Sustainable Gardening Blog

Like many of us, nurseryman John Peter Thompson grew up gardening, but in his case in a family of nurserymen.  His German grandfather, in fact, started the premier indie nursery in the Mid-Atlantic area, Behnkes, my main hunting ground for plants these last 30+ years.  So when he gives a free talk about What to Do in the Garden NOW for customers at their Beltsville, Maryland location, I’m there. 

PHILOSOPHY

In gardening, like in cooking, the secret of success is getting ready., and late winter is THE TIME  And to reduce the intimidation factor, he offers this: "What doesn’t work is a learning experience." Amen.  And I particularly like this one: "Get the life back in your soil, so you can spend your money on PLANTS, not products." 

WHAT TO DO NOW (or last week) IN THE GARDEN  

Clean Up Beds

• Remove what’s dead and what you don’t want.  And if you don’t do ANYTHING else, remove all the weeds.  "You’ll pay in time if you don’t weed now."  And even if you wanted to do it chemically you’d be wasting your time and money because it’s too cold to use them.  Gotta do it with tools.
• Remove leaves from beds, too, especially disease-prone leaves of hybrid teas (which you should NOT compost.)
• Scratch beds with side of garden rake or with a "scratcher," what I call a cultivator.

Mulch

• He applies mulch on top of the leaves he left in his flower beds and borders to decompose the previous fall.  (Though in poorly draining sites or on top of plants that hate being soggy - like lavender - he recommends chopping the leaves first.) 
• What kind of mulch? He likes shredded pine because it’s a softwood, though most customers seem to prefer shredded hardwood mulches because they look good and last longer. 
• When?  He mulches in mid-March, then Memorial Day and again in either September or October, no more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch at a time, for a total of 1-2 inches a year.  (Yikes!)

Prune

• Prune deciduous trees now.  Even spring-flowering ones can stand to have their crossing branches removed now (so what if you remove a few flower buds if they’re where you don’t want them, right?)

Weed Prevention

• Corn gluten is a safe organic product that not only prevents the germination of weed seeds (actually, any seeds) but even contributes  some nitrogen. Just apply it when the forsythia are mid-peak or dropping, and at least 60 days before applying seeds of any type.   The Cockadoodle Doo brand is a good one.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE  

The essential, must-have tools are: 

• A spade.
• #2 Felco pruners.
• The hoe he declares to be  a ""weapon of mass destruction," especially in the spring.  So don’ use it now.
• When he first saw a lime green trowel he declared: "You gotta be kidding" and  "dumbest thing I’ve ever seen."  But he’s tried it and likes it.  (Now if I can just find a photo!)
• Buy washers for your hose.  Breakers or "roses" are great, too, because they change a hard spray to a gentle stream, either directly from the hose or at the end of an extension wand.  And invest (about $5) in a shut-off attachment for the business end of your garden hose - one that’s all metal, not plastic.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Landscape fabric as a weed barrier, covered with mulch, is "a pain."
• 90 percent of the biotic mass in our gardens is IN the soil, so get it tested, and not using one of those DIY kits.  Send to a soil lab.
• The use of beneficial microorganisms is a new and confusing issue in the industry.  Compost tea may help restore microbes to soils damaged by chemicals or compaction.  After applying microbes for one season, simple use of compost every year should be enough.
• To protect your garden from deer he suggests 1) throwing garlic powder about the garden after every rain or 2) growing a hedgerow of "deer buffet" plants like crabapple or euonymus that deer love but can’t kill.
• "Growing vegetables is really easy!"  Especially turnips (which taste NOTHING like the yucky store-bought ones), beets, green onions, radishes, and potatoes.
• Expandable peat pots are great for gardening projects with kids.
• Add compost to your garden every year and you won’t have to use any other fertilizer (except for annuals, vegetables and container plantings, of course).

And just so you’re sufficiently impressed, the name John Peter Thompson is known even outside the nursery world as a national expert on matters of native and invasive plants.  For example, he’s working hard as a member of the technical advisory committee to the Sustainable Sites Initiative (that’s where the real work happens) and from what I can tell from the initial report, he’s doing a great job representing the folks who have to implement the new guidelines. 

And here’s John Peter’s full bio from his blog:  Secretary National Invasive Species Council Advisory Committee; Chair, Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce; Vice Chair Prince George’s County Historic Preservation Commission; Trustee, Prince George’s County Memorial Library System; Member, Maryland Invasive Species Council; LBJ Wild Flower Center Sustainable Landscape Standards Vegetative Sub-Comm,; Chesapeake Conservation Landscape Council; Landscape Comm, Chesapeake EcoTour Project; Past President, Maryland Nursery & Landscape Association (MNLA) and Mid Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council (MA-EPPC); Member PlantWise Advisory Comm.; President, National Agricultural Research Alliance - Beltsville; Chairman, The Behnke Nurseries Co.]