29 - Friday,

April 23, 1993 ~ North Shore News

Achieving bountiful garden harvests

WHEN YOU envision a beautiful
garden and lawn, your thoughts
may turn to sowing and planting
and weeding and mowing and
trimming and feeding — well, you
get the idea.

By Jerry Baker
Contributing Writer

A praiseworthy garden and
lawn used to mean constant
upkeep, but that’s not true
anymore. Today, you can show
off your green thumb without get-
ting much dirt under your finger-
nails.

Taking advantage of advances
in plant breeding is key to your
success in keeping your garden
work to a minimum. From trees
to ground covers, consider plant-
ing slow-growing varieties that
stand up superbly to less-than-
perfect growing and weather con-
ditions,

My recommendations are listed
below, but you'll want to choose
plants that are best suited to your
taste and location. Check with the
folks at your local garden centre
for assistance.

For flower beds, J suggest
perennials, Many of these plants
start out small but they grow to
fill a large area, Because they
reproduce nicely, you'll need to
dig up your perennials and divide
the plants from time to time.

How often you need to divide
your plants depends on the type

of plant and the growing condi- -

tions. Check with your garden
centre if you are not sure how
often your perennials need
dividing. :

Chrysanthemums are my
favorite. You'll find a big selec-
tion of colors and shapes — and
with just a few snips to trim each
summer, you'll have bushels of
blooms,

Lilies are next on my fist of
favorites. I'm especially fond of
the dwarf potted lilies. These grow
just 15 to 18 inches tall and pro-
duce six to eight blooms per plant
in June and July.

Spring-flowering bulbs also fit
into the low-maintenance and
high-praise category.

Tulips, daffodiis and hyacinths
are just some of the bulbs you can
plant, then simply sit back and
watch them come up cach year.
Like the perennials, you will get
the best blooms if you dig up and
divide your bulbs about every
couple of years.

Before you put a new plant in
the ground, be sure to spend a lit-
tle time preparing the soil. The
best soil for outdoor planting is a
blend of equal parts of plain
garden soil, professional mix and
a mulch of shredded leaves and
grass clippings.

Dig a hole twice as wide and
deep as your new plant’s root ball
and line the hole with the soil
blend. Then put in the new plant

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and backfill with more of the soi!
blend.

A mulch of dry grass clippings,
four to six inches deep, placed
around plants, helps keep the
weeds down, moisture in and root
temperature constant. (If you plan
to use decorative stones or chunks
of bark around the bases of trees
or shrubs, you still should put
down a grass mulch first.)

In the spring, feed your lawn,
trees, flowers and shrubs with a
dry lawn food. You can increase
growing power by adding Epsom
salts to the lawn food.

Four pounds of Epsom salts for
every 2,500 square feet of
coverage should do the trick. Use
a broadcast spreader to evenly
apply the mixture of Epsom salts
and lawn food. .

Enrich the soil every fall by lib-
erally sprinkling bonemeal on the
surface of all your flower and
vegetable beds.

Once you have established
low-maintenance plants, you need
to give them just a little time for
care during the growing season.

Prudent use of chemical con-
trols will take care of the occa-
sional yard and garden problems
that get out of hand. And a
growth inhibitor will slow the
growth of shrubs.

If you have questions about
what product to use or how to
apply it, be sure to talk to the ex-
perts at your local garden centre.
They are familiar with the kinds
of garden problems that have oc-
curred in your area and which of
the biological and chemical con-
trols have proven most effective in
combatting those problems.

To help prevent insect problems
and as part of a regular cleaning
and feeding program, apply my
maintenance mixture once every
three weeks. Use this mixture on
lawns, gardens and shrubs.

Maintenance Mixture
1 cup beer
leup children’s shampoo
VY; cup molasses
1 cup liquid lawn food

Mix the ingredients in a 20-
gallon hose-end sprayer and add
enough household ammonia to fill
the jar.

Now, aside from watering and
keeping an eye out for problems,
you're free to spend the rest of
the growing season doing
whatever you wish — including
collecting compliments from your
neighbors on your beautiful lawn
and garden.

Low-maintenance yard addi-
tions include:

@ Dwarf evergreen trees

Starting at the top, | recom-
mend dwarf evergreen trees. These
trees make leaf raking and limb
trimming things of the past. Here
are a few of my favorite varieties:
Canadian hemlock, lawson

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cypress, holly, and Norway spruce,
e@ Dwarf shrubs

A little closer to the ground are
the shrubs. The low-growing,
slow-growing types keep their
shape with only a little pruning.
Choose a dwarf variety of one of
these favorites: boxwood, burning
bush, clematis, deutzia, barberry,
quince, lilac, laurel, and Russian
almond.
@ Ground covers

Near to the low-maintenance
gardener’s heart and close to the
earth are ground covers. Mast of
these plants are easy to care for,
so your selection is wide open. My
favorites include: glossy abelia,
natal plum, cotoneaster and low-
growing junipers (Bar Harbor,
blue rug, admirabilis and
douglasi).
Reprinted with permission from
Better Homes and Gardens’
Mature Outlook magazine.
Distributed by the Los Angeles
Times Syndicate.

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