Stark Bros Coupons

January 3rd, 2011

If you read my blog you know that Stark Bros is my favorite place to buy fruit and nut trees, they have an excellent selection and quality products. I have bought numerous trees from them over the years.

They recently sent me three coupons to pass along, so I’m going to do that here. The coupons are for $5 off $50 or more, and each can only be used once. Not the greatest coupon in the world, but I figured someone might want one. So the first three people who use them, will get them, as it were. If you try the first code and it is rejected, it means someone already used it, so try the next one, etc. It’d be helpful if people commented when they were used up, so I can edit the post.

If you don’t know what you should get, let me make a recommendation. Buy a honeycrisp apple tree. The apples are huge, and delicious, my favorite apple. Plus, they’re expensive. Around here they’re $3 a pound at the store, double what other apples are. The stores charge so much because people are willing to pay it, they’re delicious. The Cadillac of apples. If you’re going to grow apples, might as well grow the most valuable kind eh? Stark’s has them in dwarf, semi dwarf, and normal varieties. So there is a size for every yard.

The coupons:

Promo code: 11CA1005
Coupon code: GROW-8RBBAUR6W6WDY

Promo code: 11CA1005
Coupon code: GROW-Y34WX4VVQXDSL

Promo code: 11CA1005
Coupon code: GROW-6SC9S5TCBXHC8

Posted in: Gardening Coupons & Deals | 4 Comments »

A Pruning Tool for Every Job

December 16th, 2010

It has been awhile since I’ve blogged, but the end of the gardening season (due to earlier than normal harsh cold weather) and a new baby will do that to you.

When I was getting my garden ready for fall I had to do some pruning and cutting back of various plants and it occurred to me that I had a lot of tools for the job, each with a slightly different purpose. I thought I should do a blog post about them, explaining why I own each, and what they’re used for. Maybe it is not too late for Christmas to get some gift ideas from this list.

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Posted in: Gardening | 6 Comments »

Trees as Time Capsule

October 16th, 2010

I romanticize about gardening and landscaping sometimes, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I often fantasize about what impact I can leave on this world, what I can build that will exist after I am gone.

Trees live for hundreds or thousands of years, and since they reseed, your actions in planting a tree, even if the tree doesn’t live that long, can affect the environment for, well, forever so long as man doesn’t get in the way.

There is a small public wetlands/park area by my house, it is public land and is completely enclosed on all sides by development. It is probably about 1 square mile and is trisected by walking paths. I’ve planted wild flowers back there before, and I know other locals have too, even a few trees. Some guy has put up bird houses. The people who live by it tend to take care of it.

It is the perfect place for bald cypresses, none of which grow near it, and which are beautiful trees that get quite large, and can live a long time. I know they can live in this climate, there is one in town someone has in their yard that is probably approaching 70 feet. I bought some seeds on eBay that I will start them into the Spring after I have given them the necessary cold treatment. Then, one they’re growing, next summer or fall, I will transplant them back into that area and pray the couple deer don’t eat them.

I won’t live in this area forever, I’ll probably move in 5 years, so I won’t get to enjoy the trees once they grow (if they grow) but someone will, and the animals will. In a hundred years, I will be gone, but those trees could still be there, and people may wonder how bald cypresses ended up growing there East Lansing Michigan. Well world, it was me, I did it.

My parents live a few hours north of me in a rural area and live more or less in the middle of the woods. There are a lot of deer, a lot of deer, rabbits, turkeys, opossums, raccoons, all the woodland animals. But not a lot of squirrels. There are also no oak trees in their forest. I have no idea why, but there isn’t. They have a lot of birch, of poplar, of hemlock, fir, and spruce, but no oaks. Meanwhile, down here in the suburbs where oaks have been prolifically planted, we have squirrels all over the place. I have always thought it was odd that more squirrels should live in the suburbs (where they get routinely flattened) than in the forest.

So I collected a bunch of acorns and sent them up for my brother who still lives at home to plant. Trees grown from seed always grow faster, especially initially, than those grafted. Additionally, with oaks, when grown from an acorn they have a better chance of growing a good taproot, thus being stronger and harder to uproot. To plant them you just pretend you’re a squirrel and dig down 2 or 3 inches and drop them in like you’re hoarding for winter (the same deal with walnut or pecan). Not all will grow, but some will, and if they mature they will be the first oaks in the forest, perhaps eventually spreading and colonizing more areas. The trees will provide habitat, and the acorns food for many forest animals. The squirrel population will explode.

It will be many years before that happens, the house may still be in my family, though, and even if it isn’t, the oaks will be providing wildlife habitat, I will have changed the local ecosystem like Johnny Appleseed, the effects of which could be felt for hundreds or thousands of years.

I’m sure there are some people who think “interfering” in nature is wrong, but I’m not one of them, if I want to plant a tree I’ll do it, it isn’t as if I’m planting something invasive. They may not naturally grow in the area, but they wouldn’t be wholly out of place. It is one way I can change the future, and I think that is pretty cool.

Posted in: Gardening | 9 Comments »

How to Grow Hardy Hibiscus or Rose Mallow

October 11th, 2010

This is a plant with many names, hardy hibiscus, rose mallow, swamp mallow, etc. It is a wonderful plant and should be in almost every garden.

A North American native it can be found growing wild in the south, but it has been hybridized and many beautiful cultivars are available for the entire country. It is related to the tropical hibiscus but is hardy and has much larger flowers. These flowers can get to a foot across, a full 12 inches, outside of dahlias, which are a huge labor to grow, what else gets so big?

These plants are fairly carefree. They need sun, and water, that is about it. I’ve given some to my Mom and while deer eat most other things I’ve given her, the deer near her house (and she has a lot of deer) have never touched these. Maybe, because they’re native, they evolved with deer and so have defenses.

They get a late start in Spring, I often worry they have died (and I sometimes protect them with a styrofoam cone to allow them to get an earlier start, but they don’t need it), by late May they’re growing, reaching as high as 4 feet by late summer, then the blooms come. Mostly in shades of white, red, and pink. The plant also has a very pleasing golden fall color to the leaves.

Standard hardy hibiscus have heart shaped leaves like other members of the mallow family. However some hybridizations have occured for leaf interest as well. My favorite of the lot is called ‘Pinot Noir’ it has very deep cut foliage remisicent of a Japanese maple, the leaves are also mottled green and purple, though the purple is very subtle. There is also ‘Kopper King’ which has three lobed leaves like a standard maple that feature a bronze or burgundy sheen. I also grow a variety called ‘Turn of the Century’ that has green leaves otherwise deeply cut like ‘Pinot Noir’ or maybe even more so. ‘Turn of the Century’ also features striped red and white blooms that look like peppermints. Finally I grow a white one that I’m unsure the cultivar of.

Of the four I grow ‘Pinor Noir’ my favorite for it’s deep red blooms and colorful leaves, is also the hardiest, and the best grower for me (though perhaps that is my fertilization bias). We had a spat of cold weather about 10 days ago with our first frost. It affected the other ones slightly, but ‘Pinot Noir’ is still sitting pretty like we’re in mid August.

In the Spring or early Winter after you’ve had some hard freezes you should prune back the growth to the ground, those canes are dead and you don’t need to keep them (this isn’t a hydrangea).

Make sure the plant gets plenty of water when growing, and they should grow well, with plant and bloom size being related to soil fertility. I also have anecdotal evidence they like banana peels, I toss a few into my garden daily, and the plants really seem to respond to that potassium.

All told I can’t recommend the plant enough. It is easy to grow, carefree, and provides showstopping blooms. It is also very easy to start from seed, every year one or two volunteers crop up in my garden (enough to be a bonus, way too few to be invasive). After blooming small seed clusters develop which eventually turn brown and crack open, harvest the seeds then and try planting them, maybe you’ll discover a new color! Or perhaps, you’ll just get free plants.

Posted in: Gardening, Plant Profiles, Planting Ideas | 8 Comments »

Front Yard Farming

September 3rd, 2010

I’ve seen articles recently about global food shortages and feeding our populations and whatnot, bunch of scare tactics mostly, but when you sit down and think about it, there is a lot of land that could be used to grow food, but isn’t.

Highway medians, roadsides, parks, but mostly, front yards.

Some backwards and oppressive cities have ordinances requiring you to have x percentage of front yard as perfectly green lawn, and if you try to put in garden beds, xeriscaping, or just don’t remember to water, they fine you.

Garden beds require less fertilizer, less water, and less labor than lawn, and can make you money when used right. Sure, kids can’t play in gardens like they can on lawns, but unless you live on a very low traffic street, you want them playing in the back yard anyways. On my street, which is 4 lanes, I put in a new super secure gate as soon as my son learned to walk just to make sure he can never go into the front yard.

So, assuming you don’t live in a third reich city and can plant your front yard as you wish, why not get rid of the grass and put in planter beds? On a side note, I think it is funny the same sort of people who put in the stupid lawn ordinances are the types who act like chicken littles about food shortages.

My front yard is full of planting beds and I add a new one or two every year (it is almost an addiction for me).

I grow a mix of ornamentals and edibles in my front yard, I’m too much of a landscape artist to fully commit to just utilitarian gardening like I showed in this blog post on growing your own food. Plus, I want to sell this house one day (probably in about 5 years) so I have to be cognizant of resale value.

Right now, in addition to the sweet potatoes, apple trees, pawpaw tree, and herbs I am growing in my front yard, I’ve got a ginormous 15′x15′ mound of butternut squash. My wife calls it “The Blob” and we always see people walking by scoping it out. A few years ago squirrels told me where to plant my squash and so I did so this year. Butternut squash are versatile in the kitchen, and fairly easy to grow. A little supplemental watering if there is a drought, and that is it. They can be affected by powdering mildew, so a fungicide can be helpful, but they are one of few squash varieties resistant to squash vine borer.

I’m letting the blob grow all it wants, I’ll just mow around it (not that I’ve had to mow, we’ve had a drought lately, hence the wilty leaves). I’ll probably get 60 pounds of squash off of these plants, all for the price of a pack of seeds. It might not be the most attractive thing in the world, but a squash vine is not a permanent landscape feature, it can be removed at any time. So to grow it or another vine (such as watermellon) in your front yard all you need is a small planting hole/mound (with improved soil please), and then let it spill over onto the grass, and mow around it. Unlike a crop like say corn, you don’t have to commit a large portion of your yard to permanent garden if you don’t want to. You could also grow pumpkins this way as a project for the kids.

For most squash you don’t even need to start them until June (or even later if you have a longer growing season than we do in Michigan), and they take a little while to get going, so it isn’t as if it’ll cover your yard for the entire summer either.

Posted in: Edible Gardening, Gardening, Planting Ideas | 13 Comments »

My Favorite Tree Died, A Lesson in Plant Biology

September 2nd, 2010

My favorite tree has died. I have blogged about it a lot, and the posts will be mentioned below in the related posts section.

It was a Forest Pansy Redbud. I’ve had bad luck with the spot that I planted it. It is very full sun, from dawn to dusk, I had two weeping cherries die, but I think they were infected with bacteria at the nursery, then I ordered a redbud mailorder, and grew it for a year, and spring came and the blossoms were the wrong color, so I gave it to a neighbor, and finally bought my Forest Pansy.

This tree was really great, it has a fairly unique purple foliage color, not red, or burgundy, but purple. In addition to the typical redbud pink flowers in spring. I like trees and plants with more than one feature. So both leaves and flowers.

I was so excited at how well it was doing last year, very full with leaves, nice color, growing great. Then a wind storm came and it had grown too great because branches were too heavy and the trunk split. I blogged about this and tried to fix it. I was able to maintain the current foliage last year after the damage, but the leaves on the weaker half never grew this spring. So I cut that half off.

Then we had a hail storm that damaged all my plants with large leaves, like redbuds. So the tree was looking really straggly.

Then we’ve had a drought for 2 months that just ended today, just one barely rainy day that whole period.

This is where the plant biology comes in. Redbuds like shade, they are an understory tree that likes to be sheltered by big oaks and whatnot. My spot, as I said, is full sun, and Redbuds can grow there, mine did very well in 2009 and before, but they need moisture.

Plants leaves lose moisture based on sun exposure and heat, the more direct sun, and the hotter it is, the more moisture they lose. If you’ve ever seen a squash plant on a hot summer day, with the wilting leaves, that illustrates the point. With squash the leaves will recover during the night or after a watering, some others, like a redbud, will get crispy and scorched.

So, in general, plants that prefer shade do so because they have a hard time providing enough water from their roots to their leaves when in full sun. Think of it like the water is actually flowing, if the flow rate out of the leaves is greater than the flow rate up from the roots, the leaves wilt and could scorch or die.

So, my redbud was able to thrive, despite being in sun, because I kept it watered.

This year, during the drought, I kept it watered as well, but it wasn’t helping. After I cut it down I discovered why. At one cross section, because of the split trunk damage and a previous scar from before I bought the tree, 80% of the tree’s cambium layer was dead. This is the layer of green flesh directly below the bark where trees do all of their “living.” So the roots had access to water, but there was a bottleneck getting it up to the leaves. I knew the cambium layer had been damaged when the trunk split, so I did a lot of pruning of the leaves to try to keep things in balance.

Unfortunately, even with the pruning, the tree could not stand up to the two months of heat, constant sun, and less water. There was to much cambium layer damage, for a tree that really needs to be at it’s best to handle full sun.

So I cut it down. I’ll plant one again some day when I have a different house with a spot for one in shade.

To replace it I waffled a lot, I kept going back and forth between different ideas. First I wanted a pine, but something tall and narrow. Then I decided I wanted a columnar maple, and really got interested in a “Newton Sentry” maple which is this really neat tree that grows 60 feet tall but only 6 feet wide. However, the only source I could find had short ones, and if I know we’ll probably be moving in 5 years I would never see it get to it’s potential.

Then I thought about doing a chinese red birch, because the bark is amazing, but I couldn’t find any source for those except seeds, which of course would take a really long time.

I finally decided on a “Royal Frost” Birch. This tree has burgundy foliage and interesting white peeling bark, bit of a standard birch, but at least two points of interest on it. I was able to get a 14 foot tall one for only about $60, which was by far the cheapest option in a price to foot comparison from among the ones I had shopped around for. It doesn’t have much trunk caliper, but it is tall. My forest pansy had a beefier trunk, but wasn’t more than 7 feet tall. So this fills the space well.

Birches are often sold in single trunk or multiple trunk forms. Some people like multiple trunk forms, or “bushier” forms, I’m not sure why, but multitrunk birches don’t grow as tall. Considering I was going for something tall and narrow, I went with a single trunk birch, so that it’ll grow narrower and taller. But if you ever buy a birch mail order or something, make sure you know what kind of trunk form it has, because many are trained to be multitrunk.

Posted in: Gardening, Troubleshooting | 2 Comments »

Juvenile Cardinal Fearless & Frolicking

August 31st, 2010

Cardinals mature very fast, just a week ago (maybe less) I saw this cardinal learning how to fly, it had just left the nest. Yesterday, while filming something else, he came to visit, and got really close to me. Since I had the camera ready I decided to film him, it is so rare to see cardinals at this stage of development since they are at it only for a short time.

This little guy had no fear of me, and at one point flew down within inches of my feet. Watch the video below, or at Youtube for HD. Also included are partial shots of my water feature, and this just underlines another reason to have a water feature, they attract wildlife like nothing else.

Posted in: Critters & Creatures, Videos | 1 Comment »

Use Compost, Save Money

August 22nd, 2010

Behold! My new Pinus Contorta “Taylor’s Sunburst”!

I know it doesn’t look anything special now, but this is one rare and amazing plant. In the spring the new growth lights up to a bright yellow (in contrast with the dark green older growth) in an amazing display. In Spring it will look like this:

So, did I name this post incorrectly? What does this tree have to do with compost and saving money? Well as I said, this is one rare and amazing plant. At Gee Farms, where I bought mine, a new grafted one about 6 inches tall is $50. A 4 foot one is $900. Mine, listed at 2 foot (but really two and a half+, I was told it has been potted up for sale at that size for 2 seasons), was $200.

Pretty expensive. If 4 feet is $900 then each half foot is over $100, and each inch is just under $20, lets round up and call it $20 an inch.

I make my own compost with my compost tumbler, but despite the fact that I compost just about everything I can. All garden waste, tree trimmings, all kitchen scraps that aren’t meat, etc. Despite all that, I garden so much I can’t make enough compost to fulfill all my garden needs. So I always ending buying more.

At the garden center 40 pound bags of topsoil are about $1 each, 40 pound bags of composted manure are $1.50 each. The compost however is a far far better growing medium. When you plant something you have just that one opportunity to improve the soil, you need to take it.

I’ve heard in some places when you plant a tree you should mix some native soil into the planting hole because you don’t want the tree to get “confused” or “disappointed.” I don’t buy it, for one, trees don’t think, they don’t have feelings, and in nature, all the time, will tree roots go through different types of soil. Secondly, I’ve noticed no problems planting trees in super improved soil, in fact, I’ve noticed only benefits. I think this whole theory was a result of one guy’s poor intuition that unfortunately caught on.

So anyways, you should always plant your new plants in the best soil possible, and full compost is the best soil possible. Yes, it is more expensive than top soil, but it is not expensive, it is still cheap, just not as cheap. Suppose a tree planted in composted manure grows just 1 inch per year more than a tree planted in top soil. With my new tree that 1 inch is worth $20 a year. I only needed to buy 4 bags of compost for this tree, so that is only $2 in extra cost, for $20 the first year, and that is if the compost only gives me 1 extra inch, if it gives a larger benefit the benefit is even higher.

Of course my tree is really expensive, not all trees are, but mine is also slow growing, and not all trees are. If you had a fast growing tree like a lombardy poplar you might get an extra foot or two per year by planting in really good soil.

An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure, and a bag of compost up front can give you pounds of wood down the road. Spend the couple extra quarters up front and get bagged compost for all your planting (I also plant veggies directly in it), your plants will do better, and the increased yields and growth will far far outweigh the incremental cost of the compost.

Posted in: Gardening | 7 Comments »

Selling my Favorite Daylily

August 19th, 2010

“Purple Maze” is my favorite daylily bloom, I saw it, I had to buy it, I paid a lot of money for it. I bought it when it first came available directly from the hybridizer, I think I paid $200. Kind of embarassing really, but I really like it. Apparently others do too, I’ve seen many people say it is their favorite daylily.

I recently had to move and divide it and I have 1 extra fan (the others I planted elsewhere on my property). So I’m selling it. I just listed it on ebay. So if you’re interested, head over there.

This has got to be one of my favorite reasons for growing perennials. Multiplication. Just dividing plants alone can provide you with some payback down the years, or the ability to trade, to gift, or to just expand your garden for free. Then if you do a little cutting or seed based propagation you can get even more.

I wanted to do a border of “When my Sweetheart Returns” Daylily, I bought one plant at $25. As it grew I divided it again and again, very aggressively, and now I have about 20 small clumps, which is what I needed for my border.

Posted in: Gardening | 2 Comments »

Pressure Pond Filter Saves the Day, Green Water Goes Away

August 16th, 2010

In Spring 2008 I made a water feature in my garden. It has mostly been a huge success, I love the looks of it, I love the sound the fountains make, the fish are fun. It overall adds a certain something to the garden that I didn’t know was missing until I had it.

However I have had a bear of a time keeping the water clear. For the first couple months after I made it it stayed clear. However once the pond got established, it got dirty. I could barely get the water clear for brief periods of time. In 2009 I bought a new pump/filter set. The same kind I had originally, because the first died. It is a small pump in a box with filter pads that goes inside the pond. It doesn’t work, I don’t recommend it. The new filter/pump did some good, but most of 2009 and all of 2010 so far (once it warmed up) the water has been murky and dark. I haven’t even fed the fish in months (and they’re alive, so they must be eating the algae and whatnot).

The pump I had kept dying, these pumps just suck. The filter kit is like $100 bucks too, so expensive junk. I don’t want to buy a new one each year. I had resigned myself to having algae problems because I don’t want to put the time into doing all the chemicals and testing and whatnot. But I wanted the water sound, I wanted the movement, the bubbling, the fountain. It is soothing. So I knew I needed a new pump and filter, one that was easier to clean, because I figured I’d have to clean it super frequently like I did with my current one just so it could barely cope.

I settled on this external pressure filter and pump set as seen in the Amazon link here. It has a backflow valve to allow me to clean the filter without opening it, which is what mostly attracted me to it.

It also includes an internal UV filter, which should help kill algae, but when you first install the filter you’re supposed to let it run with the pump for a day before turning the UV on, to make sure there is no leaks in the electrical area.

As it would turn out, the UV filter isn’t needed for me. The pond pump and filter are supposed to be able to handle a pond 5x larger than mine, and in 24 hours, BEFORE I had even turned the UV on, it had turned my green opaque swamp water crystal clear. No new chemicals added. I had even tried an 80% water swap out a few weeks ago and it didn’t help, but 24 hours with this new pump and filter and my water is crystal clear.

Sure, this setup was expensive, around $250, but I had already previously spent $200 on filters/pumps that suck. So if I had bought this from the beginning the premium I would be paying would be much smaller. Plus this pump is big enough where I can now add a waterfall, which I plan to do next year.

Installation was simple, the hardest thing was standing in Lowes and getting the multude of different sized tubings and couplings to do the connections, splits, and diverters I needed to do the hookups I wanted.

Posted in: Gardening | 1 Comment »

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