Author Archives: Maureen Haseley-Jones

Late Summer Gardening Tips from The English Lady—“August is Like the Sunday of Summer.”

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Summer flowers can offer contrasting colors. All photos by LymeLine.

Watering is so important during the heat of summer. If you planted trees or shrubs this spring, particularly evergreens, these plants require extra moisture to establish a strong root system. We have had an abundant amount of rain this spring and into the summer, however it is important to keep an eye on the weather.  

Here in New England, plants require at least an inch of water per week.  If you are using a regular hose, you lose 40% of moisture to evaporation. However, a hose is necessary for thorough watering when a plant goes into the ground and daily watering for containers.

Soaker hoses in your borders are the best method of watering, attached to a house spigot with a timer. By using this method of irrigation, moisture goes to the roots of plants where it is needed and not on the foliage, which can cause diseases such as black spot and powdery mildew. Soaker hoses attached to a timer can be used efficiently not only in the borders of the garden but also in the vegetable garden, where annual vegetables require a lot of water to produce a good crop. 

In addition, composted manure when added to the containers together with copious amounts to the vegetable garden, helps to retain a good amount of moisture. Manure, used as mulch for the vegetable garden, adds more nutrition and manure used as mulch does not cap or form a hard crust, so water goes directly to the roots where it is needed. 

LAWNS

Water the lawn only when the green glow begins to fade.  An established lawn will bounce back following dry hot spells. 

SOIL

I want to emphasize the importance of soil and soil health, which has been severely neglected and abused with poisonous chemicals for years. Soil is the most important element of plant growth; it is not an inert medium that merely holds the plants erect, it is a living organism that needs to be replenished with nutrients.

The nutrient is composted manure; manure builds soil structure and together with its bacteria joins the millions of microbes below the surface to produce nutrients for the roots of the plants. If you have not already done so, I strongly suggest that you carefully discard all chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

The addition of composted manure to your soil in spring, early summer and in early fall, together with natural brown bark mulch, builds the carbon compound or humus component in the soil.  We are all carbon-based creatures, as is every living element; carbon is our lifeblood and the lifeblood of the soil in our gardens.

As we build the humus component by adding composted manure and fine-bark mulch, we are producing the healthiest possible growing environment and the strongest disease resistant plants. 

As we add the composted manure and natural fine bark mulch season after season, the humus component continues to build in the soil, continuously extracting carbon from the atmosphere into the soil. 

ROSES

Roses bloom throughout the summer.

Roses flourish beautifully with the addition of composted manure and mulch, which should be applied on the soil about two feet away from the base of the plant. Roses also require deep watering once a week. Now, in July add another light layer of composted manure around the roses. Manure is food for the roots of the roses and no other products are necessary for growth and bloom. 

Stop adding manure to the roses in mid-August, so that they can gradually move into a slow dormancy through late summer and early fall, this is a natural part of their growth cycle.    

If you are a first-time rose grower or adding to your rose collection, David Austin English roses are my personal preference.  The David Austin nursery is only twenty-one miles from my hometown in Shropshire in England. Visiting the Rose nursery in June was a fragrant and exhilarating pleasure that overwhelmed my senses. 

 David Austin roses are more trouble-free than many other roses and with the fact that they are repeat bloomers, with beautiful colors and fragrances extends our enjoyment of this lovely shrub throughout the summer months.    

Some of my favorite David Austin roses are:

  • A Shropshire Lad, a peachy pink
  • Abraham Darby, soft shades of apricot and yellow
  • Evelyn (my favorite) produces giant apricot hued flowers
  • Fair Bianca, a pure white
  • Heritage, a soft blush pink
  • Carding Mill Valley begins as a peachy orange double flower, changing to an apricot-pink

A lovely combination is climbing roses and clematis planted together; both enjoy the same planting environment with their heads in the sun and their feet (roots) cool, with the added nutrition of manure and mulch. This combination looks great, climbing over a fence, wall or arbor. The combination I enjoyed,  was a purple clematis and a pink climbing rose,  which I planted on a trellis on the old stone chimney breast of my farmhouse.  

It is of the utmost importance to stop feeding roses right now, in August. The reason for this is that roses require at least nine weeks to gently move into slow healthy dormancy before the first frost arrives. 

In my September tips I will give you suggestions on partially pruning roses in early fall, followed by a second pruning the following April. This double pruning method produces the strongest and most prolific bloom. 

MULCH

Please do not use artificially colored red mulch, rubber mulch or cocoa mulch; use only natural brown bark mulch.  Do not mulch right up to the base of the plants, as this invites rodents to nest and gnaw on the stems or trunks of the plants.

Note of why NOT to use Cocoa mulch: Cocoa mulch, produced by Hershey,  has a Thorazine compound and other poisons which are hazardous to pets who are attracted by the chocolate odor. Ingestion of this chocolate mulch can cause seizures and death within hours.  

HYDRANGEAS

Hydrangeas need plenty of water to sustain their flowers.

Plant Hydrangeas in a sunny area, if you live near the coast that allows them to enjoy gentle seas breezes. Away from the coast, plant Hydrangeas in part sun on the west or east aspect of the garden in organically rich soil with composted manure and add extra composted manure this month around the base. 

If you have the blue macrophylla Hydrangea add some peat or aged oak bark around the base, the acidity in the peat or oak bark encourages a deeper blue color.  Hydrangeas are a wetland plant and require plenty of water throughout the summer. We had a late spring and with all the spring and early summer rain and good sunshine, the foliage and bloom of the hydrangeas are performing well. 

Watch out for powdery mildew and spray with the following powdery mildew recipe you can mix yourself:

Recipe for powdery mildew -Two tablespoons baking soda, one dessert spoon of vegetable oil, a squirt of dish soap with a gallon of water in a sprayer.  For any recipe spray you make at home, spray only in the morning when there is no wind and when the temperature and humidity added together do not go above 180. 

Pruning Hydrangeas – Prune Hydrangeas immediately after they finish blooming in late August or early September but no later, as Hydrangeas set their buds for the next season by mid September. If you prune after September, you will lose next season’s bloom.   When you prune, cut out some of the old wood and the weakest of the new shoots.  In October put more composted manure and brown mulch around the base to nourish and protect the roots through the winter. 

GARLIC

Did you know that garlic is the antibiotic of the garden. I love using garlic in my recipes. Garlic is an important anti-fungal element to protect your plants, and I suggest planting more garlic in early fall. 

To avoid fungal diseases, plant garlic around strawberries, tomatoes and raspberries to avoid fungal diseases. 

Plant garlic in these places:

  • around mildew-prone plants to prevent mildew on such plants as summer phlox and bee balm.
  • under fruit trees to avoid scab and root disease.
  • next to ponds or standing water to control mosquito larvae or pour garlic water into the water to deter adult mosquitoes. 

(The following recipes are from a garden book I am writing.) Where you notice marauders have been munching, like insects or animals make a garlic spray to apply on the plants including vegetables. 

Garlic spray recipe

4 large, crushed garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
1 squirt of mild dish detergent

Put all ingredients in 2 cups of hot water in the blender, blend, then leave overnight, in the morning then put these ingredients in a gallon sprayer with cold water and spray in the early morning when there is no wind, observing the rule of 180.  Observing the rule of 180 is when the temperature and humidity when added together do not go above 180.

Hot pepper spray recipe

To deter squirrels and chipmunks, try a hot pepper spray using either 4 hot chilies or one cup of cayenne pepper in 2 cups of hot water, in the blender, blend and leave overnight then put in a gallon sprayer with cold water and spray the problem areas in the early morning.

 This pepper spray works well to deter squirrels, chipmunks, deer as well as dogs and cats that may be leaving their deposits in the garden. 

HANDS:

Gardener’s hands are your their tools when working in the garden so it’s important to take care of them. My hands remain healthy by indulging in a hot cream treatment once a week before bed. 

Hot Cream Recipe:

Combine Calendula cream with honey and essential oil of lavender heated in the microwave, apply generously and put on white cotton gloves for sleep. When I wake up my hands are soft and smooth as a baby’s bottom. 

Also please wear gloves, when working in soil that contains manure or when spreading manure. Manure is an organic product that contains bacteria; bacteria is great for the soil but like many bacteria not healthy for you. The garden gloves I prefer are the soft leather farmer’s gloves that are washable.  

FLAVORED OILS

Many herbs are at their peak right now and are ideal for using in flavored oils. 

The oil I use as a base is organic olive oil. I harvest basil, parsley, sage, tarragon and oregano in the morning, rinse them well, pat them dry with a paper towel and then make the recipe. Then choose an herb that you want to use that day, and add to two cups of organic oil.  

For thyme and lavender, I use only the flowers with one cup of oil to a handful of blossoms.  

Combine the herb mixture in a blender, then store covered in a wide mouthed jar for three days, shake at least three times a day for the first two days and on the third day let the mixture settle to the bottom, then strain it through a paper coffee filter or cheese cloth into a clean jar.  You will now have a tinted but clear mixture.  

Refrigerate each mixture and use within two to three weeks.  The herb oils I choose to make are rosemary, lavender, lemon, garlic, shallots and basil with olive oil as the base for each These are my favorites and are great brushed on vegetables and meats for grilling.  

The Lavender oil is great for desserts; one I enjoy is this oil on vanilla ice cream.

Rosemary and lemon oil taste excellent on salads. 

MOLES:

I know I have given you a few mole remedies in the past; but I have not given you the exlax method for a while. I can attest to the fact that I have used this method as have many of my fellow gardeners for years, as it works so well.  Buy Exlax, from the Drug store, the main ingredient of Elax is Senna, which is a natural herb. Insert Exlax into the mole holes, the moles and voles eat it then die of dehydration.  

If you have dogs and cats, do not use chocolate Exlax only the plain Exlax as chocolate is dangerous to pets.  

In early April of next year, apply organic grub control, which means less grubs for the moles to feed on, and without their supply of grubs, the moles will go elsewhere for food. In addition, the white grubs of Japanese beetles are largely diminished with the grub control.  

Japanese beetles love our plants and here is a method to deal with them naturally. In the early morning, the Japanese beetles are drowsy and can be captured.  Lay a drop cloth under the plant or plants where you see them and gently shake the plant; the drowsy beetles will drop onto the cloth, which should be gathered up and then drop them in a garbage bag and discard.   

Many of us now garden organically no longer using poisonous herbicides or insecticides, organic gardens have encouraged the earthworm population to once again increase; earthworms are a great boon to the garden soil as their castings add 50% nutrition to the soil together with eleven trace minerals.  

SUMMER PHLOX

A swallowtail butterfly lands on late summer flowers.

I just love my summer phlox and to keep the mildew problems at bay I use the natural baking soda mix I mentioned above. 

I have found that white Phlox Miss Lingard or white Phlox David are more resistant to mildew than other summer phlox.  

Monarda, commonly known, as Bee Balm and Hydrangeas are also prone to the problem of powdery mildew, and this is where the baking soda recipe can be used to excellent effect.  

For a second bloom on the Summer Phlox, prune off ten to twenty inches of the flower stems after the first bloom has gone by and within a few weeks you will experience a new bloom. 

KEEP YOUR GARDEN CLEAN

A healthy garden is a clean garden. Do not put any diseased items into your compost. 

Deadhead all annuals and perennials to encourage the second bloom and clean up all spend blossoms.  

When Coreopsis and Spirea have bloomed, use garden shears to shear off dead flowers and they too will rebloom.

August has given plentiful spring and early summer rain and has resulted in bountiful fragrance, bloom and foliage.  

We have a relatively short growing season here in New England, and being able to enjoy a healthy colorful border is so uplifting. That being said, by mid-August, when early perennials have gone by, we are able to give ourselves more enjoyment by filling in gaps with annuals or later blooming perennials  

I constantly remind myself that gardens are a constantly changing scene of beauty in motion and plantings which looked good last year, but by this year they may have outgrown their space and need division or transplanting to another area of the border or even to another border which may be a little sparse. 

When the weather is cooler in September, transplanting can be tackled on some of these overgrown specimens, so that every plant has its own space with good air circulation and can be able to perform their very best. 

Divide those plants that have been in the soil for four years or more. You may have noticed that these plants have not been blooming as profusely as they did when first planted. When you divide and set aside the divisions, there are always fellow gardeners who will gratefully receive the transplants. 

Now in August, continue the deadheading; by doing so your garden will always appear fresh and perky. After the hot, dry days we have had of late, watering is of major importance. In this regard, make sure the garden receives at least one inch of water a week and containers receive a daily dose of water, in the early morning and early evening. 

Soaker hoses in the borders are a much more efficient method of watering; by using this method, the water goes straight to the roots where it is needed. By using soaker hoses you won’t lose 40% of moisture to evaporation and are also preventing water from landing on plant foliage, which in many instances results in disease and mildew.

When you cut back tired looking annuals, a new flush of bloom will appear in a few short weeks.   As you walk around the borders right now, you will see their original vibrancy  has gone by and a boost of new specimens to perk things up is required.  These specimens can be found right now because many garden centers are offering late season bargains. 

When the perennial Coreopsis and Spirea have finished blooming; cut off the dead bloom with the garden shears and enjoy the appearance of new bright bloom shortly.  

CONTAINERS

When carefully tended, container gardens always bring color to your patio or paths. We spotted these outside the Lyme Art Association.

Make sure you have composted manure and fine bark mulch applied on top of the soil in your containers and water them daily. In hot weather the containers will need to be watered twice daily, morning and evening watering is the best. If you do not have time in the morning before you leave for work or errands, empty your ice cube trays on the containers; this provides slow -release watering until you can get to them later.  

Every couple of weeks apply a little extra composted manure to containers when watering; this will keep these miniature gardens bright and cheerful into early fall. Apply the manure on top of the natural brown mulch as the combination of manure and mulch will help retain moisture and continue to retard weeds.

In the morning if you do not have time to water the containers before you go to work or run errands, simply empty your ice trays into the containers, this provides slow -release watering until you are able to add more moisture when you return home.   

With the high heat and humidity that has been occurring recently, powdery mildew may be happening on certain species like Summer Phlox, Monarda and Hydrangeas.  If you notice this problem, spray my mildew remedy of one gallon of water in a spray container, adding one tablespoon of baking soda and a dash of vegetable oil.  Always spray in the morning before the temperature and humidity numbers combined equal 160.  

Continue adding more composted manure to vegetables each month, as vegetables, particularly annual vegetables are heavy feeders. To prevent animals from munching on your precious bounty, place an old sneaker or a piece of carpet that your dog had lain on among the vegetables; these odors help keep furry marauders away. 

PEONIES

Perfectly pink peonies always brighten a yard.

Place your orders for Peonies now so they can be delivered for September planting. September is the month to transplant, divide Peonies.

Following the first hard frost in November cut any existing Peonies down to within six inches of the ground and add a little natural brown mulch around them to protect the pink-eyed roots, which are close to the soil surface. When planting Peonies or transplanting make sure that the ‘pink eyes’ on the roots are barely covered with soil, if the Peonies are planted any deeper, it is likely that you may not have bloom next year.  

Begin compiling your list of spring bulbs now for the best choice of bulbs to be available for you.

Please feel free to email me with any gardening questions to MaureenHaseleyJones@gmail.com. I look forward to seeing you in your garden in September, in the meantime enjoy being outdoors and remember to stretch, hydrate and take time to smell the bloom.

If you would like a garden consult or conversation with my son Ian, of LlandscapesbyIan.com, feel free to get in touch with him.  As the saying goes ‘ the apple does not fall far from the tree’ and in my estimation Ian has outpaced me with regard to creativity and production.

Maureen Haseley-Jones

About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.

Gardening Tips from ‘The English Lady’ for June—”The Beginning of a Hopeful Summer”

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Peonies need careful attention at this time of year to create a stunning display like this. File photo.
Maureen Haseley-Jones is “The English Lady.”

We have had a few cool nights recently which are just wonderful, sleeping with the windows open. I cannot remember the last time we had a real spring like we experienced this year, with plenty of gentle rain. This beneficial rain is wonderful for all the spring plant growth and such a pleasure freshening the air for us all.

I am so in awe of the miracle of Mother Nature and the symbiotic relationship between plants and all of God’s creatures. When I looked out of my window from my old home in Old Lyme, a few years ago, I could see the buds opening on my long border of peonies which had been planted by the original homeowner in the early nineteen hundreds. As I looked, I recalled the symbiotic relationship between ants and peonies.

A question often asked of me is “Maureen, should I worry about ants on my peonies?” My answer, “That’s not a problem, lots of ants on the peonies just illustrate that you have healthy plants with big buds that are producing bountiful nectar which attracts the ants.” Ants are very useful creatures; their presence indicates that there are aphids and whiteflies in that area of your garden and the ants feed on these troublesome insects.

Make sure that your peonies get plenty of water, also check the PH of the soil which should register between 6.5 and 7.0. In early June, I pinched off the side buds of the Peonies, as by doing this, you will produce big terminal blooms on the plant. When the bloom has passed, apply a light application of composted manure to encourage the soil animals and the manure bacteria to keep your soil healthy.

A word of caution: Do not cut the peonies to about six inches from the ground, until after the first frost in November. Before then, in September, plant or transplant Peonies to barely cover the pink eyes on the roots with soil, just enough so the plant does not fall over.

Now, in late spring, many insect pests are appearing in large numbers in your garden. I just looked out of my patio door and noticed that it is past time for me to tend my perennial border there where my Nepeta, Salvia, daylilies and other perennials are getting inundated with weeds and insects of every denomination. I am the answer to the weeds, but a useful creature against the pests is the lowly toad.

I suggest putting some toad houses in and around your borders. You can purchase toad houses from the garden center, or you can use an old clay pot that is cracked and make sure that the crack is two to four inches wide to act as a door so the toad can enter. In addition, put a small saucer as a floor under the pot with some rocks, and keep the rocks damp, so that your friendly toad enjoying their toad abode will settle in comfortably and snack on all the pesky bugs.

June is always the month for roses.

June is the month when roses begin to bloom. I have always used David Austin roses in my garden and in my landscape designs. I find David Austin roses are the most trouble-free roses and offer great rewards; among those rewards are that they are repeat bloomers with wonderful fragrances and colors.

Some of my favorite David Austin roses are:

  • ‘A Shropshire Lad,’ a soft peachy pink.
  • ‘Abraham Darby’ with petals that are a blend of apricot and yellow.
  • ‘Fair Bianca,’ a pure white.
  • ‘Heritage,’ which opens as a soft clear pink.
  • My favorite is ‘Evelyn’. Evelyn has a large apricot saucer shaped bloom with a fragrance that is second to none offering a luscious fruity tone, of fresh peaches and apricots.

Feed your roses with composted manure, keeping the manure and mulch about six inches away from the base of the rose and add a few more inches of manure once a month until mid-August. At that time stop feeding so the roses can gently move into a much-needed slow dormancy. No other rose food is required except the manure and the mulch which attracts carbon from the atmosphere which in turn produces the humus component.

Unfortunately, Japanese beetles are attracted to roses, so I suggest acquiring Japanese beetle traps which should be placed far away from your borders on the perimeter of the property. If you find some Japanese beetles have escaped the traps and landed on the rose, then in the early morning, quietly take a white sheet and place it under the rose and gently shake the bush. You will find the beetles do not awaken and will fall onto the sheet, which can be gathered up and the beetles dumped into your closed trash bin.

A tip for keeping cut roses fresh is to cut the roses in the early morning, just above a five-leaf cluster, and place stems in a container of lukewarm water. Then, when indoors, recut the stems at a one and half inch angular cut, under warm running water, and place cut roses in a vase filled with warm water. Do not remove the thorns from cut roses, removing the thorns reduces their indoor life by as much as three days.

Add peat moss to blue hydrangeas to increase the intensity of their color.

HYDRANGEAS:
These need plenty of water, as before they were introduced to our gardens they flourished in wetland areas. Apply aged manure around the hydrangeas, which should be planted in full sun and spaced at least four feet apart for good ventilation to prevent mildew from occurring. If you have blue hydrangea macrophylla and want a more vibrant shade of blue, add some peat moss on top of the manure. The acidity in the peat will produce a lovely deep shade of blue.

WISTERIA:
Regular pruning through spring and summer is the main factor to help this arrogant vine to flower. Prune several times during the growing season, which means pruning every two weeks by at least six inches on each stem.

CLEMATIS WILT:
If you have this problem with the clematis, you will notice it early because the shoots wilt and die. This disease is impossible to cure, as it is soil born. Soil born means that it is not possible to plant another clematis of that variety in that area of the garden. However, you can plant the viticella variety; Clematis viticella are vigorous, free flowering blooms and are not susceptible to wilt. Some good choices of this variety are Blue Belle, Etoile Violette, both are purple and Huldine, which is white.

MULCHING:
Mulch your gardens this month when the soil has warmed up to 55 degrees. As you perform that task, be careful around trees. Apply the mulch at least six inches from the base of the trunk; any closer can cause rot and disease to occur in the bark and roots of the tree.

Also, trees that are mulched too close to the trunk invite mice and other rodents to inhabit the tree and gnaw on the trunk. Your garden can be mulched to a depth of between two and three inches with a natural fine dark brown hardwood mulch. Please do not use dyed RED MULCH, which is poisonous. Keep your garden natural, without any poisonous herbicides and pesticides.

CONTAINER GARDENS:
If you have room for one pot you have room for a number placed close together with different shapes and sizes creates your own miniature garden. Apart from regular pots, the most unexpected objects make interesting containers.

A friend who cut down trees this past winter left the stumps and hollowed them out to make containers. One large and two smaller stumps together made an interesting combo.

Also check in your basement, shed or barn to see if you have an old wheelbarrow, even if the wheelbarrow has a missing wheel like mine, which I painted blue with eco-conscious paint. Then I placed it near the kitchen door filled with bright colored vines, miniature grasses and small perennials.

Or you may unearth a large ceramic jar like the one I came across in one of the original cattle stalls of the stone and soil floored barn. This antique three-foot-tall ceramic vinegar container, replete with a hole where the vinegar tap was inserted, is ideal for drainage. I planted the jar with multi-colored perennials, which looked great on my newly painted blue bench alongside my red milk shed.

LAWN CARE:
Do not forget to add organic grub control through July, so that you help to keep down the mole infestation; remember no grubs means less food for the moles.

POWDERY MILDEW:
Keep an eye open for powdery mildew, especially after rain when humidity returns. My recipe for powdery mildew is as follows:
In a sprayer, mix two tablespoons of baking soda, one tablespoon of vegetable or horticultural oil in a gallon of water and spray the mildew.

Hydrangeas and Summer phlox are particularly prone to develop this problem. To help counteract the mildew problem, I recommend using phlox Miss Lingard or phlox David, which are the white phlox and are the most mildew resistant.

Monarda, commonly known as bee balm, are also affected by mildew, and the one I have found to be the most resistant is “Cambridge Scarlet.”

I hope these tips are useful to you during this busy time of year in the garden. Remember to stretch, hydrate and enjoy the burgeoning promise of your garden and I’ll see you next month. If you would like some more gardening advice, contact my son Ian at LlandscapesbyIan.com. I am sure you would enjoy speaking with him as he is full of knowledge and, as the saying goes, “The apple does not fall far from the tree.”

If you would like to ask me a gardening question, please email me MaureenHaseleyJones@gmail.com.

Maureen Haseley-Jones

About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.

Gardening Tips for Late Spring from ‘The English Lady’

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Though April showers may come your way, They bring the flowers that bloom in May,
So if it’s raining have no regrets, Because it isn’t raining rain you know, it’s raining violets.
– Al Jolson

Azaleas in full bloom are a welcome sign of the approaching summer.

April was a month of activity in the garden, and our old nemesis, weeds are beginning to rear their heads, so we need to extract the little devils before they take hold and are difficult to remove.  

Maureen Haseley-Jones

Having said that, I must point out the benefits of many weeds. Nettles are food for butterflies, clover extracts nitrogen from the air, which is then absorbed into the soil and the oil from jewel weed soothes poison ivy rash. The young foliage of Dandelions is great in salads and when lightly cooked it tastes like spinach with the added advantage of containing many healthy nutrients. 

In this group, I do not want to forget our songbirds and other wildlife who depend on weed seeds as a food source. 

WEED REMOVAL

Weeds must be pulled gently so that the weeds and roots do not break apart, because if this happens, thousands of weed seeds will reseed and you will find yourself with an endless cycle of unnecessary weeding. When careful weeding has been accomplished, apply an organic weed pre-emergent, with a corn gluten base by Bradfield Organics; this natural product will keep weeds at bay for about six weeks. 

ROSES, RHODODENDRONS & MORE

Day lilies bring a splash of color to spring gardens.

Plant bare root roses at the end of April or beginning of May and plant container roses in mid- May.  In the middle of May when the soil temperature has reached 55 degrees, add manure and on top of the manure add a fine bark mulch about one foot from the base of the roses. Check my Early Spring tips to remind yourself on pruning roses. 

Be careful clearing winter debris from around rhododendrons, mountain laurel and azaleas; these evergreens have shallow roots and do not appreciate having their roots exposed. If winter weather did erode soil around some roots, add soil to cover the exposed roots and at the same time resettle the plant in place. In the middle of May apply manure and fine bark mulch as well as some peat, which adds much needed acidity for evergreens.

Plant Gladioli corms at two-week intervals in late April. Planting in two- week intervals ensure you will get a succession of bloom.  Plant the corms eight inches below the surface; this extra depth helps to keep the heavy blooms erect.

The Red Lily beetle will soon appear, and I suggest applying organic Neem oil on the Lilies when they are about four inches above ground, the oil helps to halt this beetle problem.

SOIL SOLARIZATION & MULCHING

This is an effective way to control many soil-borne problems, specifically the tomato blight that causes fruit rot. Covering the soil with clear plastic in the area where tomatoes are to be planted at the end of April, for one to two months can generate high enough temperatures in the top six to 12 inches of soil to kill pests, nematodes, weed seeds and many disease organisms like the tomato blight.  This process has proved invaluable for home gardeners and the beneficial effects last for several seasons.  

To solarize, dig a trench several inches deep around the soil bed, and spread a thin, clear plastic film (1-4mils) over the bed.  Press the plastic into close contact with the soil and seal the edges by filling the trench with soil.  Leave the plastic on the soil until you are ready to plant tomatoes or other vegetables in about six weeks.  

With a soil thermometer checking to see when the soil temperature has reached 55 degrees, then manure all the borders with composted manure in bags from the garden center or aged manure from the bottom of the farmer’s pile, then mulch with a fine brown hardwood mulch. It is important to wait until the soil temperature has reached 55 degrees so that the valuable bacteria in the manure can work its magic in the soil. 

As spring temperatures rise, blossom begins to appear on trees.

In the vegetable garden, following soil preparation and planting, it is time to mulch. Mulch with composted manure that will not ‘cap,’ which means it does not form a crust like other mulches and air and water can penetrate through to the roots of the plants where it is needed for vegetable and fruit production.      

If you did not apply an organic grub control on the grass in March, apply now to reduce the grubs, which is the food source for Moles; the grub control will help to  cut down on the mole population.    

Soil is the most important component of production in the garden; with compost, organic manure and peat to amend soil and rebuild its structure. The ratio to use is one part compost to three parts manure and apply peat to the planting mix in the ratio of one part peat to three parts manure when planting evergreens. And as mentioned above, peat adds the acidity which evergreens require.

Good soil structure assists with drainage, prevents compaction, and the rich nutrients with the amendments break down and encourage the soil animals beneath the surface to work at full capacity. In a sandy soil, humus is needed to produce   micronutrients for this soil, which is the combination of manure, mulch and carbon from the atmosphere that binds the sand particles together which will produce a healthy workable soil. In heavy soil such as clay, the humus separates the clay particles which allow for air and drainage.  

GROWING CONDITIONS IN LATE APRIL/EARLY MAY

These are very favorable for new plant-root development. This month is the best time to transplant evergreen shrubs and plant new evergreens. Apply composted manure and peat together with the topsoil in the planting hole. Then give the roots a workout with your hands before planting. Separating the roots in this way gives them the freedom to reach into the surrounding soil for nutrients and water remaining moist in the heat of summer.    

Many years ago, when I moved into my farmhouse on the shoreline, I discovered that my soil was sandy, which is good for drainage but sadly lacking in nutrients.  I began adding a few inches of manure to all planted borders in April, July and October. The result today is when I put a spade in the ground to check the color of the soil in spring it’s ‘black gold’.  

Gloves should be worn when handling manure, as manure contains bacteria; the bacteria is great for the plants and the soil but not good for your health.  These natural soil amendments tend to be slow acting; gradually making the nutrients available to the plants throughout the season with infinite rewards.. Composted manure is applied in spring around mid May when the soil temperature has reached 55 degrees and when the plants show about six inches of growth. This method allows the nutrients and soil animals to become active at the time when plant growth is occurring at a rapid pace. 

DAFFODILS, FROSTS & ANNUALS

Daffodils are a sure sign of spring.

Daffodils, which are my favorite flower, are appearing in gardens and on roadways making a lovely spring time sight. When the Daffodil bloom has past, do not cut the leaves from the Daffodils or any of your spring flowering bulbs, the leaves send down energy in the form of food into the bulbs to store for next season’s growth. 

This is the time to tackle a new lawn or patch seed, use only good quality grass seed, organic fertilizers and lime, which provide the alkaline, need for healthy grass growth.   

Even after several consecutive warm days, frost can still occur. Having said that I suggest that you do not plant annuals until Memorial weekend.  If you purchase annuals at the Mother’s Day sales, place the annual plants in a protected spot in the garden, like a wall, until planting.  Do not cultivate around the perennials in the borders until mid May. 

Do not panic if you are not able to get the April tasks done until May, your garden will wait for you and the constancy that is Mother Nature will continue to keep your patch of earth flourishing. 

Enjoy the pleasure of being outdoors in warmer temperatures, inhaling the pungency of awakening soil and your connection with Mother Nature. Do not overdo it; warm up the body before the garden labor and stay well hydrated with lots of water. 

We are inexorably entwined with the earth and know that even the smallest gesture of a garden has positive rewards; the effects are not only on you but on our planet.  

It is important to have a well-thought-out plan before creating a new garden or landscape. Yo may wish to call my son Ian, who has followed in my footsteps as a landscape designer, and arrange a landscape consultation at LandscapesByIan.com

I will see you in your garden with more gardening tips later in May and if you have any gardening questions, please email MaureenHaseleyJones@gmail.com

About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of, The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts, who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.

Gardening Tips for Early Spring from ‘The English Lady’

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Tulips and pansies make a colorful spring display.

“Those March winds shall blow, and we shall have snow and what will the Robin do then poor thing?
He’ll hide in the barn and keep himself warm and hide his head under his wing.”   

Maureen Haseley-Jones

March was a month of “wait and see” as we anticipated walking around our gardens. This morning, I walked outside, into a westerly breeze and a gentle sun. I took a deep breath and as I did, I caught the rich fragrance of the soil beginning to awaken.

All of us are itching to get into the garden and I believe that foray will be earlier than last year since frost did not penetrate deep into the ground. 

Please wait until April to clear the winter debris from your borders, as beneficial insects like the bees are hibernating there. Bees are our life blood; they pollinate 70% of the world’s food and we are losing them in the millions, due to climate, pollution, poisonous herbicides and insecticides and just human carelessness.

The sodden soil will dry out in the next few weeks, so tread gently on our precious commodity.  I also am asking that you do not till the soil, as tilling damages soil structure and can break friable root systems. 

Please be patient right now! I know you are chafing at the bit to get your hands into the soil, but, at this moment, continue planning for the upcoming season. Planning means organizing, which helps to prevent costly gardening mistakes during the growing season.  

When you go outdoors to take a walk around the garden, check the trees and decide which ones might need pruning. For example, decide which limbs might need to be removed or the canopy lifted to allow more sunshine into a shady area of the garden. Having made some of those decisions, I suggest that you call in an arborist for tree work in March and April before foliage emerges. With a blank canvas, the work will be accomplished faster and is therefore less expensive.

You can use this time to check on broken or dead limbs and which branches require cabling. And if a tree appears to be 50% dead, then it should be removed. 

A medium shade area can be changed to a dappled shade area, allowing more sunlight in by thinning out the upper tree branches or tree canopy.

Perhaps you would like a tree removed to transform a shady area to a sunny spot, giving you a larger choice of plants. 

I always hesitate to remove a healthy tree, but sometimes a tree has been planted too close to the house which often results in the roots undermining the home’s foundation and the shading over the roof has resulted in mold and mildew. 

Careful pruning allows trees to bloom freely.

At this juncture, I must point out that there is an art to tree work in knowing how, when and why to cut. Work on the trees should be carried out by a professional so that at the completion of the work, the effect is both practical and aesthetically pleasing. An experienced arborist will also take into consideration the health of the trees. Also by employing an arborist, you can avoid injury to yourself, from falling from ladders or avoiding tree branches or trees falling on you.

Pruning

Pruning is one task that you may feel you are able to accomplish yourself. Some tips include:

  • Hedges can be sheared for shape, so that any stubby ends will be concealed by new spring growth. 
  • Please keep to the natural shape of the shrub – no round balls. 
  • Prune Spirea to six inches from the ground.
  • In April, prune lavender down to three inches.
  • In late March, prune sweet pepper bush (Clethra), cutting out the oldest branches.
  • Lilac – Prune back all old branches to various lengths before leaf growth begins, from two to five feet, keeping to a natural shape. Sprinkle lime around the base of the lilac and add manure in May. Lilacs enjoy alkaline soil and  benefit from a small amount of lime sprinkled about a foot away from the base of the lilac.  
  • Prune butterfly bushes to two feet from the ground now and in May apply composted manure around the base. 
  • Prune forsythia after it has bloomed, pruning out sparse flowering old wood.
  • Prune roses when the forsythia blooms. If the roses have only been in the ground for one year, do not prune, wait until October.

Do not remove the protective mulch from around the base of the roses. Wait until mid-May, and then apply a dressing of manure and fine bark mulch, about a foot away from the base of the rose.  

You may be asking, “Why wait until May to apply manure?” The answer is that the soil needs to warm up to 55 degrees, otherwise the nutrient benefits of the manure bacteria that work with plant roots and soil organisms are not activated. I suggest you invest in an inexpensive soil thermometer to check the soil temperature. When the soil temperature reaches 55 degrees, apply a 3- to 4-inch layer of composted manure. 

Tread carefully 

When you have cleared away the debris in April, treading carefully on the soil, make a clean edge to the borders with a sharp spade; this makes such a difference to the look of your garden. 

The best tool to use for this task is a sharpened lawn edger. The blade is a half-circle 9 inches wide and 4.5 inches deep with a flat top that creates a deep edge. Face the bed and thrust the edger down to its full depth and push the cut soil into the bed. Continue along the soil edge and then remove the spade and surplus clumps of soil and grass. 

Edging was one of the first lessons I was taught at our family nursery in England; my great grandfather was a strict taskmaster standing over me, until I got the edge done to his particularly proper standard.  

If you are contemplating locating a new planting bed or expanding an existing one, here are some tips:

  • Think about where you spend your leisure time outdoors, and where you may choose to sit, near to the new bed, enjoying the bloom, fragrance and structure of your plantings. 
  • From indoors are you able to view and enjoy the new border?
  • Is it an area where there will not be drainage problems, erosion concerns or water pooling?
  • Is it convenient to tend and enjoy where you place a bench or chair?
  • Will you be able to water it with relative ease?

For an informal garden I prefer a curved bed – a curved line gives grace and fluidity. Lay out a garden hose in the desired shape and size of bed, adjusting the hose until you are satisfied with the gentle curves. 

Manure

Rich manure works wonders for many plants and vegetables. Photo by Kyle Ellefson on Unsplash

When it comes to manure, many of you, who have been my radio listeners and lecture audiences, know how I feel about that wonderful natural product. Manure is not a fertilizer – it builds soil structure, aids in drainage and its bacteria encourage the millions of soil animals below the surface to come alive and work with the manure bacteria to produce nutrients for the roots of the plants.

Types of manure: 

Poultry manure – I know the odor can be rather objectionable; however, this manure contains about 2% nitrogen, one of the highest levels in any manure. If you have access to poultry manure, allow it to age for two months and by that time, the odor will have dissipated and then add it to the garden.

Horse manure is about 0.5% nitrogen. If you obtain horse manure from a stable, which has sawdust on its floors – it should be pretty weed free. What I have done in the past is obtain horse and cow manure from stables and farms in April.  When you get it home, spread manure out in a flat area (not in a planting bed) then cover it with a tarp for a month.  Using this method, the tarp will suffocate the weed seeds and the sun on the tarp encourages the manures to continue to decompose. A week before using the horse and cow manure remove the tarp to allow the sun to further decompose it. 

Cow manure is 0.25 % nitrogen and is the most available manure.  If you get horse and cow manure from the farm, ask the farmer to give you manure from the bottom of the pile so that it is already partially decomposed. 

Compost pile – If you do not have a compost pile, maybe it could go on your list for this season. Vegetable waste from the kitchen, plus grass clippings, and wood pruning can be added to the pile. The high temperature in the compost kills the weed seed and cooks all those other necessary ingredients.  The ratio of compost and manure for your garden is 1 part compost to 3 parts manure – but if you do not have compost – manure will do the trick. 

**DO NOT apply fresh manure to the garden, as it will burn the plants.  If you do not have a source of manure from a farm, purchase composted manure in bags from the garden center.

In order to produce the best-planting environment, resulting in a soil that is ‘black gold’, apply three inches of composted manure to all planted areas in May, July and October.    

Natural fine bark Mulch can be added later in May, the benefits of this mulch is that it helps to retain the beneficial moisture in the soil and aids to retard weeds. Regarding weeds, I also use a natural product, Bradfield Organics, which is a corn gluten weed pre-emergent, which keeps weeds sprouting  for a few weeks.  

Please do not use cocoa mulch, which is poisonous to dogs and cats, also do not use the chemically colored red mulch.  

The Humus Component

I know I have written about the importance of the humus component for the soil but I feel I must continue to stress this fact.

In your own garden you can build and retain a rich growing environment by building the humus component as outlined last month. We are all carbon-based creatures as is all life on earth. Not only humans but also our soil microbes need carbon to flourish. To attract carbon from the atmosphere into your soil you need to build the humus component when the soil has reached a temperature of 55 degrees.  If the soil has not reached that temperature, the soil organisms are not able to work with the bacteria in the manure to produce nutrients for the roots of the plants.  

This year, as we have not experienced deep frost, the soil temperature may therefore reach 55 degrees by the end of April or early May.  

Once again, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. So back to a cloudy day right now, when you may gradually begin to remove protective covering from shrubs and small trees. In exposed garden areas, where wind is a problem, leave the covering on until mid April. Cold wind is more damaging and drying to plants than extreme cold and frost.   

Frost Heave

If some perennials, trees and shrubs have heaved out of the ground, cover the roots with fresh topsoil or mulch until mid May when they can be settled back in place.   

I just walked around the corner of my house to check on my trellis on the chimney where I have roses and clematis planted together. Roses and clematis are a delightful combination in a companion planting. This planting method means that the rose and the clematis planted together have the same growing requirements, “feet in the shade and heads in the sun.” Beginning in May, add manure and mulch around the base of both. Discontinue feeding roses and clematis in mid-August; this enables both plants to go into a necessary slow dormancy. 

Raking and Aerating

When the lawn has dried out in April, rake lightly to remove excess debris such as leaves and dead twigs. Raking gently raises the mat of the lawn, which enables the emerging grass to breathe. Aerating machines are useful to develop a healthy lawn.  Puncture holes with the aerator which pulls out plugs of soil every four to six inches; following this treatment, root development takes off and thatch is reduced.  Do not use  large thatching machines, as these machines damage the grass.  

Grass

In April, apply organic fertilizer, lime and organic grub control before the grass begins to grow. Reseed bare or sparse spots after gently loosening the soil, liming and fertilizing, then cover the seed with salt hay to keep the seed warm and to prevent wind from blowing the seed away.  Water the seed for the first three weeks. Do not blast the area with water, which scatters the seeds. As with lilacs, grass enjoys alkaline soil which is why we use lime together with fertilizer and grub control.  

Moles

To keep the mole population to a minimum in your garden; apply organic grub control once a month from March for two months which results in less food for the moles. When you see signs of moles, find the mole holes and insert Exlax, which contains senna, an organic herb. The moles eat the Exlax and become dehydrated from defecation and die.  

Apply organic pre-emergent crabgrass killers in March and April.  

Voles 

Spread castor oil around the base of plants and keep mulch away from the base of the plants so that voles, which are canny creatures, are not able to hide there and gnaw on plants and roots. 

Deadhead

Do not cut off the leaves of the crocus as they bloom; the leaves make food for the bulbs for next season’s bloom.

Daffodils

One of the joys of Spring—”A host of golden daffodils.”

When the green shoots emerge, spread composted manure around the plants.    

For daffodil displays indoors, cut the stems at an angle before adding daffodils to an arrangement, and leave them in a vase half filled with lukewarm water for a couple of hours. This is because the stems release a sap like “goop” that harms other flowers. Discard that water and add the daffodils to the other flowers.  If you recut the stems you will need to repeat the process. Change the water in the vase often.  

Perennials

In May when perennials are about four inches above soil level and when the soil is 55 degrees, apply composted manure around them to encourage healthy growth.    

Dividing Plants

At the end of April or beginning of May, you can divide late blooming perennials that have been in the ground for four years or more; these new divisions encourage stronger bloom.

Discard the older inner parts of the clumps and plant the new outside portions.  Do not plant the new divisions any deeper than they were originally in the ground. 

When dividing irises, barely cover the root system so they do not fall over. If irises are planted too deep in the soil, they will not bloom.   

It is best to pick the flowers of pansies regularly to encourage more bloom.

March or early April are the time to plant the following seeds indoors: gaillardia, salvia, marigold, zinnia, petunia, snapdragon, stock and verbena. Before planting these seeds, soak them in warm water and plant them in sphagnum moss or coir. Coir is the outer shell or fiber of the Coconut, either of these two mediums prevents a disease called “damping off”, which can cause seeds to rot before germination.

Cover pots and seed trays loosely with plastic wrap, which creates a mini greenhouse, providing moisture which seeds require to germinate.  

NOTE: Remove the plastic once the seeds have germinated, as the soil needs to drain and needs air circulation around the emerging stems.  

If you are going away on business or on vacation, reapply the plastic wrap over the pots and trays and prop some sticks or skewers in the corners. While you are away the seedlings will stay moist, and the sticks or skewers ensure that the seedlings do not encounter the plastic. 

Dormant Spring Spraying

Spraying of fruit trees, flowering cherry, crabapples, hawthorn, mountain ash and lilac can be done before the leaf buds open. Call a professional company and request that they use only organic products.  

Houseplants

Prepare your geraniums that have spent the winter indoors for the move outside perhaps to add color to a pot like this.

Repot them if they need repotting in April.    

If you brought geraniums indoors at the end of last season, check them for new side shoots, then cut them back to four inches and repot them in clean pots about an inch and a half larger with fresh potting soil.   

Well, fellow gardeners, I know you are getting excited to be in your gardens this season and I hope that these tips have given you plenty to think about to keep you busy for a while. Enjoy photos of lovely gardens that my son Ian has designed. If you wish, contact him for a consultation at landscapesbyian.com.

Enjoy being outdoors in spring sunshine and I look forward to seeing you in your garden in April.     

About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of, The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts, who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.

Gardening Tips for Early Spring from ‘The English Lady’

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Signs of spring … crocuses will soon be flowering once again.
Maureen Haseley-Jones is ‘The English Lady’

This winter, as in other winters when I need a blossom boost, I enjoy the fragrance of the paper-white narcissi that I planted in tall glass vases. I surrounded the bulbs with seashells from White Sand Beach here in Old Lyme and kept them in a dark cool area, ensuring the shells and the bulbs were moist as the roots developed. 

When the bulb foliage reached about six inches, I moved the bulbs in their vases into indirect light, which encourages the blooms to open. Each morning on entering my lounge, I am met with the fragrance of these beautiful bulbs and, feeling refreshed, I am ready for my day. 

I keep extra bulbs in a brown paper bag in the vegetable keeper in the refrigerator. I plant these bulbs when the first blooms have gone by and with this method, I have a succession of blooms and fragrance permeating my home into spring. 

Before you know it, spring will be upon us together with the anticipation that resides in all of us gardeners, which is to get outdoors and plunge our hands into the soil. 

That being said, there is so much to look forward to and I feel I must once again stress the importance for all of us to garden organically. 

In this country and around the world, the results of pollution and chemicals are just some of the factors that are causing climate change. We are in a crisis, with invaders that have already battened down the gates and invaded our gardens. These invaders are destroying Mother Nature and your health in the form of poisonous pesticides and herbicides.

The main producers of these poisons are Monsanto, Bayer and other biological monsters, who have been decimating our planet, our soil, human health and committing all those egregious crimes purely for selfish profit.

Bees, for example, have been killed in the millions, because the EPA under the Trump administration allowed the spraying of over 14 million acres of land, with poisonous chemicals. Please note folks, that bees pollinate 70 percent of the world’s food and their demise is our demise. 

Last year was recorded as the hottest year on record. Drought in the west of this country, resulted in dry tinder conditions, causing devastating fires that brought death and destruction to people in California, Oregon and Colorado. This extreme weather pattern continues here, bringing tornadoes and extreme flooding, followed by even stronger hurricanes due to the rise of our oceans, which is the result of warming water.

Across the world, extreme weather patterns have also had a tragic effect on extreme drought in Africa causing famine and death to that region and terrible earthquakes as we have seen in Turkey, Northern Syria, Japan and China. I am glad that the government in this country had begun to seriously address the Climate Crisis, but much more needs to be done … Editor’s Note: Sadly, the current administration does not seem willing to address the Climate Crisis seriously.

As gardeners, it is our task to help counteract these negative changes by using only organic methods of gardening on our own plots of land; what we do in our own gardens contributes to healing the planet. Over the span of 25 years on my radio show WRCH 100.5 FM and through my Garden Earth lectures, I received a commitment from thousands of people to discard all poisonous herbicides and pesticides and to garden organically. The response had been tremendously positive in the production of organic gardens grown in healthy soil. 

Wild snowdrops are welcome sign of the approaching Spring. File photo.

It begins with what you put into the soil for the growth of the plants, and this is accomplished by adding liberal doses of my favorite stuff–Aged Manure, which you may procure, either from the farm or in bags from the garden center.   

The following, is a paragraph from a book I am writing on gardening and the vital importance of the humus component to our gardens.

In 1937 Franklin D Roosevelt said that ‘the nation that destroys its soil destroys itself’

America has not heeded that warning. Precious soils in this country and around the world are being destroyed by dangerous practices in industrialized agriculture and poisonous chemicals, which completely disrupts our eco system and poisons all living things.

In your own garden you can build and retain a rich growing environment by building the Humus component. We are all carbon-based creatures as is all life on earth. Not only humans but also our soil microbes need carbon to flourish. And to attract carbon from the atmosphere into your soil you need to build the humus component. 

HOW TO BUILD THE HUMUS COMPONENT:

Do not till soil – tilling breaks up soil structure.

First step – Add composted manure three times each season –beginning in spring when the soil has reached a temperature of 50 degrees.  If the soil has not reached that temperature the soil organisms are not able to work with the bacteria in the manure to produce nutrients for the roots of the plants.  Purchase a soil thermometer to check the soil’s temperature. This year, following deep frosts, the soil temperature may reach 50 degrees by the end of April to early May. Add the manure again in July to continue to nourish your growing plants and again in October to protect and nourish the roots of your plants through the winter. Manure is not a fertilizer; it builds soil structure and works with all the soil animals to keep a healthy disease-free growing environment.  

Second step – Add wood chips in the form of brown fine bark mulch or wood chips that you produce from your garden of aged wood chips with a combo of leaves, twigs and branches. 

These two major steps build the humus component. If you do this in your garden – not only, will you help to heal the planet but also produce the healthiest of gardens. 

A question I am often asked is ‘Can I put manure over mulch, for example, on my mid-summer garden in July?’ The answer is ‘yes’ – the manure together with nature’s moisture and your own irrigation enables the manure to find its way easily into the soil and the roots of your plants.     

WHAT EXACTLY DOES HUMUS DO?

Humus acts like a sponge and can hold 90% of its weight in water.

Because of its negative charge – plant nutrients stick to humus for nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus and other elements, which prevents these from washing away and acts as nature’s slow- release fertilizer throughout the year.

Humus improves soil structure making it loose and friable, which helps plants root in the soil with better access to nutrients, water and oxygen.

Humus also helps to filter’ toxic chemicals from the soil, much like carbon-based water filtration systems that filter toxins from your water. 

We cannot control industrialized agricultural practices, however, in your own garden you can make a difference.   Feed the soil, and it will feed the plants. 

This week I spoke with my friend Ann, who lives in Cheshire, in England, which is next door to my home county of Shropshire. Ann is an avid gardener and she told me that her daffodils are well above the soil and last week she started to plant seeds in the greenhouse. I was so envious, when Ann told me of her garden bloom, but our time will soon come. 

PLANTING SEEDS:

It will soon be time for serious indoor seed-planting.

February 20 to March 20 is the time for serious indoor seed planting here. Check which garden centers are stocking organic seeds or go online for the organic varieties – one company that I use is “Botanical Interests”. Do not go overboard when buying packs of seeds as there are about 500 seeds in each packet.  If you do purchase too many – have a seed sharing party with gardening friends.  

Equipment to have on hand for seed planting are cheap envelopes (you probably have envelopes you discard from your mail) fresh sterilized potting soil mix, and sphagnum moss. Also seed trays, egg cartons and cardboard milk containers that are cut down also work well.  Make sure all containers are scrupulously clean. Sphagnum moss works well as a planting medium as the moss can prevent a soil born fungus that causes “damping off” which causes seeds to rot before germination.  I have, together with many gardening friends, used this method for years and have not lost  seeds  to “damping off”. 

For tiny seeds, I use the moss as the planting mix and for larger seeds, I install a topsoil base and a layer of the moss on top of the soil. I mix fine seeds with sand before I sow; this method helps to loosen them up. Soak the seeds overnight before planting and just before planting spray them with warm water, never cold as cold water can delay germination. When they have germinated, water gently. 

The best method of watering seedlings is to water from the bottom. But, if you feel you must top water, just mist with a fine sprayer, otherwise you will drown the delicate seeds, washing them out of the planting mix. Use new sterilized soil when seeding and do not use any leftover soil from last season, Leftover soil from the previous year can develop disease, which can ruin your seedling crops.  If you are growing seedlings on a windowsill, place them on a south or west-facing sill; seedlings need light, not heat to thrive. 

WINTER CARE OF HOUSEPLANTS

Houseplants can lift your spirits throughout the year. File photo.

I love my houseplants year round but in winter the blooming ones in particular lift my spirits.  I talk to my plants enjoying my cyclamen and my blooming cacti, and the different foliage on the ivy, philodendron and spaphyllum which also clean the air in a stuffy home environment. 

Keep your houseplants away from draughts and direct heat. If you are able, place humidifiers and air purifiers in the rooms of your home, which will benefit not only the plants but also your own health. Place pebble trays under the plants and keep the pebbles moist for additional humidity. 

Spray houseplants every few days with lukewarm water and once every couple of weeks, put the plants in a sink or bathtub and allow lukewarm water to run freely over the plant to remove dust from the leaves and clean salt residue from the soil. The exception to the spray or soak rule is African violets, as African violets do not do well with wet leaves. 

Aphids and white fly thrive indoors in winter and an organic sulphur solution called Safer works well to clean the soil of insect eggs and from the foliage. Perhaps you are fortunate like me to have Ladybugs in your home in winter; if so, allow these useful creatures to roam freely; the ladybug menu is aphids and white flies.  

The best time to repot houseplants is from April through June but if a plant has become root bound with no visible soil, then you can repot them in February. Water the plant to loosen the roots from the soil, turn it sideways on a newspaper and gently slide it from the pot.  

Cut away any dead roots and repot in fresh potting soil in a clean pot that is only two inches larger than the original.  With the plant firmly in place and the soil one inch from the rim, water it gently and do not fertilize with an organic fertilizer until April.  Plants need this dormant period to recharge. 

A few suggestions for trouble-free foliage plants in the home are Rubber Plants, Spider plants, Ivy, Philodendron, Monstera and Spaphyllum. If you have a sunny window Aloes, Succulents and Cacti do great and are a trouble- free variety.   

Blooming plants sitting side by side with foliage plants, enjoying one another’s company, give one an impression of a miniature garden.

A few suggestions of house plants that bloom are Cyclamen, African Violets, Kalanchoe, Primulas and Paper white narcissus. To prevent pets from chewing on the plants, add some cayenne pepper to the water when watering.  I also enjoy my herbal plants, which sit in a sunny window. My favorites are Rosemary, Basil and Parsley which are great additions to any recipe.             

POWER TOOLS:

Check any power tools that require maintenance or repair. February or March is the time to get them into the repair shop, because as soon as the weather breaks the shops get busy and you may not get your lawn mower back until August.  

Check all tools and implements in the garage or shed. If you did not clean them off at the end of last season, plunge the shovels and spades into a bucket of sand; sand is an abrasive and will clean off any leftover soil and manure residue.  Oil the wooden handles of tools with Linseed oil or some inexpensive vegetable oil; oil feeds the wood and keeps the handles splinter free. At the same time, check your hoses and fittings that may have sprung leaks since last year.

Make a shopping list of new tools that are needed – there are lots of sales in late winter for you to get a good deal.  However, I suggest that you buy only quality tools and hoses; as the saying goes, “you get what you pay for”. Also check that there is enough twine, bamboo rods, wire ties or nails and peat on hand. 

In March or early April when soil and manure are available purchase bags of composted manure from the garden center. On the other hand, if you have a farm close in your local area, that sells aged manure, acquire a small truck to acquire a load.  If you decide on that method, ask the farmer for manure from the bottom of the pile – aged stuff.  Manure needs to be at least six months old before applying to your soil, as fresh manure will burn your plants.    

Check the paintwork on your wooden fences, arbors, decks and any other outdoor wooden structures. Then, purchase paint supplies so that on a dry day in March for painting, everything will be on hand.  

Don’t forget to put paintbrushes on your list – I have a feeling you forgot to clean your old brushes last season, which means they are stiff as a poker, also remember sandpaper, brush cleaner and if  possible, buy eco conscious paint.  If you are painting benches and garden seats on a dry day, put them under cover before sundown. 

White walls in the greenhouse reflect light so any areas that need retouching, use white paint. It’s so rewarding to see how much lighter and brighter the greenhouse is after a touch of paint and the glass is cleaned.  However meticulously clean and tidy your greenhouse, you may find that white fly, greenfly and scale insects have found their way inside the greenhouse for warmth and so it may be necessary to spray with an organic spray. I mix an organic spray of orange peels in white vinegar and allow it to sit for two weeks before spraying – this works well and is very economical.   

Walking around a garden that looks good and feels good in mid-winter is a real pick me up. Patterns emerge created by paths, walls and hedges. As you walk, enjoy the shapes of shrubs, the shadows of evergreens and the strong silhouettes of tree trunks and enjoy their shape and bark without foliage.  

Keep the bird feeders full. I love to watch the birds in their quick flights across the garden to alight on the feeders, and their sudden bursts of song when the sun peaks through. It is so much fun to watch the “pecking” order and see the blue jays, who can be bullies and red cardinals, who like the blue jays can be rather territorial.  Bringing up the rear, come the finches and house sparrows. And sometimes a bird appears that I do not recognize and out comes my binoculars and Peterson bird book. 

If you notice squirrels swarming the bird feeders, add some cayenne pepper to the birdseed; if that occurs do not be concerned as the heat from the cayenne does not affect birds.  And you may, choose a spot away from the feeders to sprinkle cayenne free birdseed on the ground so the squirrels can also enjoy a meal. 

Winter has its own distinctive fragrance, the fog, in the morning when the air is very heavy, thick and damp – a damp even more bone chilling than rain.  I can deal with that for a while and know that in about six weeks I will be inhaling the healthy nose clearing fragrance of the soil, rich and brown, well manured or covered with wood mulch, shredded leaves or salt hay. Winter fragrances are a potpourri, one moment sharp and cold like the north wind, whereas spring’s flavors are light and sweet.

If you find you have spent year after year throwing good money after bad, then it may be time to get a professional design. If that is so, don’t hesitate; if you want work to begin in the spring, a design takes time to complete. You may want to contact my son Ian, whose company LlanscapesbyIan.com shows his lovely natural landscape creations and Ian will work with you and your budget. 

Have a great month and I’ll see you in your garden in late March. If you have any gardening questions, feel free to email me. MaureenHaseleyJones@gmail.com

About the author: Maureen Haseley-Jones is a member of a family of renowned horticultural artisans, whose landscaping heritage dates back to the 17th century. She is one of the founders, together with her son Ian, of, The English Lady Landscape and Home Company. Maureen and Ian are landscape designers and garden experts, who believe that everyone deserves to live in an eco-conscious environment and enjoy the pleasure that it brings. Maureen learned her design skills from both her mother and grandmother, and honed her horticultural and construction skills while working in the family nursery and landscape business in the U.K. Her formal horticultural training was undertaken at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Surrey.