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Experienced gardeners are well aware of this reality and have even come to enjoy the ephemeral nature of their outdoor spaces.
gardening experts
Early spring is tree planting season, and we are getting ready to add some of our favorites to the garden. Join gardening expert Melissa Strauss to discuss when you should water those new trees and how much they need. Early spring is an ideal time for planting new trees in your yard. Planting in spring means that your new tree has ample time to set down roots and adapt to its new location before next winter. It also gives it some time to adjust before the heat of summer, which can cause stress to many plants. The best time to put new trees in the ground is while they are still dormant. For many, this means late winter, as soon as the ground is workable. In warmer climates, you can plant your trees even earlier, as long as you’re able to dig a hole. Whatever the time of year, new trees need some special care considerations. Perhaps the most important care these young plants need is consistent and appropriate watering. Water is necessary for root development, and it helps buffer the shock of transplanting. It’s vital to establish a routine that addresses your tree’s needs from the time of planting through the end of its first year. Your irrigation regularity will shift a few times over the span of that first year. The most important stage is the first few weeks, but even once your plant comes out of dormancy and starts putting out new growth, it will continue to need special consideration. Let’s take a look at how your irrigation routine should evolve over the coming year. Transplanting a tree is a stressful event, and water is a key factor in minimizing that stress. It’s vital to help your plant acclimate to its new home. Another important factor in root development is the soil. Compacted soil is tougher for those roots to break through. Looser soil promotes better development. When you plant your tree, make sure to water it the day before. Dig a hole that is as deep and at least twice as wide as the root ball. This loosens the ground directly around the ball, allowing for good root development. Water the hole before placing your tree. Fill the hole with water, and then plant your tree and backfill with soil. Immediately after planting, water deeply, soaking the ground. If the water prompts the soil to sink slightly, add more soil to the sunken area. Deep watering means deep roots. Cover the ground around the trunk with a thick layer of mulch to protect the roots and help retain moisture. You don’t want the soil to dry out completely while the plant is acclimating. Leave a few inches of space between the mulch and the trunk so it will form a sort of doughnut. This reservoir will hold water in place so it can absorb rather than running off. It also keeps pests and diseases from sitting against the trunk. This next category covers about two to three weeks, and it’s a vital time to keep up with care. Your plant will need moisture, consistently during this time. The amount of rainfall will naturally change the frequency that you need to water. The general rule is every day to every other day for the first few weeks. If you get a significant amount of rainfall, you can adjust this. But, significant means at least one inch. Otherwise, make sure you stay on top of it. This is the most vital time in reducing stress and helping your tree to recover from transplanting. For the first season after planting, you’ll need to continue watering regularly. If you planted in the spring, that means you should follow this guideline for about 12 weeks, until early summer. During this time, you can reduce from every day to once every two to three days. You want to thoroughly soak the ground, reaching all the way down past the roots of your plant. Go slowly so that all the moisture absorbs into the ground rather than running off. A good way to do this is to wet the ground first. If the earth is too dry, it won’t be as absorbent. After wetting the root zone and allowing that to soak in, set your hose to a slow stream and lay it on the ground. Allow the water to soak that area, and then move it around the tree’s dripline to ensure moisture gets to the entire root system. From here, we move on to the duration of the year. It may seem like three months is enough to get your tree acclimated. But it truly takes closer to a year for the roots to grow into the surrounding earth. Once this happens, and they grow deeper, they will find water more easily. If you planted in spring, I recommend watering regularly through the summer. The general rule is once per week after the first 12 weeks, but summer weather should dictate frequency. If you get a lot of rain in the summer, once per week should be plenty. My Florida summers are hot and can be dry during some years. In this event, it’s good to water anytime the ground is dry. Don’t underestimate the value of mulch to retain moisture in the earth. Mulch is quite beneficial to your new plants, and old ones, too. As you move into fall, you can reduce to once per week unless you’re getting regular precipitation. As the weather cools off and your tree begins to enter dormancy, it will require and use fewer resources. Reduce watering to once every two weeks for the remaining months. It can take up to two years for your tree to establish a strong root system. Don’t make the mistake of giving up early and expecting the second year to be maintenance-free. Make sure you pay attention to moisture levels and supplement when you need to, throughout that second year. As with most things in gardening, there are exceptions to consider. Different environmental factors should influence your routines and decisions when it comes to watering. Your soil composition plays a starring role in watering. Not all types offer the same water retention, which can be good and bad. The ideal type of soil for most plants is loamy and well-draining. If you have a lot of clay or sand to contend with, you’ll need to factor that into your schedule. Clay-heavy ground tends to compact easily, and though it can absorb and contain a lot of moisture, drainage is often an issue. Overwatering can be as harmful as underwatering because it often leads to root rot. If you have poor drainage, reduce watering accordingly. Conversely, sand has the opposite issue. It drains quickly and doesn’t have good retention. It’s difficult to overwater your plants if you have soil with a high sand content. Naturally, rain is an influencing factor here because if you get a lot of rain, you won’t need to water as frequently or as much. Remember that one-inch rule. If you get less than one inch of rain in the interval between waterings, you need to take action. That means for newly planted trees, one inch of rain every two to three days for the first 12 weeks would be necessary. Heat and sun exposure are also important factors to consider. Heat and sun influence evaporation. If it’s very hot outside, the soil will dry faster, and you’ll want to compensate. This is why I say that if you planted in spring, you may want to continue watering frequently through the summer. We addressed this to a degree when talking about soil composition, but there are other things that can influence drainage. For example, if you are at the top of a hill, chances are you will have better drainage than someone at the bottom of a valley. Water flows downward, so low-lying spaces need less frequent watering, and vice-versa.
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If you are looking for a beautifully unique blue flower that adds some variety to your garden, look no further than the globe thistle. This unique plant has some strikingly beautiful blue flowers, and is fairly easy to care for depending on your hardiness zone.A perennial garden is incomplete without Blue Globe Thistle. This flowering plant is native to southern and eastern Europe and western Asia. As part of the sunflower family, this plant is sure to create a summer spectacle with a spectacular twist. It is mainly sought after for its spherical, spikey flowers that come in beautiful hues of blue. Unfortunately, these pretty spines do sting when they come into contact with the skin. On top of its summery looks, there are several benefits to growing this plant. It’s very fast-growing, adaptable, and easy to care for, thriving in almost any condition. They are also drought tolerant and deer resistant. Plus, they attract a myriad of beneficial insects. Butterflies in particular are fans of its spiky foliage, as it’s a delicious source of food for them. This summer-blooming beauty continues to add textured interest in fall with its striking seed heads. Blue globe thistle looks most at home along beds and borders in cottage gardens and meadow-style landscapes. However, they can also add splashes of color in rock and gravel gardens. Throughout history, globe thistle was a popular plant – not typically for its looks, but for its medicinal properties. The roots were mainly used by herbal practitioners for their anti-inflammatory and lactation-promoting capabilities, predominantly used to treat mastitis and breast swelling. Globe thistle was first named in the 1700s by renowned Swedish botanist Charles Linnaeus. He aptly named the genus Echinops, which is a Greek word that roughly translates to ‘hedgehog head’. Echinops is a large genus, consisting of over 120 different globe thistles. The most popular is Echinops ritro, which was one of the few that made their way into home gardens. Echinops were eventually introduced to the United States in the 1800s, and since then has spread across North America. The blue globe thistle has won several prestigious gardening awards, including the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. Blue is not a common color in the flower world, so this plant, with its steely blue spikes, is a popular choice amongst gardeners. Propagation is done in one of three ways – seeds, roots, and division. No matter the method you choose, remember to wear thick gloves to protect your hands from the sharp spikes.
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One of the best ways to turn over a new leaf in the landscape is with an annual color reboot. Gardening expert Melissa Strauss shares some color palette refreshers that you can achieve with the addition of flowering annuals.Perennials are the foundation of the garden, but spring annual flowers often define the color palette. While you’re waiting for your perennials to come back to life and reach their blooming season, why not add some colorful annuals to brighten up the space? Using these single-season plants is the perfect way to add color and texture to your landscape. There are many benefits to planting them, including the ability to grow things that otherwise won’t thrive in your climate. They also tend to have a prolonged and more intense blooming period, so they make a bold impact. Part of the joy of gardening is the artistry of designing and executing a beautiful space. One of the first steps in achieving that is choosing a color palette and then looking for plants that you love in those colors. Here are some of my favorite color inspirations for this year’s spring annual flower garden.
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As experienced fruit growers, we know all too well the importance of planning when it comes to avoiding depressing mistakes with your fruit trees. But even the most experienced growers can make mistakes, and we’ve made plenty! We’ve learned much of what we know the hard way. It’s equipped us very well to help home fruit growers (like you) avoid the same depressing mistakes. There’s no point everyone going through the same pain, so we’re very happy to share our mistakes here on the blog. It might help you skate through the rookie stage as painlessly as possible. Some of the worst mistakes we’ve made along the way happened before we had a robust picking calendar. Making the mistake of letting fruit fall to the ground One early occasion was particularly memorable. It was a beautiful summer day near the start of the picking season. We’d been busy with the cherry harvest, and were excited for the apricots to get started. We had a great crop that year, after a disastrous season the year before. One of the first apricots to ripen in our orchard is the delicious Poppicot variety. To be fair, we’d checked a couple of trees at the top of the row, and decided that they were at least a week from being ripe. What we didn’t do was walk to the bottom of the row to check the fruit there. If we had, we would have noticed a few ripe fruit already lying on the ground. A week later we went to pick, and our hearts sank as we saw a sea of ripe fruit lying on the ground, wasted and ruined. A fruit tree plan—what’s that? We realized that we had made two rookie mistakes. The first was that we didn’t have a Fruit Tree Action Plan or an accurate picking diary to remind us of when it was time to harvest. And the second was that we didn’t realise the impact that microclimate can have on fruit ripening (that is, trees can ripen unevenly, even when they are close together). Bottom line? Our lack of planning led to the waste of all the hard work, pruning, thinning, watering, and feeding that we’d done up to that point! Lesson learned: write an Action Plan including a picking calendar, folks! It’s an easy way to make sure you don’t miss out on the fruits of your labour. Learning the hard way why netting your fruit trees is always worth it When we first moved home to the orchard and started growing fruit, we didn’t have any nets at all to protect the fruit trees. We regularly lost fruit to birds and dreamed of being able to protect our precious crops. Then we got a great deal on a job lot of ex-winery netting. We snapped it up and imagined that our bird woes were over. Ah, such innocent, naive thoughts. The thing about bird netting is that it works really well – as long as you put it on early enough! (You also need to regularly care for your nets.)
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