PRG and Gardens Update

My garden is a symphony in spring. The bold notes of the white tulips are followed by the quiet low sounds of the trillium with a rumble of the pulmonaria, then the roar of the white iris. A high note of early lettuces for dinner dances across the top of the music. The crescendo of the new dawn heirloom roses is soon to explode to the first strawberries. After that, a lull. Perhaps an intermission.

During this intermission, japanese beetles take center stage for a moment. These non-native pests, the subject of this next column by our fabulous guest columnist Terry Burger, arrive and sadden us all with their pillaging.

To my knowledge, there is no good control of these beasts. I've heard reports that traps just draw more in from everywhere and milky spore is slow and only modestly effective. I suggested to a friend that she cover her roses with a crop cover during the bad beetle days. She said she grows roses for the ornamental beauty and covering them.... well... defeats that. For a few weeks at least. She's right. But I may still cover mine.

Thank you, Terry! Your column is a fun look at the frustrations that we all have when we see our beloved plants gnawed to nubs.

On another note, I am hoping to move this site to my own domain and start blogging on a completely redesigned page sometime around the end of May. I will let everyone know when I move. It will be: www.punkrockgardens.com. I may keep this site active as a photo gallery. I usualy have more photos than I have space. This time, tho no. But I'll post random images for some Friday fun. Thanks for visiting!

How to Hug a tree? Hire Professional Tree Care

GUEST COLUMNIST: Jon Schach, ISA Certified Arborist PD-1580A. Jon is an arborist representive for Good’s Tree Care Inc. of Harrisburg.

Tree Guys are Not all The Same, Buyers Beware

In a down-turned economy we are all out for a bargain. If it’s not a bargain, most of us will walk away from the table. We’ll put off buying the new car or the new couch until we get through the slump, or until that year end bonus comes in. Some purchases can’t be put off however; a painful toothache, faulty wiring in the basement, or a large dead tree towering over your property. In the first two instances most of us will hire a professional. We look for the letters DDS or DMD at the end of the name on the door before we let someone take a drill to our mouths. We do some research to make sure that the electrician that we hire to repair faulty wiring in our home is a certified journeyman with a reputable firm.

Unfortunately, the same rigor is not always applied when we hire a tree service to remove the large dead tree in the yard or for other tree related services. Instead, many look for the bargains in the kid that mows the lawn, the handy-man neighbor with the reciprocating saw and a ladder, or the wife’s uncle who worked for a couple of years as a logger in Maine in the 1970s. More commonly, we sign up for the bargain offered by the “tree guy” that comes in with the lowest price out of several who stop by after you blitz the yellow pages for free estimates. Buyers beware.

Tree guys are not all the same. In the state of Pennsylvania you need a license to cut hair professionally, but you don’t need a license for cutting trees in the same capacity. Anyone with a saw and a pickup truck can respond to your call for tree work, and say, “I am the man for the job.” It is up to you to decide if that is indeed the case. So what should you look for in a tree service? At a bare minimum, you should ask for proof of workman’s compensation insurance for all employee’s working on your property, as well as, sufficient liability insurance specifically covering tree care related operations before you allow a tree service to perform work in or on your trees.

Ideas for Edible Landscapes

Returning home by train from the Philadelphia Flower show last week, I carried a worm composting bin and lots of ideas about using edibles in the landscape. I’m really pleased that I found both.

No less than ten exhibitors incorporated edible plants into their design. Many more used herbs.

I asked my friend who went with me, if she’d had any ‘ah ha!’ moments at the show. We talked about it for a while and both decided that we had seen displays that strengthened preferences we already held, but we both thought ‘ah ha!’ moments didn’t really happen for us.

I realize now, that’s not true. I did have an ‘ah ha!.’

I have many pots in lots of different sizes. I really didn’t want to fill my pots with annuals. And I wasn’t sure I could fill them all with perennials.

My downstairs dressing area bathroom, which used to house nice high heels and office attire, is currently being revamped into some form of seed starting greenhouse. I have way too many seedlings sprouting. My ‘ah ha!’ happened in kind of a ‘duh” fashion. I realized I could use many of those veggie plants in my containers this year.

I’m jazzed about playing with snap peas on a trellis, beet greens and lettuces, and carrots and possibly even corn in my containers. Mixed in with some sweet pea, I think. I will keep you posted.

Vegetables 101

So you read Michael Pollan and saw Michelle Obama encourage community gardens at the Department of Agriculture. Your friends have been talking about victory gardens and you’re tired of never knowing what’s really in your food. Maybe you lost your job and now feel like you have the time and motivation to grow your own food. Whatever your reason, if you’re a first time vegetable grower, here’s some advice to get you started.

Laura's first red pepper 2008