Garden Talks July 16--Moonbeam Coreopsis, Stokes Aster, Autumn Joy Stonecrop, Butterfly Bush, Annuals!

Hello again,

It has been a few days so I thought I would check in. Thanks to my son now being retired from his baseball career at age 19 I have a little more gardening time on my hands and have been revisiting and rehabbing a couple of my old perennial gardens.

First there was much weeding done (see Garden Talks June 22--Weeds! (and rain) ). Then after applying some corn gluten to keep some of those pesky weeds from returning I had open spaces to plant (see Garden Talks June 29--Messenger, Weed Pulling, Corn Gluten and My Perennial Hibuscus and Garden Talks July 9--Hydrangea blue, Clematis Paniculata, Rudbeckia Prairie Sun)

After all this I see some more open spaces so let me list out a few more favorites of mine that I have introduced to my yard. These are all tried and true (MUST HAVE PLANTS) plants that I really like

Coreopsis Threadleaf Moonbeam

One of my absolute favorites. Low lying and creeping; not a big spreader but a good grower in my garden. Creamy yellow flowers that with some cutting back of older flowers in late August will bring new growth and more new flowers out of August and into early September. Although they flower at the same time I do like to "pair up" this plant with the Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea) that grows upright. At full bloom both of these flowers have an "electric" character about them (aka "a glow") that still makes my head turn after all these years. Kind of nice, don't you think?

Stokesia (Stokes Aster)

This is a new addition to my garden but I like the low growing habit and the dark purple on the tag looks spectacular. I will not yet add it to the Mike Must Have List (coming soon to the Skillin's Garden Log) but the plant has promise. It is due to flower in the next few weeks, I will let you know what I think but any tips to this plant would be appreciated.

Speaking of dark purple did I tell you I planted my first Buddleia Dark Knight (Butterfly Bush) last week. This is planted in a southeast facing bed with my rose bushes and perennial hibuscus. All of these characters are only somewhat hardy and will get decent doses of Messenger soon to naturally toughen them up. The flowers on the Black Knight are spectacular and with plenty of encouragement I look forward to a great performance by him.

I have augmented these plants with one of my all time favorites, the annual Yellow Marigold (Yellow Boy and Little Hero). Hey! I love marigolds. Yes, many fellow gardeners look down on them. Why I say? All they do is perform all season long and look cute, cute, cute. The only problem I have had with my marigolds are the slugs and snails who love to devour marigolds (and many other plants) but healthy doses twice weekly of all natural Slug Magic by Bonide keeps the slimy enemy away and marigold flowers on the way.

Got weeds? Plant Daylillies (hemerocallis) in your garden. Their awesome canopy style growth shades out many weeds from growing. Plus daylillies are very hardy.Also daylilies have a long flowering season--most are just kicking in now. I just planted a fun variety called Candy Cane--I crowded it next to a Daylilly Rosy Return; we will see how they get along. We have an awesome selection of daylillies here at Skillin's and the prices are great--come and see!

My peonies are going by and I am already trimming growth to make sunlight and air for some annual cleome that is starting to flower. I planted some Sonata Mix cosmos in between the cleome (also mixed colors) as that end of my bed needs to be in color after peonies and astilbe go by. Folks annuals are a perfect way to add colors to areas of perennial gardens that have gone by or are "about to flower". I love annuals for this purpose.

Lastly I also threw in a Sedum Autumn Joy Stonecrop this morning. Brilliant red color in the fall. Definitely a member of Mike's Must Have in the garden. If you don't have it, you need it.

Total cost of all these plants at Skillin's that I have mentioned in this post? Under $30. Come on! For full season color, how can you go wrong?

Of course, all my fresh plantings received a fresh dose of Plant Booster Plus by Organica (sold right here at Skillin's) in the planting hole and then around the plants. We love Plant Tone by Espoma as an all natural long lasting quality plant food as well.

I will be away from the keyboard for a few days as I am about to go on special assignment BUT I look forward to touching base with you next week. Please feel free to leave any comments for us or your gardening friends here or drop any questions or comments to info@skillins.com

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 16, 2009

Garden Talks--Second plantings peas; hungry plants; good summer perennials

Hello again,

Now is a great time to plant some pea seeds if you have any open space. The plants will shoot up out of the ground and you should have tasty peas to eat by sometime in late August if not before. I don't know where I am going to plant BUT I am going to try and plant a bush variety of edible pods called Cascadia.

I am being repetitive I know BUT plants in general--both in the ground and especially containers are very hungry. All the rain we received in the past month has leached or depleted the soil of whatever you have supplied. I highly recommend Plant Booster Plus by Organica or any of the Espoma series--Garden Tone for vegetables and Flower Tone or Plant Tone for flowering plants. Evergreens could use a good dose of Holly Tone by Espoma. We have it all here and can recommend a good fertilizer for what you need. Plants ARE hungry!!!!

Need some good perennials that will give you lots of color over the summer. I highly recommend Rudbeckia Goldstrum (or any of the Rudbeckias), Coreopsis Moonbeam or any of the Monarda Bee Balms (I love the red colors!). Come see our great selection!

Skillin's Sales Plug: I love the perennials I just listed and I will jot some more down for you to peruse over the next few days. That being said we also have some beautiful big annuals planted in 6" pots from Proven Winner that are just gorgeous. Much color for you and your garden!

Happy 30th Birthday Chad Skillin--don't the years fly by!

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 6, 2009

Garden Talks July 2--Pinching mums, Montauk Daisies

Hello again,

Customer KC checked in with a question that addresses a topic I want to cover in the Garden Log:

Question: "Hi, need to know the right time to pinch back fall flowering mums. I must have done it at the wrong time last year, as I had very few blossoms in the fall, if I had any. It’s a large plant and with all this rain, it is now huge and taking over where it shouldn’t. Thanks for the help."

Answer: "I just consulted with Jeff Skillin about your question and he feels you can still pinch but it should be done “Now” as he put it. He never recommends pinching mums back after July 4 and we are about upon that.

He also recommends pinching about an inch or two off the tips of your plants but no more than that at this point.

The optimal time for pinching mums is about June 15 (I will have to remember to broadcast that out next year for people) according to Jeff and at that point in time you can be a little more extensive in your pinching.

I had the same experience with my Montauk Daisy last year. I pinched somewhat aggressively about July 10 or so last year and that was much too late. The other day I did an extremely “soft” or just a bud pinch on my Montauks and I feel like I will get more flowers this year."

One other note that I did not address with customer KC: Now is a great time to get some natural fertilizer like Plant Booster Plus by Organica or Plant Tone by Espoma (both sold right here at Skillin's) around your perennials that have yet to bloom. These natural foods will break down right into all the moist soil around each of your plants and this will result in better, deeper roots this year and for years to come. Not to repeat myself BUT I always recommend twice yearly feedings with such natural fertilizers.

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
July 2, 2009

Garden Talks June 8--Cleome and Peonies; Broccoli and Lettuce; Perennials!

Hello again,

Wow! What a beautiful run of weather we have had!

I want to just "line item" some quick thoughts that I have--mostly as a result of talking to many of our customers who are fine gardeners.

Cleome is one of my favorite annuals. It is a tall flower needs at least half a day sun to do well. But once it begins to flower in early summer; watch out! The colors of the cleome are ELECTRIC! As the plant grows and clumps it you get more and more flowers and the cleome fast becomes a standout in your garden. One customer I spoke to plants her cleome right around her peony plants. Peonies flower in the latter part of June; they are brilliant but then they are done for the year. As the peonies complete their flowering and the peony foliage starts its decline the cleome really "turns it on" and earnestly starts to become its "showy" self. So pair up peonies and cleome. Sounds like fun!

Gardening friend and guru Paul Parent reminded listeners the other day to cut the broccoli florets when they are small and young and tender. Yummy! Store the small florets in a zip lock baggy in your refrigerator. The sooner you cut the more florets you will get. Just keep adding little florets to the baggy and use them when you want. Young is when they are the most tender as well! Good timely advice as my broccoli is ready to cut now! Paul Parent can be found at http://www.paulparent.com/.

Speaking of cutting vegetables I highly recommend the planting of leaf lettuce. About the time I planted my broccoli I planted Red Sails leaf lettuce and the plants are bearing many juicy lettuce leaves now. Very very good tasting!

Many of you know I absolutely recommend the application of the all natural Four Step Lawn Program by Organica. I started to use the Program last year and I am elated by how good my lawn seems this year. My turf is pretty thick and the weeds are under control. NOW is the time to apply Step #2--the Kelp Booster; this product supplies much needed calcium and natural beneficial microbes to your soil. Put that Kelp Booster down and really improve your soil. (Kelp Booster can also be applied to your garden. Calcium is extremely beneficial to all plants--especially vegetables!).

I love my perennial beds. Tom Atwell--a great friend of local Maine gardening--wrote a terrific article about Must Have Perennials in this weeks Home and Garden Section of the Maine Sunday Telegram. I highly recommend you read his piece and I don't think he or his supervisors would mind me giving you the link: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=259877&ac=Home.

I agree with all the names on his list and I soon will write about a few more Must Haves for you. And what the heck I challenge my good friend KCB to do the same!

More Garden Talks soon....

Mike Skillin
Skillin's Greenhouses
June 8, 2009

Garden Talks May 19

Hello again,

Gardening is happening in Skillin's Country where we are all about teaching you to Grow A Greener Garden!

One of the prettiest plants in my yard is the Brunnera Macrophylla Alkanet a shade tolerant perennial with beautiful blue flowers right now. I borrowed the picture above from the ubcbotanicalgarden.com site found through Google images. The plant is a beautiful medium green shade with some gorgeous contrasting blue flowers. We sell it here at Skillin's and I highly recommend it for shady spots.

Yesterday morning I finally installed my Mole Mover tubes to protect my vegetables and flowers. These tubes are the best battle I know of against pesky and voracious woodchucks. Those big woodchucks get hungry and they love tender vegetable, annual and perennial plants. Come see us for the BEST protection. The Mole Mover tubes work great. They run on C batteries (in the new models the C batteries can last 18 months, a big improvement over the old models, and this is a little better for the environment). The tubes need to be plunged into the ground within 30 feet of the woodchucks holes--not necessarily in or near the garden. Once battery powered and in the ground the tubes emit a consistent annoying sound every 25 to 30 seconds. This sound can be heard underground only (and in the woodchuck's den) and it slowly but surely drives the woodchuck beserk until he and the family leave the area. Once plunged into the ground give the tubes a week or two and then the woodchucks will be gone. A few years back now I had some fat woodchucks that almost drove me away from gardening . They ate nearly all my perennials, annuals and vegetables. I tried fencing, hot pepper wax, throwing rocks, gasoline rags in the holes, filling the holes, fake owls, motion activated water throwers, rotenone garden dust, coyote urine, fox urine, fencing again and praying and finally the praying led me to the Mole Mover tubes! They worked and now I garden happily! We sell them here at Skillin's!

I had a question today about pruning lilacs--it is fine to cut the flowers now and enjoy them indoors. Lilacs can be pruned freely for up to about 2 or 3 weeks after they are finished flowering and then should not be pruned after that so as not to disturb next year's wood that they will flower on. So enjoy those lilacs now and prune soon!

Planting tomatoes? Plant with Tomato Tone by Espoma or Tomato Maker. During the garden season water feed your tomatoes with Fish & Seaweed fertilizer by Neptune's Harvest; these natural fertilizers contain good doses of calcium which help to strengthen your tomato plants and fruit. This helps to alleviate Blossom End Rot a common problem for tomatoes in our cool and often wet climate.

Also, give your tomatoes plenty of SPACE. Most problems I see with tomatoes (leaf blights, lack of fruit) happens because not enough light and air circulation can get to the tomato plants. And last but not least tomato plants love monthly applications of Messenger--if you do nothing at all give your Tomatoes Messenger!!! (we talk about Messenger in some detail in the posts of May 18 and May 15).

Mike Skillin

Skillin's Greenhouses

May 19, 2009