IT WILL SOON BE LAST CALL around here, though an Indian summer has lulled me into inattention to some about-to-be-urgent chores. My houseplants have been indoors since an early scare last month, but there are miles to go before the garden’s tender things sleep. A two-part podcast and some links to help you on your way to overwintering tender plants–in case you, like me, didn’t get ready last month when we sounded the first call.Listen in a 2-Part Podcast
IF YOU HAVEN’T even started bringing in your houseplants or are in a warmer zone, the first part of the discussion talked about taking stock of what needs storing and evaluating and prepping potential overwintering spaces at your home. I recapped that quickly yesterday in Part 2, then got on to specifics how to store dahlias, cannas, elephant ears and more. You can always subscribe to the free podcast on iTunes. (Select the September 12 and October 17 shows from among the weekly programs I do with Robin Hood Radio, the nation’s smallest NPR affiliate, in nearby Sharon, Connecticut.)
Part 1 (September 12 edition Part 2 (October 17 edition) Other Pushing-the-Zone Experiments
REMEMBER, it’s always an experiment–but it’s worth trying to carry over treasures from one year to the next rather than composting them now. From the archives and elsewhere, some plant-specific tactics to inspire your efforts:
Japanese maples, top photo (or other marginally hardy shrubs and small trees) in pots How I grow Zone 8 Farfugium (Ligularia, above) and other tender perennials in Zone 5B Fancy-leaf begonias, indoors and out Overwintering “elephant ears” such as Colocasia esculenta Wrapup of all my overwintering tips An exhaustive plan from “Fine Gardening” magazine for how one gardener does it
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Can I grow acai berry trees? Often compared to the blueberry for its similar nutritional benefits, acai products made from this trendy superfood have been finding their way onto grocery store shelves. But due to their short shelf life, fresh berries are difficult to purchase outside acai berry growing zones. Learn all about how to grow acai berries at home.
You may not have heard of the hyporheic zone (HZ) or be able to see it, but it’s an integral part of our freshwater ecosystems and has a lot to do with keeping our streams healthy! The HZ is a transitional area where groundwater and surface water meet. It’s made up of sediments, large and small, but is porous enough to allow the exchange of nutrients, dissolved oxygen, and water. The main movements through the HZ are upwelling and downwelling. Upwelling occurs when water from groundwater moves upward, while downwelling is the movement of surface water toward the groundwater. But water doesn’t just flow through the HZ briefly back and forth; water and its associated materials have a specific residence time in the HZ. This allows pollutants and nutrients to be removed, protecting water quality. Many of these processes are performed by bacteria. Besides bacteria, small invertebrates live in the HZ. Aquatic species like mites and small crustaceans like isopods and amphipods hang out here. And when things get rough in the stream during drought, flooding, and temperature extremes, it becomes a refuge for many species.
FEELING AT A LOSS FOR SOMETHING TO DO, I ADDED TO MY SCHEDULE. A weekly radio podcast, to be specific, with my neighbors down the road apiece at a local NPR affiliate, WHDD, in Sharon, Connecticut.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE WRITTEN to say you enjoy the radio podcasts I create with Robin Hood Radio (NPRs newest and smallest affiliate, and just down the road from me in Ruralville, USA here). Marshall, Jill and I do have fun with our Monday-morning conversations–but you can listen anytime.
WOO-HOO! MY FRIENDS AT WHDD in Sharon, Connecticut, aka Robin Hood Radio, just called to say our A Way to Garden podcasts are not just on iTunes but also on an RSS feed. Easy, peasy, to tune in to.
CO-HOST AND GARDEN DESIGNER CARMEN DEVITO really got me going on the popular weekly “We Dig Plants” show on Heritage Radio Network the other day, when she asked me to think back–now four-plus years–about my journey from the city life of my past to the here-and-now of living in the garden. Apparently I shared such wisdoms as: “With things that you treasure, whether it’s a person, a thing or plant, sometimes you can hold it a little too close and suffocate it.
YES, PLEASE; HAVE YOUR WAY WITH MY LAWN, TOO; I hear you, Andre. As much as I basically like to mow, I don’t like it as much as the grass apparently liked to grow this wet, cool year.
IKNOW IT’S TOO LATE FOR HELP with the freakish October storm that flattened the woody plants here last weekend, but I have a hunch those of us in snow country will be needing tips for helping the garden through storms to come. After all, winter hasn’t even started yet (evidence outside my window, where it hasn’t melted yet, to the contrary).
Once they have dropped their leaves and gone dormant, after a good hard freeze or so, I get out the hand cart and engage a brave friend. We say our prayers, then wheel them one by one over my hilly garden, down to the unheated barn.I will certainly meet my end someday under one of these big pots, when I am manning the downhill side of this hauling operation.I make sure that they are well-watered during the fall, so that they go into storage well-hydrated—and therefore less prone to dessication while in there. No water is offered in the coldest months, when the soil and the trees inside the building are mostly frozen, but I start checking around February, once the
BROWN PATCHES of lawn and garden widen daily, and the “grass” is now a minefield of yellow-jacket nests. Ouch! But the hummingbirds dance around me while I weed, and the tadpoles have suddenly hatched into dozens of tiny frogs (boing, boing, boing!) and an older frog poses on a begonia leaf…and I’m grateful to be here, anyhow, if a little tired and crispy.My Gratitude List, in PodcastLISTEN TO my Dog Days Gratitude List on the latest podcast I do each week with Robin Hood Radio, WHDD in Sharon, Connecticut, the smallest NPR station in the nation.
IT FEELS LIKE TOMATO-HARVEST SEASON here, what with 85 degrees dipping to a chilly 60 at night, but in fact we’re just coming up on tomato-sowing season (I do it April 15 here). Tricks for tomato sowing and growing, including what to do to prevent diseases this year, formed the topic for this week’s A Way to Garden radio podcast on Robin Hood Radio (WHDD-Sharon, Connecticut).