What to do this week Though some people can’t wait for summer, as a gardener, I try to savor every day of our too brief spring. It’s here now, in most of its glory. Forsythia had a bloom failure due to last winter’s erratic temperatures, and many roses and other shrubs are slow to leaf out. Give them more time, keep your fingers crossed, and enjoy the tulips.
Q. Our neighbor cut hellebores that were in his garden and gave them to us. I promptly put them in water in the house, but by night they were totally wilted. What should I have done differently? Was it too warm for them in the house?
JANE CADDLE, Dover, N.H.
A. The decorative part of the flower is actually large sepals that surround and protect the tiny nondescript petals. As the fertilized flowers go to seed, the sepals get almost leathery, making the flowers better at surviving in a vase. The trick is not to harvest delicate young hellebore flowers with yellow pollen that are still waiting for their prince, I mean pollinator. Instead, cut the waxy older hellebore flowers with small seedpods forming in the center, even though they are less brightly colored. While you are at it, clip off last year’s brown and battered old hellebore leaves so they don’t detract from the fresh new leaves and flowers in the garden.
Q. I have a small area, about 2 by 2 yards. I think it would look cleaner and prettier with mulch, and I’d like to do it myself. Should I use landscape fabric? What about doing the edge around the area?
OLGA V., Sharon
A. I have tried landscape fabric and find it an irksome impediment to later plantings. I wound up cutting a few holes, and it became a nonbiodegradable piece of trash I had to pull out. I suppose if you will never plant anything new in that spot, it might work. You can buy many kinds of edging materials. I like coils of plastic that are horizontally dug into the soil to create an underground barrier to grass roots.
My inexpensive and easy method is to lay down an inch-thick barrier of biodegradable (and free) black-and-white newspaper sections around plants and tree trunks, avoiding direct contact. I extend this layer several inches beyond my planting area to create a mowing strip for a lawn-mower wheel so I don’t need to edge or use a string trimmer. As I work, I soak the newspaper to keep it from blowing away. Then I dump about 4 inches of mulch on top. Leave a mulch-free “doughnut hole’’ around each plant. The newspaper and the mulch will turn into soil in a few years, and that’s a good thing. But then I have to replenish the mulch (not the newspaper).
I use ground bark mulch like everybody else. I avoid dyed mulch for fear the coloring is disguising recycled materials from building demolitions. I have also asked companies taking down nearby trees and grinding them in their machines to dump their fresh-ground wood in my yard, and they have happily obliged, rather to my surprise. Because your garden is small, you can probably just buy a few bags of mulch for this job. Measure your plot. Read the mulch bags before purchase for information on their origin and how to calculate the amount you need for your project.
Send your garden questions and comments to stockergarden@gmail.com. Please include your name/ initials and community for publication.
