Organic Gardening

We like trout lilies, sometimes called dog-tooth violets, for their graceful reflexed petals and gay natures. The slightest breeze send them into a ballet. They bloom in April and thrive in any damp semi-shady spot. They spread rapidly along a brook, sending progeny all up and down the water’s edge.

Another strong multiplier is the grape hyacinth, each like a little upside-down bunch of deep blue grapes on a green stalk. They rise up out of the ground early, coming in deep electric blue, pale blue or white, along with their thick clusters of somewhat tubular foliage. They remain quite lovely for many weeks, and are attractive and long lasting in bouquets as well.

Grape hyacinths may be planted almost anywhere, in sun or semi shade, in the garden proper, in field or wilderness. For an unusually appealing combination, try some grape hyacinths beneath spring flowering shrubs, especially Viburnum carlesi, Kerria japonica, and magnolia. (more…)

In planting primroses I’ve discovered that they look best when set in a casual unplanned manner. Group, say, seven in one area, staggering them nonchalantly along the way. Establish three more just there as the path turns. Then on the opposite side, a little further on, five more, and beyond—thirteen. Perhaps there by that old stump, plant one, in the sheltering arms of its buttressed roots.

Maintenance of the Primrose Path is practically nil—chiefly keeping the new plantings free from weeds. There is no need in a wooded area to provide winter cover, for nature does it most skilfully with falling leaves from the trees overhead. These leaves, constantly decomposing, help nurture beneficent bacteria in the soil, and provide constant plant food. In a drought year, or a prolonged dry spell, the plants may need water, but no other care.

Plants may be divided every third year or so and the best moment is right after blooming. The crowns separate easily as the primrose is lifted from the ground and gently parted by hand. Water each clump immediately after resetting and every few days for a month thereafter. (more…)

There are two ways to have colorful plantings and still hold the line on upkeep. In addition to bringing flowers from woods and meadows to your garden, you can let some of your garden flowers run wild.

Many perennials that grow in dignity in a well-ordered, well-weeded border will, if permitted, contribute the same color, fragrance, and beauty to another area. Suppose you let them run loose in your own tiny or large meadow or woodsy area.
Wherever you set them to naturalize, bee balm, spiderwort and dianthus become as independent as the native flower, needing no watering, weeding or feeding. This is an ideal way to simplify gardening at no sacrifice of beauty in the ground or indoors in cut flower arrangements.  After all, most if not all of our garden flowers were once wild; the domesticated state in which we are accustomed to seeing them isn’t their natural one.

I was first inspired to experiment with this idea one day towards the end of summer when I found iris and corn trying to occupy exactly the same spot in our vegetable garden. I uprooted the iris, but it looked so good I simply could not throw it away. Neighbors took some but there were still plenty of clumps left. I took them down the South Meadow to a spot where it is sunny all day and slightly boggy. With no heart for digging in the tough grass, and also in the spirit of experimentation, I merely dumped the plants, though I did take the trouble to set them right side up. Picking up some loose hay that lay nearby (the meadow had had its annual cut a few weeks before) I tossed it over the rhizomes and promptly forgot them. Yes, you’ve guessed it. The next year, up came the iris, all blooming like mad.   They’re still going strong. (more…)

A hedge of forsythia tumbles over a wall along a road near us. In May it is a sheath of spun gold. Forsythia came originally from Asia, and is a member of the olive family. This indestructible bush whose flowers appear before its leaves makes a fine loose casual hedge. Under plant forsythia with grape hyacinths and scilla. To expand your forsythia planting divide the roots. Do this in spring, fall, or anytime. Merely loosen the soil at one side, and gently pull off a stem with some roots attached. Prune off half of the top growth when you set the new plant.

You can bring forsythia branches indoors in late winter or early spring and they convert your house into a private flower show. This picking also serves as important pruning; it keeps the bush open to sun and air, especially in the center. Flowers next year, as a result, extend down into the heart of the shrub. Lynwood Gold from Ireland is a deep shade and a wonderful variety.

Another good early-flowering shrub is Scotch broom which grows wild at the seashore, thriving in sandy dry soil. The branches are green to the ground, and in April and May golden pea-like flowers appear in the leaf axils. The foliage is straight but flexible and responds to a sweeping breeze in a most delightful manner. For a fine hearth brush, trim off some of the branches and bind them together. (more…)

One of the first flowers to  emerge in our snow garden at the end of the winter are snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis). Pure white and delicate they are, with wax like single and double flowers.

Each cup-shaped blossom has six petals. The outer three are white, and the inner three striped green. Deep in the cup is a small cluster of yellow stamens. The blossoms hang down, so be sure to tip one up so you can observe the charming formation within. If you have a magnifying glass handy, take a really good look. The inner rims of the double flowers are “scrunched” and crinkled pale green.

Plant snowdrop bulbs 3 inches deep and about 3 inches apart and have about eighteen to a square foot. They also do best if allowed to form a good root growth before winter deeply freezes the soil, so set them out at the same time as the eranthis. (more…)

If you’ve ever seen pinks (dianthus) spreading its charming gray green leaf tones and giddy little fringed and fragrant flowers through the Cape Cod cemeteries and along the roadside, you’ll know you must have them on your own home property. What a variety of dianthus are yours for the growing.

White, pink and mauve flowers with fringed and tangled petals —fragrant always. These long-lasting lovely little harbingers of early summer are utterly irresistible.

Consider the area where you’d like to naturalize dianthus. They need full sun, will hold their own in field grass if given a good start. They like light sandy soil but will thrive in poor soil if it is on the sandy side, not clay. When you have selected a possible area for your project, buy a few plants and set them out and see what they do the next year. This we did in a part of our meadow where the black-eyed susans and daisies grow. The few plants thrived so we started our project. (more…)

Gloxinias grow best in porous soil. I use equal parts of leafmold or peatmoss and sandy soil with a 6-inch pot of processed cow or sheep manure for each bushel. Before planting, soak tubersin a 1-200 solution of Carco-X or other fungicide. Apply the same solution to the potting soil of tubers, cuttings, seedlings or seed, and wait about two days before planting. Subsequent applications direct to moistened soil in the pots of growing gloxinias will keep them free of common troubles.
Start fertilizing as soon as you see flower buds, and continue at biweekly intervals until the plant reaches its peak of bloom. Use a fertilizer which contains the minor or trace elements (boron, manganese, etc.). If these are not present in the brand you are using, switch to another, or buy packaged trace elements and apply them in conjunction with the major-element fertilizer.

Light and Water For Gloxinias

Plenty of light is essential but avoid direct sunshine which burns leaves and wilts flowers. On the shaded top deck in the greenhouse, where I grow most of my gloxinias, they receive on a summer day about 2000 foot-candles of light at 12:30 P.M. Plants raised in poor light tend to grow too tall and are slow to bud.
Gloxinias grown under constant water level, that is, where the soil is always kept moist, bud much faster than those wa¬tered only when the soil obviously needs it. (more…)

Be not alarmed by the rattlesnake fern (Botrychium vir-ginianum, 5 in.-2 ft.) which has no special affinity for its namesake. This charming yet stately little plant is common and happy in rich shady woods. Here the plumelike sporophyll springs stiffly up amidst a cluster of sterile fronds. This fern fruits when small as well as large.

The royal fern (Osmunda regalis, 4-6 ft.) is a tall dramatic one with great high fronds. The root of it, as with some of the other osmundas, is the source of the familiar orchid potting material. It is most at home along the banks of streams where it rises in dignity to wave its dense and lovely fronds in the breeze. The spring fronds are golden brown and appear in clusters from the midst of its cushion of black wiry “osmunda” root.

The sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis, 3 ft.) is sensitive to frost, not to human touch. At the first real cold snap in the fall it folds up for the season. The coarse erect fronds are thin in texture. The sporophyll appears in midsummer. The dark green berry-like nubs on it are actually rolled-up pinnules holding spore cases.   Do examine these delicate forms under a magnifying glass.

The toothed wood fern (Dryopteris spinulosa, or Aspidium spinulosum, 3 ft.) has graceful curving fronds and interesting scaly stems. You may wander through great stretches of it enjoying the feel of feathery fronds on bare legs, and stirred by the rhythmic swaying patterns created in the gentlest breeze. Notice how the fronds spring up in an almost perfect circle from the ground. This fern loves to find a decaying old tree stump to grow in. (more…)

The berry bladder fern (Cystopteris bulbifera, 2-3 ft.) not only likes rich moist woods but is often found clinging to limestone cliffs. A fine ground-cover for large areas, it spreads rapidly. You will know it by its tapering almost vinelike fronds, but more especially by the tiny bulblets at the base of the pinnae that drop to the ground and sprout (hence the “berry” in its common name). It also bears the more conventional fruit dots.

Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum, 3-4 ft.) which has a nice Scotch sound, does thrive in great sweeps in Scotland as well as in almost every country in the world. In England it was the basis of an old time medicine. And in rural areas many a mattress was stuffed with the fronds to prevent rickets! Bracken is an informal fern suitable for casual plantings. It is one of the most adaptable and will grow anywhere—wet, dry, sun, shade, high, low, hot, cold. Where nothing else will live the bracken fern will thrive, and spread furiously. The sporophyll edges curl under, and spore cases are hidden beneath these rolls.

The cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnamomea, 3-5 ft.) is not only one of the loveliest ferns but also one of the easiest to grow.   You will know it by the abundance of golden brown wooliness on its unwinding fronds in the spring. Also characteristic are brown wool-like hairs on the stem, a tuft of down at the base of each pinna, and several long slender lovely sporophyll during the summer. The fruiting stalk is a rich cocoa brown, erect and clustered.

The fragile fern or brittle bladder fern (Cystopteris fragilia, 5-18 in.) is not too fragile to grow the world over, even in the frigid areas of Greenland and Alaska. Thus it actually is a robust grower; the brittleness of its stems is responsible for its name. Clinging to shaded rock ledges, it also grows on the ground, and is among the first ferns to start up in the spring.

The Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides, 15-18 in.) with rich dark glossy leaves, is one of the sturdiest and most dependable. Last year’s fronds are still green as this year’s new ones emerge. You can easily recognize the Christmas fern for each pinna is shaped like a long Christmas stocking, foot and all (foot against the stem). Light brown scales also cling to the stalk. One plant for years remains one plant. It spreads by spores alone, not by underground runners or by division of clumps.

The evergreen wood-fern, leather wood-fern or marginal shield fern (Dryopteris marginalise 2-3 ft.) weathers almost any winter and is found among snowy boulders in thickly forested areas. It is common, easy to grow, and spreads very slowly, remaining a single plant for some time. You will recognize this fern by fruit dots located on the margins of the pinnae, the chestnut brown scales on the stems, and its habit in the growing season of erupting its roots several inches up out of the ground!
The common polypody (Polypodium vulgare, 4-10 in.) sends a parade of erect fronds marching across the surface of rocky ledges where they are bright green whether surrounded by snow or by summer. They soften harsh ledges wherever they grow, also cling to steep banks, and make splendid terrarium material.

The ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron, 4-12 in.) is almost evergreen. You can find its twisting turning stem and delicate green pinnae snuggled in any bank of snow along with ground pine and cedar. It takes many hard freezes before this fern finally gives up.  It is ideal for terrariums.