Dig In, Spring Garden Supplement

Dig In!

creating a landscape design from scratch

all-white gardens pack some punch

heirloom: the tomato with a past

Spring Garden Preview

2015

Thursday, May 21, 2015 Supplement to The Indiana Gazette

evergreen hollies for year-round privacy

vegetable gardening for the novice

2 — Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015

A peek inside • Expert tips for

container gardens.

Page 6

• Antiques can add depth, flair to any garden.

Page 8

• Holly makes a jolly-good screen.

Page 9

• Have a little faith in seeds when gardening.

Page 11

Creating a landscape design

By JOE LAMP’L

growingagreenerworld.com

Good gardens don’t just happen; they’re the results of careful planning and observation. I suggest you get to know your property over the course of at least all four seasons before you commit to any major design changes or installations. Observe the ebbs and flows, the way the light hits your property throughout the year, how water flows and where additional privacy is needed in winter. All this can only become truly clear once you’ve paid attention and studied these effects over time. Here are five steps to creating a basic landscape design:

1. CREATE A BASE MAP Sketch your existing yard showing property lines, the house’s orientation, driveways and paths. Start at the front corner of the house. With a 100-foot tape measure, find the distance out to the curb and across to the nearest property line, and draw it onto graph paper. (A scale of one inch per 10 feet works well, but pick whatever works for you and stay consistent through the drawing.)

The larger the grid paper, the easier it will be to write in all your plans and ideas.

Continue measuring from all corners of the house to the property’s boundaries.

Draw an arrow indicating north. Locate doors and windows, gas, electric and cable utilities, trees and shrubs and any neighbors’ features near the property line that might affect your design, such as large trees, fences or buildings.

2. PREPARE A SITE ANALYSIS Make a basic inventory of the property’s strengths and weaknesses. A site analysis can be sketched in a single day, but it would be better to record how the area changes throughout the year. Note all significant features like sunny and shady spots, prevailing winds, drainage problems, existing vegetation, good and poor views and all utilities and easements. Make several copies of the base map with site analysis notes.

3. DRAW PRELIMINARY DESIGNS Use the copies to come up with three or

four preliminary designs. Let your imagination run wild with gazebos, vegetable gardens and flowerbeds. For each design, draw a bubble diagram roughly indicating the shapes and locations of these features.

Pay attention to your site analysis when doing so. For example, a vegetable garden needs a flat, open area with lots of sun. Don’t place it under a huge tree. Consider how the elements relate to each other and the house, too. For example, a compost pile should be close to the vegetable garden but out of view. It’s going to take several tries to fit the odd pieces smoothly into the jigsaw puzzle, but a practical plan will emerge.

Look over your preliminary designs and note the features you like from each. Put them all together on a new, more detailed base map while paying attention to that site analysis. It’s critical that the garden’s features all cooperate.

Here is where you need accurate dimensions, too. Find the mature spread of that shade tree; measure exactly how long that front walk will be; count the number of shrubs needed for the hedge. Above all, consider the mature size of the plants and trees you want to add.

4. TRANSFER YOUR DESIGN TO A CLEAN BASE MAP When you find your perfect design, draw it on a clean base map. As an option, you can color the different features for easier visual reference, then show it to other gardeners or even a professional landscape designer. A fresh set of eyes is an insurance policy to make sure you haven’t overlooked something that could cost you later.

5. DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET Don’t let money limit your creativity, but be realistic. Actual costs might mean a change in the design. But instead of going back to the drawing board, consider building one part of the plan at a time. Figure out what you most want and can do immediately and what can wait until next year. You may find you can have it all, just not all at once.

Good landscape design isn’t difficult, but it has a definite process.

How to grow great veggies as a beginner The popularity of fresh, local produce is encouraging many novice gardeners to try their hand at something their great-grandparents did most of their lives — grow vegetables in the garden. Today there are so many ways to become familiar with the art of vegetable gardening. The present-day gardeners look at taking courses, attending workshops, checking websites and earn master gardening certificates.

So what should a new gardener grow first? For at least a few feet of available garden space in the sun, radishes, beans and squash are good starters.

“They are among the easiest of all vegetables and have a high harvest potential,” said Stephanie Turner, director of seed merchandising at Park Carole McCray Seed. is an awardBeans are valuable for winning another reason: As garden and legumes they are nitrolifestyle writer. gen-fixers in the soil.

Questions of Turner recommends not comments are only growing these easy welcome at vines, but also chopping mountain up the plants after the 26@verizon.net beans have been harvested. Then work them back into the soil to create a richer loam for next season. If space is limited, go vertical with green beans and snow peas.

The plants can be trained on a trellis or other supports. For gardeners preferring to begin with container varieties, Turner advocates lettuce. It sprouts quickly, and the loose-leaf types such as romaine and arugula can be picked leaf by leaf as needed for salads all season long.

Everything from cucumbers to squash can be on your table weeks earlier in mini form. This cuts growing time dramatically, making it possible to grill up that delectable caponata just 45 days after transplanting Patio Baby Eggplant into containers.

Want to grow your own mega-healthy spinach salad? Novico Hybrid Spinach is ready in about 25 days.

Within a few weeks of sowing, the humble spring radish will show signs of maturing. Easy to grow — just pop the seeds into any sunny garden spot or container; water well and within days green shoots are pushing up. At harvest time, simply grasp the leaves and pull.

Like a buried Easter egg, the colorful radish appears.

photo courtesy of Park Seed

POQUITO HYBRID is a form of squash.

The Rivoli Hybrid Radish is a gorgeous bright red variety that holds very well, and no surprise that it was named a 2014 AllAmerica Selection.

Gardeners with a few feet of sunny soil can support a big crop of summer squash.

“Baby” forms are now available. Poquito Hybrid is a particularly charming little zucchini, ready in just 40 days, but even the full-sized versions of crookneck, straightneck, patty pan, scallop and zucchini usually go from seed to table in about two months. Finally, the ultimate crop is sprouts, which you can grow in the kitchen in a few days. Packed with antioxidants and crunchy, nutty flavor, sprouts are terrific additions to sandwiches and salads. No soil or sunshine needed here, only a container, a bit of water and seeds.

For gardeners seeking beauty as well as nutrition, flowering annuals make splendid companions to all vegetables. Supereasy varieties include zinnia, marigold and cosmos. These flowers also attract the pollinating bees and butterflies that vegetables need, and they add pops of eye-catching color that help to remind the gardener it’s time to water the garden and check the harvest.

As more and more plant varieties become available for container planting, vegetable gardening is expanding from rural and suburban gardens to urban balconies, to pots on porch steps and in colorful containers on patios and decks. Also, it is not unlikely to see vegetables planted in window boxes and in the flowering annual or perennial bed. No matter what the space constraints are, there are hanging pouches and flexible sacks for growing strawberries, carrots, blueberries and even potatoes. As long as you can find sunshine, vegetables can be grown.

Gardening has never been so easy. Vegetable growers are finding ways to keep the harvests coming more quickly and deliciously than would have been possible a decade ago.

Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015 — 3

Spreading the word on heirloom tomatoes

By VIRGINIA A. SMITH The Philadelphia Inquirer

Craig LeHoullier calls it “my out-of-control habit,� but that doesn’t begin to tell the story.

The man is, hands down, the most enthusiastic tomatophile you will ever meet. In a recent 75-minute telephone interview, LeHoullier — known as “North Carolina tomato man� — eagerly recounted, almost without interruption, his 30 years of saving seeds from breeding, promoting, sharing, cooking with and eating tomatoes.

Not just any tomatoes: Heirlooms.

First, an explanation.

Heirlooms are older varieties that have been naturally pollinated by bees or wind, not by humans or corporations, and whose seeds produce the same tomato every time.

At this point, they have achieved cult status among discriminating chefs, gardeners and consumers.

Hybrids, on the other hand, are crossbred for characteristics such as disease resistance, uniform size and firm flesh. They’re newer — Burpee famously debuted “Big Boy� in 1949 — and if you plant their seeds, the results are unpredictable.

Good of you to ask: In a three-year experiment, LeHoullier pitted heirlooms against hybrids, touted as tougher and more prolific than the old-timers. This may shock, but he found that in the right conditions, with

proper care, heirlooms can hold their own against hybrids — and deliver more interesting flavors, colors and histories, to boot. “The right tomato can move you to tears,� he says, illustrating what is meant by the maxim that tomatoes are the gateway drug of the gardening world.

LeHoullier describes all this in sumptuous detail in his first book, “Epic Tomatoes: How to Select & Grow the Best Varieties of All Time� ($19.95 from Storey Publishing).

Few outside the insular tomato world — until now, perhaps — know that in 1990, a Tennessee man sent LeHoullier a packet of seeds reputed to have been a gift from Cherokee Indians a century earlier. To make a long story short, LeHoullier is credited with naming and introducing to the world the Cherokee Purple heirloom, one of the most famous of the so-called black tomatoes that have been the rage ever since.

He has introduced about 200 heirlooms and tested about 2,000 varieties, many in 10and 15-gallon containers in his driveway. He typically grows 200 to 400 pots of eggplants, peppers and tomatoes there.

Yes, in the driveway. “That’s the best sun location,� he says, allowing that “I’m probably known as quite weird and eccentric in my neighborhood.�

Maybe. But he shares with neighbors, just as he does the wider world, for the sheer love of it. One expression of that is his dwarftomato project. He and 250 international

volunteers already have produced 36 new varieties, with another dozen in the pipeline — all because he thinks people without garden space should be able to grow delicious heirlooms of manageable size on their decks, patios, and — why not? — driveways.

For an expert, he’s remarkably down to earth, encouraging gardeners to find their own way, as he has. “Craig is a major, major player in tomatoes, but he’s really a low-key guy. He just wants these varieties to be available to people,� says John Torgrimson, executive director of the nonprofit Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa, which collects and shares heirloom seeds with gardeners, researchers, small farmers and seed companies.

(LeHoullier is the exchange’s tomato adviser.)

Still, the book recommends 250 great-tasting tomatoes, including LeHoullier’s favorite (pink Brandywine), and tips, such as: No need to snip suckers, but if you do, root them in water and pot up for a second harvest.

LeHoullier’s second book, on straw bale gardening, is due out in December. He’s thinking of a third, about his 400 early 20thcentury seed catalogs. His other interests include researching genealogy, making his own craft beers, and roasting his own coffee beans.

For all the activity, there is one constant.

You guessed it.

“There are, what, 5,000 varieties of tomatoes?� LeHoullier says. “Life will never be long enough.�

LeHOULLIER’S TOP 10 TOMATO VARIETIES Want recommendations for seeds to plant indoors early next month? Here are LeHoullier’s tastiest picks you can order from seed companies, seed sharers and retailers. • Nepal: Old-fashioned, intense flavor. Heirloom. • Yellow Oxheart: Heartshaped, rich yellow fruit, succulent flesh. Heirloom. • Polish: Large beefsteak, less temperamental than Brandywine.

Heirloom.

Continued on Page 5

)6(& 7"3*&5 5: : 0' 1&3&//*"-4 4UBSUJOH BU $

724.465.5684 .VTTFS(BSEFO$FOUFS DPN t 3PVUF )XZ / *OEJBOa

4 — Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015

Book a guide to cultivating, cooking with herbs

By NARA SCHOENBERG Chicago Tribune

Fresh herbs are everywhere these days, in recipes, restaurants and supermarket produce aisles.

But in a nation that was relatively herb-averse for decades, even lifelong gardeners may have little experience growing, say, basil and cilantro.

Garden writer Ann McCormick demystifies the process in “Homegrown Herb Garden: A Guide to Growing and Culinary Uses” (Quarry Books), the inviting new book she co-authored with chef Lisa Baker Mor-

gan. Along with Morgan’s simple and appealing recipes that put these herbs to work (two examples: springtime vegetable stir-fry and pan-fried cantaloupe with honey-ricotta and fresh mint), you’ll find McCormick’s detailed guide to growing 15 adaptable and easy-going herbs, from classics such as dill and mint to current favorites basil and cilantro to adventurous options such as winter savory, bay laurel and lemongrass.

Homegrown herbs won’t necessarily taste better, says McCormick, a straight-talking lifetime gardener who blogs at Herb ‘n Cowgirl, but

Hustler® Mowers starting at just

2,799

$

-OR-

64

$

PER MONTH

Tony’s Small Engine Repair HOURS: M-T-W-F: 8AM-5PM THURS. 8-6PM SAT: 9AM-12PM

SALES AND SERVICE

245 Franklin Street, Clymer, PA 15728

724-254-4541

they’re a wonderful addition to a garden, adding interest and aroma, and providing ready access to fresh, seasonal flavor. You may see cost savings, too. A packet of fresh oregano costs $2 or $3 at the market. “You may pay — top dollar — $2.99 for a 4inch pot of oregano,” she says. “You can grow that in a container and ... you’re going to have access to fresh oregano (throughout your growing season).” And, of course, many perennial herbs will return year after year in the garden, depending on your growing zone.

Herbs generally need a warm, sunny place to grow; think the Greek Isles in summer with whitewashed houses and rocky hillsides, McCormick says. Some herbs, like dill, aren’t hard to grow from seed, but she recommends that gardening beginners start with the potted herbs widely available at garden centers and in supermarket produce aisles.

Start with the herb you like best or, if you’re a rookie, try McCormick’s top picks for trouble-free herb gardening.

While all 15 of the herbs in her book were selected for adaptability in many growing regions, sweet marjoram, chives, basil and thyme are among the most forgiving and resilient, she says.

Herbs can be planted outdoors once daytime highs are consistently above 60 degrees and nighttime lows

“The one that draws my hand to it when I’m out in the garden, frankly, is rosemary: There’s something about the aroma,” she says.

“I brush my hand over the leaves and it releases that (almost piney) scent. It’s a stimulating, refreshing scent that just really gets to me.”

THREE GREAT IDEAS

Tribune News Service

MINT IS a classic, easy-going herb. do not go below freezing. If you’re bringing home a potted plant to put in the garden, exercise self control before using it in the kitchen, McCormick says. You want to give it a chance to grow before using its leaves. If your basil plant comes home standing 4 inches, for instance, wait until it’s about 6 to 8 inches tall before you start harvesting.

The rules for harvesting vary, but you never want to strip a plant of all its leaves, effectively cutting off its food supply. “When you’re harvesting an herb, you don’t want to take off more than a third — at most half — of the total leaves,” says McCormick. “And this assumes that you have indeed let it grow larger than when you (bought) it.”

But the more you use a plant, the more you delay

flowering, which represents the end of an herb’s growing cycle. Clipping your herb regularly will provide you with a longer-lasting supply.

McCormick recommends harvesting when plants are well-watered and unstressed and using sharp clippers so you don’t damage the stems.

Herbs are at their most flavorful when they’re first harvested because, over time, the essential oils that give them their fragrance and flavor escape and evaporate.

Asked to name her favorite herb, she pauses, but not for long.

MIX IT UP: Many herbs are pretty enough to grow alongside flowers. Thyme makes an attractive ground cover, with delicate earlysummer blooms that are popular with bees. You can plant thyme with perennial bulbs, or in the front of a flower bed.

MAKE A HEDGE: Winter savory has attractive glossy foliage and spikes of small pink or white flowers that grow on woody branches. Try trimming it to form a low hedge separating sections of your garden.

THINK SMALL: You don’t have to nurture a 4foot dill plant to grow fresh dill. Look for dwarf varieties such as “Fernleaf” at your garden center. Dill needs space for its taproot, however, so if you’re patio gardening, choose containers that are at least 10 inches deep.

Brighten up your home, brighten up your life.

Joyce Jasso, Owner

Choose from our large selection of shade, ornamental, and specialty trees & shrubs, and much more. Stop out today!

$ $5 Off O ff $50 purchase

from fr rom our greenhouse g Expir p res e 6/1/15

3200 A Airport irport Rd Rd,, IIndiana ndiana 724.463.7634 ttwolickvalleynursery.com wolick kvalleynursery.com

Largest Greenhouse in the Area!

4 Miles Southh of Punxsutawney on Route R 119

NOW OPEN FOR THE SEASON! May: Monday-FFriday 9am-8pm; Saturdaay 9am-6pm t $PNQMFUF MJOF PG 7FHFUBCMF 1MBOUT )FSCT t 7BSJFUZ PG "OOVBMT 1FSFOOJBMT t 4USBXCFSSZ 1MBOUT t )VHF 4FMFDUJPO PG )BOHJOH #BTLFUT t 1PSDI 1MBOUFST t .PTT #BTLFUT

SO MUCH MORE! M

724-286-9722

Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015 — 5

Creating an all white garden

Loots of Our Ow Own wn

VVEGETABLE EGGETA ETTAB ABLE AB BLE PPLANTS LAANTS NTTS

By BETH J. HARPAZ Associated Press

NEW YORK — First come the snowdrops, peeking through the snow, then as things warm up, hellebores and crocuses, followed by geraniums, peonies, anemones, camellias and many more.

But there’s one thing all the flowers in this particular garden have in common: They’re all white.

This white garden is part of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, located on Staten Island in New York City, just a ferry ride away from Manhattan. It was inspired by a famous garden in England, the white garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, a National Trust historic site. But you don’t have to own a castle or be a professional gardener to experiment with an all-white theme. White is a great color for home gardens, too.

The Sissinghurst garden was created by writer Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson. SackvilleWest hatched the romantic vision for the color scheme in 1939. Originally, according to the National Trust, the white garden was filled with roses, but over time they were replaced with white gladioli, irises, dahlias, anemones and other flowers. The design included formal walkways and jam-packed, wild-looking flower beds.

The color scheme inspired a fad for white gardens around the world.

The garden on Staten Island does not use the same plants as Sissinghurst because “our summers are hotter and our winters are colder here,� said Greg Lord, director of horticulture at the Snug Harbor Botanical Garden. But it does use a wide variety of plants, including alliums, summer snowflakes (leucojum), camassias, crambe, geraniums, peonies, roses, sweet bay magnolia, veronicastrum and phlox. In the fall, there are perennial Japanese anemones with single and double blossoms, and camellias — a variety called winter’s waterfall that blooms right through December.

The mix of shapes and sizes includes cascades of wisteria blossoms, hardy orange and crepe myrtle trees covered with white flowers, tiny primroses and tall asters. The garden has three sec-

We have We havve ve all your yoour VEGETABLE VEGETABL TA E PLANTS PLA LAANTS ready ready d for dy f yoour ga fo garden! d ! Beautifull LU )LLU L )L L]L >L] ‹‹ --336>,,99:: N U PU P K --LLLLK Lots of V Va Variety! a riety! t ‹‹ /(5.0055. ` [` [ U **VV\\U

00UUKKPPHHUUHH MMVVYY 66]]LLY YZ! LHYZ ``LH

Associated Press

WHITE BLOSSOMS seem to glow at night. tions: a large rectangular flower bed, an area with seating and trees, and a border.

For home gardeners who’d like to experiment with white, especially those with limited space, Lord recommends planting close to the house. “At night, the white flowers will show up and look incredibly beautiful,� he said.

Indeed, white blossoms — whether in a window box, planter, raised bed or big yard — seem to glow in twilight, reflecting whatever ambient light they happen to catch from windows, streetlamps, candles and the like. The luminosity is especially nice on summer evenings when folks hang out in porches and yards.

That high visibility factor is “also nice for people who work during the day,�

Lord said. “They come home in the evening, and that’s when they’re looking at the garden.�

White gardens are far from monochromatic. Flowers may be creamy, pale or bright white, and gray and green foliage helps show the hues off.

Boxwood edging and other broadleafed evergreens can help define and balance the delicate white, Lord said.

For those who care to visit, there’s a lot more to see at the Snug Harbor Botanical Garden than just the white

garden. Other features include a Tuscan garden, ornamental vegetable garden, sensory garden, shade garden and its best-known section, a Chinese Scholar’s Garden with Asian art, a koi pond and a plum tree that blooms each year just as winter turns to spring.

IF YOU GO...

SNUG HARBOR CULTURAL CENTER & BOTANICAL GARDEN: 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, N.Y. From the Staten Island ferry, take the S40 bus to Snug Harbor. Grounds and gardens open daily, dawn to dusk, $5 (children 12 and younger free).

big tomato flavor. Open-pollinated, non-heirloom, bred by LeHoullier. • Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom: Globe shape, creamy flavor. LeHoullier introduced it. • Pink Brandywine: LeHoullier’s “perfect tomato-eating experience.â€?

))(::22,,;;: ‹‹ 7733(5;;,,9::

DAVE MILSOP Creative Landscape & Design Unique Work That Reflects The Individual Character Of Your Home!

Matching the right landscape with the correct house is my speciality.

Call Today For Your Customized Design*

724.388.5056 724.388 8.5056 *Free with installation

WHITE WISTERIA was trained to grow as a tree.

Spreading the word on tomatoes Continued from Page 3 • Green Giant: Sweet-spicy flavor, chartreuse color. Heirloom. • Sun Gold: “Like candy,â€? LeHoullier says. Hybrid. • Lucky Cross: Brandywine offspring with red and yellow streaked fruits and

CCome Com Co om me to the thhe Farm Far Fa arm rm for rm foor the thhe Bes Be Best est st Qualit Qua Qu uaalilititty & Price!

Priric Pr ice ce!

Heirloom. • Cherokee Purple: Dusky rose color, smoky, sweet flavor. Using seeds sent to him in 1990 by a man in Tennessee, LeHoullier introduced it. Heirloom. • Mexico Midget: As tiny as a pea. Intense, rich flavor. Heirloom.

32 years experience

With you and your whole yard in mind.

MOWERS

t Zero Turn Mowers t Riding Mowers t Reel Mowers t Push Mowers

CHAIN SA AWS W t Accessories t Protective Apparel t Cases/Gear Bags t Bar & Chain Oil

CLEANING & TRIMMING t Trimmers t Hedge Trimmers t Brush Cutters t Maintenance Kits

t Rototillers/ Cultivators t Power Cutters t Blowers

9[L

4HYPVU *LU[LY ‹

-PUK \Z VU -HJLIVVR ‹ ^^^ PUOVTLWH JVT

6 — Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015

EVERGREE E N

EV VERGRE EEN

FLOWERING N

By NINA KOZIOL Chicago Tribune

If you garden in a small space — around a patio or on a deck or balcony — growing plants in pots is a good way to add color and a little pizzazz to the space. And, in a big gar-

AND

FRRUUIT TREES PERENNIALS

AND

DECIDUOUS

TREES

Experts suggest plant picks for container garden trend

UPRIGHT AND clump-forming grass provide texture and color in the garden.

AND

GRROU O ND CO OVERS

GRASSES

AND

SHRUBS UB U

Tribune News Service

den, placing large pots in a sunny perennial border or in a shady bed can create interesting focal points.

For the past several years, Wave petunias, coleus, sweet potato vines and Dragon Wing begonias have been the mainstays of many container gardens. But Stephanie Cohen has other ideas. The author of “The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Plant Choices and Four-Season Designs�

(Timber Press), Cohen would like to see gardeners branch out this spring with some new plants. “There are many lovely small annual grasses in lots of new colors like cherry and pink,� Cohen said. “At 1 to 2 feet tall, they make lovely fillers for a container and, unlike a flowering plant that may not look that great at the end of the season, they are beautiful throughout.�

In warmer parts of the country, annual grasses can stay in the pots all year, she added. In areas that get a fall freeze, the grasses can be tossed into the compost.

Plant breeders, such as PanAmerican Seed with their ColorGrass series, have introduced new varieties of blue fescue, sedges, tufted hair grass (Deschampsia), lovegrass (Eragrostis) and other upright and clump-forming annual and perennial Continued on Page 7

$98 /Month

Yoour Local Plant Materials & Landscaping Experts PENNSYLLVA ANIA’S PIONEER R COMMERCIAL EVERGREEN NURSER RY

ESTA ABLISHED 1921

3U NJOVUFT &BTU PG *OEJBOB r .PO 4BU r QJLFTQFBLOVSTFSJFT OFU

Call For Details!

724.639.3085 | 4 4"-54#63( 1" t wagnerequipmentsales.com "-54#63( 1" t wagnereequipmentsales.com

Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015 — 7

Faught’s

Garden Center

Stop by soon!

Your Full-Service Landscaping & Lawn Care Specialists ‹ 7VUKZ

>H[LYMHSSZ ‹ 7H[PVZ

9L[HPUPUN >HSSZ

‹ :[VUL >VYR

‹ 9VJR .HYKLUPUN

TALL SPIKES of papyrus add height to the left container garden which also includes coleus flanking the blooms of angelonia and calibrachoa. The stipa grass is the focal point of the right container, which includes a pop of color courtesy of the orange gazania. The two shades of dichondra — Emerald Falls and Silver Falls — add to the visual appeal of the arrangement.

Experts suggest plant picks for container garden trend

Continued from Page 6 grasses that provide texture and color in pots placed in full sun. Shade-loving grasses, like Japanese forest grass or Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra “All Gold�) shine on their own and provide a cascade of chartreuse leaves over the rim of a pot. Cohen also likes the idea of growing miniature hostas, like “Blue Mouse Ears� and “Teaspoon� in pots for shady sites. “People are going nuts for succulents, and they’re growing them in troughs,� Cohen said.

She grows several of them in her garden in Valley Forge. “There are wonderful miniature sedums and hens and chicks (Sempervivum spp.) with blue-green leaves and red edges that are stunning. I overwinter them outside by a wall because I don’t want the deer to see them.�

In its 2015 trends forecast, the Garden Writers Association predicted that many gardeners will grow edibles in pots as well as in the ground.

And, in a new book, “Grow a Living Wall: Create Vertical Gardens with Pur-

pose� (Cool Springs Press), Shawna Coronado explains how to make the most of a really small space: a wall. In less than 2 square feet of floor space, Coronado nurtures a tower of herbs, vegetables and flowering plants for pollinators. “Ornamental edibles are my favorite container plants,� Coronado said. “I don’t see edibles as a trend. I see them as a long-term proposition for gardeners across the world.�

Some of her favorite container combinations include “Bright Lights� Swiss chard, “Bull’s Blood� beets and “Marguerite� sweet potato vines. She likes to mix things up a bit by planting ornamental grasses and dinosaur (Lacinato) kale for seasonlong color and texture. “Edibles in containers will be big this year,� Cohen agreed, “but I’d do herbs.

They’re used to being cut and they grow back quickly. And, what’s nice about herbs is that they don’t like a lot of watering.� “The thing about growing herbs in pots,� Cohen added, “if you don’t like how they look, you can eat them and

throw the plants out at the end of the season.�

8<(30;@ >692 e -<33@ 05:<9,+

*VTTLYJPHS 9LZPKLU[PHS

MADERER R

PA #055842 PA

6MĂ&#x201E;JL! 6MĂ&#x201E;JL! 724-349-6696 724-34 24 3449-66696 *LSS! 724-422-3333 724 72 244-4 -42 4222-3 2--33 333 333 33 LA ANDSCAPING NDSCAPING INC C. *LSS! Bob Maderer, Owner

MadererLandscapingInc.com

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CONTAINERS INVEST IN LARGE POTS: The soil in containers that are less than 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall can dry out very quickly in hot weather, which can stress plant roots.

CHOOSE A POT WITH DRAINAGE HOLES: If thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no way for water to drain out, the soil can become waterlogged when it rains and roots will rot.

CONSIDER THE WEATHER: If you choose a ceramic pot but live in an area where the temperature dips below freezing, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll want to empty the container and store it off the ground in a garage or shed so it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t crack.

USE A SOIL-LESS potting mix that has fertilizer in it. You can find bags of potting mix at local garden centers and big-box stores.

USE A WATER-SOLUBLE fertilizer once a month during the growing season if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re growing flowering plants in your pots.

Standing Up to the Competition Pattented Stand-U Up Deck r .BLFT VOEFS EFDL NBJJOUFOBODF TVDI BT CMBEF DIBOHJOH PS DMFBOOJOH EASY! r 0OMZ NJE BN NPVOU NPXFS PO UIF NBSLFU UPEBZ UIBUU PÄ&#x2019;FST ZPV UIJT GFBUUVSF

0

%

48

APR mos.

4FF %FBMFS 'PS %FUBJMT

2021 S. 6th STREET INDIANA, PA 15701

724-465-8481 www.hilmow.com

8 — Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015

Garden antiques can add depth, flair to any garden

By KATHERINE ROTH Associated Press

Associated Press

TOPIARIES SURROUND an antique statue.

NEW YORK — In a leafy corner of the Bronx, water bubbles gently in an enormous, cornflower-blue ceramic fish pond from China, home to meandering goldfish. A statue of Diana the Huntress towers over timeworn birdbaths from Italy and a generously long wicker lounge chair from France.

Entering the enormous white tent housing the New York Botanical Garden’s annual Antique Garden Furniture Fair was to experience a fantasy world of dream gardens.

“The feeling you get when you’re surrounded by these pieces, with all their history and stories, is something you just can’t get if you go to a store and pick up a bench or ornament,” explained Karen DiSaia, director of the fair, which ran in late April.

Vendors from across the country displayed garden and sunroom

antiques, each booth staged to create a multi-sensory vignette complete with cascading flowers, rippling water and, yes, the occasional fish or two to bring the textures of worn stone, aged wood and smooth ceramic to life. Martha Stewart attended, and called the fair “one of the few things that is very important for me not to miss” each year. “This show gives one the opportunity to see the best of the best from dealers ... who are selling fine garden ornaments and other objects that will enhance your own personal landscaping,” she said.

Some booths carry Asian items, like that of Pagoda Red, a Chicago gallery specializing in antiques from China. Others have a European feel, like that of Schorr and Dobinsky, antiques dealers in East Hampton, N.Y., which featured a pair of large, cast-iron lions from early 19th-century England. Still others are quirky in a more local way, like one featuring a huge, 1960s-style owl lamp and a whim-

sical 1970s bistro table and chairs, each in the form of a sunflower, brought in from dealer Scott Estepp, of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Objects at the antiques fair cannot be by living artists and must date to before around 1975, although most are much older. They should be garden-themed, and exude character and uniqueness.

Eric Retzer, of Pagoda Red, said he sold “a pair of intensely embroidered, 19th-century Japanese tapestries depicting bucolic scenes of chrysanthemums in a garden, and a wonderfully feathered cockerel and hen courting near a stream, both done in shimmering silver and gold silk threads.

“Our favorite sale was a grand, limestone, 18th-century provincial Chinese River Dragon, originally meant to protect a village from flooding waters,” he added.

At a plant sale on opening night, Stewart said, she bought 24 large clumps of a woodland violet.

Continued on Page 9

BRING

CONQUEST™ T™

PREMIUM

COBALT™

TO YOUR LAWN SPECIAL ECIAL

FFINANCING INANCIN AVAILABLE* A VAIL A AILABLE

PRESTIGE™ PRESTIGE™ REGENT ENT E EX™ X™

CITATION C ITTATTION X XT™ T™

ZT3500

VISIT YOUR LOCAL DEALER AND TEST DRIVE ONE TODA TODAY!

3655 RT 553 PENN RUN, PA

724-254-4753

MANOR MOTORS

WWW.SIMPLICITYMFG.COM *subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. See Dealer for details.

Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015 — 9

Holly makes jolly-good screen

By NORMAN WINTER Tribune News Service

If you are thinking about creating a privacy screen between you and your unruly neighbors or perhaps wanting to quiet traffic from a busy street, look no further than one of our fine evergreen hollies. Your first inclination is probably a fence, and while that would certainly work it does present a host of issues including maintenance, harsh lines in the landscape and a real struggle if you need a screen 12 feet-plus in height.

Yet at least twice a month I get a call or a visit from someone looking for more of the nuclear option, and that is to plant bamboo.

Bamboo is in our garden’s name and I treasure that plant, done right. Some-

times I joke with my wife saying she is too high-tempered to be holding that butter knife, and similarly I’ve felt like telling the visitor they are too angry and hightempered to have a bamboo.

I’m not sure they would find my joke funny. Chosen incorrectly, bamboo could certainly end all prospects of the good neighbor relationship.

On the other hand, a cluster of Nellie R. Stevens hollies, yaupon hollies or one of dozens of American holly selections could form a screen of dark glossy green while providing berries for a host of birds. While bamboo is known for its spreading ability, it won’t take long for hollies to grow as well, quickly blocking out views you don’t want and the Continued on Page 10

Remember their final resting place this Spring

37 Years Of

Tribue News Service

BIRDS LOVE the red berries that holly produces.

Antiques can add depth to garden Continued from Page 8 “They’re already planted in my lavender garden.”

The fair is not just for those with a yard and a full wallet. Many items also could work indoors, and “even if your whole house is done in Ikea, one really beautiful old thing transforms everything, and creates a conversation piece and forms a connection to history,” said DiSaia.

From old buckets used as planters to 18th-century Chinese hitching posts and floral-themed artwork, the fair is really about viewing old things in a different and creative way, with a connection to nature and history.

Decorator Bunny Williams, who has been involved with the fair for years, designed the dramatic centerpiece this year around an enormous gazebo owned by Katonah, N.Y.based dealer and author Barbara Israel.

“In today’s fast-paced world, people come into a show like this to feel the

phenomenal energy of things that have been here much longer than we have,” DiSaia said.

“You can’t get that experience by shopping on the Internet. You can only get that feeling when you’re face to face with these things,” she said.

The more imposing pieces included the Diana statue (from Bob Withington, of Portsmouth, N.H.), a 19thcentury Mercury statue (from Greg Kramer and Co. in Robesonia, Pa.) and a pair of Japanese stone lanterns originally installed at a 19thcentury estate designed by architect James Renwick in Bristol, R.I. The trend in sales this year was toward fountains and urns, DiSaia said, and the always popular outdoor benches, chairs and tiny cast animal figurines. Various architectural elements for use as wall art also sold, she said.

“Every year I try to bring something that really stands out,” said Bruce Emond, a

dealer at Village Braider Antiques in Plymouth, Mass., who brought the two enormous stone lanterns this year. “One year I had a 2000pound turtle, and last year I had a really amazing well head.”

“My job is to search all year for things that you just can’t buy anywhere else,” he said.

“They have to be beautifully designed and have a certain simplicity. Oh, and they have to be old.”

MULCH COMPOST FERTILIZER DECO SOIL SAND GRAVEL STONE ® KEYSTONE CARPORTS & STEEL BUILDINGS

WE DELIVER

724-463-7980

BRUN RUNNER UN NNE NN NER ER (19778-22015))

– LANDSCAPING & SUPPLY –

Open Monday – Saturday, Call For Hours 1 Mi. N. of the YMCA on Ben Franklin Rd. N.

Mon-Fri 9-5 Sat 8-1

PRICE IS WHAT YOU PAY. PA AY. VALUE V IS WHAT YOU GET!

GREE REEENNNHHOUS UE PPLLAANNNTT--IT PLA PLANT-IT IT EA IT EAR EARTH AARRT RTH TH GREENHOUSE GAR GARD GARDENS ARDEEN AR NSS

Polywood Outdoor Furniture in over 15 colors to choose from!

annd and nd

ǔǗǓǧǦǛǘǧǞ ǢǗǤǗǠǠǛǓǞǥ ˳ ǥǢǗǕǛǓǞǦǫ ǓǠǠǧǓǞǥ

ǙǤǗǓǦ ǥǗǞǗǕǦǛǡǠ ǡǘ ǨǗǙǗǦǓǔǞǗ ǢǞǓǠǦǥ

ˇ˂̟ ǨǓǤǛǗǦǛǗǥ ǡǘ ǚǗǤǔǥ

* % 5 OFF

Polywood Furniture

*when paying by cash or ch

ORGANICALL!Y GROWN

Check our Facebook page for Daily Specials!

1462 Rhine Road, Homer City | 724.479.0808 | Mon - Sat: 9-7 Sun: 9-5 The Plant-It Earth Greenhouse And Gardens

g

10 — Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015

Holly makes jolly-good screen Continued from Page 9 sounds that will become more of a memory.

The Nellie R. Stevens holly is a cross between the English holly, Ilex aquifolium, and the Chinese holly, Ilex cornuta. It was introduced in 1954, and now 61 years later it is still one of the most important selections in the trade. It is rugged, durable and exquisite in both beauty and form. It is cold hardy from zones 610, meaning much of the country can relish in its beauty. It offers everything you could want in a holly with deep green glossy leaves, bright red berries and a classic Christmas tree shape.

The Nellie R. Stevens can reach 20 feet tall and around 18 feet in width at maturity offering what might be the perfect screen. We have a cluster of five screening our conference center from a parking lot. A tall Fantasy crape myrtle, ornamental grasses, palms and seasonal color are used for companion plants.

In another area we use clusters of yaupon hollies — Ilex vomitoria, zones 7-10; American hollies — Ilex opaca, zones 5-9; and Purple hollies — Ilex purpurea, zones 8-9, screening a large service area where our water well is located. Cedar waxwings have arrived in great numbers and are rotating among the hollies in a feasting frenzy. It is a sight to behold.

Whether you are creating a screen or the landscape of your dreams, try grouping your hollies in odd-numbered clusters of three to five. Let them serve as backdrop spring-blooming shrubs or a perennial border.

Redbuds and dogwoods make for incredible partners.

Try placing them in between repetitive clusters of hollies.

Spicy jatropha prized for blooming power

By NORMAN WINTER Tribune News Service

Associated Press

HOLLY IS rugged and durable while being beautiful.

Though these are tough, persevering shrubs, they do need water to get established at your home. During the first year make it a practice to train them to go deep with their root expansion by watering deep but infrequently.

Feed your hollies a light application of an 8-8-8 fertilizer about a month after transplanting. Feed established plantings in April and August. The last application is even more important for hollies with large berry crops.

Hollies are so versatile they provide the bones or evergreen structure so needed in the landscape. As a screen there is no better choice. They are an undeniable necessity in the backyard wildlife habitat. Take a survey of your landscape and see where hollies would enhance the overall beauty.

Blooms, birds and butterflies are the attributes everyone experiences when growing the awardwinning spicy jatropha. Spicy jatropha, also commonly known as peregrina and firecracker jatropha, is really a must-have plant for the long, hot season ahead.

No amount of heat will deter it from producing nonstop blooms all summer until freezing weather arrives.

The spicy jatropha is known botanically as Jatropha integerrima and is native to the West Indies. Even though it is a tropical, it has been showing up at garden centers much like tropical hibiscus or mandevilla. It is such a great plant it was declared a Texas Superstar Winner even though it is only cold hardy in zones 9-11. They will overwinter in south Texas, but everyone else will either protect them or grow them as an annual like most of

the country.

To me, the foliage has always been an additional selling point.

The leaves, for the most part, are deep glossy green and fiddleshaped. You can get a variance in leaf shapes, but regardless, they serve as the perfect backdrop to the red or pink flowers, depending on your choice in variety.

In the tropics it is not uncommon to see them as small trees reaching 10 to 12 feet, but for most of us we will enjoy them in the 3- to 5-foot range. They are not finicky about soil pH but do need very well-drained conditions. At the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens in Savannah, ours gave us a spring return from the ground after a low of 22. We also have elected to grow some as thriller plants in mixed containers.

Whether you grow them in the landscape or in containers on the porch, patio or poolside, you will notice all summer that butterflies Continued on Page 11

PA7560 P A7560 A

Asphalt As sph sp h alt ltt Se Sealing e alin ng g Asphalt A s sp p ph h a lt C halt ha Cr Crack rack rra ack Filling Fi F g Line L ine St S Str Striping tri rip iping g

724-388-1374 724-388-137

Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015 — 11

Have a little faith in seeds

By LEE REICH

Associated Press

“Plant seeds” may seem like an inane suggestion for a gardening column. But I’m serious. More and more people who garden these days put plants rather than seeds into the ground.

In the old days, the arrival of warm weather would have us all dropping bean, beet, marigold and zinnia seeds into moist soil, then eagerly waiting for those first green sprouts. Go into any garden center these days, though, and you can buy “cell packs” of robust bean, beet, marigold and zinnia plants. And these are what many folks are planting.

Buying transplants does, of course, give you a jump on the season. You’ll taste your first beans and smell your first marigolds sooner if you set out plants that were jump started in a greenhouse. And many annuals — tomatoes, peppers, impatiens and pansies, to

name a few — must have growth well underway in spring if they are going to put on a reasonable performance in summer.

But a lot of plants — including nasturtiums, bachelor buttons, corn and peas — don’t really need that jump start.

THE REWARDS OF HAVING SOME FAITH The main reason fewer people plant seeds these days is, I think, more serious: a lack of faith. People have trouble believing that dry, apparently lifeless specks the size of a comma or this letter “o” will grow into fat, juicy carrot roots or 6-foot-high hollyhock towers.

Once you have the faith and plant seeds, however, you reap practical benefits.

Most obviously, seeds are cheap.

For the same price as a single delphinium plant you could buy enough seeds to create a garden full of delphiniums. Most flowers look

better planted in abundance anyway. With some vegetables, it’s just not practical to grow transplants. Beans, for instance: At the recommended spacing of 2 inches apart, a modest, 10-foot row of beans would require about 60 plants, which is hardly a packet of bean seeds. So a cell pack of six bean plants, even a few cell packs, won’t put many beans on your plate.

Another plus for planting seeds is the much greater selection offered. Rather than planting Tendercrop, the one bean variety you might find as transplants, you could plant seeds of Blue Lake or Kentucky Wonder or any one of a number of other, better varieties available from the same establishment that sells you the transplants.

Connecticut Yankee is the delphinium variety that you’ll probably find potted up, and plants might be white, lavender or blue. If you wanted only white delphiniums, sow a packet of

Galahad seeds; for only dark blue flowers, sow a packet of Black Knight.

THE WONDERS OF SEEDS By circumventing that seed-sowing step, you miss out on one of the great things about gardening. As wondrous as gardening is, it is more so when you see a seed sprout.

So how do you get the faith that plants will grow from seed? Realize, first of all, that over 3 million years of evolution — the amount of time seed plants have been around — have been geared to making seeds better and better at sprouting.

If that doesn’t convince you, then just plant extra seeds wherever you want plants. Seeds are cheap, and you can remove excess plants once they’re all up and growing.

Success is further assured by starting with good seeds, planting them in soil that is moist and well aerated, and timing your plantings accordingly.

)"(&/4 30"% t HOMER )"(&/4 30"% t HOMER CITY

SALES • SERVICE • PARTS | 814-749-7197

THE RIGHT TOOLS t

t t t

Jatropha prized for blooming power Continued from Page 10 and hummingbirds make regular visits. The flowers are about 1 inch across and are borne in clusters that, amazingly, are always around. Should yours get fruit, know that these are poisonous if ingested. In all of the years I’ve grown them I have never seen fruit formed.

They are tough as nails, slow to wilt and make a quick recovery once water is applied. I’ve never seen any diseases or insect pressures, which is pretty shocking since they perform for such a long season. In the landscape, you will want to feed with light monthly applications of a slow-released balanced fertilizer containing micro-nutrients. Feed those in containers with a balanced controlled-released granular fertilizer as per formula recommendation or every other week with a dilute water-soluble 20-20-20.

Though jatrophas are still fairly new to garden centers in zones north of the tropics, the prices generally make them one of the best buys for your garden dollar since they bloom nonstop for five to seven months, depending where you live.

In the landscape, I love them with bananas, philodendrons and elephant ears, where their coarse-textured foliage combines with the red flowers for a real taste of the tropics.

In our mixed containers, we are using them with rich pastelyellow lantanas, blue verbenas, white scaevolas and carmine-colored celosia. As they have grown together the look is simply dazzling with the color.

Unless you live in our warmest regions, you most likely will be purchasing your jatropha generically, which is absolutely fine. On the other hand, you might be fortunate and find Ingram’s Red and Petite Pink. Regardless, if you see the spicy jatropha for sale, you will know you are getting an outstanding plant.

(Strongstown, S. on Rte 403)

t t

SHANNOCK HARDWARE

634 Main St., Rural Valley, PA -Just 25 Minutes from Indiana

724-783-7241

GREENHOUSE

NOW OPEN HANGING BASKETS GARDEN PLANTS & FLATS HANDMADE LAWN FURNITURE FRESH VEGETABLE IN SEASON

Bring Your Planters…

We’ll Plant Them for You!

12 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Indiana Gazette Gardening Supplement, Thursday, May 21, 2015

E C A P S G N I V I L R O O D OUT

724-463-0344