Quick Pruning Hints-Roses and Burning Bush!

KCB is back with some quick pruning tips:

When to prune roses?  Now. An old-fashioned hint for our area; prune when the forsythia are just starting to bud. 

·         Cut back any dead or broken canes to the ground. See the pictures for an example.      

When to prune Butterfly Bush?  In about a week or 2 when the forsythia are in full bloom.

·         Cut back any dead or damaged branches to the ground. Other branches cut back to 1/3 of growth. Often I will leave the center branches slightly taller to emphasis the arching shape.

KCB is a professional gardener and friend who does wonderful work in the Greater Portland area. KCB is also an accredited Master Gardener by the Cooperative Extension Service and we are honored to have KCB as part of our Skillin's Garden Log family. KCB can also be found at the awesome Finishing Touches website

KCB for Skillin's Greenhouses

March 25, 2012

July (mid July) Garden Talks

Hello again,

Okay time is going fast! We are speeding toward MID July. Skillin's Country will be at mid July by the end of this week.

What a great week of weather we had last week beginning with the Fourth of July. Nice sunny skies and warm temperatures! Oh boy!

But let me tell you  it is dry out there!

*Skillin's Moisture Meter:

New outdoor plantings (of vegetables, annuals, perennials, and certainly shrubs and trees) require 1 inch of water per week optimally spread out over at least two deep waterings per week. A "deep watering" is defined as a slow soaking of your plant's roots.

(More detail about "deep waterings": A soaking rain which brings a half inch of rain or more qualifies as a deep watering. In lieu of rain a deep watering can be accomplished by letting water run slowly out of a watering can or the end of your hose into each plant's root system or by having a soaker hose at work for several hours twice a week. In "non soaker hose situations", pause on your watering if the water starts to run off; let the water soak in and then begin to water again. Repeat this process several times and move onto the next plant. For larger trees and shrubs (and if you do not have a soaker hose) merely set a hose against the tree or shrub for 1 to 2 hours and let the water almost trickle into the ground and down into the plant's root system. Again if there is runoff, pause and let the water soak in. )

This Week's Moisture Meter Readings:

Quality rain (0).

Deep waterings required by you: (2).

The rain situation has been pretty simple the last week: We really have not had any! I believe Thursday night my rain gauge did actually show about 1/2" of rain but that was from a downpour. A customer who lives about 3 miles from my rain gauge received "zilch" for rain. So I am not counting any of that. Starting this past weekend my garden hoses have been getting used quite a bit for deep waterings as I have defined above.

7/14 Update!: The above paragraph was written on Tuesday 7/12. On Wednesday 7/13 we received close to an inch of rain in some parts of Skillin's Country but much of that came down fast and furiously and there was no doubt some run off. We can grade this rain event as 1 "Deep Watering". This means another Deep Watering will be required by you over the next few days--especially with warm dry weather forecast over the weekend.

If you have met the quality watering requirement for this past week, congratulations! If not, pay careful attention this coming week and beyond and make sure that your new plants get those required quality waterings!

Let us know if you have any watering questions!

*The weather is heating up and last July we listed 10 Hot Plants for you to consider planting for COLOR, COLOR and more color! Take a look at this list--it is pretty darned good (lots of my favorites on there!). I LOVE the plants listed and even the best Skillin's customers probably don't have all these plants listed (but probably should!).

Coneflower and Bee Balm; Quite Possibly My 2 Favorites:
Same Picture, Same Post, Same Garden!
2 HOT Plants!!

*Flowers are coming and going in our perennial gardens. Time for a review of the timeless Grateful Dead(heading) as written by the legendary yet timeless KCB! This is a great post that deals with the principles of just when to prune back your perennials for more growth AND more flowers!

Margaret of Away to Garden writes well about July deadheading: " If you were squeamish about cutbacks as spring faded, you may be regretting it now, and facing floppy, exhausted plants in certain spots. Some things (like certain perennial Geraniums, for instance) do better if cut back hard. Go for it. Others need just deadheading of spent blooms. Annuals that grow leggy can often benefit from a chop job, too. Do some experiments. Sometimes a plant can’t look worse, and you probably won’t kill it. "

*My rose bushes just finished their first round of blooming. A couple of days ago I pruned off the dead or dying blossoms and the stems the blossoms were on. This pruning makes way for more stems that produce blossoms and encourages the roots to put on new growth that will mean flowers down the road. When my roses get to this point I also sprinkle some more Flower Tone by Espoma around the base of the roses. I then water the Flower Tone in with a nice slow and deep watering. Just last week I sprayed my roses with all natural Vaccinate to help ward off diseases. I must tell you the foliage on my roses looks rich and green--and the flowers were gorgeous!

 One big secret to continuing summertime blossoming for your  rose bushes is pruning to prevent the plants from setting seeds. When a blossom begins to fade, cut it off the plant. You should cut just above the first leaf that has five leafs on it. Leave about ¼” above this first leaf that you cut, this will allow for sturdier blossoms.

*It will soon be time to rejuvenate those strawberry beds. Prepare to pull out older strawberry plants that will not be productive in the future. Also if you have not done so put down some Pro Gro by North Country Organics or Garden Tone by Espoma to further improve the quality of your garden soil.

*Gardening guru KCB told me that she has found a great technique to combat tall "flopping over" Nepata or Cat Mint. She first shears the middle of the plant and thus the blue/purple color is retained by the edge stems. In about a week the middle begins to re bloom nicely and that means it is time to prune those tall edge stems. In short order your garden has a compact Cat Mint that is ready to offer color for weeks ahead! My question is would this "inside out" pruning method work well with some Coreopsis--another perennial that will  flower for a good period of time but can get floppy? Well...we are not sure BUT this method seems worth a try with coreopsis as well.

*Mike's Must Have Perennial Selection for this Week:
It is time to pick one of my ABSOLUTE favorites--the Monarda, "Bee Balm". And my personal favorite is the RED Bee Balm--right now we are featuring the Grandview Scarlet and Jacob Cline.

 Why This is a Mike's Must Have Perennial:
The Red Monarda is just a premier eye catcher. I plant it in and near a perennial bed that can easily be seen out of my back kitchen window. Let me tell  you the Red Monarda catches my eye out that window for weeks on end. And it looks great close up as well. The Red color is simply electric!

Monarda Red Bee Balm!

Bee Balm is a prime attracter of humming birds as well. They buzz around the Bee Balm all  day long. This plant is a highlight of a perennial garden for weeks. I cannot recommend it enough.

The pink varieties are pretty as well--to me not as electric but a nice, nice pink.

*Raspberry season is upon us! Check out this video from July 2010 by Tim Bate and Jumpin' Joe Kubetz where they talk about raspberries!

*I KNOW that I am writing about them every week but slugs and snails are doing lots of munching in our gardens. Got holes in your hostas? Slugs. Got some munched on marigolds? Slugs Got some shredded leaves in your lettuce? Slugs. I have all of this and more and I know what the problem is. Slugs who hide under plants by day and nibble by night. Like you I am so busy for days at a time I do not do a good job getting Slug Magic (totally safe and effective) slug bait down on the ground. But when I do it works so well!

*Garlic is getting near harvest time. Again from Margaret at Away to Garden: "Garlic may start to fade and topple by later this month or next, as harvest time nears. When several lower leaves yellow, try carefully lifting a head or two to judge readiness, before lifting all to cure during a warm, dry spell in an airy, sheltered place."

*My lawn (and yours) is not growing as fast in the heat but just a reminder: Do not bag those clippings. Keep your lawn "high" for less weed growth and more moisture retention. Let those lawn clippings lie on the lawn and then decompose into your soil. What better organic matter can there be than lawn clippings. Plus if you are feeding your lawn organically a couple of times per season then you have "live soil" in your lawn that will quickly integrate those lawn clippings into the soil.



Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 14, 2011

July Garden Talks 2010

The purpose of this post is to relay a few "quick hit" garden tips to you through the month of July. Some of these tips will be garden tasks I am doing myself (although I wish there were more of those. I am here at Skillin's so much, my own yard and garden falls quite behind!), some of these tips will be quick pieces of advice we are giving to customers, some will be quick links to good gardening advice we encounter on the internet.


Check back to this post often as we will update it often until we roll through July 2010!

July 20--We received the following email overnight from the State of Maine and it does contain some concerning news about Tomato Late Blight. From Ann Gibbs, the State Horticulturist: "We just got word this afternoon that late blight was found in Lincoln county. The disease was diagnosed by Bruce Watt at the UM Diagnostic lab on tomato plants from a home garden in Waldoboro. The plants were grown from seed and the home gardener did have late blight on both tomato and potato plants in 2009."

This almost asks more questions than it answers about the occurrence. It is hard to say whether the Waldoboro gardener was using soil or compost that may have had components of last year's plants in it. I would not be surprised if this was the case.

What should we do? Keep a close eye on our tomato plants for late blight. Keep our plants clean of yellow growth, trimmed of lots of excess green growth, water our plants well and slowly (not overhead). As a precaution it would not hurt to spray your plants with all natural Copper Fungicide or Serenade. Otherwise, at this point I think we will be just fine!

Click here for more info on Tomato Late Blight.

July 19--I was looking at some of my beautiful Echinacea Coneflowers yesterday and I noticed lots of small buds lower on the bud below some of my profuse flowers. I do like to leave gone by flower heads for the birds to munch on BUT if we get "with it" and prune those aging flowers that will spur some very good re bloom by the Coneflower. So decision made. Spent flowers to be pruned over the next couple of weeks and I will get more flowers to enjoy! THEN the second and third waves of flowers will be left to age for the birds to pick at the seed heads. Everyone--birds and I--will be happy!

July 14--Well what a nice rain we received last night. About .8" of rain landed in my rain gauge in the heart of Skillin's Country! All plant material will soak this up nicely! However conditions are dry enough that much of our material may need more quality water by the weekend! Especially shrubs and trees that are newly planted this year and containers and annuals that are in the hot hot sun. More rain is being talked about for the weekend--so stay tuned; but more watering by us could definitely be needed by the weekend!

July 13--Well we did receive some rain over the weekend. My rain gauge in the heart of Skillin's Country measured about .3"--not a lot of rain and not as much as some of us gardeners were hoping to get. More steady rain is forecast for Wednesday and that would be very good. Today is Tuesday and if you have TIME AND some container material or some larger 2010 plant material like shrubs and trees that have not had water for several days, it may be a good idea to give them a good quality watering today just in case tomorrow's rain does not add up to much. IF we do get a good rain tomorrow AND you do water today, do not fear most plants and soil are dry enough to handle quite a bit of water right now!

July 8--Jumpin' Joe Kubetz and Tim Bate our Nursery Manager talk raspberries in this great video posted at our Skillin's Twitter site. Check www.skillins.com/twitter often for quick Skillin's news and updates.

July 6--Real customer Martha was in the Falmouth store this evening. Her husband has been advised by his doctor to consume much less salt in his diet. So she was in to pick up some herb plants to use for food seasoning (instead of the salt). Martha was picking up rosemary, basil, oregano and lemon verbena. All great choices and I hope they work well for her and her husband!


July 2--Before coming to work I spent some much needed time on my 3 rose bushes. They have blossomed beautifully but now I have many spent stems of blossoms. I cut back the stems of the spent blossoms about halfway back down to a true set of leaves on the stem. I like to prune aggressively this time of year; the plant will respond quickly with some new growth and new flowers. Earlier this year I did put some Flower Tone around the base of each plant. I will probably wait another few weeks to do that again.

I also gave the plant a second spraying of a molasses based product called Vaccinate. In the past I have recommended spraying with Messenger to ward off disease and to increase the cell healthiness of plants prone to disease like roses, upright phlox and others. Well Messenger is not available anymore (worked great for me and many others!). But Vaccinate seems to be doing well as my roses and upright phlox are looking green, healthy and happy with no signs of mildew and leaf spot! We will see!

Roses for Everyday People Like You and Me!

KCB is a professional gardener and friend who does wonderful work in the Greater Portland area. KCB is also an accredited Master Gardener by the Cooperative Extension Service and we are honored to have KCB as part of our Skillin's Garden Log family. KCB can also be found at the awesome Finishing Touches website.


The following is the basis for an exciting Pursuit of the Rose Class to be held Saturday, April 17 at 10 AM at Skillin's Brunswick, Cumberland and Falmouth. If you are reading this post in time and HAVE time, please come by for this free (and worth much more!) class.

Would a Rose by any other name still smell as sweet? What is it about the Rose we find the most attractive, the delicate beauty or the heady scent? Roses continue to be the most romantic of flowers. Bouquets or a single stem are given as gifts and tokens of affection. Definitions are offered for color choice, a Red Rose offered represents Love; White Roses (KCB Fave) represents purity or Pure Love; to express passion and excite, a Rose of Orange is the choice. What these roses lack, however is fragrance. The sweet smell lamented by Romeo is not present in most modern roses offered by florists. These rose cultivars are developed for the sturdiness and length of stem, vibrancy of color and over-all vase life. For beauty much is lost.


So, what can we average folk do to grow our own roses? We are willing to sacrifice vase life for abundance and fragrance in our gardens. While we may suffer a few thorn pricks and I won’t mention the possibility of a Japanese Beetle or 2, yet these will be the only pains suffered in the pleasure of producing plentiful roses. As a hardworking gardener who actually works smart not hard has added roses as a perennial favorite. Here are my tricks:

Basics:

 Soil

 Fertile, rich in organic matter, allowing for air to circulate, water to penetrate and retain enough moisture so not to dry out roots.

 PH of 6 – 6.5 (slightly acidic)

 Site

 Minimal wind exposure

 Good air circulation between plants

 Good Drainage

• Wet feet do not make happy plants.

 Sun

 4-6 hours of mid-day direct sun daily

 Sustenance

 1 – 2 inches of water per week

• Prefers slow drip during one session.

 Heavy feeders

• Feed with a complete fertilizer (containing all elements: Nitrogen (N1st #) Phosphorus (P2nd #) & Potassium (K 3rd #) such as

Espoma Rose-Tone

o Begin @ first bloom during the season, continue thru August.

o Final Feeding late fall at time of winter protection

Finishing Touches:

 Deadhead to promote new blooms

 Heavy Pruning Early Spring (April in zones 4/5)

Additional points of interest:

 Roses do not have true thorns but prickles

 ‘Old Roses’ were originally in shades of pink & reds plus white

 Rosa Rugosa is NOT native to Maine or the true ‘Beach Rose’

 Most grafted roses used Multiflora Rosa (Rambling Rose) as the root stock.

 One of the most fragrant yet invasive of roses in Maine

 Rosa Carolina (Pasture Rose) is a native to New England

Types of Roses:

 Approximately 150 species of roses (Rosa)

 Majority of species are single flowers of 5 petals

 Growing Habits:

 Climbing, crawling, shrubs, erect, arching.

Hardy Roses for Maine

 Alba Roses: free-branching shrub roses with relatively few thorns; semi-double to double, highly fragrant flowers in clusters of 5-7 in June; flowers produced on shoots from second year wood

 Gallica Roses: dense, free-branching, and generally prickly; single to fully double roses, most of them scented, from spring to early summer; pink, red or maroon flowers produced on shoots from second-year wood.

 Explorer Roses: modern roses developed by Agriculture Canada based on the hardiness of Rosa kordesii.

 Shrub Roses: rather artificial group of roses that don't easily fit into other categories; most flower in early summer; wide range of traits, including hardiness.

 Species Roses: naturally occurring roses with little or no improvement from breeding efforts.

• Most hybrid teas and floribundas are tender to Maine winters. To winter over these tender roses, bury the bud union several inches in the ground. After the first frost, mound compost or soil over the bud union up to one foot thick.

Roses by Sheliah!

Sheliah checks in from high atop the mountains of Raymond Maine. Folks, if you can garden there, you can garden anywhere!


"I can't believe that in about a month I will be out examining my roses to see how they did over the winter. We have had lots of snow and the roses should be in pretty good shape. I like to uncover the mound of frozen dirt or compost that I mounded them with late last fall gradually. I never start cutting back dead canes at his time, though I know that some growers recommend this. I have found that waiting until I see leaves starting to push out in May is a better time to give those roses a good cut back. I have found over my many years of growing roses, that when you cut roses back too early in April there is a chance that a cold spell can kill them after they made it through a long winter. Once you see the leaves begin to grow it is time to use a fertilizer.

I rarely use chemicals in my garden but I have been known to use them on my roses. It's all out war when it comes to my roses! Rosetone is a great food for those of you who prefer not to use a chemical fertilizer. There are organic fungal sprays that should be used at this time. If you had black spot and other fungal problems last year you need to start early with a fungicide. I like the 3 in 1 products that are watered in and take care of bugs, fungal problems and feeding in one shot. There are also 3 in 1 sprays that work very well. I am excited to see what new products Skillin's will have to offer this year. If you lost a rosebush or two don't be disheartened, it happens. In the nursery this year we will be offering some beautiful shrub roses that need little or no care and bloom most of the summer. If you have never had good luck growing roses come by the nursery and we will recommend the perfect one for you! "

From Mike S.: Sheliah I had tremendous luck last year with my roses in battling leaf spot and fungus by using Messenger. Messenger is an all natural product that contains harpin proteins. Harpin proteins are used by plants to fortify their cells and thus to naturally fight diseases. Messenger "tricks" the plant into thinking that there must be a disease on the plant because of the presence of the harpin proteins supplied by Messenger. The plant then thinks it has a fight on its hands and starts to produce harpin proteins in overdrive. Thus the plant is very well protected from leaf spot, mildews, etc. This makes Messenger an awesome product for roses; spray Messenger monthly throughout the growing season.

Sheliah for Skillin's
Raymond ME
March 4, 2009

Garden Talks and Garden Thoughts

Hello again,



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


Garden Talks
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: When do I cut back my roses for the winter and how do I cover them?


Answer: We have found that pruning hybrid tea and similar roses in spring works best in Maine. That way the canes are not opened up to damaging winter cold and wind injury.

Protect them for the winter by mulching 1 ft deep with bark mulch, soil or composted cow manure in late November. After Christmas, place evergreen branches over the mulch mounds to keep them from thawing and re-freezing throughout the winter. Uncover and prune in April.

If you have winter hardy shrub roses that do not need all that special attention, mulching is probably not necessary, and the pruning can be done this fall or next spring.


(Thanks to Tim Bate for the above answer!)



Question: I was wondering why it is good to apply Plant Tone or ProStart to plants that are starting their dormant period. Won't that kick in and cause some growth during a "warm" spell?


Answer: I do think that twice yearly feedings of these natural fertilizers really help most soils. And that is what we are trying to do when we feed naturally; we are treating the soil by providing more organic matter for beneficial fungi and bacteria to use to thrive. Then this fungi and bacteria get used by the microorganisms in the soil and also beneficial creatures like earthworms so that they can live in and benefit the soil. In other words, by feeding naturally on a consistent basis we are trying to encourage consistent biological activity in the soil. That is why I think at least twice yearly feedings of good natural foods gets us to that goal.

Gardening in Maine is rugged and our soils can be a challenge. I and many other gardeners live over a big sheet of granite that creates really shallow situations for my lawn and garden soil. This soil gets baked in our hot dry summers and then constantly frozen and thawed in our roller coaster winters. Other soils have much clay and this makes for similar challenges that make it tough for plants roots to thrive. So again providing consistent supplies of organic matter can be very helpful; perhaps even essential for long-term successful gardening.

To more directly answer your question, the nutrient flow from these natural fertilizers all come from natural slow yielding sources. The nutrients from natural fertilizers put down now are much available in a few months time then now. Applying chemical fertilizers to plants starting their dormant period would result in a much more immediate rush of nutrients and could very likely cause growth during a “warm” spell.

Chemical fertilizers cause fairly immediate chemical activity. Natural fertilizers help to cause more long-term biological activity that the environment can use to help our plants grow well.



Question: My rosemary plants never winter over. So I thought I was being smart by digging mine up, putting it in a pot and bringing it inside. All was well for while, but now the plant is turning brown. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to revive it?


Answer: Rosemary plants do not winter over outside so you are being smart by digging yours up and bringing it inside.

Here is proper indoor rosemary care per Mary of Skillin’s Falmouth:

She stresses that rosemary can survive indoors but getting them to thrive can be a challenge.
Rosemary needs as much sun as you can give it indoors.
They need warm days and cool nights. And no drafts.

Let them go very dry to the touch between waterings. When you do water them, really soak them—probably in your kitchen sink so the water can run slowly through the soil for a few minutes. Let the excess water drain off. Then let them go quite dry again; certainly when in doubt do no water. Again run the water slowly so it does not splash on the leaves.

Rosemary are very prone to powdery mildew but that can easily be treated by garden sulfur an all natural fungicide spray that we sell right here at Skillin’s!

Do not fertilize over the winter; I would say start to give it some fertilizer in April; a few weeks before it goes back outside.



Question: Do you recommend the Garden Primer as the best overall book for someone who is looking for basic tips about many aspects of gardening. For example,when to plant bulbs to how to best plant prennials. With illustrations and easy to follow steps and information.


Answer: I definitely recommend the Garden Primer as a great overall book for someone looking for basic tips.
We sell the Garden Primer here at Skillin's and at http://www.skillins.com/!

Back when I was first starting out, the late Jim Crockett--the original host of the Victory Garden Series--published two books that were a huge help to me, Crockett's Victory Garden which dealt with many facets of outdoor gardening, particularly vegetable gardening and Crockett's Indoor Gardening which dealt with both houseplants and flowering plants. You could probably still obtain those books through your favorite bookstore.


Garden Thoughts
The leaves are just tumbling out of the maple trees around the area. Much of my lawn awaits me in a couple of days for some vigorous raking. I will probably bag most of the initial leaves that I rake but as the leaves get a little crispier closer to the end of the fall I will pile some of these leaves as a combination mulch/compost around my evergreen shrubs (yews/rhodys/azaleas).
Prior to this piling of leaves, I will have put some Holly Tone natural fertilizer around the base of each of these plants. We have had some good rain so the Holly Tone has broken down quite a bit and is starting to be incorporated into the soil. Then it will be time to pile a couple of inches of leaves around each plant. These leaves help keep weeds down during the growing season and also as time goes along, the leaves break down and do a nice job of becoming helpful organic matter in the soil.
If I am really on my game, I will get the lawn mower out and chop up some leaves and then pile these chopped leaves around my evergreens, again this makes for faster breakdown of the leaves next season.
In the last few days, I have been getting hordes of shiny black starlings (might be grackles) around some of my bird feeders. I don't mind feeding the creatures but they have been voracious. They will consume a suet cake in a day. I do have a large platform feeder and an old suet cage that I have not used for awhile. This morning I bungied the suet feeder to the bottom of my platform feeder because my good bird feeding friend Liz Cardinale reminded me that woodpeckers have no problem eating suet upside down BUT birds like starlings and grackles do not like to eat upside down.
Liz Cardinale also recommended that I substitute safflower for sunflower for a few days. Safflower is a wonderful food for birds--it is full of nutrients but starlings and grackles do not like it. Liz feels that the starlings will get miffed that there is no more suet or sunflower and go on their merry way and then I can resume my sunflower feeding. I will keep you all posted but does anyone else have any suggestions for those starlings?
Mark Your Calendar
Every Tuesday is Mature Gardeners Day at Skillin’s! Those customers who qualify will receive 10% off all regularly priced items. (Sale items and volume restrictions do not usually apply and some other restrictions may apply).
Every Friday brings Flower Power Happy Hour where we offer fresh cut flower stems and bunches at 30% off their regular prices. The Happy Hour lasts from 4 PM until we close at 7 PM!! Every Friday!
Thanks,
Mike Skillin

What I Did Today and What I Still Want/Need to Do

Hello again,

Well today I had an off day from Skillin's (back to work tomorrow) and what a gorgeous day it has been!

The day dawned cool but dry so I was able to get an early start on completing my outdoor painting project. I paint one side of the house per year which works pretty well for me. But the good news today is that I am done, done, done painting for the year. I peaked around to the next side and I can already see much scraping ahead for the late summer/fall of 2008 but we will pay that no mind for now. It is time to get back to the gardening chores and that is what I love.

First project was the weekly lawn mowing and I got that done. I need to tell you though it is dry out there and if we get no meaningful moisture in the coming week the growth in the lawn might be so slow that it will not be necessary or wise to mow next week. A dry lawn should not be mowed low; that will only accelerate any scorching.

I had quite a few leaves that had dropped on the lawn from some of my large maple trees in front of my house. Two things to note here:

1. I will grind up many of the fallen leaves with my lawn mower in the early going of autumn. Some ground leaves do provide some nice organice matter to the soil. But soon, the fallen leaves will be thick on the lawn. That is when I rake. I guess I am strange because I actually like to rake leaves. I do bag my leaves as the town will haul them off where they will be processed for compost somewhere. So raking and bagging leaves is good exercise and also a good environmental thing to do in most towns. Many people also rake them onto a tarp and haul their leaves into the woods and that too is a way of returning good organic matter to the earth.

You can add some leaves to your compost pile but in that scenario leaves add up quickly in volume but do not break down quickly; always add shredded leaves to the compost pile. They break down a little more quickly that way especially if you add some natural Compost Booster (sold right here at Skillin's). Either way you probably don't want to add too many leaves to the compost pile.

2. Large shade trees are an excellent investment here in Maine. The shade they provide your house in the summer gives a tremendous cooling benefit and over the course of time can save you thousands of dollars spent to cool your warm house. Also of course, these shade trees do a nice job of providing oxygen for us to breathe. Here at Skillin's we call these concepts "Planting for the Planet". Then in the winter once all those leaves have fallen there is a clear path for the rays of Mr. Sun to warm your house; you can spend much less on heating costs than if your house is trapped behind a big stand of evergreens for instance. This is called Smart Planting for the Planet. Let us help you out!

The second project was feeding my evergreens with Holly Tone by Espoma. We at Skillin's love Holly Tone--it is a wonderful organic based fertilizer that provides a good base of slow yield nutrients to the soil. Holly Tone is designed for evergreen trees and shrubs like rhodys, azaleas, mountain laurel and also blueberries and the wonderful Endless Summer Hydrangea and they all got a good feeding today.
Holly Tone also provides some nice organic matter to the soil that will encourage good fungi and bacteria development in the soil and that is a good thing! Some wonderful natural organisms like worms and microscopic nematodes feed on the fungi and bacteria and their existence provides soil aeration, a healthy carbon dioxide exchange with the air above and in the case of the earth worms some very nutritional castings that really make the soil rich for the long-term. Feeding your soil naturally is truly best for our planet and it is truly the best long haul practice for your garden plants.

My next stop was an inspection of some rose bushes I am growing. I have them in a protected southeastern spot that gets lots of sun during the summer and they have been good performers for the most part. Actually this has been their best year for me. I have fed them more this year and also tried to give them regular deep waterings slowly out of the garden hose. Today I side dressed them with some Rose Tone by Espoma--that is a close cousin of Holly Tone. For the reasons I just wrote about this will help the soil around the roses and should help the roses get off to a good start next Spring. I have side dressed them 3 or 4 times this season and also fed them every other week with Fish/Seaweed fertilizer by Neptune's Harvest. I know this seems like a lot and it is more attention than I have paid my roses before but darn it they are demanding! They need food and we have a very short season here in Maine; I wanted to naturally optimize the season and I have been pleased with the results. For several weeks in June and July and I guess well into August I regularly sprayed them with Serenade, an all natural fungicide and I was really pleased with the results.

Next on the list was disposing of my now tired Pickling Cucumber plant that produced so well for me in a large pot. Spring at Skillin's is very consuming and I did not get any vegetables planted in a garden during the Spring. So, in late June I grabbed some large pots and filled them with Coast of Maine Bar Harbor Blend (the BEST bagged soil I have ever seen--I recommend this for outdoor containers AND houseplants) and also a few handfuls of Plant Tone by Espoma that I put in layers throughout the Bar Harbor Blend.
I planted one pickling cucumber plant, two tomato plants and several combinations of different flowers. (More on the flowers later). I top dressed the soil a few times with the Plant Tone through the summer and also early on I watered once weekly with the Fish/Seaweed fertilizer by Neptune's Harvest. Hey, it was getting late and I had some catching up to do! Natural stimulation needed!
That pickling cuke did a great job with much encouragement and sun. As the summer drew into August every other day waterings were needed so I plunked more Plant Tone on the soil and did not use the liquid Fish/Seaweed anymore as so much water coming through would just leach out the liquid food. But the wonderful soil, much sun and the consistent feedings of Plant Tone did the trick. Many sweet tasting pickling cukes. I prefer the pickling cukes; you pick them small; they taste great; less seeds and juicy! But in the last week or so the plant petered out and the soil and the plant have found their way to the compost pile. Job well done!

As I noted above, folks it is dry out there. So, then it was time to get some water to the rose bushes. I like to do this by just getting the water running slowly out of the hose and placing the hose at the base of each bush. This allows the water to run slowly down into the roots of the plant and the slow running of the water makes runoff very unlikely. I keep the hose at each plant for even up to an hour if it is really dry and then the plant is okay for days and days. I think this type of watering really helps my roses, also my flowering hydrangeas.
Alert, alert! Trees, shrubs and perennials planted this year should not be allowed to dry out. As soon as you can give them a quality watering. These plants should get quality waterings once or twice a week from now until the ground freezes!
I do have an annual bed of flowers on which I will turn up the volume and let the water run over parts of the bed for a few minutes. I don't water my perennial beds often but it got so dry this summer they needed some water as they were wilting and I have soaker hoses set up for that.

That about finished today for me. I have more I want to do in the next few weeks. I need to turn my attention to my lawn. I recently wrote about Nature's Turf fertilizer a wonderful organic lawn food by North Country Organics; it is time to get some Nature's Turf down on my lawn. We recommend two to three feedings per year and my lawn is due.
Also our good friend Paul Tukey of People, Places and Plants magazine (http://www.ppplants.com/) and Safe Lawns.org recommends using Mira Cal by Jonathan Green as a great soil supplement instead of lime. The purpose of products like lime or Mira Cal is that they "sweeten" our soil; another way of raising the pH of the soil to a more neutral measurement of 7.0. Our soil will best and most efficiently use the nutrients we provide through our fertilizers with a neutral pH of 7.0 or just below, that is why lime and now Mira Cal is so often recommended. Plus our soils are often found deficient in calcium and other important minerals that Mira Cal and lime provides. Paul Tukey recommends Mira Cal because it works faster than lime and he believes that it is better designed for our lawns with less emphasis on magnesium. Paul feels that too much magnesium encourages weed growth more than lawn growth. So, I will try some of that Mira Cal. Check out more about Mira Cal at http://www.jonathangreen.com/.

It has been a productive gardening year and the soil around my flowering perennials and shrubs have been tapped pretty hard. After I deal with the lawn, it will be time to do good cutting back of many of my perennials. Then once some space is cleared I want to get a good feeding of either Plant Tone by Espoma or Pro Start by North Country Organics to the soil. Either are a great natural fertilizer that will really improve that soil around my flowering perennials and deciduous shrubs as this year draws to a close and the next year gets underway. A more healthy soil helps plants to better withstand summer drought and winter cold and Maine offers plenty of both!

That is not all folks! There will be more to do before winter hits and we will have much to discuss between now and then. So, I will be talking to you soon!

Please send me any questions or comments at info@skillins.com or click on comment just below!

Thanks,

Mike Skillin