Avant Gardening with Sturtz & Copeland

If you love daffodils, tulips, crocouses and hyacinths, now’s the time to plant them.  It has gotten cool enough to be sure that they”ll be properly chilled to put on a great show in the spring.  Select bulbs that are firm and blemish-free, with no sign of growth.  It’s important to plant them at the proper depth.  Plant some that will bloom at the first breath of spring, like crocuses, and others that will bloom later.  There are spectacular parrot tulips, gorgeous Rembrandt tulips and quaint little species of tulips.  Daffodils range from the tiny Tete-aTe to the hulking Dutch Masters.  They come in yellow, white orange and pink, not to mention combinations thereof.

One of the best things to remember is that they look best in large groups - massed plantings.  Find a variety you really adore and plant a lot of them.

If you’re going to plant a lot of bulbs, we’ve discovered a terrific way to do it.  You’ll need an electric drill, a bulb auger, a shop vac and a piece of 1″ PVC pipe.  With the auger in the drill, take a marker and mark on the shaft of the auger the depth you want to plant.  Pick an area a few feet in either direction.  Start drilling holds to the right depth and spacing, but don’t worry about dirt that may slide back into the holes.  Duct tape the foot-long piece of PVC pipe to the end of the shop vac hose.  Once you’ve finished a section, insert the pipe into the bottom of the holes and drop in the bulbs, pointy end up.  They are all now at5 the same correct depth.  Dump the topsoil out of the shop vac and rake the soil back into the holes.  You8 can cover a lot of ground with this method and save yourself the agony of planting them one at a time.  You also ensure that they’ll all come up and bloom at about the same time.

Though bulbs may seem expensive, keep in mind that you’re paying for a garden show that has potential to go on a decade or more.  Once the blooms are gone give them a good feeding and let the leaves stand.  This will give you an even better show the next year.

Although you may be weary from a long summer of gardening, once the frost takes out your vegetable garden it’s time to clean up.  Toss or compost wilted greens, till in some manure and compost.  Rake your beds smooth.  If you just suck it up in the fall you’ll be able to stroll out to your garden in thh spring and plant away.  It really is a pleasure having done the hard work in the fall.

Fall is a great time to replant your vegetable garden, transplant perennials and reap what you have sown.  Cooler temperatures mean less watering and weeding.  And you can get a head start on next year as well.

Powdery Mildew, Rust and Fungus usually appear when the summer heats up.  Powdery mildew starts with a whitish cast on the surface of the leaf.  It turns the leaf brown and the leaf dies.  Rusts can appear on either the tops or the undersides of leaves and, as the name indicates, are brownish red in color.  Other fungus manifest as gray or black discolorations on leaves, stem or branches.  All are treatable.  A 1% solution of sulfur and water, with a little dish soap mixed in, works well.  Common hydrogen peroxide is also a potent fungicide, which can be used straight up or diluted with water up to 50%.  Be sure to test a small portion on the plant first when using hydrogen peroxide mixtures and, as with all sprays, never spray a plant when it is sitting in direct sunlight.  Controlling water application is critical when you have fungus problems.  Never get the leaves wet.  Always water at the base of the plant,  preferably in the morning.  Roses in particular suffer from a lot of fungus problems and may benefit from trimming out crowded growth in the interior of the plant to increase air circulation.