PARTING ADVICE FROM A RETIRING GARDEN WRITER
Farewell, fellow gardener. After almost 30 years of sharing my gardening experience, expertise, and enthusiasm in columns for The Associated Press, I’ve decided to focus my time and energy in other directions.
Thanks for joining me as, according to the seasons, I selected tomato varieties to grow, pruned ’mums for best blooms or highlighted the darker side of mistletoe.
Perhaps you’re a brandnew gardener. Perhaps an experienced one. My goal has been to guide, to entertain and, most of all, to share with you the joys of gardening.
I’d like to close by offering eight suggestions to help make your garden — whether it’s a few flowerpots, a large vegetable plot or a general home landscape — prettier, more productive and more enjoyable to maintain.
Suggestion No. 1: An important element of good gardening can be summed up in two words: organic matter. Autumn leaves, compost, sawdust, kitchen trimmings — that is, materials that are or once were living — are all organic matter. Added to the soil, it encourages a healthy balance of beneficial soil microorganisms that help fight plant pests and feed the plants. Organic matter also improves soil aeration and moisture retention.
Suggestion No. 2: Did some insect or disease ruin you zinnias or other plant last summer? Don’t panic! Aphids, scab fungi and other pests are part of the natural world, and they can be part of what makes gardening interesting. Tolerate a certain amount of damage. Your plants can. Japanese beetles might chew off part of your rose’s leaves, but the plant compensates by ramping up photosynthesis in remaining portions. Find out specifically what the problem is, how and where it lives, and all possible ways of dealing with it before taking action. Where a spray is called for — and a spray should be a last resort — follow directions exactly for best effect with minimum impact on non-target organisms.
Suggestion No. 3: Have faith in Mother Nature and
try to follow her lead. She’s been at it a long time. A seed dropped into a soil furrow really does want to grow. Bare soil is prone to erosion and wide swings in temperature. Nature clothes and protects bare soil with plants (weeds); you can do so with crop plants or mulch. The natural habitat of blue flag iris and cardinal flower is wet soils; that of purple coneflower and blazing star is dry soils. Site plants accordingly.
Suggestion No. 4: Keep written records and photos of what you’ve done each year. Then you can better learn from your mistakes. There’s no end to what you can learn about gardening, unless you forgot what you did and what the result was. Thomas Jefferson, a very good gardener, wrote: “Though an old man, I am a young gardener.” He kept good written records but, of course, no photos.
Suggestion No. 5: Don’t get boxed in by preconceptions. Allow me to offer three examples.
a) “Weeding isn’t fun.” Weeding is enjoyable if weeds don’t get out of hand. One way to keep them in tow is with regular hoeing. Or with mulching. Or by not tilling. Tilling exposes weed seeds buried within any soil to light, just what they need to sprout. Over 30 years ago, I abandoned the annual ritual of tilling the soil, and now regular weeding takes me only a few enjoyable minutes every few days.
b) “Flowers belong in a flower garden.” Flowers in your vegetable garden will beautify it and attract beneficial insects. No need for the vegetable garden to look like a vegetable factory. A prettier vegetable garden is more inviting to both you and your plants. For that matter, there’s no reason vegetables need be confined to the vegetable garden. Eggplants, peppers, rainbow chard: They’ll all add pizazz to your flower bed.
c) “I need an orchard to grow fruits.” Not if you integrate fruit plants into your landscape. Many fruit trees are decorative in their own right. In fact, some, such as juneberry, cornelian cherry, and Nanking cherry, are mostly grown for their beauty, without people knowing that the tasty fruits hanging among the branches are edible.
Suggestion No. 6: Seek out reputable sources when you have a gardening question. When I need solid information online, I include “site:edu” or “site:gov” in searches, which calls up university or government sites, respectively. Sure, they’re not always 100 percent correct, but 99 percent is good enough for me. There are other sites with reputable information, of course, but it takes more finesse and knowledge to know the good from the bad.
Suggestion No. 7: Grow a wide variety of plants, especially edibles. Years ago, a confluence of conditions in the Northeast resulted in late blight disease, which devastated many gardeners’ and farmers’ tomato plants. Mine also! But that year I still picked plenty of peppers, sweet corn, kale and all sorts of other vegetables and fruits.
Suggestion No. 8: Be careful not to let flashy catalogs or websites, or spring’s first warm breezes, entice you to plant too much. This is a tough suggestion to follow. I still fall prey to planting too much (although I rationalize that my plantings are also for workshops and demonstration purposes). When visitors admire my garden’s abundance, especially of vegetables and fruits, I half-jokingly admonish them, “Don’t do this at home!” Not this much, at least.
The NEW TV Weekly Call 1-877-521-8265 to subscribe.
TODAY’S TOP MOVIES
It’s a Wonderful Life ›››› (1946, ComedyDrama) James Stewart. Ruined by a miser on Christmas Eve, a suicidal family man sees life anew thanks to his guardian angel. (3:00) (PG) (CC)
E! 6 a.m.
A Christmas Story ›››› (1983, Children’s) Peter Billingsley. In the 1940s, little Ralphie tries to convince his parents to get him a Red Ryder range-model BB gun for Christmas. Narrated by Jean Shepherd. (2:00) (PG) (CC) TBS 6 a.m.
Forrest Gump ›››› (1994, Comedy-Drama) Tom Hanks. JFK, LBJ, Vietnam, Watergate and other history unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75. (3:30) (PG-13) (CC) PARMT 8 a.m.
The Wizard of Oz ›››› (1939, Children’s) Judy Garland. After a tornado whisks Kansas farm girl Dorothy to a magic land, she must travel to the Emerald City for help in getting back home. (1:07) (G) (CC) TOON 8 a.m. Shrek 2 ››› (2004, Children’s) Voices of Mike Myers. Animated. A green ogre, his new wife and a donkey find adventure while visiting his in-laws. (2:00) (PG) (CC) COM
10 a.m.
Scrooged ››› (1988, Comedy) Bill Murray. A ruthless TV-network chief meets the ghosts of Christmases past, present and yet to come. (2:00) (PG-13) (CC) AMC 10:30 a.m.
My Cousin Vinny
››› (1992, Comedy) Joe Pesci. A wise-guy Brooklyn lawyer and his motormouth girlfriend go to Alabama to defend his innocent cousin for murder. (2:30) (R) (CC)
BRAVO noon
Shrek ››› (2001, Children’s) Voices of Mike Myers. Animated. In order to save his home, a monster with a donkey makes a deal with a mean lord to rescue a beautiful princess. (2:00) (PG) (CC) COM noon Spider-Man ››› (2002, Action) Tobey Maguire. Peter Parker uses his superhuman powers to battle his archenemy, the Green Goblin. (2:35) (PG13) (CC) SYFY 12:30 p.m. Goodfellas ›››› (1990, Crime Drama) Robert De Niro. In the 1950s an IrishItalian hoodlum joins the New York Mafia, but his mob career is not what he expected. (3:00) (R) (CC)
BRAVO 2:30 p.m.
John Wick ››› (2014, Action) Keanu Reeves. New York City becomes the bullet-riddled playground of a former assassin as he hunts down the Russian mobsters who destroyed everything he held dear. (2:00) (R) (CC)
A&E 3 p.m.
In the Good Old Summertime ››› (1949, Musical Comedy) Judy Garland. The more coworkers fight in a Chicago music store, the more they fall in love as secret pen pals. (2:00) (NR) (CC) TCM 3 p.m.
Spider-Man 2 ››› (2004, Action) Tobey Maguire. Tormented Peter Parker battles a sinister scientist who uses mechanical tentacles for destructive purposes. (2:55) (PG-13) (CC) SYFY 3:05 p.m.
John Wick: Chapter 2 ››› (2017, Action) Keanu Reeves. Legendary hit man John Wick comes out of retirement when a former associate plots to seize control of an international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, Wick travels to Rome to square off against the world’s deadliest killers. (3:00) (R) (CC) A&E 5 p.m. Smallfoot ››› (2018, Children’s) Voices of Channing Tatum. Animated. Migo is a friendly Yeti who discovers something that he didn’t know existed — a human. When his fellow villagers refuse to believe him, Migo embarks on an epic journey to find the mysterious creature that can put him back in good graces. (2:00) (PG) (CC)
TOON 5 p.m.
White Christmas ›››› (1954, Musical Comedy) Bing Crosby. Former Army buddies put on a show with a sister act to save their general’s hotel in Vermont. (2:45) (NR) (CC) AMC 3:15 a.m.