Clethra ‘Pink Spire’: As sweet as roses, but better.

Clethra ‘Pink Spire’

Blooms July through August, soft pink, fragrant cone-shaped flowers. Oh, and what a fragrance! As sweet as roses, but more potent, and certainly less trouble. You will love this plant. Very low maintenance, deciduous shrub can take full sun to part shade, and can tolerate moist soils, even wetlands or pondside. Grows 6’ by 6’ in maturity. Attracts bees and butterflies.

Vitex: Chaste tree for a reason

Common names are often poetic or reflective of a plant's practical use. I never thought about it before, but here is the reason that Victoria's favorite, deer resistant, late blooming shrub is also called the Chaste Tree:

"...the shrub's been highly touted for its effectiveness in regulating menstrual cycles and relieving symptoms of PMS (I recently stumbled across a book titled Vitex: The Women's Herb). It also has a positively ancient reputation as a sexual suppressant, one that Athenian women used to keep themselves chaste while in frenzied worship of the Greek goddess of harvests. According to the Roman naturalist Pliny, the celebrants "made their pallets and beds with the leaves thereof to cool the heat of lust."

And it wasn't just the ladies. Southern European monks are said to have brewed libido-busting tea from the shrub's fruit - hence its other common name, monk's pepper (talk about your condiments).

But it's the most innocent of pleasures that have led me to the chaste tree - its performance in the late-summer garden. This woody verbena relative can play a role easily as dynamic as those of Buddleia davidii (butterfly bush), Hibiscus syriacus (rose of Sharon), Campsis radicans (trumpet vine), and Caryopteris x clandonensis (bluemist shrub).

Anything but chaste in appearance, vitex has all the angles, with a multiple-stemmed symmetry enhanced by tapered, five-fingered leaves and jaunty eight-inch flower spikes of the softest lilac blue. It's a shrub that seems always in motion, what with the aerial high jinx of dive-bombing hummingbirds and silver-backed foliage that flickers in the wind. Though vitex is capable of at least ten feet if left unpruned (or better yet, limbed up like a tree), it can also be treated as a perennial and cut back to the ground each spring (like Buddleia, it flowers on new wood).

Chaste tree is a Mediterranean native and, as such, prefers life sunny and well-drained. Though it's drought tolerant once established, it will grow faster with supplemental summer water. Still, given the modesty of these cultural requirements, it's surprising the plant isn't more of a staple in the low-maintenance garden (and that its cultivars are so difficult to find). My best guess is that the chaste tree is a hard sell in spring, when it's more stick than shrub with no sign of green. Even an experienced gardener might mistake it for dead up until June, since it's predictably late to leaf out. Alas, by the time it's really cruising, most gardeners are finished buying shrubs."

For the full article by Ketel Levine :http://www.npr.org/programs/talkingplants/profiles/vitex.html

Rain!

“All of life grows at one's own door step." -- Lao Tzu

All gardeners look out there windows today and release a collective sigh of relief.

Rain!

Desperate, thirsty plants are expressing their version of relief as well. After such a stretch of scorching dry heat, many people are contemplating the benefits of rain barrels.

"Anyone with a roof on planet Earth can harvest rain water. From Mexico City to Calcutta or Los Angeles to Beijing. One inch of rain fall on a 1,000 foot surface will yield approximately 500 gallons of soft, untreated rain water. It’s a huge source of water as close as your nearest down spout. So liberate your down spout today and harvest the rain!"

-Dan Borba
Harvesting Rain Water Since 1999

In the simplest set-up, a rain barrel with an open top is placed underneath a gutter downspout, catching rainwater runoff from the roof. We carry rain barrels that hold 50 gallons of water and have screening devices for keeping out debris and insects. The tanks are made from polyethylene and are dark colors to prevent algae growth. They rain barrels cost $135 and we offer matching stands ($65).

(If you pay for municipal water, how much will your water bill be this quarter after watering your parched garden every evening?)

"The rain just goes so much further. I feel like for every five or so gallons of municipal water, one or two gallons of rainwater will do the same thing. My plants are so happy now," says one rain-collecting gardener, Ms. Gregory.

Greener plants were not, however, the original motivator that prompted Ms. Gregory to investigate rain harvesting. "Rain is free, and what pushed me at first was the cost of water," she says. "We keep track of what we use, factored out what we needed, and have found this is a practical solution."

Reminder: Fertilize Spring Blooming Shrubs Now

Andromeda (Pieris Japonica)covered in spring blooms.



Spring-flowering shrubs set their flower buds on new growth. This usually happens during the summer. If you prune back the forsythia, lilacs, azaleas, Andromeda, or rhododendron last fall, you would have been removing many of this spring's flowers. (Spring-flowering shrubs, should be pruned back immediately after they flower in the spring.)

But now is the time to fertilize spring-flowering plants to encourage new growth and the setting of next year's buds.

You can use an all purpose fertilizer, like Plant-tone or for acid loving shrubs like Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Andromeda (Peiris), and Mountain Laurel, you can use Holly-tone.

Another option is a top dressing of compost, compost tea, or composted manure. We love a new product called Moo-plus. It is organic, dehydrated, composted manure with more available nitrogen, phosphate and potash.

CD Release Party Wednesday Night!

That’s right…..it’s

Runnin’ Right on Time

Wednesday, June 30th 7PM
at Victoria Gardens

1 Cottekill Road/Rt.213
Rosendale, NY

658-900 (victoriagardens.biz)

Refreshments, live music in the garden.
Come hear a sampling of the CD and be among the first to buy your very own.

with EC Lorick, Frank Martin, Frank Tetler…. surprises.

www.debmartin7.com

What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 3

Uugh! Slugs!

Fear not, we have some kid safe/pet safe tips and organic solutions to help fight the slimy little suckers.

1. Sluggo, an all natural, pet safe, proven snail and slug killer. As it says on the bottle, "makes slugs disappear!" One package covers 1,000 square feet, and it remains effective through the rain!

2.Spread or spray Diatomaceous Earth. Diatomaceous earth is the sharp, jagged skeletal remains of microscopic creatures. It lacerates soft-bodied pests, causing them to dehydrate. A powdery granular material, it can be sprinkled around garden beds or individual plants or put in a sprayer, which we also carry.

Diatomaceous earth is less effective when wet, so use during dry weather. Wear protective gear (safety glasses and a dust mask) when applying, as it can irritate eyes and lungs. Be sure to buy natural or agricultural grade diatomaceous earth, not pool grade which has smoother edges and is far less effective. We carry the agricultural grade by the bag.

3. Bait and kill slugs is with pans full of beer. The slugs are attracted to the yeasty smell and then drown in the brew. The only problem with this home remedy is that with all the rain we've been getting, the beer may get diluted, or flooded out entirely.

4. For the brave, pick off the slugs in the early morning or evening with chop sticks (so you don't get the slime all over your hands) and drop them in a bucket of salted water. Or pick them off with your clippers, and cut them in half as you do. (I know, so gross.)


Other tips:

Use cocoa mulch. Slugs don't like the smell or the texture. (Dog owners beware, dogs will sometimes eat the cocoa shells, and it can make them sick.)

Put very finely crushed eggshells around plants you wish to protect.

Spread coffee grounds or aluminum sulfate around plants.



What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 1

What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 2

What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 2

What are aphids?

"Aphids, also known as plant lice (and in Britain as greenflies),[1] are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea.[2] Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions.[3]"

- Wikipedia



And yuck!They are disgusting. When you find them, you usually don't find just one, you find a creepy crawly infestation.


You may see the holes the aphids chew threw your leaves before you see the bugs, especially if they camouflage like the type shown above.

What is the best way to fight aphids?

Fight these garden pests with their natural predators - Ladybugs!

We have live ladybugs available now!

Wait until dusk, spray the infested plant or plants with water, and then shake the live lady bugs out of the container on to the plant. If you release the ladybugs during the heat of the day, they will just fly away. By giving them water, they will stay put through the night and search and destroy aphids like ladybug special forces.

Ladybugs also eat fruit flies, thrips and other garden pests.

If you purchase and release lady bugs to eat your aphids, DON"T use chemical insecticides such as Seven, or you will kill off your beneficial insects as well. It is much more effective to introduce natural predators, than to use the chemical alternative.

For more repulsive images of different types of aphids visit this site.


What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 1

What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 2


What's Buggin' You? Organic Pest Control Part 3