April 3, 2008 -- Carol Stocker gardening chat
Carol_Stocker: Greetings Gardeners! I am Boston Globe garden writer Carol Stocker and I will be on line for the next hour to try to answer your gardening questions.
ahaven__Guest_: Hello, I bought some tulips in a pot that have bloomed and the flowers have died off. Can I transplant the bulbs outdoors in my garden? If so, should they be transplanted now or should I wait until fall?
Carol_Stocker: Tulips are really expensive annuals. They will not reboom if spent bubls are planted outdoors, though they will produce foliage that will give you false encouragement. However other potted bulbs such as hyacinths and daffodils can be planted outside now at a depth of about five inches in a sunny place and they will probably rebloom outdoors next year. But throw you tulip bulbs, foliage and potting soil in the compost pile.
batch__Guest_: I never got around to planting my tulip bulbs in the fall. Is there still time to plant them now?
Carol_Stocker: No. Tulips must be planted in the fall.
poppy__Guest_: My holly bush (female) has grown huge. When can I prune it and how far back can I prune it?
Carol_Stocker: I usually prune holly bushes in December so I can use the iconic foliage for holiday decorations. However you can prune them, and most woody plants, anytime you want. Do not cut the branches back to leafly stumps, however. Make sure there are some leaves left on every stem you cut back. Cut back to where other branches join the stem so there are no stumps.
marty__Guest_: We have some raised beds that we use for tomatoes, cukes, peas, herbs etc. One in particular has become almost dusty and unproductive. Weve added manure and some soil, any suggestions ti revive it. Thanks
Carol_Stocker: It sounds like you've done the right thing. While such soil ammendments are typically dug into the soil below, some people recommend just layering them on the top, and that certainly is easier. You might also consider rotating you crops so you don't plant the same vegetables in the bed that you grew there lsat year. Peas and beans fix nitrogen and growing them helps to enrich the soil. You could also consider mulching with bark mulch or some other covering to keep dust down by conserving moisture.
Ellie__Guest_: Any advice about preventing vine borers - they keep killing my summer and winter squash plants.
Carol_Stocker: Sometimes they can be prevented by loosely wrapping the lower six inches of stem with aluminum foil. Or you can wait until late June to plant out your vines, at which point the adult moth has laid her eggs elewhere.
LoraB__Guest_: Good afternoon! I was hoping you could tell me what I should be doing now in the garden. Can I put down composted manure now? Or fertilize with an 8/8/8 fertilizer?
Carol_Stocker: You can sprinkle fertilizer around the garden now, in circles around existing plants, being careful not to come in direct contact with emerging perennial and bulbs growth. I like time release fertiizers such as Osmacote that you only need to apply once. This is a prime time to sprinkle bulb fertilizer or bone meal around emerging spring bulbs. You should also be pulling mulch off emerging plants, leaving about an inch of bare ground around perennial crowns and woody plant stems so as to prevent rot. (But don't worry if you don't get around to this.) Make sure the root flares of trees, where the trunk flares out and connects with the roots going from verticle to horizontal, are exposed to the fresh air and not buried under soil or mulch. This is important, as the tree can smother, so do some excavation if the root flares are buried. Start seeds of tender indoor annuals and warm season vegetables now for planting outdoors at the end of May. Pick up fallen branches and rake up sticks and leaves from lawns. But lawns don't need fertilizing now because you would also be feeding annual weeds. Cut forsythia and bring it indoors for early bloom in a vase. Prune tangled shrubs such as quince before they leaf out so you can see what you are doing. Thin out branches that rub against each other or are growing in the wrong direction. Check roses for red leaf buds and prune dead branches off. Prune just above outward facing buds so the branches grow outward and not inward.
mlb__Guest_: I have several large rhododendren plants in my backyard and they are suffering mightily. One seems to be totally dead, two others have many dead branches. Shold I try to salvage the reamining live parts, and shold i sjut remove and compsot the dead plant? And how to best care for the others to prevent this slow death? I rarely water them - is that the problem?
Carol_Stocker: Watering is usually helpful for old shrubs, and necessary for young shrubs, but lack of watering would not kill shrubs that have been in your yard for longer than 2 years. Brown leaves does not mean a rhododendron shrub is necessarily dead. The leaves could just be dead from wind damage. I would give them until June to put out new leaves. Scrape the bark with your fingernail and look for traces of green under the bark for another sign the branch, and hence the shrub, is alive. This is not the time to give up on rhodies. They often look bad at the end of the winter. This is their low point. But they might bounce back during the spring. If deer are eating off the leaves, spray them with a deer repellent like Deer-Off.
LoraB__Guest_: Thank you. I have another question if there is still time. WHat about fruit trees and crabapple trees? I have a peach tree and 2 apple trees. Is it too early to spray them for disease and fire blight?
Carol_Stocker: The saying is that you should spray when the leaves are the size of a mouse's ears. A new pest called winter mother that defoliates trees should be sprayed with Spinosad this month also.
mlb__Guest_: Thank you. What should I feed them?
Carol_Stocker: Fertilizing can actually stress struggling plants. It would do more good to water them deeply a few times in July and August than to fertiize them. And here's another tip, water evergreens deeply before you unhook your hoses in the fall. They can't get any water out of the soil once the ground freezes. It's winter winds sucking the moisture from rhody leaves that turns the brown. The more water they can store up, camel like, before the ground freezes, the less the chance their leaves will turn brown and die over the winter.
sr__Guest_: i have a sargent crabapple tree in my front yard, and i am wondering whether it is advisable to plant junipers nearby. i am worried about cedar-apple rust, although my garden book says that sargent crabs are resistant. what do you think?
Carol_Stocker: They may be resistant, but why court trouble? I would not plant the junipers and thus play it safe.
smittybelle__Guest_: My small shady backyard keeps turning into patches of moss that then peel off and leave a muddy mess. Waht do I need to do to the soil so that the grass will stay?
Carol_Stocker: Moss grows where the soil is acid. Sometimes the soil is even too acid and too compacted and too poorly drained and low in fertility to grow anything else. Moss also likes shade. Lawn likes none of these things. If you are growing moss there you probably cannot grow grass without replacing the soil, liming it and cutting down some shade trees. Some people cultivate moss as a lawn replacement, though you would need to put in paths since moss can't stand to be walked on. Think about living with the moss and calling it a "Japanese garden" after you add a few rocks and plant some pieris and rhododendrons. Or else, rebuild the area, loosen the soil and incorporate compost and lime to counteract the excessive acidity and, if you have sunlight, try grass again.
Howdy__Guest_: When should I start planing stuff that does well in the cold of early spring? Stuff like peas and lettuce?
Carol_Stocker: You can plant peas now and lettuce in a couple of weeks. The main problem is water logged soil, so you will do better in a raised bed in early wet spring weather than in a low lying area. Squeeze a handful of soil. If it stays in a mudball, it is too early and wet to plant. If it crumbles like chocolate cake, it is dry enough to plant in.
Carol_Stocker: That's all we have time for this week. I'll be on line here again in two weeks on April 17 at 1 p.m. to answer your gardening question. You can post the questions and leave them for me, too!
LoraB__Guest_: More questions from me, if it's possible... When putting down compost in old beds, should I "replant" existing plants at a new depth? or will they readjust?
Carol_Stocker: Such a good question! Don't replant the existing plants, but use the compost as mulch and don't cover the plants with it. Lay it between the plants. It will sink to their level fairly quickly.