coping with invasive asian jumping worms (they're in 38 states now!); freezing herbs
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Hello , The question “What do I do about the Asian jumping worms that are
destroying my soil?” has outpaced what was the most common thing I was asked, year in and year out, for decades—the relatively simple challenge of “How do I prune my hydrangea?"
Now gardeners from an ever-widening area of the country are voicing this far more troubling worry about an invasive species that seems to be on a mission of Manifest Destiny. The invasive worms are now present in at least 38 states and several Canadian provinces. Ecologist Brad
Herrick from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, has been studying jumping worms for a decade and is here to share the latest insights. Brad is the ecologist and research program manager at the UW-Madison Arboretum, where the staff first noticed their destructive handiwork in 2013. He explained what tactics and products researchers have explored to try to limit the spread, and how they work, and whether we should keep mulching and improving our soil as we always
have despite their presence, and more... and we also talked about how he's coping. 5 reasons to join the virtual garden club (starts 9/14) Ken Druse and I are busy preparing for the fall
semester of our Virtual Garden Club, which begins Thursday. I wanted to share five gardening wins you can expect if you decide to join us. - You'll learn to grow your own perennials at a fraction of the usual cost, by saving seed and winter-sowing it. Saving seed from perennials, including native meadow wildflowers this fall (like Baptisia, above), is a smart way to expand or replenish your garden at almost no cost. We'll also share our best
mail-order perennial seed sources so that you can order varieties you don't have in the garden to harvest seed from...yet. (Prefer to save your vegetable seed? We'll cover the how-to's for those, too.)
- You'll contribute to the environment. Our gardens are more than just pretty, or even just productive harvest-wise. Managed smartly, they can also make a positive contribution to biodiversity. During the club, we'll share the
latest ecologically minded practices for fall cleanup and more.
- You'll bring your passion for gardening indoors in new ways, to enjoy during the colder months. Together, we'll explore everything from growing microgreens all winter (even of herbs and pea shoots!) to pots of forced bulbs for late-winter bloom, to oddball houseplants that can enliven any room.
- You'll create a spring display that outsmarts hungry animals.
Planting animal-resistant bulb choices this fall is one straightforward way to keep critters from "harvesting" your garden without permission. We'll show you which varieties stand up to the test.
- You'll extend your garden's beauty into fall and winter. We'll introduce you to showy, underused late-performing ornamentals and berry-laden native bio-hedges loaded with native species that keep color and visual interest in your garden after the season winds
down.
Our first class starts next Thursday, September 14th, at 3 PM Eastern. We'll meet on Zoom four times, for 90 minutes each, to discuss those subjects and many more. (We record these classes in case you can't attend live.) One of the most popular club features: We'll also answer "urgent garden questions" sent in by our members, to help solve your garden issues. Over 1,000
gardeners have joined us in past seasons, many of them for multiple semesters; you can read a sample of their positive reviews, and all the other club details, on the page linked below. freezing herbs for offseason use I hate paying a couple of dollars for a bunch
of organic parsley in winter (or chives, or cilantro, or sage, or…). As summer starts to wind down each year, I start freezing them—not a perfect substitute for fresh, perhaps, but very good, and economical. How to freeze herbs for winter use (or
anytime). recap: pressing plants for craft, or science Every gardener has their obsessions—or maybe a
nicer way to say that might be to call it their “signature plants,” the ones that help define their garden. I confess to a serious issue with gold-leaved things. And last time I checked my friend Ken Druse had more than a few plants with variegated leaves of all kinds of daring patterns and hues that catch your eye in his New Jersey garden. Today’s topic is how those colorful leaves actually do very important jobs in our landscapes beyond just looking pretty. They can direct your view to some distant point (or intentionally mis-direct it, distracting your focus away from something you wish weren't so eye-catching). They can create a sense of depth and
distance, and we love them for all they do...and just because. the september chores, weather or not In years when it rains consistently, here is
what I do in September, I promise: divide and also add perennials (leaving room for bulbs next month); plant shrubs and trees; repair or renovate lawns; fight next year’s weeds (which slip out of moist ground easily). This year has mostly been too much of a good thing, which presents its own challenges; the 2022 growing season had been dry, dry, dry. Rain or no, I’m under way on some key September chores, like putting up harvests, turning the compost, and even saving seed. It's perhaps the best month to really look at the garden critically, taking stock of its strengths, weaknesses…and opportunities. That I am doing, but I am always eager for some predictable precipitation come September (and please, not 3 inches
in an hour!) to tackle some of the rest successfully. Onward we each shall go in our fall garden tasks, weather or not. |
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