joene's garden: joene's garden

By joenesgarden, 7 months and 29 days ago

Keep gardens neat looking with deadheading

As a garden coach and personal gardener most of my springtime gardening work is done in clients' gardens. Gardening at home happens in tidbits of time. Fortunately, I only need tidbits of time to keep up with deadheading. Many clients and gardening friends have questions about deadheading – gardeners' term for removing of spent flowers. But careful attention to how a perennial flowers offers clues to how to deadhead. You don't want to cut down all green growth since perennials use the greenery to produce energy to survive. But unless you plan to harvest seeds from a specific perennial, allowing it to go to seed is simply taxing the plant's energy for no good gardening reason. So I expend a fair portion of my home gardening time removing spent blossoms. Beside ensuring perennials don't waste good energy on seed production, deadheading keeps the gardens looking fresh and allows currently blooming flowers to take center stage.

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By joenesgarden, 2 years and 6 months ago

Gardening Oops – GOOPs - Day

August 1, 2009 - On the first of each month I confess, if you will, one of the many mistakes I've made in my three decades or so of gardening.  I've dubbed this Gardening Oops – GOOPs – Day.  I firmly believe that if you don't make mistakes, you're simply not gardening, and I'm happy to see that other gardeners feel the same.  Those who read Steve Aitken's 'editor's letter' in the most recent issue of Fine Gardening (October 2009 – by the way, why is the October issue arriving in mailboxes in July?) saw this comment … A gardener – of any skill level – who can't admit to making mistakes is either a fool or a liar … included in Steve's list of hard truths of gardening.  Steve, if you read this, here's my virtual - clap, clap, clap - applause.  My friend Debbie, at A Garden of Possibilities, also got a kick out of Steve's list (see her post here).

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By joenesgarden, 2 years and 7 months ago

Weeds – pull ‘em now.

passed iris and lavender_edited The nearly constant drizzle, sprinkles, showers, and downright downpours we've had of late has put me way behind in my gardening plans. By now I've usually finished weeding, mulching, edging but currently half the beds still need weeding and mulch, and many of the iris and early bloomers still need to be deadheaded. Iris stalks should not look like those in the photo when lavender is ready to open.

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  • Misjudged collaboration causes an NWF GOOPs:
    • joenesgarden: Jean, I'm glad I could bring you updated news regarding NWF's GOOPs. I agree that the NWF has some credibility rebuilding to accomplish.
    • Jean: Joene, I had seen all the posts about the Scott's-NWF "partnership" but had missed the turnaround news; thanks for bringing me up to date. In these times when ordinary people often feel powerless, it's good to know that popular outrage made a real difference. (I think it's going to take more, though, for NWF to...
    • joenesgarden: Debbie, NWF's GOOPs certainly seemed to be an eye opener for many NWF collaborators. Only time will tell whether NWF's reputation is sullied.
    • Debbie/GardenofPossibilities: Joene, What a good example of a major GOOPs. As Laurrie noted, it's unbelievable that NWF never mentioned the groundswell of outrage as a factor in the decision to end the partnership. I guess regadless of how/why it happened, most people are pleased it's over. BTW, thanks for the shout-out.
    • joenesgarden: Laurrie, The NWF's GOOPs may direct more followers to local wildlife-protecting and environmental organizations. This would be a good thing.
    • Laurrie: Talk about a gardening oops, this was a monster one. Absolute debacle. It's interesting that when they rescinded the partnership they blamed it on the lawsuits and gave no credit to the groundswell of public outrage. Never mentioned that at all. Unbelievable. My OOPS is on my blog today and...
  • Connecticut’s new planting zones:
    • joenesgarden: Jean, I think all seasoned gardeners understand zone map recommendations are no substitute for knowing your property, as your experience with temperature extremes in your Maine garden illustrates. I'm honored you named me as one of your Versatile Bloggers. I would participate if not for the sharing rules ... thanks anyway. I hope...
    • Jean: Joene, I was just looking at the new hardiness zones for Maine, and it brought home your point about knowing your own garden conditions. On the new map, my town has been moved from the boundary of zones 4b and 5a firmly into 5b. But the low temperature for zone 5b is -15F, and I...

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