by GardenLover | Oct 8, 2013 | Trendspotting
Old garden now abuzz with possibilities
Text by Michael Leach; photos by Debra Knapke and Teresa Woodard
When my neighbor John asked about putting a beehive behind my falling-down tool barn, I readily agreed. Keeping bees was on my bucket list because they are under such stress worldwide. The daily to-do list, however, usually trumps the bucket list. This was obviously a win-win deal.
I envisioned occasional jars of honey as rent, not a beekeeper’s suit and smoker. But John brought an extra white suit, complete with hood, veil and elbow-length gloves, along with the bees. When heading out to the hive, we look like a pair of hazmat techs with a wisp of white smoke trailing behind.
The bees have a safe home base in my acre-plus yard. Being overworked, plus being too lazy to keep up a spray schedule and too cheap to buy chemicals, makes me a mostly organic gardener by default. Signs of backyard eco-health are sometimes startling — a clod of dirt that hops. It’s only a toad.
More than my appearance has changed since the bees arrived. For several years garden planning focused mostly on coping with maintenance. Such is the price of allowing my passion to run wild years ago when there was more energy than insight into what I was creating. (Dr. Frankenstein no doubt suffered from a similar problem.)
From now on, when there’s time, money and gumption, landscape beds will be renovated with an eye toward flowers, whether on trees, shrubs, vines, perennials or annuals. Bees need plenty of food. For instance, a huge order of snow crocus is planned so there’ll be a treat for the bees when they emerge on those warmish days of early spring.
First they have to survive winter. John cooks up sugar-water syrup, similar to hummingbird food, to fill the hive’s feeder trays. The bees transform this into honey. When the stack of three wooden bee boxes becomes too heavy to lift, they should have sufficient honey stored for winter.
While our share of their efforts is perhaps a year away, the bees are already enriching my life. Their gentle humming is a welcome addition to the nature chorus of birds and summer insects. Plus there’s an amazing sense of interdependence that makes gardening seem vital. I grow flowers to enjoy, but now to feed bees as well. Someday they will feed me.
by GardenLover | Oct 1, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Photo credit: Circleville Pumpkin Show
By Michael Leach
The Midwest may lack dramatic rocky spires of the West or the endless vistas along ocean shores. But our open countryside, wooded hills and forests make kaleidoscopic spectacles themselves in autumn that make aspens and white sand seem little more than monochromatic bores.
Many Midwest pumpkin-centric events are already past but others lie ahead. (Please check pumpkinnook.com)
One of the biggest and oldest is the Circleville Pumpkin Show (OH) show, Oct. 16-19.
Weigh-in at Circleville Pumpkin Show
Started in 1903 as a way to help city and country people come together, it stretches eight blocks in the town, about 30 minutes south of downtown Columbus. Rides, food booths, games, craft vendors, and pumpkins by the thousands, including the champions that can weigh about half a ton.
According to Pumpkin Nook, there’s the Sitllwater, MN, Harvestfest and Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off Oct. 12; and two events in Wisconsin, the Mishicot Pumpkin Fest Oct. 19 and the Nekoosa Giant Pumpkin Festival Oct. 5
Other fall fruits are celebrated at the Chicago Botanical Garden with its Midwest Fruit Explorers Show & Sale Oct. 19-20. Stars of this show include apples, pears, paw paws, grapes and kiwis. Tasting and information on growing fruit planned. Apples, cider and more for sale.
Another plant — hops — takes center stage at the Missouri Botanical Garden Fest-of-Ale Oct. 18 6-9 p.m. It’s the 6th annual celebration of local beer.
True, the season brims with necessary and optional garden chores, but don’t spend all your time working. Savor this season by taking frequent breaks in the garden, and walking in nearby parks, botanical gardens, arboretums, forests or country lanes.
by GardenLover | Sep 25, 2013 | Special Topic
By Debra Knapke
Being somewhat of a pragmatist when it comes to garden maintenance – do what you can, when you can – I consider recommended garden maintenance schedules to be guidelines, not rules. Yes, you want to deadhead flowers because it will prolong bloom and it looks better. Edged beds will delay grass and weeds from creeping into the garden bed. But what are the tasks that must be done, could be done, and shouldn’t be done. Let’s take a look at fall…
Must:
– Remove all diseased leaves, fruit, branches from plants and remove all obvious diseased plant parts from the soil and mulch. This is especially important in food gardens as you need to reduce the amount of disease spores from the area. DO NOT place these parts in a compost pile unless it is an active pile that reaches 140° F.
– Weed. Many annual weeds take advantage of cooler temperatures and fall rains. They produce seeds for the weeds of late winter and early spring. Get a head start on eliminating late sprouting thistles and dandelions as you walk around the garden, enjoying the fall weather. I find a cup of tea (morning) or a glass of wine (evening) to be a nice addition.
Could:
– Plant bulbs! Depending on your location, you 
could plant bulbs now, but I like to wait until after October 1st. Extended or late Indian Summers can cause your bulbs to send up leaves. This takes precious energy from the bulbs. How late can you plant? One year I planted bulbs on December 24th and they still bloomed, but I would not recommend this as a yearly practice.
– Pile your leaves in an area that will become a garden. Fall is a great time to start a garden bed. Lay newspaper or cardboard down first and then pile the leaves on. If you collect grass clippings, add that in – although, grass clippings are best left to feed the lawn.
– Consider leaving leaves in your more naturalized beds. 
– Add leaf or mushroom compost, 2-3” thick and 3-4” from trunks and crowns, to beds where the soil is bare.
– Take an inventory of what worked and didn’t. This will be invaluable for when you plan next season’s garden additions and subtractions.
– Prune trees and shrubs. Once the leaves drop you can see crossing and broken branches, and structural problems that need to be corrected.
– Plant trees and shrubs as long as the ground can be dug.
– Edge your beds and get a jump-start on spring maintenance.
Shouldn’t:
– Remove all the mulch from an area and bare the soil. 
– Remove seedheads that provide food for birds in the winter: purple coneflower (Echinacea), goldenrod (Oligoneuron), asters (Symphyotrichum), false sunflower (Heliopsis), Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium) and more.
– Cut your herbaceous perennials down to the ground. Exposed crowns are more likely to freeze in the winter. If you cut down plants, leave some of the stems to provide a windbreak.
TOMATO ALERT –
This year, late blight decreased my tomato harvest and of many gardeners in Ohio. I have watched it creep (jump?) across the Midwest and have noted reports of infection in Indiana and Wisconsin. Along with removing diseased plants and destroying them or segregating them, you need to move your tomatoes to another location. Next year, make sure your tomatoes are as healthy as they can be with appropriate fertilization and watering practices. This year I am going to put fresh chicken mature on the area where my tomatoes were. I am hoping this “hot” manure will decrease fungal and bacterial spores in the soil. This may – or may not – reduce the inoculum of late blight, but it will certainly increase the fertility for other food plants I intend to grow in that space. Another approach is using clear plastic to solarize the soil. The best time to solarize soil is in the summer, but you may be able to catch some hot fall days or wait until the first weeks of May. This is done in Florida to reduce nematodes.
As you can see from the above list, most of this is optional and if you get really busy, just think… you can do it all in the Spring!
by GardenLover | Sep 11, 2013 | Happenings
By Teresa Woodard
Gardeners have long enjoyed a close relationship with the farming community, so it’s no surprise to find many gardeners at the upcoming Farm Science Review in Madison County, Ohio, September 17-19.
One of the largest farm shows in the country, the 51st Farm Science Review expects to draw more than 140,000 attendees to its 80-acre exhibition area featuring 600 commercial exhibitors, including farming-favorites like John Deere, and educational programs from ag school powerhouses like The Ohio State University and Purdue University.
Check out these highlights:
- Gwynne Conservation Area – This 67-acre demonstration and education area features a natural stream, wetland, ponds, windbreak plantings, crop tree plantings, wildlife food plots, soil pit, riparian forests, dry hydrant and much more. Step inside the cabin for one of the workshops on growing giant pumpkins, controlling invasives, creating bluebird habitats or landscaping for wildlife.
- Utzinger Garden – This display garden is maintained by the Master Gardeners of Clark County’s extension office – home to the first country’s first 4-H club. Stop by the gazebo for talks on microgreens, beekeeping, vegetable gardening and more.
- Farm fare – Come hungry to enjoy the food vendors along Friday Avenue. Favorites include bean soup from the local Kiwanis club, milkshakes from Buckeye Dairy Club, ribeyes from Ohio Cattlewomen’s Association, plus pulled pork, sausage breakfast sandwiches and thick-cut pork chops.
by GardenLover | Aug 27, 2013 | Gardens to Drive
Who art thou, o aster?
By Debra Knapke
Back in 2003 Neil Diboll of Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin called it the Aster Disaster. Not to bore you with the minutiae of name changes of plants, suffice it to say: in 1994, it was determined that the asters of the New World (ours) are different from the asters across the oceans. The New World asters were found to be more closely related to goldenrod (Solidago), fleabanes (Erigeron) and boltonia (Boltonia) than the species in the genus Aster. Thus began a series of name changes that are accepted by most, but not all, in botanical and horticultural communities.
We are adjusting to this name change in the horticultural and landscape worlds, but not without some angst. You are now seeing the newer genus names in the magazine articles you are reading and on the tags that accompany the asters you are buying. The majority of the asters that we encounter in print and in the garden center are now in the genus Symphyotrichum – aster was so much easier to spell! – with a few in Eurybia. 
At the Ohio Botanical Symposium in April, attendees had the chance to further understand the name changes and “walk” through a key for the native asters in Ohio. In the tricky after-lunch slot, David Brandenburg showed how to master the native asters. His handouts included a comprehensive aster chart and a pictorial key drawn by an extremely talented artist, Sigrid Neilsen. Both her key – free download – and her beautifully illustrated book on native asters are available on her website:
Will the common name change? Probably not. To quote William Shakespeare: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”.
