| The Garden Plot
Hosted by Adrienne Cook
Washington Post Garden Columnist
Thursday, July 25, 2002; 11 a.m. EDT Whether you remember her as the "Backyard Gardener" or know her as the "Gourmet Gardener," Post columnist Adrienne Cook is one of the area's authorities on organic horticulture. Cook will be online to field questions, concerns and comments regarding gardening. A self-proclaimed "practical gardener," Cook's love for horticulture stems from her roots, starting with a grandfather who bred day lilies and camellias. An organic gardener, Cook has been putting her heart and soul into the soil for 30 years. In her job as a Post columnist, Cook has been offering "real and simple solutions for basic problems" for the past 20 years. Practicing what she preaches, Cook balances her time between her numerous backyard projects, including a batch of perennials, fruit trees, a cut-flower garden and a burgeoning green house. Currently she is growing apples, cherries, apricots and various berries, but her favorites are the veggies: peas, tomatoes and herbs. Over the years Cook has contributed her green-thumb knowledge to several publications, including Organic Gardening, Good Housekeeping, Southern Accents and Fine Gardening. The transcript follows washingtonpost.com: Adrienne will be running a few minutes late this morning. -- Liz
washingtonpost.com: Stay with us, Adrienne should be here shortly.
Leesburg, Va.: I planted two new blueberry bushes at the beginning of the spring. They seem to be doing well, and even produced a few berries, but are very scraggly in appearance. Will trimming them back give them a fuller appearance, and if so, how much do I trim them (and when?)? Thanks so much. Adrienne Cook: Young blueberry bushes will look "scraggly" for a few years until the get established. Be sure that they are getting sufficient water, which could be one of their problems given the heat & lack of rain. Also be sure they are growing in a sunny spot, a place where they get afternoon sun. If those factors are covered, patience will reward you with increased bushiness as the shrubs mature. Keep in mind that it takes three to five years before blueberry bushes hot, and then maintain, their peak. Judicious pruning is warranted, in the meantime, only to shape or to contain the growth.
Wondering about winter in Westminster: Adrienne, Thanks for taking my question. I have established a nice little herb garden this year and really enjoy it. I have parsley, sage, basil, cilantro, chives, oregano and rosemary growing in a little corner of the yard. What can I do to get them through the winter? Are any of them winter hardy? Could I transplant them to containers and bring them inside this fall? What do you suggest? I know it's early to think about these things but I like to plan ahead! Adrienne Cook: Planning ahead is great! The herbs you describe are a mixture of annuals and perennials, so some will survive and others are programmed to die off. Basil, cilantro will be among those that do not go through winter. Sage & chives will do fine and get larger each year thereafter; they die back in the winter, but green up again in the spring. Parsley is a biennial and will make it through winter, but will send up a tough, inedible stem next spring and stop producing leaves. I usually let my parsley go as long as it's doing well and not producing that stem & flowers, but as soon as that happens, I pull it and replace it with a new plant. Rosemary will survive outdoors in the winter (it's a perennial) with protection. In Westminster, I'd say that probably means brining it indoors and babying it through the dark months until you can put it back out in April. It tolerates light frosts, but takes hard frosts unreliably.
Lorton, Va.: Adrienne: I was wondering if you could answer this question. I bought a few cantaloupe plants this spring and they are thriving in the sunny spot that I have them in. I have many flowers but there doesn't seem to be any fruit developing. Since I bought the plants I don't have the seed package to determine the germination period. So, is it still too early to see any fruit? When should I expect to have fresh cantaloupe? Adrienne Cook: You should begin seeing fruit in the next week or two. Male flowers, which do not bear fruit, always appear before the females. Female flowers are recognizable because they are borne on small round bumps rather than stems like the males. These bumps are the beginning of your cantaloupe. There's plenty of time left of the summer to get ripe cantaloupes.
Arlington, Va.: I grow a lot of basil in my garden throughout the summer and use it for fresh pesto. The young plants have a broad, soft leave while the older plants get tough, thinner leaves. Does this signal the end of the useful life of the plant (for pesto) or am I doing something wrong? I usually pinch the flowers out so the plants grow bushy. Adrienne Cook: This is typical basil, and no, you are not doing anything wrong. I think the older basil actually has far more flavor. Basil will continue to grow & bear leaves in abundance as long as you give it what it loves -- good soil, sun and water.
Arlington, Va.: My three-year-old daughter and I planted a bunch of sunflowers in our yard this year for fun. I'd say we had about 50-75 blooms on the edges of our garden at one point. Trouble is, the squirrels love them as much as we do. I thought they'd take a few and leave some for us to see, but they're pretty greedy and have ravaged most of them. Anything I can do to discourage them? Adrienne Cook: Get a dog?
Washington, D.C.: My lavender keeps dying. They're in a big pot, in the tree box. I had four plants in there, and they grew for three years. This spring, they died. So, off I go, and got four more. I checked the pot, to make sure it had drainage. I replaced the dirt with new potting soil. Planted the four new guys. I'm down to two, and they aren't looking so good. They're on the west side of the house (not much choice in that matter -- that's where there is space. It's a row house with the front facing west, and a driveway in the back.). The other ones, in smaller pots a little further up on the main lawn, are doing fine with the same treatment. Is there a disease I should worry about? Watering tricks? What if dogs are watering them? Would that kill them? How can I figure out why all of a sudden, lavender can't live in that pot, while seeming happy in a neighboring pot? Adrienne Cook: Lavender that lasts three or four years in a container is doing pretty well. As to the new ones, it could be any number of factors, but I'd guess the main culprit is water -- not enough of it. Pots that are placed on dirt rather than a hard surface permit plants that grow in them to extend their roots through the drainage holes and into the soil underneath, giving those plants extra water and nutrients. Are your trouble pots on a hard surface, while the others are on soil? If so, then odds are they're not getting enough water.
washingtonpost.com: Programming Note: Adrienne will be answering questions till 12:30 p.m. today.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: I have a 14' x 5' area that sits on the east side of my house. So it gets a few hours of good sun each day. Can you recommend a couple of nice flowers or ornamental grasses for this area? It borders my garage and driveway. Adrienne Cook: Rule of thumb: Morning sun is "shade," afternoon sun is "sun." Determine which type of sun your planting bed gets. Then amend the soil with compost, and cover it with mulch. Before fall, do some reading on what kind of plants tolerate shade or prefer sun, depending on what you've got. Trying to recommend plants for a new plot, out of the thousands of plants that thrive in our area, is almost impossible unless you have a specific goal in mind. Check out a wonderful book called The Perfect Plant, by David Joyce.
Gaithersburg, Md.: Hi, thanks for taking my question. My vegetable garden is flourishing, with one exception. I planted green and purple pole beans. Both types are doing very well, healthy vines, no pests, however, the purple plants are not producing any beans. Is there something special I should have done or can do? Adrienne Cook: It could just be a matter of maturity. Are they producing flowers? If you see flowers, beans should follow within a couple of weeks. Purple beans produce purple flowers.
Alexandria, Va.: This season is my first stab at gardening. We're enjoying a hugely successful vegetable garden and now I'm starting to plan ahead for preparing the garden for winter. I read that one way to prepare your vegetable garden for winter is to till your dead plants into the soil in October. Supposedly the dead plants will break down and add nutrients to the soil. I had planned to do this until a friend of mine said that the tomato plants are incredibly acidic and will significantly impact my soil's PH, which seems to be adequate right now since the garden (my first ever) has grown like gangbusters. Is it OK to till plants (particularly tomato plants) into the soil? Or should I remove them? We don't have a compost pile yet because we were so overwhelmed with our first year of gardening that we decided to hold off on attempts at compost. So if we remove the dead plants, they'll most likely end up in the trash. Adrienne Cook: Tilling all plants into the garden is an acceptable and very good way of replenishing the soil. The tomato plants are no more nor less acidic than any other plants in the garden, none of which will effect the soil pH. What effects that are things like what you are using as fertilizer, acid rain and the original pH of the soil when you started. The only reason to NOT till in your plants is that some may have diseases which could get carried spread throughout the soil. So, just use caution, removing and bagging and disposing of any plant material that looks as though it is suffering from a fungal or systemic condition.
Arlington, Va.: Hope I'm not too late. Is it typical for astilbe foliage to turn brown and die back in mid-summer? I planted the plants in mostly shade (some morning sun) this spring, and they bloomed fine. They have been watered all summer. THANK YOU! Adrienne Cook: Yes it is, especially given the heat & drought that we've been under. They should do fine and may revive somewhat in September or when we get some prolonged rain. They certainly will come back next spring.
Arlington, Va.: I've been gardening the same plot in my backyard for four years now. My tomatoes seem to do fine, but the squash and cucumbers (especially) have dwindled to nothing the last two years. I have tried soap sprays, but the striped bug I see coming and going on my plants doesn't seem to be phased by it. What can I do? Adrienne Cook: Plant them earlier in the year, like in April. Be prepared to give them some protection in the event of a late frost. Cover your cucumbers with a garden fabric to prevent the striped cucumber beetle from getting on it until it gets too large to keep under cover. Both plants are suffering form conditions that undermine them as the summer gets hot. Cucumbers get wilt, spread by the beetle, and squash are susceptible to squash borers and squash bugs, both of which attract most ferociously when the summer cranks up and the rain is scarce. They may shrivel up eventually even with these precautions, but at least by planting them early you'll get a jump on the bad stuff and you should get a pretty good crop before they die off. Maybe even enough so that you'll be glad to finally see them go!
Boondocks, Va.: If morning sun is "shady" and afternoon sun is "sunny," how do I classify a bed that gets about four hours of sun right smack in the middle of the day (about 10:30 to 2:30)? Adrienne Cook: Since sun-loving plants need more than four hours of sun -- six is the minimum for maximum output of bloom and/or fruit -- you have mostly shade. However, I'd try some sun-loving plants in that space anyway. Things like roses, irises and peonies will do pretty well; they may not be as huge and developed as those that would be in the sun more, but if you want to grow them, you could.
Washington, D.C.: I hope this is not a dumb question but here goes: Can charcoal ashes from the grill be used to amend the soil? Adrienne Cook: Nope. Wood ashes only & nothing with lighter fluid.
Arlington, Va.: How do you manage chicory in a lawn? Is the presence of chicory indicative of something the lawn needs/has too much of? It seems so pervasive (at least in my back yard!), and pulling it is a never-ending task! Thanks! Adrienne Cook: Chicory is one our worst exotic invasives, supplanting many wonderful Virginia natives in its pervasiveness. You probably have acidic soil, which isn't a bad thing if your lawn is down well despite the chicory. Use the highest-strength RoundUp and spot spray individual plants. Try to do this as soon as it emerges in the spring. there also may be a good pre-emergence lawn herbicide that zings chicory; check at your local garden center.
Washington, D.C.: Is it true that you shouldn't plant tomatoes in the same plot year after year but need to rotate them? Adrienne Cook: Rotating is always recommended to prevent soil-borne diseases and to keep the soil always in balance -- some plants make more of a demand on it than others.
Little Rock, Ark.: Is there a pesticide for the squash vine borer? My squash plants are lucky to produce one or two squash before wilting. I've heard of using floating row covers, but these have to be removed when blossoming starts so pollination can occur. Thank you. Adrienne Cook: I have not found one yet, but each year I try something new. As soon as I find something that works, I'll let you know. You can delay the effects of the borer by keeping young plants sprayed with a product that contains Neem, also with the flatting row covers, and also by getting the squash in as soon as possible after winter. The adult moths of the borer do not show up until the weather gets pretty warm.
Northwest Washington, D.C.: Adrienne, I really need your expert guidance. I do not know if I should be happy or concerned that my spring blooming pink magnolia, has been lightly blooming again over the last two weeks. Most of its spring blooms were hit by a frost if that has anything to do with this summer surprise. Thanks for taking the time to do these chats! Adrienne Cook: That's not uncommon for a magnolia. Enjoy!
Washington, D.C.: Please help! My garden is going CRAZY! This is my second year. My shasta daisies are really tall, a lot taller than they were last year and they are blocking the previously taller black-eyed susans in back. Why did they grow so tall and what can I do? Do I have to remove them? Also I bought a butterfly bush to attract, what else, butterflies. This bush has grown wildly, spilling out over the back of my garden and blocking the sun from the coneflowers. I think that I will have to remove it altogether. Is there anything less drastic that I can do? Thank you. Adrienne Cook: You can wack back almost everything you mentioned. Many perennials, including those that you are growing, benefit greatly from a severe pruning in June before they bloom. Your butterfly bush, however, probably should be relocated to where it can go crazy without blocking everything off. Cut back what you don't want right now, and then cut the bush back to about a foot in height in October, then dig it up and move it. Or, alternatively, prune it every six weeks or so throughout the year to keep it in check.
Gotta run, thanks so much for the great questions, sorry I came in so late. Keep gardening & keep asking questions. Next week Adrian Higgins.
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