Sustainable Gardening Blog

 Sometimes it’s damn hard to keep up with the current best thinking on gardening practices, and the question of whether wood chip mulch is good or bad for our plants is a case in point.   After what thought was a lot of research, I came down against it in my page about mulch and mulching, recommending instead the use of shredded pine or leafmold mulch.  (Around plants, that is.  Wood chips on paths are indisputably okay.)

Now here comes Master Gardener Magazine with an article about wood chip mulch by Linda Chalker-Scott (Ph.D., Extension Urban Horticulturist and Associate Professor, Washington State University) to contradict conventional wisdom.  (Those durn scientists can be SO annoying, with their namby-pamby reliance on the scientific method and peer review and all that stuff for sticklers.) 

Here’s what she has to say:  In tests (something that apparently scientists are still doing) wood chips perform with the best of all possible mulch materials for moisture retention, temperature moderation, weed control,sustainability and enhanced plant productivity.  And what’s more, in urban areas they’re often FREE.

Drawbacks?  What drawbacks?

Referring to the reported drawbacks of wood chip mulch, she calls them "much ado about  nothing".  The concern that wood chip mulches can tie up introgen and cause deficiencies in plants, it turns out that studies show that it actually increases nutrient levels in soils and the foliage of plants.  "My hypothesis is that a zone of nitrogen deficiency exists at the mulch/soil interface, inhibiting weed seed germination while having no influence upon established plant roots below the soil surface."  For that reason, she recommends against wood chip mulch around plants with shallow roots - annuals and vegetables.

Even if you remain unconvinced by the research, you can still use wood chips on top of a more nutrient-rich underlayer (say, of compost).  This "mulch sandwich" approach mimics what you’d see in the mulch layer of a forest.

How deep?

Here’s what surprised me - her recommendation that 4-6 inches of the stuff be used.  That’s because "A review of the research on coarse organic mulches and weed control reveals that shallow mulch layers will promote weed growth and/or require additional weed control measures."  Again, a divergence from lots of other writers recommending 2-4 inches, or even a maximum of 2 inches. 

But what about soil structure?

Now here’s something the article didn’t addres - the impact of mulch on ability of the soil to hold moisture and other benefits of what we call good soil structure.  Do wood chips decompose fast enough to improve soil within, say, a year?  I’ll shoot the link to this post to the good folks at Master Gardener Magazine and see if we can get a response. 

Photo credit.

Ready or not, the biggest gardening task of the year is upon me - the spreading of 7+ cubic yards of leafmold mulch.  Here’s what it looks like just off the truck, delivered this morning by my city’s public works crew.  (And can I say that the near-severing of my power lines by the raising and lowering of the truck bed was harrowing.  The memory of that same mechanism knocking an air conditioner out of its window and onto my living room floor is still fresh, so there’s some justification for my less-than-total faith in these public servants.)

Anyway, notice that some of the pile encroaches on my neighbor’s driveway?  That’s why the goal here is to get the whole pile moved ASAP, which means hiring help to move it downhill (and down steps) to the backyard.  I stirred up quite a fuss over on GardenRant recently by admitting to hiring what I called "immigrant laborers" but guess what - I’m doing it again.  True, some gardening professionals insist I should be hiring only professionals to haul mulch, but $10 an hour is what’s budgeted for the job and it’s either that or risk my own back doing the job.  Sorry!

One more thing.  This time of year - every single year - there are the same questions on all the gardening-related Yahoo groups about mulch - which kinds are best, is hardwood okay, does the city’s leafmold have weeds, and on and on.  But I hesitate to just post this link in answer to all those questions because it seems almost self-promotional but really, that’s why I compiled all that information in the first place, so let’s use it. 

Hey, I know.  I’ll tell them to visit this link to the very same information on the DC Urban Gardener site.  No harm promoting that, right?

 Why, in my 23 years gardening in one place have I never had the soil tested?  Let me count the reasons (excuses?  You tell me.)

• It’s mostly undisturbed soil.
• Everything seems to grow well here.
• I’ve never grown food.

Well, how’d I do?  Think they’ll take away my Master Gardener certification for admitting to never testing my soil?  Lucky for me, the DC Master Gardener program grants permanent certification (a situation they’ve finally corrected) so that ain’t gonna happen.  (But why DID they grant permanent certification, rather than require community service hours every year?  Because it’s too much work to keep records - and if that seems incredible, here’s my full rant about all that.)
 

But back to the soil.  What’s changed is that I’ll be growing food this season and have been utterly convinced by my DC Urban Gardener buddies that I MUST test the soil because horrible things like lead could be in it!  So I took the advice of one unnamed Master Gardener in the Beginner’s Guide to Growing Food and used the University of Massachusetts Soil Lab.  It tests for not only nutrients, which is all some of the crappy labs do, but also lead and other possible problems and only costs $9, so count me in!
 

And could it really be this easy?  I followed the instructions on their site: to gather soil from a bunch of different areas (they say 12 but the food-growing garden in question is so small, I used 6), then dry, mix, and put a cupful in a Ziploc bag, label the bag, and ship it off.   Three days later I had my test results via email, followed soon by the print version in the mail.
 

IT’S COME TO THIS: BRAGGING ABOUT MY SOIL
Here’s all it takes for me to get all proud of my soil: "Your soil pH is in the desired range."  And "Your soil contains very high levels of phosphorus and potassium."  That had my writing this to Ed Bruske:  "My soil is awesome!"  He sternly instructed me to forward him the actual results, which I did, and boy, was my bubble quickly burst.
 

First, after I’d raved about the complete-yet-cheap services of UMass, Ed shot that notion down with the put-down that the results are difficult to read and don’t even indicate the amount of organic matter, for crissake!  So maybe I should have paid another 6 bucks to use A&L, the lab that everybody around here recommends.  I see by their site that the "Complete Test" for $15.90 includes everything - the good, the bad, and the organic.  And astute readers probably already noted my mistaken glee at my "awesome" soil because it seems more like overfertilized soil and why the heck is that?  Given my modest, eco-friendly, organic (yada-yada) lawn care in the area tested I’m at a loss to understand, unless some soil science geek can postulate a reason.  Huh.  So, no more P or K for me, huh?  And no more UMass Soil Lab.
 

This just in:  I read in the latest Organic Gardening Magazine that it’s TYPICAL  for soils to have plenty of phosphorus and potassium but not enough nitrogen, so I’m back to bragging about it.  It’s lead-free!

Here’s MY version of How to Get Your Garden Ready for Spring, the very important subject that so many garden writers and speakers are opining on this time of year.   It’s my March column for the alternative  paper I write for. 

Here’s what most homeowners do.  They wait until it’s already warm and colorful outdoors before noticing that their yards look like crap and wondering what they can do to change that sad fact.  And what’s even sadder is that by then, usually late April or May, they’ve already missed the best time to get their gardens ready for the season, so here’s what you should be doing in March, okay?  Early April at the absolute latest!  (Late February would have been even better, so remember than next year.)
 

CLEAN-UP
Now there’s lots of controversy (who knew?) about whether it’s best to remove leaves from beds and borders in the fall or leave them there until spring, with some sources even recommending raking all your leaves into your beds for the winter.  Here’s what I say: it depends.   Some leaves are large enough to form a crust that keeps water from getting to the soil, especially in quantity.  So in yards with lots of oaks I suggest chopping them first (using a mulching mower or shredder/chopper), which turns them into a dandy mulch for your borders.  I’ve tried that myself and find it way too time-consuming, given the quantity of leaves on my property, so I gather and compost most leaves in the fall, then do final clean-up in late winter or early spring.  That means now, if you haven’t done it already.

Basic spring clean-up means:

• Removing all the leaves.  Even if you did this in the fall, more have probably blown your way.
• Cutting off the ratty- looking foliage of perennials that are aboveground.   
• Digging out all the weeds you can see.
• Cutting back vines that are where you don’t want them.
• Cutting back ornamental grasses, including liriope, and the dead stems of perennials if you left them up for the winter (which is a good idea, for wildlife) to a few inches high.
• Using a cultivator or gloved hand to loosen the mulch, acorns and other dried plant matter covering the ground around your shrubs and perennials.  This allows water and air to more easily penetrate to the roots.
   

Why do all that now, so early?  Because if you have spring-blooming bulbs or perennials that emerge early in your borders, they could be trampled on if this clean-up is done after they’ve emerged..  Or worse, if you wait til your garden has started producing masses of new growth, you won’t be able to see those weeds and out-of-control vines.  Weeding now will reduce your weeding burden throughout the entire season.

MULCH
Applying organic mulch on top of your garden is the single most important thing you can do for your garden every year, bar none.  That’s because it prevents weeds, regulates soil temperature, and retains moisture.  Plus,  as it decomposes over the course of the season and is carried underground by earthworms and other creatures of the soil, it improves soil structure, which means better drainage and better use of nutrients.  In my garden organic mulch is the only form of fertilizer I use, though most gardens and all new ones benefit from a one-inch application of compost in the spring, also. (Certain plants - edibles, annuals, and anything in pots - still need fertilizer no matter what).  And as mulches go, nothing’s better than good old Takoma Park leafmold mulch because it decomposes over the course of one season, which is a good thing because it improves your soil.  The more attractive mulches like bark and hardwood chips aren’t as helpful because they last a long time, which is a bad thing.  Like weeding and leaf removal, mulching is a job that’s easier to do before new bulbs and perennials have emerged, especially if they’ve just popped up and are hard to see.
                   
GOT PLACES TO STEP?
One frequently heard caveat about spring work in the garden is that if you tromp all over your beds and borders when the ground is super-saturated from spring rains, you’ll cause soil compaction, a very bad thing for the future health of your plants.  So providing places to step in the garden is essential if you want to, for example, pull weeds when it’s easy to do because the soil is so wet. So this month when you’re cleaning out those borders why not strategically place small fieldstones or pavers where your feet need to be placed in order to reach your plants.  This one-time chore will help you stay in control of your garden (by weeding and pruning back as needed) throughout the season.  Without safe places to step, it’s best to test the soil before walking on it by grabbing a handful of soil and firming it into a ball, then dropping it.  If it stays in a ball, the soil is too wet to dig in or walk on.  If it crumbles, it’s okay to walk on.

LAWN CARE
Another area of disagreement is whether or not to feed your lawn in the spring.  Many sources recommend against spring feeding because it encourages top growth at the expense of root growth, promotes weeds, leads to extra mowing and, with spring rains, causes nutrient run-off into our waterways.  Yet some experts in organic gardening say it’s only synthetic or fast-acting fertilizers that cause water pollution, not organic, slow-release fertilizers like Lawn Restore or Safer.  So if you forgot to feed your lawn last fall and it really needs it, go ahead but give our rivers a break and use an organic one.

If your lawn is sunny and has a history of crabgrass, corn gluten is an effective organic preemergent weed killer, applied when the forsythia are blooming (or, according to other experts, when forsythia blooms are dropping). As an added bonus, corn gluten contains a small amount of nitrogen (10 percent by weight), so it helps to "green-up" your lawn in a safe, organic way.  Remember to always follow the instructions.

Fall is the best time of year for planting grass seed but bare spots can be seeded in March, which gives them time to germinate and get established before it gets hot..  Just don’t seed at the same time you’re applying fertilizer or corn gluten.

PRUNING
Late March/early April is a great time to prune trees and shrubs that have dropped their leaves because you can see what you’re doing.  Also, because they’re dormant, they won’t respond by sprouting new growth that could be killed by cold spells. 
    -Remove broken branches.  Bleeding sap doesn’t hurt them, so don’t worry about it.
    -Remove bagworm bags now.  Destroy them or throw them away; don’t just leave them on the ground.
    - March is a good time to prune butterfly bushes, spireas, caryopteris, forsythias and crape myrtles - if needed or desired.  The detailed how-to’s won’t fit in this column, so just Google "prune" and the name of the shrub type to find out whether yours really needs pruning and if so, how to do it.

NEW PLANTS
Buy and plant shrubs and perennials as soon as they’re available in the garden centers - the sooner the better.  It gives them more time to get their roots established before the heat which is much more of a killer than winter cold.   Be careful not to disturb still-dormant perennials, though, so if you’re not sure where things are, wait.

BULB CARE AND DESIGN
Make notes now about where you want to plant bulbs next fall.  Draw little diagrams to guide you.  Otherwise there’s no way you’ll know where to plant them when the time comes.

Okay, now get out there and get your hands dirty!

Extras for this online version:  links to lots more information about mulch, and lawn care.

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.]

This is fascinating.  I recently heard Charlie Rose interview Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.  Here’s a snippet from the Village Voice about the book:

In The Shock Doctrine, journalist Klein trains her sharp
investigator’s eye upon the flaws of neoliberal economics. This
meticulously researched alternative history, ranging from economist
Milton Friedman’s "University of Chicago Boys" to George W. Bush,
brings Klein’s argument into the present. Using stirring reportage, she
shows the ways that disasters— unnatural ones like the war in Iraq, and
natural ones like the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina—allow
governments and multinationals to take advantage of citizen shock and
implement corporate-friendly policies: Where once was a Sri Lankan
fishing village now stands a luxury resort. The Shock Doctrine
aims its 10-foot-long
middle finger at the Bush administration and the
generations of neocons who’ve chosen profits over people in war and
disaster; the effect is to provide intellectual armor for the
now-mainstream anticorporatist crowd.

But what’s relevant to our discussion of rain barrels is her mention of what happened in Bolivia.  They privatized their water resources, with U.S. company Bechtel winning the contract, and subsequently outlawed collection of rainwater because it threatened Bechtel’s profits.  Here’s more on the story.  And here’s a little video about it.

Here’s a new page on my Sustainable Gardening site - about tools for digging.  It includes all my favorites but I’d much rather it include some of yours, too.  Any suggestions?

Digging is our most basic gardening task, and
here are my favorite tools for getting the job done, and some others
you might try.

LONG TOOLS USED WHILE STANDING   

Basic Shovels and Spades

Technically, the bodies
and edges of shovels are rounded while those of spades are flat.  So
both are good for digging but the rounded shovels are best for carrying
the soil but when the digging job is a big one.  Whatever.  I use them
interchangeably, according to which has a short handle and which a long
one, the long one affording good leverage for those deep digging tasks.

The HGTV guru Paul James recommends that gardeners have both both.   

In the photo you see the spade I recently used to remove my entire
lawn.  A shovel wouldn’t have worked nearly as well for that task.

Perennial-planting shovels

By definition, these are narrower and what
I use for tight spots, to make sure I don’t damage nearby roots - or at
least try not to.  Photo right.

Bulb-Planting Shovels

These are even narrower, and work well  where the soil is easily dug (not so great for cutting roots or getting past rocks).

Hoes

Hoes are perfect for removing large quantities of tiny weeds or deep
tap-rooted weeds.  Elliot Coleman, popular guru of edible gardening,
recommends using a hoe regularly to prevent weeds.  Photo left.

Scuffle hoes are great for large areas because of their push/pull
action.   The weeds can just left on the ground to compost in place.
But there are SO many types, try your neighbors hoes out to see which
ones feel best for you.

Garden Forks   

Got
rocks or clay? Then the old-fashioned garden fork will help you
navigate through and around them.  They’re also good for aerating the
soil, breaking up clay, and digging up bulbs.  Photo right.   

The best
have 4 tines, not 3, which should be quite rigid (steel is a good
material), also a fiberglass shaft and a strong D-handle.

Pickax   
   

This
tool, above all, makes me feel like the Wonder Woman of Digging.  I
always use it in a sitting position, though, for maximum impact on the
clay I’m breaking up and minimal impact on my back.  Photo left shows a
well worn pickax. 
      

SHORT TOOLS USED WHILE KNEELING

Trowels   

This is the digging tool I use the most - for planting, weeding, moving small
amounts of dirt, and more - so I’m pretty picky about which one I use.
This one is my favorite because it’s strong enough not to bend under
pressure, it’s big enough to hold some soil, has a pointy end that’s
great for cutting, and even measures how deeply you’ve dug!  No wonder
it’s such a bummer when I misplace it and have to use one of my many
others.  Photo right.   

Steak knives for dividing and slicing

Every year or I stock
up on steak knifes at the local dollar store because it’s my favorite
best tool for slicing through small perennials like liriope. It’s also
the tool of choice for cutting through the roots of pot-bound plants.

Cobrahead for weeding

I
once won a Cobrahead and I was hoping to later write that I
love-love-love it, but I don’t.  I do know gardeners who can’t get
enough of it, so do give it a try.  Photo left.   

Hori hori knife or Japanese gardening knife, the knife that never needs sharpening.  It works well, and here are some photos of them.

Mattocks

I call this tool the "Slayer of Invasives" and indeed it is, at least the ones I tackle while kneeling.  Photo right.   

FOR MAJOR OVERHAULS
Rototilling is a
controversial practice, with many experts warning that it destroys soil
structure.  In creating new gardens it’s still practiced by many, who
find it the best way to get amendments (additives) mixed several inches
into the soil, so will disturb the soil structure once, but not again.

MORE GREAT INFORMATION ON LINE   
   

• Great article about shovels by HGTV’s Paul James
• Tool care tips by Felco.
• Caring for tool handles, and how to sharpen a shovel, from  Lowes.
• Good advice on cleaning and sharpening from Fine Gardening Magazine.   

AND IN PRINT   

• The Tool Book by Logan is the latest favorite.
• Garden Tools and Equipment by the editors of Fine Gardening.
• Year-Round Guide to Garden Maintenance by Gordon and Mary Hayward.
• Garden Tools by a bunch of authors.
• Tools, Techniques and Tips for a Successful Garden by Dobbs and Knowles. 

Time to recap the Amazing Combined Border with my next-door neighbor.  It started with the removal of a large Bradford pear on the property line and, in its place, the planting of 5 Arborvitaes ‘Green Giant’.  Then, in a nutshell, everything was removed and rearranged. 

The top photo was taken after the 5 trees were planted but before I’d filled in my neighbor’s side of the border.  The next photo is how it looked in its first year from her deck and finally, a close-up of her border. 

Here are some lessons learned.

1. The correct order of operation is to draw and create the border, THEN insert the plants, starting with
the LARGEST and working down to the groundcover.  I can tell you from my coaching gigs that nobody does it in this order, and it’s no wonder they don’t like the results.  Typically gardens are half-filled with plants in the wrong places and the new design is far better when they’re moved out of the way first. In this case almost all the plants were moved to the holding garden to await the preparation of their new sites.

2. The farther away plants are, the larger they need to be.  Or if the
plants aren’t large, the larger mass they need to be planted in.  Keep
the small stuff closer to the house where you’ll see it.  And if
there’s only one of something it had better be a BIG something.

3. Before drawing any lines, decide on your traffic routes, where paths need to go.  Functionality comes first.

4. Use large curves for the lines of the border, nothing busy.  Stand back
and view the lines as they’ll typically be seen - especially if it’s
from above.  Now’s the time to make that all-important line one that
you like.

5. Once the new bed has been created, smooth the grade before planting anything.  Then after planting, correct the damage (extra dirt here, not enough dirt there) and step gently everywhere to settle the soil before mulching and watering.

6. When creating a border where weeds have flourished for decades, weed first, then cover with 3
inches or more of mulch.  Keep on top of the weeding the first year and subsequent years will be considerably less work.

7. Use anything you can get your hands on to fill up the new border.  Less desirable plants can be moved or given away later as plants fill out.  Especially don’t throw away perfectly good plants just because they’re not your favorites - until you have replacements for them.  (I’ve cringed many a time when shown empty or near-empty yards, whose owners proudly report having gotten rid of the few plants there were.  Half the time it’s the very plants I was about to recommend.)

8. In the case of my neighbor’s backyard, I was frequently warned not to block her two sledding runs into the woods.  Otherwise a few dozen kids would be really unhappy with me. There’s also a good chance they’d just plow into whatever I planted in the way.  So functionality asserts its dominance once again.

Why the cursing in the title?  Because to move
this full-grown spirea took many back-breaking hours, that’s why.   So DON’T do
what I did unless you really, really have to.

In this case, the rhododendron in back of this spirea died, a victim of our recent
drought, and the best solution clearly was to move the spirea back into
the corner to fill the empty spot. (The dead rhodo ready to be recycled is
captured in the photo below.)  All this work to move a plant less than 2 feet? 
Yeah, that’s gardening - when you’re persnickety about combining your plants so
they’ll look their best.

STAGING THE MOVE
And yes, staging is what’s required.

• For 3 days before the big dig I soaked the soil around both the dead rhodo and the spirea.
• The rhodo is easily removed - mainly because I didn’t have to keep it alive. Death is liberating that way.
• Next, to save the groundcover around the to-be-moved shrub. It’s vinca minor and I know it’s terribly invasive in some locations but for some reason in my neighborhood it’s actually hard to keep alive. So I carefully lifted the clumps that would be destroyed in the shub removal and placed them in my trusty cement-mixing pans for safekeeping in shady spots til they’re ready to be replanted.
• I began the spirea dig by creating a trench outside the root zone of the spirea through which I can slice under the root ball to free it. But boy, what a surprise the sheer mass of the shrub’s root zone was - probably 5 feet across in every direction. So this baby wasn’t going to be loosened easily.
• More soaking, waiting for the water to drain from the mostly clay soil and trying to dig again.  You realize what all this soaking means, right?  That it’s much easier to dig up the plant but you’re digging in MUD.  Getting your clogs stuck in it.  Getting filthy, in a wet way.  Try it - you may like it!
• Panic set in as I began to wonder if I even CAN dig up a root mass this huge, no matter what clever tool I employ. I consulted (male) neighbors about the correct tool to use, none of whom were moved to volunteer to help me.
• Finally, seemingly against all odds, the root ball was severed sufficiently from the clay beneath it that it can be rocked loose and lifted. Aha!
• I dug the new planting hole, a mere 18 inches or so away from the original site, and slid the humongous shrub into it. With no help from neighbors, male or otherwise, I might add.
• I replaced the periwinkle around the spirea in its new position.
• I watered deeply once, then again in 2 days. Deeply in this case meant hand-watering with no nozzle, waiting while several gallons of water filled the whole root area.

THE "AFTER" PHOTO
Yes, I took a photo but honest-to-God, it looks just like the "Before" photo because the camera doesn’t really highlight the crucial 18 inches by which the plant has been moved back into the corner. Nevermind. At least I know that after several hours of back-breaking labor, the damn spirea is in a better place than it was before. The real "after" will come next spring when this beauty’s in full bloom, I suppose.

WHEN TO DO IT
Late spring and summer are the riskiest times of the year to move anything because summer’s the big killer - not winter - and plants moved during or just before summer heat will have a hard time surviving til autumn. So fall is the best time to make the move, sometime after Labor Day but early enough for the transplant victim to have a month to settle in before the ground freezes. In my Zone 7 garden that means that September and October are the prime times to plant or move shrubs.

This overview of current thinking on the subject was published in my local paper and prompted a nice thumb’s up from Mike Tidwell, a well known enviro leader locally and even nationally - whew!- so I’m passing it on for readers here.

There’s been lots of
news lately about the effects of climate change on our gardens and
oddly, it’s usually presented as good news to gardeners. They’re shown
rejoicing over the warm-climate plants they can now grow, like crape
myrtles in Upstate New York. BUT:

It’s Global Weirding 

• Some plants are failing
  because the winter cooling period isn’t long enough. And others, like
  lilac, Eastern white pine, American arborvitae, Colorado blue spruce,
  and many junipers, suffer when summer evenings don’t cool down enough.
  Local garden writers are no longer recommending many of their old
  favorites for local gardens - like PJM rhododendrons and yews. 

• Rain events are more extreme, taking the form of longer droughts and
  more deluges. Not good for landscapes, for agriculture or for plants in
  our few remaining natural areas. 

• Longer warm periods mean more generations of some pests per year.
  Others, like the wooly adelgid that’s killing Canadian hemlocks
  throughout the East, are increasing their number because winters aren’t
  cold enough to keep them in check. 

• Weedy and noxious plants, like poison ivy, honeysuckle and kudzu,
  thrive in the presence of extra carbon dioxide, and poison ivy becomes
  more toxic than ever. Ragweed produces more pollen. Kudzu moves north.
  Some weeds, like Canadian thistle, are now resistant to herbicides.   

• Native plant populations are threatened by these changes in
  temperature, rainfall, pests and competitors, even the iconic ones
  chosen as state flowers and trees. In fact, the National Wildlife
  Federation predicts that 28 states will see their official plants
  become extinct by the end of the century. Picture Ohio without its
  buckeye or Kansas without its sunflower. Climate change has become a
  major threat to plant conservation, along with development and invasive
  species.
   

• The East experienced a
  Miami-style January this year, followed by a frigid February. These
  alternating balmy+frigid periods take their toll on blossoms and whole
  plants. Fruit growers were particularly hard hit. 

• Hotter summers cause heat stress even to warm-season crops, like tomatoes, according to Cornell University. 

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