Herbal greetings from Beagle Ridge
Welcome to spring- Okay, it may be the Ides of March, but I
am ready for spring! As parts of the country are underwater
or experiencing snow, we are lucky to have cold nights but
days in the 60's. My heart goes out to those of you who are
being ravaged by nature's wrath, I hope things return to normal
shortly.
These last few weeks have been perfect for winter clean-up.
This leads me to the subject of this newsletter, pruning and
winter clean up! This job is one of the most dreaded, not
because of the work involved but the comfort level in our own
expertise.
Through experience, (not always good results) I have learned
that in spite of how wonderful plants look after winter,
pruning is a must. Let me illustrate this for you. Once you
have plants which are sending out pretty new leaves on the end
of their winter ravaged branches, you will need to prune them
off; this has already begun on our Sage. As hard as it may be,
you need to cut this new growth off after a chance of severe
freeze is over. Look carefully at the base of your plants and
check for new growth at the base. Cut back to just above the
new growth at the base and it will send out a flush of new
growth for a lush, robust plant.
I used to think this was brutal. However, I tried it with
two plants, side by side. One severely pruned and one with just
a few of the tips cut back. I will never be hesitant again. By
the middle of May my results were amazing. One plant was
beautiful and full the other had spotty growth on the tips of
the stems and a little in the center. This graphic display has
convinced me to be "brutal" when pruning. Your plants will
thank you.
I will cut back the Lavender Walk and the Knot Garden
before we open, sometime after April 1st. We have learned to
be patient and wait for a new growth at the base of the plants
before we do our yearly pruning of our hardy herbs. Other herbs
which get this treatment are green Santolina, Southernwood and
Artemisia, Horehound, Catnip and Feverfew, most of the others
get a bit of trimming. If the rabbits didn't munch on the
Thymes all winter I would be trimming it too.
For aggressive spreaders such as mint, clip back the
stolons and compost or share with fellow gardeners. Anise
Hyssop and Lemon balm reseed everywhere so keep them in check
by digging up and potting up the new starts. Our Bee balm needs
dividing too,by thinning it and topdressing with compost I will
not only have new plants for sale but the remaining ones will
be rejuvenated. I know it seems harsh to rip out plants but if
you don't they will choke each other out and each year the
blooms will diminish and eventually the plants will die.
We will top-dress the gardens with mulch after removing the
remains of last years growth. For those of you new to our
newsletter I do not clean up our seed heads until spring so
they are standing for the birds. We do our garden cleanup in
the spring instead of the fall.
If you are in the Roanoke area this Saturday be sure to stop by
Virginia Western College for Scarborough Faire. The Herb
Society will be hosting an Herb Sale and I will be presenting a
program on Gardening for Wildlife. There will be several
activities/ demonstrations for children and adults. We will
have lots of plants for sale, and lots of ones to attract
butterflies to the garden. Let me know if you need additional
information and I hope to see you there.
For those of you who live a bit far to make the trip here is
some info on attracting butterflies to your garden. You need
two types of plants in the garden- one for the caterpillars-
Host/Larval plants and for the butterflies- Nectar plants.
Host plants include Parsley, Dill , Fennel, Rue, Hops, Passion
Flowers, Violets and even Honeysuckle. Without these herbs they
can't survive, these herbs are their food source for the
caterpillars. I know we usually think of caterpillars as an
enemy in the garden- but without them we wouldn't have
butterflies. Once they become butterflies they need nectar from
flowers. A wide variety of flowers will attract "flying
flowers" to your garden including Echinacea, Catnip, Lavender,
Sages including Pineapple Sage and hardy salvias), Marigold,
Calendula as well as annual herbs like Basil and Borage. Now,
how do you keep them off your parsley? My usual answer to this
is plant some for you and some for them.
Everybody is happy!**** I have a more complete list of these
plants on the website under Gardening Tips- Gardening for
Wildlife.
Just a reminder we open April 26 However I will be at Natural
Tunnel State Park on April 12 for WOW- I will be presenting a
program on vermicomposting- yes worms; and in Abingdon for the
Garden Faire April 18-20. More details on both of these are on
the events link at the website check it out at
www.beagleridgeherbfarm.com.
Be sure to check out the website after April 1st and check out
the changes we have made. We will be with a new web hosting
group after 8 years and I am hoping things go as well as they
have. We will also making some changes with the newsletters and
Emails that bounce will be removed from the customer database.
Hopefully the transition will be seamless, if you do not
recieve another newsletter by April 15th please email me at
beagleridge@gmail.com.
More soon,
Happy gardening,
Ellen
Visit our site here:
http://www.beagleridgeherbfarm.com/
Labels: Carroll County VA, Galax VA, Grayson County VA, Herbs, Independence VA, Seasons, Springtime
