The Garden Buzz

Cilantro: Persnickety and Delicious

Sometimes the best meals are made from ingredients scrounged from the fridge you thought had no food in it. Like last night, some ground bison a bit past its sell-by date seasoned with lots of cumin, the last shreds of sharp cheese, a few green onions that overwintered out back, hothouse-grown cherry tomatoes, a dab of sour cream, and salsa atop raggedy corn tortillas made a stellar taco. Then the piece de resistance---tender green sprigs of cilantro straight from the garden.

Just because everybody loves cilantro (and in reality not everyone loves it) doesn't mean everyone can grow it. It is, to me and many gardeners the most difficult, and downright persnicketi-est of all herbs.

In fact I used to tell people at my herb lectures to get it at the grocery store!

But it's just so nice to have it right out the door for days when you need to dress up a tenuous taco. Or make corn salsa, or sprinkle on blackened fish, or...

Cilantro is what I call a cool-season herb. Though not foolproof, there are a few strategies to growing it. Still keep in mind it likes to bolt, that is, flower and go to seed. That's not all bad, because then you have coriander, which is used in curry, sausages, meat dishes, teas, etc.

Cilantro is like a clematis; it like its face in the sunshine and its feet in the shade. I grow mine where it gets only mild morning sunshine. Planting it in your landscaped areas and crowding it among other plants is another way to help it keep its cool. Unlike Mediterranean herbs subject to crown rot, keep cilantro mulched to maintain cooler soil temps.

I have found that when I sprinkle the seeds in fall, they come up quite early the next spring, those plants thenre-seed themselves. As for next year's germination, they seem to know best.

Succession style planting, or planting every week or so, will keep a more continuous supply. Or do as I do and plant cilantro in several different places around the house, every year a different spot seems to be the magic site of cilantro success.

http://www.startribune.com/yourvoices/94711994.html?elr=KArks47cQiUdcOy_9cP3DiU47cQUU Rotten Cotton: My Love/Hate Affair with the Cottonwood Tree.

Garden Tip of the Week: Re-Seeding Plants, Letting Nature Do the Work

Aquilegia canadensis, Red Columbine     The Garden Buzz
 

I already volunteer hundreds of hours as a Master Gardener, so when plants do the volunteering, I say, woo-hoo. I'm talking about re-seeding plants. Most of the time, you gotta love 'em. Who doesn't want free plants?

When I entered my serious phase of gardening, I started seeds like nobody's business. I don't regret it, I think it's one of the best ways to learn gardening from the literal ground up. It satisfies the nurturing needs of many gardeners and allows you to grow unusual and unique varieties that will never hit the nursery shelves.

I always do some direct seeding, but I think my days of grow lights and tiny transplants are done, although you never know. As I've gotten older I like to harness the power of Mother Nature whenever possible; she's got a lot more oomph than I will ever have.

After growing plants from seeds for several years I noticed that certain ones were more than willing to do the work for me. All that tedious, tiny seed sowing was all done for me automatically; the little darlings all growing around the mother plant, just waiting for me to move them to their big-boy beds.

Just because a seed germinates in one place, doesn't mean it has to grow there. Transplanting volunteers is a great way to grow your garden and increase your plant yields while saving money in the mix. All volunteers benefit from a manager, and that becomes your job.

Take note of the conditions under which the plant re-seeded, that usually tells you where the new plant will succeed. However, recently I discovered a colony of native columbines that just showed up and started growing on a thistly hill in my yard. Yet they seemed stunted, struggling on this windy western exposure, and still they multiplied. Columbines can grow up to 30 inches tall in the right conditions; so I've been rescuing them and re-planting them in a moister area with dappled shade. Now they are where I can appreciate them better and they'll achieve their full potential. I have high hopes for next year.

Columbine seedlings (with purplish foliage) struggling among thistles

Columbines relocated to more suitable location The Garden Buzz
 
 
 If you're plagued by a plant that re-seeds in spades in unwanted places, you can nip it early, scraping the soil to eliminate small seedlings, then deadhead these flowers a little earlier than usual to avoid a repeat. If it's horrible, there are chemical measures like Preen, that inhibit germination. Or pot the prolific little boogers up and give them away to unsuspecting novice gardeners who act like they know it all. It builds character.

Re-Seeding Annuals

• Gomphrena
• Verbena
• Larkspur
• Nicotiana
• Phlox
• Johnny Jump-Ups
• Bachelor's Buttons
• Poppies

Re-seeding biennials and perennials

• Clary Sage
• Foxglove
• Columbine
• Forget-Me-Nots
• Poppies
• English Daisies
• Campanula
• Thalictrum

Re-seeding herbs

• Dill
• Cilantro
• Parsley

This list is by no means exhaustive, but look and see all those "Grandma Flowers" on it. These are all plants that reproduce without our help, other than a little relocating. They are tough survivors that thrive on benign neglect. Maybe Grandma was onto something.

Oh, Crap! A Snake in the Garden

I promise this is the last of my herpetological rants. If you're a facebook friend and you've already tired of my over-the top reaction to this writhing garden visitor, (God, I hope he/she's just visiting) just skip this post and pick up on tomorrow's Rhubarb-Strawberry Crumble recipe.

So, I'm planting the slope under my lilac tree, and I see a few tatty, raggedy edges on the raspberries. I go over and start snipping and whenever I am near any berry bush, the same thought rolls round in my head. I picture my mom and her berry bucket and her snake stick. And I say to myself, hmmm, it's not the berries they like, it's just the shade. And shade is everywhere.

And before you can say *#@&*#@!!!! there is a long snake under my feet. Not an anaconda, "just a garter snake", as people like to say. "Oh, they eat mice", "They won't hurt you", "It's not poisonous". Thank you, I know all that. It does nothing for the cold chills and heart palpitations that accompany this sighting.

I know I can't pick and choose when I garden with wildlife habitat in mind, but when it comes to snakes, screw that circle of life stuff.

You see, I grew up in the coastal foothills of California, I have seen a few snakes in my time. In fact, more than I like to recall. Rattlesnakes were more numerous than playmates in my neighborhood. I used to call my father down to the driveway to dispatch the deadly creatures that shared my space.

While my father used a sharp shovel and the up, close and personal approach; my mom was more into heavy machinery. Whenever she saw a snake anywhere near our house, she would take her '56 Buick and run them over, then throw it in reverse, and repeat the procedure a few times. She always made sure to see the flattened serpent in the rear view mirror, so as not to have it wrap around the tires and take a ride home with us.

The Minnesota DNR suggests playing a radio in the garden to repel them; they are apparently ultra-sensitive to vibrations. On our Master Gardener discussion board, I found I was not alone this week in my snake-seeing. One MG mentioned there might be a hybernaculum nearby my singular snake. I had never heard that word but know enough Latin to comprehend it is the stuff of nightmares; a roiling coil of reptiles a la Indiana Jones and the Lost Empire. Thanks, lady. 

For most of my adult life, my tact has been to totally avoid them. I know where they like to hang out; sunning on rock piles, cooling off in deep mulch, slithering through tall grass, foraging under logs, etc. I have been lucky or oblivious to never encounter one is any of my gardens.  Yet when we moved to this house with its woods and wetlands and water, I knew there was going to come a day. After three years, that day came.

And this is why the telephotos lens was invented.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: May 15, 2010

Uvularia grandiflora or Large Flowered Bellworts or Merry Bells The Garden Buzz

Daphne x burkwoodii "Carol Mackie"   The Garden Buzz

 

Garden Tip of the Week: Dealing with Delicate Flowers, Including Me.

Even seasoned weather students might not be aware of a climactic condition known as "roon temperature". No, that's not a typo, not "room", but Roon as in my husband's nickname for me and my personal preference for perfect weather. Roon temperature occurs when there is gentle sunshine and perhaps a light breeze with temperatures between 74-78 degrees. Yes, that small window of weather when your body seems to be the same comfortable temperature as the air.

My husband, a hardy Midwesterner, feels that native Californians are ruined and spoiled rotten by the sunny weather; leaving nothing but weather nirvana as acceptable. And boy, don't even get me started about my standards for beaches. It's probably true.

However I think of myself as more adaptable than he gives me credit for; after all I have endured moves (compliments of his company) to the windy plains of Kansas (twice), the bone-chilling damp of England and when I thought Iowa and Illinois (twice) were cold, it was just the "warm-up" before Minnesota.

Those hothouse plants you're bringing home to plant are probably less acclimated than me. Some of you might even have everything planted, but for those of further north, we are just now reaching that moment when it's safe to put out the annuals after the average frost date.

Tender herbs waiting to be planted out.   The Garden Buzz

Plants that have been sitting outside at garden centers are ok to plant out immediately. But those warm-season annuals grown in the greenhouse need to be hardened off to avoid unnecessary heartbreak and expense. The same goes especially for any seedlings you've started yourself indoors. Plant grown like that have fresh, floppy foliage that can't hold up to direct sun and wind just yet. Wind dries out or dessicates plants very quickly leaving them limp and struggling. Hot sun will burn leaves.

Plants hardened off already, waiting for the rain to stop. And yes, in the above photo, my watering hose is a hot mess!   The Garden Buzz

Begin by placing the plants outside on a shady porch or north side of the house, for a few hours at a time, bringing them back in at night. Gradually expand their time outside in dappled shade for a few days. And when the time comes to transplant, the best day isn't a sunny one, certainly not a windy one, but a rainy or overcast day.

If you have to plant in less than optimum conditions, consider using row cover, a super-lightweight gauzy product found at most garden stores. Use to protect tender plants until they can withstand the weather.

As for me, it's been raining, cold and windy for a week and actually threatening snow a few times, so I'm back in my Ugg boots, but I'm California dreaming about better days.

Conifers: I've Got a New Plant Crush

It was bound to happen some time. Like that boy in 8th grade algebra class who was always sitting there, but suddenly became cute. That's how it is with these conifers. OMG, they're beautiful, how could I have missed them?

It could have been the shock of moving that made me mistake them for just evergreen screen savers in the background of my busy life. Frequent moving will do that to you, it keeps you a little off-balance, a little disoriented. And the learning curve for living up north has been steeper than most.

Then again, I guess I have thought the constantly-green conifers to be dark and dusty affairs, a musty mash-up of prickly needles and dry-shady inaccessible recesses. Yet, I'm the one who always wants the most fragrant tree for Christmas, forget about the gifts.

Having lived twice in Kansas, which is two times more than I ever imagined I would, you tend to tune out the pine trees. Kansas is the only state that has no native pine and even the red cedars are considered woody weeds on the tallgrass prairie, worthy of burning. Throw in the deadly Scotch Pine Wilt that has devastated so many of the introduced species around the midwest and you see why I denied myself the delights of these gorgeous trees.

Then I happened to see this wonkety, Hansel and Gretel in the woods-like tree at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Besides the whimsical growth habit and manageable size, it had these bright purple-pink cones! It was love at first sight. Piceas abies, Norway Spruce "Acrocona", I gotta have it. I'm looking for a suitable site, so any plant in my garden performing poorly had better watch out.

Picea abies "Acrocona"    The Garden Buzz

Have you seen those bumper stickers that admonish you to "Start Seeing Motorcyclists", well, I started seeing conifers. And living up north, that's a lot of seeing. Conifers are any tree with thin leaf needles bearing cones; fir, spruce, larch, pine, juniper, yew and cedar, most but not all evergreen.

The dark green color helps to absorb energy from weak sunshine at high altitudes as does the plane-shaped sloping fans of foliage to maximize the capture of that same sunlight. The boreal forests are the dominant plants that cover huge areas of land in the Northern hemisphere, and make up the largest terrestrial carbon sink. 

Closer to home, I've found that there are cones of all colors, besides shapes and sizes. I've realized the new spring growth on the tips can define or decorate.

 
They come in so many sizes, diminutive to majestic, there's one for every garden. And the towering ones have personalities, the tallest seem like wizened souls with their green-cloaked, drooping arms and pointed wizard hats.

 
In the meantime I've planted two conifer cultivars; they've become the solution for an awkward spot that has bothered me since we bought the house (garden).

First, Abies aureana, "Aurea", or Golden Korean Fir, I selected for its narrow habit and medium height at maturity. (Be careful of this, humongous trees were just once little guys). New needles emerge golden and give the tree a subtle chartreuse color. The cones are more violet than purple and sit in rows near the top branches.

 
Abies koreana "Aurea"   The Garden Buzz

Second, Picea amorika "Pendula" or Weeping Serbian Spruce has dark green needles with a silvery underside. It's so charming with branches that twist and turn up to make for an unusual specimen in the garden. Taller and wider than the fir it's just what I needed to fill in a large blank wall at the back of our house. I've added grasses and upright chokeberry varieties to offset the drooping forms of these adorable storybook trees. I'd love to find an alpine-like daisy (but non-invasive) for this new area.

Picea amorika "Pendula"     The Garden Buzz

Oh, yeah, do they have wildlife value? While deciduous trees provide more food value, conifers do produce cones that release seeds for birds and deer to browse. But more importantly they provide thermal cover and nesting sites for birds and mammals.

So now that I'm cuckoo for conifers, I've even gained a new appreciation for the white pines that frame the driveway to our home. I've noticed while working outside that they do indeed whisper. I think I heard them say they're worried that this newfound fondness for northerly landscapes will lead to an invasion of gnomes. Hmmmm...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7121809.ece

Late frost nipped your plants, Japanese beetles eyeing your roses? Just a bad day in the garden? This will put it all in perspective..........

I've Been Lookin' for a Heart of Gold

Mother's Day Gift Suggestion.........

Dicentra spectabilis "Gold Heart" at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum   The Garden Buzz

Instead of candy or cut flowers, what mom wouldn't love to add this lovely spring-blooming specimen to her garden? Blooming right around Mother's Day, this unusual  Bleeding Heart  would be a perennial reminder of your love and appreciation. Hint, hint.

Garden Tip of the Week: Friends Don't Let Friends Use Red Mulch

I'm reminded of the dress code at my children's former high school. It said in a kind of cute way that hair should only be those colors that naturally occur in humans. I think that a similar rule should be applied when applying mulch.

'Nough said.