The Sandhills

Joy in Joy

Yesterday I was able to work for a wonderful kind lady in her upper 70's, frail due to a long recovery from a broken leg which followed a surgery. Her yard/garden is beautiful but obviously has not received attention the last 2-3 years. Rather than give up in despair this lady has decided to do what she enjoys, which is garden, and she does quite a lot herself, despite bad arthritis in her hand, shingles, and need of a cane.

But she needs help. The yard is indeed too much for her as it is.

Her joy in seeing the garden "come back" is palpable. My job is to do all the needed pruning of overgrown plants and then also to go into her deep very sunny back beds (It was hot as hell yesterday) and get rid of the 6-7 species of vines, all the volunteer trees, and generally make safe spaces for her to start over planting what she loves. Yes, start over. She plans to get stronger and to do more than she does now.

We share a common love for four o'clocks. Anyone who loves four o'clocks is a friend of mine.

People say to me that is good that I get to do what I love. I do like plants and I like working outside. But what I really love is making a difference in the lives of my clients, more and more of whom I now consider to be my friends. And if the client is in his or her late years, the possibility of them having peace and joy in their favorite space surrounded by a history of living and planting is deeply rewarding to me.

I'm really not in the gardening business so much as the joy business...

Hydrangea

Today I walked into the backyard of a house a block down in order to do some pruning. The homeowner said it was a mess. So I walked through the gate and found myself almost speechless. It was beautiful mostly due due to the 4-5 kinds of hydrangeas blooming everywhere, none of which were the standard blue macrophylla.

Here is a picture  of the pink oak leaf hydrangea blossom taken with my iPhone.

There were also snow white mopheads...

And a white lacecap with bees going crazy, seriously, acting hyper crazed...

There was a delicate lavender lacecap just about to bloom. Didn't get a pic of that one. The overall effect was WOW!

Wisteria

Life is being in the present, looking to the future, remembering the past - all of these. We live in some combination of engagement, hope, and remembrance. Sometimes we want to reach back and reclaim pieces of the past, a past often symbolized by common things, like a vine over a door...When we were present in that past, we often wished we could close our eyes and stay in that moment forever. I felt that every single day with my young children...Anyway, here is a song about lives past, symbolized as it were, by a vine...

 

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Test post from iPhone

Happy Summer

It is June the 1st and I say "Happy Summer" to you, though what "summer" exactly is is about anyone's guess. 

Culturally we tend to think of summer as the time period between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend, inclusive. I like that definition. 

Astronomically of course summer starts at the summer equinox, or June 20 or 21. I always thought it was odd to start summer on the day that daylight begins to diminish. 

In the "weather" or meteorological" view that predominates in many parts of the northern hemisphere, summer consists of the months of June, July, and August. This was always how I looked at it growing up, well, until the school year started to eat up more and more of summer.

What makes logical sense in many ways is to go by average length of daylight, which would mean that the very middle of summer would be the summer solstice on June 21 (midsummer's night), with summer starting 6 1/2 weeks before that and ending 6 1/2 weeks after. We would do the same for winter, putting it 6 1/2 weeks on each side of December 21. 

Unfortunately the weather does not cooperate with this approach, since this would have summer starting in early May - barely Spring in some places north of us. We can thank the seasonal weather "lag" for this lack of scheduling cooperation. It takes a while for things to heat up and cool down. This is more or less due to the very high specific heat of water (aren't you glad to know that!). It takes water a longer time to heat up and cool down than about anything else, so, even when air temps are rising due to longer days and more direct sunshine, water absorbs a lot of this heat energy creating the lag in general temperature increases. And since there is a lot more water than land in the world, the "seasonal" association of summer with higher temperatures does not exactly follow the convenient midsummer night's definition. 

I'll go with June, July, and August myself. 

And by any measure I was a summer baby...

Fall Red Bud

Late Fall Gardening

Dear Gardening Friends,

September and October have come and gone, as has Thanksgiving, and here we are three weeks before the Winter's Solstice (after which the days get longer and we begin to anticipate Spring), and then of course Christmas. I think of this time period in Columbia as being late fall regardless of the official definitions of the seasons. And late fall is a wonderful time for gardening.

Before I go on, please do remember to water. Despite recent rains I have rarely seen the ground so dry around here, and it is easy to forget to water when it is so much cooler outside.

 

This fall has been beautiful as far as fall flowers go - ageratum, plumbago, Russian and Mexican sage, Mexican petunia, autumn clematis, leopard plant, sunflowers, day lilies, zinnias, vinca lasting all the way until mid November, knock out roses and so forth. And now we have camellia sasanqua and early/fall blooming camellia japonica! I wonder what has been blooming in your yard this fall that may not be on my list?

The other day I enjoyed listening to the high pitched scree of a hawk pair flying all around the Forest Hills area. I don't know if hawks are more abundant in winter here, or just more noticeable. Lot's of reptiles are already in hibernation or partial hibernation. I'm always digging up skinks and ground snakes this time of year.

Some days after work is done I take a a few pictures of flowers and such - and you can check them out on my Flickr site in a set called Scenes from Work.

I suspect with all the stuff to do for Christmas, and given the cold purported to be descending upon us soon, that a lot of us take a break from thinking about our gardens. But there are actually some useful things to do in the garden in the late fall.

Late fall is a super time to transplant. Now that the nighttime temps are approaching freezing plants are falling to sleep and going into dormancy (kind of like animal hibernation) - which means first that there is less transpiration going on (none in deciduous trees and shrubs obviously) and that much less demand being put on the roots by the leaves to get water (for photosynthesis), and second, that the plant is not going to sprout new shoots and buds if it is cut back somewhat. This means that when we transplant at this time of year it is much less traumatic for the plant. But plant roots do grow slowly over the winter and so that when the weather does heat up in the Spring and the plant comes out of dormancy it has had a chance for its roots to set and is in better shape to survive its first summer.

Late fall is also a very good time to plant shrubs and trees, many fruit trees, some hardy perennials, and a good time to dig, divide and transplant some bulbs.

Late fall is a good time to get rid of vines and tree saplings that have been taking over the garden. Even with deciduous vines it is actually quite easy to see them this time of year, and much easier to see some evergreen vines.

Now is a perfect time to take out English ivy. English ivy is an ongoing maintenance challenge and it also competes with shrubs for water and nutrients. It is also one of the most damaging invasive plants in southern forests. Pulling ivy is good to do any time - but is less stressful on the plants around it when the pulling is done in cooler weather.

I have noticed more and more how leaves and straw accumulate in the crowns of azaleas. Azaleas do not like this and this time of year affords and good time to clean out the dead wood and accumulated debris around the azalea plant. The same is true of hydrangeas.

Late fall is a good time to apply mulch to boxwood, azaleas, camellias and many other shrubs, especially after cleaning out old plant litter and dead wood. Since it also a good time to apply a light feeding to many shrubs (to help root growth over the winter), some folks like to use a mulch like Dixie Mix, or to sprinkle a slow release granular fertilizer in with say shredded hardwood bark (my favorite mulch for around here).

Late fall can be the right time to prune or cut back unsightly overgrown foundation plants, especially those whose flowering buds are not already set. One could argue that February is better, but if you just don't want to look at an overgrown or unsightly bush or row of bushes all winter it won't do any harm to prune them now since the plant is dormant. Boxwood too can be selectively pruned now to allow in more light and air which will stimulate bud growth in early Spring.

Late fall is a good time to start to get the ground ready for a spring planting of vegetables. Bacteria and worms don't stop working in our mild winters when the soil rarely freezes, and late fall is an active time for worms and bacteria to work on decomposing leaves and enriching soil. Turning the soil in a planting bed, especially if it has some leaves or leaf litter can be a good way to prep the soil for an early spring planting.

And did I mention collards?

Late fall is a good time to get that compost pile going! We tend to take a large amount of plant material out to the street, much of which would be super for a compost bin.There is nothing quite as rewarding as homegrown compost!

So many of you have plants and shrubs that are easy to propagate via rooting and grafting (especially the former), and these could easily fill out your yards over time with new plantings from your own stock. All that is needed is a good rooting bed and/or rooting pots. This was my grandmother's way and it is a good one. I think for example of many of the old camellias and azaleas that many of us love and which are getting harder to find these days. And what a wonderful way to share our special plants with friends!

A word about my suppliers...As you know I primarily use Cooper's Nursery for trees and shrubs and many perennials. I go WAY back with Coopers and very much enjoy working with them. If Cooper's cannot get a certain plant in a needed time frame I have no problem getting plants elsewhere, but Cooper's is my go to supplier.  For a lot of my work in the Forest Acres area I use Forest Lake Gardens at the back of the old Forest Lake Shopping Center for pine straw and annuals and bagged soil amendment products. I am attached to the locale as I grew up working right across the street where my grandmother's Norge Village and my dad's Gillespie Cleaners used to be. In fact, the building that is the office of Forest Lake Gardens used to be the drive through building for my very first bank - the old First Citizens. And for jobs in the Heathwood or Shandon/Hollywood-Rose Hill areas I may also use Southern Vistas in a similar manner. Of course there are other really excellent locally owned and operated garden centers and nurseries such as Hay Hill, Woodley's and Mill Creek to name a few, and I wish them every success. I've just sort of settled into the folks I "trade" with, to use the phrase my grandmother used to use.

In addition, more and more I am trying to buy basic supplies from local businesses rather than Lowe's or Wal-Mart or Home Depot. I have nothing against these places - I just want to try to support local businesses. I buy a lot of things from Cedar Terrace Hardware across from the VA Hospital and more recently the Ace Hardware on Beltline as well.

My biggest joy in this work is seeing so many folks enjoying their yards and gardens more, and anxiety eased by taking care of often overwhelming tasks. We live in a special place with beautiful pine-hardwood forests and a rich history of gardening, reaching well back into the 18th century. I find it fascinating the continuity between then and now, a continuity that often runs right through the gardens of our parents and grandparents. In fact this continuity extends back to the time of our indigenous forbears! We know this from the earliest European explorers of our area (like Hernando DeSoto, and the later naturalist explorers like Mark Catesby and John Lawson and William Bartram) who chronicled native plants and the way which they were used by indigenous peoples. It's cool to think of the history of human enjoyment of that very plant sitting there in our yard, as well as the place of that plant in the ecosystem going way back eons of time. Kind of cool really.

I hope you enjoy and have a blessed late fall season! Joel

Hurray for September

I’ve always loved September.

I even like the name of it, how it rolls off the tongue.

I think I love those first hints of fall even more than fall itself, you know, that breeze that carries a different smell, air that seems a bit drier, and a touch a coolness unexpectedly on a Saturday morning.

I love the pennant races in baseball, and the hoopla surrounding the new football season.

I like the woods in September. There is always so much going on as plants and bugs and other creatures start to get ready for the coming winter.

I probably like September more now that I don’t have to “go back to school” as in my early years. That always kind of stunk!

I dig equinoxes, and September has one, the autumnal equinox, when the sun rises true east and sets true west, the first official day of fall.

I have a soft spot for Neil Diamond's September Morn.

I like gardens in September, the blooming of the late season flowers, so many plants going to seed, brave butterflies passing through or laying eggs, life preparing to survive the coming winter, the beginning of leaf drop - especially for tulip poplars, sour woods, and this year - oddly early - dogwoods...

I like the poem “thirty days hath September…”

I like the stubble of September fields harvested.

I have a new friend with a September birthday...

John Updike published a calendar for children, each month with a short poem. Here is the poem for September:

The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.

September has been a rough month this new century – Katrina and 9/11 come to mind. Yet September seems to be a quiet month overall, one that sort of passes with little notice. It is sort of an in between month, tucked between its bigger sisters of August and October.

My family has three important birth dates in September. My grandmother, Nanny, was born on September 9th, 1902. I miss you Nanny. My sister Mary was also born in September - September 16th. And, also on September 16th, my beautiful niece Rachel was born, her life, like a passing September, fleeting and beautiful. We miss you Rachel.

For Iris Dement, September in its quiet unassuming passing reminds her of the quiet passing of her life:

My life, it don't count for nothing.
When I look at this world, I feel so small.
My life, it's only a season:
A passing September that no one will recall.

OK, that’s a bit of a downer.

The change of the season from summer to fall, and from fall to winter, used to make me sad. It doesn’t anymore.

I like September. You won’t need to wake me up when September ends; I wouldn't miss this month for the world!

July Gardening

Greetings Gardening Friends,

Well, we got through the worst of the heat wave but just barely for some plants and critters. Now we're back to the familiar mid-nineties and high humidity that we here in Columbia have all come to know and love.

I wrote to you last week about watering during this heat wave and have pasted in that note below. I want to add something here about irrigation systems and shrubs. I have noticed a tendency folks have pretty much everywhere to irrigate too often and not deep enough. Irrigating too often may cause the ground to be damp more often than it should be, inviting fungal diseases. Irrigating too shallowly does not allow water to get to the deeper roots, and also trains the plant roots to stay on the surface to grab water before it evaporates. What I have just written is true of lawn irrigation, but is even more true regarding the irrigation of shrubs and perennials and trees. Generally I would say irrigate less often and for a longer time period (more deeply). Try to avoid irrigating in the late afternoon since this will keep the ground moist all evening promoting fungus growth. For those who have a timed drip irrigation system in their beds, I would also suggest irrigating more deeply and less often. Mulch  really helps water retention of course.

Speaking of mulch, this is one time of year when it is especially needed. 

This time of year is one of strong growth in plants. It is a venus-fly-trap eat venus-fly-trap world out there, and plants are trying to make as much food as they can, which also means  that they are devoting some of that energy to making even more leaves for making even more food. More leaves means more transpiration which increases demand for soil water, so on and so forth. After summer flowering, plants start to divert a lot more energy to formation of fruits and seeds. Some times it is best to pick off fruits - such as camellia - so as to divert more energy into the growth and development of buds - next seasons flowers and leaves. For common non native cultivated plants that continually bloom (like knock out roses) there is a greater demand for nitrogen, which means there is a need for fertilizer. But fertilizer (a kind of salt) requires a lot more water, so unless you are going to be very very diligent about watering this is not a great time to fertilize. 

Why is this? Remember that thing called osmosis you learned about in high school? Water is always wanting to spread solute happiness around as evenly as possible by having equal concentrations of dissolved solutes (such as dissolved salts or ions) everywhere. So if two bodies of water are separated by a semipermeable membrane  (across which water can flow but not the stuff dissolved in it), the water will move from the side that has a lower concentration of dissolved solutes to the side with a higher concentration, thus equalizing the concentrations. So, if the water around the root hairs of a plant has a high concentration of dissolved solutes like fertilizer, it can actually cause water to flow FROM the root out to the soil to equalize these concentrations. This is not cool for the plant, especially in the summer when so much water leaving the leaves and demand for water is up. (For those interested osmosis is a variation of the law of entropy - but that is for another day.)

The moral of the story is that unless you want to water a lot - and you may well want to if want to produce a bumper crop of knock out rose blossoms in mid summer - you may just wait to fertilize. 

 This is of course not a great time to transplant either. But it is OK to plant from container to soil IF you are diligent in watering.

There are exceptions to this planting rule. Right now is a very good time to dig and divide and replant Iris for example. If your lily leaves are turning brown this means that   they are not producing food for the bulbs, so if you need to dig and divide lilies you can do that now too.

Since you are almost certainly already watering annuals regularly you can fertilize them, and...I like this...you can still sow seeds for some of my most favorite annuals for fall color - such as zinnias (I love zinnias).

It is hot out there, and thankfully after this Sunday we also have water! So guess what is growing like crazy - WEEDS!. I know, it is terrible to do plant profiling, but some plants are genetically designed to grow and propagate like crazy in disturbed soils (i.e., gardens). That's their biological niche and they aim to be first out of the chute, or dirt. Many species of weeds propagate by seed only - such as "mimosa weed" and crabgrass. It is very helpful not to let them go to seed. Some weeds need to be yanked out root and all. Either way, the weeds are likely growing faster than you can keep up!

Speaking of crazy growth, this is the time for vines and saplings to take off. By now wisteria, virginia creeper, trumpet vine, cross vine, akebia, bramble, ivy, vinca, honeysuckle, smilax, kudzu, and a dozen other vines are starting to swamp, strangle and block the sun from your plants. Saplings of cherry laurel, sweet gum, hackberry, and oak are popping up and getting established everywhere. July is actually a VERY GOOD time for cleaning out jungly growth from shrubs, flower beds and trees. I would love to dejunglfy your place this summer. So let me know...It is actually possible to eradicate almost all these vines. And remember, they are competing with your shrubs not only for light (as they swallow them up), but also for water and nutrients

As to pruning, it is still hydrangea pruning time - the regular big leafed hydrangea and our wonderful native oak leaf hydrangea. There is really no super great way to prune hydrangeas, but the time to do so is soon after they bloom since they set buds for the next season on this season's new growth. When hydrangeas get big and haggard looking it is good to cut about a third of the stems down to the ground. This seems to have a stimulating effect on the overall growth. It is best to do this with the tallest or most bent or oddly shaped shoots. It's not a great idea to clip back everything a foot or whatever...new growth will send out shoots from the cut area and produce lots of flower buds, and then the next season the whole plant will be top heavy. I guess it is much of an art than a science pruning these guys. As to oak leafs, it is best not to prune them at all - BUT, as I have seen first hand recently, oak leaf hydrangeas can get very large, and the shoots so heavy with blooms that they just fall over, crack, and often die. That's the time for a pruning...

Lots of shrubs can be pruned or cut back now as long as new growth for bud production isn't needed. Camellias for example...Many camellias have too many branches and need to be thinned out. Some need to have bottom limbs removed since camellia limbs on the ground promotes camellia blight. Some camellias look better "legged up." All this can be done now. Many shrubs not known for blossoms can be pruned and cut back about as well now as any other time. 

Did I say it was a good time to mulch?

Well, this should do...below is the text from the brief note I sent out last week about watering...

Stay cool and have a great 4th of July.

Joel

Dear Gardening Friends,

Well, the forecast for the next few weeks is pretty crazy in terms of heat and absence of rain. Just wanted to put out a note about watering, and a word on behalf of my feathered friends.

A lot of plants will be highly stressed over the next few months. Deep hand watering of anything planted or transplanted in the last year would be a good idea, or for that matter any non native plant in dry sunny corners of your yard. If you are going to be away and would like for me to stop by and do some watering, I can do that. 

Also, this will be a very very tough period for birds. They will be parched, and for any birds raising a second brood of little ones, or mating and laying eggs late, it is a very tough time for the little guys. Water is good - very good. Even if you don't have a bird bath you can let the hose run around a plant that needs watering and the birds will find it and be splashing around in no time. 

I know some of you worry about me working in the heat, and I appreciate that. I will be working as usual - though I will be taking more precautions - a better hat, a cooler with ice, and as I tend to do in the summer, I will be following the shade. I also hope to start working earlier. I typically find the heavy humid dead air of the morning to be worse than the heat later in the day, but this heat will be worse than usual. 

This is of course not a great time to plant - especially in a sunny location (though as long as one waters regularly it is normally OK to plant in the summer), but it is a good time to clear out beds, get rid of vines and ivy and unwanted trees and so forth. And it is still barely OK to prune azaleas and still have blooms for next year if you do that in the next week or so. 

I got a couple of cool gardening books for Father's Day one of which is entitled Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South. I have also been reading William Bartram's Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida(short title). I hope to be sharing insights and reflections inspired by these works over the course of the summer. I am pretty focused on learning more and more and am beginning a process of being able to do better design work as well.

Well, hang in there and be safe!

Happy Passover/Easter

Greetings Gardening Friends,

Just when you thought summer had already arrived - bang - a beautiful cold front arrives. I hope you get to enjoy the cool Spring weather this Easter weekend.

GM Hopkins had a wonderful take on Spring (see below). I like the fact that after his initial exultation he turns neither to majestic wilderness scenes nor to stunning gardens for his evidence of Spring's beauty and bounty, but to weeds, to birds' eggs and song, to pear tree blossoms and to the blue descending sky.

All this beauty is an echo stretching out through time from the deep past - an echo of that initial beauty of Eden's garden.

And then there is the darker side - this beauty is fragile, and always in danger of being soured by human actions. Human beings - uniquely able to speak of beauty and uniquely able to ruin it. I think there is an Easter message in there somewhere...

Which brings me back to gardening - after the poem...

Spring

GM Hopkins

NOTHING is so beautiful as spring—

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush

The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?

A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy,

Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,

Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

I am blessed to be able to work in such beautiful places day to day. This work is good for me both physically and emotionally/spiritually and I am thankful to each and every person who has employed me and trusted me with a special place. I like plants as you know, especially trees, as well as the other critters that inhabit our garden spaces, spaces that are often filled not just with plants and animals but also memories, memories of loved ones who built and planted, or perhaps even children who played and climbed (or searched for Easter eggs) in the very same spaces. Sometimes the memories are of ourselves as children.

Our gardens are much more than plots and pieces of earth to manage well. The deeper joy of my work is to be able to help you find pleasure and joy and peace in your garden spaces. It is easy to feel anxiety and lose the joy of being outside when things are overgrown and overwhelming. The smile of pleasure and peace in a garden restored is my biggest reward. In our hectic, frazzled, frenetic, electronic world it is nice to have a space where we can just, you know, be...rest...notice...I hope I help bring that about.

There is so much that can be done in April - a great month for bringing order out of chaos. But I won't interrupt the mood of this e-mail with lists of things to do. For now I just want to wish you a blessed happy Easter/Passover. I hope you have a joyful weekend.

Peace,

Joel

Sweet Bay

What a beautiful South Carolina January day it is today! I hope that you are able to get out and enjoy some of it! As for me, I am home bound for a few days while my work van has some transmission work done. Fun...But, I am taking advantage of the down time by doing some planning/design work and a lot of that admin stuff that goes with having a small business.

Recently I had opportunity to recommend to someone a Sweet Bay tree. I was looking it up online in order to e-mail pictures when it dawned on me that there are actually four separate plants that use the common name "Sweet Bay."

I first learned of "Sweet Bay" in Dr. Wade Batson's renowned Spring Flora class at USC back in '79. We had visited a "Carolina Bay" site in the coastal plain. These Carolina Bay areas are rich in botanical diversity, and there I first came upon the "Bay" or "Loblolly Bay" or "Sweet Bay" tree. This has been the "Sweet Bay" tree in my head all these years.

Thus I have had some confusion since, as I said, there are in fact four different species of plants found in our area that may go by the name "Sweet Bay." And the most common one is not even the Sweet Bay of Carolina Bay fame.

The four kinds of "Sweet Bay" are:

1. Sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana) (Magnolia family) - Swamp Bay, Laurel Magnolia - native (Check out the Duke and Wikipedia articles).

Many cultivars of this the most commonly planted Sweet Bay have been developed for gardens. It is a wonderful plant.

2. Loblolly Bay (Gordonia lasianthus) (Tea family) - Holly Bay, Black Laurel, Summer Camellia - native ( see the Duke see and Wikipedia articles.

This is the the Sweet Bay I first learned about in botany class. It is a beautiful and wonderfully fragrant native tree and one I wholeheartedly recommend for local gardeners.

(Photo from Flickr site of hdescopeland - photo and text posted 2 August 2009 revised 2 October 2010).

3. Swamp Bay (Persea palustris) (Laurel Family) - Swamp Redbay, Sweet Bay - native (note the Duke and USDA write ups).

This is a small tree native to the coastal plain and which I also learned of years ago, but had lumped together with the Loblolly Bay.

4. Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) - Bay Laurel, True Laurel, Sweet Laurel, Sweet Bay - this bay tree is native to the Mediterranean. See see Wikipedia and Blog articles).

This is the famous culinary "bay leaf" tree and the least common of the "Sweet Bays" in our area. We are at the northern end of its range but it is planted here and has escaped and become naturalized.

Hope you enjoyed this trip down Sweet Bay Lane.

Joel

January Gardening

And the seasons they go 'round and 'round - and 2012 is here! Happy New Year!

January doesn't seem like such a great time to attend to gardening needs, it being so cold and all. But there really are a lot of things that can be done in January that will make a difference in the upcoming gardening season as well as make your garden more attractive in the mean time.

As for me, I just love being outside in South Carolina in the winter - gardening or walking or hiking, it doesn't really matter. The air is so clear this time of year, and the sky is so blue, and the pine trees so, well, green! Any chance I get to look up at a clear Carolina blue sky through pine trees is a treat for me. And did I mention no mosquitos and low humidity (and no wasps)! Some things just stand out better in winter, like tree bark, white Sycamore bark being the best example. And I don't know why but I like seeing those dangling Sycamore and Sweet Gum balls hanging on, or last spring's Tulip Poplar flower brackets pointing skyward high in the tree. Birds are easier to see in winter, especially hawks! Sometimes it's the crows yacking at them that alerts me to look up, but other times it's the Hawks themselves screeching. I've been seeing a group of three Red Tails all around the Forest Lake and Trenholm Road area - not sure if it's always the same three though.

Days getting longer always puts a little skip in my step. It's encouraging at many levels, and knowing that longer day length or shorter night length triggers various hormonal chages in plants makes it more fun to watch the season unfold.

But what I think I like the most about winter outside are the buds, as in tree buds and plant buds. Inside are the tiny leaves and/or flowers, either well-formed in miniature, or at least already differentiated as cells ready to take on full form. What energy the tree didn’t put into its seeds or store in its roots last summer and fall it has packed into these buds. Indeed, as last summer wound down, and the buds started to form which would lie dormant over the winter, the tree “knew” to transfer important energy sources from the leaves to the buds. These buds are rich in energy which is why deer and other animals like to eat them. The softer tissues of the buds are protected from the cold by tough bud scales. These scales leave scars when they fall off, scars which tell stories about how the twig has grown over the last few years.

OK, enough of that. Here are some good things to do in your garden in January...

Apply mulch - Mulch regulates soil temperature and moisture and does a great job suppressing weed growth in the spring.

Remove unwanted vines and trees - English Ivy competes with your shrubs for water and food and is easier to remove in the winter making way for proper bed maintenance in the spring. Although Wisteria is not an evergreen, it does not hide itself very well. It is actually easier to track down and get rid of Wisteria's underground runners (and root hubs) in the winter when access in and out of beds is easier. Green Smilax shoots are easier to see in the winter, and the tubers can be removed just as well in January as in July. Honeysuckle is not evergreen and the bark also gives it away. It can be yanked quite easily right out of the ground. Wild grape vines have very distinctive bark as well. These vines and others are so aggressive that they swarm your other plants in early spring faster than you can shake a stick. May as well get rid of them now. Winter is also a good time to remove some of the more common pesky large shrubs and trees such as Cherry Laurel, Ligustrum, Hackberry, and so forth. Even oak saplings are easy to see and remove, as they often keep some of their leaves in the winter.

Transplant - January is a good time to transplant shrubs.

Plant - January is a great time to plant a tree! Trees are good.

Clean up - One good thing about winter is that it is easier to see and remove those piles of bricks and concrete or rocks in the back of a flower bed, or old rotted landscaping timbers, or old planting pots hiding here and there. May as well get rid of that stuff while you're noticing it. It is a good time to remove dead wood from Azaleas or rake old leaves or old flower petals out from under Camellias.

Prune, Clip, and Trim - Obviously January is not the time to prune plants grown for their flowers (best to wait until after they bloom), but it can be a good time to neaten up ungainly hedges or prune tree limbs that are hanging over your shrubs. Boxwood can be selectively thinned in January and made more ready to fill out come spring. Some shrubs like Camellia Sasanqua that bloom in the fall can be pruned safely in January. Winter can also be a good time for neatening up non flowering hedges. Why be anoyed all winter by ungainly shrubs? January is a good time to trim back monkey grass, get rid of the dying stalks and leaves of last year's daylilies, cut back Ginger Lilies falling all over each other (and other plants), remove old Lantana stems, and so forth. OK, there are opposite views about when to cut back Lantana. Personally I do not think the very slight risk of water seeping into a cut stem and causing rot or fungal problems outweighs the unslightliness of gangly Lantana stems. I am actually not convinced that cutting back Lantana in the winter increases the chance of disease or cold damage, especially if one gives the crown area a good blanket of mulch. Some of the same arguments apply to Ginger Lilies and other plants. If Ginger Lilies are lying over other plants or lawn I would cut them now, and if not I'd wait until late February.

Prepare Soil - January is a good time to start to get the ground ready for a spring planting of vegetables. Bacteria and worms don’t stop working in our mild winters when the soil rarely freezes, and late fall (I think of December before Christmas as late fall) is an active time for worms and bacteria to work on decomposing leaves and enriching soil. Turning the soil in a planting bed, especially if it has some leaves or leaf litter covering it, can be a good way to prep the soil for an early spring planting.

Water - Remember to water in winter. Not only do plants still need water to live, but keeping the soil watered helps ameliorate the impact of a cold snap, just as putting water on peach buds during a hard freeze can help save the buds!

Plan - January is a great time to start thinking about and planning for the spring. Since we begin to get a lot of new growing activity by late February, Spring can sort of sneak up on us here in Columbia and by the time we’re ready for it we may have missed a window of opportunity. Best to get out the garden books and catalogs and start planning now, rather than then.

Of course I am available for these and other garden tasks. PLEASE feel free to forward this link along to anyone that you think could use my services - Columbia, Greensboro, and other select towns in the Carolinas.

Thanks,

Joel

December Gardening

It is hard to believe that December is upon us, but it is, and it is starting to get colder, and getting dark ever earlier, and holiday season signs are everywhere.

I suspect with all the stuff to do for Christmas, and Christmas parties to attend, and given the cold starting to descend upon us, that a lot of us take a break from thinking about our gardens. But there are actually some useful things to do in the garden in December.

December is a super time to transplant. Now that we have had or will soon have a couple of decent freezes plants are falling to sleep - going into dormancy (kind of like animal hibernation) - which means first that there is less transpiration going on (none in deciduous trees and shrubs obviously) and thus much less demand being put on the roots by the leaves to get water (for photosynthesis), and second, that the plant is not going to sprout new shoots and buds if it is cut back somewhat. This means that when we transplant at this time of year it is much less traumatic for the plant. But plant roots do grow slowly over the winter and so that when the weather does heat up in the Spring and the plant comes out of dormancy it has had a chance for its roots to set and is in better shape to survive its first summer.

December is also a very good time to plant shrubs and trees, many fruit trees, some hardy perennials, and some bulbs.

December is a good time to get rid of vines and tree saplings that have been taking over the garden. Even with deciduous vines it is actually quite easy to see them this time of year, and much easier to see some evergreen vines. Now is a perfect time to take out English Ivy. English Ivy is an ongoing maintenance challenge and it also competes with shrubs for water and nutrients. Pulling Ivy out is less stressful on the plants around it when the pulling is done in cooler weather. One thing I have noticed is that when Spring does finally come many vines like Wisteria take off so fast, that before we wrap our heads around the fact that it is Spring the vines have already wormed their way through our shrubs and bushes. And we look, and sigh...

December is a good time to apply mulch to boxwood, azaleas and many other shrubs, especially after cleaning out old plant litter and dead wood. Since it also a good time to apply a light feeding to many shrubs (to help root growth over the winter) some folks like to use a mulch like Dixie Mix, or to sprinkle a slow release granular fertilizer in with say shredded hardwood bark (my favorite mulch for around here).

December can be the right time to prune of cut back unsightly overgrown foundation plants, especially those whose flowering buds are not already set. One could argue that February is better, but if you just don't want to look at an overgrown or unsightly bush or row of bushes all winter it won't do any harm to prune it now since the plant is dormant. Boxwood too can be selectively pruned now to allow in more light and air which will stimulate bud growth in early Spring.

December is a good time to start to get the ground ready for a Spring planting of vegetables. Bacteria and worms don't stop working in our mild winters when the soil rarely freezes, and late fall (I think of December before Christmas as late fall) is an active time for worms and bacteria to work on decomposing leaves and enriching soil. Turning the soil in a planting bed, especially if it has some leaves or leaf litter can be a good way to prep the soil for an early Spring planting.

Remember to water in winter. Not only do plants still need water to live, but keeping the soil watered helps ameliorate the impact of a cold snap, protecting plant tissue much as putting water on peach buds during a hard freeze can help save the buds!

Best of all, December is a great time to start thinking about and planning for the Spring. Since we begin to get a lot of new growing activity by late February, Spring can sort of sneak up on us here in Columbia and by the time we're ready we may have missed a window of opportunity. Best to get out the garden books and catalogs and start planning now, rather than then.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. As always I am available to help however I can.

Maybe you have some other ideas to share about gardening in December - especially here in the midlands of SC.

Happy December...

Joel

Sasanqua

Folks have been saying that this is not going to be a great fall for leaf color, but it is sure a great fall for Camellia Sasanqua color. I don't remember the Sasanquas ever being so prolific. I fondly think of my former Organic professor Dr. Teague when I pass by his old place at the corner of Adger and Trenholm and see the long row of beautiful Sasanquas there along Trenholm. And yes, all Sansanquas are Camellias but not all Camellias are Sasanquas.

Anticipation

Sunday Thoughts

An amazing thing happened this past week. I started to like watching soccer, thanks to the US Women's World Cup team. Really, I didn't think it was possible.

This has been a fun sports summer - the dramatic nail biting South Carolina baseball championship run, the Dallas Mav's victory over the Heat, and the Women's World Cup win over Brazil.

It was cool sitting up on the high side ledge of the State House with Laurel and Brett the other evening. Every time I go up there I think of the iconic 1865 photo taken from the State House steps down main street after Columbia burned. The drama, beauty and horror of history just oozes there. I do love my home state.

It was uncannily cool and pleasant that evening. We went to Five Points after and hung out at the fountain. I was a good time.

I start PT this next week on my right leg. I may have starting working too soon after the surgery and before I built up adequate strength in my leg muscles. There is so much pulling, twisting, stumbling, bending footing, uneven terrain and so forth, it's hard not to tweak the knee again and again, especially the strained/weak MCL. I still have a hard time on stairs, throwing a baseball or frizbee, getting in and out of cars, things like that. I need to focus on PT and building up strength and somehow avoid reinjury. Hmmm.

I don't know where I'd be in my faith and relationship with God if it were not for "Jesus of Nazareth," the book (and the person). I read it when I awake in the night and reach for it when I get up. I am not Catholic, and will never be, but I will always owe a debt of gratitude to the man who wrote this book.

Speaking of Jesus, I do pray for a deep visceral awareness of Jesus' presence. I know He says "I will never leave you or forsake you" and I believe that; I just want Him to come in and overwhelm me, shake me up, do a number on me.

I stayed up too late last night, of all things, watching biology and calculus videos on the Kahn Academy web site. I read about Khan in a Wired Magazine article. More and more teachers are using Khan's videos, enabling them to focus more time in class on helping students with problem solving, flipping the traditional classroom/homework pattern. It's a good read.

Khan reminds me a little, well, of me actually. I wish I had had his idea! Gosh, 53 years into this life and I am still such a geek! I have become way more well rounded over the course of my life in history and literature but I do find a childlike joy in math and science. Memories and Mrs. Henry and Mrs. Carpenter and Mrs. Short...It just makes me chuckle at myself really.

However it works out for me getting through this rough spot and moving forward hopefully with a job, it won't be due to undaunted courage on my part, or great cleverness, or even hard work (though there has been plenty of that) - it will be due to the love and help and encouragement of friends, my family here, and my daughters. Those who have helped and encouraged me know who you are, and I will be thankful for you the rest of my life.

All for now...

Downed Poplar, Snapping Turtle, Chuck Berry

Today I worked again at Nandina Hills. The Hills have had a tough couple of weeks. About ten days ago a storm uprooted a huge double trunked Tulip Poplar which fell toward the house from 80+ feet away, and quite a ways lower in elevation. The crown of the Poplar tore holes in half the length of the roof (of a house three stories in height the base of which was already quite higher than the base of the tree) and sent limbs through the roof into various upstairs rooms. This was a seriously big tree, possibly close to 150 feet in height. There was a hole about 15 feet across and 6 or so feet deep from the root ball.

The next week another smaller Poplar went down in the other direction across the fence into the neighbor's yard.

The yard also has the tallest Sweet Gum tree I have ever seen outside of Congaree Swamp. Hope it stays put.

I got to play with a very big Snapping Turtle today. His (or her) carapace was maybe 16 inches long and he was chillin' in a little temporary pond formed after the rain. Apparently he has taken up residence on the property. It's quite possible he was/is as old as I am so wanted to afford him all due respect, but I couldn't resist getting him to snap a few sticks of various sizes in two, nor could I resist picking him up a little by his shell and watching his huge legs flail.

I was kind of hoping to see a Water Moccasin today...OK, well, maybe not...but I was worried a little about them given all the frontage on the headwaters of Forest Lake near to what we used to call the "second spillway" growing up in the hood. A lot of water was pouring through the spillway today.

My knee held up pretty well, especially given the extremely hilly and rocky and generally uneven terrain. I tweaked it a few times but not badly.

No deep thoughts today - was just glad to get through the day OK...

Setter, Church, All Time is Present to God

I was waiting at the light at Trenholm and Forest Drive yesterday behind an SUV, and sticking his head out of the back window was an Irish Setter who looked a lot like Clancey. I haven't seen many Irish Setters lately and kind of wonder if the breed has gone out of favor. It was nice to see an Irish Setter again. Here's a picture of Clancey...



I should be in church right now I suppose. I don't say the following for sympathy and it feels kind of pathetic/loserville-ish to admit it, but going to church these days is just hard. I usually spend the time dealing with a flood of emotions rather than focusing on worship/word/fellowship, and find myself looking to get out as quickly as possible so I don't have to talk to anybody. I hope that, before too long, maybe after the dust is settled, it will be different.

I worked hard in the sun yesterday and though I was somewhat winded my knee held up pretty well. There are still things I can't do and I have to build endurance but I am optimistic.

I worked in a yard in which the homeowner grew up, and which has become overgrown, and I uncovered a whole bunch of items that seemed to tell a story of years past - young children at play and gardening projects mostly. It doesn't take long before vines and trees cover up our histories. It is wistful to think of stories told by these items, and the memories embodied perhaps in them, but noticing this history adds meaning to my work. It's not long before the memories of our lives fade entirely. That would seem very depressing to me except that I do think our memories are held intact in the mind of God to whom and for whom all time is present tense. So, oddly, imagining Him seeing and knowing and understanding these life stories and "seeing" them "now" is comforting.

Well, maybe I'll make church tonight somewhere...

Storms, Four O'Clocks, and Overalls

The storm Thursday night in Columbia was the fiercest I have seen in years. Two large oak trees snapped in the property behind my sister's house and took wires down with them. The wind had that loud whooshing sound it has when you worry about worse things...

I love sitting out in the carport or on a porch watching and listening to storms. This was a favorite past time of me and my dad when a good summer storm would whip up - and the more thunder and lightning the better. In later years in Greensboro I enjoyed standing on our little front porch with my daughters during a good storm - and sometimes when threat of lightning was passed running around in the rain!

I never realized how much I loved and missed the sound of wind rushing through tall Loblolly, Shortleaf, and Longleaf Pine trees. It's different. I like it.

Just before the storm hit the Trenholm Plaza area yesterday I spent an hour with a new friend and customer who lived nearby, walking around her garden and talking about what she would like to do in this place or that. In her back garden she had mostly white and blue flowers. I suggested she consider an old favorite of mine, a beautiful flower and plant I enjoyed as a child - Four O'Clocks, and white ones in particular. Four O'Clocks have beautiful foliage, a lovely flower that opens late in the day and through the night, and what I think is a wonderful and unique aroma.

And then there are the seeds, the little black hand grenade-looking seeds that are so easy to collect and sort and replant. I used to collect them in Dixie Cups as a kid, each cup labeled by the color of the flower from which the seed came.

Four O'Clocks grow in sun or part shade. They grow seemingly as an annual but propagate from their seeds and come back each year from an underground tuber.

I told the nice lady that I'd send her a picture of Four O'Clocks, but the only pics I could find had me in them! Here is one from 1977...



I think overalls need to make a fashion comeback. Maybe if I lose 30 pounds they will look even cooler on me...Yes maybe my true calling is to be an overalls model...:-)