Tag: research

USDA Hardiness Map

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The new USDA Plant Hardiness map is out. The old version was from 1990, so now there is added information from almost two decades, plus better interaction and more detail. You can see it and read about it here.

This measure the average yearly temperature for an area, and is usually used for determining what plants will survive the winter.  The current map bumps many places up by a zone. (You can look at this map here. They are comparing changes for a map made in 2006, not adopted by the USDA, but it should be similar.)

I am currently living in a zone 7b. Previously I was in a 7a. Doesn’t sound like I’ve changed much, but winters are very different in both locations. Utah county looks like it’s mostly in a 6b situation. I’ve always said a zone 5/6, so it’s just a little warmer. Where I lived before, Cache County, has changed quite a bit. It used to be mostly 4/5, now it’s all in zone 5, even with pockets of zone 6.

I still believe in being a little reserved in choosing plants. I know a zone 5 plant will survive about any winter in Utah county. But if I decided to strically go off of the USDA map I can suddenly plant something hardy to zone 7. I might go ahead with some perennials, but I would always recommend being on the safe side with larger, more expensive plants including large trees and speciem shrubs.

For instance, last winter was pretty cold and the temperature pattern made for a lot of winter kill. Boxwoods, peaches, roses, and similarly tender plants saw a lot of damage. The hardiness rating on these plants are in the zone 5-6 range, which is well within the current USDA hardiness rating.

Because the map is based on average temperatures not lows, cold winters and different weather patterns can result in winter kill for what was supposed to be a hardy plant. There are many plants growing here that would not survive the winters back in Utah, even though I’ve apparently only changed half a zone. Experience and knowledge is much better than strict numbers.  Still, the map does provides a good starting reference point for determining plant hardiness.

Zinnias and Dahlias

I have to admit some confusion with identifying dahlias and zinnias and I hope I’m not alone. With seemingly hundreds of varieties of each, they can look extremly similar. I was recently reading a book and came across a picture with two zinnia varieites and one dahlia. I could not tell which is which without a bit of further research. I tend to second guess my first reaction over some plants–Was that really a dahila, or could it actually be a dahila-flowered zinnia?

Both dahlias and zinnias are generally planted every spring, and showcase a long display of colorful blooms. They both have a plethora of varieties that vary in size, color, flower form, etc.

They are very different plants, even if at first glance they appear similar. Dahlias develop tubers, and are actually tender perennials. The tubers can be lifted and stored for succeeding years in colder climates. Zinnias are annuals grown from seed. Dahlia varieties can be larger than zinnias (although both come in a huge variety of sizes). Zinnias are more tolerant of heat and drought.

So how can you tell them apart? Zinnia flowers are supposedly more two-dimensional, but I think your best bet is to look at the leaves. Zinnia leaves are attached directly to the stem, with little visible petiole. Dahlia leaves have a petiole and are generally more serrated. (For non-botanist readers, there’s some botanical terms to look up. And they are good to know so go ahead a google away.) With that said, the picture at the beginning is definitely a zinnia.

Sand County Almanac–Book Review

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A Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)

This is not a gardening book. It is a classic book on conservation. I at least somewhat consider myself a conservationist and thoroughly loved this book. One of the fun things I did while I was reading it was compare what the author thought should need to happen and what actually is happening now, 62 years after the book was written. There definitely is more progress being made, but we aren’t there yet. So go read the book.

One thing I though of when reading this book was related back to gardening. As gardeners we are stewards over a certain patch of land and I believe we can do of conservation and improvement on the land we use and own. I wrote a senior paper in college about it, which I put up over here. A lot of it is planting a variety of good plants: as gardeners we can preserve native plant species, along with a hoard of cultivated species that are useful to the overall ecosystem. We can create healthy ecosystems in out own backyards by cultivating a healthy soil, not killing off everything “bad” with pesticides, and planting a diversity of plants.

I’ve seen great examples of this in a few gardens I’ve visited or heard of. Botanical centers do lovely jobs. There is an occasional neighborhood garden I stumble across that is growing a lovely assortment of native plants. I love the certified wildlife habitat program. I have yet to do much myself–it is one thing I aspire to do as a gardener, especially when I have a little more to garden with. I want to garden with the natural ecosystem and environment, not ignore it or even worse, try to get rid of or change it.

Good Information

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I want a search engine that can do two things:

  1. Be able to search through my Internet history for a page I remember viewing but I just can’t find.
  2. Search through a selected group of pages, not the entire web: i.e. garden blogs, Extension sites, print-published items, etc.

If anyone finds anything like this, let me know. Or you might even get creative and start something yourself.

At garden rant, I read a post about the web being overrun by articles  not written by experts. There is a ton out there. However, I’m not completely opposed because I’m my mind there is no way to find absolutely correct information anyway. There’s a lot of garbage written by people who have no clue what they are doing. At the same time, I’ve found very valuable information on so-called junk sites.

You can try to find articles written by experts like professional gardeners, extension service agents, people with big degrees and lots of experience. But even the supposed experts aren’t always right. There’s an old Extension bulletin in the USU system that advocates fertilizing lawn every two weeks. It is written by an expert, but the information is bad and outdated. I’ve even worked for the Extension office and (I’m sorry to admit) have offered supposedly ‘expert’ advice that was completely wrong.

Scientific literature and printed information can also be good sources. But scientific literature is far from fact, as discussed on this post at greensparrow gardens. Printed stuff often come from writers that may or may not be actual gardening experts.

The way to get good information:

  • Cross-reference a bit
  • Try and find the most current info
  • Dig up the experience/qualifications of the writer
  • The library, associated resources, and real people beats Google
  • Nothing can replace your own experience and trial and error

If you really want to know something go out and experiment. Often there isn’t a wrong or a right way, just the way that works for you.

And someone should really start a new type of search engine.

Perennials

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My day flew by today. It’s already almost over and I’m thinking of all the stuff that I thought I could get done today. I didn’t do half of it. Mostly I took care of my toddler, along with a lunch date/shopping trip with my husband. The toddler is pretty high maintenance right now, but a joy too. Sometimes I have I think of what I could be doing if I wasn’t taking care of him all the time. So many things I want to do just don’t get done, nor will they for a long time. But mostly I love being a stay at home mom. There’s a slew of other things I wouldn’t have dived into if I hadn’t been home with him. Like this blog and my fledging hort business.

Right now I’ve working on lots of stuff for the above venture. One of which is making a plant list that is taking forever, mostly because I get distracted and start to read all the cool things about plants. I’m working on perennials right now. I got up to over 380 species, but have since consolidated some. There are so many different plants to plant out there! I wonder why people plant so much lawn when you could plant big borders of beautiful perennials instead. It’s been a really good project because I’ve increased my knowledge immensely. (I didn’t know 380 perennials before. Okay I still don’t know that many, but more than I did before I started.) It’s also nice to have a list I can copy/paste out of to make plant lists for clients. I will share when if I ever get done.

I’ve used two books for the plant list–Still’s manual (Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants), and Graham Rice’s book (Encyclopedia of Perennials (American Horticultural Society). Both are good books and complement each other. I like Still’s better as a basic reference, but Graham’s is the better read. I get very distracted by all the wonderful pictures and fun facts. And so many cultivars are listed! That is one thing I do not think I will ever learn unless I go into the nursery business. What do you think about learning cultivars? For me, it’s best to learn general facts about the species and worry about specific cultivars when I am at a nursery about to buy a plant. No point in finding the perfect cultivar that no one sells!

Five Books From the Extension Office

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My gardening books might differ from an average gardener because most were bought as textbooks. When looking through them I realized that many of my favorite were the ones that I used the most during my long internship at the extension office. These were the one I frantically looked for when someone wanted an immediate answer on the other end of the phone, or pulled out and refereed to when someone came in. None are good reads. But they are wonderful gardening reference books.

Weeds of the West

Want to know what weed it is? Look it up in this book. If its a weed, you will find it in this book with only a few exceptions. If you garden, get this book. Because we all deal with weeds, and its easier to deal with them if you know what they are.

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants: Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propogation and Uses

This is the bible for woody plant information. No book compares. I also use the more reader friendly Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs. Colored pictures there make it easier for identification.

Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants

There are plenty of herbaceous plant books out there. This is my favorite for basic plant info reference. Its getting old (17 years!) and needs updating, but I still like the format.

PNW Insect Management/Disease Management/Weed Management and UW Weed Management

Now I’m excited: these books are online! Didn’t know that. And I know: there are actually four books that I am counting as one. But they extremely similar and worth mentioning. They update them yearly, and they include everything you’d want to know to take care of pests. It’s a lot of chemical recommendations, but also most other control methods as well.

Hartmann & Kester’s Plant Propagation: Principles and Practices (8th Edition)

There are more interesting books out there. But as a reference book this is the best. All the technique on how to do anything propagation wise, along with a large section on how to propagate most plants. It’s expensive: I would buy the old edition.

Thanks for suggesting, North Coast Gardening!

Natural Landscaping

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=ginkggarde-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0875968856&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

I read this book ages ago. It’s not too bad. Maybe more emphasis on using native plants, and avoiding invasive plants would be helpful. The only bad thing was I took forever to read it and had to turn it into my library before I really wanted to. It does have a great section on meadow gardens, and lots of great step by step instructions. For instance, the meadow garden goes something like this (as a horrible paraphrase, because the book is at the library):

  • Get rid of whatever is in the spot you want to put your meadow.
  • Let all the weeds sprout, and get rid of them.
  • Wait a few weeks and get rid of all the weeds again.
  • Seed in the stuff you want for a meadow.
  • Weed some more.
  • Mow to about six inches high in late winter.
  • Add/modify plants as needed.
She takes a realistic view on things, because she’s done it. So a meadow isn’t presented as a maintenance free wonderland. There’s obvious advice, like leaving water out for birds, but also less often thought of advice like planting a ‘dead’ tree for shelter. Natural landscaping is a different way to garden, and it is presented very nicely in this book. It’s also a timely read, due to the desire to reduce lawn usage and garden more sustainably.

The Snow Came

I watered my houseplants today. That’s all the gardening I am going to do. It is cold outside. And it snowed. I will only go outside with small toddler to play, if we are both getting restless. Hence, the leaves are probably not going to get cleaned off my garden beds. That reminds me of several posts over at north cost gardening about whether or not you should remove leaves from gardening beds. Laziness, or a lack of desire to do anything substantial in the cold right now, is answering the question for me.

Winter is wonderful. No gardening chores to worry about. It’s just time to relax and make big plans for next year. I did start up a new site, somewhere to post a bunch of stuff I’ve written, or want to. It doesn’t have a lot up now, but I’m going to add to it gradually.

Irrigation

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So in college, I learned how to determine how much to irrigate. I learned how in so many places and so many ways I was beginning to get confused. So I wrote up this lovely little article on everything I knew about irrigation. I did leave out the more difficult calculations. (So much fun, but really why waste all that effort when a simple one would do?) Fast forward to now. I was running an irrigation clock and had my doubts on how to run it. In other words, I was doing it badly. Finally the nagging I was giving myself caused me to look at the wonderful article. (I just realized I said it was little. It’s not.) Within five minutes I was throughly refreshed all my knowledge, realized that, yes, I should irrigate more, but no, I wasn’t killing the plants.

I have to admit right now, I have no real information on irrigation systems. But when to irrigate…I learned about that in 4-5 classes: one of which involved the difficult calculations that I so much enjoyed, but forgot quickly due to no reason to actually use them. With all this rambling, I am now going to post my article that noone besides me has had access to before now. Feel free to use, leave feedback, and copy (but don’t plagiarize). I understand it perfectly but not sure everyone will, so if you have questions ASK. And enjoy.

IRRIGATION FOR THE HOME GARDENER (PDF)

IRRIGATION FOR THE HOME GARDENER (DOCX)

I did notice: this is Utah based. So its more useful if you live here, but still applies everywhere else.

Soil Texture

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Everyone should know their soil texture. Soil texture is the amount of sand, silt, and clay in a soil. Sand, silt and clay refers to the size of the soil particle. The texture affects most soil properties such as water relations, nutrition, compaction, and structure.

This is how you can classify soil texture, known as the texture triangle:

From USDA--NRCS

To get accurate measurement of sand, silt and clay particles it takes more skill than the average person has. But approximating works just fine. There are two easy ways to determine soil texture. The first is filling a jar with half soil, half water, shaking it up and letting it all settle out. The layer on the bottom is sand, the middle is silt and the top is clay. The texture triangle will help you determine the type of soil you have.

Here’s another useful method that takes less time (the jar method takes a whole day). I’ve seen people get very different results, but it’s not bad to determine a ballpark texture.

I hope you all tested your soil and came up with something close to a loam. That’s what we all want, and if you don’t have it: ADD ORGANIC MATTER.

*Ink and Penstemon recently had a couple of great posts about soil. That’s why I put this up.