Baptisia australi September 21, 2008
My math professor, Nancy, was kind enough to bring in bags full of False Indigo seed pods off her plant at home. I’ve been considering using this native perennial for cut flowers and am excited to have so much seed to get transplants of my own started for next year, both in my garden and at the farm. It blooms in early summer before a lot of the mainstays of cut flowers are out. The seed pods might also be useful in less traditional arrangements. I am on the hunt for as many native perennial cut flowers as possible so if you know of any I should be considering, please leave a comment.
Thamnocalamus tessellatus September 20, 2008
Clumping South African bamboo that’s tolerant of full sun and grows to about 12 feet high. I’m considering using it for a shading screen so I can experiment in my current garden with shade plants that might make good cut flowers. This experiment is important since I have lots of shaded woodland edges around Weavers Way Farm where I’m helping out with flowers for market.
Talinum paniculatum September 19, 2008
I love this plant in the annual beds in the Idea Garden. It’s one I definintely want to try as an alternative/funky cut flower, especially for fall when its berries ripen.
Endings and Beginnings September 19, 2008
This evening I pulled up the rutabaga. All of it. And with a heavy heart, I saw one after the other come out looking like nothing more than sad radishes, not the plump round grapefruite-size root I love to eat. Their executioners were even still clinging to the stumps.
In the same bed, after preping with compost and bone meal, I finally put out the rhubarb transplants I’d been growing on from seed since early summer. Growing rhubarb from seed is not recommended by…well, pretty much everyone…but I wanted to see what it was like. Apparently seed propogation is not usually “successful” because the plants do not come true to their parent stock. But the way I looked at it, as long as it tasted like rhubarb, I really didn’t care if it was “true” or some wacky hybrid.
The only downside so far of growing it from seed is the distinct lack of guidance on what to do with it after you’ve got a sturdy transplant. I had already transplanted them to nice big deep pots earlier in the summer so they could put on more roots. But I wasn’t sure if I should hold them over in pots during the winter and plant in the spring, or if I should put them out in the late summer or fall. Since I have almost a dozen transplants and I really don’t want that many rhubarb plants in my garden when it’s all said and done, I decided to do a trial by fire experiment. I planted out three this evening and I’ll hold over several of the others in pots in case these that have been put out now don’t make it. I’ll be sure to report back on my findings so other would-be-rhubarb-seed-propagators might have some more concrete information at their fingertips.
AGH! September 18, 2008
I can not begin to express how much I hate harlequin bugs. I have never had to deal with them before. I guess I was just really lucky to always be growing in an area that hadn’t been infested with them. Apparently they don’t like urban farms and the colder winters in central Pennsylvania. In any case, they DO like my vegetable plot here at Longwood.
I had control of them though with my super advanced technology…a dustbuster and a tupperware of soapy water. You may be laughing, but it worked! The damage was tolerable if I went out and sucked them up every day.
Then the weekend came and I went home to Philly.
Monday morning, I strolled down my garden path to discover utter destruction! The rutabaga was dead as a doorknob. The mustard was on its last breath and has since succumbed entirely. I’m so angry because rutabaga and mustard are two of my favorite vegetables to eat in the fall and now I’ll have neither. Actually, I’m hoping maybe I’ll have some rutabaga still. I haven’t dug it up just yet as I was working on prepping my ornamental beds for an evaluation today, but I hope there are some salvageable (no doubt small) rutabagas under those sad crispy stalks.
A Trio September 16, 2008
There’s a combination of three plants in my garden that I really like together, both for color and texture. The combo includes Salvia splendens ‘Vista Purple’ back dropped by Dahlia hybrida ‘Melody Lisa’ and Angelonia angustifolia ‘Angelface White’. The deep dense collection of purple from the Vista Purple anchors the airy taller spikes of Angelface White and the discs of sunny pink yellow on the Melody Lisa. The plants have grown in to each other nicely with matching green foliage creating an island of solid color on which all the colors of the flowers float.
I don’t think I would like any of these plants nearly as much if they were standing solitary in the garden. In fact, another Angelface White just a few feet away doesn’t catch my attention nearly as much since it isn’t harmonizing with a similar trio of complimentary plants. The other reason I like this particular trio is that its been very easy to grow. Each plant requires a quick round of deadheading about once a week, but otherwise, they have been maintenance-free and resistant to pests. I might play off this trio next year with the same combination of genera, but trying different cultivars for a new color combo such as red, orange and white.
On another note, I decided to add the China aster transplants to my garden after all. I’d been holding six back in pots for no particular reason other than I didn’t have room for them in the garden at the time they should have gone in – around June. Now, ironically, in late September, I”m desperate for something to fill a few growing holes in my gardenscape. Since the asters were blooming nicely, I figured they’d at least impart some color for a week or two even if they don’t survive the stress of being transplanted so late.
Lessons Learned: Ground Cherries September 16, 2008
UPDATED for 2009 Growing Season
Since this is such a popular article, I thought it best to make an update based off my experiences growing this plant for a second – and very different – season. This year was very rainy and cool in my garden (versus 2008 when it was very hot and dry), with only one real week of hot temperatures in August, though even that was tempered by regular thunder storms. As such, the ground cherry plants did not fair well at all. Whereas last season they were robust and invincible, producing bushels of fruit, this year they were so stunted and ravaged by Colorado potato beetle grubs that I ripped out all the plants that I purposefully sowed. As the season progressed, hundreds of volunteer plants came up, many of which I weeded out. I did leave a few once I realized the plants I’d sown were goners. These volunteer plants faired much better health-wise, but they still did not fruit well. What fruit was coming off of them was deformed, the husk clinging to the fruit and somewhat wrinkly. I found it unappealing and disappointing.
But there is hope! I grew one plant in a container on my sun-baked deck and it did well, though fruiting was not as plentiful as I expected so I think these plants do better in pairs for pollination purposes. The fruit on the deck plant was also deformed during the chilly rainy periods but once the sun got hot for a few days, I’d see normal fruit ripening once again. Beyond the heat and better drainage, there are two other distinct benefits to growing these plants in containers on solid surfaces. For starters, harvesting the fallen fruit is much easier. And secondly, there should be no mass of volunteers (i.e. weeds) next year unless the birds have picked them up and tossed them onto some soil somewhere (I didn’t notice any bird grazing though).
Please do share your own experiences with growing Physalis pruinosa below!
2008 (original post)
These plants are really tough and relatively pest-free. If you’re growing ground cherries, like I will be again next year, there are a few key cultural practices that need to be observed to keep both you and your plants happy. First, be sure to stake the plants! Actually, I think it might be more useful to create a rope “fence” around them rather than staking them. See, ground cherries like to splay open later in the season when they get heavy with fruit and/or when heavy rains hit them. A sturdy swath of string or twine surrounding them would keep the plants upright and in check while still making harvest relatively easy. Individual stakes might be dangerous (poke your eye out when bending down to pick up the fruit) and/or restrict the plants too much (you need to push the plants around a bit to find the fruit on the ground below them).
Second, I would highly recommend putting down fabric or plastic landscape mulch prior to planting as this makes harvesting the fruit that’s dropped on the ground (and it all will drop on the ground eventually) a relatively mess-free activity. Next year I believe I will also try laying a few rags or old row covers on the ground below the plants. My hopes is that in this way I can collect the fallen fruit faster by just grabbing the corners of each cloth and picking up all the fallen fruit on each piece at once instead of picking up one fruit at a time (that was fun for the first 10 minutes but quickly got old).
And finally, I won’t have as many next year. These plants are prolific producers and are still putting on new blossoms here in mid-September and forming new fruit. I’ve already collected at least two bushels and probably will get another two if the weather holds. I’d say unless you are selling the fruit or really a fan of ground cherry jam, two or three plants would be plenty for a family of four.
Speaking of ground cherry jam, I made some and find it really good. I also made a lovely pie out of them. And I have plans to try drying a big batch of them as I read online that dried ground cherries sell for $20 a pound in Portland and I want to know what all the fuss is about. Still, I think my favorite way to eat them is raw, cut up and tossed with vanilla yogurt.
Decisions and Indecision – Vegetables September 11, 2008
As I detailed in the previous post, tropical storm Hanna left its mark on the area, dumping nearly three inches of rain and blowing gusty winds of 30+ mph. In addition to the damage it caused in my cutting garden, the storm ran rampant among the vegetables. The victims that suffered the most were the peppers and ground cherries. The tomatoes are also a bit splayed, but I can’t with certainty attribute that to the storm since they had been flagging already here at the end of the summer.
The damage to the peppers was the most disheartening. See, my peppers have been struggling (that’s putting it lightly) with Phytophthora Blight since nearly the day they went into the ground. I believe the transplants had the disease when I got them. In any case, these five plants have only produced two sizable peppers all summer. I’d meant to pull them out a few times but figured I didn’t have anything else I wanted to put in there so I just let them do their thing, cleaning away their wilted leaf litter every few days to keep the disease from spreading around. On Labor Day, I noticed the plants had put on a nice flush of blossoms and looked a lot perkier than ever before. Wouldn’t you know it, there were at least a half dozen fruit setting on it going into last weekend and it looked like more were on the way. Then the storm hit and toppled them, even sheering off a few stems here and there.
To make matters worse, I returned from the weekend to find the deer had had a party in my garden, taking liberties to use my Swiss chard and sweet potato vines as snacks. I didn’t mind so much about the sweet potatoes since they’ve ambitiously taken over their own row and the row beside them. But the Swiss chard is a different story. The picture should speak for itself.
The rutabaga is having a tough time of it too with the onslaught of the harlequin bugs. I’ve been using a dustbuster to try to suck off as many of them as possible and dump them in soapy water. It seems very affective immediately afterwards but then the next day there’s just as many more. Thank goodness I’m not growing the rutabaga for its leaves. Still, I do worry how the roots are managing without much photosynthetic action to build them up.
So, now that you know all about the damage, it’s time to walk you through what I plan to do in response to all the vegetative destruction in my vegetable plot. First, I’m going to attempt to tie up the ground cherries in bunches (no stakes) that will hopefully support themselves long enough to finish their harvest. Since the cherries fall to the ground, it’s impossible to pick them when the plants are laying in a thick mat on top of the ripe ones.
I have already propped up as best I can the peppers. Some seem to be managing, some not so much. At the end of this week, I’ll pull the ones that don’t seem to be responding. The tomatoes I’m going to just leave alone. If I try to pull one out or tie them back again, I think I’ll just do more harm than good since they are so entwined with each other. I’m not ready to say goodbye to tomato season just yet so I’ll give them two or three weeks more and then rip them all at once. As for the chard, since I have mustard and endive coming on now, I feel I have enough leaf vegetables to keep me happy so I’ll just rip out the chard. Truth be told, I’m getting a bit tired of it now anyway after four months of harvesting these same plants.
It’s interesting how this storm and the damage it left in its wake has alter my mind’s eye in the garden. Now, instead of promise of harvests to come, I’m much more inclined to survey my garden and think about how I’m going to start putting it to bed for the winter. I’m trying to decide on the right cover crop and how much compost to turn into the soil once the rows are clear.
Decisions and Indecision – Flowers September 11, 2008
Over this past weekend (Sept 6th), tropical storm Hanna left its mark on the area, dumping nearly three inches of rain between lunchtime and dinnertime and blowing gusty winds of 30+ mph. As you might guess, Hanna did more than toss around a few wayward trashcans and lawn chairs. But it also took a heavy toll on my garden. In the cutting garden, it toppled several cosmos and a few zinnias. The excess moisture has induced entirely too damp of conditions around my dahlias which are now showing signs of stress. And either the storm or the damp has caused my nasturtiums to splay open.
All of this damage is unfortunate, but it is September and the garden on its descent back to bed. Normally I’d just rip the toppled plants out, cut back the splayed ones and let the damp have its way with the others. But here’s my problem: evaluation numero dos. That’s right, the second garden evaluation for the PG student gardens is coming up next week. My normal course of action might not be the best for getting a nice review of my gardening maintenance skills since it will leave giant holes in my gardenscape and plant health wouldn’t be at its optimal level.
To add to the quandary, or rather, to tip the scales further in the direction of salvaging rather than finishing off the damage already done by the storm, I have been tapped to provide flower arrangements for a special event at the end of this month. I need those cosmos and zinnias at the very least.
So after some mental volleyball, I decided to only pull out two of the worst cosmos and cut off the snapped branches from the rest and re-staked them, hoping they’ll re-flush by the end of the month to provide some more blooms. Same went for the zinnias. As for the dahlias and the excess moisture, another substantial rain event yesterday didn’t help with that battle. I’ve pulled away some of the mulch from around their roots but the leaf canopy over them is too dense at this point to really encourage any evaporation. The best I can hope for is some hot sunny days in the near future that raise transpiration in the leaves and suck the water out of the ground more quickly. As for the nasturtiums, I will cut them back, rather severely I expect, and see what happens. They like cool weather so they may very well recover and have a luscious end to the growing season.
