Gardener

February 2016

 

PICKAWAY TO GARDEN

 

Gardener

By Paul Hang

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February is a good time to think about gardening. Planning and perusing seed catalogs, reading books on gardening are all activities we can do that do not depend on the weather. With a January thaw, daffodil leaves showing through, we know the growing season will be here before we are ready. I have also been thinking a little more about gardening, not just my seed order. I am trying to dig a little deeper (my apologies) into just what being a gardener means.

 

Dictionaries define them as “one who gardens.” Duh! They define a garden as “a plot of ground devoted to the cultivation of useful or ornamental plants.” Ditto Duh! Those are pretty broad, circular and general definitions. To me a gardener is also a person who actively intervenes in the world of plants. Gardeners change the environment; they pull a weed, transplant a plant, use a pesticide, prune or cut down a tree or shrub, plant a seed. They transform the state of nature.

 

The attention span for gardeners has to be long - very few of our activities have immediate results. To interfere with, change, work with, foster natural vegetative processes is a responsibility that can have unintended consequences. Our efforts can also have known or unknown consequences. If I use this pesticide will I kill the insects I intend or will I kill all the insects? Am I sure that the insect or bug I am targeting is really the one present on my plants? The herbicide I use, will it kill the weeds I want without killing nearby plants? Do I read the labels and follow the directions?

 

Are my gardening practices depleting my soil or helping to build it? Am I contributing to fertilizer runoff or wasting water. Conscientious gardeners are concerned not only with being successful in raising plants but doing it in ways that do our environment no harm. The way to do both, successful and safe, is to garden knowingly. Today science based information is easier to come by using the internet. Be skeptical of how-to videos on social media such as You Tube. Some are based on anecdotal information some are hard to watch and some are just wrong.

 

The best sources to consult are at sites that end in .edu. The Extension Services of state universities of Ohio and surrounding states are the best. Here are the sites to search for Ohio and surrounding states: www.ohioline.edu.osu, (Michigan)www.migarden.msu.edu, (Kentucky)www.uky.edu/hort, (Pennsylvania)www.extension.psu.edu, (Indiana)www.extension.purdue.edu, (West Virginia)www.ext.wvu.edu. And although not close to our climate, but a very good site, is Cornell University in New York www.gardening.cornell.edu.

 

 

 

Before we get rhapsodic about the coming spring February brings us back to reality. In February winter is half over. Will it cause the sap to flow? Of course the other sap has been flowing for several months and promises to keep it up until the first Tuesday in November. Will the result be so sweet?

 

Towards the end of the month look for signs of the coming spring, skunk cabbage sprouting, morning cloak butterflies, birds sing more, return of male red-winged black birds. When you spot pallets of bagged mulch at gas stations you know spring is coming. However, there are no mammals that I am aware of who can reliably predict when that will happen.

 

Things to do in the garden:

 

Not much. Check perennials for heaving up out of the ground. Press them down gently with your foot. Send in your seed orders. Will our results ever match those of the glossy color pictures? When you make out your seed and plant orders consider planting more native and heirloom plants and vegetables. Native plants are plants that evolved here and are adapted to our conditions, diseases and native pests. While you’re at it try googling the name of a flower you’re thinking about ordering.

 

This is the time to prune trees and shrubs (after you sharpen your tools). You can see their structure now that they are dormant and the leaves are down. Cut out crossing and rubbing branches and unwanted suckers.  Pruning can be done to reduce the size of a tree or shrub to bring it in to balance or to remove overhanging branches blocking a view or path. That is best done by an ethical certified arborist. (Who will not top trees.) Remember, spring flowering shrubs should be pruned after flowering if you want to enjoy the blooms.

 

If you dug up bulbs for storage check on them. Spritz them with water to prevent drying out. Throw away any rotting or shriveled ones. Some seeds can be started indoors this month for setting out in late March or early April, depending on the weather, such as onions, cabbage, cauliflower, and other members of the Cole family. Check the seed packets for times.

 

Google Winter Sowing. There you will read how to use old plastic bottles to easily germinate seeds. It is a good way to raise a lot of seedlings for planting “drifts,” those bands of like plants that wander serpentine through our flower beds.