A Good Start: How to Plant a Plant

A few weeks ago I won a contest on Your Easy Garden blog, and the prize was 3 Flower Carpet roses. I wasn't previously familiar with them, but they're supposed to be low-maintenance, disease-resistant, and (more recently) bred to tolerate heat and humidity. I just planted them last week. They're a spreading rose, so I made new flower beds with plenty of space for them. I planted one of my roses under the perfect conditions--full sun, good drainage. But I was determined that I wanted a rose in front of my house, so I planted it in mostly shade, heavy clay soil, at the bottom of a gutter spout. We'll see if all my soil prep will keep my rose alive in spite of my better judgment!

There's a rose bush there, if you look closely.
It will have leaves soon, I promise.

What my Flower Carpet roses should look like in a few months.

I decided to give one of them to my mother-in-law. I had never ordered a bareroot (without soil) plant before, so I carefully followed the 6-step instruction sheet that came with it. As we were planting it, my father-in-law commented, "It's a good thing you did it because I would just have dug a hole and stuck it in the ground." I think that's what most people do when they're planting something--just stick it in the ground. The way you plant something, though, can affect whether the roots get established well, whether the plant gets the right amount of water, or whether the plant gets disease. Don't worry--doing it right isn't actually that complicated. I'll give you a few tips.

1. Wider is better, deeper is worser. One of my horticulture professors taught me this rule of thumb for what size your hole should be. It's terrible grammar, but it stuck with me. To be more exact, your hole should be exactly as deep as your root ball (or the pot your plant is coming out of), and about twice as wide as your root ball. This is more important when you're planting strong, long-living trees and shrubs, but less important if you're planting an annual like a pansy that you'll rip out in a few months.

2. Break up the roots. When you buy a plant, it may be "root-bound", which means the pot is full of roots, some of which may be growing in a circle (the shape of its pot). You want to encourage the roots to grow beyond the size and shape of the pot it was in--the plant won't necessarily do this on its own. Just take your hand, grab the roots at the bottom, and pull them apart. If you break some small roots, that's fine--they'll grow back. If it's really bad, sometimes I'll take my pruning shears and make a few vertical cuts down the sides of the root ball.

3. As you plant it, make sure the top of the original soil of the plant is even with the surrounding soil. You shouldn't be putting soil on top, or planting it so shallow all the water runs off. There's a few exceptions. Tomato seedlings like to be planted deep, so you cover up the first few inches of stem. When I planted my rose, it was in heavy clay soil (and roses like well-drained soil), so I planted it slightly raised up to try to improve drainage (I hope it works!).

After I planted my rose, I watered it really well.

 Happy planting! What are you planting this spring?

As always, feel free to comment with any questions you have.

Preparing Soil for Planting

We've had some crazy weather this past week, but spring is definitely here. My tulip bulbs emerged--I'm still waiting on blooms. Our cherry tree has put out a few blooms, but it looks like the cold snap has left it mostly covered in buds. Here's hoping it will be covered in flowers for Easter.

A sure sign of spring: my tulips are emerging.

In my last post, I mentioned how the magic for growing things is in the dirt. Well, this past week I worked a little magic in preparation for all the planting I am doing this spring. One bed was already there--we just removed the existing shrubs and improved the soil.  The other was an entirely new bed, but the process was basically the same for both.  I'll take you step by step through that process.

1. Break up the soil. I'm fortunate to have a husband who is good with a shovel. The soil in most of our yard is very compacted clay, so he alternated between a shovel and a pick mattock to loosen up the soil.

After that I came behind him with a little combo hoe and cultivator mattock. The sharp hoe side breaks up the smaller chunks of clay, and the cultivator side is great for stirring and fluffing. I kept going until the whole bed was tilled to a depth of 6 inches. I probably should have gone deeper, but that was all I had the energy for. Of course, if you have better soil than me, this whole step will take a lot less work.

2. Add compost. There are many different soil amendments available, but if you have to pick one, use compost.  If your soil is too sandy, you'll have to constantly pour water and fertilizer into it just to keep your plants alive. If your soil is heavy clay (like mine), your plants can drown or your roots can rot. Compost can improve any kind of soil--it adds drainage to clay soil, retains moisture in sandy soil, and adds nutrients to boost. I only started my compost bin last fall, so my pile is still cooking. Fortunately, you can buy compost at your local garden center. You'll want to add about one part compost for every one part soil. If you already have soil that's rich in organic matter and has the right balance of moisture, you'll need much less. If you have poor soil, you might want to add more.

3. Mix it up. After adding a few inches of compost, I took the cultivator side of my little hand tool and mixed it in thoroughly. After breaking up the soil previously, this step was pretty easy.

And that's pretty much it! Now you have a nice, healthy bed ready for planting. Depending on the size of your bed and the quality of your soil, you can knock it out in a couple of hours and reap the benefits for years.

5 Things "Green Thumbs" Know

People always tell me, "I have a brown thumb" or "my grandfather had a green thumb." I actually don't like those terms at all. It makes it sound like gardening is a magical talent--either you're born with it, or you're not. Gardening is really a learned skill. I can grow things because I've spent a long time learning about and practicing gardening (and your grandfather probably spent many years gardening, too). If you consider yourself a brown thumb, I'll give you a head start by sharing with you the basic gardening principles I've learned in the last 20 years. I realize I'm touching on a lot of concepts that may be unfamiliar if you have no previous gardening knowledge. I'll go more in-depth on these in later posts.

1. Location, location, location. Otherwise known as "the right plant in the right place", this principle refers to the fact that different plants have different requirements. If you ignore these requirements, your plant will under-perform at best, or die at worst. Sure, I'll push the boundaries sometimes, but I don't plant something in a place that obviously won't give that plant what it needs. What do plants need? The right amount of sun, the right amount of water, and the right temperatures. Read your plant labels. If you want to branch out a little, pick up a good plant book. (The Southern Living Garden Book is my go-to).

2. The magic is in the dirt. Half of a plant (sometimes more) is underground. If you have bad soil, your plant will never be happy. Good soil gives your plant the right amount of water and nutrients. You can do a lot to improve your soil. I'll dedicate a post to this soon. If your garden consists of what you can grow on your patio or balcony, then your answer is simple: buy good potting mix. I bought cheap potting mix once--it wasn't worth it.

Both of these pansy groupings are currently in my garden.
I prepared the soil before planting one of the groups,
can you tell which one?

3. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Water, fertilizer, and sunshine are all good things, but too much can kill plants if you're not careful. Too much fertilizer can fry any plant, too much sunshine can fry a shade-loving plant, and too much water can drown a plant (unless its native habitat is a wetland).

4. Sometimes plants die. A lot of gardening is trial and error. Despite your best efforts, occasionally plants die anyway--that doesn't make you a "brown thumb". It could be killed by disease, you might not have the right climate for it, or it might just give up for no real reason. I've killed a lot of plants in my life, too, but it's all part of the learning process. I don't have patience for plants I have to baby too much, either. If something dies despite reasonable effort, I just won't plant another one--it obviously wasn't a good fit for my garden.

5. Your local garden center is your best friend. By "local", I DON'T mean the closest Home Depot or Lowe's. I mean some place owned locally, and staffed by people who are gardeners themselves. Those people are treasures of information. They'll tell you how to take care of your plants in your climate. If you bring in a leaf with disease or insect pests, they can tell you what pesticides to use. Not to mention, a good garden center will only sell you high-quality plants that are suited to your climate.

Spring is Almost Here!

Here in Middle Georgia, spring is just around the corner. Even though the highs over the last couple of days have been in the 50s (that's cold for us!), you can see signs of spring all around the neighborhood. Even in my own yard, there are a few flowers that started blooming in February. Those late-winter/early-spring blooms fill me with hope! Here are a couple currently in bloom:

Vinca major aka periwinkle

Gelsemium sempervirens aka Carolina jessamine

Of course, many of my plants are still dormant. My husband told me the other day that my hydrangea looked dead. I reassured him (and myself) that it was normal. The hostas look non-existent. As soon as spring comes, though, they will both burst forth with new leaves.

I can't wait to start planting. We have a very narrow window where the temperatures are right for planting. Too early, and they could accidentally be killed in a late frost. Too late, and they will simply wither away in the heat and humidity of our summers. I planted several things last fall with the hopes they would have plenty of time to get established, but there were several plants that simply weren't available at the garden centers in the fall. 

There are a few things you can plant in March: bareroot hardy perennials (not usually available at garden centers, but you can order these online), roses, shrubs, and trees. If you like vegetables, this is a good time to plant asparagus, lettuce, cabbage, onions, radishes, turnips, and carrots. Look at your seed packets for exact dates. They are based on your "last frost date" (the latest date a frost is expected to occur, on average). Here on the border between zone 7 and 8, our last frost date is April 9. Here's what not to plant right now: most of what you see at Lowe's & Home Depot. I saw tomato seedlings for sale last month! They must have thought they were in Florida.

Whether or not you are planting this month, it's a great month to prepare new flower beds. I did this last fall on one of my beds. I have a lot of compacted soil. Whether or not your soil is compacted like mine, most soil can be improved by some compost or other organic matter (such as aged manure). I sort of did a lazy version of "double digging". My husband and I broke up the soil real well to a depth of about 6 inches, pulled out rocks we came across,  and then hand-tilled (mixed) in some store-bought compost. Here's an action shot of my husband at work:

I recently talked about the benefits of soil preparation in a comment on another blog, Your Easy Garden, and  won some rose bushes for my tip! I can't wait to try out my new Flower Carpet roses. The bad news: I guess I need to prep some more beds for planting. What flowers are you enjoying in your garden this month?