All the Dirt on Gardening

The time to plant spring blooming bulbs has arrived along with an abundance of bulb company catalogs.  Becky Heath of Brent and Becky's Bulbs has an article in this month's American Horticultural Society newsletter. You can read the entire article at this link . Heath says, " There are several approaches to combining bulbs with herbaceous perennials, shrubs, and trees. Choosing combinations that will bloom at the same time creates the biggest impact, like the finale of a fire - works display. Combining plants so that they bloom sequentially with a slight over -plant tulips or lilies eight to 10 inches deep, then above them place daffodils, hyacinths, or alliums at about six inches. Smaller early-blooming bulbs—such as crocuses, anemones, and dwarf irises—can even be planted in the top three inches." Heath's bulb-planting tips The best time to plant spring-flowering bulbs is after the first hard frost. Before then, the soil normally remains warm from the...

Years ago when the end-of-season-sale-box from  Brent and Becky's bulbs arrived, Dragon Arums made it into the box instead of the Arum Italicum I thought I bought. Actually, what I must have wanted was these outrageous Dragon Arums. Of the original 6 bulbs, two are thriving but this one blooms reliably year after year and gives us a reason to go out to the shade bed every day, twice a day, to watch its progress. Here's the column I wrote about Arums last year when we were enthralled with the flowering event- http://allthedirtongardening.blogspot.com/2012/05/dragon-arum-green-dragon-arum-italicum.html These photos are this morning's views.

There are dozens of sales going on now for plant lovers! Here are the ones in my email inbox. Botanical Interests - free shipping and calendar with orders Special link http://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/index/srch:collection Thompson & Morgan Seeds   http://www.tmseeds.com/category/Christmas_Gifts&p=2403754&r=121211TM&utm_source=em&utm_medium=spec&lm=tmus Brent and Becky's Bulbs https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/?us Easy to Grow Bulbs http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com//c-125-bumper-crops-other-deals.aspx Touch of Nature http://touchofnature.com/specials/fall1.htm Tomato Fest seed sale http://store.tomatofest.com/Tomato_Seeds_on_Sale_s/43.htm Burpee - gardening supplies sale http://www.burpee.com/ Johnny's Selected Seeds http://www.johnnyseeds.com/v-28-sale.aspx Check out your favorite seed and supply vendors and let me know what good deals you find!

In a not-to-be-missed sale, Brent and Becky's Bulbs is having a 50% off sale. No kidding. Click here to see what they have left for summer blooms. A cool new book, "My Friends the Flowers" is now available. Written by William Lach, this adorable book is illustrated by Doug Kennedy. It's geared for children from Kindergarten to grade 2, ages 4 to 8. Each page describes the flower illustrated. For example "Four-O'Clocks are bright and bold, though not before that hour." The illustration of Four-O'Clocks is clever. In the back there is a Glossary of Flowers that is useful and can be used to help children identify flowers in your flower beds and in public gardens. Grow a Flower Friend Garden is half a dozen pages of how to grow a garden - tips for children who want to grow those garden friends from the front of the book. If you have little ones coming for the summer, you would probably enjoy reading it to them and talking them through your similar plan...

Brent and Becky's Bulbs 10% discount deal on bulbs this week includes six that begin with the letter "a" - Achimes through Anemone. Here's the link .

Sustainable gardening is the term used for gardening with the least. Instead of blasting the garden with chemical fertilizers and bug sprays, use the least possible. Rather than using a timed system to irrigate lawn and gardens on a schedule, wait until plants signal a need for water. Gardeners who use a sustainable approach make an effort to add back to the earth. Simple changes can make a difference. Examples include: Use sheets of newspaper under mulch instead of plastic, make a compost pile, dig a basin in the garden to collect rainwater or switch to wildlife friendly fertilizers such as composted animal waste or seaweed. Last Saturday when Dr. Gerald Klingaman spoke at the Northwest Arkansas Flower and Garden Club in Fayetteville, he added his own twist to the whole topic of sustainable gardening. Klingaman chose The Quest for a Sustainable Garden as the topic for his talk knowing that gardeners cannot resist a few high maintenance plants. Any garden we plant is destined to be sho...

Brent and Becky's Bulbs sent out an email saying their 2009 Spring Fall catalog is now available on line. This narcissus blooming in the back garden is from B & B, it's called Abba. Their scent is divinely spring. According to Daffseek this bulb was discovered in 1984 by J.M. van Dijk in Holland. Abba is a Sport, a new variety invented by Mother Nature and found in a bed.

Now that it is mid-December many gardeners have taken a welcome break from the demands of the soil. Not me. I am a member of a small group of people who keep on keeping on, with seeds and bulb shipments still arriving. Dividing plants continues, too. Guests yesterday suggested that a field mouse could be the cause of the lettuce seedlings losing their heads. I started a new pan of lettuce seeds and will begin anew. Yesterday, daffodils and tulips arrived from Brent and Becky's . An email came in from http://www.hardyplants.com/ that seeds are in the mail with plant tags. This company offers 100 tags for $7.75 and free shipping - a deal that cannot be passed up. Now that the seeds in the cold frames are coming up, I can't resist the temptation to try my luck with more. Most winter sowers use the clear plastic milk cartons with the tops partially removed. We have one of those now so I'll start that experiment today when I go out to plant bulbs in a 70-degree December day. Cl...

PLANTING A SPRING FLING The daffodil orders will be delivered soon and we will be planting them in beds and pots. Brent Heath of Brent and Becky's Bulbs conducted some experiments on how to maximize bulb health over the winter. Heath found that container planted bulbs need the consistently cold temperatures that they can usually get in the ground. Keep potted bulbs cold but not frozen hard. You can use bubble wrap, recycled Styrofoam ice chests or a thick mulch of pine needles, bark chips or newspaper to keep the temperature even. In late February uncover the pots, water and expose them to full sun. Clemson Extension has a great fact sheet about bulbs and varieties here . Northern gardeners are advised to keep their potted bulbs in a garage or basement to prevent a killing freeze. The Master Gardeners of Frederik County PA have good advice for zone 5 readers. Wherever you live, plant spring flowering bulbs to ensure spring flowers that will pull you out of the winter blues.

Easy propagation method. When the variegated ivy put out a long shoot of growth last fall, I tucked one end of it into a shorter bowl filled with vermiculite. Both bowls sat on an east facing windowsill over the winter and were watered infrequently but at the same time. Both containers dried out between watering. Today, I cut them apart. How easy is that? VOODOO LILY When Brent and Becky's Bulbs had their end of the season sale, I bought a Dragon . It was planted in a large pot and stayed in the garden shed over the winter. Here is its bloom as of yesterday. Paghat says, "Dracunculus vulgaris (aka Arum dracunculus) is variously called the Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily, Ragons, Snake Lily, Black Arum, Black Dragon, Dragonwort, & Stink Lily. In Greece it is called Drakondia, the dragon or serpent being the long spadex inside the enormous maroon-lipped spathe.It is native to the Balkans, to Mediterranean Europe, Greece, the isle of Crete & the Aegean Islands, all the...

Here is a list of Internet and mailorder sources for gardening supplies, seeds, plants, etc. It's today's column This year the catalog list is mostly gardener-recommended resources plus a few unusual finds. Whenever possible, buy seeds and plants locally, but be sure to check out the offerings of a mail-order supplier and try something new. • Abundant Life Seeds, (541) 767-9606, www.abundantlifeseed.org , organic seeds and seedlings. • AM. Leonard, (800) 543-8955, www.amleo.com , reasonably priced gardening tools. • Annie's Annuals & Perennials, www.anniesannuals.com , (866) 266-4370, rare and unusual plus cottage garden plants. Click on tabs for easy re-seeders, deer proof. • Baker Creek Seeds, Mo., www.rareseeds.com , (417) 924-8917, vegetable and flower seeds for our zone. • Bluestone Perennials, www.bluestoneperennials.com , (800) 852-5243, shrubs, flowers, bulbs, herbs. • Brent and Becky's, www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com , (804) 693-3966, flower bulbs. • Bustani ...

THE SHED SAGA If you are a regular reader, you already know about the rainbow ceiling in the new garden shed. This is a photo from yesterday - more changes and improvements were made today - the tweaking continues. The new feature today was the addition of reflective insulation material on the wall to the right to take advantage of the sets of grow lights hanging there. Reflective material on the wall behind the grow shelves maximizes the use of artificial lighting. THE ONE THOUSAND BULBS A gardening friend from Daffnet (the daffodil conversation online) told me that Brent and Becky's Bulbs is having a last of the last sale (25% off). So I ordered. It is now official: We will have put in 1,000 bulbs this year when they arrive and get planted. The photo below is one of the beds - it now has 700 bulbs in it. We can see this bed from the kitchen table windows. Two things about the Brent and Beck's sale: 1) My online friend said they didn't have in stock everything they ad...

If you have room for more bulbs, Brent and Becky's announced their 25% off sale today. The email said all remaining summer flowering bulbs are discounted until they are gone. It looks like every imaginable color combination of Caladium and canna lily is on the sale. IN OUR GARDEN In the vegetable bed, transplants of Edamame (edible soy bean pods) are going in where the lettuce and radishes came out. The slugs had to be "treated" before anything could be planted in one little strip where greens were being eaten by something that makes little round holes. The next seeds to go into that spot will either be vining melon or potimarron but the bugs must go first. The coleus came back! The shade beds are really taking off after the rain and a few mild days. Tiger lilies given to us a couple of years ago by David Gerard, a friend at the Phoenix, are showing off at over 3-feet tall. They are forming flower buds and will have those remarkable dark orange flowers with freckles. A...