Category Archives: Gardening Tips

Cut Flowers : How to condition for freshness

Posted on by

Helpful tips for conditioning cut flowers and foliage to stay fresh longer in bouquets.

1- Cut flowers and foliage the night before the sale or early in the morning when it is cool.
2- Use sharp and clean clippers and tools, scissors are not recommended. Cut stems at 45º, and under water if possible.
3- Place them in a 1/4 filled buckets of lukewarm water, and keep them in a cool place.
4- Flowers with strong and tall stems make the best cut flowers.
5- For bulbs flowers, cut the white section at the bottoms of stem so they can drink better.
5- Most flowers can be cut in bud stage as soon as they show a little color.
6- Zinnias, marigolds, mums, and dahlias, should be cut when the flowers are fully open.
7- For woody stems make a clean split at the bottom one inch, don’t crush or hammer!
8- Remove all the lower foliage which will be below the water level.
9- For hydrangeas, dip the head in cold water to firm up the petals for an hour, then drip
dry them, cut and place stems in warm water overnight.
10- Flowers like delphiniums, lupines, dahlias, hollyhocks which have hollow stems can be
filled water and covered with a cotton ball at the base.
11-  Flowers In a vase: Use a clean vase, maintain water level and change the water  frequently.

Submitted by Goly Ostovar, AGC Member

Photo by: Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member

Easy-to-make Cut-Flower Preservative

Posted on by

Using a preservative increases the longevity of your cut flowers. For flowers to survive they need three ingredients: carbohydrates for cell metabolism, a biocide to fight bacteria , and an acidifier to change the water’s pH and increase their water uptake.  This homemade mix provides them with what they need and it can be as effective as a commercial preservative, plus it’s easy to make and cost less.  

  • 1 quart lukewarm water ( warm water delivers “food” to the flowers faster)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon household bleach
  • 2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice

Stir thoroughly before using.

Garden Tools

Posted on by

Gardening Tools used and recommended by Ashland Garden Club Members

Japanese Hori Hori Knife: For weeding, digging, cutting roots, dividing perennials, removing plants from pots.  Unbelievably versatile!

Nejiri Gama Garden Hoe (Japanese garden hand tool):  Narrow end pushes deep into the soil helps with weeding, planting seedlings, aerating the soil, making seed trenches, and breaking up clods & soil.

Hand Plow Ho-Mi Digger (short-handled):  A Korean tool that’s an all-around hand-digging tool, useful for planting, weeding, rock-removal and finding irrigation lines.

Kneelon Knee Pads – Flexible, Waterproof, durable, machine washable.

Sheep Shearing Tool: Large long blades are useful for clipping & trimming small shrubs .

Garden Bucket Caddy:  Slips into a plastic bucket and holds garden tools.

Long Handle Spading Fork (48″ Handle):  Dividing perennials, digging out trees, shrubs & perennials – Easier on the back when using long handle as leverage.

Flexible Buckets: Great for  hauling weeds, plants, hand tools around the garden.

Felco Pruners, 2 sizes: Pruning, quality pruner, replaceable blades & parts, easy to sharpen. Right or Left handed offered.  

Felco Pruner 7: Ergonomic heavy duty pruner with spinning handle – great for arthritic thumb joint issues.

Florian Ratchet Pruner: Ratchet-cut mechanism increases hand strength, prunes branches up to ¾ Inches in diameter, has a Lifetime Warranty.  Right or Left handed offered.

CircleHoe  –  For weeding & cultivating close to plants. 

Hoop Hoe, Stirrup Hoe, Action Hoe  – All Similar hoes for weeding around plants.

Winged Weeder, Scuffle Hoe, Triangle Hoe: For weeding, cultivating, edging, aerating and making furrows.  

Balling Spade: Ideal for cutting deep and slicing through roots. 

Potlifter: Lifts 200 lb – Saves your back when lift pots or rocks. 

Pro Potlifter lifts 350 lbs

Leaf Luster Digital Soil Thermometer: to measure Soil temperature for germination and transplanting.

Leaf Luster Soil Tester: Contains tests for ph, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels.

Rapitest PH Meter: Easily checks the pH level of your garden soil and potted plants.

Mico-tip Pruners, aka Floral Pruners: For deadheading & pruning smaller plants & flowers. Fiskar Softough Mico-Tip Pruners: Recommended by Arthritis Foundation – Easy-to-use for people with arthritis or limited hand strength.

Roto Digger Auger: For planting bulbs, bedding plants, seedlings, deep water aeration, fertilizing trees & shrubs.

Corona AC 8300 Sharpening Tool: 5-Inch super carbide file for sharpening straight edge tools.

Fiskars Softouch Weeder (7060) – Ergonomic weeder with forked tip cuts deep to remove weeds by the root.

Yard Butler RKT-1000 Rocket Weeder or Grandpa’s Weeder: Pull weeds from the roots, organic weed control, ergonomic handle,  ejector button pops off the weed-keeping your hands clean.

Leaf Rake with longer “York-style” bent tines: Good for scooping leaves, great for cleaning leaves out of ponds.

Tru Temper Narrow Garden Fork D-handle: For digging and mulching.

Tru Temper  Miniature Shovel: [Size 27 x 6 x 8.5 inches] For planting bulbs and weeding.

Leaf Scoops: Multi-purpose hand-held leaf scoops.

Corona Clipper Folding Pruning Saw: Sturdy, easy to use, easy to store. Lifetime warranty.  

2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Posted on by

Click the link below to check if your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone assignment has changed; search by zip code. Half of the USA has been reclassified. In 1990 Ashland Oregon was Zone 7b: 5°F to 10°F, but in 2023 Ashland is now Zone 8a 10°F to 15°F. Knowing your zone is important for plant survival in your area.

https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/

Below is a link to ‘A Way To Garden’ interview with Todd Rounsaville, USDA horticulturist and research scientist, where he explains this new USDA Zone map.

new usda plant hardiness zone map, with todd rounsaville

Below is a link to an Interesting 2018 article from Yale Environment 360 on how fast climate zones are shifting.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/redrawing-the-map-how-the-worlds-climate-zones-are-shifting

Wildflower Seed balls For Butterflies

Posted on by

What are seed balls?

Introduced in the 70s, seed balls are a form of “guerilla gardening” whereby seeds, soil and clay are mixed together into tidy germination bombs that are said to have an 80% higher success rate than simply broadcasting seeds onto soil.  Adding red potters’ clay to the mix protects the seeds from being blown away by wind or consumed by insects or birds.  Generally, seed balls don’t require watering and you should NOT bury or plant them.  Simply toss them in a vacant lot, your front yard, or a wildscape situation like a ranch or roadside.  Wait for the rain to melt away the clay casing, and nature will do the rest.

Texas Butterfly Ranch Seed ball Recipe

3 parts local soil or potting soil

1 – 2 parts red potter’s clay powder, also known as “terracotta powder” at pottery supply stores

1 part native wildflower seeds

Water, as needed.

Newspaper and cookie sheets for drying seed balls

Stainless steel bowls or pots for mixing

  ****

1.  Assemble ingredients.

2.  Mix soil, clay and wildflower seeds together in bowl.  Mix well.

3.  Add water to attain dough-like consistency, much like tart or pie dough

4. Pinch off or use spoon to grab gumball-sized amounts of the mix.  Roll between your palms to get round form.  Drop onto newspaper covered cookie sheet to dry.

5.  Sprinkle generously with red chili pepper.  Let set for 24 hours.

6.  Once the seed balls set up, usually after 24 hours, store them in paper bags for later use or toss them right away.  Remember to use only native seeds for wildscaping situations.

SOURCE

http://texasbutterflyranch.com/2011/12/20/happy-winter-solstice-celebrate-with-seedballs-a-recipe-and-step-by-step-directions-on-how-to-make-them/

‘Lasagna’ Sheet Mulching

Posted on by

Here’s how to create a lasagna bed, also called sheet mulching:

  • Start in fall so the bed has all winter to start decomposing.
  • Cut grass as low as possible. Or start a lasagna garden on top of an old planting bed.
  • Loosen soil with a digging fork to increase aeration. Even punching holes in the ground will work.
  • Remove weeds.
  • Build a raised bed frame or just mound up the layers of organic material into an unframed bed.
  • Put a layer of cardboard overlapped an inch or two and water it.
  • Cover with 2-inch layers of green organic material like grass clippings, fresh plant debris, fresh animal manure and food scraps that provide nitrogen and brown materials like dry leaves, wood chips, straw and shredded newspaper that are carbon sources. Repeat layers until the bed is about 18 inches.
  • Top off with a 2- to 6-inch brown layer; thicker if you want to plant right away.
  • Create beds only wide enough to reach into the middle and create paths lined with straw to walk on so soil doesn’t get compacted.
  • Lasagna beds will shrink as materials decompose and may need refreshed layers each year.
  • Using transplants is easier in no-till gardening systems; the mulch layer is easier to transplant directly into rather than direct seeding, especially for small-seeded crops like lettuce and broccoli. To transplant, use a trowel or other tool to make holes large enough to plant into. If directly seeding into the bed, pull back the mulch layer and smooth over the surface layer with a rake before seeding.

Instructions from OSU Extension website https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/no-till-garden

The term “Lasagna Gardening” was coined by Patricia Lanza, who wrote a book on the subject in 1998. The illustration above is from her book.