Hello, friends!
As a gardener, you know the three most basic and important things your garden needs are soil, sunlight and water. But although nature provides them all, left to nature alone, our plants will often languish. That’s because soil needs amending, some plants need to be placed in a partly shady spot and water needs to be supplemented — and regulated.
If you’re watering your garden with a sprinkler or sprinkler system, you’re risking fungal, mold and mildew diseases that thrive when foliage gets wet and remains moist for too long. Sprinklers are fine for turf grasses, but perennials, annuals and shrubs are ideally irrigated using soaker hoses or drip systems, which direct water to exactly where it’s needed — the roots — as opposed to susceptible, above-ground green, leafy growth.
If you do use a sprinkler system, be sure to water early in the morning, when sunlight will hasten evaporation from vulnerable leaves and stems. Watering in the late afternoon or in the evening is risky because its affords spores and other pathogens an entire sunless, usually cooler, night to fester. This applies to lawns, as well.
In addition to how you water and when you water, how much you water should be considered, as well. Most plants require about an inch to an inch and a half of water per week. This is best assessed by placing a rain gauge in the garden (or on the lawn) during a sprinkler cycle. If you don’t have a rain gauge, an empty tuna or cat-food can will get the job done, too. When the cycle is completed, measure the amount of water that has accumulated in the can. Is it an inch? A half inch? Two inches? Do the math, dividing the required 1 1/2 inches by two or three applications per week, and adjust the length of your cycle accordingly.
Always opt for less-frequent, deeper soakings over daily sprinkles, which aren’t sufficient to reach plant (or lawn) roots, where the water is needed.
Similarly, for most houseplants, it’s best to place the pot into the sink or tub and s-l-o-w-l-y apply water until it runs out the drainage holes (always empty saucers so excess water isn’t taken back up into the container). Don’t water again until the soil feels dry at root level, which you can assess by sticking your finger into the pot up to your second knuckle. If the soil is dry down there, it’s time to water. Sometimes, the soil surface dries out more quickly than the soil at root level — or vice-versa — so checking the surface can be misleading. Boston fern, pitcher plant, umbrella palm and baby's tears are a few exceptions; keep their soil consistently moist, but not soggy.
Photo by Anthony Lee
My favorite tools and supplies to make gardening easier
One of the best gardening tools I bought this year was a set of Texas Tomato Cages. I’d actually hemmed and hawed over them for years, opting instead to continually replace my flimsy supports, which bent and broke and were never tall enough to support plants at the end of the season, anyway. I finally bit the bullet last spring, and now understand what all they hype is about. I am certain I will never have to replace these — they are heirloom quality and it will shock me if they don’t last a lifetime.
Unfortunately, I’ve made a bunch of bad purchases over the years, but I’ve learned from my mistakes and can finally say I am very satisfied with my current tools and supplies. Whether you’re just starting out or are a seasoned gardener still caught in a cycle of trial and error, you might want to check out this list of my Eight Favorite Gardening Tools.
📬Question of the week
DEAR JESSICA: What should I do with two-inch-tall cherry pits that I sprouted in a tiny clay pot? I’m afraid transplanting might stress them. —Joe Campise, Woodbury
DEAR JOE: Usually, you’d have to ascertain which of the two is the strongest, healthiest and sturdiest, and then use scissors to clip the weaker one at the the soil line, as much as it might pain you to do so. But since these two still have some distance between them and are relatively young, there’s a good chance their roots aren’t terribly intertwined. So you might be able to separate them now without stressing them too much.
Here’s how: Slip the soil ball out of the pot gently and— again, gently— tease the two root systems apart, retaining as much soil on each as possible. Then replant them into two separate containers the same size as what you have there, ensuring each is replanted at the exact depth as before, and that both pots have drainage holes.
Keep them indoors in a sunny area, watering as needed, then transplant into a sunny spot in the garden in late May.
Photo by Joe Campise
💡If you do one thing this week…
If deer tend to visit, protect their favorite buffet items — rhododendrons, yews, euonymus, azaleas and arborvitae — with chicken wire, netting or burlap wraps.
👏 Sunday shoutout
A Hicksville Public School District student monitors his plants over the summer.
Nothing makes me happier than seeing children and young adults catch the gardening bug. It's a quiet and peaceful hobby with benefits that include exercise, time spent outdoors in nature, the soul-lifting beauty of flowering plants, and body-nourishing cultivation of fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables.
So it really did my heart good to learn that the Hicksville Public School district included gardening in its COVID-era summer and fall program for grades kindergarten through 12. The district's "Grow with Us" initiative included distributing academic packets in math, English and AP studies -- as well as 5,000 seedlings donated by Stop & Shop, and instructions for growing the vegetables and flowers in the garden or on a windowsill. Students were encouraged to "theme" their gardens by growing a nectar garden, a salad bowl garden or a water garden, for instance.
The students were asked to document their gardens' progress and share photos to a dedicated webpage. And the results were spectacular. "Some families used their gardens to enhance cooking at home, using vegetables their children's gardens produced; others marveled at the butterflies and insects their gardens welcomed," said Catherine Knight, the district's public information officer consultant, who organized the initiative along with social worker Sue Simon, assistant superintendent Anthony Lubrano and current Fork Lane School principal Susan Guiliano, who served in another role at the time.
The Mayer family documented the success of their potted tomato plant.
By autumn, it was clear the students had reaped what they'd sown. The Mason family grew flowers, herbs and "so many vegetables," then harvested together and pickled their cucumbers. Vincent Rufo grew tomatoes and zucchini, then enjoyed making and eating zucchini bread and baked zucchini. Emma Mayer and her family planned and tended a water-wise garden, using science to learn which flowers, vegetables and herbs would thrive best in their soil, and how much water and sunlight they would require. They focused on creating a colorful garden with a functional ecosystem that provided shelter and food for pollinators.
The Faria family strategized by planting flowers near their vegetables to encourage beneficial insects, birds, butterflies and other pollinators. Meanwhile, Julia S. grew plants that included scallions and celery, and the Seddo family grew a garden full of veggies.
I'm excited to see what these new green thumbs will do next year!
Photos used with permission/Hicksville Public Schools
🌱📅Have you ordered your 2021 gardening calendar yet?
This is not an ordinary calendar. It’s actually a gardening and plant-care guidebook in calendar’s clothing. Every daily box contains a little nudge from me to you: a timely chore or tip to keep your garden on track all year long.
🎉Giveaway winner!
Congratulations to Kathy Kennedy of Hampton Bays! Kathy participated in last week’s giveaway promotion by sharing The Weekly Dirt, and was randomly selected to receive a gift. Her Old World Christmas ornament (one of these beauties⬆️) is in the mail!
📧Send me your feedback!
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Q&A section.
If you’re sending photos of your garden, please include your full name and the name of anyone depicted, your hometown, details about your plant or garden, the name of the person who took the photo, and a sentence granting permission for its use in this newsletter and archives.