From Cold to Wet in one easy lesson

Well, Memorial Day has come and went, and the gardening weather apparently has followed it. There was a hard frost on the 28^th of May and thankfully, my bedding plants were safe in the garage. It dried out for a day or two and I managed to till and plant both gardens. Then the rains came. I have always wanted to own some waterfront property, but this is not exactly what I had in mind. My gardens both have miniature lakes in them, although the bedding plants seem to be OK. I do not know how the various seeds we planted will hold up, but if it dries out again for a few days, they may be ok. The flowers seem to love the cold, damp weather and I am going to try and put a few pictures in this blog. The strawberries in the raised beds have set fruit nicely and should have a bumper crop. Also the summer bearing raspberries are ready to blossom, although a day or two of warm weather would speed things up.

I went out between showers and sprinkled micronized sulfur on the roses, hollyhocks, rhubarb, and delphiniums. I am not sure the delphiniums need it, but I had some left over so they got it. There is a huge variety of fungus type stuff you can buy for a huge variety of prices. Back when I was writing a garden column I mentioned some expensive stuff I had bought to treat some plants. An elderly reader wrote to me and suggested the sulfur, which is not expensive and seems to work as well as any commercial product. It makes me feel like smacking myself in the head for not realizing the obvious. Often enough, the old-fashioned cures are as effective as anything new. The sulfur prevents the rust-type plant diseases but nothing will cure them once they get started. Prevention is the best cure. The sulfur should be applied just before it rains, oddly enough, so that it gets into the soil beneath the plants. It works for me.

On the political front, the town and village of Potsdam are talking about consolidating some services. Since until a week or so ago, the two groups were barely speaking to each other, I follow this development with great interest and no optimism at all. I guess as long as they are raising hell with each other, they will not have time to prevent any new business from moving into town. Enough for today.

Still Waiting for Weather Changes

We were driving back from Hogansburg where we had dropped off a donation to the Indian Nation. I noticed that a couple of folks along the road back to Helena had set out bedding plants in their gardens. I would give them an “A” for enthusiasm, but not as good a mark for their gardening skills. It has been my experience that until the ground warms up, bedding plants, if not outright killed by frost, will set and sulk until the soil warms. Some plants like cool weather (cabbages, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) and carrots, beets and spinach seeds will germinate (slowly) in cold soil. Beans, on the other hand, will simply rot, and you can plant them again, later on. My tomatoes and peppers, among other stuff, are still in the garage, waiting for their turn.

According to various sources, our last frost date was May 20^th, which was also the date of the full moon, and I haven’t seen any sign of a warm up yet. I haven’t even finished tilling my main gardens yet, and I am happy I waited. It seems to be raining every day, and the temperature hovers around 50 in the daytime. According the TV weather forecasts, it does look like it will warm up this weekend so maybe a break is in sight. One year, a combination and cold and wet weather delayed my planting until the first of July, but that garden did nicely once things cleared up.

Our daffs have come and gone, and the tulips will follow them shortly. On the other hand, the Shirley Poppies have flower buds, as do the lupines, which seem to relish the damp, cool weather. The strawberries are in full bloom, although whether they can set fruit or not is anybody’s guess. The variety I planted are Ozark Beauties, which are supposed to be ever-blooming so I don’t get too worried. The summer bearing raspberries are also forming flower buds and they look ok. Our lilacs were gorgeous this year, just like everybody else’s.

This is short, but their isn’t much to brag about when it is too nasty to work outside.

Waiting for warmup

I am waiting for the world to warm up a little (my part, at least). Had a couple of comments about the black flies. Seems like all my readers have them and they all want to share. No thank you, have enough of my own. Someone tells me that a few nights of 60 degree temperatures are supposed to end them, but Google says live with it thru June. I don't know. I do know that the black flies will be followed by the mosquitos and then the deer flies (they are the best biters of the bunch). Someone asked if we had black flies when I was a kid. Well, it is ancient history and yes, we had them. Of course we did not have any repellent of any kind but my parents were convinced that hard work would keep them away, and they (the parents) provided plenty of hard work.

I have set a few plants in our flower bed out front, probably early, but they survived a light frost this morning, so may be ok. I certainly won't set out any tomatoes until it gets considerably warmer. We also planted beets, carrots, lettuce and onions in the raised beds. I don't worry about the cool weather bothering them too much. I have started tilling my main gardens, but I hate to get too serious about it this early. The price of gas is making me cautious. I explained to Shirley that it costs about $8 to mow our lawns, but I don't think I have managed to curb her enthusiasm for this project. My new apple trees are budded out nicely and I am optimistic that I may actually succeed with them. The strawberries are in bloom and the raspberries are looking good.


Our lilacs are blooming nicely, and the white lilac, which is just a little behind the purple ones is trying to show off. My plum tree finally blossomed (after 8 years), but the blossoms were sparse and I don't know if it will set any fruit or not. I got the trees from Herb Todd, so of course neither Herb or I know what variety they were. Research tells me that some plums need another blossoming tree nearby and other are self-pollinating. Time will tell, if I last long enough.

We had a shooting on the Porter-Lynch road last night or early this morning, lots of police activity. The shootee is reportedly now in Burlington in critical condition. Speaking of shooting, I had a shooting in my back yard yesterday. I was working out front and heard my chicken flock (all three of them) raising hell. When I looked out at their pen, a fox was doing his best to get in to them. I went and got my trusty 12 gauge and the stupid fox was still hanging around when I got back outside. I can assure you that he will not bother my chickens (or anyone else's) ever again.


I will sign off for now. I am considering writing about local politics, a subject near and dear to my heart, and if you have any opinions about this let me know.

Triumphs and Failures

Like most gardeners, I have a tendency to loudly tout the successes I have and gloss over the failures. In an attempt to compensate for this tendency, I will have to admit some of the stupider things I have done, which are probably more common than some folks think.

In an extremely experimental mode, I started some flower seeds in January to see if I could get them up to blossom state before time to transplant. That was a tad early, a big, big tad early. My marigolds are in blossom, and with the weather as unsettled as it is, I don’t dare set them out. Hopefully, I will be able to keep them alive and healthy for another week or two. Next year I will try again, but about a month later.

I started “Big Beef” tomato seeds on the boiler, and had a horrible germination rate, only got four plants from an entire packet of seeds. I also had total failure with the “New Ace” peppers and also some hot peppers I was interested in. I thought I had screwed something up, but didn’t know what. Luckily, I had a few packets of other varieties of tomatoes hanging around (Rutgers and Big Boys) and they started well and I will be planting them this year. I will probably pick up a six pack of peppers at a local store (and possibly a six-pack or two of something else).

My gardens are still way too wet to till, and I will stay off them until the world dries up a little. The raised beds should be OK for some hardier stuff like carrots, beets, and onions, and I will start some of them as soon as possible. I also started three dwarf apple trees, which I bought from the nursery on the Brookdale road in Norfolk. I think the owner’s name is Shyne, and he is pleasant, knowledgeable, and reasonable, an easy person to deal with. I had to put cages around those trees because they are outside my electric fence, and the dear would think I planted some treats for them. Incidentally, if you are thinking of planting any fruit trees, you had better hurry. Most reputable dealers do not like to sell them later than mid-May.

I had a complaint from one of my readers, who complained to my wife because I have not posted for quite a while. My only excuse is that I was blogged down with other stuff. Heh, Heh.

P.S. Any black flies where you live? Want some?

Maple Syrup Season

Well, the Ides of March has come and gone. According to Google, the Ides of March is the 15^th, and has become a sign of impending doom. I have to agree with it, if you live in the North Country. We all get our hopes up this time of year and then Mother Nature gives us a kick in the ass. Of course, our political shenanigans in Albany and elsewhere lend even more credence to the myth – oh well, Move on and hope for better things.

Maple syrup season is getting started up here, and hopefully the cool nights and warm days will make for a successful season. I used to work for Burr Kingsley when I was a kid and enjoyed the season. Burr’s power supply in the woods, where we gathered sap by hand, with buckets, was a pair of horses which had been lying around the barn all winter. Needless to say, they were quite spirited when they first started working in the spring, and I remember many a scary ride through the woods with a runaway team and a full load of sap in the gathering tank. The road was rough, to say the least, and the sap splashing all over, and the trees whizzing past made for a long memory. I actually moved into the Kingsley household during the syrup season, and shared a room with Allen Kingsley, Burr’s son, and a great friend of mine. Burr was a pretty easy guy to work for, quiet and calm, and undemanding. Somehow he made you want to do a good job for him, with little fanfare. I took some of my pay in syrup and some in cash – not much, but it was over 50 years ago. We usually gathered sap in the afternoons, when the sap was really running good, and Burr ran the evaporator half the night to make room for the next day’s batch. He always burnt wood in his boiler, and spent a lot of time the rest of the year accumulating a large wood pile for the project.

My plants down cellar are doing nicely, and I may have overwhelmed myself again. I had to get grandson Peter over to help me make some more shelving and move some lights around, and I can see that I will run out of space again in the near future. I have transplanted lots of Marigolds, some Batchelor Buttons, and am about to start on the Zinnias. There is also a batch of Snapdragons, which are very slow growing, but look healthy, and there is nothing to do but wait. I can only hope that the weather gets warm enough to move some of my seedlings into the garage. I have a wooden table with wheels that I put them on and move it into the sunshine when the weather is nice, and back inside because of the night frost. This works well, and my solve my space problem.

Frost Zones and Seed Packets

A completely anonymous and unknown blogger (OK Pat?) wrote with a couple of questions. The first was about the growing zones you see in gardening articles, seed packets and catalogs. Most of St. Lawrence County is in zone 4, with the areas nearer to the Adirondacks in zone 3. The zones move from north to south, with the lowest (2) being lost somewhere in Canada, and the highest (8) in Southern Florida (Or Cuba) – if Cuba recognizes our zones. Anyway, the zones represent the latest frost date in the spring and the earliest frost date in the fall. Contrary to popular belief, these estimates are basically a WAG (Wild-assed guess), but they are a starting point. Zone 4 is supposed to have its last frost on May 20^th, and the first fall frost on September 10^th. These dates vary widely but give gardeners a crap shoot target. I personally very seldom set tender plants out in my gardens before June 1^st, sometimes because of the weather and sometimes because my gardens are so wet I can’t get them ready any sooner. To further complicate matters, there are no road signs or lines painted to show where zone 3 becomes zone 4, etc. I usually look up the dates of the full moon in May (old myth) and if there is a full moon toward the end of the month, I wait until it passes. I find that some seed will do nicely by being planted early, especially in my raised beds. Lettuce, beets, and carrots are usually in whenever it is nice enough to work the beds up, onion sets are bothered little by cold, many large bulbs that are considered tender can be planted before the first frost date because they are in the ground a few inches and a light frost will not touch them. One of the things that will not tolerate early planting is beans, which will sit and rot if the soil is not warm enough. I wait until I think the soil temp is up to at least 50 degrees before I plant beans. If you want to measure the soil temp, stick an ordinary cheap thermometer in the soil a couple of inches and make a note of the temperature in the morning and in the late afternoon. The average is the number to go by. I find that sticking my fingers in the soil is just as accurate – if it’s warm, it’s OK. Setting out tender plants (tomatoes, peppers) is much more dependent on the weather. These plants will not tolerate frost at all. You can cover them with those “wall of water” things, but you find that you are spending about $5 a tomato when you start buying those things.

A second question concerns the accuracy of the information on seed packets. I believe that for the most part, you can depend on what is written on the packet. The seed industry is pretty carefully regulated by your government (We are the government and we are here to help you). One of the things you can not believe at all are the labels on trees, shrubs, and hardy plants you find in big box stores. Most of this stuff is imported from southern greenhouses and farms and comes up here too big, and too far along to do well. If the local trees are not leafed out, and you buy a tree with a full set of leaves, you should understand that you are headed for trouble. The best way to buy stuff, especially fruit trees, is to go to a local nursery which grows their own stuff. The owner will usually give you the short course in tree culture and keep you on track. The big box guarantees are useless, also. If a tree is guaranteed for a year, you take it home and plant it, it thrives through the year, goes into dormancy in the fall, and quietly dies during the winter. By the time you realize your tree is croaked (You can tell this if you have a brittle stick in your yard with no leaves) your guarantee has expired.

My plants in the cellar are doing nicely, and I am already running out of space. I suspect I will have to rig up another shop light and bench to keep up with the traffic.

Leap Day 2008 - Birds, Sunflowers, etc

My sister Pat suggested this posting, and since it has warmed up to a balmy 9 degrees, I figured, what the hell.

When we first moved to our home on the Cook Road, the garden was located where it is now, but it had been neglected for several years. I took most of the spring to cut brush and a few 6-8 inch trees to open it up. There was also an old collapsed sheep wire fence that had to be dug out in places, along with rusted sap buckets, which I assumed that the previous owner had used for plant covers, and just left them when he got sick of gardening. After much effort and brush burning, I finally managed to till up the 50X50 plot where my present garden is.

There were a million things I had to do around the house and garage, and knew I wouldn’t have time to do the type of gardening I wanted to, so I finally sowed the whole thing to sunflowers. I figured it would be easy to till between the rows, which I laid out at 3 feet apart, and I would be able to keep the garden in shape, and move the rocks which had shown up when I tilled. This worked out very nicely, and I had a splendid crop of sunflowers going in no time at all. The sunflowers finally blossomed, and I found out later that my garden had become a land mark. Various folks told me that when they were given directions to somewhere in our area, one of the instructions was “go down past the sunflowers and turn left (right, whatever).”

Later that summer, we had a family gathering for some reason or other, and my sisters were always coming over to get together. My sister Penny from Syracuse was staying with us, and sister Pat was a regular visitor (and beer drinker). One morning I got up and looked out to check my sunflower crop and couldn’t believe my eyes. The girls had went out either in the evening or early in the morning and painted faces on all the sunflower heads with black spray paint. They had done a thorough job, and the sunflowers sported smiles, frowns, and every nuance in between. What made it even more ridiculous was that the flowers would face the house early in the morning, and then slowly turn during the day to follow the sun. At noon or so, they would all be facing the road. I was sure that my neighbors were convinced that I had finally lost my mind completely, and I spent a lot of time naming the guilty parties on the numerous occasions when my unusual sunflower patch was mentioned.

These days, I still plant a patch of sunflowers, which always remind me of the above nutty sunflower story. When I plant them, I till up a spot and broadcast a handful or two of the seeds we have been feeding the birds over the winter. I run over the new seeding with the rototiller (shallow), and thin as necessary when the plants come up, a quick and easy way to plant with little risk of failure. I don’t have any pictures of this episode, we did not own a digital camera when it happened. There are probably a few of the old-fashioned pictures around, but I have not figured out how to successfully scan them into my picture folder.

To compensate for my lack of plant pictures, I am attaching a picture of a very unusual bird which comes to our porch feeder. I have not been able to identify it from my field guide, but maybe one of my readers can help out.