Tag: Gardening 101

Three Sisters Garden: What Is It and How Does It Work?
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Below the surface, the root structure of each crop is also a finely tuned machine. Corn roots are shallow and take up the top layer, bean roots travel deeper, and the squash roots take residence in the empty spaces. This interlocking root system helps establish a symbiotic relationships with fungi and bacteria. “The bacteria fix nitrogen into a form that plants can use, and fungi form mycorrhizae that improve water uptake and nitrogen and phosphate acquisition,” says Beronda.

What are the benefits of the Three Sisters garden?

Above: A well-balanced complete meal. Photograph by Chris Feser via Flickr.

Today, commercial agriculture spits out vast monocultures consisting of either corn, wheat, or soybeans, and while this one-crop method makes planting and harvesting easier, it doesn’t lead to higher productivity. “Growing plants that have complementary characteristics can lead to more sustainable growth,” writes Beronda. Basically, the benefits of this diverse Indigenous agricultural practice are productivity and a resilience gained by reciprocal relationships. Another positive aspect of the Three Sisters is that these three food sources together to make a complete and balanced meal. Corn is full of carbohydrates, beans are loaded with protein and have amino acids that are missing from corn, and squash possesses vitamins and minerals that corn and beans don’t have.

How do you plant the Three Sisters?

Above: A Three Sisters Garden mound at a community garden. Photograph by Renee via Flickr.

Just like all great relationships, timing is everything. Because these crops are warm season plants that detest frost, plan on installing these three crops in the spring when night temperatures are in the 50 degree range. Here’s what to do: Find a full sun spot and mound your soil about 4 inches high to help with drainage and soil warmth. You will be directly planting all three types of seeds together in the same mound but not at the same time. (Directly planting a seed will encourage a stronger root system and the plant won’t have to deal with transplant trauma.) Plant in this order: corn, beans, then squash.
1. Plant 4 corn seeds first, 6 inches apart, so it can grow above the other sisters (make sure you get a tall variety).
2. Next, plant 4 beans 3 inches from the corn, 2 to 3 weeks later (or when the corn is a few inches tall). Good options are pole beans or runner beans (not bush beans).
3. Once the beans send out climbing tendrils (approximately 1 week later), plant 3 squash seeds 4 inches apart at the edge of the mound. Pumpkin, Butternut, winter squash or other vine-growing types work well. The reason you plant the squash last is that you don’t want the large squash leaves shading out your baby corn and beans before they grow up a bit.
Regarding spacing, make sure each plant has ample room to grow and not be crowded which could make them susceptible to pests and diseases. Also important is to plant enough of each crop for proper cross pollination. This is especially crucial for squash plants that need the help of insects to pollinate their flowers and for corn that appreciates a family of fellow corn. The other alternative is to plant all this in several rows, instead of a mound. A 10 x 10 foot square is the minimum size to ensure proper corn pollination.

Any other ‘sisters’ you can plant?

While the traditional sisters are corn, beans, and squash, you can substitute tall sunflowers, watermelons, zucchini, and amaranth, for example. The important thing to remember is incorporating plants that work in harmony together, that complement and help each other to become the best (and tastiest) they can be.

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November 22, 2023
Garden Design to Help Absorb Stormwater and Prevent Flooding
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As rain events have become more intense and more frequent, you may have noticed stormwater from the street flooding your property, rainwater from downspouts carving gulleys into your yard, or a wet patch that never seems to dry out. All of these issues can be addressed with plants.

Jeff Lorenz, the founder of Refugia Design in Philadelphia, is known for designing immersive, native landscapes, but he’s also developed something of a knack for creating gardens that effectively manage stormwater. Refugia’s style is naturally well-suited to the task: The native plants that they work with are good at Lorenz’s three rules of stormwater management:
1. Slow down stormwater, allowing the ground to absorb the initial surge.
2. Spread the flow of water across the surface.
3. Soak water back into the aquifer with the help of deep-rooted vegetation.
Above: Refugia’s garden for the Bryn Mawr Film Institute manages runoff from the roof and neighboring parking lot through a mix of diverse flowering perennials and grasses with a variety of root depths.

Plus, planting densely, as Refugia does, is a stormwater management trick in its own right. “Rain gardens seem complicated, and sometimes they are for good reason, especially in larger applications, but for most residential settings, just creating larger, more vegetated planning beds has a great impact on stormwater issues,” says Lorenz.

Below, he offers tips on how to have leverage your garden to help with stormwater management.

Photography by Kayla Fell, courtesy of Refugia Design.

Reduce your lawn and increase your beds.

Above: The site at Bryn Mawr Film Institute before Refugia’s landscape redesign. The first order of business was to reduce the “green concrete” of lawn and replace it with resilient plants with a variety of root structures.

“Reducing your lawn has a massive impact on stormwater,” says Lorenz. “We call it green concrete because it has very little absorption quality.” Consider expanding garden beds. Fall is a great time to plan for this, as you can pile up leaves on the part of the lawn you plan to turn into new beds come spring (see Why (and How to) Leave the Leaves). Two places Lorenze says you should definitely consider expanding your beds are where downspouts flow out, and anywhere your border beds are close to a low, wet point in the lawn. “Bring your garden bed out to incorporate that low point.”

Rethink how your care for your lawn.

Above: Refugia dramatically reduced the amount of lawn in this front yard, replacing it with plants that will help to soak rainwater back into the ground while simultaneously increasing biodiversity in the landscape.

For the lawn you do keep, consider tweaking your care routine. Let the grass grow higher and mow less often. “If you have a thicker, taller vegetation above ground, that’s going to help slow stormwater down,” says Lorenz. When it’s time to reseed, consider reseeding with fine fescues (and gradually transitioning the whole lawn), or if you’re open to a bigger change, replacing the turf with a full fescue or sedge lawn. Lorenze notes that in trials at the Mt. Cuba Center wood’s sedge (Carex woodii) was the best performing sedge lawn alternative for the Mid-Atlantic that can tolerate moderate traffic. (For more on this grass-like perennial, see Trend Alert: A Carex for Every Garden.)

Irrigate less.

Your irrigation might also need some rejiggering. “We discover a lot of properties that are always at a point of saturation because they’ve got these robust sprinkler systems that are keeping the ground wet,” says Lorenz. The ground loses its ability to absorb water in an actual storm, if it’s already saturated, but if it has the chance to dry out a bit and it has more absorbing capability. Dialing back your watering schedule will also have a positive impact by reducing the water your yard consumes. The ultimate goal is not to irrigate at all, says Lorenz, “We aim to make irrigation systems redundant, by using plants resilient in your area, that don’t require long-term coddling.”
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November 15, 2023
10 Things Nobody Tells You About Vines – Gardenista

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Here’s a question for you: Is a garden complete without a vine? Some may passionately argue that it isn’t, as this type of plant adds another dimension and potential burst of color or fragrance to a garden that other plants can’t provide. I, myself, am a mild vine enthusiast. Maybe it’s because vines, in general, can be tricky to maintain and, if not done properly, become a brambly, ugly mess. A well trimmed vine, though? That, I can get behind.

Here are ten facts about vines—their nature, habits, and abilities—that might skew your attitude toward (or against) them.

N.B.: Featured photograph, above, of Alice Waters’s garden by Leslie Williamson, from Californians at Home: Intimate Portraits by Leslie Williamson.

1. Not all vines are vines.

Above: Rosa mulliganii, in the white garden at Sissinghurst Castle, is not a vine. Just one rose covers this structure. Photograph by Jonathan Buckley, from Ramblers: The Most Romantic Rose.

Did you know that in some parts of the world the term “vine” refers solely to grape vines and the term “climber” is used for plants that climb. To make matters even more confusing, there are plants that behave like vines but aren’t technically a vine. These are called scramblers like some shrub roses that can be trained to climb. So, what exactly defines a vine? It’s a plant whose woody stem needs support to climb and it uses tendrils or it twines up a structure. A vine can also sprawl along the ground.

2. Some won’t return year after year.

Above: Morning glory will re-seed liberally. If you want to keep it in check, deadhead the flower once it’s done blooming. Photograph by Matthew Williams for Gardenista, from Gardening 101: Morning Glory.

Some vines are evergreen (like jasmine), some are deciduous and lose their leaves (like Boston ivy), and some (like clematis) have both evergreen and deciduous types. Some vines should be treated as annuals (like sweet peas), and some vines are invasive in certain areas and are difficult to eradicate (like blue morning glory vine, Japanese honeysuckle, and English ivy). Pro tip: Before choosing any vine, check with your local extension service to make sure it isn’t invasive in your area.

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November 14, 2023
Fall Fertilizing: How to Prepare Your Lawn, Shrubs, Trees, and Perennials for a Restorative Winter Sleep – Gardenista

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In addition to fall being a great time to get new plants in the ground, it can also be an ideal season to fertilize your lawn, trees, shrubs, and perennials. But you have to do it correctly: During these cooler months, plants are slipping into dormancy and not actively growing. Depending on how severe or mild your winter is, they can be anywhere between completely dormant to growing very, very slowly. If you fertilize right, you’ll be giving them the best send-off to their winter sleep.

Before you start, you may want to get in touch with your local cooperative extension. They can help you get a soil test (you can’t help your plants if you don’t know what they need). And they can tell you the first frost date for your area (for practical purposes, fertilizing should be done before the first frost). They know your climate best and can give you advice specific to your location.

Note: We don’t recommend using synthetic fertilizers because of the large environmental impacts associated with them, including water contamination from run off and decimation of soil microbes. Restoring soil health naturally should always be the first option.

Here’s what you need to know about fertilizing (naturally) in the fall.

For the Lawn

Above: Mulching your grass clippings and fallen leaves turns them into free, non-toxic fertilizer for your lawn. Photograph by Eric Ozawa, from Ask the Expert: Edwina von Gal, on How to Have a Healthy, Toxic-Free Lawn.

The best and easiest way to fertilize is to do one last mow with a mulching mower and leave the clippings on the lawn. Mulching the clippings back into the lawn can provide up to 50% of the needed nutrients for the grass. To make up the rest of what your lawn needs, there are two low-cost and environmentally sustainable ways to fertilize. First, you can aerate the lawn and top dress with compost. Second, if you have fallen leaves, mulch them into the lawn as well. Just remember to rake them around so they aren’t too thick. It is a smart idea to keep the nutrients created on your property, on your property. (See Ask the Expert: Doug Tallamy Explains Why (and How to) Leave the Leaves.)

A more expensive, less eco-conscious option is to use organic lawn fertilizer. While organic fertilizers are certainly better than chemical fertilizers, there are still manufacturing and transportation costs to the environment. If you go this route, follow the directions exactly. More is not better.

For Trees and Shrubs:

Above: Leave the leaves around your trees. Photograph by Janet Mavec, from Garden Visit: Jewelry Designer Janet Mavec’s Bird Haven Farm in NJ.

A closed loop is the best type of fertilizer. Keep the leaves from the trees under them. They have everything the trees need—for free. They help on so many levels. They act as mulch and keep the moisture in the soil, which in turn helps the microbes that break down the leaves, making their nutrients available to the trees. The leaves also become winter homes for good bugs. Just be sure to keep the root flare exposed; piling the leaves up the trunk can cause can cause the bark to rot. No trees on your property? Organic compost is your next best choice.

For shrubs that were healthy over the growing season, a leaf well around the base will be enough. If they didn’t do well over the summer, they may need a bit of help. Aerate the soil and add some compost and water well.

If you want to add store-bought organic fertilizer to your tree or shrub, you may want to consider consulting with an arborist first. It’s easy to over-fertilize and cause damage. Leave it to the professionals.

For Perennials:

Above: Don’t apply store-bought fertilizer to your perennials in the fall; this can bring them out of dormancy too early. Photograph by Joy Yagid, from Time to Thin Out the Garden? How to Divide (and Multiply) Popular Perennials.

Yes, leaves again. Really. And compost. Both the leaves and the compost break down slowly. Nobody is in a rush here, it’s winter and nothing is growing. The idea is that the nutrients will be ready and in a form the plant can use once it wakes up in the spring. If you’re concerned about burying your plants too deep in leaves, lightly cover what remains of your almost dormant plants, but pack the leaves thickly around them.

There are no other real options. If you use synthetic fertilizer while they are going into dormancy, they could come out of dormancy early during an extended warm spell—and then when a cold snap follows, the new growth may be killed. This can weaken the plant, causing it to fail to thrive in the spring or even die.

Our gardens are part of a larger ecosystem, so it’s important to prioritize soil health and natural methods over synthetic fertilizers. Aeration of compacted soil and addition of organic matter will have a better and a longer-lasting effect on plant health.

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November 7, 2023
How to Leave the Leaves: Tips from Expert Doug Tallamy

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As leaves fall and the call to “leave the leaves” rises—from major news outlets to your next door neighbor—you may find yourself scratching your head as to how, exactly, to leave the leaves.

The slogan is a fun way to get people to consider a serious problem. We are in the sixth great extinction event in the history of the earth, which is directly affecting our food web. When one species goes extinct or its population declines severely, it can have a negative ripple effect on other species and the ecosystem as a whole. How does this tie into leaving the leaves in your own backyard? How does it help? And how do you do it?

Doug Tallamy can explain. He is an entomologist, a conservationist, and a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He’s even written a book, Nature’s Best Hope, which is a blueprint for saving the earth one backyard at a time. (It’s on Gardenista contributor Melissa Ozawa’s list of favorite gardening books: see In Gratitude: How a Gift from a Boss Led to a Love for Gardening Books.) Below, Doug gives us the low-down on leaving the leaves.

Photography by Joy Yagid.

Q: Why do you think people don’t leave the leaves?

Above: We’ve been conditioned to think that we have to clean up the leaves, but fallen leaves are not only beautiful, they help the soil.

A: We do what we observed when we were kids. It’s been part of our culture to get rid of the leaves. You either burn them or you put them out in the curb for the city to take away, but you have to take them off your lawn and do something with them.

Q: What’s the easiest way to start?

A: Well, there is a conflict between having that perfect lawn and and the leaves that fall on the lawn. So people say “I gotta get the leaves off the lawn.” [The solution is to reduce] the area you have in lawn. The perfect way to start doing that is to create beds under the trees that you have. And you do that by raking the leaves into those beds. And in the beginning when you’re trying to actually smother the grass, [to make the beds] you rake a lot of leaves, you make it pretty thick. My son bought a house and the first fall, he called me up and said, “Dad, I got too many leaves. What should I do with them?’” I said: “Put them in your flower beds.” He said: “I don’t have enough flower beds.” I said: “Exactly.” You increase the amount of flower beds and that’s where the leaves go. The extra ones that just don’t fit in those flower beds can go into a compost heap.

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November 1, 2023
Best Gardening Instagram and TikTok Accounts to Follow for Tips

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While progress in our gardens is very slow in comparison to our frenetic lives (a good thing and why many people garden), sometimes we need to problem solve without waiting—sometimes entire seasons—for nature to show us the answer. An Instagram or TikTok gardening account that dispenses practical pithy gardening tips can offer instant gratification. To help prevent mindless scrolling, though, we’ve curated our favorites that will both entertain and educate.

Instagram

@portageviewfarm

Portage View Farm’s account is just so fun. Yes, homesteaders Jordyn and Kay live on a farm in Washington, but many of the issues they face will be familiar to home gardeners as well—like what to do with powdery mildew and when to harvest onions.

@joegardener

Joe Lamp’l, the creator and host of Emmy-winning PBS series Growing a Greener World, has extensive knowledge of how the plant world works and how to garden with few (if at all) synthetic interventions. He looks at the garden as a whole, with soil health as the foundation to healthy plants.

@floretflower

We are longtime fans of Erin Benzakein and her flower farm, Floret Farm, in Washington. On her Instagram account, you’ll get inspiration and growing advice in equal measures.

TikTok

@epicgardening

@epicgardening Replying to @Jessica Diaz6922 My air layering technique worked and now I have a PERFECT clone of a rare yellow long neck fig. You can do this with almost any “hardwood” ornamental or edible tree as long as you follow the steps in the original video #garden ♬ original sound – Epic Gardening

Kevin Espiritu started his gardening journey in 2013 and quickly became obsessed. His account features an extensive number of videos on everything from planting and pruning to saving seeds and cloning trees. And then there are the crow gifts. (It seems he has befriended some crows, who regularly air-drop presents like golf balls and pine cones to him.)

@judybaogarden

@judybaogarden How to grow a mango from seeds! 🥭 #mango #howtogrow #garden #urbangardening #urbanfarming #fyp #seeds ♬ original sound – JudyBaoGarden

Mama Judy has been gardening for more than a quarter of a century—and her lush Florida garden, filled with tropical plants (think passionfruit vines and mango trees) has benefited from her hard-won wisdom and experience. And you can benefit, too, via her TikTok account.

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October 24, 2023