Houseplants - Spring Cleaning

I generally start my spring-cleaning of houseplants in February. There are lots of bright, sunny days & the plants just seem to crave a bit of T.L.C. after my 3 months of neglect.

Their leaves will be dusty, so on a nice warm & moderately sunny day, I'll take them outside & lightly hose them down. If that isn't an option, I also gently wipe down their leaves - easy to do with succulents that have big, firm leaves. My aloes (pictured right) usually don't get dusted, but if it's really bad, I will use small paint brushes or even q-tips...

The soil in the pots could also do with a bit of topping up with sterile potting soil - there are some blends just for houseplants or use your seed starter soil. I like to fluff the soil a bit first with a fork or my fingers, especially around the edges of the pot, to encourage the older soil to blend in a bit with the new soil. After a few months of neglect, the soil sometimes doesn't absorb water like it should. When I bring back regular watering, I usually put my plants in the sink & let them soak for 10 to 15 minutes in a few inches of water to ensure that they are actually getting watered. If you notice your soil just won't soak up water, it may be time to repot the plant & start with new soil.

Speaking of repotting plants, February is also a great time to divide plants that have become root bound or are getting too large for your space. Or to pot up new ones from cuttings or off shoots (such as my spider plant babies on the left removed in late fall & let to grow roots in water over the winter). I don't have an outdoor work area dedicated to this chore, so I get to make a mess in my kitchen (which usually leads to spring-cleaning the kitchen afterwards...). If you find that you like small sized plants, but your's keep growing like monsters, divisions or extra houseplants are wonderful spring time gifts for friends & neighbours! They may not have had as much success as you over the winter with their plants...

I also give my plants a weak dose of fertilizer during the spring-cleaning time. If there are any leaves that aren't healthy or have brown tips, I cut them out & just spend a bit of time looking at how they are growing in their pots. The spider plant (pictured right) has already rewarded me with a couple of new flower shoots that will hang down, grow little white flowers (which make a mess) but then turn into baby spider plants. I can also see if I've forgotten to rotate the pots so that all sides get even sunlight during the summer months. Nothing like a lopsided plant that tips over!

Once I've gotten my hands dirty with my houseplants, I usually can't resist checking on plants that I've been trying to overwinter - outdoor plants such as geraniums, cuttings that need to be planted in the warmer spring months, herbs that have survived in pots on my deck (such as the flat leaf parsley pictured on the left) and flower gardens that are starting to stir. Now is the tough part of the year where spring is almost here, but it's still too early to get outside to play!!

Things to do in the February garden

February:
'Even if I know that tomorrow
the world would go to pieces,
I would still plant my apple tree.'
- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), American pastor and civil rights activist

• Make INDOOR SEEDINGS of lettuce, celery, dusty miller, pinks, ornamental peppers, lobelia, geranium, gerbera, heliotrope, petunia, and compact tomatoes suited to growing in pots and baskets.
• CLEAN THE GARDEN of dead plant parts and debris to help reduce the incidence of insect pests and diseases.
• As soon as the worst of wet winter weather is over set lettuce transplants out into frames or under tunneling for harvestable lettuce in April.
• PRUNE SUMMER-FLOWERING CLEMATIS such as Jackmanii, Ernest Markham, Pink Chiffon, Gypsy Queen, Clematis tangutica (golden clematis) and C. paniculata (sweet autumn clematis).
• SEED HARDY VEGETABLES into frames or under the protective cover of plastic tunneling. Some good choices for early feasting are spinach, corn salad, green onion, early carrots, regular and oriental radishes, bok choy, and chop suey greens (shungiku, edible or garland chrysanthemum).
• Enclose the area over one or two RHUBARB plants with a tub, box, or upright ring of clear plastic to have tender stalks earlier than usual.
• Take cuttings from geranium and impatiens wintered indoors for an extended collection of plants to enjoy outdoors in the summer.
• Clean and organize the garden shed, and clean, sharpen and oil the tools.
• Cover a few STRAWBERRY plants with glass, clear plastic tunneling or cloches for early berries. Bring potted strawberries into a greenhouse or sun porch.

Coastal Growing Season

One important thing to learn when growing food, is the growing season for your area & what it means when choosing which variety of plant to grow. I find living right on the water's edge, our growing season is widely varied - depending on what the climate is doing in our region. Is it an El Nino year or La Nina?

According to the Canadian Zone Map, (found on the Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada web site) we are located in Zone 8a. HGtv's web site shows Canada's plant hardiness zones too & allows to you find your zone & provides lists of plants that should do well in your area.The average winter minimum temperatures range from -6 to -12 degrees Celcius & our growing season is about 7 months (0r 215 days!) The first frost free date is April 6th and the last frost free date is November 9th (again, on average). I tend to think that our frost free dates are much earlier...

I think that our area actually has a much longer growing season. But these dates above are a good way for us to 'guesstimate' when we can start growing seeds indoors. That all important 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost is often a tough date to figure out.When I look at those dates & when to start my seeds, I see that I'm not really all that far off! I just need to invest in some equipment (more indoor lights & some heat mats) to help me along during the gray & cool days of March & April when I do start my seeds.

I've just come across a note that says I can actually start up my lavender in February...I am tempted, but I think I would need to have a heat mat underneath the seedling tray in order for that to work properly. Maybe using the space above the fridge is a good way to compensate for not having a heat mat this year...

I've been keeping a garden journal - just started on my 3rd year - and have noticed that last year at this time, we were experiencing sub-zero temperatures & we had snow as late as April 1st! This year seems to be much, much warmer so I'm really hoping that it will be an early spring & I can have much better success with my indoor seeds than I did last year!

Is it too Early to Call this Spring?

I took my first garden walk of the year (as I've been away for a while) & it was a wonderful sunny day. Hope the sun comes back!! Here are some of the things I saw already sprouting in the gardens:

Columbine

Heather

Hollyhocks

Lupins

Spirea leaves

Rhubarb

Winter garden carrots

Winter garden kale

Spring garden sorrel

Spring garden fennel

Front lawn greenery

While it's still too early to start up seeds in the house, I'm glad to see things popping up in the gardens. This winter is not a cold as it was last year - but there are still a few more months left to go...

My Green Thumb - Tales of a West Coast Gardener - Winter 2010 Article

This article is now published in the Barkley Sound Community Journal - The West Island Quarterly.
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As I’m sitting here writing this article in the middle of November, the sun is actually shining! It’s a day for wandering down to the beach with friends or even to spend a few moments in the gardens to see what is still in flower & what has survived the first batch of drowning rain storms.

I think I have the gardens ready for the winter. My new additions to the landscaping projects have been the introduction of 11 peonies! I remember my mom’s peony plant from many years ago & thought that they would be a wonderful addition to my rather eclectic garden style. While I had only actually planned out spots for 6, I did manage to find homes for the other 5. Cross your fingers that I planted them correctly! My last one went in only a few days ago & is named ‘Sea Shell’ - a surprise gift from my mom from a nursery in Ontario.

I have found one way to keep on top of all the things that we need to do in our gardens is to follow a seasonal check list. Until you become familiar with your own specific garden chores, one great place to find such a list is Canadian Gardening  (www.canadiangardening.com).

My fall check-list chores included:

• harvest ripened vegetables
• divide over-grown perennials (daylilies, iris, lady's mantle, feverfew, helenium)
• plant spring & summer-flowering perennials about 6 to 8 weeks before winter sets in (peonies, columbine)
• plant spring bulbs such as daffodils & crocus
• clean up yard - leaves & dead plant material make wonderful mulch or compost
• turn off water taps & store hoses
• find lost tools, clean, sharpen & store for next spring
• dig up tender bulbs & plants & store in a cool, dry & dark place (tulips, begonias, gladiolas, geraniums)
  

Wow! That seems like quite a list, but on those lovely Autumn days where the sun was shining & the air was still warm, these chores go by quickly. Before you know it, you are receiving the first of the seed & plant/bulb catalogues in the mail!

Yes, my first one arrived in early November & I couldn’t help pouring over it for days on end, thinking of all the wonderful flowers & vegetable seeds I want to include in next year’s gardens! I received one from a different company than I usually get; it’s from Ontario & is called: Thompson & Morgan. I’ve never heard of them & while their selection is great & varied, I had already decided last spring that I was going to purchase my mail-order seeds from something a little more local & from plants acclimatized to the west coast growing conditions.

At West Coast Seeds they specialize in organic, open pollinated, heirloom and heritage seeds if you are interested in  organic growing. They are based out of the Vancouver area & I believe I just might have better success with their varieties than the ones I tried this past year that came from back east & as far away as Germany!  While I don’t want to put down the other catalogue, I find that purchasing seeds or plants on-line or even through garden centres, requires research & a good recommendation from someone who’s had success with the product. So—I will let you know next summer what happens with my next attempt at growing vegetables!

Winter is a time for reading gardening books & planning for spring. I’d rather skip the rain & gray skies all together!

Let’s just move into spring where February is one of my favourite months. Not only is it the shortest of the year, but we get awesome amounts of sunshine & it’s warm enough to get outside for the first hit of gardening fun! I will be found in my raspberry & loganberry patches, pruning out last year’s dead canes & trimming up this year’s canes. Transplanting is easy as the ground is still workable, if a bit chilly, but the muscles really appreciate the work-out after a few months of inactivity.

My early-spring garden checklist includes:

•  houseplant maintenance - dust off in the shower & fertilize at 1/2 strength
• start seeds for annuals, tomaotes & peppers (not too early like I did last year - wait until at least April 1st...)
• yard clean-up of twigs & leaves (mulch)
• start cool-weather crops: radish, peas, onions, lettuce, leeks
• fertilize fruit shrubs & canes: blueberries, raspberries, loganberries & mulch with shredded newspaper
• fertilize flowering shrubs: roses, rhododendrons, azaleas
• start weeding out the gardens & flower beds of buttercup, dandelion & grass
  

This is just a short & quick list; I know of other things that I do in the garden in the spring (weeding out the dandelions from the yard, digging in compost gathered during the winter, sowing seeds of annual or biannual wildflowers). I also hit the garden centres for any left-over bulbs that should have been planted in the fall as they are usually greatly reduced in price & will typically give a good return of flowers the following year. And I also take lots of time to enjoy the crocus that are now appearing - yellow seems to be the first colour of spring & I'm glad I have some in my deck boxes!

If you have any questions or comments you’d like to share, email me. It’s great to see so many people in our community getting into the gardening spirit! Grow Bamfield, Grow!

Things to do in the January garden

January:
'Those who dwell among the beauties
And the mysteries of the earth
Are never really alone
Or weary of life'
- Rachel Carson (1907-1964), American biologist and environmental activist, author of Silent Spring.

• before purchasing seeds, take an inventory of seeds left from last year. Onion, leek, parsnip, corn, larkspur, geranium & salvia seeds are short-term keepers that should be kept for just one year - that is, for planting a second year only.
• try something new this year. Scan seed racks & catalogue pages & select a flower or vegetable you've not grown before.
• check the soil moisture (underneath house eaves) where there are plants growing & water as needed. Plants such as camellias, if allowed to dry at the roots, will dry or drop their flowerbuds.
• if a snowfall occurs, knock accumulated snow from shrubs & hedges to avoid broken branches from the snow's weight. Leave snow on witner vegetable plots & perennials bed, for it offers the plants some insulation against the cold.
• use pleasant January days to do outdoor repairs - on fences & gates or work on garden construction projects such as a cold frame or a trellis.
• plan flower & vegetable plots as you organize seed purchases. Shift the different blocks of vegetables - the roots, the peas & beans, the cabbage family - away from their locations of last year. Change the annual flower plantings in each area from year to year as well.
• gather & prepare supplies for indoor seeding.
• start lettuce seeds indoors for plants to set out in frames or under plastice tunneling next month.
  

A Year-End Reivew of Seeds: The Herbs

I'm starting to develop my love affair with herbs. Not just your typical, ordinary herbs. I don't even keep dried herbs in my kitchen anymore, unless they have come out of my garden. Each year a 'new' herb comes to my attention that must somehow find a home in my herb garden or in a deck pot or in some nook or cranny in a flower bed.

This year my herbs were subjected to the same treatment that my vegetables were. They were started indoors much too early & many didn't survive being thrust outdoors in April & had to be reseeded. I also had quite a collection of 'older' seeds that underwent the test of germination too.

So, I had packages of sage, summer savory, parsley & thyme that were ooold - have no idea, but none of them germinated. I also had seeds from 2008: sweet basil, fernleaf dill, curly parsley and borage. My 2009 herb purchases were: orange thyme, marjoram, chamomile, rosemary, lavender, sorrel, anise, oregano, Santo corriander, Delfino cilantro and nasturtiums.

Why start herbs from seeds? Well, transporting flats of seedlings to Bamfield can be a heart-breaking adventure. We have to somehow pack them into over-stuffed vehicles so that they don't bounce around too much while on the almost 2 hour journey down a dusty, bumpy logging road. Then if you happen to live on the other side of the harbour, they must be brought down to the boat in all kinds of weather conditions - mostly wind during the spring - and boated across, transported up to the house & then quickly revived with a bit of water & a shady spot.

Honestly, growing herbs from seed is so much easier! We just have to lug a few bags of sterile soil...

Well, I did buy some seedlings this year - 6 stevia plants & 6 french tarragon plants. I've not much experience with tarragon, but wanted to add it to my collection & currently have a few jars of tarragon vinegar, as well as a bottle of cherished tarragon oil. I hope the tarragon will come back next year, but I did leave it out of the greenhouse for the winter since I didn't have a cold frame built in time... The stevia is an ambitious bit of exploration into alternatives to sugar. I've tried liquid stevia & found it tasted too 'fake' so thought that growing my own, drying & grinding it up, might get me appreciating the flavour a bit more. I have a large jar dried in my cupboard, but was hoping to see the plants flower before the frosts hit. No such luck & I'm not sure they will survive this winter. I should have taken cuttings!!

I will say that I had much better success with my herbs than I did with any other seeds. I had chamomile coming out my ears & was constantly pruning it back only to be rewarded with more blooms. The parsley is still going strong in my deck pots & in the fall it was lush & I kept finding hidden pockets of the herb where I guess I had tucked it away because I had so many seedlings. The orange thyme did much better than the regular thyme & is interesting in that it's a much more compact little plant. I didn't harvest much of it this year as I wanted it to become more established for harvesting or cuttings next year.

Some of the less hardy herbs didn't fair so well & that might be because of the live-or-die attitude I have with regards to watering & fertilizing. Also the herb bed was the last one built & didn't receive as much care & attention to removing small rocks or adding compost or peat. Now, I tend to think that most herbs we grow are originally from Mediterranian climates & don't require much water or fertilizer or even that great a soil - for the most part, that's right. But the dill, anise & marjoram really did need a bit more attention than I gave them. We'll try them again next year.

I had borage in large deck pots & they just loved it! I thought the constant breezes would keep them stunted & the rich soil wouldn't allow them to grow too tall (weak stems due to too much nutrients), but they grew into monsters & even after being pruned heavily towards the end of August, they gave me a second bloom & lots of seeds - well, the ones I could catch. I have the feeling I'll never need to sow another borage seed again as they were literally flying off the deck in all directions by the end of September!

I do like the sorrel plant - takes a bit of getting used to, but I found a sorrel pesto recipe that just puts a fresh twist on salmon dishes! I will have to divide the plants up in the spring & spread them out, but I think I got at least 3 big harvests off the plants - I cut them right back to the ground & they came back strong!

But this was not a good year for nasturtiums - at least not for me. They took forever to get going & then were lovely for about a week before being hit by some rain. They went to seed very quickly & never seemed to recover from pruning. But there's nothing like that sharp bite of fresh nasturtium flowers or leaves in a salad!

I found out that I just do not like oregano - at all! Well, at least the fresh herb. Marjoram & summer savory are much nicer & I'll keep seeding the annual marjoram. But fresh oregano... just too sharp! Unfortunately, it's one of the successful herbs... Maybe I should just deligate it to a hanging basket & not worry about harvesting it!

A word about growing lavender & rosemary from seeds. It takes a great deal of patience. I LOVE lavender - I will grow some from seed every year because I harvest the blossoms for use in soaps, vinegars, rubs for meat & in salt. My rosemary seeds took almost 6 weeks to sprout - but I wasn't having much luck getting cuttings to root up & last winter, almost everyone in Bamfield lost their rosemary plants due to a very hard freeze over the holidays. My main plant survived, but it was too small to harvest too much off of this year. I've now got my seedlings in the back part of my laundry room under a grow light.

Well, considering I have been gone for a month this winter season these lavender seedlings don't look too bad. I decided not to have someone come in & water them, as they were really wet when I brought them into the house a month ago. I did decide to install the grow lights though as I thought it would keep them moderately alive. I think I've got the timer set for only 3 hours.



But my poor rosemary seedlings really didn't survive. I am going to pull them out, water them & see if I can at least have one or 2 survive the rest of the winter indoors. I quickly checked the ones I planted outside in the fall & it looks like they are doing well - but we are a few months away from proper spring weather...




The seedlings in the back are my geranium cuttings that I'm experimenting with. They seem to have done very well with the time away - the soil was super-dry so I have them a good soaking - from below. The pots in the foreground were just some leaves from my scented geraniums that I stuck into the soil just before we left. I didn't think they would survive, so I'm surprized. The main plants (not shown just yet) have growth again - very pale leaves due to lack of sun light. I might haul them up to the main part of the house the first week in February & start watering them again...