The lacecap hydrangea never bloomed – deer always got to the growing tips, in spite of sprays, after the fence came down. The bed looked okay during May and into early summer but did not do anything for me the rest of the year. And if you look closely, the red heuchera needed chicken wire to prevent deer browsing. More GOOPs.

With more tweaking – the lacecap, heuchera, variegated iris, euonymus bush, and white lilac went elsewhere, a new Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens 'Glauca' hiding behind the hydrangea), and filling in of the perennials, the bed looked better by the summer of 2010.

By May 2011 the bed made me happy.

The spruce had more presence, as did the buddleia on the right.

Narcissi bloomed in early spring, followed by iris, poppy, Lamb's Ear, thyme, foxglove and other perennials. Solidago, lavender, self-sown Black-eyed Susan, and buddleia took the spotlight until the hydrangea stole the show, and I no longer needed to fence the bed in winter.

Then Irene blew through Connecticut and took down the PeeGee hydrangea and the, by then, six-foot tall buddleia. I'm sure voles had been nibbling on the roots of each, weakening each shrub's hold to the ground – another GOOPs, albeit not mine.

Gardening is not static. Changes come. Each is a challenge. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we have a GOOPs.

You must have at least one GOOPs to share. If you're not making mistakes you're not gardening enough. Tell us your GOOPs in a comment below, or on your blog with a teaser comment here.

Stop back again the first of next month when I'll have another GOOPs tale to share.

Garden thoughtfully – Joene

Categories: GOOPs-Gardening Oops.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, gardening oops - GOOPs, the history of one garden bed.

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Misjudged collaboration causes an NWF GOOPs

joenesgarden — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

I've made a lot of gardening oops – GOOPs for short - over the decades. I've placed plants into unpleasing combinations, forgotten where I planted bulbs, and neglected to deadhead prolific self-seeding perennials. I fess up to these GOOPs here on the first of each month hoping that, by sharing my mis-steps, other gardeners may avoid doing the same. My GOOPs may wreak havoc on my discerning eye, my gardening budget, or my gardening time but my faux pas don't hold a candle to the the pile of sewage the National Wildlife Federation stepped into when it announced collaboration between it and Scotts Miracle-Gro.

That the NWF, a much-followed wildlife habitat and wildlife protecting organization, was joining forces with Scotts Miracle-Gro, a dealer of lawn and garden chemicals, caused much of the garden writing world to scream a collective «What the … huh!» The NWF was dancing with the devil. This did not sit well to those who followed wildlife-friendly recommendations made by NWF or developed NWF-certified Wildlife Habitats using organic, environmentally sound garden and land care practices.

Go to the NWF website. It oozes nature. It boasts «working for wildlife» in programs to bring bison back and protect otters. It claims «victory for wildlife» in helping stop the Keystone Tar Sands pipeline. It claims donation money is «Inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future.»

So why consort with Scotts Miracle-Gro, a company reporting $3 billion in worldwide sales from their products branded under the names Scotts, Miracle-Gro, and Ortho, and as sole North American and European marketer of Monsanto's Round-Up? The NWF claimed money from Scotts would support a shared vision … to encourage children and families to spend more time outdoors. NWF suggested their cozy relationship with Scotts might influence Scotts to change some of its chemical-pushing ways.

I may be skeptical here but I suspect, as many do, that Scotts has a $3 billion reason to not change it's chemical-pushing ways.

A 'Scotts' lawn would never look like this …

filled with violets and other non-grass greenery.

With no intention of ignoring the hypocrisy of the NWF taking money dangled in front of them by Scotts, garden writers responded with blog posts, tweets, Facebook comments, emails, petitions and phone calls castigating the NWF for this misguided collaboration. They questioned how the NWF could expect to maintain any credibility as a protector and promoter of environmentally sound wildlife habitats while taking money from a company that makes its money on the very chemicals believed to harm wildlife and soil-life.

Read some of these posts yourself at:

Your Small Kitchen Garden
A Garden of Possibilities
or, for a compilation of many posts on this subject, head to Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens

In the midst of all this Scotts was fined $4.5 million for distributing wild birdseed coated with chemicals toxic to birds. Does this sound like a company bent on protecting wildlife, or just its own bottom line.

Well, in yet another example of people joining voices to express outrage over the actions of an organization, a company, or a government, collective fury and indignation worked. On January 29, 2012, the NWF announced its turn-around.

The NWF had a «Good job, Brownie» moment. They committed a monster GOOPs, then thankfully saw their blunder.

I don't see a GOOPs of this monster proportion in my future or yours so next month I plan to resume my relatively minor GOOPs tales. In the meantime, tell me about a GOOPs you've made. Either share it in a comment below or post it on your blog and leave a teaser-link below.

Let's help each other … let's garden thoughtfully …

Categories: GOOPs-Gardening Oops, Newsy Items.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, gardening oops - GOOPs, National Wildlife Federation and Scotts Miracle-Gro.

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Re-GOOPs: a review of 2011’s gardening-oops

joenesgarden — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Welcome to January 1, 2012. The first of each month is confessional time. Time to fess up to a gardening blunder, or gardening oops. GOOPs for short. I share one of my gardening mis-steps and hope you'll do the same.

This is Re-GOOPs month, when I look back at some of the GOOPs from last year.

The GOOPs that drew the most comments is from June 2011. I described how the landscape fabric we installed, as directed by the block manufacturer, while building a retaining wall planting bed became blocked with fine soil silt. It hinders drainage to the point of making the bed virtually unplantable (new word?) during rainy springs/summers. Most of the comments to this post mentioned similar and other landscape fabric issues. I even had a manufacturer suggest we had installed the landscape fabric incorrectly …. we didn't.

To use the bed last season I dug out some of the soil so large clay pots would rest on the fabric layer. I filled the pots with new soil and planted them with hot peppers, cherry tomatoes and eggplant.

Trailing nasturtium seeds and coleus seedlings went into the remaining soil surrounding the sunken pots.

I promised, back in June, to report whether my scheme worked.

The hot peppers thrived, the tomatoes did okay, and the eggplant was not happy.

I planted bush and pole beans between a couple of pots at the far end but, with such a wet growing season, the soil remained too moist for the beans to really thrive.

The nasturtiums and coleus, however, had a banner year.

No aphids … not one.

The nasturtiums went wild, they never had a mid-summer slump, and the coleus grew mighty tall and bushy right up to first frost.

Eventually I plan to remove all the soil from this bed. I'm on the lookout for decorative planters that will fit the space and style of the surrounding block. The planters, which I'll fill seasonally, will sit in the raised bed on top of and within decorative stone. The stone will facilitate drainage and the planters will add seasonal interest and break up the visual impact of the long, narrow bed. I can also add other interesting accents – think cool rocks, shells, candles – at my whim. The new design is still germinating in my idea seed bank but, in the meantime, the sunken clay pots work as a temporary planting solution.

My GOOPs tale of voles eating crocus bulbs and deer nibbling on crocus and Tete-a-tete narcissi garnered a number of sympathetic comments. I think the photos of bright, cheery blooms followed by shots of stubby green leftovers helped in the sympathy department. Isn't this sad?

My solution for the narcissi is to cover newly emerging shoots with upside-down apple baskets each night and to keep a sharp eye out for marauding deer during daylight. For the crocus issue I've taken the advice from Nell Jean at Seedscatterer. I planted tommies (Crocus tommasinianus Ruby Giant and Barr's Purple).

I won't know till spring whether voles left the tommies alone. Keeping fingers crossed and praying to the bulb gods.

The last Re-GOOPs for today is Don't count your tomatoes … a gardening oops. It's another tale, and another sad photo, of creature damage. This time from those cute, fast-moving, devilish chipmunks.

They have superb ripe-tomato radar. The only way for me to beat them to the fruit was to pick before the tomatoes were totally ripe and let them finish ripening on a windowsill. So far the chipmunks haven't figured out how to get into my kitchen. Keeping fingers crossed and praying to the fox gods.

Looking back reminded … though I didn't really need it … that weather had a huge impact in 2011. Three GOOPs posts - February, March and November - involved snow and I hurricane/tropical storm Irene prevented a GOOPs post on September 1 (no power for seven days).

I suspect 2012's GOOPs will also involve weather and creatures and creatures and weather. At least that gives me the chance to blame something besides my own actions.

I hope you'll join the GOOPs party this year. If you are REALLY gardening then you must have made a GOOPs or two.

Either add your GOOPs tale in a comment below or post your GOOPs on your blog and leave a teaser in a comment below.

Happy New Year. Garden thoughtfully.

Categories: Bulbs, Edibles, Gardening, General, GOOPs-Gardening Oops.
Tags: Bulbs, creature damage, gardening in Connecticut, gardening oops - GOOPs, landscape fabric, tomatoes.

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