How’s Your Garden?

SIMPLE TIMES THE CO-OP PANTRY

BY LOIS TRIGG CHAPLIN

Time to Illuminate Bulbs

Fall and winter is the prime time for bulbs – either for planting in the garden or enjoying “forced bulbs” indoors. These are called forced by the nursery industry because they are brought into bloom prematurely by first chilling the bulbs, then growing them in pots in a warm greenhouse for flowering. Pots of forced bulbs are usually sold from Christmas through winter, and then may be transplanted to the garden after the blooms fade, usually in January, February or March. On the other hand, dry bulbs bought in bulk in fall – daffodils, hyacinths and other spring-flowering bulbs – need to go into the ground this month. This will give them the cool period that they need before blooming next spring. Healthy bulbs will feel firm, like an onion. Any that have become soft in storage may be rotting. If tempted to buy remainder discounted bulbs that are already sprouting, they are probably okay if they don’t show signs of rot; plant them immediately or pass that bargain by. Ideally, bulbs would root underground before sprouting their tops, but there is a little room to fudge with a big, healthy bulb, but only a little. Don’t let sprouting bulbs sit around.

Pine Cone Mulch?

When I saw this corner of a bed covered with a mulch of pine cones, the idea of a pine cone mulch immediately piqued my curiosity. Seems like it would be a good way to discourage pets from lying in flower beds, maybe even discourage squirrels and chipmunks from digging. Would it discourage rabbits from browsing new growth? I’d love to know. And, of course, it’s a good way to recycle organic matter that falls from the trees back into the ground below. So, if you have a profusion of pinecones in the yard this fall, you might want to give this a try and see how it works. They’ll last longer than typical organic mulches because of their woody nature and high resin, but

Wow’em with Purple Broccoli

For the last few autumns I’ve experimented with growing purple broccoli just because it is so unusual. It’s especially nice served raw with dip or in a salad, as the color reverts to green when cooked. An heirloom from Italy and England, sprouting broccoli is intended for overwintering and producing many small shoots (not a big central head) after several months of cold weather. Because it takes several months to mature, the Brits and Italians plant it in fall, then harvest its purple shoots the following spring. Its sprouting nature yields multiple harvests of small purple shoots. Because it takes longer to grow, this is a home garden variety, not likely to be found in commerce. I’ve grown sprouting types such as Bonarda under frost cloth with some success, but it doesn’t like the extreme fluctuation of warm and cold typical of an Alabama winter. I’ve covered and uncovered multiple times through winter trying to keep the temperature under the frost cloth between freezing and 60. Obviously, this is a lot of work, but we gardeners always try new things, and then decide whether it’s worth it! Thankfully, newer purple varieties like Early Purple Sprouting mature in just a couple of months, just like standard green broccoli. These can be started from seed soon, like standard broccoli, and set out as soon as the transplants are big enough. A seed packet of Purple Sprouting broccoli might make a fun gift for that gardener in your life that doesn’t need anything.

What I’ve Learned about Citrus

After at least 12 years, I am still happy with our Meyer lemon and kumquat trees in containers. They stay small enough to move to a portable greenhouse for winter, and are quite productive for the effort involved. Meyer lemons give us a big crop of lemons in late fall. What we don’t use fresh we juice and freeze; last year we froze more than a gallon of juice – enough for salad dressings and other recipes to last until this year’s harvest. The kumquats provide fresh eating from December through March, with plenty left for marmalade. The sweet-skin Meiwa variety is so much sweeter than store-bought when allowed to fully ripen on the tree. For me, these two citruses are the least common and most expensive in the grocery store, so it makes them especially worthwhile. One thing that makes citrus so nice, too, is that it holds on the tree for a couple of months so that you can harvest as you need it.

Meyer Lemons

Rake Away Camellia Troubles

If your camellia’s blossoms were disfigured by brown spots on the petals last year, try raking away old mulch from below plants and replace it with fresh mulch such as pine straw. Throw away the old mulch; don’t compost it because it harbors fungus spores that cause the petal blight disease. Do this yearly to prevent the fungus from building up in the soil.