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Rudolph and the Brussels Sprouts
Being a gardener gives me a supply of fresh vegetables, gorgeous flowers and, occasionally, good stories to tell. One of my favorite holiday stories was the time Rudolph and Santa’s reindeer found the Brussels sprouts – on Christmas Eve.
Several years ago I left a couple of Brussels sprouts plants unpicked as we approached Christmas. Given that we’d had a warm fall and early winter that year, I had just never bothered harvesting them. I had a young visitor from Scotland for the holidays that year, and Brussels sprouts are a must in Scotland on Christmas day. But the deer – or, as I told her – the reindeer got them on the night of the 24th. Ah well, Santa’s helpers needed a special treat that night.
Brussels Sprouts
Even though Brussels sprouts and kale are very cold tolerant, I picked mine well before Christmas this year as there is a four-point buck that has been feeding in my garden. Sigh. And winter is a time when deer predation can be a serious problem for anything edible, including trees and shrubs. What’s a gardener to do?
The best solution is to fence the area where deer are a problem. An eight-foot fence is what most experts recommend. And if there is high “deer pressure” (meaning large numbers and little natural food), a single strand of wire another foot or two above the fence may be required.
Last summer I planted and tended a small vegetable garden for friends who spend their summers in Wales. They’d had trouble with deer in their flower gardens, so I put up a fence when I planted the veggie garden for them. It was just a tiny patch, and I was able to put something up for a very reasonable cost.
Here is what I did: I bought plastic netting of the kind used to cover berry bushes to keep birds from stealing all the fruit. I bought 5 eight-foot bamboo poles, each about an inch in diameter, and a piece of one-inch plastic pipe. At each corner of the garden I pushed a pole into the soil until it was firmly in place. I used plastic tie-wraps to attach the netting to the poles (you could use tape or string for this instead).
Essentially, I wrapped the garden with mesh to keep out the deer, attaching it to each bamboo pole in turn. But after encircling the garden I didn’t attach the mesh to the first pole – if I had, there wouldn’t be any way in. Instead I attached the fencing to a fifth pole, a removable one that was right next to the first one. When I needed to enter, I lifted the fifth pole and moved it away, opening one side of the garden. That side was only 6 or 8 feet wide.
The movable pole was easy to move because it fit into a short section of plastic pipe in the ground. I tied the last bamboo pole to the first pole that was right next to it, and which was firmly anchored in the ground. When I wanted to get in, I moved that 6-foot section of fencing away and dropped the bamboo pole into another short section of plastic pipe that was in the ground at an appropriate distance away. That way I never put the fencing on the ground where it was likely to snag on something.
I have another client with a number of yews (an evergreen shrub) that were formerly the salad bar of the neighborhood deer population – but only in the winter. In summer the deer never bothered the yew. So what did we do? Cover the bushes with burlap. That keeps the deer from eating them, and offers some winter protection from cold winds.
Deer repellents work, too. The one that I like best is called Bobbex. It repels deer with its awful smell. Apply it when stems (and leaves) are dry, and the temperature is above 35 degrees. It has a number of animal proteins derived from eggs, fish and other nasties. The odor is quite offensive, even to us, for the first day or two – but much longer for the deer. They don’t want to eat the plants you have sprayed. I’ve read that the odor evokes fear in them as they approach your yew or rhododendron. It is made from all natural ingredients (no factory-made chemicals) but you should not use it on food products.
Coyote urine is another repellent that I have used, and that has worked for me. Instead of spraying it on like Bobbex, you put it in little plastic bottles that have holes in the upper portions of the sides and cotton balls in the bottom. Add the urine, hang the container on a twig or post, and the odor will drift out, keeping deer away. But it means that coyotes have to be contained in a cement floor cage with a drain to collect their urine, which can’t be a nice life, so I don’t buy it anymore. Some folks hang bars of soap from trees, too, or human hair. Deer get used to these things a bit faster than Bobbex, I believe.
So if you have deer in your neighborhood, get ready for winter. I’m not a hunter but I joke about clobbering deer on the head with a 2-by-4. I’ve seen the buck that ate some of my garden and I ran at it, shouting and barking. But that scares the neighbors, too.
You may reach Henry by email at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. His gardening website is www.gardening-guy.com.
The Winter Landscape
My friend and neighbor, Connie Kousman, is one of the few people I know who likes swamps. She is an avid kayaker who collects cranberries and other plants that do well in wet areas – swamps, ponds and lakes. I called her recently to see if she knew where I could pick some winterberry (Ilex verticillata) for use in vases and on my wreath. I grow winterberry, but this year I didn’t get any of those bright red berries I like so much for decoration. No, Connie allowed that this was a bad year for winterberries – and wild cranberries, too. Some years are like that.
Red Twigged Dogwood
This prompted me to walk around my property looking at my woody shrubs to see what might substitute for winterberries. I didn’t find any berries at all. But I did cut some red-twigged dogwood (Cornus sericea) to use in a vase, and some budded branches of a Merrill magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri). The magnolia buds are a bit like pussywillows on steroids: an inch long and very fuzzy. I have some in a vase on the table, and they look very good, and will for many weeks ahead. I cut some greenery to go with them, a few stems of juniper.
Recently it struck me that winter can be pretty bleak for people who don’t have nice looking winter shrubs and trees. And that judicious pruning can turn a cluster of small river birch, for example, from something akin to an unmade bed into lovely focal point. The trick? Cut off small lower branches that are just clutter, and that can never develop into handsome thick branches. When pruning, I ask myself, what will this little branch, currently the thickness of a finger, look like when it is the thickness of an arm – or a leg. If it is growing sideways toward a walkway, it must come off.
But back to woody plants that look good in winter. Bark is important. I like plants that have exfoliating bark, which means bark that is shaggy and peeling off – thus showing more than one color. My Seven sons Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) is one of those. In addition to the nice bark it offers me a display of small white flowers each fall. White birch (Betula papyrifera) and river birch (Betula nigra) are others with interesting bark. In fact all the birches have handsome bark.
Magnolia Buds
I’ve been growing a paperbark maple (Acer griseum) for about 10 years. It has lovely shaggy reddish-brown bark that is very handsome. It is a very slow-growing tree, at least in this climate. It is listed as a Zone 5 plant (good to minus 20 F) but mine has survived colder temperatures. It looks great in winter.
One of my favorites – but one I do not grow – is sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), which I knew growing up in Connecticut but is rare in New Hampshire where I live. It reminds me of the English plane tree, so common in Europe. The bark peels off in big swaths, showing light gray-green in some areas, dark brown in others.
Of the bigger trees, I like American beech (Fagus sylvatica) for its smooth gray bark. Unfortunately, beeches are prone to a fungal disease that mars the bark and eventually kills the tree.
That same smooth bark is a prominent feature of a shrub known variously as shad bush, serviceberry and Saskatoon bush. All belong to the genus Amelanchier but bear different species names. Most are multi-stemmed bushes that get no more than 10 feet tall, though I have a wild one more than twice that height. You may have noticed that wild ones alongside the road – they are understory plants that are one of the first shrubs to bloom in the spring. Their blossoms are similar to apple blossoms. They do well in partial sun.
Curly crabapple
Apple trees, particularly crabapples, can look great in winter. Some crabs hold onto their fruit throughout much of the winter, some drop their fruit in fall and many provide fruit for the birds to eat (that disappears before winter is done). Ask at the nursery when you buy a crabapple if the birds like the fruit.
I have a “curly” crabapple, one that was trained at the nursery to have leader that curls around in a gentle swoop. Instead of growing tall, it has been trained to grow in a rough corkscrew. Mine has weeping branches, most of which aim towards the ground, and although I’ve lost track of its name, better nurseries should have it. I got mine at E.C. Brown’s Nursery in Thetford, Vermont.
Last but least are the broad-leafed evergreens: rhododendrons, azaleas and mountain laurels. Their leaves don’t drop off and can look handsome in winter against the snow. The leaves can dry out on sunny days and get very wrinkled, but that does not damage the plants. You can minimize this effect by spraying them with a waxy product known as Wilt-Pruf.
So if your landscape has little to offer you in winter, plan on adding some winter interest come planting time. And if your trees and shrubs are drab, think about adding some strings of little winter lights to brighten them up, at least at night.
Read about Henry’s new children’s book at www.henryhomeyer.com. Write him at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or e-mail him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is always pleased to hear from you.
Poinsettias, Amaryllis and Paperwhites, Oh My!
I love to grow things. In fact, I will try growing almost anything once. Indoors, outdoors, elegant, clunky, thorny – every plant has its virtues. I even accepted (against my better judgment) a Crown of Thorns plant (Euphorbia Milii) from my friend and fellow writer, Willem Lange. It was, I believe, a plant from his grandmother – and Will is older than I am. So it might be a 100-year old house plant. It does have nice small reddish flowers (it blooms constantly), but it is tall and lanky and covered with dangerous thorns. I keep it on the deck in the summer where leaves and pine needles fall on it – but I’m afraid to go into the interior regions of this plant to clean them up now, as I might need a blood transfusion after doing the job.
Amaryllis
I recently purchased an amaryllis kit at my favorite general store. Amaryllis plants are wonderful: they will produce anywhere from 3 to 9 lovely large lily-like blossoms. They are foolproof if you follow the directions. They come with a soil-like medium, a pot and the bulb. Just hydrate the disk of planting medium (generally coir, a sustainable alternative to peat moss made of shredded coconut fiber) and plant the amaryllis bulb. Half or more of the bulb should be above the soil line in the pot. I like to soak the roots in warm water for 15 minutes before planting to make them more flexible, though the directions don’t tell you to do that. Put on a sunny windowsill and wait. Sometimes an amaryllis bulb will start growing immediately, other times it will sit and sulk for up to a month. (You might want to talk to it, giving it encouraging words if you’re in a hurry). Sometimes it will produce leaves, then flowers – but most commonly the flowers come first. Sometimes you will get just one stalk of flowers, other times 2 or even 3 in sequence. The more you pay for the bulb, generally, the more stems you will get.
Poinsettias on display at trials
Even easier than amaryllis are poinsettias. Every florist and grocery store has them for sale in full bloom right now, ready to adorn your table. Only the “flowers” are not really flowers. They are modified leaves called bracts, which surround an inconspicuous yellow flower in the middle of each cluster. You can get them in a wide variety of colors and shapes. Red is the classic color, and still my favorite, but they also come in pink, cream, striped, peach, cinnamon and more. The key to happy poinsettias is to avoid overwatering them. Only water when the soil feels dry – and when the pot feels light when you pick it up. They do fine in the interior of the house – they don’t need direct sunlight, which may account, in part, for their popularity. You can save them from year to year but the production of the colorful bracts depends on having days of a certain length, which is best done in a greenhouse. And contrary to popular myth, the plants are not poisonous to cats – a University of Ohio team tested them. Poor test kitties, I’m sure they’re not tasty. (I do wonder how they got the cats to eat the poinsettias).
Paperwhite are another sure winner for the holidays, and a great gift for the gardener. These are generally sold as bulbs, not kits, so you have a little more work to do if you’d like these fragrant white blossoms. And it’s too late to get them blooming by Christmas. They generally take a month or more from planting to blooming (for me, anyway). But I shall buy some today, and get started. Paperwhites are in the narcissus or daffodil family. To get them to bloom you will need a flat, wide dish that is an inch or two deep. Fill the dish with gravel or small stones. And although you can pick stones out of your driveway, white stones are available at garden centers in small bags and look much nicer. Simply arrange the bulbs shoulder-to shoulder in the gravel with at least half the bulb sticking up above the layer stones. Then add water until it just kisses the bottom of the bulbs. Do not, I repeat, do not fill the dish with too much water, as you can rot the bulbs. You may need to tie up your paperwhites to keep them from flopping over when the leaves and flower stems get tall. And rotating the dish every few days keeps them from leaning toward the window grasping for more winter light. Paperwhites produce more than one blossom on each stem, and are really quite elegant. They are not re-useable, however. That’s right. After they bloom just throw them away because they are not hardy in New England.
Pointsettias
Winter in New England can be bleak. I buy cut flowers at my local florist to keep on the table to brighten the room and remind me of summer. But a few good plants can tide me over during those times when the flowers I’ve bought have gone by, and before I get the next batch. And as to that Crown of Thorns, writing this column inspired me to work on cleaning it up. I used the vacuum cleaner and it worked!
Visit www.henry.homeyer.com to read about Henry’s new children’s book, Wobar and the Quest for the Magic Calumet. It is a fantasy-adventure chapter book about a boy and a cougar.
Winter: A Time for Reflection and Learning
We had a little snow recently, so it’s starting to feel like winter. I relish winters for many reasons – cross country skiing, Nordic skating and snowshoeing prime among them. But I also love winter because it gives me a chance to slow down a little and sit near the wood stove with a good book. I like looking out on a snowy landscape and reflecting on what I do in the garden and asking myself what I might need to do differently. I grow my plants using all natural ways and avoiding chemicals. Allow me to share my thoughts about why I do.
Ever since Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring in 1961, gardeners have been aware that applying pesticides to their vegetables might not be a good idea – not for the gardener, not for the environment. But many who avoid pesticides still use chemical fertilizers –even though there are better alternatives.
Santa Henry with composted cow manure
Mother Nature has been growing green plants for millions of years. Chemicals used as fertilizers or pesticides have been used for only about 100 years. Plants evolved along with soil bacteria, fungi, earthworms and a variety of other microorganisms that coexist within a mutually beneficial system. A single teaspoon of biologically active compost can contain 5 billion bacteria, 20 million filamentous fungi and a million protozoa.
Gardeners who use chemical fertilizers ignore the benefits of those soil critters, and opt for “feeding” the plant. Organic gardeners nurture the soil and the living things in it, allowing plants and microorganisms to work their wonders as Mother Nature intended.
Plants produce food by photosynthesis, and in good times, healthy plants make more food than they need. They give off some of their excess food, exuding it from their roots and onto their leaf surfaces. This is not wasteful. It’s sharing the food with other organisms that can help them, particularly beneficial fungi. Green plants attract beneficial fungi by sharing carbohydrates with them.
Fungi are better than green plants at extracting minerals from the soil. Neither green plants nor fungi can extract minerals from a grain of sand or a speck of clay. But fungi can produce acids that convert soil components into substances they can use and that are needed by green plants.
Fungi are attracted by the carbohydrates produced by green plants, and develop symbiotic relationships with them. It’s an “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” arrangement. Does your soil have the necessary microorganisms to work with your plants? If not, you can now buy beneficial fungi to add to your soil: mycorrhizal soil fungi are now being sold and promoted to encourage health in woody plants. Soils in new housing developments or those that have been treated with chemicals may need some help.
Pro-Gro Organic Fertilizer
The chemicals in a bag of 10-10-10 are not poisonous to you or your plants, they just don’t do much to improve the soil over the long term. Most are water soluble and can be washed away or used up quickly. Not only that, excess soluble fertilizer can inhibit some beneficial soil organisms. Too much nitrogen, for example, can induce nitrogen-fixing bacteria to go dormant.
Bagged organic fertilizers, on the other hand, are much better for your soil and plants than conventional chemical fertilizers. They contain things like seaweed, ground oyster shells, peanut hulls and naturally occurring minerals. They contain many of the micronutrients needed by plants – and missing in chemical fertilizer.
Organic fertilizers, in general, are slow-release fertilizers that provide nutrients over a much longer period of time than chemical fertilizers. And chemical fertilizers only provide 3 of the 16 chemical elements needed by green plants to grow and be healthy. It’s like giving plants white bread with marshmallow fluff – instead of a seven-course French meal.
Yes, a dose of liquid chemical fertilizer can force quick growth, but sometimes that’s not healthy. Scientists have found that excess nitrogen can build up in plants as amino acids. Since amino acids are the building blocks of protein, plants with an excess of them are very attractive to insects. Some pests will feed on over-fertilized plants while avoiding plants nurtured with organic methods. A healthy plant with well balanced growth resists disease better than one with fast weak growth, too.
I feel that it’s important to understand that organic gardening isn’t just about avoiding negative consequences. Organic gardening actually presents many advantages if one understands how plants, microorganisms and soils interact. If you nurture your soil naturally, your gardens will flourish.
But what can you do now? You might even want to order a truckload of composted cow manure for a loved one as a holiday gift. It’s the one time when you’ll get hugs and kisses for giving your sweetie a lot of manure! Enjoy the holidays, but plan on sharing the good times with your soil and plants.
Read about Henry’s new children’s book, Wobar and the Quest for the Magic Calumet at his web site, www.henryhomeyer.com.