April 30- Say No! To Invasive Plants
My catmint is blooming in a sea of blue, rushing spring along despite the temperatures. There are gardeners who wouldn’t plant catmint for fear of a horticultural invasion worthy of the books. Although I bet I’ve pulled out a few hundred baby catmint plants already this spring, I don’t mind the intrusion. What’s the difference between henbit and catmint?
However, there are plant suggestions that make me lose sleep, especially elderberries, porcelain berry vine and Virginia creeper. In a farm situation such as ours, surrounded by rows and rows of eastern red cedars doing a bang up job of wind control, the above mentioned plants will bring you to your knees, literally. Those three vines produce berries that the birds love and after they have filled their tummies, they rest up in the shelterbelt and poop the berries to ensure next years crop. That puts me on my knees, really!, spending hours and hours pulling the offensive plants to keep my shelterbelt weed free.
Elderberry photo courtesy of Topveg.
Elderberries, porcelain berry vine and Virginia Creeper are all perennial plants that surely must do some good somewhere. But in a rural area with shelterbelt, avoid these three like the plague.
Subscribe to the comments for this postApril 25 – The Dahlias Are Here!
The UPS delivery man and I get pretty well acquainted in the spring as my orders from my favorite mail order companies arrive. I indicate on most orders that the last week of April would be the best arrival time for me, and they don’t disappoint me. Saturday the mailbox was just barely big enough for the box from Swan Island Dahlias, the leading dahlia grower in the United States. Dahlias do wonderful here in western Kansas, and the late summer color parade is a show stopper.
Photo courtesy of Tripadvisor
Forget the prepackaged offerings at the local box stores or mass merchandizers. It is a good chance you will be disappointed since much of those packages contain wimpy tubers probably packaged three or four months ago. Go right to the growers via the internet or catalog offerings and order from the folks who do nothing but dahlias and have a guarantee to match. My favorite is Swan Island Dahlias, a grower from Canby, Oregon. Ordering is easy from their online catalog at www.dahlias.com or you can request a $4.00 catalog.
Dahlias are not hardy in our zone 5 or 6 so they must be dug or well protected during the winter months. I know a gardener that stacks hay bales over her dahlia patch and they come through most winters. I dig mine and store them in a cool garage for the winter. Dahlias are tall, anywhere from three to five and half feet. And therein lies a problem for some gardeners. They must be staked to keep them upright in our windy country. I plant mine in the cutting garden, in rows, and use hog panels to stake them. At first, the hog panels may seem unsightly, but soon the foliage completely covers the wire. The heavy duty peony cages work fine also. They must be installed over the plant early and encourage the stems to stay inside the enclosure as they grow.
I ordered the cut flower assortment, because I enjoy the bouquets’ inside as much as in the landscape. Some varieties do better as cut flowers than others. But there are the dinner plate size, and many different classes such as formal, informal, decorative, pom pon, cactus, peony type and water lily type. Make room for some of these beauties this summer in your garden. There is still time to order and get them planted. Orders are sent with a booklet of clear and precise instructions. A collection of dahlias is a beautiful sight to behold. They grow right here in western Kansas.
April 23 – Lilacs Aren’t Azaleas, But Who Cares!
The lilacs are purpling the yard, giving us bragging rights that should quiet down any southerner spouting off about their azaleas. We don’t do azaleas here very well because of our high pH numbers. Perusing the catalog pages and pages of rhodies and azaleas can put you in a bit of a pout, but when the season arrives, and the lilacs, crabs, redbuds and snowball bushes come into bloom, we kind of forget the colorful pages of the books and gloat about our own blessings. That is as it should be.
Courtesy of Wunderground
The continued cool has put the warm season garden on hold for now. I hope I can find a short, stocky tomato plant when I get ready to buy. Those tall, lanky spindly plants can just stay in the greenhouse as far as I’m concerned. I am going to try to keep my wits about me when I shop for tomatoes this year. Last year I tried some new ones, but nothing put tomatoes on my table or in the jar as did the Jet Stars and Celebrities. Now if I can just say “no” to all the temptations, I will probably be ahead. And the pepper choices are just about as troubling. Peppers of all sizes, kinds and colors fill the greenhouse benches. Salsa canners want a wide variety for their special mixtures and the plant breeders have not disappointed them.
We had a ½ inch shower late yesterday and the barn swallows are grateful for the mud holes. It makes finding nesting material just a bit easier as they are working hard to build their mud nests for this season’s family. I bought a jar of the cheapest grape jelly on the grocery shelves today, knowing that the orioles will be here in a few days from their winter homes in Brazil. They are hungry for fruit but the best I can do is keeping their jelly dish full. They are grateful. Last year they put away a pint of grape jelly a week. But the beautiful birds are a real treat and very much welcomed here at Indian Hill Farm. The orchard oriole is the most popular summer visitor but we also have several pairs of Baltimore orioles. The hanging nests are almost impossible to find until next fall when the leaves fall from the trees and you realize how close they were nesting and you missed it.
April 18.……..Rhubarb and Bull Snakes
Another very cool night on the books….if it gets down to the mid-thirties as suggested, it will rattle my houseplants already summering on the north patio. I am seriously thinking of bringing a few touchy ones back into the warmth of the house for the night. The peach tree is in full bloom and the Korean Spice bushes are smelling up the backyard into the tropics. My cool weather veggies are loving it and the warm weather plants are still growing in the warmth of someone’s greenhouse. It’s all a part of the back and forth season we call spring here in our transitional zone on the Great High Plains.
I found Betty and Barney all tangled up in a roll of tree netting that had fallen to the floor in the garden shed. They were so firmly tangled that there was no hope for their freedom unless we cut the netting to free them. Ruined a good piece of netting and riled a couple of bull snakes but alls well that ends well, I guess. They crawled off into the evergreen hedge without so much as a “Thank You”.
The rhubarb is gorgeous, thick red stalks just begging for a piecrust. My absolute favorite rhubarb dessert is a different spin on the usual. Try this. It is scrumptious!
Rhubarb Torte
1 cup flour 2 tbl. Flour
2 Tbl. Sugar 3 egg yolks
Pinch salt 1/3 cup half and half
½ cup butter 3 egg whites
2 ¾ cup diced rhubarb 3 tbl. sugar
1 ¼ sugar ¼ tsp. cream of tartar
Make crust by combining 1 cup flour, 2 tbl. Sugar, salt and butter. Press into 8 by 10 inch pan. Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes. Make filling by combining rhubarb, 1 ¼ cups sugar, half and half, 2 tbl. Flour and egg yolks. Cook until thick. Cook slowly so rhubarb gets done. Pour over crust. Beat egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar for meringue. Spread on filling and brown in 325 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.
April 15.…….Even Gardeners Pay Taxes
The news talks of people lining up to get there taxes in today. Shesh! I’ve never had the nerve to wait that long. Even though I am always on the paying end, I’m too much of a chicken to drag it out to the end. The wind has been relentless for several days, however, today isn’t as bad as earlier in the week. The spring snow crabs are in full bloom, and the south side of the trees are a bit thinner than the north, a telling indication that 60 mph winds can blow the blooms right off the tree. We’ve spent two days picking up corn stalks out of the flower beds as the corn field across the road relinquished last falls trashy leftovers. We are farmers too so it is “just pick it up and let it go”.
There is still a 100 % chance of frost here in southern Gray County, Kansas, but with the warming trend it is hard to deal with reality. I’ve planted some new perennials, namely dianthus and phlox, flagged them with bright yellow flags, and promised myself that I would throw an old cover over them if the weather turned on me. I’m more concerned about the Asiatic and Oriental Lilies that are up a couple of inches. The bud is at the very exposed tip, so a hard freeze would put me ruin my lily parade for the year. The peach tree is in full bloom, it would be devastating to get below 32 now. We can always hope. Gardeners are optimistic people!
Even though I am pushing the season for all it’s worth, I have not planted the heat loving garden yet. No tomato or pepper plants for me yet. I think you could get by with green beans but I’m in the “do it just once” mode. We keep over an acre green and growing, so it pays to plan out time wisely if we want to avoid a do-over.