Gardening Basics Simply Put – Hanging Baskets

Hanging baskets, they’re not just for hanging anymore. By all means, do hang them, but consider that basically, it’s a big pot full of colorful flowers or tropical foliage. You can remove the hanger, and set it on a pedestal for an instant “container” plant, or if it happens to be upright instead of trailing, you can set in on a table for a centerpiece.

Another option: take it out of the basket and plant it in a decorative container, or even in the ground for an instant specimen plant. For most basket plants, this will be fine. This works for anything I can think of except for fuchsia. Basket fuchsias are trailers; upright fuchsias, sold in standard pots, are better for planting out.

Basket care:

Light: shade plants will flower better with a couple of hours of early morning sun. Sun plants will do better if they get some shade in the hot afternoon. This is more to keep the pot cooler than for any aversion to sunlight. Hot pots dry out faster and the roots on the sunny side of the pot may heat to the point of partial dieback.

Water: Big plant, small pot.

Your basket will be fine initially, and your primary responsibility is to check daily for water needs. Just lift the pot; if it’s heavy, it’s good for a day. If it’s light, water it. Remember that with any container, that if the plant gets very dry (very light) the potting soil will shrink away from the side of the pot, and most of the water you are applying is just running down the side. In that case, set it on the ground and water it thoroughly several times, 10 minutes apart. Or, set it in a pan of water for an hour.

Baskets that typically need less frequent water include geraniums, trailing geraniums, portulaca, fuchsia, petunias (when the basket is new). Lantana and impatiens dry out pretty quickly.

As the weeks pass, and the plant grows, something funny happens. The roots slowly replace the soil. Some of the potting soil decays further, and some gets washed from the pot with the frequent watering. The plant’s roots don’t hold water like soil does. The result is that you will find yourself watering more frequently.

At that point, say mid-summer, you should either repot it to a larger container, or plant it in the ground. Or, go on vacation and blame the neighbor who was supposed to water your plants while you were gone. [To make life easier for the helpful neighbor, take the baskets down and place them on the ground in light shade, preferably near a water source. That way, the baskets won’t need water as frequently.]

Pruning/Pinching:
As it gets straggly, cutting it back selectively will make the plant more attractive. What I mean by “selectively” is cut back the shoots to different lengths, not straight across like bangs. That way, when it starts to grow again it will look more natural. If you cut back a couple of shoots every two weeks or so you should be able to maintain it without it ever looking like it has been trimmed.

With the frequent watering, your plant’s foliage will yellow after a couple of weeks if you don’t fertilize. I would use Miracle Gro or a similar product occasionally, or Osmocote. Follow label instructions but better to err on the low side. You want to keep the plant green, but it’s not the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The more growth you push with fertilizer, the sooner you will confront the “too big for the pot” problem discussed above.

One of the easiest and most rewarding things for a gardener to grow is a selection of herbs. It’s fun to use your own fresh herbs in cooking, they are interesting to learn, the most common ones all have the same growing requirements, and animal pests tend to leave them along.

First, cooking. That is when you make your own meal from a series of ingredients instead of buying in at McDonald’s or tossing a frozen bag of pasta into the microwave. Just thought you might want to know. It takes a combination of time and thyme, but on those days when the weatherman has you cowering inside from the elements (Rain today, run for your lives! Hot today, for goodness sake don’t go out there!!), it can be fun to spend some time following a classic Julia Child recipe instead of downloading apps onto your I-phone. But that’s just me.

Anyway: more on herbs as I understand them. Spices and edible herbs are used for flavoring food. Spices are tropical, are often seeds, and often come from trees, shrubs or vines (pepper; cinnamon which is tree bark; vanilla which is the seed pod of an orchid). Our common herbs are more temperate in origin, and look like your standard garden plant, sometimes annuals, usually perennials.

Just because something is called an herb DOES NOT MEAN IT IS EDIBLE. Herb usage was traditionally medicinal, the province of shamans, monks and witches; the flavoring aspect was just a byproduct. (Take two leaves and call me in the morning, if you’re still alive.) Example: Rue is one of the herbs that is usually sold at garden centers. It’s a pretty blue-leaved plant, but can cause a dermatitis reaction like poison ivy on some people (you will rue the day…). So, once you step away from the common herbs like basil and thyme, Google that bad boy before you throw it in the soup.

Right off, I can’t think of any that are North American in origin; they often come from the Mediterranean area, basil originally from India I think. On the whole, they do best in full sun and need good soil drainage. The flavoring frequently comes from oils that develop most strongly in hot weather. That’s why your basil tastes better in the summer than in the winter. When dried, some herbs hold the flavor, others lose it, especially the leafy herbs. That’s why dry basil and parsley are not as good as say, dried rosemary.

Harvest your herbs early in the day for best flavor. Growing them on a sunny windowsill? Some herbs are okay in a south window, but especially in winter, it’s going to be tough to have enough light for them to thrive or develop much flavor.
The strong flavors of herbs should repel deer, so if you have deer problems, try planting some sage or thyme. Let us know if they graze on your basil. We keep lists.

A good place to see herbs in action, so to speak, is at the huge herb garden at the National Arboretum in DC. Depending on what they have going on this year, will be able to observe things like which lavenders or rosemary varieties do better in our climate, and which herbs are more ornamental. The herb garden is near the visitor center and the Bonsai pavilion. The Arboretum is free, of course, and well worth a trip any time of the year.

For beginners, basil is a great plant, and can easily be grown in a pot on a sunny deck. It is an annual, it grows fast, and you harvest the leaves and soft tips. As the summer progresses and the plant matures, clip off the flower spikes and discard them. Make your own pesto. Probably okay to plant now. They are notorious for rotting off at the soil line in cool weather.
Also easy to grow: parsley (grow as an annual); dill (annual); fennel (seeds out badly, watch out for this one); chives (perennial); thyme (perennial); sage (perennial); oregano (perennial); and French Tarragon (perennial).

Rosemary and lavender: perennial but touchy; siting in good drainage is critical, and for rosemary, some varieties are more winter hardy than others. We have a huge rosemary shrub at the exit at our garden center in Beltsville. It is in a raised bed with great drainage, and has the heat of a poorly insulated building for company in winter. Here’s hoping you try some herbs this year!

Simply Put – April Showers Bring May Flowers

… Go the lyrics to the song, more or less (from 1921; Googled it). We in the plant business love April showers, as long as they fall on a Tuesday evening. We likes rain on weekends about as much as Gollum liked Frodo.

What do you have to look forward to in April?

This is a big time for lawns. As the forsythias bloom (blooming now, bushes with big masses of yellow flowers), the soil is about the right temperature for crabgrass seed to begin to grow. If you are a lawn fanatic, you need to do your crabgrass treatments now. If you didn’t fertilize your lawn in the fall when you do most of your lawn feeding, and it’s a cool season lawn (one that is green now) you can still do a quick application of spring lawn food. If you have a warm season (zoysia grass) lawn (brown now) you don’t fertilize until it greens up in a month or two.

Early April is still chilly (off and on, this weekend is going to be a warm one) and it still makes sense to be planting cool season vegetables and flowers. That includes broccoli, lettuce, and pansies. Wait a few weeks before you plant the warm season stuff outdoors—tomatoes, geraniums, impatiens, marigolds— and look at the long range forecast for night temperatures. If it’s going to be in the 30’s or 40’s, you don’t gain much by early planting. Basil and peppers are best planted mid-May or later.

Think bigger. Early April is great for:

· Cleaning-up of last year’s dead plants, and mulching your walkways if they happen to be soil walkways like mine are. Hold off on mulching beds until the soil warms up a bit more. In that case, mulch when or after you plant.

· Planting trees, shrubs, and perennials. Generally, anything that is displayed outside at the garden center is safe to plant now. Plants that are under cover in greenhouses may still be too tender to go outside unless you are prepared to cover them if the night temperatures dip into the 30’s.

· Shop early for spring bloomers. You may as well enjoy the entire bloom period at your home instead of buying it after it’s already flowered for a week.

· Fertilizing shrubs: you can go ahead and apply your Holly Tone or Plant Tone around your evergreen shrubs. As soon as the ground warms up, the soil bacteria will start to break it down and make it available to your azaleas and so on.

· Plant containers for your deck or patio. Mixed containers or single specimens. If you use tender plants, you can move the container inside for a day or two if you need to because of cold weather.

· Keep thinking about the birds. They are getting ready to hook up and build nests. Maybe you can bribe more into nesting in your yard if you provide a water source (bird bath) and continue to feed them. Remember that birds mostly feed insects to their chicks. Long-term, you will have more birds if you plant native trees and shrubs, which support native insects such as caterpillars and the birds that feed on them. You’ll have more butterflies , too.

Simply Put – A Few Seed-Starting Hints

For vegetable gardeners, one way to make vegetable gardening cheaper is to start your own plants from seed, rather than buying pre-started plants. Depending on the plant, some seeds may be planted directly in the garden, while others are best started ahead of time in pots.

The seed packet will tell you if you are not sure. (It will say something like “sow directly in the garden when all chance of frost has passed.” Or, “start indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date.”) It’s been a long time since I have grown vegetables, being blessed with both a non-vegetable-friendly shady yard, and a workplace full of pre-started plants.

Examples of vegetables that are usually sown directly in the ground:

• Radishes
• Carrots
• Beans
• Corn

Frequently, these are large seeds that germinate reliably and quickly (radishes, beans), or seeds that are difficult to transplant (carrots). And usually relatively cheap seed, at that.

Examples of vegetables that are started ahead of planting in the ground:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers

These are plants that have a long time from seed to harvest, so you can get an earlier harvest by starting the plants ahead of when they should be planted out. Some large seeds—pumpkin, squash, cucumbers– may be directly planted or pre-started to avoid certain animal pests (e.g., crows, squirrels) from eating the seeds.

If you are only going to plant a few tomatoes, and you want a selection of sizes and colors of tomatoes, then it may be better to just buy the plants, as the seed is relatively expensive. Look at the prices and think about what you want to do. Make a garden plan (map) in advance, look at your space, and decide how many plants you need/have room for.

Information on planting dates, and numerous videos on starting transplants and other topics may be accessed from the University of Maryland Extension Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) website.

The key to starting seed indoors is being able to provide enough light. Vegetables are full-sun plants. A fluorescent light fixture several inches above the plants, run for about 16 hours a day provides enough light, or an unobstructed south-facing window in a cool room. On mild days they can be set outside for more light, but initially in a protected area so they don’t sunburn.

Okay, so maybe starting plants indoors is actually a fair amount of work and you want to buy the transplants anyway. A lot depends on how dedicated you are to the hobby. If you just want a couple of pots of cherry tomatoes on the deck, or a pot of mixed herbs, then by all means, buy the transplants. If you are planning a large vegetable garden, then you will save a lot of money by starting some of your own plants.

* Behnkes has ALL the seed starting supplies you need to succeed…light fixtures, heating mats, bio-degradable pots, Jiffy seed starting greenhouse kits, watering cans, and much more. Visit one of our retail stores or shop for your seed starting supplies online.

Gardening Basics: Simply Put
What to Expect in March

March: the month of the onset of Daylight Savings Time and the vernal equinox. “In like a lion, out like a lamb,” etc. As your gardening interest starts to revive like sap in a sugar maple, what is there to look forward to at Behnke’s in March? March is sort of a funny month, very weather dependent. Right now, it’s cool and soggy with the moisture left from the melting glacier. In two weeks, it could easily be 70 degrees. With that in mind, we horticulturists are now ”ramping up.” Staff that we haven’t seen since Christmas is coming back to work, and the trucks are rolling in.

Houseplants are already in good supply, and we are unpacking and setting out hardgoods as fast as we can. Hardgoods are everything without roots: bird-care products; seeds; warm-weather bulbs such as gladiolus; all those labor-saving tools; ceramic containers; fertilizers and so on.

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