Bigger, better, tougher?
The new plants to make space for in your 2023 garden
Most gardeners have favorite go-to plants that perform well in their climate and simply make them happy. For me, those are coneflowers, catmint, liatris, alliums, daylilies, black-eyed Susans and oh so many tomatoes.
But every year, I manage to find at least a little space for something new that woos me from a garden-center shelf or the pages of a catalog.
Behind those customer-facing outlets, plant breeders work tirelessly to produce innovative plants with larger flowers; better disease resistance; improved cold-, heator shade-tolerance; longer bloom times; and even higher nutrition.
Perennials
The 2023 season brings us several firsts, including the firstever groundcover shasta daisy, Leucanthemum “Carpet Angel,” from Green Fuse Botanicals. The extremely cold-hardy plant starts blooming earlier than other varieties and keeps going straight through fall in zones 4a-10b.
Proven Winners has introduced two new native hummingbird mints in their Meant to Bee collection — “Royal Raspberry” and “Queen Nectarine” — which, as the group’s name implies, is beloved by bees. I grew the latter in my test garden last year and was impressed with the terracotta-colored flowers that blanketed most of the plant from midsummer through fall. Hardy in zones 5-9, the mounding perennial should reach 30 to 36 inches in two or three years.
Also from Proven Winners, I tested out the new Upscale “Red Velvet” bee balm, another native that lures pollinators to the garden. Suitable for part-sun to sun in zones 4-8, the tall Monarda variety emerges from dormancy with bronze-tinged foliage before large,
organisms.
It sounds like you have a good system. Now, what about those pesky soil samples? Don’t be intimidated. The procedure is fairly straightforward. The references I provide here will provide detailed, but simple, instructions with pictures.
The consensus of numerous university extension services is that your garden’s media should be tested very two to three years. Technically, the time frame really depends on the type and percentage of your mineral component, as well as your crops and the way you rotate them from bed to bed. But let’s keep it simple, and just make two to three years a habit. Always keep notes in your garden journal so you remember what you’ve done and when.
The typical garden soil test will sample for phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, as well as the pH. Again, pH is the most important. If the test recommends adjusting the pH (likely through liming), it will take several months for any corrections to take effect. Thus, testing should be done and corrections made well before the next planting cycle.
When to take samples? The easy answer: any time. But ideally, sample for your raised beds in late summer or fall, after crops have been removed. Obviously, what your crop rotations are, and what you are growing, will determine when you can sample. This is where good record keeping will help keep you straight regarding what crops you’ve rotated in which beds, what beds have been tested, and what applications have been made.
How many beds to sample? Doing them all in every cycle is a little more expensive, but I think it would make keeping track easier. If you amortize, that is $20 a year well spent.
Test kits are available at your local extension office and some garden centers. For more information, check out the Virginia Tech extension publication “Soil Sampling for the Home Gardener” at bit.ly/2cXpGuJ; for North Carolina residents, the state extension’s soil testing kit page is at bit.ly/3EI4mWX.
In North Carolina, testing for samples submitted between April and November is free, and $4 otherwise. In Virginia, the fee is $10. Either way, this is one of the best gardening deals around to help ensure your gardening success.
So there you have it. Rotate your crops and sample every bed every two to three years. Be proactive; don’t wait for the spirit to move you. You will be rewarded for your efforts.