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The Ardent Gardener of GardenNet
interviewed by Emma Taylor on 19 December, 1995
"Start with strawberries -- they're just about bullet-proof."
The Ardent Gardener interviewed under his nom-de-plume, because he wants to remain, "anonymous and mysterious." He is the Agony Aunt of the back yard, and a regular contributor to GardenNet.
Tripod: It may be an odd time of the year to start thinking about gardens, but many people make a New Year's Resolution to work on their garden. When a new gardener is planning the garden year, where is the best place to start?
AG: Get yourself on mailing lists, and have the mail-order nurseries send you their catalogues.
Tripod: Instant gratification is hard to get in a garden. What will have immediate results in a garden?
AG: Well, there are lots of things in gardening that happen fairly fast, but plants don't have gas pedals, you can't make them grow faster. In mid to late winter, you can cut branches off flowering shrubs, like forsythia, bring them inside, and put them in a vase as if they were a bouquet, and in the warmth, they'll think spring has come. After a week or two, they'll bud and flower.
Tripod: How important is a greenhouse for a new gardener?
AG: It's way down the list. You don't need a greenhouse to get started gardening, and you don't need one for a long time, until you get your yard close to what you want, and decide that you're interested in doing things that only greenhouses will let you do.
Tripod: So, what equipment should a gardener invest in first, then?
AG: A spade and a trowel will do about 90 percent of what you need to do.
Tripod: Is there anything that people can start doing now, in the garden?
AG: Right now, nurseries around the country are mailing their catalogues. In fact, if you take a look on GardenNet, I'm writing about that right now. I've highlighted the most interesting plants. What gardeners are doing in response is going through the pages of these catalogues, and making lists of things they want to grow this spring.
Tripod: What are the most common mistakes made by new gardeners?
AG: Well, first, they worry too much, and they takes a lot of the fun out of getting started. I don't know that anyone can persuade them not to worry. They may go out and buy a fair number of plants, and they treat them as if they were infants that have to be watched over 24 hours a day. That's simply not true about plants. Aside from worry, I think the most common mistake people make is that they put the plants in the ground, and don't water them frequently enough for the first month or two.
Most often, when you buy plants, they're in containers -- those plants only have the roots that fit in those containers. When you pop them in the ground, they don't have any more roots, and those plants are going to dry out just about as they did in the container. Those plants need watering every day, unless rain does the job for you, for the next couple of months, until the roots start spreading out into the surrounding soil, and going a bit deeper. Then the plant will be established, so it can tolerate the soil drying up a bit. If you bought a plant in a two-inch pot, it will dry out every single day unless you water it. So that's a very big mistake beginners make.
Tripod: What about where the sun hits your garden? Should that affect where you plant things?
AG: Yes. Plants tend to divide into two groups -- those that do best in full sun, and those that like shade, and do best in shade. You better know, when you buy a plant, which it is, and put it in the right spot -- or it's going to struggle.
Tripod: If I want to grow fruit and vegetables, what are easy products to start with?
AG: For fruit, start with strawberries -- they're just about bullet-proof. And, you can plant them in the spring, and you'll get a crop that same year. In most of the country, start with the Everbearing strawberries -- there are two that are very widespread these days. One is called Tribute, and the other is called Tristar. Everbearing strawberries bloom in late spring, like all strawberries do, but then they take a rest, and start flowering and fruiting. again, and they'll keep right on through fall.
Tripod: And what about vegetables?
AG: There are some bullet-proof vegetables, also. Green beans are pretty hard to mess up; many of the new tomatoes have so many inbred resistances to diseases that they're pretty bullet-proof, and very productive. Zucchini, which is the butt of gardening jokes, is pretty much bullet-proof, also. All you have to do is eat zucchini every day for a couple of months!
Tripod: Do you have any advice for keeping gardening costs low?
AG: There are several ways to stretch your budget. First, find out if your city has a compost-heap program that gives away free compost -- most cities do these days. If they do, get your hands on a nice big batch of it, and spread it on the garden, about an inch thick, and spade it into the first four or five inches, and you will have pretty much guaranteed yourself that the soil has enough nutrition in it, for whatever you're going to grow. Then, spread some more compost, after you plant, as mulch. If you keep up that regime, renewing that mulch every year, you will probably never have to buy fertilizer. That's for starters.
Another thing you can economize on is plants. Instead of buying big ones, buy smaller ones, and just be a little patient. Another thing you can do is to teach yourself to propagate. There are several ways to do that -- you can buy seeds, and start your plants from seeds. You can buy perennials as seeds, and start them -- but you won't see bloom for a year or two. That's alright if you're willing to wait. Once you have established plants in the garden, you can make new plants from the old ones.
Tripod: How should you decide how many perennials, and how many annuals to plant?
AG: If you want to turn your yard into a landscape, if you want it to look beautiful, and have color and flowers, plant perennials. You should use annuals for accents, or for container gardens -- for pots. But, pick the tough perennials, and then you plant them once and enjoy them for years.
Tripod: But people often think of perennials as nothing but green. What are the more colorful ones?
AG: There are perennials that bloom for a couple of weeks, and then the rest of the time they're just leaves. A lot of people think that sums up a perennial garden -- something blooming here, but not much else going on. It doesn't have to be that way. There are lots of perennials that bloom much longer than two weeks. There are many that bloom anywhere from six weeks to seven or eight months. Pretty much non-stop. ... There's Corydalis Lutea -- it's a blue-green, fine-leaved, low-growing plant, about 12 inches tall or so, looks a bit like a firn, and it sends up dozens of flower stalks above the leaves -- it starts blooming in spring, and it blooms right through the first frost of winter.
But you can't just have a garden of perennials. You've got to also have some shrubs, and a few trees, and you've also got to think about plants that have interesting colored leaves, and interesting shaped leaves. About 30 percent of any perennial garden ought to be those plants. There are Heucheras, for example, that have purple leaves. And purple in the garden is a very nice, sustaining color. There are also silver-leaved Artemisias, and silver is a lovely color in the garden. ...
Tripod: How can you be an environmentally responsible gardener?
AG: Yeah. Don't worry about bugs. Most plants can take care of themselves, if they're in the right spot, and they're in good soil. All you have to do is know what they like -- put them in the sun if they like the sun, shade if they like shade. Not too close to their neighbors if the need some air movement. And make sure you feed the soil -- not with fertilizer, but with organic matter, so that it's healthy, and full of critters. The soil will keep the plant strong enough so it can fend off most bugs. If you have a plant that's just suffering badly from pests, and there's nothing you can do for it, say good-bye to that plant, and find one that will work for you. Don't spray, you don't have to.
Is 1996 going to be the year you finally hit the soil? Then check out GardenNet at http://www.olympus.net/gardens/welcome.html for all the gardening tips you will need. The Ardent Gardener is always there to answer your questions!
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