Wildflower Gardening

Have you secretly been considering turning your high maintenance mixed border into a wildflower garden? It can be hard to resist when seed companies are out there promoting their instant wildflower gardens in a can, sack or roll. I spoke with a handful of gardeners who gave wildflower meadows a try. Their efforts to date have not met with much success.

Many gardeners naively believe you can simply scatter some seeds and wind up with a self-sowing meadow of bluebells and lacecaps. In truth, starting a wildflower garden is often more work than putting in a perennial border and it is not necessarily self-perpetuating.

If these plants are truly wild, (weeds, to most highway maintenance crews), why must they be coddled and coaxed out of the ground?

According to my local Extension office, wildflowers are species of flowers that have shown themselves to be hardy and self-reproducing, with little attention form the gardener. Although they will grow wild or on their own, they are not necessarily native plants. Wildflower gardens are considered a low cost alternative to high maintenance gardening. Many wildflowers prefer poor soil and neglect, making them ideal for tough to maintain areas of your property. My wildflower garden got little attention, so where did I go wrong? Even a wild look requires some planning and effort. The good news is that most of the effort is in getting it started. Chose a site with full to partial sun. If you want the plants to sustain themselves, you had better give them conditions they find agreeable. Weed control is paramount. Weeds are a successful wildflower garden's biggest threat. Of course, only you can determine what is a weed and what is a wildflower, but for the sake of simplicity I would suggest you start your garden with a clean palette and remove all existing vegetation. There are three proven methods of doing this. Weed or remove sod by hand. If you are starting with a small area or if you are planting where healthy grass is growing, this may be your best option. Solarization is a good way to kill all vegetation, including most seeds. Mow the area to be planted as low as your lawn mower will allow. Water the area well and then cover securely with clear plastic sheeting, leaving it there to bake in the sun for 6 - 8 weeks. This method relies on cooperation from the weather and you will probably still want to remove the dead vegetation before reseeding. Spraying a broad spectrum herbicide will kill everything within a few weeks. Be careful with herbicides. They don’t discriminate in what they kill and can accidentally drift on a breeze and wipe out garden plants. Again, you will probably want to remove the dead vegetation before reseeding. Till the soil shallowly to a depth of about 3 inches, once the existing vegetation is removed. You don't want to uncover and encourage more weeds. In fact, you may want to respray with the herbicide at this point to kill any weed seeds that may have surfaced. Rake and level the soil, leaving the grooves left from raking to help hold the seeds and give them contact with the soil. Packaged seed mixes will tell you how large an area they cover. In general, use 4 pounds of seed per acre or 4 oz. per 2,500 sq. ft. Most wildflower seeds are very small. Mixing some sand in with the seed mixture will make it easier to spread evenly. Broadcast evenly throughout the area to be planted. Rake lightly again after spreading the seed. Water the whole area and keep the seeds moist until they are a few inches tall. A light mulching with straw, peat or compost will help retain moisture and keep the birds from eating the meadow. It’s much like starting grass seed. Germination should occur in 10 - 21 days and your first blooms should reward you in 5-6 weeks. Some Wildflower Tips to Get You Started

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What is Organic Gardening?

Organic gardening has been described as several things: chemical-free gardening, Earth-friendly gardening, natural gardening are just a few. And it is all of these things, but these phrases tend to be so ambiguous they end up causing confusion. For example, “chemical-free gardening” is a total misnomer, because whether you are using organic or synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in your garden, they are all “chemicals.” “Natural gardening” espouses images of weeds run rampant and hornworm-infested tomato plants. “Earth-friendly” gardening works, except that everyone has a different view of what they consider to be “friendly” to the planet.

So, to try to narrow it down, organic gardening consists of three main tenets: Feed the soil.Focus on prevention.Use the simplest solution first.

The soil is the basis for everything that grows in our gardens. If the soil is nutrient-weak, compacted, or devoid of beneficial microorganisms, it will not support healthy plants. You can try to “fix” it with fertilizers, but it will never grow as well as a plant grown in healthy, rich, crumbly soil. By feeding the soil, you provide plants with a good foundation for healthy growth. Plants that are healthy are less likely to be bothered by pest and disease problems.

So, how do you feed the soil? By adding organic soil amendments, such as compost, manure, chopped leaves, and mulches in and onto the surface of the soil. A soil test will inform you of any mineral deficiencies, and explain how to remedy the situation.

There are several things you can do to help your plants thrive, which will limit their susceptibility to pest and disease problems. Pay attention to the plants' light, moisture, and soil preferences. Match the plant to the right site, and it will grow more robustly and be better able to resist pest and disease issues.Give your plants some breathing room. Fungal diseases run rampant when plants are planted too closely. Susceptible plants, such as lilacs, monarda, phlox, and roses should be given a site with plenty of space for air to circulate around the foliage.Purchase and plant disease-resistant varieties. Maintain a clean garden. Remove diseased foliage from the area. Pick up fallen fruit. Pay attention to pruning; powdery mildew and blackspot can be thwarted by opening up the plant and cutting back diseased or weak stems. Observe, observe, observe. If you catch a problem at the beginning, such as a case of blackspot or an aphid infestation, you can nip it in the bud right away and be done with it. It is much easier to deal with it in its early stages than having to fight off a full infestation. Check your garden regularly, daily if possible, to watch for problems.

When you see the arsenals of lawn and garden chemical available at your local home center, it seems so simple: if you have a problem with aphids, buy a chemical to kill them. But the fact of the matter is that taking care of most garden problems is simple, and requires much less drastic measures than drenching your garden with chemicals. For example, the first course of action when one notices aphids in the garden should be to try to spray them off your plants with water from the hose. Usually, this will solve the problem. The next option, if the water isn't enough, would be to concoct a simple, natural, home-made spray to treat the problem. Very, very rarely will a problem actually require a chemical spray. The most effective option, especially in terms of beetles and caterpillars, is to regularly pick them off with your hands and kill them. This is tied to the previous point; by regularly observing your garden, you'll be able to head off problems before they become a big deal.

Organic gardening is not difficult, and it isn't complicated. What it requires is an observant eye, an appreciation of all of the creatures that live in your garden, and the determination to deal with problems as they arise. And, think about it: it's much more pleasant to stroll through the garden, picking an occasional cabbage worm off of the kale, than to suit up in protective gear and start spraying insecticides.

Tips for Raised Bed Gardening

Raised beds are great: the soil in them warms and dries out earlier in the spring than regular garden beds, so you can get planting sooner. They allow us to garden without fighting stones and roots, and the soil in them stays perfectly fluffy, since it doesn't get walked on.

Of course, there are a few drawbacks: in hot dry weather, raised beds tend to dry out quickly. Roots from nearby trees will eventually find their way into your nice, nutrient-dense soil. Roaming cats may find the nice, fluffy soil attractive for their own reasons. But these few drawbacks are easy to avoid with a little planning and prevention.

Ten Tips for Raised Bed Gardening

Don't ever -- ever! -- walk on the soil.

The biggest advantage of raised bed gardening is the light, fluffy, absolutely perfect soil you're able to work with as a result. When you build your raised beds, build them so that you're able to reach every part of the bed without having to stand in it. If you already have a raised bed, and find that you have to walk on parts of it, consider installing strategically-placed patio pavers or boards, and only step on that rather than on the soil.

Mulch after planting.

Mulch with straw, grass clippings, leaves, or wood chips after planting your garden. This will reduce the amount of weeding you'll have to do and keep the soil moist.

Plan your irrigation system.

Two of the best ways to irrigate a raised bed are by soaker hose and drip irrigation. If you plant it ahead of time, and install your irrigation system before planting, you can save yourself a lot of work and standing around with a hose later on.

Install a barrier to roots and weeds.

If you have large trees in the area, or just want to ensure that you won't have to deal with weeds growing up through your perfect soil, consider installing a barrier at the bottom of the bed. This could be a commercial weed barrier, a piece of old carpet, or a thick piece of corrugated cardboard. If you have an existing raised bed and find that you're battling tree roots every year, you may have to excavate the soil, install the barrier, and refill with the soil. It's a bit of work, but it will save you tons of work later on.

Topdress annually with compost.

Gardening in a raised bed is, essentially, like gardening in a really, really large container. As with any container garden, the soil will settle and get depleted as time goes on. You can mitigate this by adding a one to two inch layer of compost or composted manure each spring before you start planting.

Fluff the soil with a garden fork as needed.

To lighten compacted soil in your raised bed, simply stick a garden fork as deeply into the soil as possible, and wiggle it back and forth. Do that at eight to twelve inch intervals all over the bed, and your soil will be nicely loosened without a lot of backbreaking work.

Cover up your soil, even when you're not gardening.

Add a layer of organic mulch or plant a cover crop (read more about that below) at the end of your growing season. Soil that is exposed to harsh winter weather breaks down and compacts much faster than protected soil.

Plant annual cover crops.

Annual cover crops, such as annual rye grass, crimson clover, and hairy vetch, planted at the end of the growing season, will provide many benefits to your raised bed garden. They provide nutrients to the soil (especially if you dig them into the bed in spring), reduce erosion, and (in the cas of vetch and clover) fix nitrogen in your soil.

Think ahead to extend the season.

A little planning up front can enable you to grow earlier in the season or extend your growing season well into the fall. Consider installing supports for a simple low tunnel or cold frame, and you'll have minimal work when you need to protect your crops from frost!

Consider composting directly in your raised bed garden.

Worm tubes, trench composting, and dig-and-drop composting are all methods you can use to compost directly in your raised bed garden. You'll be able to enrich your soil without ever having to turn a compost pile.