YOU CAN GROW THAT: squash isn’t just a child’s game!

When you follow the rules in gardening, it works.  When you don’t, it doesn’t.

A harvest in summer requires following the recipe in spring.

But the rules we must follow are not OURS.  They are nature’s rules.  That’s why gardening seems difficult.  We Americans tend to be proud of our rule-breaking ways! Actually, rules make things much easier and as Andy Rooney loved to ask, “EVER WONDER WHY…. ?”.  Well, in gardening, you don’t have to wonder.  The law of sowing and reaping cannot be bargained with or altered.  It offers a comforting predictability. Plant a squash seed, get a squash, unless yet another of nature’s rules intervenes, such as survival of the fittest squirrel or cutworm or squash bug. When it comes to planting any seed, it will have its own set of rules.  Too deep for one is just right or too shallow for another.  Think Goldilocks.  As trying as it may be, knowing thy seeds is much like knowing thy child (or spouse): they are all different and have specific needs that, like it or not, require meeting if they are to thrive.  Okay, back to seeds….  squash seeds, in particular. I grow primarily two types of summer squash. (I’ve put out seeds for winter squash, too, but those disappeared in a downpour the next day. Probably could look in my neighbor’s yard for them, but didn’t have a decent LOW-FODMAP recipe for them anyway, so just waved good-bye.)

4-6 seeds per mound for zucchini squash is a good start.

RULES FOR SUMMER SQUASH

1) Both my summer types – zucchini style and the yellow straight-neck – have the same basic needs list: SUN, WATER, and TIME.

2) Seeds sown in hills – with 5 or so seeds to a mound and a 1/2 inch soil and a sprinkling of pine straw mulch – is my success recipe. My daddy taught me how and his Uncle Jim taught him.

3) Germination to ripened harvest is a couple of months, but the time from production to harvest seems only a few minutes.  It’s a booger keeping up once they start popping. I find it easiest to have a couple of sowing dates (mid-March and mid-April here in Texas) so they don’t all ripen simultaneously. Squash fatigue sets in pretty quickly at my house.  If I miss early seeding because of a late-cool snap, I purchase plants from my local nursery instead of using open-pollinated seeds stored from last year’s crop, a reputable seed company or CSA.

4) Keep squash plants picked to keep them producing.  The flowers are also tasty, which alleviates some squash over-load.  Top a salad with a yellow squash bloom for a lovely edible garnish.  Folks here along the Gulf Coast eat them fried, too.  (I might try that this summer since my daughter found a gluten-free breadcrumb mix for me.  Thinking about using corn flakes as batter…anyone experimented with that?)

Slice squash thin for freezing or dehydrating.

5) Squashes are impatient. Pick while young so they aren’t tough. And since they rot quickly after harvesting, what I don’t eat or share, I slice thin, put on a cookie sheet in the freezer then into containers and back into the freezer.  Since slices freeze individually on the cookie sheet, they easily pour out individually.

Introducing children to gardening is one of my passions. Passing on to them that there are natural rules and consequences we cannot change makes for a more fruitful – and less frustrating – life, for both parent AND child.  So get a packet of squash seeds and grab a kid (your own, preferably).  A bit of spring sweat will turn sweet come summer.  In fact, it will be a summer neither of you will soon forget. c:

HIT:Gardening with kids teaches EVERYONE patience!

Easy to grow from seed: LET US have LETTUCE!

Some of the new kids on the block...or at least in MY block!

Some of my lettuce is beginning to bolt.  Just when it starts getting too hot in the kitchen and I prefer a cool salad over a warm meal, my salad fixins’ peter out on me.  While I LIKE flowers, when a stalk shoots up on lettuce to produce flowers – thus producing seeds – I know my fresh-from-the-garden lettuce days are numbered.

'Vulcan' lettuce from seed, new to my garden this year.

A few things about growing lettuce…..

1) Most salad greens – like lettuce and spinach – prefer cool weather.  That means the Gulf Coast version of winter makes perfect growing conditions, while summer (and spring and fall) are too hot for them.  They bolt, another word for “going to seed” as my grandmother called it.  When they start this route in order to propagate (make babies), the leaves soon turn bitter. I do have a couple of varieties that last a little longer: ‘Red Sails’ and an oakleaf type whose seeds came to me from a neighbor.  She calls it “Israel lettuce” and says seeds traveled to Texas in an unnamed pocket after a visit to the Holy Land. Jury’s still out on several new ones – a tennis ball heirloom I bought from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, ‘Vulcan’ that Sakata Seeds sent me and an organic blend given to me by Territorial Seed Company – to see how they do in the heat.*

2) They key is to NOT dig a hole for the tiny seeds; instead, dot them around on moist, scratched dirt and top with a sprinkling of potting soil.  Keep them damp, but don’t pour water. The deluge will dislodge the seeds and they’ll end up sprouting somewhere else, like at your neighbor’s house.

3) I start putting out seeds around Labor Day and plant a few more in a couple of weeks.  By Halloween, I’ve got enough salad to feed my subdivision.  I have enough to feed my family long before that.

4) Some folks swear they’ve found a good summer greens substitute with Malabar spinach.  I’ve grown this vine and while it is pretty, its taste is a bit strong to me.

5) Lettuce makes a great bed edging if you are more into aesthetics than edibles.

6) Salad greens work GREAT in pots if you are yardless, or if you have trouble bending to garden.

7) Different types of greens have different nutrient levels. Texas A&M put together a chart to show you what’s what.

HIT:lettuce is easy to grow from seed!

So…..would you like some seeds?  Leave a comment to tell me and I’ll mail some out when mine go to seed.  We’ll have a salad together.  Wanna try the Vulcan? Don’t know if it will last the summer, but put enough of my Asian dressing on it and I think even my garden clogs might taste pretty good!

Live long and prosper.

(*While I do not receive compensation, I was paid in SEED MONEY…..got free seeds from Territorial and Sakata companies.)

YOU CAN GROW THAT! POTATOES

Don't let taters-gone-native go to waste!

I can be lazy.

While that statement sounds very much like I AM lazy, the distinction is an important one.  For most of my life, it’s been difficult for me to even sit still, much less completely veg out.  Those days are over. Has my personality morphed, choleric gone phlegmatic?  Probably not.  When it comes to continuous, never-ending chores – such as house or yard work – my conscience has simply relaxed at the expense of years.  It seems my friend Brenda Beust Smith, the self-proclaimed LAZY GARDENER, must have arrived at the prescribed age of ease-allowance before I did, robbing me of the title.

Combine my newfound laissez-faire chore blinders, an obnoxious obsession for recycling (stemming more from being cheap AND creative than any environmental crusade), and a desire to buck time-tested gardening rules and what do you get?

The sum is often disaster. Last week’s discovery, however, will be dinner tomorrow night: plenty of yummy new potatoes.

Suppertime spuds? DIG IT!

HIT: sprouted potatoes beg to be planted!

Seed potatoes should be bought and then planted early in spring, according to the rules here in my part of Texas. My version?  Smelled something funny in the pantry after returning from vacation in October, my nose leading me to a bag of organic new potatoes pushed behind a cereal box. They weren’t so new anymore.  Already sprouted, I tucked them – untreated and uncut – into my garden after yanking my frost-bitten tomatoes out.  So here it is, 1st week of March, and my potatoes are faster food than a crowded drive-through at dinner-time.  Just pop them into a few cups of boiling water in my pressure cooker, top with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and rosemary sprigs and serve.  Sounds even lazier than a trip under the golden arches, huh?  Just sit and wait for the timer to go off!

Top 3 House Plants To Improve Indoor Air Quality

Feel free to mix plants with similar needs in one pot. (This one came as a gift and I'll have to remove the beautiful moss covering the soil to help keep mold from hiding.)

When you walk into a beauty salon, do your eyes begin to water?  How about the perfume counter at Macy’s….do you see double for a few minutes after passing by it or a man with a bit too much foo-foo water, as my grandmother used to call scented after-shave?  When you put in new carpet, paint, or exterminate your home, does your spouse/child develop a horrible headache? Chances are pretty good those symptoms signal a chemical bomb attacking your system.  Whether it is the combination of gases or a personal sensitivity to a specific one, a strong reaction might be your body’s way of sending up a white flag in surrender to something it fears.

HIT: Many houseplants are environmentally friendly HOUSECLEANERS!

Sometimes the reaction is too subtle to notice.  Or we blame an exterior source such as ragweed or pollen instead of the actual culprit.  Over time the reaction may become more severe.   If you note a correlation between a PLACE and an allergy related SYMPTOM – like itchy eyes, runny or congested nose or sneezing, skin rash, headache, sore throat – you might want to look into the root cause.  Other reactions that can be a result of poor air quality are nausea, depression and drowsiness.  And while we can’t completely avoid indoor air pollution, it is possible to lessen the impact with houseplants in your home.  Both NASA and the Soviet space program found plants invaluable for cleaning an airtight room. Recent studies from India have isolated the top THREE PLANTS  at mitigating a “sick building” so YOU don’t become the one ill. (Watch this short TED video of the Top 3 Houseplants for Removing Toxic Air in India and which room to put each in for best results or use this website to see how many/where/which plants to use.)

GOLDEN POTHOS/POTHOS IVY/MONEY PLANT: super easy, even under artificial lighting; trails, so either give it support or locate it on top of a bookshelf;

MOTHER-IN-LAW TONGUE: another super easy; great architectural, grass-like form to it for a more contemporary setting;

ARECA/CANE PALM: this one’s a little trickier for me because it needs good sunlight and takes up quite a bit of space, but great tropical feel.

A few more of my favorites are:

CORN PLANT: more tree-ish, but very easy with enough natural light, like an east or west facing window

SPIDER PLANT:  this is another one that does well on a shelf, but it needs a more direct light source than the ivy; also a variegated form

peace lily

PEACE LILY: this the mascot of my office (thanks to my friend Brenda Dickinson!) with southeastern light coming in from the atrium; nice white flower and upright, even when large it stays relatively compact

Moss may look nice, but it can mean a not-so-fun-guy on the soil of houseplants....

Mold is a killer for my allergies and indoor plants in soggy soil can be a huge source.  I try to set my plants into the bathtub once a week or so for a nice long drink, then put them back into their water-proof tray afterwards.  There are specific household products that will curtail mold growth, but I just try not to use anything like that. A periodical bath outside works great, too.  DO NOT cover the plant’s base with moss since it will encourage fungal growth.  Plants like pothos ivy and airplane are quite happy growing in WATER and might be a better choice.

Also be aware that some houseplants are poisonous to pets or when munched on by toddlers.

MYTH: All plants are GOOD for us....beware of plants that might be toxic to toddlers or pets.

If you’d like more info on growing any of these plants, check out this article on Dave’s Garden and this one, too if you send up a white flag because of your brown thumb!

Rake Those Leaves, or Leaf It Alone?

It’s beginning to look a lot like…..well, like AUTUMN here in South Texas.  But, I don’t dread leaves on the ground anymore.

lacebark elm (Ulmus parvifolia) leaves quickly decompose because of their diminutive size

HIT: leave the leaves for a more nutritious meal!

Winter officially begins today, December 21st, even if my sister in Denver begs to differ.  Storms here sent leaves scurrying, as per schedule this week.  So, what should be done about that?  (The leaves, I mean.  Only way to deal with cold is LEAF yourself.)  Many communities follow a Don’t Bag It! program in response to a GROWING problem:  landscape waste in landfills.  Some estimates say 20-30% of trash headed to landfills is yard debris and of that, 40-50% is leaves.  While we can say, “leaves break down anyway,” the costs hauling them to a landfill are astronomical.  Then the resulting decomposed black gold – compost full of nutrients for which our lawns beg anyway – is left to fertilize trash.  In fact, leaves contain up to 80% of gathered nutrients from the growing season, according to Texas A&M University. Seeing a vicious cycle here?  Fertilize the plants, gather the waste, cart it off, fertilize the plants, gather the waste, cart it off…..

WHY do people still rake, then?  And what happens to the grass if you refrain from de-leafing?  My theory is the yard guys need something to do after mowing season, or maybe the pressure is on when our neighbors do it, making us look like lazy bums with a messy yard if we don’t.  It’s great exercise to rake leaves and tons of fun to play in them.  And don’t leaves left in beds blow everywhere?  Won’t they smother the lawn?  The answer is yes, and no.

MYTH: leaves leave you looking like a bum!

Flower/shrub beds benefit greatly from a warm blanket of leaves in winter. If you don’t want your natural mulch to go airborne with a strong wind, run a mower over leaves on the lawn, putting the shredded leaves on top of the whole ones that have fallen in the bed.  The new leaves will mat together.  Lawngrass prefers chopped salad over large bites anyway.  Smaller pieces add nutrients back into the soil, where they need to go, with a bonus of fewer bare spots for winter weeds to take hold.

Still expect the stigma of bum-on-the-block if you leave the leaves where they lie?  Then gather them up and put them into a compost bin or barrel instead of a trashbag.  They’ll rot into fertilizer in no time.  Here’s a video from my friend P. Allen Smith showing exactly how to compost the leaves from your yard.

So, let your landscape have its mulch and eat it, too.  Might make you look forward to watching the leaves rain down next year.

“I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes…”

“Any natural organic way to keep snakes out of the yard? I am not opposed to killing them, but would rather annoy them so much they go off and bother someone else.  Thinking specifically copperheads and garden snakes.”

This year’s record drought in some areas of the country and record rains in others are bringing varmints that used to live in holes out where we can see them.  Many folks do not like this.  I actually want these creatures in my yard since they are voracious eaters of other things I prefer not to have there.  I don’t even mind SEEING them.  It is NOT unreasonable, in my opinion, that I don’t want an up close and personal relationship.  At six years old, a spider bite nearly rotted two fingers off my right hand.  And even God tells us not to like snakes, doesn’t he?   I have a slinky friend that lives in my yard.  He’s not my pet and doesn’t have a name, nor does he “sit” or “roll-over.”  I’ve found him quite trainable, though.  He responds appropriately when I say, “get-the-heck-away-from-me-if-you-wanna-stay-alive!”

Non-poinsonous Gulf Coast ribbon snake in my yard

Unlike Joan in the  Hormel commercial who doesn’t shave under her arms and keeps a goat on the roof, my dear friend Diane Cabiness is a real naturalist.  In fact, she’s a certified Texas Master Naturalist and the one I go to when I have a native plant question. She’s also the number on my cell phone’s speed dial for critter queries.  She rehabilitates injured snakes and spiders and then takes them to visit school children, which to me is cruel but the kids LOVE ‘em.  Nerds get a chance to be cool kids when they let things crawl around on them without screaming or peeing their pants.  Diane’s cool even without her reptile and arachnid collection.  She has an authentic love of creatures, which is not the vibe I get from hairy goat gal who appears lazy instead of an embracer of nature. So I asked Diane what constitutes a yard where snakes would not be happy.  Her answer?  1)  no food, 2) no water, and 3) no cover.  That simple.  Since snakes snack on small mammals like mice, getting rid of wood stacks, brush piles and similar vermin friendly habitats could remove their food source.  (Those are favorite spider hang-outs, too, by the way.)  In dry conditions, use less water and make sure you don’t have leaky outside faucets.  If you have shrubs, ground-cover, or a thick mulch (more than 3″) around the house, you’ve also inadvertently created a cozy snake spot.  

HIT: snakes and spiders are free, NATURAL pest controls for the garden

MYTH: effective snakes REPELLANT, or snake OIL?

As far as repellants, moth balls and sulphur/sulfur – often the ingredients in products touted as SNAKE REPELLANTS - might make the small mammals that are known snake treats scarse, but are ineffective for keeping away snakes themselves.  Their awful scent more likely keeps YOU out of your garden so you don’t see the snakes there.  Beware using both, which are dangerous to mammals.  (“Mustard gas” is made with sulphur.)   I’ve planted pungent herbs such as rosemary and onions surrounding my roses and veggies where I’m puttering around a lot, often with bare hands.  Mint under the hose bibs, too.  The deer are less likely to browse where these plants are present and I’d heard snakes don’t like them either.  I’ve not seen any snakes anywhere near the rosemary….yet.

Keep snakes at bay with a SNAKE-PROOF FENCE....

SNAKE-PROOF FENCING can be installed where small children or pets need to be protected, but cost prohibitive in a large area.  Check out the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management for more information.

While death is natural and organic, the North Carolina Extension Service lumps things into “lethal” and “non-lethal” when it comes to snake control and, like my friend Diane, prefer the non-lethal controls.  (Not sure “decapitation-by-hoe” is considered a death by natural cause, anyway.) They also amen Diane’s suggestions about what works best to keep snakes at bay near homes.  Then they talk about snakes IN the home.

Close cracks and crevices in buildings and around pipes

and utility connections with 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth,

mortar or sheet metal. All doors and windows should have

tightly fitting screens.  

(http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/gaston/Pests/reptiles/snakecontrol.htm) 

 

Thanks, guys.  I’d never even thought about them coming inside…..till now!

“Low-maintenance garden”… an oxymoron?

We just bought a vacation home and need ideas on what types of low-maintenance flowers, bushes, landscaping we can plant. There is no watering system, so the yard and beds must thrive on natural rainfall except for our quarterly visits. Also, how do you prevent ‘stick-tites’ or kill existing ones?  Jeri in Missouri

tools for a low-maintenance landscape

Maintenance problems in the landscape are often the result of lack of planning.  You are ahead of the game spending time looking at how you will use your vacation home before you spend $$$.  Here are some principles that apply to anyone wanting to relax in their garden instead of just making it another entry on the to-do list.

1. MAKE A REAL CHOICE:  How will you use the space?  Think about your property like you do your home, designating areas for specific activities.  Do you need a dining room, or just an eat-in kitchen?   If a playroom’s on your list, do you need a spot for horseshoes or a soft-ball field?  How about a living area?  How many will you need to seat?  Do these spaces connect to one another?  Be realistic and consider your lifestyle, year-round outdoor conditions and how many people will usually be in the spaces.
   

   HIT: create a 1 year, 5 year and forever plan for your landscape

2. MAKE A REAL PLAN:  Using graph paper, lay out the property showing existing plants that will remain.  Note topographic highlights of your yard, including low spots and berms, great views and not-so-great, then add in your wish list of garden rooms and where they’ll best fit into your landscape and your life.  Don’t forget to leave space for utility items, such as trashcans/recycling bins and lawn equipment.  (cherie’s tip: Make spaces convenient to one another and to your home or you won’t use them!)
   

   plan for success in your landscape

3. MAKE YOUR PLAN REAL:  How will you maintain the property?  Even if it’s your primary residence, a busy schedule might require your landscape still be low-maintenance.  If you can’t constantly keep your eye on it, consider hiring someone to do that for you.  If that’s not feasible, maybe “naturalizing” the property with only the designated spaces as maintained areas will better suit your lifestyle.  Add paths to get from one “room” to the next, but pick not only your plant materials but also your hardscape materials intentionally to avoid high maintenance.  A path or patio can be of many different materials, from bark mulch to lawn to pavers to concrete. Mulch and grass will require weekly or monthly maintenance; pavers and concrete will not.  When it comes to plant materials, look around you at what is native.  Contact the local agricultural extension  or state-wide native plant society for a list of appropriate plants, then keep them mulched well.  Use rainwater efficiently by grouping like-minded plants with low-water plants in the high spots and more-water plants in the low spots.  Check to see if a rain-water harvesting system would work in your area, too.
   

   MYTH: NO-maintenance landscapes

As far as getting rid of grass-burs or stick-tights or any other pest plant, organic methods abound with some more effective than others.  Several websites offer proven ways including the old-fashioned way:  hand-pulling.  But weeds are opportunists.   Bare spots, dry spots and wet spots are all accidents waiting to weed.  If this is a turf area, you might look at installing a native grass and allow it to grow to mature height, crowding and shading out warm-season weeds.

Whether part-time, full-time or all-time, your home’s landscape can be a labor and cost intensive proposition.  Even a little cabin in the woods begs for extra planning on the front end to ensure a low-maintenance garden, giving you the time to vacation wherever you are.

Battling Garden Pests

Effective BANDAIDS in the war against pepper attack....

Cutworm damage to sweet peppers.

Am I showing my age?  If you didn’t recognize the title of my post today, Pat Benatar dominated 80′s rock for a time with this song.  That’s how I’m feeling about my garden this morning.  The cutworms have declared war!  My peppers have been under attack the last few days and I want to share some of my organic arsenal for the fight ahead this summer.  First of all,

WHAT IS A CUTWORM?

image courtesy of Montana State University

They aren’t mean; just immature.  An immature MOTH, to be specific.  And like all growing teens, when they wake up hungry in the middle of the night and prowl around the fridge — I mean GARDEN — they can easily take a slice of nice, juicy plant branch like it was leftover pizza.  Preventative care is the best solution for those of us who don’t like to have pesticides of any kind in our landscape.

Bandages DO work as preventative measure.  Sort of.

HIT:  worms + metal = bad news  (in the CRAWLERS CHRONICLE anyway!) 

Yesterday I twirled copper wire around the base of my sweet peppers and other plants cutworms tend to attack. No new wounds this morning.  I’m not doing the victory dance just yet, though.  It’s also too little too late for the damage already done, but should encourage the fiends to find a new spot to munch where the grass is greener.  Another method used by many gardeners is aluminum foil.  I usually keep a bit of clean, used foil in my cart to re-purpose for the garden.

MYTH: you have to pull out the BIG guns for cutworms.

What organic method have you found effective for cutworms?

I also keep food grade diatomaceous earth on hand for just such an occasion.  This is a powder made of tiny marine fossils.  Just think of what it feels like to walk barefoot across razor sharp seashells.  That’s pretty much what those little varmints traverse when diatomaceous earth is sprinkled around the base of a plant.   They won’t cross the line twice.  (Wear a mask when putting out diatomaceous earth, though.  It’s equally as damaging to soft lung tissue if inhaled.  Also it must be re-applied after a rain, but since we’ve been in drought, my soaker hose doesn’t seem to mess up my moat of powder.)

Now that I’ve put out the land-mines for the cutworms, which I should have done a month ago, I guess I should apologize ahead of time to my neighbors, unwilling soldiers in the war when my cutworms march next door.

a C.S.A. subscription doesn’t get you a new magazine…..does it?

Several months ago, I visited my oldest daughter in Arlington, VA and realized I’d had a little more influence on her than I knew:  she’s a farmer.  However, living in a 3rd floor condo with only a small balcony, she’s pretty limited in her crops.  Herbs and micro-greens in the south-facing windows limped through the winter, but her seeds for heirloom veggies were already thriving under a homemade hothouse on the balcony.

last of fresh brussels sprouts from my garden

Boy was I PROUD!  Then when the fridge opened, I saw she had a garden there, too…….all kinds of greens and other winter produce.  But she didn’t grow them in the Fridgidaire.  She’s part of a C.S.A. that delivers a couple times of week to locations in her area.  She hops on the D.C. Metro to pick up her “share,” including various fruits and vegetables and herbs, eggs, meats, including fresh fish and oysters, artisanal breads and cheese, even “kitty milk,” which is raw milk.  C.S.A.’s, or Community Sustained Agriculture is a growing trend, especially in urban areas where land is scarce and valuable.  Families band together and promise to buy from local growers as a subscription, either monthly or annually or by the season.  They then will receive FRESH, seasonal produce, often with recipes and ideas how to use these ingredients of a healthy diet.

HIT

HIT:  GOOD FOOD = GOOD HEALTH

My physician is convinced nutrition is the key to wellness and last year she asked me to start a C.S.A. with home delivery for our area.  We have a great little farmer’s market already, but many of her patients are unable to make it the few hours on Saturday morning it is open because of soccer games or other conflicts.  Thank goodness, my friend (and formerly my editor at Houston House and Home Magazine) of AUTHENTIC LIVING Donna Mosher let me know she’s taken up the slack. THANKS, DONNA!  Jolie Vue is one of the local farms now offering home delivery of produce.

MISS

MISS: HOME DELIVERY OF FRESH PRODUCE CAN BE A STRAIN ON YOUR GROCERY BUDGET.

Next week I’ll introduce you to the owners of a C.S.A. – Home Sweet Farm – I visited working on the next book in my HEIRLOOMS series, HEIRLOOM EDIBLES FOR TODAY.  Their motto?   “We grow righteous FOOD,” and boy do they ever!  I think their love of the land and the people they meet sharing their bounty will inspire you, as it has me.  Going to pick up your produce weekly at a designated drop-off (or your local farmer’s market) might be a more affordable alternative to home delivery.  Even better, folks were out at the farm, helping to pick their OWN produce while I was there.  They were actually enjoying the task, laughing together as they picked their peck of peppers, as yet un-pickled. (Which, by the way, I’ll give you FARMER BRAD‘S recipe for those next week, too!)  So maybe the combination of laughter (“the BEST medicine”) and sweating together in the near 100 degree temps will count  as my aerobic activity for the day.  What do you think, Dr. Davis???

heirloom sweet bell pepper ripening on the vine at HomeSweetFarm

Want a NO-MAINTENANCE ROSE?

Sally asks:

“Do I have to dead-head my Knock-out roses, or should I just leave them alone?  I know they are supposed to be low-maintenance, but are they NO-maintenance?”

Knock Out roses in partial shade, Ft.Worth Botanic Garden (photo by Cherie)

The Knock Out ® rose  (Rosa ‘Radrazz’ KNOCK OUT) is the fastest selling “new” rose ever.  Since being sent to the Conard-Pyle Company for testing in 1992 by Wisconsin rose breeder William (“Bill”) Radler, it has been amazing the growers. Radler says. “I wanted to breed the maintenance out of roses so I wouldn’t have to cut (them) back as the years passed.”  Although bred to weather cold winters, Knock Outs proved resistant to disease, pests, heat and humidity as well, making them a great rose for the South, too.  These hardy shrubs, now come in several colors and are touted as a great alternative for those who want beautiful roses without all the fuss.

HIT: no deadheading necessary

Knock Out ® roses do NOT require the old blooms to be removed, called “deadheading.”  Repeat blooming will occur regardless, even in partially shady areas.  However, cutting, or “pruning” your roses back each spring (I do it Valentine’s Day here in my Texas garden) will keep the shrubs tidier and at a manageable size, if you garden in a small space or prefer hedging at 3-4′.  (My Knock Outs get over 5′ in a season if I don’t trim them….which I don’t.)  Another reason to deadhead is if you prefer not seeing the spent blooms dangling.  WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ROSE?

MISS: a rose by any other name....

photo from Robin McBurney Fruia

A dear memory to me is the scent of my grandmother, Nana Dodson, who bathed in rose-water.  While some say the Knock Out ® rose has a scent, I’ve not noticed it.  Instead, I prefer low maintenance antique roses such as ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison,’ which emits a TRUE rose scent, in my opinion.  It might not boast a perfect, unblemished bloom every time, but the fragrance fills my entire garden and takes me back to my childhood.  I also worry that, as with other plants, Knock Out roses could be over-planted and should a disease or pest start to attack it, entire landscapes would be wiped out overnight.  Besides, I love plants too much to have only ONE kind, even if it is a low-maintenance, pretty one!

fragrant 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' rose, which comes as a climber or shrub (photo by Cherie)