Summer Blues

It's hot. You're sweating. You drank a gallon of water but still feeling like someone stuffed cotton balls in your mouth. You put 100 SPF sunscreen on all over yet you still look like a lobster. Summer is a physically tough time to get through. No wonder the season is known for activities like sitting on the beach, laying by the pool to tan, lounging by the BBQ and drinking cold beverages. Rarely does anyone say "hey! It's 90 degrees out today so let's go work in the garden." I wish! No, unfortunately this is the time of year that is known for garden neglect. Please don't fall in the "it's too hot" trap and forget about all the hard work you did in Spring. Now is the time you need to revisit your plantings and check up on how they're doing. Are they getting enough water? Too much water? Are they being fertilized regularly? Are there pest problems anywhere in the garden? You should be keeping an eye on these things now that the plants are in a stressful time period. Lots samples of beetle issues have come through garden center lately and it inspired me to remind you all to keep an eye out because catching any problems early will relieve headaches later on. Bring in a sample and we can try to identify any problem and give you a proper solution! Hopefully your garden is doing just fine though!

Cultivate 2014

It's the last day here in Columbus, Ohio for this year's Cultivate trade show/conference. It went by quickly and I'm ready to get back to the garden center to put what I've discovered into practice. A few new products and lots of ideas on how to better serve you our customers!

That is why we come to these events. Sure, it's always fun to take a trip but in the end, we do it so we can discover new items, techniques and establish relationships with new vendors that will provide for a bright future! All of it is meant to bring you the best shopping experience possible.

I am excited to see what we can do for the rest of the summer. It's a great time to enjoy your gardens! You may need to freshen up a few things as the heat can take its toll on some things from early spring. Don't worry because we have you covered!

A few more classes, a plane ride to Philly, a drive home, and I'll be back to the regular schedule. Plant highlights, gardening techniques, new products, events, etc will be back to the blog! 

Thank you for reading!

Tour Pictures

Garden Center Tour

What a nice day it is here in Ohio. Great weather for a garden center tour! We packed in on a tour bus this morning and headed towards the Cleveland area. There are some nice garden centers out here! 

Our first stop was at Lowe's. No, not the big box store. This is an independent a lot like us at Gateway. They have the usual trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, fertilizers, etc. but what caught my eye were the unique selections for their gift shop. Candles in mason jar mugs, unique jewelry, colorful table settings, even some clothing! 

Next up was Petiti's. Wow. I've never seen such a large garden center! The crazy thing is that it isn't even the biggest one in the chain. Plants everywhere! So much color! Everything looked so healthy too. They have a large growing operation that supplies them with the fresh product weekly even in the heat of the summer!

The third stop was Breezewood which was a stunning garden center right from the start as you walk in through a log cabin like front into the first part of what has to be one of the neatest and coziest store layouts I've ever seen in any kind of retail store. Lots of gifts and apparel to choose from as well as a large selection of fresh cut flower arrangements. They had lots of large beautiful trees outside along with the bread and butter crops. 

The fourth was Bremec's. Man I'm tired. A large place with lots to see and my feet and legs were yelling at me. There is a hug barn like structure dedicated to only pottery and fountains. I've never seen so many in one place before! They had a whole building filled with pond care products. The property goes on for ever and you can see their growing operation from a distance. The landscape trucks were coming in and out so that must be a busy part of their business too. Everyone was very friendly and welcomed us graciously. If you're ever in the area, it's definitely worth a visit!

I think that's it as far as the tour goes. Tomorrow starts the classes and trade show. Stay tuned for what new things I find and learn!

Cultivate 2014

Hello!! Long time no see! A whole month? How did that happen? Lack of time, focus, or ideas? Well, whatever it was, the streak has ended! What better way to restart the blog than to update you all on North America's largest horticulture trade show! 

I am in Columbus, Ohio for Cultivate 2014. Here I will see new products and vendors as well as take classes that will teach me how to provide an even better shopping experience for you!  

I just posted a picture of the beginning stages of our sister company's display booth. They are here to promote their great plants and I am here to help. Check back in for more info as the days go by here!

Gateway and North Creek @ Cultivate 2014

You Say Tomato… I say Mighty ‘Mato!

There is nothing in the world as good as a real, vine-ripened tomato. So why not get yours growing and grow them like a pro? Grafted veggies aren’t anything new to the top professional growers but they are newly available for home gardeners to buy.

Grafted tomatoes are:

• Stronger and more vigorous growers
• They can handle extreme temperatures and poor soil
• They are better able to defend themselves from soil born disease
• They produce more tomatoes and have a longer growing season

Plant your Mighty ‘Mato with the graft above the soil line. That’s a good time to give it some organic fertilizer. Water your tomato deeply every time you see the foliage begin to wilt. That could be every day in a warm climate like ours. Try not to get water on the foliage, which can cause disease. Keep your watering wand low. Remove dead leaves when you see them. It’s normal for the bottom leaves to turn brown, as the plants get bigger.

What? No vegetable garden? Plant your Mighty ‘Mato in a pot on your deck or balcony. Use a big pot, at lease 20” x 16” and use premium potting soil. Add your organic fertilizer and water well. Then, call me when the BLT’s are ready!

Bringing life to your garden!

Have fun out there,

Peggy Anne

Fertilize with the Frog

Don't worry, be happy!

Are you worried about your annuals in the summer heat that's approaching? Have you had nightmares of not having enough flowers on your plants when company comes over?

Nonperforming annuals and perennials can be a bit of a drag. You do all this planning, placing, and planting and then they sometimes don't live up to the standards we had set for them. Not so fast!

Before we judge, we must first reflect...

How did we plant? Did we dig the hole big enough, amend the soil, break up the root system, water in thoroughly, etc.?

Did we do enough research? Were the expectations legitimate?

If you're following all of these steps correctly then the next step is to evaluate how we have been taking care of the plant. Watering...check! Fertilizing........?

If you want big, beautiful, and lasting flowers through the heat of the summer, you will need to fertilize regularly! Putting them in the ground properly is the crucial first step but just watering won't give you the biggest and best blooms. They would love some extra loving. Watering is a good amount of loving but if you realllly want to show your plants some love, use a fertilizer!

I have one just for fruits and flower promotion here at the garden center. Happy Frog Fruit & Flower is a great product to get the best blooms possible out of your plant. It is an organic fertilizer that uses bat guano, kelp meal, bone meal, among many other beneficial organic material. Give it a try for some bodacious blooms!

 

Here's something to sing about - they are only $4.99!

Lyrical White Sage

Salvia nemorosa or sage as it is commonly called, makes the top 5 list of my favorite perennials. I’ve been growing them for 25 years at least. They’re as reliable as it gets, easy to grow and flower all season. Mine are just beginning to bloom at home. The Lyrical Series of sage is brand new and they really stand up to our heat and humidity.

 

Lyrical Rose Sage

Sage likes full sun and well-drained, rich soil. They grow to about 2’ making them perfect for the front of the border or as edging. They have a strong, compact habit; you won’t need to stake them. After the first flush of flowers fade, cut the flower stems back and they’ll flower again. It’s a twofer!

Lyrical Silvertone Sage

 *They attract butterflies and hummingbirds
*Deer tend to leave them alone
*Great cut flower
*Locally grown

And, here’s something to really sing about – they’re only $4.99!

Have fun out there, 

Peggy Anne

American Beauties Native Plants

Ladybugs

Who would have thought? Adding bugs can help get rid of bugs! Ladybugs are voracious predators of many common garden pests. The children's stories with all of the friendly ladybugs were somewhat true. They are good for your gardens but they are not so friendly to their prey! They take care of aphids, mites, and other small insects and their eggs.

In order to put them to work in your garden, you'll need to follow a few simple instructions.

1) water your garden before releasing them into the garden
2) wait till after sundown to release (they won't fly away at night)
3) shake them out of the container in small groups at the bottom of the problem plants/areas
4) release 1/3 the first night, another 1/3 two nights later, then the rest two nights after that (keep refrigerated in between releases)

This is major - Major Wheeler!

'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle, an explosion of color!

Every garden needs to have this incredible honeysuckle. I honestly can’t say enough about this native knock out. ‘Major Wheeler’ is a selection that is covered in bright orange-red, trumpet-shaped flowers starting in late spring. Believe me your hummingbirds and butterflies will take notice! It’s a twining vine that needs some support in the form of a trellis or open fence. This easy to care for, fast growing climber likes a sunny or lightly shaded location and is surprisingly drought tolerant once established. A light trim after the first flush of flowers will promote reblooming the rest of the summer. And, believe it or not, deer don’t seem to like it!

Bringing Life to Your Garden!

Have fun out there,

Peggy Anne

'Gold Flame' honeysuckle, a hybrid with fragrant bi-color flowers, disease resistant

'Peaches and Cream' honeysuckle, a French hybrid with a compact habit and delicious fragrance

Easy Fertilizing

Let's face it, if you want your plants to perform better, you have to give them that certain edge to take them to the next level. Just like how an athlete needs to keep their body fueled with the right nutrients to perform on the field, court, track, etc., a plant needs nutrients to keep it healthy and promote solid growth.

Duh, right? Everyone knows that! So why doesn't everyone do it? Well, for some, it's an extra step in the process of gardening that they either do not feel like doing or simply do not have the time to do. To others it might be due to concerns about the organic nature of the fertilizer.

To continue with our athlete analogy, consider anabolic steroids and their effects on the human body. They make the body beef up but at costs no one should be willing to pay. Inorganic fertilizer or simply too much of any fertilizer can be bad for a plant and the soil it is in.

So are there any hassle free safe to use fertilizers out there?? Yes there are and we have just the product for the busy organic gardener who doesn't have time to keep a consistent fertilizing schedule.

Fuhgeddaboudit! is a wonderfully easy to use product from Organic Mechanics. The products are root zone feeder packs. Essentially, once you dig the hole for your plant, you toss one of the packs in and plant right on top of it then...forget about it! It has a NPK fertilizer breakdown of 4-2-2 and is packed with mycorrhizae, biochar, azomite, micronized oyster shells, calcium, and sulphur. It will help build strong roots and will feed for enhanced growth. It can be used on all types of plants and is 100% organic!

Next time your buying some plants at the store, consider using this easy to use and organic product to make your plants happy. They will be thanking you!

Monarchs - The Gateway Insect

It’s no secret anymore that pollinators in general and monarch butterflies in particular, are rapidly declining in numbers. Data from the World Wildlife Fund and the Mexican Government show that overwintering monarchs inhabited just 1.65 acres of woodland in Mexico last winter, down from 45 acres in the mid 1990’s. While there are many factors that have contributed to the decline, the number one cause is habitat loss. Monarch caterpillars can only eat milkweed plants and milkweed populations are disappearing. That is due in large part to GMO crops and high ethanol prices causing farmers to take millions of acres out of conservation programs.

Monarch on Butterfly Weed 

Most of our urban and suburban landscapes are food deserts as far as butterflies and other pollinators are concerned. That is why building a Monarch Waystation in your backyard is so important. By providing host and nectar plants you can help monarchs make their way across the country during their migrations. Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs. It is the only food a monarch  caterpillar can eat and the only plant the female will lay her eggs on.

My Favorite - Hello Yellow Butterfly Weed

What benefits one native insect tends to benefit all of them. That’s why the monarch has become a gateway insect for so many organizations to rally around and promote certified butterfly and pollinator habitats. Let’s face it; monarchs are easier to love than some other insects. I think the monarch is the “Save the Whales” initiative of this age. Certainly whales benefited from that call to action and so did other marine life. So, come on - put on your bell-bottoms and give Mother Nature something special this year!

Bringing Life to Your Garden

Have fun out there, Peggy Anne

Join thousands of others and help support our butterflies and our ecosystem!

 Monarch Watch

North American Butterfly Association

Xerces Society

Wild Ones

Soil Fixes

So, I did some planting on Easter Sunday. It was a beautiful day and I was motivated to take care of sprucing things up early in the season because as May got closer, I knew there would be less and less time to do so. It started out as an enjoyable experience. I was placing the plants in just the right spots trying to imagine them fully grown. It took a lot of time to do this, mainly due to my indecisiveness, but eventually I had everything in place so it was then time to put the shovel in the ground. That's when things got a little less enjoyable.

If you live anywhere near us at Gateway, you probably have some heavily compacted clay rocky soil. It seems, at least in my neighborhood, the developers just dumped all the rock they took out to build the house and dumped it into the back yard adding a thin layer of topsoil on top. Then, after driving over it hundreds of time with heavy equipment, it became compacted and tough to dig. Not ideal conditions for plants.

So, I was left with no choice but to amend, amend, amend! This could be the most important part to gardening. If the soil is happy, the plants will be happy. Clay and rocky soil has little to be excited about while soil filled with organic matter has so much going on, it can't help but be having a good time! Your plants' roots want healthy soil as their home. With healthier soil, you will have healthier plants.

What did I do to amend the soil? Well, over the years, I have thrown a little bit of everything at my beds. Leaf compost, pine soil conditioner, composted manure, Black Forest, and Bumpercrop. All of these are good options to add into your soil. Some a bit heavier than others so it will depend on what your planting for what product to choose.

Leaf compost and composted manure are the heaviest of the bunch and are good for general bed building. The pine soil conditioner and Black Forest are good products to use when planting trees and shrubs. The Bumpercrop is a great choice for flower beds and vegetable gardens. These products are meant to be soil amendments meaning they will help build the existing soil by being mixed in with what's already there.

We have sample bags open so you can see and feel what's inside. Stop in and see us!

Fertilize Your Vegetables

I love growing vegetables and herbs. There is just something so satisfying  about going out your back door and harvesting something that you've cared for for so long. Enjoying the fruits of your labor, to me, is so much more rewarding than buying the package at the grocery store. Now, don't get me wrong. I know we are not all farmers and we don't all have farms so, of  course, grocery store selections are necessary. However, supplementing that grocery list with items you can grow yourself is not only rewarding to one's self esteem, but it could save you money too!

In order to get the most bang for your buck out of your incredible edibles, you should devise a consistent fertilizing program. It doesn't have to be anything too technical but a regular feeding schedule will help give you higher yields with more flavor.

A new organic fertilizer we brought in this year is Happy Frog Tomato & Vegetable 7-4-5. It is designed for use on all veggies, fruits, and berries. The ratios between the N-P-K levels will feed the plants efficiently gaining abundant quality fruit! There is also calcium added to help with the prevention of blossom end rot and strengthens the plant to make it more disease resistant. You can use it in new container plants, new in ground plantings, as well as established plants. It comes in an eye catching package that has great application instructions on the back.

You can't miss this product line. It's right up front when you walk in our store and the colors will jump right out at you!

Nandina Obsession

Looking for a unique and compact plant to put in that partially shady spot in your lawn?  Nandina Obsession is a wonderful choice because it adds color, a unique shape, and fits into a tight space. The foliage starts out a deep red which turn into a tinge of green. It is technically an evergreen, however, with this past extreme winter, many did drop their foliage. It stays compact so you could use it in a container and it's also a good choice in a mass planting or slope. They can grow to be about 4' x 4' and can do so moderately fast. Nothing too special about the planting procedure for this special plant.



We brought in a large quantity of these fashionable specimens for you to take home! Last year, however, they were so popular, they sold out in no time at all. So, don't wait too long! Stop by to check these out and see if they could have a home in your yard!

Berries for your Pots

Hello again. I went into hibernation there for a little while. Believe me, I wasn't on vacation leaving you high and dry with no remorse. I wanted to write, I really did. There is just only so much time in a day! However, there is no excuse really to deprive the readers of the crucial updates regarding what we've been bringing in and what's been going on in the gardening world. So, now that I've made up, here goes another update on a hot new plant!

We all love blueberries. They're good in a pie, on a cake, with some whipped cream, or my favorite way, freshly picked off the bush!

They're tasty, yes, but they can be a bit picky and they have, historically, needed a good amount of space...until now! Now you can enjoy tasty blueberries in a nice compact space like a pot on your patio! It is no longer necessary to have a large blueberry patch to enjoy the scrumptious blueberries or raspberries.

The BrazelBerries brand has done a lot of work to bring you just the right sized berry plant for your containers. The plants stay compact and display beautiful foliage while providing delicious blueberries and raspberries. They can also be planted in your garden beds as well to provide you with a colorful edible landscape.

Stop in to see these wonderfully resourceful plants!

Pruning Tips from Sandy

1. General Tips for Pruning
1. Think before you cut – you can’t put it back!
2. Pruning time of flowering shrubs is dependant on their bloom cycle.  Pruning at the wrong time of year/cycle will mean the loss of flowers, not necessarily the loss of the plant.
3. Severe pruning of evergreens, depending on the species, may mean the loss of the plant, know your evergreens before you prune and be careful how much evergreen foliage you remove.
4. You may wish to save some perennial and summer blooming shrub spent bloom/seed pods/berries for winter interest and wildlife habitat/food.
5. Prune summer to fall blooming shrubs and small trees in winter without foliage on them allows you to see the internal structure of the plant enabling you to make proper pruning selections.
6. ALWAYS cut with the blade toward the main stem or bud to allow for closer cuts.
7. ALWAYS use the correct tool for the job – hand pruners, shears, loppers, pruning saw.
8. Saw a safety cut under branches over 1 inch to avoid bark stripping.
9. Single buds get a 45 degree cut ¼ inch above the bud; Double buds a straight cut ¼ inch above the buds.

-General Pruning of Shrubs

1. Generally prune flowering shrubs right after they are done blooming.
2. NEVER prune a spring blooming shrub in the fall.
3. NEVER prune a fall blooming plant in the summer.
4. Don’t use shears on broad leaf evergreens. You must live with the clipped leaves for another whole year!
5. Most shrubs need to be to have 3-year old wood removed to make room for new vigorous shoots.
6. Prune to correct and shape or to control size. Shear for shape…if you must.

Spring	Fall	Not Recommended
Panicle Hydrangeas	Perennial Bed Cleanup	Mop Head Hydrangeas
Roses	Small Trees	Azaleas
Most Spirea except early summer bloomers	Most Spirea except early summer bloomers	Rhododendrons
Boxwood and Yew	Boxwood and Yew	“some” Camellias
Junipers	Junipers	Blue Berry Bushes
Berry Vines	Crape Myrtle	Quince and fruit trees
Caryopteris	Evergreens	Magnolias
Butterfly Bush		Dogwood
Forsythia (Late)		Spruce/Fir
Crape Myrtle

 -Pruning of Trees

1. Fall-winter is a great time for tree pruning because you can see structure for general shaping.
2. Weeping maples and weeping cherries need thinning.
3. Less bleeding occurs because the sap is not running.

-Pruning of Perennials

1. Most bushy perennials can be removed to the ground in fall.
2. Remember to think about your winter interest – seed pods.
3. Clear the way for spring bulbs.
4. Bearded Iris – Remove dead foliage to the ground.

Perennial	Prune Yes/No	Reason
Daylilies	Yes	Saves mess in spring
Cone Flower	No	Birds
Black Eyed Susan	No	Birds
Tall Sedums	No	Snow Catchers
Catmint	Yes	Neat Appearance
Coral Bells	Yes	Remove frosted leaves
Columbine	Yes	Neat Appearance
Hellebores	No	Evergreen Leaves
Lavender	Yes	Only in early October and in late April
Tree Peony	Yes	Only to New Bud
Peony herbaceous	Yes	Neat Appearance
Ferns/non—evergreen groundcovers	Yes	Neat Appearance