by Christie Purifoy | Mar 30, 2020
Even if you’ve never heard of “underplanting,” you have probably felt the need for it. Most of us have a tree under which grass fails to grow. We have only bare dirt or weeds in those places, but is there another option?
Well, we could spread a shredded bark or pine needle mulch.
But is there a more interesting option?
There is, and it’s called underplanting.
You’ve probably seen trees or shrubs underplanted with pachysandra or ivy. Neither one is especially interesting to look at, and ivy can be invasive. Better options for these shady areas are hostas, ferns, and ephemeral spring-blooming bulbs. The spring flowers will fill in the space before any perennials grow up and get going. If the soil beneath your tree is especially dry, epimediums might be a good choice.
Here are some tips to keep in mind before you plant:
- Don’t plant only out around the dripline of the tree. You want to fill in the space underneath the limbs, getting as close to the trunk as you can.
- However, you can seriously damage a tree digging around near its roots. It won’t be possible or advisable to plant regular nursery-sized perennials. Try planting small divisions from your own garden plants, small perennials purchased from a nursery, or order “liners” from your landscaper or nursery. These are small plants available from wholesale growers that haven’t yet been potted up and grown large for the general plant-buying public.
- Tools: no shovels or tillers. Instead, use a small hand trowel or a digging knife, often called a hori hori.
The garden writer Margaret Roach has wonderful advice about underplanting trees in our gardens. Look for her blog or the wonderful new edition of her book A Way to Garden: A Hands-on Primer For Every Season.
by Christie Purifoy | Mar 27, 2020
How much do I love this tool?
Let me count the ways:
It is easy to hold. Now my fingers no longer cramp from too much pinching and pulling of deeply-buried roots.
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It is sharp. I can scrape with the edge and make quick work of shallow-rooted weeds. I can dig and tug and cut with the point, pulling up dandelion taproots with (more or less) ease.
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It is fairly inexpensive, as far as garden tools go. When I (inevitably) leave it buried and lost in some bed or border, I order a new one online.
Maybe I should order them two at a time … I love this tool so much, I should always like a backup.
You can find variations on this tool. It’s sometimes called a Nejiri Game Hoe (from Japan), a Cape Cod Weeder, or simply a hand weeder. The one I use comes from A.M. Leonard tools.
by Christie Purifoy | Mar 26, 2020
I am writing this post in a time of pandemic.
The future is incredibly uncertain. It isn’t only that the global crisis of Covid-19 has revealed the uncertainty that always exists. Rather, the virus has really made the future much more unpredictable. How many will get sick? Will hospitals and health systems be able to cope? How long will children be out of school? What will the economic damage be, and how will that impact me and my family? No one knows the answers to these questions.
One thing I do in times of uncertainty is read. It isn’t always a helpful coping strategy, but sometimes it sends me in a good direction. For instance, I’ve lately been reading about ways to support and booster the immune system. Most of what the health experts have to say is predictable: eat a healthy and varied diet, drink plenty of water, manage stress, and try to stay well-rested. But two other points stood out to me:
- Vitamin D: Apparently, this sunshine-activated vitamin is a critical support for our immune systems. Reading about the importance of Vitamin D gave me one more reason to be thankful for my spring work of gardening. It also meant that the next time I went out to do some weeding, I did it in a tank top, despite the still-chilly breeze.
- Elderberry: (the photos of this native shrub are pictured above) Apparently, well-regarded studies have shown that elderberry can reduce the duration and severity of respiratory symptoms from the common cold. It isn’t known whether it will have any effect on the Corona virus, but reading about elderberry sent me to the spare freezer in my basement. Last summer, I harvested tiny, dark-purple elderberries from my yard for the first time. It was time-consuming (the berries are so small and ripe berries aren’t easy to separate from unripe green ones), but I stuck with it and froze quite a bit. But they’ve been sitting there in my freezer for months. This week, I finally pulled some of the berries out and made elderberry syrup. I boiled them down (it isn’t a good idea to eat uncooked elderberries), mashed them, strained them, added honey and cooked them down some more (there are quite a few recipes available online). The syrup is tart. I like it straight from a spoon, but my children will only eat it spooned into a glass of sparkling water.
We give and give and give to our gardens. Especially in spring.
This week, it was good for me to pause and reflect on two unexpected ways the garden gives back to me.
by Christie Purifoy | Mar 25, 2020
Great big garden coffee table books are a marvelous thing, but I still think I prefer a different genre in my garden library: memoir.
If gardens are as particular as their makers, then every garden has a personal story best told through memoir.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Skymeadow: Notes from an English Gardener (2018): A charming story of one man’s escape from noisy London to make a garden called Peverels. In making a garden, Charlie Hart finds healing for grief and depression.
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The Morville Hours (2008): Memoir and history rolled into one, Katherine Swift’s book follows the form of a medieval Book of Hours, as it reflects on one woman’s place through the seasons.
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The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden (2007): William Alexander’s memoir is hilarious and honest about the hard work, and frequent setbacks, of gardening. A fun book that will only inspire readers to keep on growing.
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007): Barbara Kingsolver’s memoir of a year spent eating only what she and her family can grow themselves or source locally was the book that first made me dream of a vegetable garden. A passionate, informative story that is part memoir, part journalism. This book could change your life (or, at least your diet).
by Christie Purifoy | Mar 24, 2020
Permaculture. What is it?
You can find complex definitions, descriptions, and guides all over the internet, but here’s a starting place for the general gardener:
Permaculture is garden design that seeks to work with the natural cycles and processes of nature. Its goal is an environment that is rich and abundant and sustainable
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Even if a full permaculture garden feels out of reach, there are so many simple, good ideas we can easily implement in our own spaces.
Here are two resources to inspire you:
A book: Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Ed. An accessible and inspiring read. Learn how to build and maintain soil fertility and structure, catch and conserve water, provide habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals, and grow an edible “forest” of seasonal food.
A film: The Biggest Little Farm (2020): A sweet and inspirational documentary. The subject is one couple’s family farm on once-barren land in California, but there’s a lot to inspire home gardeners here. This one might even inspire some of the younger gardeners in your life. A great film for families (though scenes of birth and death might be disturbing for some younger viewers). I was particularly taken with their story of how they brought dead soil back to life.
