Moonflower Horticultural Services

Early in these postings I mentioned Paul and Joe Orpello who did such a marvelous job designing my garden; indeed, they brought the vision in my head to life. I'm honored to note that they have featured my garden in their web site. I can't recommend them highly enough!

Weeds

I hate Smartweed! Before I built my stone garden I spent many (many) hours pulling these weeds. It's not too difficult when they're huge, but impossible when they're little --- and by the time they get large the garden looks messy and unkempt. Smartweed is a member of the Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae), and goes by the names: Japanese Knotweed, Oriental Lady's Thumb, Creeping Smartweed, and X#$@! Introduced accidentally from Asia, it shares with the stinkbug the ability to torture yours truly. Smartweed thrives at the edges of cultivated gardens and meadows. No duh!



Another disgusting volunteer in my garden has eluded identification. It's fleshy, a pretty soft green, and grows quite tall with a spray of white flowers (for proper distribution to new parts of my garden). I would really appreciate any help offered with identification of this invader!

Tomatoes

Historically, I haven't had much luck with tomatoes in the ground. Early on, when I first moved to my house, I planted tomatoes in pots on my deck. This worked well, generally. In recent years I've planted them in the ground with, except for yellow cherries and red grapes, disappointing results. My favorite greenhouse seedlings are my tomatoes, and I'm getting better results in the ground also.

Last year I moved the tomatoes to the South garden, backed by a large blank wall of the cream-stucco house. Perfect! The heat reflects off the wall onto the tomoatoes: heat and sun provide a great environment. Last year, for the first time, I had a tomato harvest. Never one to leave well-enough alone I enlarged the plot, mixed beautiful leaf compost into the clay soil, and planted 3 dozen tomato plants; some were determinate bush, some Roma (source: Johnny's Seeds). I use drip irrigation on a timer for the South garden - nothing fancy here. I usually ground my seedlings on Mother's Day, but this year was so cold that it seemed too early. I didn't get them in until mid-May. Typically, I lose a few when they go into the ground, so I save extras. Few gardeners have had experience with determinate species, so I tend to give away the rest to my friends and colleagues.

This year, for the first time, my husband helped me in the greenhouse. He was so excited to plant the seeds in the growing mixture. We were very careful to keep the tomatoes away from the nicotiniana seedlings to avoid tobacco mosaic virus. They popped up right on schedule, and thrived as they always do. In addition to the "regular" and the roma tomatoes, I once again planted yellow and red cherries.

It turns out that red peppers are not the only veggie that my pup Rufus enjoys eating. He has learned how to pick cherry tomatoes off the vine. Needless to say, it's difficult to keep him away from cherry tomatoes growing in the ground. Consequently, this year I did an experiment:

upside down tomato plants! I bought 6 upside down planters and hung them from my new trellis (yes, built expressly for this purpose). It's too early to say how they'll do, but so far they're still alive. Additionally, as always, I plant cherries at the beach for weekend enjoyment.

Pictures from my Garden

I think that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Here you go (click to enlarge):

Dog Trouble

Dogs are trained differently - sort of like kids. When Toby was young and romping, he ran through the garden trampling all flowers in his path. Things got so bad that we ran a branch of the invisible fence through my garden. Rufus, adopted as a puppy, was trained to stay off the flowers. Ari is another story altogether. He thinks it's fun to run through the foliage. My large bed of daffodils, then marigolds, Zinnias, etc. is his giant playground. Sigh.

Greenhouse Configuration

I thought I'd post some pictures of this year's growing season. I've tried to exhibit restraint in my seed ordering - planting only those species that I'm unable to find locally. Overall, I planted about 60 different varieties, most of which are in the ground by now. I'm sorry to say that my main interest is the seedling phase, by the time they're ready to be planted I've somewhat lost interest. Strange, isn't it?

My seed starter mix is Bio-Comp, from a company of the same name in Eden, NC. Unfortunately, the closest distributor is in Baltimore, so I mailorder this from A.M. Leonard (I feel silly, shipping dirt!). I've also used the summer mix as a potting soil. It's lovely!

I use 2" deep 72-cell plug trays to start, and then move to 3" diameter pots as needed. Most of my seedlings, with the exception of tomatoes, go directly from the plug trays into the ground. Even tall varieties such as marigolds and sunflowers (both exceptions to my only-grow-if-unusual dictum) work well in these trays.

This year, my greenhouse is full of 25 5-Qt pots which hold the beachplum seedlings. The difficulty with this is that they end up being too tall for the benches. Next year I plan to place boards under the bench

(there are cross braces to support these) and use the bottom row for the many, many beach plums that I plan to grow.

During the Summer the misting system, and the fans, keep the greenhouse quite cool. Nevertheless, most seedlings will need to be out of there by mid-June as it's simply too hot. During seed planting season I'm on my feet quite a bit, so I've acquired 2 rubbermaid stools that are plastic and impervious to the greenhouse climate. If you look carefully at the pictures you'll notice the warming mats for propagation, fans, supplemental heater, and all the wonderful gizmos on which I depend.

Not unexpectedly, someone who has a weather station in the greenhouse leaves no detail unaddressed. I have a labelmaker to create waterproof labels that are pasted on either wood (popsickle) or plastic plant markers. This works well when it's time to place the seedlings in the ground. As already noted, once planted I tend to forget what I've placed where.

Once again, thanks Joe and Paul for setting this up!

Water, Water Everywhere

I am lazy. I cannot be counted on to water a houseplant as needed, much less the regular waterings required by seedlings. The previously mentioned Joe and Paul were kind enough to provide an industrial-strength irrigation system to mist my seedlings minute-by-minute, and water the raised beds and potted plants as needed. Wow!

The only problem is that I didn't understand anything about it. It took me 3 years to feel comfortable that I understood the K-Rain controller which uses pins to configure the number times, and duration each time,

within a 10-minute cycle for mist irrigation.

There is a separate 3-zone irrigation controller, a Weathermatic Smartline, for the Greenhouse drip system (zone 2), the beds (zone 3), and something else (I haven't figured out yet what zone 1 is for). I'm not even sure that I have the zones straight. Fortunately, I know how to test each of the zones to see what happens before I make any changes.

I've had 2 problems with the irrigation system: One funny, one not so much. The funny one (except for the fact that it took a long time to figure this out, and I lost

some plants) is that the system ceased to work last summer; try as I might, I found no reason for the system "fault" to be present. Finally, the whiz-bang Paul and Joe came back to help, and pointed out that my rain

gauge was not working properly. Gee, I didn't even know that I had a rain gauge!

The other problem was more troublesome. The misting system is a series of PVC pipes that run along the top bench, with misting valves pointing up and down. After each irrigation cycle, the misting valves would drip pretty much constantly, ruining any seedling underneath. After a while, Paul and Joe did something or another to fix this - essentially causing the system to spew water from a valve after each watering cycle. When this happened, the pipes would rumble and shake loudly enough to be heard in my bedroom nearby. Since this happened every 10 minutes or so, it was annoying and it wasted a lot of water.

This year, I figured I'd take matters into my own hands. I thought that the pressure must be too high in the system. Why else would the system spew water after each irrigation? I opened the very nifty valve manifold box in the ground and noted the three zones, but could not figure out what each of these meant. I boned up on this kind of setup and, other than learning that the the pressure regulator was improperly sequenced with the valve, no luck. One day it occurred to me that a vendor of such systems might help. I called my favorite drip irrigation vendor with whom I have had a relationship for many years, Dripworks, and discovered that they have a tech support line. Mystery solved! The water spewed after each irrigation by design; Joe and Paul had installed a flush valve that opened when the pressure dropped after each irrigation. The goal was to purge the pipes so that there was nothing left to drip on my seedlings. The wonderful fellow whose name, unfortunately, I do not remember pointed out that Dripworks sells a valve specially made for this problem.

I installed anti-drip devices (not available from the online catalog) and all was well. I'm so proud of myself that I was able to remove the flush valves, replaced them with PVC 3/4" threaded caps, and some teflon tape. No more dripping, no more wasted water or banging pipes. As proud as I am, I hope that the valves buried in the ground continue to function well - because I'm still clueless about that.

Fossil Fuel Greenhouse Heat

It should be clear by now that I think my greenhouse is incredibly wonderful. Last year, recognizing that my mental sanity is directly proportional to my dirty hands I installed an electric heater to extend the season. Once again, as with the passive solar heating system, this was not effective; the hobby electric heater couldn't produce sufficient BTU's to raise the temperature. I finally acquired a gas heater to extend the growing season. I (correctly) calculated that the amount of fossil fuel burned during the month of March would be less than the amount of gasoline consumed by traveling to a shrink. My earlier posts are convincing that I really did try to extend the season without fossil fuels - actually, to the point of insanity - so I didn't feel overly guilty about this decision. I found a greenhouse heater by Southern Burner Company that uses minimal fuel, is controlled by a thermostat, and fits under the bench. After much discussion with my home propane company I decided to install a 60-gallon propane tank behind the greenhouse. The goal is to keep the irrigation system and the plants from freezing, so 45-degree temperature works well. I use a fan to circulate the heat. So far so good. I can start growing in March. What a wonderful feeling to be in the greenhouse during a snowstorm!

I should probably mention that I'm terrified of gas, fire, heat, and other flammable items. Consequently, I have no idea how this works, and cannot turn it on and off when needed. That is one of the many reasons for which husbands were invented (spiders, flat tires, etc.). One time the burner went out, and my husband could not restart it. We called the propane company (who by now think we're nuts) and all was well. This year we discovered that we did not properly protect the gas valve from moisture; it was stuck in place and needed to be replaced. Once again, the gas company to the rescue. It's really a very simple setup: there's a small hold in the plexiglass through which the gas line runs, and there is a 2" pvc pipe near the burner that provides fresh air. I am happy to note that this is a non-venting system, as my seedlings will enjoy the CO2 producted by the burner much more than will the outdoor environment.

Imagine this: It's March, and my seedlings are beginning to poke their heads through the surface of the soil. The irrigation system is perking along. During the day I observe that the min/max thermometer records temperatures as high as 80 degrees F. But how do I know what the nighttime temperature is? If we are away, how can I be certain that the heater continues to work?

I ended up installing a weather station. The transducer wirelessly transmits climate information (humidity and temperature) to a base station that is attached to my computer. My computer regularly uploads the file to a web site so that I can access it from anywhere, and sends me emails if the temperature or humidity falls outside a specified range. Eureka! automated climate control with remote monitoring.

My Favorite Things

Once again, back to my childhood. Lilies of the Valley and Lilacs. The former were provided by the man who lived next door to my childhood house, the latter grew in my mother's garden. Memories of my mother making me lilac neckalces and bracelets each Spring are among the recollections of mother's garden activities that I cherish. Each year my wonderful garden produces armloads of Lilies of the Valley. I'm slowly adding Lilacs around my property, each designed to bloom at a different time in the season.

About 5 years ago I planted about 20 Lily pips in a dark shady area; I'm now rewarded with so many Lily of the Valley blooms that I can harvest only a fraction of them. Some are pink, but most are white. We built our house 13 years ago, and one of the first plantings was a lilac bush. It seemed to thrive, but did not bloom for many years. The first blooms were the year that we moved it to accomodate the garden wall. The next year, and each year thereafter, we've been greeted with hundreds of mid-season lilac blooms that are now outside the kitchen window, alongside the deck with an outdoor table. Pure heaven!

Beach Plums

I confess to an embarrassment of riches: I have not one, but two, gardens. One is a country garden and the other is a seaside garden. Each is quite different. The garden to which you have been introduced so far is an English wannabe, with stone walls, raised beds and a conservatory (i.e., greenhouse). My other garden is at the beach, and could not be more different; solidago, Misacanthus, rosa rugosa, and Perovskia (russian sage) abound.

Several years ago I became obsessed with beach plums. Once again, my mother set the stage with her love of beach plums, which I previously thought to be the actual rosa rugosa. One day, following my rather haughty correction of my neighbor who referred to beach plums as something other than rosa rugosa I learned about the actual beach plums. From that point on, I was hooked. I learned about beach plums in bloom, and I learned how to make jam. From that year on, I make two batches of Beach Plum jam that carries us through the winter and allows us sufficient supply to provide gifts for our favorite people.

I have decided to populate our property with our own beach plums (I collect them from the dunes currently), so I acquired seedlings from the New Hampshire extension (also has a number of other interesting seedlings). Much to my surprise, they're doing great - getting bigger every day. They'll weather the Summer in the greenhouse, and be planted in the Fall. If all goes well, I'll get many more next year and provide them to my neighbors also. I don't know how old they need to be before they bloom (see picture), but I guess I'll find out.

Beach Plum Jam Recipe (courtesy of 1st Travelers Choice Internet Cookbook):

5 cups beach plums (use purple, red, and a few green mixed; frozen work as well as fresh)

5 cups sugar

The first step is to gather your beach plums. I use a child's pail, and fill up the pail to the top for one batch = 5 cups, pitted. Sterilize the jars and lids in boiling water. The plums must be pitted; best done by hand by popping the pit out (a cherry pitter works also, but is more trouble than it's worth). Do this outside - it's incredibly messy! Leave the skins on for better flavor, then lightly chop in a food processor.

Put the pitted plums and sugar in a large pot. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Start testing by putting a spoonful on a refrigerated saucer, place the saucer back in the refrigerator. It can take a very long time: 30 mins - 1 hour has been my experience. You'll know it's done when the refrigerated beach plum wrinkles when you push the edge with your fingertip. It doesn't actually matter how "done" it is, the jam will be thicker or thinner, but is basically personal preference (thinner works better on English muffins as it gets into all the nooks and crannies). Remove from the heat when it's done.

Spoon into sterilized jars, seal, and boil in a hot bath for 10 minutes or longer. Use a canning guide for the specifics with respect to altitude and other factors. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Newest Member of our Family!

Gardening would not be nearly as much fun if my trusty dog Rufus Griffin didn't park himself in front of the garden gate and enjoy the sun as I garden. Life has seemed too sedate lately; any excitement has been provided by work, leading to extreme workaholism. What's the cure? Adopt a new dog! Welcome to Ari (lion in Hebrew), a rescue from the Last Chance Ranch. Ari and Rufus have had a few rough (ruff) spots, but overall get along very well. Two dogs are three times as much fun, and six times as much work. Over the years we've had two dogs at times, but we were much younger. Ari is sweet, loving, and much more doggish than Rufus (who believes that he is our child).

We're celebrating our second week with Ari, and things are definitely settling down. Neither Ari nor Rufus is an "alpha dog", but each takes turns being the Alpha-Beta. Very amusing to watch. Rufie has developed some food aggression, but Ari definitely can hold his own. Notice the picture of Ari holding 2 toys while Rufie looks at them longingly. As I'm writing this Ari is looking out the window while Rufie is truing to attract his attention so that they can play (aka roughhouse) together. Ari and Rufus give meaning to the phrase, "take it outside boys".

Ari has learned to swim, and loves it, but is not yet as strong or as fast as Rufus. Sometimes Rufus lets him catch balls, but most often we need to have 2 balls so that Ari can catch some. Ari's favorite things are: chewing up Rufie's soft toys, catching balls, walking around with squeaky balls in his mouth, "playing" with Rufus, and sleeping with at least one body part in contact with a human. He is an absolute sweetie.

Ari weighs about 65 pounds, and is about the same height as Rufie. When Ari arrived he was filthy, smelled like an outhouse, had terrible teeth, a limp, and kennel cough. VERY sad. I'm happy to report that the vet gave him a generally clean bill of health; over the past 2 weeks his muscle tone has improved, he's lost his cough (poor baby, was so upsetting to have him coughing and slobbering constantly), and his teeth are responding to good food, bones, and toys.

Best of all, he LOVES riding in the car, just like Toby used to. Mark is soooooo happy!

Miniature Rosebush

I was lucky enough to find, at my local grocery store, a descendant of the very rosebush that inspired today's gardener - yellow, compact, and beautiful. These do not, however, smell pretty.

Over the years I have tried to plant these minis in the ground, but no luck. I guess it's like the forced bulbs that permanently expire once their blooms have faded. Sigh. Seems unnatural - but provides a good opportunity to keep buying miniature rose bushes. I guess that's idea.

By the way, yellow roses are my favorites, despite the fact that they mean betrayal. Oh well.