Winter garden watering

We are currently under a high wind advisory. This is not uncommon here in Utah. Pacific storms can throw a lot of nasty stuff at us. Southern California is experiencing very large amounts of moisture being dumped on them and this heavy rainfall creates a weather pattern that generates high winds across the western Utah and Nevada desert which means high winds for us.

Despite the fact that these high winds are the result of heavy rainfall, by the time we get these little blessings from Mother Nature, the wind is dry.

Too much dry wind can adversely affect plants that are not protected by mulch. Wicking action will dry out a plant pretty quickly, which brought up a question that I don’t know the answer to and probably won’t know until this summer. Do I need to water my outdoor plants in winter?

Everything has been mulched well with a blanket of bark chips and leaves to at least three inches thick. Plus, there is ten inches of snow on them, although this is temporary. Shrubs, however, are taller than the mulch cover so their branches are exposed to these dry, winter winds. Is plant moisture being sucked up away from their roots? I guess I would need to dig them up to know for sure. I doubt that I can do this, frozen ground being the serious obstacle it is to digging.

Beds on the south and west sides of the house, shed and fences are most at risk of drying out because of reflected heat. We get foggy mornings and heavy frost and I am sure they add some moisture, but I worry that it isn’t enough.

I really don’t want to start the spring growing season with stressed out plants. I want to do what I can to put these plants in a more favorable position to handle the dryness and heat that is already in store for them from the coming summer.

It seems really odd to me that there is such a thing as ‘winter drought’, but it is real and my research has shown me that winter drought conditions can lead to root injury or death. The worst part is that it could be happening right now without the plants showing any symptoms. According to my local county extension office I wouldn’t know until next season if the plants are dying. They may leaf out and flower just fine in the spring, relying on stored food reserves. Once that energy supply runs out plants weaken and start dying back. Even if a plant isn’t killed outright, it is made more susceptible to insect and disease attack.

With global warming rearing its ugly head, we can’t rely on receiving enough snow cover to protect our plants so it is becoming increasingly more important to mulch well. Shade trees with shallow root systems are especially susceptible to drying out. This includes Norway maple, silver maple, linden, Colorado blue spruce, Norway spruce, and many other evergreens. Shrubs are also vulnerable to winter drought damage, especially those growing up close to the house or in a warmer location. This includes junipers, Oregon grape-holly, and euonymus.

What I read is not encouraging for this year. Watering is supposed to be done when the air temperature is above 40F (some say 32F) with no snow cover and when the ground isn’t frozen. Yeah, right. Let’s see, that would be last month and two months from now. I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Our clay soil holds water, sometimes a little too well, so this might be a blessing. If you have a more ‘perfect’ soil you should already have watered. Horticulturists used to say it was good practice to insure dormancy by drought stressing plants in the fall and thus decreasing the chance of winter injury. Research since then has indicated that the reverse is true. What you know yesterday may not be true today. Great, another stress point for the gardener.

If the soil can stay slightly moist down to about 12 to 18 inches then plants should fair well despite winter’s drying winds.

Be especially mindful of plants under the eaves of the house. I have noticed a strip about 18 inches wide around the house that is dry after a good rain that I thought was watering everything.

One thing to look for as a sign of moisture loss is cracked soil where roots can become exposed. If you see this condition add some soil to fill in the cracks and add about three inches of mulch and then water, if the temperature is right. You don’t want to water late in the day when night time temperatures could freeze the water directly against the plant base causing more damage. Water early in the day so it has a chance to drain away.

Best methods for watering include: twin-eye or frog-eye sprinkler, deep-root fork or needle, soaker hose or soft spray wand. Give plants a good, deep drink of water letting the water run for 20 to 30 minutes in each area, then move to achieve good overlap. For trees, as a general survival rule, apply 10 gallons of water for each diameter inch of the tree. For example, a two-inch diameter tree, needs 20 gallons per watering.

Newly planted shrubs require more water than established shrubs that have been planted for at least one year. Assuming shrubs are mulched, apply 5 gallons two times per month for a newly planted shrub. Small established shrubs (less than 3 feet tall) should receive 5 gallons monthly. Large established shrubs (more than 6 feet) require 18 gallons on a monthly basis. Decrease amounts to account for precipitation. Water within the dripline of the shrub and around the base. Note: In dry winters, all shrubs benefit from winter watering from October through March.

So, the result of my research on the drying effects of winter winds tells me that it is important to mulch well, water deeply before the ground freezes, and I won’t know if my plants are okay until I see them growing or struggling this spring/summer. Life is full of surprises. Hopefully, this winter will be kind.

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Building a Raised Bed

Here is a really easy project that adds a bit of formality to your garden and is actually healthier for your plants and easier for you to access them.

Several of my vegetable beds are raised beds. I built these because, one, they clearly define a space I set aside just for vegetables. Two, the soil in these beds never get stepped on, this is very important because compacting the soil is not good for any plant. Last reason is because the soil here in Utah is clay. Darn the luck. And being clay, it is difficult to work in, needs a lot of amending and it is a little more alkaline than I would like to garden in.

With raised beds,

I can add good quality soil and mix it easily with compost and other amendments,
I am not tempted to walk on it because of the sides
and the soil is always fluffy and easy to work with (arable).

Alkalinity, just as a side note, locks up the nutrients and prevents plant roots from having access to them. The cure for this is iron chelate (pronounced key-late). It is a bit expensive but there is a huge market for it here in Utah. Before you go running out and buying this stuff, you need to know that you only have to use a small amount and if you use too much it will burn the plant’s leaves. As always, it is best to get a soil test before using any soil amendment.

Building these is pretty straight forward unless you want to get fancy and start making hexagons and octagons. Typically they are four sided and stand about two board widths tall.

Materials. If you want to use wood, get cedar or redwood and don’t use treated wood. These two woods stand up a long time against the wet soil typically found in gardens without rotting away. Pine is one of the worst materials, it can be used but plan on replacing it next year. Concrete or cinder blocks, bricks, or even bales of hay can be used. The thing about concrete blocks is that the lime content tends to leak into the soil. Lime is one of reasons our soil here is alkaline, so this is not always a good choice of material.

About pressure-treated wood, some people say that the treatment (which makes the wood rot and insect resistant) won’t bother your edible plants, but I figure why take the chance. We already have enough to worry about with our food chain, I am not going to add another possibility of contamination.

This bed, pictured here, is one of four, built of four 2”x6”x8’ cedar, cut in half and stacked two high. They are going through their fourth winter. I don’t plan on replacing these for another two to four years. Although I have heard reports of them lasting even longer. If they do, I will consider myself lucky. They cost me about fifteen dollars each for lumber and screws. Be sure to use galvanized so they don’t get rusty. This bed has eight pepper plants and one small lilac bush.

For the supports, I used two by fours but you could easily use one by twos. I cut the other end into a point so they could be hammered into the ground. Also, I placed about ten sheets of newspaper at the bottom of each to cover the grass growing there. It helps keep most of the grass out but I still occasionally have to pull some grass. I don’t consider it a major problem.

You can build them taller so you don’t have to bend over as far to get into them, but consider the extra amount of soil you have to add and the added pressure from all of that weight on the sides as they get taller. You can build a seat around all four sides or just one side, whatever suits your needs.

You can place PVC pipes on the outside, or inside before filling the beds up with soil, to hold hoops for row covers and for trellises. I’m planning on doing this within the next few months. Cut a length of 1" diameter PVC pipe just shorter than the height of the bed frame and attach it with 'U' screws to the bed sides. You then place the ends of a smaller diameter PVC pipe inside the larger pipe for support.

You can also build a cold frame the same size as the bed and attach this to the bed to help harden off transplants and to extend your growing season.

These boxes are pretty versatile.

To make them easily accessible from all sides they should be built no wider than 3’ to 4’. They can be about as long as you have space for them, but you do want to be able to walk around them so its impractical to make them too long. I had built two, many years ago, that were each eight feet long. Those worked pretty well because I didn’t have to walk real far to get around them.

This bed I built last year is 4’ by 14.5’ but it is up against the deck and I won’t have to access it from the back side. I put larger plants, Bee Balm and Phlox, along the back, to help camouflage the deck from the yard, and then shorter perennials up front.

Each fall, after pulling out all of the plants and tilling the soil with my pitchfork, I pile leaves and grass clippings on top, about 6” to 8” deep and let them breakdown over winter. In spring, I’ll pile about 3” to 5” composted steer manure on top and then till that in with my pitchfork. I have always had healthy fruitful crops this way.

If you want your beds to stand up to winter and remain easily workable then raised beds are the way to go.

Good gardening!

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Turning clay to workable soil, a progress report

I thought I would take this time to report on how well my clay soil is turning into workable garden soil. It is coming along quite nicely. When I first began planning these beds three years ago they were covered with grass and the occasional weed. Mainly bindweed and what I used to (until today) call buttonweed.

Just now I looked up buttonweed on the internet to provide a picture or a description link of it here and learned that what I thought was buttonweed is actually something else. I found Virginia Buttonweed and this clearly is not what I have. My education continues and now I have to figure out just what weed I do have. I swear it looks like a bunch of buttons on the end of each stem. So, what is it?

To date, I have converted 1,135 sq ft into eight perennial and four vegetable beds.

All four vegetable beds and two perennial beds are raised using untreated redwood and cedar lumber, to resist rot.

The remaining perennial beds are not raised but currently bordered with cherry wood logs partially buried. I plan on replacing them with stone or brick within the next few years.

Looking back on it, I can’t believe I have dug up this much soil. That is a lot of ground to cover with mulch and amend with compost every year.

I chose to experiment in preparing the beds by using three different methods, one, weed killer and then waiting until the soil was safe to use; two, digging the soil up with a shovel and pulling up grass for the next two years; and three, covering the area with newspaper over winter and then digging in the spring.

The weed killer is by far the easiest and quickest method but the prospect of poisoning the water table scared me. I read extensively about the product and decided it was safe. The product I chose to use was glyphosate. It is the main ingredient in RoundUp (produced by Monsanto), and since the patent ran out in 2000, there are now other products on the market that use it. I chose to use Hi-Yield Kill-Zall.

Glyphosate is non-toxic to humans and animals. Glyphosate moves through the weed to the root, and stops the function of an essential enzyme found in plants (but not in humans or other animals). Any Glyphosate not absorbed by plants breaks down into natural materials without moving in or on the soil to untreated plants. It is only effective on actively growing plants and breaks down over the course of ten days or so.

Weeds and grass will generally re-emerge with one to two months, so it doesn’t get rid of them completely but you now have a really good head start towards getting your garden in. If I want to start a bed quickly I will use this method again. But, I plan on having enough patience to let newspaper and mulch do the job.

Spreading newspaper over the ground and then laying mulch on top of that was pretty simple and effective but I had to wait over winter. Since I wasn’t going to plant anything for awhile this method worked pretty well.

Using a shovel was obviously the most labor intensive and after it was done the grass kept coming back for a couple of years until I had pulled up enough of it that I finally got all of the roots out.

The soil under the grass was fairly easy to work in and I added composted steer manure and shredded bark mulch over two years before finally planting anything. I used a rototiller in one bed but was told that it can create a hardpan beyond the reach of the tines so I won’t be doing that again.

Paul James, of Garden by the Yard, says it is okay to use a pitch fork to loosen the soil each year and I guess it will have to be an ongoing thing.

After all of this work on these beds I feel pretty confident that they are all life sustaining. I find fat worms and baby worms so that is a good indication that the soil is thriving.

Although I will never be free of weeds, don’t I wish and pray for that miracle, at least with enough good stuff growing in the beds most weeds will be crowded out and weeding should get better over time.

After all the work I have put into it, the soil is fairly easy to work in but I will need to add compost to it every fall.

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Unfinished projects, part one

Here’s an area that really needs work. I choose this area first because this is going to be the most labor intensive to get under control.

This picture, dated September 2006, was taken two years after we moved in. I did not have a clear plan for the space, other than knowing I did not want this tree and all of its suckers.

When we first moved in this plum tree was a ‘huge’ shrub and I had no idea what it was. I asked the neighbors but they didn't know either. The suckers had grown so tall and thick that the trunk wasn’t visible. For size reference, the fence posts are set ten feet apart and this thing covered the fence from one post to the other.

Within a month of moving in I cut everything down except the main tree, the trunks you see here. After clearing it back a bit I began finding tell-tale ‘fruit’ on the ground that looked like plums. They were a 'dusty' purple and not very well developed (see next photo). I attributed the smallish size of the fruit to the tree not being well-cared for. Perhaps this variety just produces fruit smaller than the standard plum.




I began tossing lawn clippings on the area thinking the decomposition of it would help loosen up the heavy clay soil.

Here is what it looked like in April of this year, before the suckers and bindweed have come up.



I’m still putting grass clippings on it, along with composted steer manure and digging it in. I had come up with a plan to replace the tree with a couple of tall and wide Viburnum. I ordered the Viburnum, one 'Aurora' (white) and a 'Red Wing' thinking they would be tall enough and wide enough to cover this section of fence by next Spring. At that time I would cut down the plum tree and all of its suckers.

Viburnum 'Aurora' before...









and after...









and what it would have looked like if it had survived my ineptitude.








Viburnum 'Red Wing' before...










and after...









and what it would have looked like. Ah well, they would have been beautiful.









I think the lesson here is that just because they are considered 'hardy' shrubs for my area, doesn't mean they don't need to be protected from the hot sun. I did expose them to the sun gradually, following the typical transplanting routine, i.e., a few hours of sun the first day and increasing sun exposure each day for a week before putting them into their permanent place. And I did water them a lot, although on reflection, maybe not often enough.

Another lesson is to pay a little extra to buy larger shrubs that would probably have had a better chance of getting established.

I will buy two more viburnum, the same ones again, and this time they will make it and my plan will have to be adjusted. Such is a gardeners lot.

In the mean time, there are two Lilac's maturing here until they get big enough to move somewhere a little more permanent.



And two squash 'Hybrid Gentry' crook-necked.





And one more plant, Spirea 'Little Princess'.



The open space in the above photo is as of today. I still need to figure out what will look good in front of two large Viburnum. This is the most difficult yet most fun part of gardening, is trying to decide what to plant.

Good garden design says I need to repeat what I already have planted, but there is so much more out there to plant that I just can't bring myself to be limited by what I already have. And I have to consider bloom times so I can have color during every season.

Maybe some Chrysanthemums, Geraniums, Bee Balm, Lilac....

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One transplant at a time

I love gardening, but my love is tested daily as I attempt to turn these lawn-filled, clay plots into flower-supporting, food-producing, horizontal compost piles. When we moved into this house, several years ago, there were four rose bushes (in sad shape), five evergreen shrubs (dying), five fruit trees (apple, cherry, peach, pear, plum, all in desperate need of pruning), a catalpa tree and a dogwood tree both in need of pruning. And all in desperate need of fertilizer. There was not one bit of mulch to be seen and the soil was hard-brick clay. Talk about your gardening challenge! The joy of having a clean slate to start with was not to be found here. I was faced with first getting what I had cleaned up and healthy before I could consider starting anything new.

I had never gardened in clay before, I had never grown roses or fruit trees either so I began reading, listening to garden talk shows on radio and television and visiting the many garden centers and nurseries surrounding me. I also visited the wonderful public gardens to see what grows here. Thankfully, the knowledge base concerning plants and landscaping has expanded greatly thanks to the internet and the ability to blog. All of the wonderful people who have given advice can only be summed up as golden. Thank-you all very much for sharing your pictures and advice. I wish I could thank each of you by name but given that I can't possibly remember all of you, I have tried to list as many as I can on my blogroll. The sum total of all of this knowledge I have gathered has given me the confidence to expand my gardening abilities and grow with my gardens. And now I want to share my mistakes and successes with all of you in hopes that some new gardener might learn and gain the confidence to start their own gardens.

While attempting to nurse everything back from the throes of death I immersed myself in the fantasy of drawing up plans. Many of you know what I mean, I was filled with the excitement of planning new and glorious flower beds and life-sustaining vegetable plots and sensuous herb gardens. Well, in the meantime, I had to learn what to do to get the clay soil into some usable state. So my hands were full and my ideas were flowing. I love learning new things!

I spent the first full year observing how everything grew here, where the sun and shade fell and taking note of different views from each window in the house. This was essential in order to determine where best to place all of the planned plants and hardscape I was planning. Many plans and bed designs have changed from the originals or should I say I have 'adjusted' them to better fit the reality of a budget and available space. To be modestly honest, my inadequacies and enthusiasm needed to be trimmed a bit.

The second year we added a deck to the back of the house and this provided at least two new corners and ideas for beds, one a shade garden, the other an herb garden.
At this time I began removing lawn to make five beds and began adding as much compost as we could afford. I also began covering the areas with small bark knowing it would help keep the soil cool in the hot summers that is part of Utah living. I was trying to get worms to come up closer to the surface so they could help loosen the soil. I couldn’t resist the urge to add some plantings so I put in a couple of Irises (which are one my favorite flowers), a Plumbago, and a clematis. All of which died by the next year. The clay was still too much for them to survive in. The lesson of patience had been taught and learned so it wasn't a total bust.

Two of the existing rose shrubs had to come out. They were not able to be saved, unfortunately, the other two are now blooming with beautiful red roses and, of course, the not so beautiful typical black-spot, powdery mildew and aphids. But these are getting less and less common because they are slowly getting under control.

The evergreens all had to come out. Neither my wife nor I cared for where they were planted nor did we care to have them in the yard, besides the fact they were mostly brown and not worth the trouble of saving. Sorry evergreen lovers, I just could not do it. Besides, removing them opened up two planned beds.

That Fall I began putting bulbs everywhere, mainly Tulips, Daffodils and Hyacinths and the following Spring they all brought much needed color to the otherwise drab landscape. The soil was beginning to loosen up but still needed more work. So, in went more compost and mulch and the worms were beginning to show up for work and have helped greatly.

One major enemy I have to deal with through all of this, and the prospects are good that I will be dealing with this for a very long time, is field bindweed. If you don’t have to fight this very prolific weed then you are indeed a lucky gardener. Not that there aren’t many other weeds to deal with, but this one has roots that can travel thirty feet! When you pull them they break off easily and come up again. If you don’t throw away what you did manage to pull up (in the trash can, not the compost pile!) they will sprout and start anew. If you till and break them each into ten separate pieces they will grow ten separate new plants. Whole articles have been written on just how to kill these things. Some articles say you will never completely get rid of it. Others offer more hope but lean more towards just surviving with it as opposed to completely eradicating it. To control it is basically a matter of timing. The only time spraying is effective is during Summer when they flower and on into the Fall as they store energy to make it through Winter. Glysophate (there are over 200 name brands that use this as their main ingredient, with the most notable being Round-Up) is probably the safest for humans. The smallest drop of it will kill any plant. So extreme caution is advised. But it breaks down within seven days of use and when it hits the soil it becomes inert. So, all in all not bad for an herbicide.

One local Master Gardener I heard of feeds the plant into plastic bottles without breaking them off and allows them to grow there. In June, as they begin flowering, he cuts the bottom of the bottle open and sprays Glysophate on them until they are completely soaked. This is the time of year they take the Glysophate down into the roots and die. They are so prolific that he will be doing this every year, but at least there is some hope of getting it under control. Of course, you can always count on neighbors who don’t garden and don’t care if it survives in their yards. This means that it will always come back.

This year, in January, I decided to buy one of those ‘complete’ gardens you see in catalogs to put in one of my full-sun beds. It is a butterfly/hummingbird garden. So when Spring came around I covered the bed with composted steer manure and more compost and an all-purpose fertilizer and then tilled it all in. When the plants arrived about a month later the plot was fairly easy to dig and so I planted all 51 plants. This planting took place just three days ago and the weather has been pretty much perfect for it. 50s to 60s daytime and down into upper 30s to lower 40s at night. Occasional rain. Mostly overcast.

I am keeping my fingers crossed and getting the irrigation system prepared because I think this Summer is going to be hotter and dryer than usual. Our snow pack in the Wasatch Mountains is below normal so water will definitely become a problem towards the end of Summer.

I love life, and gardening is such a wonderful expression of ‘love of life’. When we can spread hope in this way it shows that we are doing more than just taking up space on this planet.

So, I hope you join me in my journey deeper into gardening as I try to tame the clay and beautify our world one transplant at a time.

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Continuing soil improvement

In my effort to combat the clay and improve drainage in my perennial beds I have tilled in: 7 cu ft of Clay buster (compost mix), 8 cu ft Composted Steer Manure, 2 cu ft, Supersoil Potting mix (potting soil with fertilizer).

To this, I have added 12 lbs (14 cups), All-purpose 10-10-10 fertilizer and 1 lb blood meal.

All of this went into two unplanted beds, total 400 sq feet.

I will need to add more but will let this 'break down' and 'work in' a little first. After adding all of this I water area really well and leave it sit.

I shouldn't have to feed anything once I have planted in for about 3-4 months.

I also prepared a long bed, about 70 feet long and 18" wide along my north fence to put sunflowers and a couple of vines in. I tilled the area with composted steer manure and clay buster.

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Today's theme is soil improvement

With clay soil, this theme will be repeated over and over, every year, for a very long time.

First, the easy part, I plan on starting a routine spreading of Nutri-Mulch into every bed. This is actually Turkey manure. Utah has a very large number of Turkey farms about 50 miles south of where I live. I like buying locally so this works out real well. the NPK rating is 1.75-1.0-1.25 and it is loaded with trace minerals that all plants need.



I'm starting with the four raised beds, which measure 4' by 4' and are 10" deep so I'll add about 1 cu ft each and mix in well.
I built these beds in March 2005 for vegetables. The soil stayed loose over the winter without being covered and is very nice and workable. I'm thinking of making row covers and a cold frame to extend the season in spring and into winter.

The perennial beds pose a different challenge. I spread Nutri-mulch into the front two beds, F1 (100 sq ft) and F3 (64 sq ft), as well as one of the three in the backyard, B3 (262 sq ft), about 2 cu ft. The beds still need much more but this all I have on hand.

The large Wood Hyacinths are beginning to come up. I put these in last Fall and it is a welcome site for something to start showing.

I moved the floribunda Rose 'Honey Perfume' from its place in the backyard, in front of the shed, to a similar location in the front yard in front of the house.



I had planted this rose, in the backyard, the same day I planted the floribunda Rose 'Tuscan Sun', in the front yard but the 'Honey Perfume' did not like its home nearly as well. I think maybe the micro climate it was a little drier in front of the shed even though both locations are south facing, against vinyl siding and get full sun.

I probably need to incorporate a little more organic matter to the bed in front of the shed. There's that mantra again, 'more organic matter'. You can never have too much!

Tore out the Salvia Plumosa from the front perennial bed in F3 and threw it away. This photo was taken last July. By the end of the year it had gotten ratty looking and not very healthy. I liked it at first but I don't think I could give it enough room to spread like it wants to do.

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First entry

Temperature went a little crazy today, started at 6:00 AM at 45F and then slowly dropped to 36F as the day progressed and is predicted to be even lower, into the 20's by tonight.
Found Box Elder bugs crawling around the back shed so I sprinkled a little Carbaryl just inside the shed door, trying to keep them out.
I started prepping the garden for this years plantings by dumping some Nutri-Mulch over the Rose bed at the front of the house. It is supposed to help break-up the clay.

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