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THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of March 27, 2025

Extreme shifts in weather are the primary reason I prefer to plant younger perennials, shrubs, and trees. They have smaller root masses that can work their way into new locations with less stress to the overall plant.

With the temperature fluctuations this past week, I can understand why native plants may be slow to “wake up.” Any plant well adapted to fickle spring weather can cope with temperatures in the 60s one day followed by snow the next. They just take their time and resist being fooled by weather flux. Not native yet hardy Crocus have started to bloom and can handle an inch of snow. The very tips of daffodils and hyacinth can also emerge and linger patiently until the sunlight gets strong enough to coax blooms and bees out of winter slumber.

Extreme shifts in weather are the primary reason I prefer to plant younger perennials, shrubs, and trees. They have smaller root masses that can work their way into new locations with less stress to the overall plant. After a few seasons, these plants will have grown accustomed to their new homes and grown into the new spots with fewer setbacks. Planting perennial seeds outdoors in a nursery plot, where you can tend them closely, allows the seedlings to start in similar conditions as their ultimate home. The strongest ones survive and will be able to withstand the weather in your microclimate.

So don’t be April fooled into starting your non-native, heat-loving vegetable seeds too early. Seeds of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash need warm soils to start and for transplanting. Transplanting too early will stress the plants and set them back, which defeats the whole point of starting your seeds indoors! Wait until the middle of April before starting these seeds and plant them in the garden when soil has warmed, typically around June 1 in our Hardiness Zone 5/6a.

Keep concentrating on the bigger picture of your garden. As you gently rake out dead stems and broken branches from your gardens, watch where you step. Maybe you need to mark that spot for the next time to avoid crushing an emerging geranium or summer phlox. Plan stone pathways or install a few flat stepping stones through larger perennial and shrub borders. Those will do double duty later as slug traps in mid-summer.

Cut out dead stems of your early bearing raspberry canes that you missed last summer. These would be gray-brown compared to the reddish canes that will flower and fruit in early summer.

Prune about six inches off the cane tips of summer-bearing raspberries to encourage branching and more fruit, or just leave them alone. Cut to the ground any canes that are gray (with red marks through them). They will not flower and fruit this year. Everbearing raspberry varieties fruit on last summer’s canes as well as this spring’s canes. If you cut back the fruiting and flowering canes from September to the ground now, you will skip the June fruit. New stems will grow and the pruning will save the fruiting energy for just one fruiting cycle in August/September.

Twice-bearing raspberries fruit in June and again in September. You can cut back to the ground all the canes of your September-bearing raspberry canes now. This will eliminate a June fruiting but encourage a more robust fruiting and harvest in September. If you don’t know what kind you have, leave them for a season.

Any spring-flowering shrubs that you prune now have buds set on last year’s stems. Don’t fret about pruning them to a better shape. You can still enjoy the flowers by trimming the ends off your pruned branches and putting them in a vase close to bright light. Blooms should appear in two to three weeks. This is also a fun way to confirm what kind of shrub you have. Blueberry flowers look like lily of the valley. I have a few stems just starting to flower after three weeks in water.

Any pruning you do of spring-flowering shrubs does not need to be a waste. “Force” those branches into bloom like with this blueberry stem.

Do a soil test soon before you add any lime or compost to your gardens or lawn. The soil test can tell you the pH and what amendments will improve your plants’ health. The pH affects how well a plant can absorb nutrients from the soil. Blueberries for example need a pH of 4.5 to 5. Most vegetable gardens do well with a pH of 6 to 6.8. Lawn grasses do best with a pH closer to 7 or neutral acidity. Instructions for taking samples and how to send them can be found at university extension websites. This is a link to the UMass Extension Soil Testing Lab.

Amending garden acidity to suit your plants can be tiresome after many years. Consider planting shrubs and perennials that are better adapted to the natural pH of your yard. Of course, pH can vary from place to place on one property. Lavender prefers a sweeter soil with pH of 6.8 to 7.8, and mine grows very well close to the concrete foundation of my house. Typically, the mineral elements of concrete leach somewhat and will sweeten the surrounding soil. Testing different soils from different gardens around your property will help you determine what will grow best in each spot and reduce hard work trying to “correct” the soil later. Another lazy gardener tip!

Not all lavender species are as hardy in local gardens as “Munstead” shown here in the center, currently mostly dormant in pH 7 soil near a foundation. The fernleaf lavender at left can be grown as a tender perennial herb and adds a lemony lavender flavor to cooking. At right, a lavender topiary makes a nice houseplant and cuttings can be used for potpourri.

I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.

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THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of April 24, 2025

Friday, April 25, is Arbor Day, a time to celebrate the power of trees. Plant a tree for future generations to enjoy!

THE SELF-TAUGHT GARDENER: Time travel

With all the talk of red states and blue states and regional politics, we live in a time where we often view anything not connected to us as “other.” But, oddly, at least in the Eastern United States, we have been connected across the 40th parallel by a single mountain range—the Appalachians—that has served for eons as a path not just for the hikers we see along Route 7 in the Berkshires, but by the flora and fauna that have travelled this same pathway.

THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of April 17, 2025

More observations around the garden—an unwelcome early visit from the Easter bunny.

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