photo credit: ellievanhoutte

Seaweed Spray

Seaweed spray is rich in nutrients and minerals. It provides protection from many fungal diseases and can be used to prevent damping-off.

How to make Seaweed spray:

Use 2/3 cup of kelp or seaweed concentrate to 1 gallon of water, spray. You can get kelp or seaweed and many gardening centers or a health store. And if you live near a lake you can harvest your own.

Chamomile Spray

Chamomile tea is an excellent preventative for damping-off. This is my most important spray in the spring when I am starting seedlings. Use the chamomile spray on seed starting soil, seedlings and in any humid planting area. Chamomile is a concentrated source of calcium, potash and sulfur. The sulfur is a fungus fighter. This can also be used as a seed soak prior to planting.

How to make a Chamomile spray:

Pour 2 cups boiling water over 1/4-cup chamomile blossoms. Let steep until cool and strain into a spray bottle. Use as needed. This keeps for about a week before going rancid. Spray to prevent damping off and anytime you see any fuzzy white growth on the soil. Chamomile blossoms can be purchased at health food stores and usually grocery stores. Tip: If you don’t have access to Chamomile blossoms, Chamomile tea will work just as well.

Apple Cider Vinegar Spray

This works well for leafspot, mildew, and scab.

How to make Apple Cider Vinegar Spray:

Mix 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar (5% acidity) with one-gallon warm water and spray in the morning on infested plants. Spraying in the morning gives the plant and soil a chance to dry during sunlight hours.

I use a diluted cider vinegar mix to clean my plant leaves. I also rinse my pots in cider vinegar after I have washed them.

I prefer homemade sprays to most store bought sprays. They have fewer chemicals and when I need a spray, I just mix up what I need. This way I have lees bottles of garden and plant sprays sitting around.

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It’s brutally cold on the US east coast and in many other parts of the country. And I hear overseas is also suffering from below normal temperatures, snow and frost.

So you will need to take extra care of your plants that are outdoors. In my zone 5 climate I bring most plants in but I do have some new perennials outdoors and a few potted shrubs. To protect them I put a layer of straw over top of them and a few I made burlap covers for the rest.

Snow will also act as an insulation so let them get covered if you are having abundant snow.

If you’re in an area that usually does not get deep cold spells or frost, bring in what plants you can to a garage or extra room. If you can’t move the plants cover them with plastic or old blankets. Bales of straw that surrounds a plant will also work. You could even place straw bales in a square and cover the entire square with a blanket or plastic.

Plastic milk bottles filled with warm water and placed around your plant and covered with a blanket will keep temperatures warmer and protect a plant over night.

Tip: When you cover a plant, shrub or small tree – make sure your cover will not blow away in the wind. Weight it down with bricks, rocks or stake it in place.

Cold snaps do not usually last long so just keep an eye on temperatures and cover the plants when necessary.

Technorati Tags: plant care, Protecting plants from cold weather, protecting plants from frost

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When planting Peonies plant as soon as they are obtained, being careful to set the division so that the top of the buds will be from 1-1/2 to two inches below the final soil grade after the plants are watered and have finished settling.
photo credit: my_southborough

If planted too deep you will probably get pretty foliage with a few or no blooms, and if too shallow, the buds will be exposed and are likely to get broken off by Old Shep when he serves notice on a stray cat or rabbit.

You should expect blooms from three to five eye divisions the first season. Only seven of the 60 varieties I planted in my garden a few years ago failed to bloom the first year. The plants made a splendid display of flowers the third season after planting.

Digging and dividing large, old peony clumps is no easy task, as most gardeners have learned. If the freshly-dug clump is left exposed to the air for a while, the roots will become less brittle and are more easily handled without breaking. The soil which is tightly held by the roots is best removed with a stream of water from the hose.

Do not simply cut the clump in half and plant the two peonies without removing any of the old large roots. Such divisions depend upon the old roots for nourishment and seldom bloom. The clump should be cut into smaller divisions, usually with from three to five eyes, some of the older roots removed and the others shortened to about six inches.

This method stimulates the production of new roots which increases the plant’s vigor and productiveness. A stout butcher knife and a hammer are good division tools. Established plants may be fertilized in early spring with a handful of balanced plant food applied in a ring around each plant and stirred into the soil.
photo credit: kkmarais

To Preserve Color

Most peony flowers fade in sunlight and if left to open and stand in the sun they lose much of their delicate beauty. If you wish to use peonies for display in a flower show or as a bouquet in the home, cut the flowers and let them open in the dark or at least in partial shade. Do not cut stems so long that all of the leaves are taken with the stalk. This would tend to weaken the plant.

Peonies which are properly planted and maintained are seldom bothered by diseases. The foliage is hardly ever attacked by insect pests. Plants should be carefully watched and if any disease occurs the affected parts should be removed and destroyed.

Root knot, leaf spot and botrytis blight are the three most common ailments. Root knot can be avoided by planting clean, healthy divisions in disease-free soil. New plants should not be set in an old bed where root knot has occurred. If the plants are properly spaced, very little damage is done by leaf spot.

Botrytis blight is likely to be the most serious peony disease and sometimes in orchid plants. It affects stems, buds and leaves just like in caring for orchid plants. Young stalks in early spring suddenly wilt and fall over, and young buds turn black and dry up. Later on, larger buds which become infected turn brown and fail to open up.

For control, remove and destroy all infected parts as soon as they appear. Cut off all tops near the crowns in the fall and burn. If severe infestation has occurred before, remove the upper two inches of soil around the plants and replace with fresh disease-free soil.

Also as a preventive measure in the spring, spray the young shoots as soon as they appear, with Bordeaux mixture 2-2-50 or a copper fungicide mixture. Two or three successive sprays should follow at weekly intervals.

Technorati Tags: container gardening, garden, gardening, peonies, plant care

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Just because you know the shrub is a Barberry “Rose Glow” does not mean your family does. If you have someone help you in your yard or sell the house later, all the information you know about this shrub may not be known by who ever is tending your plants and the plant may suffer or die from improper care.

Its wise and only takes a few minutes at the time you buy the plant to save a plant tag or research the plant to know its growing zone and other care its will need to grow and thrive.

Information you will need:

• Climate needs
• Watering
• Shade or sun requirements
• Soil needs
• How much fertilizer
• Insect problem
• Disease problems
• Height and width
• Pruning needs
• Is it invasive?Is it poisonous?
  

When I buy a plant I check all these areas and make notes. If I know someone locally who has the shrub or tree I ask if they have any problems.
photo credit: shioshvili

I have just bought 28 shrubs and want to move 4 shrubs that I already have. I would also like to pick up a few more varieties of shrubs and replace some fruit trees that died this year. (My summer was very hard of shrubs and trees.)

I have researched the new varieties I have bought and will go out and get any nutrients I need and mulch for the new plants.

I also have perennials to divide and peonies to divide and move.  So it will be a busy fall. But I will make sure I have all the information on the new plants for future reference.

The following sites have been beneficial for me to identify shrubs, trees and perennials.

Shrubs for your home

Tree Guide

Trees

Perennials

Technorati Tags: caring for your yard, perennials, plant care, shrubs, trees

© Denise for The Gardener's Rake, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The best chance a gourmet has of getting delicious fruits and vegetables is to raise them himself and this is the best chance he has of keeping in good health too.
photo credit: Sistak

Good home-grown vegetables are both aesthetically better and more practical in terms of use. These are the reasons people who want to raise vegetables they cannot buy and then cook them in ways that will bring out priceless flavor.

It goes without saying that, just as the most brilliant cook can do only so much with stale and tasteless vegetables, so the most delicious vegetables any man ever grew can be quickly spoiled by bad, or even by merely unimaginative, cooking.

The usual fate of the stale vegetables we now buy is to be overcooked. In short, they never had much life, they lost in shipping most of the life they had, and the cook then cooks all the life out of them.

Now Lets start with your garden

Remember that the spot where you plant must have plenty of sun. You can build your own soil if you have to. But you can, not supply sunlight, except maybe by cutting a branch off a tree to let sunlight through or by taking down a board fence. If you live in a small town or in the open country and have a choice of sites, a good piece of ground is one that slopes just enough to drain easily.

If it slopes south or, better still, southeast so much the better. Dig a hole a foot deep and see what kind of soil you have. Normally the top few inches will be much darker and much more crumbly than what lies below. This is your topsoil: it is dark because it contains “humus” decayed vegetable matter. The subsoil below it may contain minerals but it lacks humus.

Put an ounce or two of each in a small container and find out from your County Agricultural Agent or from the Department of Agriculture in your state capital where to send them for analysis.

The analysis you get will tell you whether you need the three elements plants need most, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Results of the analysis can also show whether fertilizer and rain are significant factors in your garden.

Also it may be able to determine whether your soil is too acid and needs calcium. If it does, you should spread agricultural lime on it, not quicklime. Commercial lawn fertilizers and garden fertilizers are available which combine nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

If you can’t get your flower bed soil professionally tested, there are now on the market inexpensive “soil kits,” which are advertised in garden magazines and at Amazon.

Technorati Tags: container gardening, gardening, plant care, plants, vegetables

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photo credit: audreyjm529 Overall, if given a rest period during the year and watered and fertilized properly the Shamrock will live for many years. If you notice your plant looks a little weak or seems to be suffering there are two plant diseases that affect the shamrock plant.

Shamrock Plant Disease

Fungal Rust can be diagnosed when you notice an obvious orange color on the underside of the leaves. Treatment: I remove the plant from the pot and clean the pot thoroughly. If you feel the plant needs repotted this it the time to do so.

Before placing the plant back in its pot wash the plant carefully with a mix of neem oil. Neem oil is not one of the toxic chemicals that many people use so I feel its safe to use and its good for several other forms of plant diseases too.

After placing the plant back in the pot remove the top layer of soil and replace with fresh soil. Water the plant lightly with a chamomile tea mix. If your plant has really suffered you may want to take extra measures. This site has information on common plant disease

Spider Mites are a common problem on the shamrock plant.  These insect parasites are small mites that are almost not visible. They produce a little white webbing that is sticky. They seem to choose to hide and live under leaves and in the joints of stems.

You need to remedy the problem as quickly as possible or they will spread. A spider mite sucks the juice out of the plant and weakens it. If left untreated the plant will slowly die.

If you suspect mites, there are two treatments.  A home remedy of water a few drops of dish soap and a touch of garlic will stop the mites. If the mites are quite large touching them with Sea Breeze that is placed on a Q-tip will kill the bug.

You can treat the plant with Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub Insecticide.  Mix this product with water as directed and pour on the soil around the base of the plant.  It will kill the bugs within a week or so.  The plus to this product is that it provides protection from reinfestation for up to a year.

Note: Make sure you remove any old or infected soil from the top of the pot.

For more information on this plant check Shamrock Plant Care and The Shamrock Plant

Technorati Tags: indoor plants, plant care, shamrock plant care, shamrock plant disease

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photo credit: daitaWatering a garden or plants seems like it should be quite easy. But watering too much or too little can harm your plants, and some of the damage  may be irreversible.

Watering tips

The best time for watering is in the morning before heat and evaporation take their toll.  Grass clippings and mulch spread on the soil help to prevent the water from evaporating and let it soak into the soil.

Watering in the evening after 5 p.m. when the heat of the day so cooling will also work for most plants.

But if you plan to water in the evening, make sure you give the plants and soil enough time to dry before dew forms in the night. If you water too late at night you will have a tendency to attract slugs and other non-beneficial insects and disease into your garden.

Water the soil in your garden completely once a week. This means there must be enough water to soak down through the soil and get to the roots of the plants where it is needed.

Note: A few minutes of surface watering only encourages weak and shallow roots.

New plants need to be watered daily for several weeks to root growth. This is especially true for shrubs and trees.  Once your plants are established, be careful not to over-water them. Too much water will take air out of the soil and the plants will suffer or die from lack of air.
photo credit: Gnosticgardener

How to Water your Plants

Generally, plants should be watered at the base of the plant. Water the area long enough for the water to be able to soak into the soil.  You can check how deep the moisture is going into the ground with you finger. You want at least an inch of moisture; 3 inches would be better.

A light misting of the leaves occasionally can be beneficial, especially for houseplants.  But too much water on the leaves can promote fungal blights. And during the hottest hour of the day leaves outdoor plants can actually suffer from phototoxicity (burning of the leaves).

I like to water with a dipper and water each plant individually with water from a rain barrel. The water is warm and not as cold as from a sprinkler. Cold water can shock plants and set back plant growth and production.

But all people don’t have time to hand water and a sprinkler or irrigation-type hose is a much easier and faster. Just make sure to water the area long enough to get the moisture down to the plants roots.

And last but not least, different plants take more or less water. Check in gardening books and online to learn plants water needs and group plants in certain areas according to their needs.

Technorati Tags: plant care, watering a garden, watering plants

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photo credit: cliff1066

During the summer I collected plants and in the fall I set up a starter garden for the perennials. Theses were for the plants I bought, found or traded for. I divided the perennials that you divide in the fall and covered the soil with a heavy mulch to stop weeds from growing and to protect the plants from heavy frosts.

This spring I worked the mulch into the ground and found more plants to add to the collection. I also divided many of the plants that should be divided in the spring. My plants quadrupled in a twp week times from dividing plants. The divided plats will be ready to sell in the fall.

Last year at this time I had about 150 perennial plants. This year I have 2000 plants that are a good size and healthy. By fall, even with sales I will have about 5000 plants.

My goal was to start a perennial gardening business on a budget by finding or trading plants and purchasing plants that could be easily divided for more new plants. I wanted to set up a backyard business that is enjoyable.

I spent $50 last year and have made $500 this spring just selling a few plant varieties I don’t like to grow. In the fall I hope to have a business that can be run full time.

Where to find Free Plants

From your friends when they divide their perennials
From houses that are going to be torn down. Ask first!
From greenhouses at the end of their season
Along the road and abandoned houses.

This last week stopped at two garage sales and they had beautiful gardens. I asked what they did with their plants when they divided plants and worked in the garden and they admitted they just tossed them. So I made arrangements to pick up their “homeless” plants. I have 4 boxes of plants (about 200 plants and 12 new varieties) and in a few weeks I will be getting more perennials.
photo credit: carterjk

I also plan to sell my bee balm patch that has taken over an old garden. It’s a lovely plant and I plan to keep some of the plants but I have dug up 100 clumps of bee balm and it’s going to a flea market tomorrow. The money I make from the plants will go to buy new plant varieties I don’t have.

Another suggestion that will save you money is to make your own compost for your plants which will cut back on buying soil.

Free  pots and garden containers can be found along curbs that are being tossed out or at garage sales.

So when it comes to saving money on plants, ask around. You will be surprised what plants you can get for free or for trading. It adds to the fun of gardening and makes for a prettier backyard garden area.

Technorati Tags: Backyard Flower Garden, dividing perennials, flower garden, free plants, perennial garden, perennial garden business, perennial plants, plant care, thegardenersrake.com

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photo credit: cliff1066

Once started the cotton plant is not that hard to care for. I started my seeds in four-inch pots with rich fertilized soil. You can also use regular potting soil but add plant fertilizer to enhance the soil.

Place 4 seeds in each four-inch pot. Water the seeds and place in a sunny area. I often will cover new seeds with a plastic cover to keep in the moisture. It acts like a greenhouse and helps the seeds to sprout quicker. When the seeds begin to sprout remove the plastic so that the plants can breath.

Once the seedlings have begun to grow, leave the healthiest looking seedling to grow in each pot. I remove the smaller ones and repot them. My nephews always enjoy these plants or I will take them to a retirement home for them to grow.

When the plants outgrow their original pots transplant them into 12-inch pots. Usually when the plants are developing their second set of full sized leaves they are ready to be transferred. After you transfer the plants, water them well and add some fertilizer to help with transplants shock. I give the plants a few days with less sun to recover then move them back into a sunny area.

Cotton plants thrive with a typical tomato feed that can be found in most garden centers, nurseries or online stores. The tomato feed is high in nutrients, which benefit the cotton plant.

Water the cotton plants regularly, usually once a week. I grow my cotton plants on my patio and bring them in the fall at night when the temperatures start to cool. Cotton is more of a warm weather crop so if your climate is a cool climate they may benefit from being brought in at night.

When the flowers of the cotton plant begin to die off, the ‘bolls’, which hold the cotton seed, begins to form. Cotton plants that are grown outdoors will drop their bolls at the end of the season when the plant is dying. Indoor cotton plants need to have the bolls picked.

Cotton plants are fun and unique, particularly the pastel colored cotton, but the plants have prickers and can scratch you so you need to take care around them.
photo credit: chadmiller

I remember my first time I picked cotton at my cousins farm in Georgia. The cotton took a little getting used to in order to pick it properly without scratching yourself and ripping the boll. But it was a fun adventure and a field of cotton is a pretty site.

Technorati Tags: container gardening, cotton boll, how to grow cotton indoors, indoor plants, plant care, starting seeds

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photo credit: Uberto

Annual plants benefit the most from deadheading; they will often produce nearly double the flowers that they would have produced without removing the old flowers.

Perennials also can benefit but not at the same success rate. Some perennials have a longer blooming seasons and if deadheaded will have a second set of blooms.

How to deadhead flowers

• Deadhead roses if they only a few flowers on a cluster and the flower have faded. Deadhead by pinching or trimming the rose blossom off. If the whole cluster is fading, cut it off at the first leaflet with five leaves.
• To deadhead Perennials with tall stalks cut the stalk as near to the base as possible. In some cases the stalk will dry up enough that you can gently tug it off.
• For Perennials and Annuals with one partly faded flower clusters pinch or cut the faded flower off. If the entire cluster is faded, remove the whole stem.
• If you have bushy Perennials and Annuals with many small flowers give the plant a haircut by shearing back to about one-third and removing all of the blooms. You would do this when 2/3’s to ¾’s of the plants has faded blossoms. A good example of such a plant is the Mum.
• Deadheading can make a plant look unattractive at first but the plants will fill out again in a week or two. I myself try to dead head a little every time I go by a plant so it good fresh all the time and doesn’t get the bare look.

One tip that will help your plant to look better is to deadheading individual flowers by reaching into the plant as much as possible. This will minimize unattractive stubs.

When I first raised flowers I didn’t deadhead the plants but it makes a big difference in the appearance of the plants and the flowers that is has. Flowers add such color and life to a yard so keeping them healthy and free from faded flowers just adds to the beauty of your yard.

Technorati Tags: Backyard Flower Garden, flowers, gardening tips, plant care

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