April 2008 Archives

Q: We recently purchased a new home, and the seller told us the soil is "poor" and mostly clay. I want to plant a large garden this spring. How can I be sure the soil will be perfect for my planting?

I must admit, I have a pretty good job. Much of each year is spent traveling to all parts of the country, visiting the most beautiful gardens for the television show I host on PBS. Needless to say, I’ve seen some pretty awesome displays. So I was thinking recently, of all these amazing gardens, which one was most memorable to me?

That would be a hard choice as they are all spectacular for one reason or another. I’ve been to most of the large public gardens and many of the smaller ones. But as far as the most memorable, those massive gardens with a horticultural army to take care of them don’t surpass the small private gardens I have visited. No, they don’t have professional horticulturists on staff, nor do the owners rarely have the time to personally tend to their gardens as much as they would like. But, what always amazes me is what is accomplished in these special places, especially considering the limited resources that most home enthusiasts face.

These are the gardens I most remember. They are typically small and often made even more intimate by breaking up the space into garden rooms. With every turn, there’s a new surprise. These gardeners are passionate about their plants and how they fit into the landscape. Unlike large public gardens, they are an army of one. They eat, drink and fall to sleep thinking about their gardens and how to make them better. They read books and magazines, surf the web, watch gardening shows, attend lectures and join clubs, all for the purposes of absorbing even more horticultural know-how.

These gardens are designed with passion, courage and always with optimism. They’re prepped with the tenacity and vigor that only one so personally vested could muster. And that same person maintains them with meticulous attention to details.  The placement of a new plant is scrutinized for weeks before and after it’s finally put in the ground; another design is always on the drawing board of their mind and few weeds escape detection for very long.

I imagine that if you added up all the hours devoted mentally and physically by these dedicated solo gardeners, they might even rival those of larger public displays. But to me, what is ever apparent in the smaller, private garden is not that it is picture-perfect, as this is not always so. Rather, it is the passion of the person that brought it all together and their pride that shines as bright as the sun on a clear spring morning. These are the most memorable gardens to me.

JL

Somewhere in his repertoire, Rodney Dangerfield surely had some pretty good material on weeds. Talking about getting no respect! After all, when you consider how much they put up with and still look good, how can you not at least admire their tenacity? If we could only learn to love weeds for what they are, our gardening lives would be a lot easier and there would be a lot less use of chemicals out there too!

In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that some weeds were actually promoted as a good thing. Take clover for example. Ironically, until a few decades ago, grass seed came with clover mixed in because of its many desirable traits, including the ability of the roots to fix nitrogen in the soil. That gave the clover and the grass around it the nutrients they needed to green up naturally.

Unfortunately, clover was reclassified from lawn-worthy to weed when it could not be selectively excluded when herbicides were applied to grass.  Now, clover is considered an undesirable thug, even though its flowers are a favorite of pollinating bees, stays green all year, provides valuable nitrogen and organic material to the soil, and its hardiness is sufficient to crowd out more detrimental lawn weeds. But instead of growing it, we’re now supposed to kill it.  Did the clover change?  No, we did.

Now don’t get the idea that I love weeds. I don’t. But I will say my tolerance for some, like clover, is much greater than in years past. These days, my lawn isn’t weed free any more. Part of the reason I’m more tolerant now is due to my increased awareness of the beneficial aspects some weeds play in promoting biodiversity, combined with my commitment to use chemicals only as a last resort. And frankly with weeds, there are several options for control before chemicals ever become necessary.

You might find this odd but I don’t mind pulling weeds. It’s the ultimate selective and eco-friendly option available, and there’s no greater way to work out some frustration then by going out after a soaking rain and pulling up those suckers intact! Talk about instant gratification. And my favorite weeds to pull up…we’ll that would be anything with a taproot, such as dandelion or thistle. The reason being, if you don’t get the entire root, it’s coming back, just as certain as death and taxes.

Yet I have to admit, even after a soaking rain, getting every bit of that taproot is the exception to the rule. That’s part of what makes weeds like this so darn tough. And that’s when other options become necessary for complete extraction. There are a number of great tools on the market for this and Fiskars has my favorite; The Extended Reach Weeder. It essentially plucks the weed and roots from the ground while I operate this lightweight device from a standing position. There’s even an ejection feature that clears the weed from the tool and allows me to cover a lot of ground in record time. And these days, that’s the bonus. Although I don’t mind pulling weeds once in a while, I don’t want to spend all day doing it. I’m sure you’d agree!
JL