This page contains the original content of my first webpage which I started on May 15, 1997. I have since then expanded the topic in many published articles on various websites which are linked at the Biogardener Homepage.

Prepare Your Garden for the Spring Thaw

In preparation for winterizing my garden, I collect several truck loads of bagged leaves in my neighborhood just before the garbage truck would take them to the landfill. Those bags are emptied to form a covering at least one foot deep just before the first big snowstorm. This year, however, the snowstorm happened a month early and I didn't have a chance. I do, however, have the bags of leaves and am emptying them on top of the snow. To keep them from blowing away, I cover them with branches. This leaf blanket is applied wherever I have bulbs, perennial, and small trees and shrubs.

Contrary to popular belief, this cover is not intended to keep the garden warm, on the contrary, it is intended to keep it cold continuously during periods of thawing. The winter frost does not harm perennials and bulbs which are hardy to the area. The damage occurs when the soil thaws and refreezes. In Alberta, for example, where the warm chinook winds cause sudden spells of thawing, rose bushes are dug up and stored in a cold basement. In the cold prairies, where temperatures dip much lower, hardy roses will survive the winter, but it is advisable to protect them with leaves to prevent damage by a possible spring refreeze.

Bringing in the Plants but not the Bugs

If you have potted some plants to bring into the house or greenhouse, you may well be bringing in some future insects in the form of eggs. Aromatic herbs and scented geranium are a good way to repel insects. If you do not have those, you can sticking a garlic clove into each pot. Insects do not like the smell of allium and they will just disappear. The best garlic to set is a thick clove which has already grown a green shoot. When the garlic grows too tall, I pinch it off to use in salads.

Setting Bulbs

Just before freeze-up is the best time to set your spring bulbs. If you have ever visited Ottawa in May, you know how spectacular a full bed of one color of tulips can be.

Bulbs should be planted away from buildings so that the warmth from the foundation does not thaw the ground prematurely. They thrive best in the shade of deciduous shrubs or trees. That way, they get full sun during blooming time and shade after the blooming. That is the ideal for bulbs.

Here is my method of planting them or any other spring bulbs.

The bed in which the bulbs are to be set must be well worked with compost and be freshly dug to allow the roots to develop freely. I set the bulbs on top of that well-worked ground, just pushing each bulb deeply enough to allow it to sit firmly. Then I spread on the bulbs the richest, loosest soil I have, preferably straight humus from last year's compost. I pile it up to the required depth for that type of bulb. Just hours before the first heavy snowfall, I pile on at least 1' of dry leaves which will be reduced to a fraction of an inch by spring. If evergreen branches are available, I use them to hold down the leaves. The falling needles will give the bulbs extra vivid color. The tulips will poke through the leaf layer, giving the bed a crip, clean look on a slightly raised bed.

From the time the bulbs stop blooming till the autumn, I spread a some fresh pigeon manure (rabbit or other mild manure is fine, too) over the plants to soak in with the rain water. Just before I spread the next leaf cover, I make sure to spread some more fresh manure and then cover that with another foot of leaves. With that treatment my bulbs get bigger and the colors more vibrant yea after year with very little work.

Planting Oak Trees for Future Generations

You don't plant oaktrees. You can't buy them at a nursery, because they do not like being transplanted. Their tap root is terribly long and does not seem to have any feeder roots. It seems to be anchored in China. As soon as you start digging, all the soil falls off.

If you want a new oaktree, you need to set an acorn in the soil. Rodents are likely to find it before it sprouts, so you need to plant quite a few and pray that one of them will make it. True to Murphy's Law, the surviving one will be in your last choice location. That's all right. You just learn to live with it.

It you are setting the acorns out in the country, as I am, be prepared to have many of the young trees chewed off by field mice the first year. I have therefore devised a new method of starting a tree. I plant the acorn in a large, deep flower pot and nurture it for several years until it can survive a mouse attack. Then I set it out in a hole, being careful not to disturb the soil in the pot. It works.

You won't live long enough to relax in the shade or these majestic trees, but maybe your grandchildren will, or maybe your great-grandchildren.

Vines on Walls Are Destructive

Whenever I am asked how to grow vines on a wall, I shudder. I well remember the medieval church in Nuremberg which is being rebuilt brick by brick at a price of millions just because someone , ages ago, thought that ivy growing up on a wall looked pretty, and no one in the intervening time had the forsight to stopped the abuse.

If you insist on an green wall, do yourself and your house a favor. Let the vines creep up a lattice to save the building from the invasive roots of the vines.

Getting Rid of Ant Hills

I had several bad ant hills in the lawns when we bought our house. I first disturbed the hills enough to scatter the ants, and then dug up each area, one at a time. In each case I found a submerged old tree root which was the attraction for the ants. I removed the remaining pieces of the roots.

I now have no ants on the property, because they do not like the smell of all the herbs around here, especially the mints which I allow to grow practically anywhere. If they get in my way, I yank them out.

No Late Rhubarb Harvesting

Are you tempted to harvest the last bit of rhubarb? Don't do it. Allow the last strength to go into the roots. If the rhubarb was just planted in the last couple of years, you should not have harvested any at all this summer. Let the roots grow strong first.

If you are thinking of setting a new root, find a spot in the coolness of semi-shade to get the juiciest treats to enjoy even raw.

Grasshoppers! Prevent Next Year's Infestation

Grasshoppers feed on monocultures. I have seen them lay down green wheatfields like lawnmowers, yet the few weeds among the wheat were not touched. We are experiencing an infestation of grasshoppers this year and I see plenty of them in my hayfield, but they are not eating. They just sit on the thistles and I wish they would get busy and devour them, but I have no such luck. They just wait till they die of starvation.

It is the variety of vegetation in the field which is confusing them, because they can only handle one crop at a time. I do not have beds of one crop in my garden either and have therefore never experienced grasshopper damage. Don't give them the satisfaction of finding a single crop in any one place. Do companion planting next year and you can let these voracious pests starve in the midst of an abundant crop.

Maximize Your Tomato Yield

I have no use for green tomatoes, but I want as many red ones as possible. Three months before the first serious frost, I pinch off every tomato shoot which has not finished blooming and I continue pinching off any future shoots. That way all the blooms will have time to ripen on the vine and the plants will not have to waste energy on producing useless fruit. Here in zone 2, I do the job in the middle of July and continue pinching off new shoots till freeze-up.

To keep tomato peels from turning tough, the fruit should be picked just before it turns fully red and be allowed to ripen in the dark. Never leave a picked tomato exposed to light.

Mildew

Once mildew appears in a neighborhood, it is only a matter of time, before you will find it in your garden, because the spores are carried by the wind. They seem to settle on plants with smooth, damp leaves. I keep them from ripening in my yard, but I get plenty more sent over every season from a neighboring lilac hedge which is out of control.

Plants can be protected from the fungus by changing the pH of the surface. They can be powdered with baking soda or sulphur or sprayed with a solution containing vinegar, sulphur, cinnamon, or baking soda. The treatment has to be repeated after every rain. That is too much fuss for me!

The fungus goes through three stages: white, grey, black. I try to catch it at the white stage. Whichever annuals or biennials show the white fuzz, I pull out, dry and compost. If it progresses to the grey stage, I dig the pulled-out plants into the ground. Under no circumstances will I allow the fungus to reach the black stage. That black fuzz is a mass of ripe spores which would take over the yard next year.

If a shrub or hedge is attacked by mildew, I know it is time to thin it out and to strip off the infected leaves. I also have a good look at the location of all the infected plants. They are mostly shaded, whereas the same varieties in the sun are doing fine. Next year, I will try to restrict the susceptible plants to sunny areas. Right now I have a lilac hedge which is shaded by a maple tree on the boulevard. To control the mildew completely, I would have to get rid of either the hedge or the maple tree. Thinning the hedge to allow the wind to dry the leaves after a rain will help a little.

Cabbage Butterfly Repellants

Bitter aromatic herbs repell flying insects.

I set all cabbage family plants in circles around wormwood plants. Cabbage butterflies can be seen in my garden, but they do not light on a plant and therefore don't lay their eggs. I therefore have no worm damage. Tansy, and to a lesser extent chamomile, have similar effects, but tansy is not welcome in my garden because of its invasive root system. Wormwood is the most effective of any herb I have tried. It keeps all the pesty little flying insects away, including mosquitoes.

When to Sow Carrots

Have you planted your tomato plants in an open area and the soil around the plants is bare? Don't waste it. Carrots are the perfect companion plant to tomatoes. The nightshade plant protects the carrots from the carrot white fly (I think that's what you call it. I wouldn't know it, because it probably does not survive here), and carrots get the biggest if you sow them after the soil is really warm. Even here in zone 2, the carrots sown in June get bigger than the ones sown in any previous month. I have actually tested it one year by sowing a new batch every month. The later they were sown, the bigger they got. Carrot seeds need hot soil to germinate.

Healthy Lilacs

Would you like to keep your lilac blooms coming back in abundance next year? Make sure that all the strength goes into next year's bud formation and not into this year's seed production. If you haven't already done so, now is the time to make sure that every single spent bloom is broken or cut off. None of them should be allowed to develop seeds.

Onion Greens

We love green onion. Or should I call them onion greens? We love them fresh. My garden is full of onion greens: chives, spring onions, cooking onions, winter onions. They are everywhere. That is why you won't find any aphids or borers here. Rodents, including rabbits, also are repelled by the smell.

For years, I have cut off the bottoms of green onions and set them into the ground. Any time of the year is fine, so long as the ground isn't frozen. Within 12 months, the greens are ready to be cut. What was the bottom of a spring onion is now a bunch of 6 to 12 onions.

I now can do one of two things: Cut off the greens with scissors as I would cut off chives, as close to the ground as possible. Or pull out the bunch, cut the bottom 3 cm off each onion and stick it into the ground by a plant which needs protection from aphids or borers. The greens get cut into a soup or salad.

I do the same with the garlic cloves I set into the ground. I only harvest the greens and leave the cloves in the ground.