Even young children take gardening seriously and want to succeed. (Photo by Cadence Purdy)

I prefer to regard children as apprentice gardeners, gradually acquiring more skills as the years go by, working their way up (at their own pace and interest level) to journeyman and eventually master gardener. As much as possible, I like to let them choose their own projects, plan the execution of them, and solve their own problems. Here are three books, supposedly for adults, that do just that.

The Veggie Gardener’s Answer Book by Barbara J. Ellis serves apprentice gardeners well in several ways. It is small enough to be manageable in young hands, with a wipe-clean cover that can take visits to the garden without falling apart. The question-and-answer format makes it easy to zero in on a topic of burning interest or flip open to a random page and still grasp what’s being discussed. And it asks–and answers–lots of questions, everything from what are the easiest crops to grow to how can I make weeding go faster to how do I cope with a garden that got out of control? The first part of the book covers general gardening techniques and the second part gives advice on specific crops. There’s also a glossary, a bibliography, and a handy chart to help you determine how much to plant out of that generous seed packet. It truly is a “knowledegable gardening friend,” as the introduction suggests, a friend who doesn’t talk down to you, because the book was written for adults.

Wherever there’s plants, you know there’s going to be bugs, and Good Bug, Bad Bug by Jessica Walliser helps the novice garden determine friend from foe. The spiral-bound format of this book makes it easy to flip through, but it’s the index that makes it really useful. Look up the plant that has the bug on it, and it will give you all the pages that have bugs that frequent that plant. (By doing so I learned that sawflies were gobbling up my rose’s leaves.)

The bugs are easily identified by the photographs. Each bug gets a two-page spread that describes the damage it does and suggests preventive actions, live biological controls, organic product controls, and additional information when available. For example, adult cutworm moths are a favorite food of bats, so a good way to reduce cutworms in your garden is to encourage bats. Similar information is provided for the good bugs: who they control, and how to attract and keep them. All remedies are organic, but I especially like that the emphasis is placed on providing natural enemies of the pest and controlling environmental factors, before resorting to sprays and powders. If the bug in question isn’t in this book, it’s time to call in the grownups.

Don’t Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scrapsby Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam is a good remedy for boredom all year round, but especially in the northern winters when outdoor gardening is impossible. This book goes way beyond avocado pits and carrot tops, teaching you how to grow not only familiar vegetables, fruits, and nuts, but also branching into herbs and spices, and produce from Latin American and Asian cuisines. You could get an education just finding some of these. Oops. Did I say education? Fortunately, since this is a book for grownups, there is none of that didactic, it’s good-for-you tone that ruins many a juvenile trade book.

Grow enough of these groceries, and you’ll learn many seed germination and plant propagation techniques–and have fun doing it. Did you know fenugreek was a legume? Did you ever consider growing beets for a holiday centerpiece? Peterson tells some funny stories on herself as well; her spirit of experimentation is contagious. I can’t think of a better way to relieve the winter doldrums than to go shopping in the supermarket for a plant to grow. As the author advises: “Always buy two of each–one to grow and one to eat.”

I bought some hostas and dwarf bleeding hearts to plant. Shortly thereafter I hurt my knee and I can’t go out there and plant them. They are all planted in one gallon plastic pots. How can I safely winter them? If I put them in my garage they will still freeze.

You may have plants in containers that should have been planted, but weren't. How do you winter them over?

It is the roots you are worried about freezing. The rule of thumb is that roots in a pot will effectively be in a situation two zones colder than plants in the ground. So if the plant tag says zone 5 and you are in zone 7 they should be fine.

But I’m guessing you live in a colder place. Definitely keep them outside until the tops die down. You want them to go dormant. After that, you want to put them in a situation where they will stay dormant but not get colder than two zones warmer than the hardiness zone on the tag. That will be different depending on what is available at your place. The garage might be okay, if it gets cold, but not as cold as outside. You could put them up against the house, and surround them with bags of leaves for insulation.

The other thing to consider is the greater the volume of soil in the container, the more insulation the roots will have. A one gallon container is not that big, and won’t have much insulating soil mix for the roots, so you might err on the side of caution and make that three zones warmer than the tag.

I have a drafty, dirt floor cellar that barely stays above freezing. I have put dormant plants in the coldest corner of the cellar and pulled them through the winter. They did start growing sooner than they should have, and made some pale spindly growth, but I very carefully hardened them off and planted them after all danger of frost. It was a pain in the neck but better than losing them.

It is easier to weed grass out of daylilies when the daylilies have gone dormant and the grass has not.

Seedlings!

I started out this mild day trying to be pragmatic. I had it in my head I should drain and store the garden hose, haul all the empty pots and window boxes down to the basement, and (sniff!) take down the hammock for the winter. But it all sounded so boring. Somehow I got my hands in the dirt, and I was a goner. What had I been thinking? I can do all that boring stuff when it’s chilly, wet, windy, and perhaps snowy. (Well, actually, the hammock should come down when it’s dry.) But the opportunity to pull some weeds in mild weather and moist soil, weeds that would be left to spring in a normal year, well, such an opportunity should not be missed. Especially since I find weeding so much more satisfying than draining hoses. (It is fascinating how far grass runners can travel in friable soil.)

I got the original hellebore from Seneca Hill Perennials. Owner Ellen Hornig has stopped offering hellebores in a big way, though she is sure to have something you’ve never grown–or even seen–before. According to her website, she will be accepting orders for spring after November 30. Gardeners, start your engines!

May 13, 2007. 'Endless Summer' is just getting started.

June 4, 2007, a bit more than 3 weeks from the previous photo.

June 25, 2008. Click to enlarge photo if necessary.

July 6, 2008

July 16, 2008

July 27, 2008: fully colored up.

September 8, 2008.

Microclimates are important

Chris is in Zone 5. Theoretically I am, too, though not too long ago I would have said I was in Zone 4. I still have a Zone 4 growing season, with later spring frosts and earlier fall frosts. And Chris has one other advantage. Did you notice it? That stone wall behind his hydrangeas is providing a warmer microclimate by storing heat and radiating it back when the temperatures drop.

I have to say I was much happier with my ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangea this year than I was last year. I’m sure it improved its performance that I took care to mulch it with leaves last fall, and I didn’t pull them away from the plant until I was sure all danger of frost had passed. But I can also see that Chris gets more bloom from his ‘Endless Summer’ hydrangeas with the same amount of work.

I hope you found this comparison as informative as I did. A few extra weeks at each end of the growing season and a more favorable microclimate can make a significant difference in the performance of a plant. It’s a good thing to keep in mind when a fellow gardener rants–or raves–about a plant.

This is leek soup weather. Most of the trees have dropped their leaves, and the larch are enjoying their final glory before they drop their needles.

More northern gardeners should grow leeks. Leeks appreciate cool weather and are not intimidated by frost. As a matter of fact, their flavor is improved by frost, so there’s no rush to get them out of the ground. My husband dug our leeks earlier this week, well after we had several hard freezes (20F) and the leaves had dropped from most of the trees. And leeks are conducive to so many recipes that are best at this chilly time of year.

Most recipes advise using only the white part of the leek, but I usually trim them where the leaves start branching, as indicated by the dotted line.

Potato-Leek Chowder

3 large leeks
1 1/2 pounds potatoes — peeled and diced
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
3 cups chicken broth
pepper — to taste
salt — to taste
1 1/2 cups skim milk
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley — (6 teaspoon dried)
3 ounces cheddar — grated

Cut the root end off the leeks. Cut the leaves off where they start to branch (see photo and caption). Slice lengthwise and then slice crosswise into 1/2″ pieces. Put these slices into a strainer or colander, and put the strainer into a large bowl. Fill the bowl with water. Lift the strainer up and down in the water to help clean the leeks. Leave them in the water while you peel the potatoes.

I use the French-fry cutting disk of my food processor to cut the potatoes instead of dicing them. It is much quicker, and the potatoes break down in the soup enough to fit on your spoon.

In non-stick large sauce pan, saute the potatoes and leeks in the butter for several minutes, stirring to prevent browning. Add broth, pepper and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-30 min, till potatoes are tender.

Add milk gradually. Heat gently but do not allow to boil. Stir in parsley and cheese. I have to say it looks more appetizing if you use an orange cheese instead of a pale yellow one, but it will taste great in either case.

Recipe from Jane Brody’s Good Food Book, p. 322, with adaptations.

We liked this soup so much that we started growing leeks just so we could make it. Of course there are lots of classic leek recipes, such as Cock-a-Leekie and Vichyssoise.

How to grow leeks

Leeks are the first vegetable planted in the garden and the last one harvested. We (meaning someone in our family, but probably not me) start them indoors in the second half of February. For your own northern garden, figure two months before your last spring frost. We sow them in individual small cells. Once they sprout, make sure they get fertilized regularly with a weak solution of your favorite indoor plant fertilizer. You want them to grow both long and sturdy inside, so you can plant them deeply in the garden.

Plant them in your vegetable garden as soon as the soil can be worked. Note that this is not the same thing as as soon as the soil has thawed. You want the soil to have dried out enough so you’re not making mud pies. For us that winds up being early to mid-May, a couple of weeks before our last frost.

Your leek bed should be fully prepared before you plant, because you are not going to be messing with this bed again until harvest. Pull your weeds, incorporate organic matter, and make sure the soil is pleasantly moist, but not soggy or gummy. Now put two inches of hay on top of your prepared bed. (Straw would be even better, but we never have that. We can get old hay pretty easily.)

This is our dibble. It is about 10 inches long.

The leeks are pretty much ignored until it’s time to harvest them. As I said, it’s one of the last things we do. You don’t have to dig them all at once. Just dig as many leeks as you think you need for your recipe, being careful not to slice into them. (We use a garden fork.) You do want to dig them all before the ground freezes solid. One time we forgot, and had to just about chisel them out of the ground. They were kind of slimy on the outside when they thawed, too, though the centers were still good.

If you have a root cellar or a pretty darn cold basement (the kind where you have to take precautions to keep your pipes from freezing), consider digging them all up and storing them down there. It’s a heck of a lot more pleasant to go down to the basement than to trudge through two inches of snow and a biting wind to fork them out of close-to-freezing earth. See the resources below for details.

Leek Resources

Leeks | DoItYourself.com - good overview for the home grower, including southern growing methods
Stocking the Root Cellar - general principles on cold storage, but not much on leeks
Commercial Leek Production - precise growing and harvesting instructions
Planting Leeks at Beside the Stream - another cold climate gardener’s planting method
Foiled Again by the Elusive Leek - Anne Raver can’t grow leeks, but she talks to experts who can.
Leek Recipes - a big long list.

It’s not easy, let me tell you. More than one northern gardener has finished the winter with a dead rosemary plant. To succeed with any plant, a gardener thinks about its native range and tries to approximate those conditions. Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean basin. This is where many people make their first mistake. They hear that rosemary is drought-tolerant, and they let it dry out. But as Nancy Szerlag, Detroit News gardening columnist states, “a dry rosemary is a dead rosemary.” What people forget is that the Mediterranean climate receives almost all its yearly precipitation during the winter. The rosemary wintering over on a windowsill still expects it to rain.

That same Mediterranean native thinks winter is significantly cooler than the typical furnace-heated northern residence. Judy Miller, owner of Paradise Gardens Rare Plant Nursery and occasional contributor to this website, says, “I either keep it on a barely heated sunporch so it doesn’t go below freezing or above 50, or against the coldest window in a cold room.” No habitable room in my house stays below 50F in the winter, but some rooms are definitely cooler than others. Those are the rooms I consider for the rosemary.

This 8 year old 'Salem' rosemary is over 3 feet tall and wide. It spends each winter indoors. Photo by C.L. Fornari.

This frost damaged rosemary gives you an idea of how large my rosemary had gotten after two years. Unfortunately, all the leaves dropped and one whole section of the plant never came back after it was subjected to a late spring freeze.

Where to find named cultivars of rosemary

You can find rosemary in the spring almost anyplace that sells vegetable seedlings. However, if you want to get a specific cultivar, such as ‘Salem,’ you will probably have to order through the mail. Papa Geno’s Herb Farm has an extensive selection of rosemary varieties, including ‘Salem.’ I’ve never tried them myself, so if you have experience with them or have your own favorite source to recommend, please tell us all in the comments.

'Waterlily' colchicum blooms late enough for me that it is sometimes ruined by freezes. Never been very floriferous, either.

Colchicum autumnale 'Alboplenum' is very floriferous and looks fantastic growing through dark foliage.

The larger colchicums, such as 'The Giant' or C. speciosum work well at the base of shrubs.

Here's a closeup of those colchicums in the lilac-forsythia hedge.

In cold climates, you're mostly likely to succeed with a passalong mum that you plant in spring. Fall planted mums don't survive winter.

Black pansy, 'Lunar Glow' bergenia, and daylily foliage

That’s about it for peak bloom. Dianthus ‘Telstar’ valiantly struggles on, one tardy aster is trying to put on a show, a few yarrow blossoms, the occasional mallow . . . it’s a good thing Carol at May Dreams Gardens said foliage counts!

This was one of my most successful winter sowing projects. Golden feverfew. It is just glowing in this cooler weather.

'Glacier Blue' euphorbia

Another euphorbia, new this fall

Native sumac, planted by birds

For masses of color, we look to the hills, where the leaves on the trees have changed color.

This is what we see when we look across the street.

About Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day

Inspired by the words of Elizabeth Lawrence, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year,” Carol of May Dreams Gardens started Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers from all over the world publish what is currently blooming in their gardens, and leave a link in the comments of May Dreams Gardens.

There, I’ve said it. I don’t care if goldenrod is a native plant; it is no longer welcome in my gardens. I tried to be understanding, truly, I did, but it just did not want to play nice with the other plants. It did not want to play at all: total garden bed domination was its only goal. And it just about succeeded:

Give it an inch, it will take the whole bed. About the only plant left standing is phlox--itself a native. August 2006

Several kinds of goldenrod

I should make clear before we go any further that there are many species of goldenrod. I’ve found three growing in my beds, and all three have a reputation for being “aggressively weedy.”

This goldenrod is most prevalent in our area. September 2008

Arrows point to rough-stemmed goldenrod. It has the widest leaves of the common ones. September 2008 (click on image to enlarge)

The very thin leaves give rise to the name grass-leaved goldenrod September 2008

Not all goldenrods are bad

Just because I am ousting some villains, I don’t want you to think all goldenrods are bad. Consider:

• Their pollen is sticky. It does not go airborne. It does not cause hay fever or other sneezing allergies. (You would think after all these years, this myth would have been dispelled. But just in case . . .)
• They have an “important role in native ecosystems as soil stabilizers and sources of food and shelter for wildlife.” (William Cullina)
• Other species are well-behaved. Even Solidago rugosa has a cultivar, ‘Fireworks’ that Allan Armitage calls “an outstanding selection.” Of course, the good goldenrods will probably not just show up in your border. Only the thugs do that.

Pull goldenrod early, and pull it often

True confession: when I said in the beginning that “I tried to be understanding” and tolerate goldenrod in my borders, that was a polite way of saying that I tried to rationalize my failure to weed this bed in a timely manner. I never deliberately planted goldenrod in any of my garden beds. I may have let the first seedling or two grow because I didn’t recognize it as a weed. And once it was blooming, I probably decided it was so pretty, I would pull it later. Before you know it, it had turned into a project that had to wait until I had time.

More than once, I tried to dig it out from amongst the perennials growing here, only to have it come back in the spring from roots I had missed. Then there was the year I started digging out the good plants–the plants I wanted to save–and planting them elsewhere. I finally realized nothing less than a complete renovation of the bed would be sufficient to eradicate the goldenrod.

I finally take back the garden

If you have ever attempted to drive a spade into a thriving bed of goldenrod, you would understand the daunting task I faced. It was so daunting, I didn’t face it for a year or two. (Don’t worry, it was easy enough to find other garden work to do.) In 2005 (yes, this has been an ongoing problem) my husband helped me renovate a three-foot wide section that adjoined the Birthday Garden. I managed to keep that goldenrod-free, which gave me the courage to tackle the rest of the front bed this year.

Follow my progress as I take back my garden bed from the domination of the Solidago species. Each thumbnail can be clicked to view a medium image with text, and can then be clicked again for an even larger view. Use the back button or click on the title to get back to the gallery.

How to succeed with a big weeding project

In the past, trying to accomplish large projects in small increments didn’t work. By the time I was ready for stage 2 of a project, stage 1 had become undone. For example, when I had worked on this bed years ago, the goldenrod had grown back before I could finish weeding the bed thoroughly. So I was really hesitant to tackle this project in stages, but I didn’t have a choice. There just isn’t a way to clear three consecutive days in my calendar, and I don’t think my body could handle that much consecutive wear and tear. I realized I didn’t have anything to lose, because if I “failed” the result wouldn’t be any worse than a goldenrod-infested bed, which I already had. What contributed to my success this time, when I had failed in the past?

• I stopped thinking of it as a do-or-die project. I realized if I could clear another three feet, and keep it clear, that would still be progress.
• On the other hand, I stopped approaching it as an attempt to “save” the bed that had been there, and recognized that I needed to renovate it, that is, start over.
• The weather cooperated. Lots of sunny, dry weather, which discouraged new weeds from sprouting and made the goldenrod easy to remove.
• I worked on it first thing in the morning, when the weather was cool and my energy level was high. This minimized procrastination.
• My kids were older. Babies and toddlers inevitably create the kind of interruptions that can sideline a project.
• Mercifully, no back spasms or other injuries that would sideline me.

Not all of the above are conditions which you control, which is why it is important not to get discouraged if your project isn’t successfully completed the first time you attempt it.

Identify your goldenrods online

I found Walter Muma’s Ontario Wildflowers site to be very helpful for identifying native plants. Not only are several photographs included, but the specific details that distinguish one species from another are listed with as little jargon as possible. I only wish I had discovered his site before my goldenrods had gone over; I might have been able to make a more positive identification of some of them.

Read about garden worthy native plants

The following books will help you learn about native plants. I reviewed them earlier this year.

Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening and Conservation by Donald Leopold (Timber Press, 2005).

Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada by William Cullina (Houghton Mifflin, 2000).

Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens by Allan Armitage (Timber Press, 2006).

How about you?

Did you ever have a garden bed where one plant took over? How did you tackle that problem? Are there any plants that are currently frustrating you with their aggressive growth? Let us know; perhaps someone else knows how to control it. Or, do you have a favorite, well-behaved native plant that more people should know and grow? Tell us about it in the comments.