The seed catalogues are arriving; early spring issues of our favourite gardening magazines are going to press loaded with news of new plants; the annual horticultural convention that kicks off the business season for landscapers and garden centres welcomed thousands of delegates a few weeks ago and wholesale nursery growers are switching on their greenhouse lights to start production of all those colourful annuals we'll be buying in just a few months.

It may be -20 C outside, but we're at the post and the countdown is on!   That's right -- spring is on the way!  Another one of my futile attempts to lessen the agony of the long wait till spring?  Maybe, but, in many ways, the gardening season really has begun.

The seed order has been mailed; plastic pots sterilized; bags of potting soil wait in the laundry room.   Cannas, geraniums and calla lily can be brought out of the cold cellar soon and potted up.

Charts, planting plans and checklists are being drawn up and at least two revisions have already been made to the sketches for the new perennial border, which, of course, will be revised many more times once those early spring issues of the gardening magazines hit the kitchen table.

Spring is coming all right. Heck, it's already here!

Will any of this planning, plotting and seeding actually result in a more beautiful and bountiful garden this summer? Probably not. Most of it will go out the window or be significantly revised on the spot once the excitement and distraction of spring arrives.

There will be stronger plants at the garden centre promising earlier bloom than the ones that struggled on our window sill and new vegetable varieties will probably sound tastier than the ones chosen from the seed catalogues.    There will inevitably be an even deeper purple Heuchera that we just have to own and the lively chartreuse of yet another new Hosta may inspire a completely different planting scheme than the one you so painstakingly sketched out.

All a wasted effort? Not at all. All of this planning and catalogue gazing is keeping the vision of colourful flowers and glossy greens alive during the bleak monochrome of winter -- a lifeline for the plant addicted.

Carpets may get soiled and the windowsill stained, but starting plants from seed keeps our fingers in the dirt where they feel most at home and begins another awe-inspiring journey through one full circle of the miracle of life.

© Evelyn Wolf, Jan, 2004

Dirty Knees, from Dec. 28th 2003, on rescuing a fading poinsettia for next Christmas, by Evelyn Wolf

Q.  I saved my Christmas poinsettia from last year and while it is strong and healthy, it doesn't have any blooms.  What did I do wrong? 

A.  While you can give your Poinsettia a new life as a foliage shrub for the summer garden, frankly, getting it to bloom again for another Christmas is not worth the trouble.  (Closet darkness, black plastic bags, daily doses of an exact amount of light, for an exact amount of weeks, high temperatures followed by cool temperatures, fertilizing, repotting, special pruning, magic wands, eye of newt, etc.). 

Getting a Poinsettia to bloom again isn't as simple as with other types of plants, since the huge scarlet heads are not actually flowers, but bracts – coloured modified leaves that surround the tiny cluster of bud-like flowers in the center of the rosette of red leaves.  Who knows why this alternate method of attracting pollinators was devised by Mother Nature, but there you have it – another example of nature's wondrous diversity. 

Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherimma) is a large shrub native to the sunny ravines and hillsides of Mexico.  Commercial growers use a wide assortment of special treatments to adjust bloom time; keep them compact;  produce larger blooms than would naturally occur; and in recent years producing them in white, pink, spotted, etc.  Poinsettias, as we know them, are virtually a man made plant that bears little resemblance to the plant as it appears in the wild. 

If you want to keep your Poinsettia alive and healthy as an outdoor shrub, or as a houseplant, it is a straightforward procedure, but it will become a plant that looks very different from the compact colourful potted plant you originally bought.

In the wild, Poinsettia enters a dormant period after bloom time, triggered by the warm dry season.  Its bloom time is tied to the shortening daylight time of autumn and winter.  Your task now is to mimic these drought conditions and trick your plant into taking the dormant rest period it needs to come back strong, and to shake off the effects of all of the artificial treatments it went through in its youth.  (At the blooming end of the lifecycle, 14 hours of absolute darkness per day for 8 weeks is necessary in the autumn for it to produce its colourful bracts.  This is the part that seems more trouble than its worth!)  

To start the process of rescuing your plant, slow down on watering, letting it almost dry out in-between, until it has dropped all its leaves.  At this point stop watering altogether and cut the stems back to just 3 -  4 inches above soil level.  Store the plant as-is, in a dark corner at average room temperature, keeping the soil just one notch up from bone-dry.  (A trick I use to keep just that bit of moisture in a plant's environment while dormant, is to put it in a paper bag and put an unbruised apple in the bag along with it.) 

Around late March you'll see it try to put out new growth, signaling the end of the dormant period.  It's now time to help it "wake up".  Repot in fresh soil with good drainage;  bring it gradually into the brightest spot you have, but not direct sunlight;  start watering - only a bit at first and more as it grows faster.  Once growth is rapid, fertilize with a general plant food at half the recommended strength and keep the soil evenly moist but not too wet.  

At this point it's ready to put out in the garden, but you have to wait until all danger of frost is past.  Keep the light as strong as you can to ensure that branches don't get stretched out and leggy.  If you have the time to fuss, put it outside on warm spring days and bring it in at night.  

Once the danger of frost has passed, you can plant it out in your garden in a partial shade to full sun position.  Expect a 3'-4' shrub with deep green leaves tinged with a bit red at the veins by mid-summer.  It won't bloom, but it makes an attractive foliage backdrop for some favourite flowers. 

Now here's the magic want bit.  If you want to try your hand at getting it to bloom again, here's the general instructions, but you're unlikely to get "blooms" anywhere near the size you're familiar with.  

Follow the above procedure, but plant your poinsettia in a pot instead of in the garden.  Fertilize regularly at half the recommended strength to ensure a vigorous and strong stemmed plant.  In June give it a hard pruning back to produce a more compact plant.  In late September start the 14 hours of darkness per day treatment for 8 weeks.  I have never tried this myself, but I'm told that this really needs to be complete and uninterrupted darkness, which is where the black plastic bag comes in.  It needs to be in a consistently warm place during this time.  Once it is "blooming" keep it in a coolish place out of direct sunlight, and don't overwater.  

There you go!  The cycle complete. 

                                          Cheers!  Evelyn

© Evelyn Wolf, Dec., 2003

 
Dirty Knees, from Dec.15th 2003,
on catalogues, poinsettias, etc. by, Evelyn Wolf

For the time being, active gardening is on hold while we prepare for Christmas.  It will be a long wait, but our gardening catalogues, books and houseplants will get us through.  

It seems garden seed catalogues are arriving earlier and earlier each year in their bid to get your attention before the competition, but their arrival in the middle of the distraction of Christmas preparation only spoils the fun and excitement of their arrival for me.  

These usually full colour, enticing catalogues are much more welcome in January when the snow is deep and spring still months away.  In fact they are not just welcome, they're essential to winter sanity.  With hot toddy in hand and a sketch pad by my side I can immerse myself in planning next years possibilities, and the world feels right again.      

If you don't receive any gardening catalogues you're missing a real treat.  While I have spent my entire adult life protecting my address from any company that may put me on a mailing list, I happily give my address out to any garden related business.  

In your flurry of Christmas shopping, take a few minutes to watch for the Dec./Jan issue of CANADIAN GARDENING Magazine or ONTARIO GARDENER Magazine.  They both put together excellent lists in this year-end issue, of companies all across Canada who offer seeds, plants and products through mail order.  

Probably the best one spot source of anything to do with gardening is the annual gardener's journal TORONTO GARDENER'S JOURNAL & SOURCEBOOK 2004.  It is a privately produced and published journal whose "yellow pages" section is updated each year and includes everything from gardens to visit and recommended magazines to specialty plant nurseries, organic products, or unique garden ornament in the greater Toronto area.   

Armed with any of these three source guides, the gardening world is at your finger tips!  Get yourself on as many lists as possible, and spend an afternoon with a gardening friend in January pouring through the catalogues.  You can save a lot of money sharing an order with a friend since most seed packages contain far more seed than you can use, and often there is a discount for larger orders to take advantage of.  (It is also good to have a friend on hand to prevent you from ordering enough seed to plant all the beds in Newmarket as can easily happen with all the enticement!). 

One word of caution though.  Seed package instructions for the timing of planting cannot always be relied upon for accuracy.  If you're going to try your hand at starting your own plants from seed, get yourself a good book to guide you.  Every plant has its own unique needs, and getting the timing right for each particular plant is the key to success.  

In my early years of getting bitten by the gardening bug I spent over $100.00 on my first seed order, had a total of 16 feet of grow lights glowing from January through to April, and by the time May came around I had only a dozen or so Tomato plants that actually made it into the garden successfully.  

I had started virtually all of the seeds too early, and didn't know about the precautions I needed to take to prevent damping-off disease which can wipe out whole trays of seedlings. 

And now to a few current plant matters.  

No houseplant likes the drafts and dry heat of a typical Canadian home in winter, but your Christmas Poinsettia in particular will droop and die quickly if it can't be given a spot with a fairly even temperature and kept out of drafts.  No cold window sills, or tables above heating vents.  Keep it just barely moist – about the state of a wrung-out sponge is ideal, and let it dry to the touch between waterings.  

Your other houseplants may be beginning to pout a bit at the indoor climate, but just like your outdoor plants they are naturally slowing down their growth for a period of winter dormancy and will liven up come early spring.  As a rule, cut back on watering, especially if the plant is pouting badly or dropping leaves, and NO FERTILIZING should be done at this time of year.   (More about houseplant care next month.)   

                    Cheers! Evelyn    

© Evelyn Wolf, Dec. 2003                                    

Dirty Knees, Nov. 30th, 2003, on fall clean-up - "best to leave debris over winter...", by Evelyn Wolf

There are still a few things that could be done in the garden, but mostly late November is the time to pat ourselves on the back with a firm "job well done".  We're grateful that our backs will finally get a rest, but the satisfying routine of garden "work" will be missed.   

This is the beginning of what we northern gardeners know will be an excruciatingly long wait before we'll again be able to touch the warm earth and experience the excitement of something new coming into bloom.   

Take heart though!  Like all gardeners, I'm an eternal optomist, so here's the positive spin on the long five months ahead.  Our long winters offer us much more time than our southern neighbours to become better gardeners!  We have more time than they do to read, learn, go to meetings, take classes, write to gardening columnists, etc. and thoroughly research plans for the coming season.  We are the ones that have the advantage!   

(This forced cheerfulness is just one of the games I play with myself to help me cope with the long wait.  I'll give you more tips on staying sane as the winter wears on.) 

So, more than ever, keep your books open and your questions coming!   

Q    Some gardeners just leave frost killed plants in their garden over winter, but others say this promotes disease.  Which is correct? 

A.  The best answer to this is perhaps that happy middle ground of compromise.   Basically, the less tidying you do in autumn the better it is for the plants, but the point of a garden is to be attractive after all, so gardeners feel compelled to tidy.  

Yet again it is being discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) that the immense wisdom of nature's cycles offers the best guidance for gardeners.  Successful gardening is about learning to work WITH nature cycles and events, not trying to dominate them.  

Leaving debris on the garden over the winter may be a hiding spot for diseases and pests, but it is also the nurturing environment for friendly bacteria and beneficial insects.  Old stems protect young buds from frost damage, and seed heads attract birds who contribute droppings and foraging activity to contribute to soil structure and pest control. 

As more becomes known about plant and soil structure, opinions on our traditional routine of cleaning away autumn debris have changed.  It is now recognized that the battle waged between good and evil in the garden stays in a fair balance if we don't interfere too much.  

The more you can leave in place and still feel proud of how it looks, the better.  As with many things in life, it's about compromise. 

This year, instead of cutting and cleaning down to bare soil, remove only what is really unsightly or diseased, and leave at least a few inches of old flower stem.    (Powdery mildew or Apple scab are examples of spore borne diseases that overwinter in the soil.  Burn or trash this debris, don't compost.) 

The benefits of leaving your garden in a more natural state for the winter are numerous. Old flower stems hold seeds above the snow where birds can find them.  Frost damaged stem fibers disintegrate at the base by spring making them easy to just tug away for clean up.  Stems left standing and foliage flopped to the ground act as a mulch protecting plants from frost heave by evening-out extreme winter temperature fluctuations.  

The ground won't freeze as deeply as it otherwise would which means it will thaw quicker in spring bringing plants into an earlier growth period.

Seed heads like the almost black Coneflower or the lovely plumes of ornamental grasses look gorgeous poking up through the snow.  The flat heads of Yarrow and Sedum collect little poofs of snow and contribute to a charming winter scene. 

In very early spring when the view everywhere is still brown and dull, take a peek under the layer of debris in your garden and enjoy the sight of fresh green growth that is already emerging.  

At this point especially, the benefits of your new relaxed attitude toward garden neatness will be the most evident.  The excruciatingly long wait is almost over!

                                                Cheers! Evelyn

© Evelyn Wolf, Nov. 2003

Dirty Knees, Nov. 9th, 2003, "chop leaves instead of bagging them up...", by Evelyn Wolf

Q.   I'd like to start using all the leaves we have in our yard at this time of year in my garden, but I've been told that they can rot and create a big mess.  Can I use them directly on my garden beds? 

A.  That's absolute gold falling from your trees!  Gardener's gold!  Yes, you can and should use your fallen leaves in your garden for many reasons.  All you need to do to prevent any rot problems is chop them up a bit to increase air flow. 

The fallen leaves of deciduous trees are a major part of Mother Nature's intricate, self sustaining system.  Through this annual cycle of shedding, rest and renewal, soil is given an annual boost of organic matter to keep it alive and able to feed and sustain plant life.  Somehow though, we have come to think of autumn leaves as garden "waste" that needs to be cleaned away.    

Let's look more closely at this annual gardening ritual.   

Each autumn we put out $25.00 or more to buy extra large bags to cope with the task of bagging leaves.  Special gadgets to help keep the bags open while you rake and stuff can also be bought for a few more dollars.  We then haul dozens of these full bags to sit at the curb for a couple of weeks (a real eye-sore) until yard "waste" pick up day.  On this day your tax dollars go towards paying someone around $2.00 per bag to pick up this "waste".  They then take this precious cargo to a compost yard where it is chopped and piled to naturally decompose.  Next spring when you're working in your garden and realize you need some compost to boost your soil, you can go to the same compost yard where they will be happy to sell your leaves back to you for $5.00 or more per bag. 

Personally, I'd rather spend all this money on new plants!   

Instead of bagging your leaves this fall, put them right where they were intended to go - in your garden to feed the soil, which will in turn feed your plants.  All you need to do is speed along the decomposition process a bit by chopping the leaves to make an attractive and highly nutritious mulch.   

When most of the leaves have fallen rake them into a huge pile in the middle of your yard and go at it with your lawn mower.  Move along in circles working in from the outside edges, aiming the exit hole of your lawn mower to the inside of the pile so that the chopped leaves remain in a pile and are chopped ever finer with each pass.  

Most people think that they have too many leaves for their garden to consume, but you'll be amazed at the small mound that remains when you're done.  From personal experience I know that a pile of 40 or more bags is reduced to just a small pile that would fill maybe 2 or 3 bags.    

Spread the resulting rich and attractive material in a 2" blanket over your soil and around your plants.  If you have enough, also spread a very fine layer over your lawn.   

This is all you need to do for the entire year to keep your plants well fed, and other than the cost of a tank of gas for the lawn mower, this gardener's gold didn't cost you a cent!   

Making sure your garden soil always has a fresh supply of organic material is perhaps THE most important thing you can do in a garden to ensure long term success.   

The organic material portion of the triple-mix your garden started with a few years ago is consumed by now, and without an annual replenishment there is no food for the worms or the millions of other smaller micro-organisms that are an essential part of the amazing underground chain reaction that is a soil's own eco-system.   Plant life feeds on the nutrients that result from all of this busy underground activity.   

Think of the microscopic forms of animal and insect life that live underground as your much beloved pets and garden allies that help your garden thrive.  Just toss them this annual meal of chopped leaves and they will stick around and pay you back handsomely with healthy plants and plenty of blooms.

                                                  Cheers! Evelyn

© Evelyn Wolf, Oct., 2003

Dirty Knees, on correct  planting of newly purchased trees & shrubs, by E. Wolf  

       Q. My friend and I both bought a cutleaf Japanese maple last summer, but hers is doing fine while mine seems to be struggling. They were both similarly healthy when purchased.   

    A. It isn't easy to diagnose plant problems from a distance of course, but the difference between the current state of health of your shrub, as opposed your friend's, is probably the result of improper original planting. 

I’ll assume you watered well at planting time, but watering after planting often won’t penetrate the tightly congested root ball of a new plant that has spent the first few years of life in a pot. 

Even though nursery grown plants are healthy and treated well, life in the confined space of a pot is not a happy one, especially for woody plants.  Roots on a sizeable container grown plant can become so congested as they circle around the inside of the pot that they can become impenetrable - even by water.  If these roots are not untangled at planting time to let soil, water and air reach all of the roots, only the outer roots will be in contact with water and the plant will struggle for life until it can establish a whole new network of roots outside of this congested ball.  They can suffer a lot of damage during this period and sometimes will not make it through.  (This sounds like what your shrub is going through now.)  

If your tree or shrub does makes it through this phase, a different problem can emerge later in the plant's life when roots aren't untangled at planting.  In a worst case scenario, these pot-circling roots will grow in girth to literally strangle the tree or shrub's feeder roots.  It isn't unusual for these "girdling roots" to be the cause of poor health or death of established trees.  

The correct method for planting all new plants, especially woody plants is as follows.
~ Prepare a hole twice the diameter of the pot, but no deeper.
~ Fill the hole with water and let it drain to thoroughly soak the soil.
~ Remove the plant from its pot (in the shade!!!) and put it in a bucket of water to soak and loosen the root ball.  If the root ball is very congested, the jet spray of your watering hose will help force a break in the armour. 
~ Separate and untangle larger roots, especially any that are circling, even if you have to cut them to do so.  Dunk them in the water again to moisten and loosen them further.
~ Spread roots out in the hole as much as you can without causing damage, positioning the crown at the correct level (no deeper than it was in the pot) then add soil, firming as you go.
~ Leave a bit of a trench around the base to allow water to pool and soak through the root area, and drench thoroughly again to help soil particles settle close to roots.
~ Leave the trench in place for a few days and drench daily for at least 4 –5 days. An added guarantee of success would be to provide shade for these few days.  I use an old bed linen to just drape over the plant.  This is especially helpful if you're planting during the warmer days of summer rather than spring. 
~ After a few weeks you should see the plant revive and begin to put out new growth.  This is the time to fertilize with a water soluble booster applied at half strength - again, really well watered in - not just in the top few inches.  However, if you're planting in the fall you really don't want vigorous top growth but you do want roots well established and moist, so water well right through until just before ground freeze up in December, but don't fertilize until spring.  

As you’ve experienced, correct planting can mean the difference between life and death for any shrub, let alone a sensitive cutleaf maple. For now, don’t fertilize, water well, and cross your fingers!   
                                               Good luck! Evelyn

© Evelyn Wolf, April, 2003