All the Dirt on Gardening

Poppy seeds ready to plant in November You can provide cold stratification for seeds of annual flowers by putting them in the freezer or the refrigerator but I prefer to plant them Thanksgiving week so Mother Nature does the work for me. This is the time to plant Poppy seeds, Larkspur, wildflowers, swamp milkweed and many others. They seem to thrive with cold, moist, freeze and thaw stratification. The photo is our bag of the poppy seeds we collected and cleaned. This afternoon we are going to fill that gallon bag with soil-less potting soil that has been mixed with additional peat moss. Then, we are going to disturb the ground in various places on our 2 acres, sprinkle the mix on the disturbed soil and pat it down to discourage birds and squirrels. The peat, perlite and pressing the seeds in seems to really help reduce the eating. For more see http://www.hamiltonnativeoutpost.com/stratification.html Many many perennial seeds need cold stratification to germinate the...

Lurching Toward Spring, in my book, is this series of warm days that make plants optimistic and break ground, followed by 25-degree nights that shock them back into realilty. Jump back, it is not spring yet. Most days that go above 55-degrees you will find me outside doing something, though not always much. If you can get outside this week with the temperatures going up to 60-F on Thursday, here are a few things to do. Remove winter cover from shrubs, bulbs and beds. Plant dormant shrubs and trees. Divide and re-plant day lilies. Feed trees in 2-inch deep holes around the drip line. Mulch trees and shrubs with manure for spring growth. Fertilize shrubs and evergreens now. Use evergreen or azalea type food for evergreens. Water in dry fertilizers. Prune summer flowering shrubs now but not spring flowering ones. Remove the larger, center stems and branches, dead stuff, broken limbs, etc. Clean out small branches that prevent sun from reaching the roots. Prune back your honeysuckle, cro...