A Way to Garden by Margaret Roach (July Book) Zoom discussion?

• ordered/downloaded the 19th of June
• Preface:
• people saw WEEDS! gardeners
• grew winterberry holly and asters
• hype of native plants  likes earthworms for enviromentaal health
• seeds are now intellectual properties
• like ripen all at once for harvesting
• author likes the organic process (also looking at pest control)
• wanted a 365 day garden
• it’s her way to garden (will it work for you)
• Introduction:
• this book supplies guidance
• talk of six seasons of your daily life
• Garden is a hobby that’s always changing
• she decided to grow plant from seed instead of buying a potted plant
• don’t follow “easy to grow”, Extra-Large Exotic Bloomms”,  or Envy of your Neighborhood”
• lessons to follow:  6%
• *****garden is where you can be yourself
• birds eat the bad bugs :::)   🙂
• The cheapest gardening education comes from the pages of seed and plants catalogs
• not all seeds are created equally
• 9 variety’s of chives
• seeds by mail?
• Read the data for any seed you buy.
• Garden design means looking out the window.  Look out the window before diggi0n0g a hole.
• use flowering tobacco plants for hummingbirds attraction
• map out plans for garden.
• make list/plans for your clip board
• Keep a journal:  write it all down  journals are good for education
• writing is a life practice
• record bloom dates and where it was planting
• territory’s are now a half zone warmer
• let the garden tell you what it can/can not grow try a plant 1 zone difference
• Talk about speaking Latin
• by Linnaeus in 1753 botanical Latin
• Look at color, growth habits, and surface texture or patterns (location 644)
• Also fragrance, bloom times, and habitat of orgin
• then;  hybrid, heirloom, or both
• Seed Viability versus vigor
• do an inventory
• do a seed germination lest  (put seed in plastic bags)  but germination does not equal  vigor.
• *******there is no test for vigor!
• need properly dried seed
• first sowing are onions and leeks (outdoor second week in April)
• plant onions about a foot apart
• Beware of Deer like with fences
• could use repellant, even rubbing horns on trees
• use fence 2-rows to protect against deer
• ******For prunning take out the 3 d”s  (dead, damaged, and diseased) like dying and damaged
• take out suckers and water sprouts
• hazels seem to fight against insects and diseases.
• loosen roots from a nursey potted plant
• Looking good naked
• -needs good structure
• -is it fast growing
• the author does a late annual cutback
• On groundhog day is the beginning of birth
• thought of lack of rain, or drought
• the author referred to herself as a flat-lander….dealing with a woodchuck (groundhog)
• need to grow bugs (insects)…use no chemicals.   Assess your habitat  Get informed and target  the right species with the right action.
• .  Account at ebird.org
• use garden as a “big bird feeder”
• *****create an   “edge” habitat
• evergreens provide shelter (cover) and nesting possibilities for birds
• try NestWatch.org’s for the right size nests
• or feederwatch online
• flowering plants draw in insects
• Start tomato seeds beteen1-15 April
• *****Seed starting tips:

1.  Don’t rush, focus on light
2.   Buy freshseed
3. don’t use any potting soil
4.   Don’t overwater seeds
5. invest in a watering device
6. no windowsill growing
7. don’t rush to transplant

• Why do seeds get spindly?

1.  to little light
2. wrong fertilizer
3. temperature
4. oe too much light
5. spacing
6. humidity

• make your light brighter
• do plan for  succession of many crops
• maybe look at LED light
• don’t leave heating pads under a sprouting seed
• limiting tilling might lead to some weed smothering
• cardboard is good for garden.  Water the paper, then add mulch
• Ruth Stout has a “lazy” gardener inspiration
• How to Shop  for plants….
• where are the plants that look good in February or March
• don’t bring home JUST ONE plant.
• learn to plant smarter
• Plant peas in March
• plant seed by scattering!
• *****pruning (less) will lead to smaller blooms. deadheading to encourage maximize size!
• *****golden foilage:  They screqm, teyhey brighten, they make things feel fresh, provide needed contrast to deeper colors
• like:  Japanese forest plant
• spice bush might be good for butterflies
• fox tail lillies for deer resistance.
• Narcissus are animal-resistant
• pruning types:
• tyoe 1 and typee 2   Right after flowering.  Type 3 blooms on new wood
• Pulmonaria leaves look like a diseased lung
• it a hard cutback after flowering pulmanaria
• native labels is used for marketing 🙂
• what’s native right here!
• Spring Water
• watch out for Algae  (more insects)  make a pond
• think about filtering the biological way.
• follow the fall pond-care tips in the final section of this book.
• net a pond in the fall
• ********Know your weeds!  know your names of weeds
• Queen Anne’s lace is a wild carrot
• ******gardening and life languages are corelated
• toolbox against wildlife
• ******use collars when planting fruit trees
• you need safe work with live trapes
• *******don’t use moth balls
• *****don’t plant a plant to deep!!
• 13 things
• memorial day for planting
• use a self starter plant
• growing tomatoes on black plastic
• 18 inches between plants
• don’t use volunteer tomatoes
• use straight sided canning jars
• look at red lettuce  Morton’s
• plant a plot every two weeks
• leaf lettuce harvest is about 45 days
• keep sowing your garden
• ******investment plants:
• like hanging baskets
• like pots
• Ornamental Onions:  ??????
• Allium maybe growth is hostas
• hummingbirds like bleeding heart
• Euphorbia can cause skin irritation
• Ferns:  Thoreau wrote that God made ferns to show
• what he could do with leaves. (several hundred  million years)
• Gave tips for growing peonies  (location 2203)
• clean up well when working with Peonies
• There are tree peonies!!! they flower on old wood
• Lilacs outgrow their places
• making a mosaic:  have patience
• with a mosaic think about creating a texture (location 2334)
• a vegetable garden can be a mosaic
• grow mint alone, or in a pot
• maybe use beee balm to attract pollinators
• on page 171 I have a purple loosestrife plant (Wild Ones)
• Must have rose is a Rosa glauca (blue leaved rose)
• arching canes 6 to 8 feet
• Water pot garden (pot)?????
• use a sharp mower bland
• don’t cut to low
• don’t cut grass off over 1/3rd of height
• ground up fall leaves
• don’t feed the grass if it’s thick or green
• feed?? do a soil test
• pull a dozen dandies per day
• talk of Ruth Stout using mulch
• Growing potatoes
• ******starts in fall, use compost, use leaf mold, more organic the betetr   in October
• Adulthood July & August
• would like it if it was a jigsaw puzzel
• designing a flower bed
• Note:  gardening is a process where you just move things around
• Fall Vegetable Garden:
• beets about 50 days
• look at using ground cover (acts like living mulch
• the author thinks of very limited mowing
• wait for a full bloom before you cut back
• Ginko was native in North Dakota
• goes back a couple million years ago
• weaver grow into each other, like a filler
• butterflies like see threw
• *****why do we squish anything with 6 or more legs.
• Author shops for leaves, not flowers
• ****gardening is all about experiments
• 6 to 8 foot perennial
• american nativrs like Joe pie weed, a cone flower, New York iron weed
• buttrerfly family
• *****can’t kill or remove a plant (from years of trying)
• ****note nothing lasts
• stop pretending…don’t wait for stuff!
• stop chasing the peak of moments
• We need to age gracefully, but don’t clean up to soon
• try growing pink mums
• p. 228 list bulbs gardeners should pursue (bulbs)

Early fall:

• be willing to share your goods with others
• compares composition to combustion
• compost between 120-160 degrees to kill weeds
• Shop for a sequence of bloom.
• water frequently (water well)
• talk of freezing herbs p.237
• Asters are loved by bees
• Asters bloom in fall, and likes the sun
• use cover crops…like wheat, rye, field peas  p. 241
• keeps seeds on hand
• shop for animal resistant bulbs
• plant tulips 10 to 12 inch deep p 243
• use legumes (like clover or field peas for cover crops)
• use Tommies (crocus tommasininus)
• need to plant more to grow as gardeners
• seeds can be wet- in a fruit
• dry seeds are peas and beans
• fermenting tomato seds on page 248
• nitrogen – manure
• garlic need ti be brought out of the sunlight
• figure out where the plant originated.  (for temp/light needs)
• keep journal of issues for next year
• fall is the best time to rebuild

Margret compares herself to an animal p. 263

• she likes to be “lying fallow”
• tad poles in her pond, bumblebees
• The author is hungry all the time 🙂
• ****the more color in the winter leads to a more interesting garden p. 266
• *****working with bark (like coppicing or stooling)
• *****talk about removing dead material or biomass
• talk about topping a tree and calling in a snag or a wildlife spot

Winterizing a Garden

• keep an open garden for plants and animals
• keep a good water condition
• hardy plants need to be removed
• skim off leaves
• don’t feed under 50 degrees F  (like October)

Willing Houseplants

• 365 day plant
• begonias have fancy leaves
• talk about conifers
• watering indoor plants once per week
• good cones from Korea fur
• Athor likes seeds “I’m mad about seed”
• source of all food
  • buy organic seed when available
  • seek out regionally appropriate vaieties
• Won’t have the upper hand in any garden.
• gives website for birds and insects
• awaytogarden.com