Behnkes Gardening Blog

Randy Best’s Hosta Garden.

It’s not summer YET but when the heat finally comes, I’ll wish I could hang out in Randy Best’s cool hosta garden, shown above and in lots more photos here.  Around our Beltsville store Randy’s known as Mr. Hosta – not only because his garden is jam-packed with them but because he’s a true Hosta expert and breeder of new Hosta varieties.

In pursuit of new, even more beautiful Hostas, Randy is always on the look-out and keeps up with what the other breeders are up to.  That’s how he came to find the 18 exciting new varieties now on offer in our perennial Department in quart-size pots.  Randy carefully selected these introductions and ordered them directly from a tissue culture lab (plant-geek talk for breeder) in Illinois.

Here’s how Behnkes’ Stephanie Flemming described the scene: “If Randy had a tail, it would have been wagging when the boxes were unpacked.”  Sounds like a true Hosta addict!

We have one flat of each of these cool-looking varieties, so come check out Mr.  Hosta’s Introductions for 2013 while supplies last!

‘Jubulani’ (left) and ‘Blue Flame’ (right.)

 ’George M. Dallas’ (left) and ‘Thunder Boomer’ (right.)

I was once a small-scale collector of Hostas myself but had  to give them all away after the deer arrived in my backyard one day and decided to stay – despite my repeated cursing at them and more sophisticated repelling techniques failed, too.

So last season, when the construction around my Greenbelt home was finally done in the late summer, I bought up several of my favorite varieties, including ‘Sir Frances Williams,’ the glory of my old shade garden (shown below in its formative years).   Then over the winter I moved so many perennials around to accommodate the shrubs and trees I rather abruptly decided to plant that I couldn’t find Frances anywhere and declared him a casualty of gardening-in-winter.

Until I finally found him a couple of weeks ago, behind and almost under a teak bench I’d also moved.  I bet Mr. Hosta can appreciate what a thrilling discovery it was.  Frances now has a prominent and perhaps even permanent spot in my garden, along with some new favorites.  Ah, to have a deer-free garden again!

Posted by Susan Harris.

Hot off the camcorder, Behnkes has a fabulous new video by Horticulturist Carol Allen about planting up vegetables in containers.  Here are the highlights (and times indicated for selective viewing), for people who, like this blogger, have short attention spans (or are just busy).

Or for regular, patient, less hurried gardeners, enjoy the whole video, embedded below from Youtube.

-  To create a Salad Bowl of Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Lettuces and Radishes, Carol recommends a container like the one shown above.

- Her favorite planting medium is Fafard Complete Planting Mix, shown above.  It provides good drainage, which is key.

- No need for packing peanuts or stones at the bottom of the container to improve drainage – it won’t.  And anyway, that excellent planting mix (Fafard) is what creates great drainage.

- Fill the container 2/3 to 7/8 full with the potting medium.

-  Starting at 3:16 watch Carol put the tiny plants (“starts”) into the medium, first spreading the roots apart so they’re not rootbound.  (She calls it “tough love” and it’s best seen!)

- She places the plants and potting medium so that it comes to about 3/4″ from the top of the container.  That’s important so that water doesn’t run out of the container, but stays and seeps down to water the roots.

- Carol slips the plant tags into the soil along the sides – out of sight but right where she can find them to remember the variety planted.  (Photo right.) At the end of the season they’re still there and can be removed for one’s garden journal.

- Having planted the “starts” around the edge of the container she next plants lettuce and radish seeds in the middle - starting at about 8:00.  They’ll grow really fast, germinating at about the same time.

- The larger plants around the perimeter will be harvested first, then ones started from seed in the middle.

- Beginning at 9:30 Carol demonstrates watering using a regular watering can but recommends using one with a “rose” on the end – shown below right.

- Carol then turns to a preplanted Early Girl tomato, the indeterminate type that keeps on growing.  Starting in July she’ll be pinching it back to encourage fullness, and removing the suckers, too.

- Insert a tomato cage into the pot and then stakes to hold the cage in place (connecting them with a twist ‘em).  Tomatoes in containers need the extra stakes because the cages aren’t be anchored as deeply in them as they are in open garden space.

- Throughout the season water thoroughly and deeply, but only when the surface of the medium is dry.  This potting medium changes color when it’s dry, which is very helpful.   At home Carol uses a hose to water containers.

- For feeding vegetables in containers Carol uses Espoma Bio-tone to start, then switches to Plant-Tone or Tomato-tone later in the season.  With those slow-release organic products, you don’t have to worry about polluting the Bay.

Posted by Susan Harris.

My favorite weeding tool.

The gardening season is ON, which means we’re all busy weeding, or we will be after this blessed rain has ended.  Here are some of my favorite ways to reduce the job..

• Remove the weeds as soon as you see them.  If you don’t, they’ll accumulate and possibly become an overwhelming job.  Even worse, they’ll be harder to remove AND they’ll seed around.  We’re talking hundreds or thousands more weed seeds in your beds.
• Ditto removing weeds from the lawn before they go to seed – because the wind will carry them to the beds.
• Mulch is our friend.  A good 2-3 inches will prevent the germination of weed seeds that land on the beds, while also helping to retain moisture.  But back to the weed-prevention reason.  I recommend against using compost as mulch because it’s the perfect medium for weed seeds to germinate in.
• Plant close together or at least let the plants grow together.  This makes it difficult for weeds to thrive or get sunlight.
• Use weed-free soil.  I’m a fan of amending the existing soil but if there’s NO topsoil (post-construction, for example) and you’re bringing in garden soil, bagged soil will be weed-free, a good start.
• If you have bare soil for a while, planting a cover crop like clover, vetch or annual ryegrass will create a weed barrier, and you can later dig the plants into the soil, where they’ll be used as fertilizer.
• Water only the plants you want watered, not the entire bed.  Drip irrigation or hand-watering around the base of your plants means depriving weed seeds in other parts of the beds of needed water.
• Corn gluten meal can be applied to lawns in February when the forsythias are blooming to keep weed seeds (in fact, all seeds) from germinating, and it can be used in beds, too.  If used any other time, it won’t prevent weeds but it will add Nitrogen to your plants.  As a weed preventer, I’m told that it works partially in the first year, close to completely by the third year.
• If you compost yard waste, compost it completely before adding the compost to your beds – to make sure the weed seeds are killed.  A good compost thermometer will ensure it’s hot enough.
• Love some weeds.  A weed is really just a plant that’s growing where you don’t want it to, but hey, they’re free and they’re there already.  So I give weeds a close look to determine if I really can’t stand them in my garden or if, like the evening primrose and clover in seen below, I actually like them and can let them stay.

Dandelions are another weed that people are giving a second look.  I’ve come to like them in bloom, especially whole fields of them, but when it comes to the plain foliage, I’m not quite there yet.

Tips I Ignore

• Some sources suggest installing black plastic or landscape fabric under the mulch but I don’t like the look of either, and eventually it seems that they always show.
• Herbicides work, but I only use them for plants between bricks or growing in other other tight spots where they can’t be dug up.

Wood poppies arrived in my woodland garden as weeds. Love them!

Posted by Susan Harris.

“Less Lawn” is the shorthand for a new trend in gardening that started in the arid West and is coming East, fast.  (Lord knows the Lawn Reform Coalition is doing everything it can to spread the word.)

And one of the most promising groups of plants to create lawn-like sweeps of short plants that can replace turfgrass is the genus Carex.   Carexes are plants commonly thought to be grasses – because they look like ornamental grasses – but technically they’re sedges, not grasses.  (And don’t ask me the botanical difference between grasses and sedges.)

I’ve been growing Carexes for 25 or so years and made sure I thought some with me when I moved because they’re such a help in filling in a new garden.

Above, two of the larger Carexes help fill in a sunny border in my former garden.

But look how well they do (above) in the shade of a deck.  I also used them in my full-shade woodland garden.  They don’t spread, but establish larger and larger clumps that can be divided many times, as I’ve done over the years.

Most Carexes stay nice and low, like Liriope.  Above is Carex morrowii at the Scott Arboretum, where it’s being used as a groundcover on a shady slope in the fall.  It’s also happy in full sun and best of all,  it’s evergreen!  On the right is a variegated version of Carex morrowii that I’ve grown for years, also.

So for shady spots where turfgrass struggles to survive, try Carex.  Options include Carex pensylvanica (Pennsylvania Sedge) that’s native to our region.

One limiting factor to using Carexes instead of turfgrass is that they can’t take foot traffic, so put them where they won’t be walked on OR just create a foot path through them.

Below is are just two of the Carexes on offer in the Perennials Department of our Beltsville location.

“Less Lawn” Show and Tell

And to learn more about lawn reduction – great design ideas and alternative plants – come to Greenbelt tomorrow nite!  Details below.

Posted by Susan Harris.