Growing potatoes!

Mom and Dad were master gardeners and Good Friday was always the time to plant potatoes in the garden. The peas were planted about the same time so one of the first dishes made from the harvest from the garden was creamed potatoes and peas.

Growing Potatoes
Potatoes require full sun to grow. Because they are aggressively rooting plants, they will produce the best crop when planted in a light, loose, well-drained but moisture retentive loam. Potatoes prefer a slightly acid soil with a ph of 5.8 - 6.5 Fortunately, however, Potatoes are very adaptable and will usually produce a respectable crop, even when the soil conditions are less than perfect. Potatoes should be rotated on a 3-year program. This means, you need 3-suitable sites if you want to grow Potatoes every year.

Potatoes may be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in the early spring, but you must use good judgment. Potato plants will not begin to grow until the soil temperature has reached 45 degrees F. The soil should be evenly moist, but not wet or soggy. If the soil is water logged when you dig, not only will you risk "caking" the soil, your seed Potatoes will probably rot before they even get started. Potatoes can tolerate a light frost, but you should provide some frost-protection for the plants when they are young. This can be a loose covering of straw, or a temporary plastic tent. (Be sure to remove or ventilate the plastic on sunny days!) If you plan to store Potatoes through the winter, you can plant a second crop as late as June 15. Be sure to only use only certified seed Potatoes! Potatoes are susceptible to several serious diseases. Even though the Potatoes you saved from the previous year, or the Potatos you see in the supermarket may appear healthy, they should not be used for your seed. Certified seed Potatoes are disease free, and have been selected to give you the best results with the highest yields. Certified seed Potatoes are available at most quality nurseries and garden centers. There are several different varieties of Potatoes to choose from, each with it's own characteristics and qualities.

A week or two before your planned potato planting date, set your seed Potatoes somewhere where they will be exposed to some warmth (between 60 and 70 degrees F.) and lots of light. This will induce them to begin sprouting. A day or two before planting, use a sharp, clean knife to slice the larger seed Potatoes into "seeds". Each seed should be approximately 1 1/2-2inches square, and must contain at least 1 or 2 "eyes" or buds. Smaller Potatos may be planted whole. In the next day or so, your 'seed' will form a thick callous over the cuts, which will help to prevent it from rotting once planted. More tomorrow on planting in rows and hills!

Happy, happy Easter Lilly!

Lillies in your garden are colorful, fragrant and easy to care for. You can plant your Easter lilly after it is finished blooming and the foilage turns yellow. Lilies provide an easy to grow, colorful addition to your garden and landscape. By choosing a combination of early, mid-season, and late-blooming cultivars, you can have lilies in flower from mid June through mid September. These hardy bulbs require only minimal care. Each has the capacity to grow, eventually, into an large cluster of flowering stems.

Enchantment, Asiatic Lilly

Here are some hardy lillies that do well even in a Northern climate.

Cultivars	Type	Color	Height in Feet	Time of Bloom
Enchantment	Asiatic	orange	2 - 3	June
Connecticut King	Asiatic	yellow	3 - 4	June
Corsica	Asiatic	pink	3	June/July
Crete	Asiatic	deep pink	3 - 4	June/July
Dawn Star	Asiatic	cream	2 - 3	July
Black Beauty	Oriental	dark red	5 - 6	July/August
Journey's End	Oriental	deep pink	4 - 5	August
Stargazer	Oriental	crimson-red	2 - 3	August
Yellow Ribbons	Oriental	white/yellow	3 - 5	August
Casa Blanca	Oriental	pure white	4 - 5	August/September

Lily bulbs may be planted in spring or in the fall, usually from mid-September through mid-October. If you find hardy lilies growing in containers, you may add them to your garden throughout the growing season. When buying locally, select firm, plump bulbs with roots attached. Plant them as soon as possible. Bulbs never go completely dormant so they must not dry out before planting. Plant mail order bulbs as soon as possible, also. For best effect, plant lilies in groups of three or five identical bulbs. Space them eight to twelve inches apart, keeping groups three to five feet apart, depending on the vigor and size of the lilies. Plant small lily bulbs two to four inches deep and large bulbs four to six inches deep, measuring from the top of the bulb. Divide and replant large clusters of bulbs every three years or so – or when it seems they are not blooming as well as originally.

Never plant lilies where standing water collects after heavy rainfall. Well-drained soil is an absolute must or the bulbs will rot. Add lots of organic matter to clay soil to create a raised area with improved drainage. Incorporate organic matter into light, sandy soil also, to help hold onto nutrients and prevent it from drying too rapidly. Before winter, mulch over newly planted bulbs with four to six inches of loose, weed-free compost, leaves, or wood chips. This delays soil freezing and allows roots to continue growing longer. Mulch also insulates the soil against fluctuating temperatures, delaying the emergence of frost-tender shoots in spring. After lillies are established they won't need much protection....just enjoy.

Garden Easter Baskets!

Window ledge basket!

Sedum metal basket hanging on the gate!

Herb wagon on the deck!

From Southern Living....Plant an Easter Basket! I don't often use material that is borrowed, but this was too wonderful to resists. Thank you Southern Living and Charlie Thigpen.

Hop into gardening by nestling small, plant-filled containers in strategic locations throughout the landscape. To create a fun seasonal look, we gave this display an Easter theme, mixing foliage, flowers, eggs, and a small rabbit statuary.

Classic Wicker
We lined our traditional Easter baskets with burlap and filled them with soil. Then we placed plants inside. To make the wicker last longer, you can leave plants in their plastic pots and arrange them in the basket. Fill in the voids between containers with moss or burlap. Take the pots out when watering, so the baskets won't stay wet.

Durable Metal
A metal basket makes an excellent, long-lasting planter. This one needed drainage holes, so we drilled a few in the bottom before planting golden club moss and hostas. Golden club moss grows flat and covers the soil like a shimmering chartreuse blanket underneath the leafy hostas. This shade-loving mix provides a medley of foliage from spring till summer.

New Life for an Old Basket
A rusted, wire-framed hanging basket makes a great planter. We removed the chains and let it rest on the ground. Then we added a coco-fiber liner and filled it with potting soil. When choosing plants, be creative and try a shrub. We put a small boxwood in the center and tucked petunias around it. Once the boxwood outgrows the space, plant it in the yard. We used variegated ivy along the outside edge of the container.

Tasty Treats
Two of the baskets contain edible greenery. One is filled with creeping thyme and topped with a large ornamental egg. The thyme's fine texture makes a nice green nest for the oversize egg. The larger basket contains chartreuse leaf lettuce mixed with chives, which have spiky, hollow foliage. Chives produce beautiful pink spring blooms. For a decorative touch, eggshells can act as pots. Crack open real eggs, wash the shells, and fill them with small sprigs of thyme.

This season, let baskets decorate your landscape. It's a great time of year to garden, and plants are plentiful. So what are you waiting for? Plant one for yourself, and give one to a friend for a memorable spring treat.

Rita Babcock...gardener of the week!

Bloom Where You're Planted!

Since this is my Mom's favorite saying, I was happy to see this sign hanging in our friends garden! Her garden is full of raised beds, potting benches and tools in a big mailbox. And, she takes the time to explain how little chickens grow up to be big white chickens to little interested girls. Thanks Rita Babcock for your gardening inspiration!

Best organic fertilizers....and info about poop!

At some point in your gardening experience, you may want to use a fertilizer to give your plants an extra boost. Unfortunately, many gardeners rely on chemical fertilizers to grow their trees, grass, flowers, fruits, and vegetables. However, there is an increasing awareness that many of the chemicals we use in our yards can over the long run negatively affect the environment and the health of our loved ones, neighbors, and pets.

Thankfully, there are a number of healthy natural and organic fertilizers available that will help you grow a lush, green garden and lawn without the use of potentially harmful chemical fertilizers.

THE BASICS OF ORGANIC FERTILIZERS:

Like traditional fertilizers, organic fertilizers show their content with three bold numbers. These numbers represent three different compounds: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash, which we can also describe with the letters N-P-K. The three numbers listed on fertilizer labels correspond to the percentage of these materials found in the fertilizer.

In addition to other properties, Nitrogen helps plant foliage to grow strong. Phosphorous helps roots and flowers grow and develop. Potassium (Potash) is important for overall plant health.

What Are Organic Fertilizers?

Some gardeners don't believe the claims of fertilizers to be really organic.

Yet chemical fertilizers are made in factories by turning nitrogen gas into ammonia and treating rock phosphate with acid. The problems with chemical fertilizers have been:

rapid release of nutrients and possible unbalanced growth,

a salty environment which damages plants and soil,

gross waste and pollution.

BEFORE YOU APPLY ORGANIC FERTILIZERS:

One of the best ways to improve the health of your plants is by adding organic compost to your soil. Compost can help reduce the amount of fertilizer treatments your plants need. If you’re not composting organic garden waste and kitchen scraps now, you should start as soon as you can. The addition of compost to your garden soil will add nutrients, improve drainage, and help your plants’ immune systems.


MANUREManures and composted plant materials add organic matter, which helps soil retain moisture and structure which prevents compaction, and helps prevent nutrients from leaching away. They also balance extremes in soil pH.

Good poop, bad poop

What is good for the goose, is not always good for the gander. There are a few manures that should not be used, primarily those of meat eaters. According to Cornell University "Homeowners should not use any manure from dogs, cats, or other meat-eating animals, since there is risk of parasites or disease organisms that can be transmitted to humans."

The most common sources of manure are horses, cattle, goats, sheep, rabbits and poultry. Below is a guide showing how manures measure up, nutrient-wise. While all animal manures are good sources of organic matter and nutrients, it's impossible to make a precise analysis, mostly because bedding materials vary so much. For example, manure with straw or sawdust will have a different nitrogen composition than pure manure. But it's useful to know whether the manure you're using is rich or poor in a particular nutrient such as nitrogen.

Just like we need to eat to maintain our health, soil needs continual replenishment of its organic matter to decompose into humus. Humus helps create a rich, moisture-retaining soil and makes nutrients available to plants.

How common manures measure up

Manure	Chicken	Diary cow	Horse	Steer	Rabbit	Sheep
N-P-K	1.1 .80 .50	.25 .15 .25	.70 .30 .60	.70 .30 .40	2.4 1.4 .60	.70.30 .90

Sources: Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, An Illustrated Guide to
Organic Gardening, by Sunset Publishing, and the Rodale Guide to Composting.

Chicken manure
Poultry manure (chicken in particular) is the richest animal manure in N-P-K. Chicken manure is considered "hot" and must be composted before adding it to the garden. Otherwise, it will burn any plants it comes in contact with.

Dairy (cow) manure
Dairy Manure may be the single most useful soil-builder around," says Ann Lovejoy, lifetime organic gardener and writer in Seattle, Washington. "Washed dairy manure from healthy cows is just about perfect for garden use; it can be used as a topdressing and for soil improvement," she adds. Dairy manure is preferable to steer manure, which has a higher salt and weed seed content. Though cow manure has low nutrient numbers, that's what makes it safe to use in unlimited quantities.

Horse manure
Horse manure is about half as rich as chicken manure, but richer in nitrogen than cow manure. And, like chicken droppings, it's considered "hot". Horse manure often contains a lot of weed seeds, which means it's a good idea to compost it using a hot composting method.

Steer manure
Steer manure is one of the old standbys, but it's not the most beloved because it often contains unwanted salts and weed seeds.

Rabbit manure
Rabbit manure is even higher in nitrogen than some poultry manures and it also contains a large amount of phosphorus--important for flower and fruit formation.

Sheep manure
Sheep manure is another "hot" manure. It is somewhat dry and very rich. Manure from sheep fed hay and grain will be more potent than manure from animals that live on pasture.

How to use manure

No matter what kind of manure you use, use it as a soil amendment, not a mulch. In other words, don't put raw manure directly on garden soils. Raw manure generally releases nitrogen compounds and ammonia which can burn plant roots, young plants and interfere with seed germination. In fact, it's recommended that all animal manure should be aged for at least 6 months. Many gardeners spread fresh manure in the fall and turn it in to the top 6 inches of soil a month before spring planting.

A better treatment is to hot-compost manure before applying it to the garden. Hot composting, where the pile reaches at least 150 degrees F) helps to reduce the probability of passing dangerous pathogens on to people who handle the manure or eat food grown with manure compost.

While the chance of contamination is slim, severe sickness and even death may occur if contaminated produce is eaten. To be safe, either compost your manure or apply it in the fall after harvest. Wash up after handling manure and don't forget to rinse the vegetables and fruit well before you eat them--always a good idea whether your use manure or not.