Garden Talks and Garden Thoughts

Hello again,

Welcome to another posting of Garden Talks and Garden Thoughts at the Skillin's Garden Log.

Let's dive right in with some great questions this past week from some of our gardening friends like you. Email us your gardening questions at info@skillins.com!

Question: Should I thin my daylilies and irises this fall, or wait until spring?

Answer: I certainly would be thinning my daylilies right now; in fact I need to do just that! You can pull away most of your daylilies at this point as they have gone quite dormant.

Yes on the irises too as they are quite dormant at this point. As I told another customer today you can trim your iris right back to the ground.

As I mentioned in last week's Garden Log, my Spring and summer blooming perennials need a trim back as much of the growth is really passing by. So an aggressive cleaning of dead and dying material is in order. Once this is done, my perennial bed should be fairly clean leaving me plenty of room to maneuver around the garden and to get a good fall feeding of a natural fertilizer like Plant Tone by Espoma or Pro Start by North Country Organics onto the soil.

This leads to another question and answer that is related to the above topic:


Question: Is it best to cut back peonies in the fall before the frost gets them?


Answer: I would definitely cut your peonies back now. They have been pretty dormant for awhile so I would cut their foliage right back to the ground and clean up any weeds and other debris around the area. If you have not applied any fertilizer to your peony area, now is a great time to put down a nice natural fertilizer like Pro Start by North Country Organics or Plant Tone by Espoma.


I don't normally print recipes in this space but it is well known that I do love to eat. We were emailed a newsletter the other day by P. Allen Smith, an accomplished TV gardener. He has a nice gardening website at http://www.pallensmith.com/. One of the items there was a recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds. So here goes:

Halloween at my house goes hand in hand with one of my favorite seasonal treats, roasted pumpkin seeds. These make a healthy and delicious snack and preparing them can be a lot of fun for children. This is a simple method for roasting pumpkin seeds that I hope will become a Halloween tradition in your home.

Ingredients
1 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
pumpkin seeds
2 teaspoons of olive oil for every 1 1/2 cups of seeds

InstructionsClean the pumpkin seeds by placing them in a colander under running water. The water should be lukewarm, not hot. To enhance the flavor allow some of the pulp to remain. Dissolve salt in warm water at a ratio of 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt per cup of water. You will need enough of the salt water to cover the pumpkin seeds. Soak the seeds in salty water for about 8 hours and then drain them in a paper towel.Soaking the seeds in salt water is optional. If you are sensitive to salt skip this step or reduce the amount of salt used. Place seeds in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss until seeds are lightly coated.Spread the seeds evenly on a baking sheet and place in a preheated 300-degree oven. Roast the seeds for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently, until crisp and golden brown.

One of our best gardening friends, I will call her Barbara Gardener--she knows who she is-- checks in with a reminder that soon we must think about wintering our gardening tools. Barbara keeps her approach simple and so should we.

1. When she reaches the end of her gardening year (and I hope we have a little way to go yet) she takes extra special care to clean the mud off. Barbara has been known to use a stick to knock off large pieces and a wire brush for tougher spots. If the soil is really caked on, you may need to let the tool soak in a bucket of water for a few minutes before tackling it again.

2. Wipe off the tool with an old rag and let it dry thoroughly.

3.Remove any rust by rubbing it vigorously with a small piece of steel wool. (Be sure to wear gloves.)

4. Sharpen the tool, if it has a sharp portion (this includes spades), with a file made especially for sharpening tools. Hold the tool steady against a solid object, such as a tool bench, and draw the file repeatedly across the edge at a 45-degree angle. Some of the local hardware stores will also sharpen garden tools for you.

5.Condition wooden handles by sanding any rough or splintery portions with sandpaper. Follow up by rubbing paste wax over the handle.

6.Spray metal parts with a penetrating lubricating oil to protect from rust. WD40 is such a product.

7.Store in a dry spot. Avoid leaving tools on the floors of garages or other places likely to get damp during the winter.

Tips & WarningsProtect wooden handles and make tools easier to find by giving them a coat of red paint before putting them away for the winter. This is a great piece of practical advice. I know that next year many of the tools that Skillin's will sell will have some orange on them.

Never leave garden hoses outside over the winter, as this dramatically increases their chances of springing leaks. Instead, drain the hoses at the end of the season and hang them in a garage or other protected spot until spring.

Thank you Barbara Gardener for your help and inspiration!

Check out http://www.skillins.com/ for a great new article called Growing Green. It can be found at our Classes, News and Tips section. Here is how the article starts:

"Mainers work hard to be green. In recent years we've learned a lot about saving electricity, conserving fossil fuels, recycling and carbon footprints. There is another simple green practice many people have overlooked: planting trees.
There are many environmental benefits to planting trees and shrubs in your yard"....(check out the rest of the article at http://www.skillins.com/).

Would you like to have more green grass and less weeds in your lawn? Well, join the club! More and more of our customers are expressing these sentiments every day!

I have written several times about the benefits that organic fertilizers bring to our garden and lawn soils. More organic matter in the soil enhance micoorganisms that feed on beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil. Hey, it's okay; we all have beneficial fungi and bacteria and that is a good thing! Creatures like nematodes and earthworms that feed on beneficial fungi and bacteria provide immeasurable good to our soils and therefore to our plants and grasses. So, treat that soil with some great natural material like compost and organic fertilizers.

I recently fed my lawn with Nature's Turf organic fertilizer by North Country Organics and I highly recommend it. I plan on applying it two to three times a year to really step up the quality of the soil.

I also plan on overseeding any thin spots in my lawn with some good quality grass seed that should grow quite readily in my improving soil. And the more grass I have, the less weeds I will have because in most cases a happy lawn will crowd out those unhappy weeds! You cannot have a better, more natural approach to weed control than that.

On the same note, now is the time to get some good natural food around those trees and shrubs if you have not done so lately. We recommend Holly Tone by Espoma for evergreens and Plant Tone by Espoma or Pro Start by North Country Organics for your perennials and deciduous trees and shrubs!

Thanks for reading the Skillin's Garden Log and let us know if you have any questions at skillins@maine.rr.com!

Thanks,

Mike Skillin