Sounds bad, right, but only weeding a couple areas on a little dune. In Albany, we have a natural pine bush left over from the last ice age, and the Palisades by NYCity was the dam, so we got the sand! It is so beautiful, walking out in it you think you will see the ocean as soon as you climb the next dune, but no, only the NTS Thruway! Over the years, roads have cut up the area, then lots of building, including a hugemongous mall, at which I personally try never to shop! Some of us old hippies still have our “things!”

One of the main things they are doing is killing off the invasives and replanting the natives. One of the worst of the invasives is the black locust trees, and school kids come out in the spring and help girdle trees. I did this last year, it is fun and hard work! Replanting scrub oak and pitch pines.

Also in the school program, lupine seeds are planted, and cared for until time to bring to the dunes and planted. In the top picture, all the little flags showwhere the baby lupines were planted by these school kid, and these kids were in lower grades! Also New Jersey Tea and Horsemint are introduced as native species to the pine bush.

I volunteer, and right now I have been trying to get the weeds under and around the lupines, because the seeds need bare sand and heat to break the pods for the seeds to germinate. Originally, lightening would spark natural fires, that kept the invasives out and helped the natives release their seeds. Today, they do prescribed burns in areas.

[caption id="attachment_269" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Lupines in full bloom"][/caption]

Our gardens, whether perennial, annual, or vegetable may need a little supplemental feeding and dead-heading and more mulching, and of course if you are in an zone higher than 4, you are starting to come into the early harvest, lucky you, if you can keep up with it! Some perennial and annual gardens are reaching their peak and or, if they are early natives, are past. Dead-heading is important, especially with annuals to keep them blooming, and even perennials can use dead-heading to prolong flowering. Annuals especially need a side dressing (putting next to base of plants) of compost, or fertilizer if you use it. And as the perennials die back, they are putting all their energy to building their root systems for next year, so dead-heading and side dressing with compost is also important, but do not cut any green leaves. This is where planning is important to have something new coming into bloom in front of the dying/past plants. With the vegetables, they also need some side dressing to nourish their fruit. And then there are the critters who want the veggies as much as we do! Sprinkling hot pepper around plants helps with some of the four legged ones, slugs need a little beer bar off to the side to draw them into die. Look for caterpillars, and pick them off by hand.

pic by Spring garden by http://www.flickr.com/photos/walliscottage/

Guess now that summer growing season is officially here, and our gardens are starting to amaze us with their beauty, we notice weeds are such a pain in the lower back and knees! Some of us who have used mulch around perennial and annual garden areas may have gotten mulch with too many seeds in it, always such a bother. And trying to be more green, using herbicides is not our cup of tea. Layering newspapers can help some large areas, and can be covered to look better, but the final score is that we need to weed. When I was weeding at my day job, the boss did not want mulch, so after I weeded, I would rake the soil so it looked pretty. WRONG! What disturbing the soil like that does is to bring up more weed seeds to be able to germinate!

And then for those of us who are using native plant materials, we need to know the difference between what we want and what we don’t want! This is where it gets very tricky, and sometimes we can find pictures of what the wanted seedlings look like so we can keep them growing.

I was having a lovely lunch with a couple people I met today, and, don’t cha’ know got going on my passions: using natives in the landscape. Was telling one about how I envision suburbia: flowing areas of native plant material around little spots of lawn for those who cannot give it up. The natives need to flow from yard to yard to give the critters out there plenty of habitat to move and to keep their populations going. The natural evolution of the cycle of life.
Lately, as I sit and watch my favorite reruns on tv, I think about how the big box stores and national chains are ruining our small community way of life, literally killing the natural evolution of the cycle of life. It is generally the same as using natives in the landscape. Sure, all of us do not live in small, close knit communities, but even those in the big cities have their circles where they rarely venture from, and if the little mom and pop closes because of a national chain, those in the big cities have to venture out of their neighborhood and then add to the pollution and crazyness of too many in one place. And the decay begins.
I have been craving tacos lately cause of too much tv time, so last night went to a local place instead of the chain. Felt much better, too! So please think about our impacts on our neighborhoods, and remember the call: think globally, act locally!

This is a term most anyone who loves flowers knows well, and quite literally means to remove the dead head, or flower blossom. Ok, we all knew that, so why am I bringing this triteness up today? For one, some people do not know that term, or know it as some other term. But the main reason I am bringing up this issue is for all of you to understand WHY I consider it to be so important, to the point that at times I will deadhead plants outside of businesses I use!

Annuals are the most critical flowering plants to deadhead. An annual is a plant that the growing season is longer normally than the growing season where it is planted. Here in the NorthEast, our growing season in my Zone 4 is June 1 til Oct, bets are always on as to when the first frost will come along. So we buy baby plants and set them out, most people consider Memorial Weekend the time to plant. Of course the plants have early blossoms on them so we see how beautiful they really are supposed to be, and I have always felt that is is important to remove most of those blossoms. The whole purpose of the life cycle of a plant is to make more plants. Once the plant blooms, it is fertilized, then it goes into seed production to continue its genetics. So if we remove the blossom after it fades, it will make another….keeping it blooming longer and longer, making us happy!

Perennials also need this, but not necessarily for the same reason, some times it is best to wait til it is done blooming, starting to fade, then prune the plant back for better flower production next year. Also keeps the plant in a better shape.

pic by me