Growing a Vegetable Garden

Summer sunshine is closer than you think! Plan and prepare now for a bountiful harvest of healthy, home grown vegetables. Soil preparation, plant selection, fertilizer, water and sunshine will provide an abundance of vegetables throughout the spring and summer. Stick with your garden and eat well!

Soil Preparation: Select a sunny, well drained site. At least eight hours of full sun is necessary. Place your garden where it is very handy for you to get to on a daily basis. If your soil is heavy clay, consider a raised bed. Build a frame of 2” X 6” X 8” planks. Size is determined for ease of reaching in. Treated lumber will last longer. Fill with top soil.

If not using raised beds, examine your soil. If it is loose and mealy in your hand and a rich dark color, consider yourself lucky. Such soil will reward you. Good soil has some sand; some rotted organic material and clay. Less than 20% sand or organic material means you should amend your soil with organic material like compost, sawdust, leaf mold or other organic material. This will aerate your soil, making it easy for roots to grow downward

Cultivate your soil loosely with shovel and hoe or a power tiller. Leave clumps no smaller than 2 to 3 inches. Cultivating soil too finely will cause it to compact more easily. Plan how you will water your garden. Place a sprinkler in the middle and plan to run a hose to it. Your garden will need at least a weekly deep watering in the heat of summer. A deep watering means about one hour of full sprinkling that soaks in freely.

Sketch your garden plot on paper and plan your plantings. Put the taller plants together, either in the middle or to one side. Plan taller plants where they shade other plants the least. Plant cool weather plants along the edges where they can be easily reached and when harvested can be easily reseeded with hot weather plants. Plan your plot with an eye for beauty as well as convenience. Add border of low growing flowers or a row of zinnias for cutting. Place a teepee trellis’s for beans in the middle for shading cool weather plants and to height and visual interest to the middle. Or put a birdhouse in the middle after your seeds sprout. Birds will eat bugs.

Plant seeds and plants in rows or squares. Label them with popsicle sticks or plastic spoons. Planting seeds is much less expensive. However purchased plants will give you a head start. Vining plants like cucumber, squash and melons require room to spread out. Plant them in a small hill for each plant. Tomatoes plants of all varieties can be planted two to four inches lower than the top of their root ball to give deeper roots. Tomatoes have unusual stems that will produce roots when transplanted more deeply.

Peppers, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, sweet corn, green beans and peas are good plants for the beginning gardener. These grow readily from seed. Plant according to seed instructions, but most seeds can be started outdoors in Eastern Kentucky in mid April. If you live in a valley, you will be affected by frost a week or so later. Lettuces, broccoli and other cool weather plants can be started in late March to early April. Be prepared to cover them if frost is warned.

Fertilize when seedlings are 2 inches high. Dilute fertilizer by one half until plants are 5 inches tall. Use an all purpose vegetable garden fertilizer at package recommended intervals. Dry fertilizers can be broadcast into the soil before planting. Organic fertilizer such as fish emulsion can also be used. Fish emulsion must be diluted so follow package instructions carefully. It has a strong odor that will fade in a day or two.

Mulch seedlings with straw, grass clippings or shredded commercial mulch. Underlay with a layer of newspapers. Don’t use plastic or landscape mesh. This will control weeds and maintain moisture more readily in the soil. Prepare to weed, although much less if you mulch. If you allow weeds to develop the weeds will compete with your plants for moisture and sun. Trust me the weeds will win unless you keep after them early and regularly.

An 8 X 8 plot can yield a lot of vegetables. Double that and you will be kept quite busy. More than that and you will have lots to preserve or give away.

Raising a vegetable garden is a rewarding experience. Involve your children. Ripe tomatoes warm from the sun have no equal. Enjoy the fruits of your labors through the summer and share with your friends. Freeze and can in late summer and truly recoup a large investment. Stand in amazement at the nourishment a few feet of well tended earth will yield. A vegetable garden gives an earthy, touchable meaning to the notion of God’s bounty. Being fed from your own backyard will give a renewed appreciation of the value of the earth, rain and sun.

Community Gardens: Don’t have space or know how for a garden? Community gardens are now being cultivated near the Recycling Center. These are available to everyone. Contact David Dummer at 780-0076 for more information.

Prune Roses Now for Spring Blooms

Many roses need pruning in late winter. As the snow melts and the weather hints of spring, take a look at your roses. Many are already showing bud development.

Pruning depends on the type of rose. Pruning early will save the growth energy for the pruned plant. Late pruning can cut off a lot of the plant’s effort that cannot be replaced in time for blooming. Provide roses a sunny, very well ventilated location with good drainage and attentive pruning for best results.

When to Prune: Repeat bloomers like floribunda, hybrid tea, hybrid rugosa and shrub roses are classed as modern roses. Unlike ‘old’ or ‘antique’ type roses, which bloom once on last year’s wood, modern roses usually bloom on new wood. Old roses may only bloom one time per year. Modern roses bloom repeatedly or constantly.
Trimming the modern rose in late winter or early spring will encourage new, healthy growth filled with many blooms. Old roses however, should be pruned after blooming. To encourage the most growth on the modern rose in Kentucky, pruning can begin as early as late February, and no later than early April. Pruning modern roses after early April may dwarf the plant, removing a lot of growth that will not be replaced in time for blooming.

How to Prune: Using sharp pruning cutters, make cuts ¼ inch above a strong, outfacing bud. Don’t leave stubs or deface the bud. The bud will then produce branches that will grow outward from the plant rather than crowding the center of the plant. Remove canes smaller than pencil diameter. Prune for a natural shape unless a rigid style is sought. Deadhead all season, removing blooms back to a stronger stem, with five leaflets when reasonable.

Hybrid Teas and Floribunda: A hybrid tea can be pruned severely, to 12 to 18 inches high. Taller will create smaller, more plentiful flowers. Leave 4 to 5 canes. Hybrid teas are pruned to create specimen flowers and a lightweight plant, not to create a bushy shrub. Floribundas are leggy bushes to shrub type bushes with short stemmed flower clusters. Prune leggy varieties severely as you would hybrid teas. Prune the shrub type floribunda later in spring and more lightly.

Climber and Pillar Roses: Climbing roses that bloom once are pruned after blooming. Repeat climbers are pruned in late winter. Prune one fourth of the old canes of all climbers and trim lateral shoots back to two or three buds. Retain a handful of healthy, strong canes. Further trim for size and shape. During the blooming season, deadhead repeat bloomers to encourage more roses.


Shrub and Rugosa: Prune modern shrub roses after two or three years of growth. Remove dead or crowded canes. Cut back by one third and trim for shape. Hybrid rugosa repeat their blooms and have dense, arching canes. Rugosas have colorful hips (fruit). Cut out old canes and shorten remaining canes by one third.

Knock Out Roses® are popular, very hardy shrub roses that demand less care than most roses. In Kentucky, in early April use hedge trimmers or loppers to cut the plant down by about one third to one half its height. Don’t take the plant to less than 12 to 18 inches in height.

Pruning will enhance the growth of roses considerably. As winter ends go outdoors and dream of sunny days while preparing your roses for spring. You will be rewarded with breathtaking blooms full of color and fragrance.

Get an Early Start on Spring - Start Seeds Indoors

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Starting seeds indoors is simple, fun and inspirational. So much life is packed in those tiny little seeds. Water, a sunny window and some soil media will work wonders and save money. Although there are many easy ways to start seeds, we will focus on simple plastic biodomes available at home centers. The inexpensive biodome will let you plant seeds in a peat plug that can then be planted in a larger pot or directly into the soil in the spring growing season.

Soil Media Biodomes are a plastic tray that holds water and has shallow pockets that hold peat pellets. The dome (or ‘greenhouse’) is a clear plastic lid to retain moisture. The peat pellets are compressed peat mix wrapped in a thin net. When water is added to the peat pellets they quickly expand about 5 times their size. The pellet is encased in a nifty netting that holds the soil together. Biodomes are available in many sizes, holding anywhere from a dozen to 72 peat pellets. This year a narrow tray is available that will fit neatly into a window sill

Seed Selection Select annuals, perennials and or vegetables. Trees can be started too. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, broccilli all start well indoors. Black-eyed susans, Shasta daisy, petunia, allysym, foxglove, delphinium, cleome, zinnia, marigold, dianthus, cone flower and household herbs will flourish in the biodome. Spruce, sycamore, and maple will also do well.

Planting the seeds Fluff the peat pellet soil with a tooth pick. Tiny seeds like petunia or foxglove are just tapped into the top of the soil, not covered. Misting the top of the petunia plugs is helpful until germination. Other seeds are covered to a depth of two times their size. The seed package will detail the planting depth. Small seeds can be put in a small spoon and tapped into the peat plug with a tooth pick. Put two or three seeds in each plug. Label your seeds.

Water and Light Always water from the bottom of the plug, do not water the tops of the plugs and plants. The peat will soak up the water easily. Pellets should be damp but not sitting in water. Keep the biodome lid on until half of the seedlings emerge. Then remove the lid. Add water when pellets turn light brown. Seeds need light overhead. Use either a bright, southern exposure window or a fluorescent light 4 to 5 inches above the seeds for 14 to 16 hours per day. Less light will cause leggy, weak plants.

Fertilizing A few days after germination (seed breaking soil surface) use a water soluable fertilizer at half strength. Use a 15-30-15 formula. Water from the bottom.

Damping Off & Hardening Off Seedlings that fall over at ground level have ‘damped off’. They are stricken by a fungus and will die. Remove the plant and peat plug and dispose of it. If more than a few damp off, remove the afflicted, and spray the rest with fungicide. Damping off is caused by too much moisture, not enough light, or high temperature. Seedlings need day temperatures from 60 to 70 degrees and night temperatures at 50 to 60 degrees is fine. Remember, spring is cool.

Hardening off comes when you are ready to plant your seedlings, usually in late April or early May. Place your tray of seedling, which may be a few inches tall by then, outdoors in the shade for a few hours. After a couple days, give them an hour of dappled sun, and increase sun exposure over a few days. Indoor seedlings need time to produce more chlorophyll to handle sunlight. If you don’t harden them off the seedlings will die.

Thinning & Transplanting Select the strongest seedling in each plug. Snip the other seedlings with manicure scissors. Don’t pull them out as you will disturb the roots of the seedlings you wish to keep. Remaining seedlings can be pinched back, removing the second set of leaves to encourage branching. In April, or earlier if plants get over 4 to 5 inches tall, you can transplant seedlings to larger pots with potting soil. They can then be planted outside in late April and early May. Transplant the plug directly into the potting soil or garden soil. The beauty of the biodome is the ease of planting plugs. No big holes to dig! Many plants will survive until planting time in the biodome. However, if plants get leggy and spindly, they will benefit from the more nourishing potting soil of a transitional container.

Seedlings usually germinate in 4 to 10 days. From the day of planting they have been sending down roots. With soil, water, light and your care they will make lovely seedlings ready to plant in April and May. Their determined progress from their tiny beginnings are the miracle of spring. You as gardener are part of the living reassurance of which we are so privileged a part.

Basic Landscaping III – Landscape Plan

In our last two columns we have made a landscaping sketch and explored possible styles. Now we are ready to finish the plan for your yard. We will consider plantings suited for our area.

Shrubs: A home is usually surrounded by foundation plantings arranged in beds. These visually anchor the house to the ground. Without them a house looks like it has bare ankles. Evergreen shrubs are the backbone of these beds. Yew, juniper, boxwood, holly, rhododendron and azaleas keep leaves or needles all winter in eastern Kentucky. Shrubs back lower growth. These shrubs are usually trimmed two to three feet tall. Taller, conical Arborvitae accent corners and insets of buildings.

Mixing in flowering deciduous shrubs will add color and fragrance in the warm months. My neighbor has a row of viburnum on the east side of their house and the delicious scent fills spring evenings. Lilac, forsythia, weigela, shrub crepe myrtle, spirea, mock orange, flowering quince, fire bush and shrub roses are practical, fast growing choices. Deciduous shrubs will fill in more quickly while you wait for slower growing evergreens.

Trees: Many trees grow well in our area including white oaks, however oaks grow slowly. Plant these first and then add fast growing hardwoods like tulip poplar, silver and red maple, sweet gum and clump river birch. These all grow well in our dense clay. White pine, black pine and hemlock grow quickly and fluff out a yard beautifully, providing privacy and windbreak. Ornamental specimen trees like Cleveland pear, pink and white dogwood, eastern redbud, flowering crabapple and magnolia are the joy of spring and add such color to your yard. Crepe myrtle thrives in Kentucky and gives color in July and August after all the spring trees have bloomed.

Perennials: Plan space for blooming herbaceous perennials. These flowers will reward you for many years with cheerful blooms that will spread each year. Spring bulbs and creeping phlox are intensely welcomed in spring. Daylily, foxglove, roses, shasta daisies, garden phlox, black-eyed susans, cone flowers, columbine, clematis, bee balm, coreopsis, blanket flower, sweet william, iris, and lilies are all summer bloomers that will give years of delight. Most of these require a sunny location. Pick a color scheme and carry it through the yard. Plant perennials in drifts rather than one or two of an item. Many can be started from seed indoors in February. Try to plan for a few things blooming throughout the warm season. Gardeners love to trade perennial starts.

Annuals: Finally plan a little room for annuals. Maybe you will reserve annuals for pots and hanging baskets of petunias or impatiens, because they will perish in the winter. But their short lives are a riot of blooms requiring only faithful watering, sun and plant food. Place your annuals strategically, around doorways, mailboxes and other focal points in the front and back of your house. You will be surprised how much you enjoy them. Even our undomesticated bachelor relative used to dote on a fabulous wave petunia on his front porch, to the welcome of all.

Don’t forget your vegetable garden. If you feel timid about vegetables, plan for some patio tomatoes in pots, or some potted herbs outside your kitchen door. Once you experience the freshness of basil in a tossed salad or your own sun-ripened tomatoes, you will be hooked.

Include trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals in your landscape plan. Select what suits your taste. Remember, what is on paper can be changed. Complete your plan to scale as we discussed in Landscaping I. You now have a plan for spring!

Basic Landscaping Design II – Style

Spring will come, fortunately much sooner than we think. Let’s be prepared by adding some style to the basic landscape plan we developed last week.

Where do I put features in my yard? That depends on style. Style is formal or informal. Formal tends to be symmetrical and balanced. Formal is usually more square and cornered than curved. In our illustration, symmetrical balance shows the same plants on either side of the door and house. The plantings are the same size. Things match. Informal is balanced in terms of visual weight and mass but not equal matches. Informal landscaping has curved beds, softer lines and balance obtained by visual weight without exact symmetry.

Style should complement and coordinate with the house and yard. A Victorian house tends to invite a more formal style. So does a traditional colonial. A log home, a country French, Tudor, ranch, cottage or any country style house invites informal, asymmetrical style. Informal is considerably more common than formal. The White House is formal. Our beautiful Kentucky log homes are informal. Most homes fall somewhere between. Symmetry has its place in country style landscaping but the materials or plantings might have a more casual air.

An informal home may have symmetry in its architecture. Informal landscaping will add interest to the symmetry. Formal landscaping will continue the symmetrical trend but might either crowd the house or be too repetitive. Asymmetrical home-style works well with informal landscaping. There are outsets and insets that are natural places for foundation beds.

Tall homes like tall trees. Low slung ranch style is flattered by rounded landscaping that blends with long, low rooflines. Tall landscaping on the edges of the lot give the feeling of spaciousness and make a home appear larger. Avoid crowding large plantings near the front door, start with lower plantings and gain height as you move the design to the outer reaches of the yard.

Artful landscaping creates visual interest. A curved sidewalk or a straight walk with an extra angle is much more interesting than a straight shot. Everything in your yard is an invitation; to your door, to your back yard, to a secluded area in your back yard. Create a sense of place and destination whenever you can. An outdoor table and chairs or a bench create a place. Things that suggest a leisurely walk like a path or stepping-stones create destination.

The front door is the focal point of any house. If there is a porch, use this fortunate feature to add additional welcoming items. Place inviting chairs, flowerpots, evergreens in pots and plantings in beds around the porch. Change some of your front door landscaping with the seasons. Each day a front door will welcome and invite you cheerfully into your home. Your guests will feel it too.

Consider your chosen style when finishing your landscape plan. Take a photo of your house and make copies of the photo. Sketch some variations on the copies. Add this style to the landscape overview we did last week. This will give your landscape plan personality. Next week we will discuss plantings to fill out your landscape plan that fit with your chosen style.

Basic Landscape Design I

Getting cabin fever? Use long winter days to plan your garden. We will draw sketches and plans of your yard so that you can greet spring with a plan for home improvement. This keeps you on track over time, helping you to focus on goals.

On blank paper sketch your yard boundaries. You can go outside and measure (brrr!) or pull out your appraisal from your mortgage. The latter will give your lot boundaries and home exterior dimensions. A land survey will provide the same information. Sometimes your deed will provide these measurements. Or you can estimate. Our goal is a rough sketch.

Draw the outline of your house, patio or deck, outbuildings, major trees, flowerbeds, shrubs and your vegetable garden if you have one. Sketch in the driveway and sidewalks. Notice the
view from all directions, especially from your windows. Make note of appealing views and things you would rather not see. Note your doors, windows, outdoor condensers, and trash areas. Are there areas that you would like more screening for privacy? Where are the electric and gas lines and buried cables and sewer lines? Mark North so you can track the sun, shade and wind patterns. You now have a preliminary site analysis.

Next you can make a landscape plan. Select graph paper to layout a scale drawing of your site and the present elements of your home and garden. Select a scale of ¼ inch equals 5 feet. You can use any scale, but this will fit well on a sheet of paper for the average yard. Transfer all the elements of your sketch to the graph paper. Then make some copies of your site plan, either on a copier or using tracing paper. Be sure to preserve the original scaled landscape plan. Use the copies to sketch ideas and create your final plan.

Consider what you would like. What do you want to add, modify or remove? Maybe it is not financially feasible this year, but if you include it your plan now, the area will be available and not covered by a storage shed or tomato patch. Do you need more trees, a storage shed, a potting shed, a secluded garden, a privacy hedge or foundation plantings? How about window boxes, a stone path, a wildflower area, wind break, drainage improvement, water feature, fire pit, gazebo, dog kennel, or a clothesline? Maybe there is an area that is all weeds or a spot where nothing will grow. Include your hopes in your plans. Over time you can make separate projects of them and make them happen.

After you sketch your wish list into your plan your landscape drawing becomes your roadmap. Use it to mold your yard into your own creation. It can be simple, ornate, relaxed, whatever style you wish. Good planning and landscaping add enjoyment to your home and value to your property. In our next column we will discuss how to work in your ideas to coordinate with your house and present landscaping.

Forcing Paper Whites

January is traditionally the time to clear out the holiday decorations. But things then seem so bare! But forcing paperwhite narcissus gives a lovely floral display that is something special to anticipate. No special gardening skills are required.

Paperwhites, (narcissus tazetta), are the most simple spring bulb to force. Forcing bulbs indoors makes them bloom earlier than normal. Within four weeks you can have a fragrant spring display. Start now and you can have this display by February or earlier. Wow! Think how welcome fresh flowers will be in the depth of winter!

Begin with a shallow dish, three to four inches deep. For an eight to ten inch dish use at least six bulbs. Lay gravel, pebbles or marbles on the bottom of the dish. Place the bulbs on the gravel pointed end up. Crowd them in. The flat base of each bulb should be level with the other bulbs. Surround them with the gravel to stabilize the bulbs. Add enough water to touch the bottom of the bulbs and no more. Place in a moderately lit, cool area of your home. Continue to water, keeping the water at the same level. When the roots are growing and the bulb shoots are one to two inches tall, place in a sunny location, usually in front of a window. Avoid very warm locations as this will cause the stems to get floppy.

After the first week, pour off the water. Replace with a solution of 1 part rubbing alcohol, (isopropyl alcohol) 10 parts water. Bring the water/alcohol solution again to the bottom of the bulb. Extension Service research shows that the alcohol solution keeps the plant from getting too tall and leggy. Continue to water with the alcohol/water solution, keeping the water level at the bottom of the bulb. After the blooms appear, move to indirect lighting rather than full sun.

Although paperwhite bulbs can be planted in soil to force, the risk of root rot is considerably higher. The method above assures you of the most success.

You can start batches of paperwhites every two weeks for a continuous display throughout February, March and April. Bulbs can be found at most home and garden stores. Cultivars available in Kentucky stores should force very well. After the blooms have died, the bulbs can be planted in the ground. However the success rate is not good as the bulb has been spent in forcing. The forced bulbs may not bloom for a year or two, if at all. You may simply want to place the bulbs on the compost pile.

Enjoy your blooming paperwhites on a sunny window sill or table. Give them as a gift. The joy of flowers before the arrival of spring is appreciated by all.