April 2010

Our April meeting featured Jo Jones and Steven Brown who demonstrated the mechanics needed to build flower arrangements. Jo is a Flower Show judge for District 5 of the Federated Garden Clubs and Steven is the President of District 5 and is an accomplished flower arranger having many blue ribbons to his credit. Steven and Joe built several arrangements coaching us both on the principles of design and the techniques to make it happen. Many of our members will be putting the lessons learned to
good use in our flower show at the Northville Public Library in June.

Our thanks to our hostesses, Ann Veltry, Ginger Driscoll and Linda Kessler who provided refreshments and delightful table arrangements for us to enjoy. Towards the middle and end of the month we can look forward to moving our transplants outside into their permanent homes. They do need to be hardened off otherwise the shock of the outside can kill them.

Allow yourself ten days to two weeks before you plan to plant your seedlings outdoors. The first day move them outside to a sheltered spot, away from direct sun for about two hours and then bring them back
inside. At this stage the plant leaves are very tender and just like our skin when we get the first sun of the summer, they burn easily.

Do this for a couple of days and then increase it to a half a day for two days and you can give them some direct sun. If you see any white spots on the leaves that is a sign of sun or wind burn and you should move them to a more sheltered spot to recover.

Continue to water the seedlings though you want to keep them a little
bit more on the dry side. Every couple of days increase the amount of time they spend outside and in the sun but do bring them back inside at night. Our night time temperatures are still too cold and we can get frosts all the way through the end of the month.

After about ten days of this gradual exposure to the sun and wind they should be strong enough to be planted outside. If you are growing plants for containers you can plant them out earlier because if bad weather threatens you can always rush the container inside.

Our last frost date is around the last week of May but wait until your soil temperatures have warmed up before you plant your tomatoes. Don’t worry if you don’t plant them until the first week of June, they will catch up very quickly. Peppers and impatiens hate cold soil and will sulk if planted out too soon.
My raised beds warm up quicker than the other garden beds and to warm them some more I take a black garbage bag and open it up and spread it across the bed. I do this about the same time as I start hardening off my seedlings and if you do this you will be surprised just how warm that soil is when you dig down.

Now that the frost is thawing out from most of my garden beds I am continuing clean up. I have areas of ground cover that are covered with pine needles and leaves blown in over the winter. I take either a hand cultivator or a small rake and gently fluff up these plants. Not too hard because I don’t want to disturb the roots from continuing to spread. Just enough to get all the debris off them and give them good air circulation.

My Bee Balm is coming up and is spreading as Bee Balm will. Now is a great time to move it into other places in the garden, it will take light shade to full sun. I have also potted up some for our plant sale in May. I haven’t touched my buddleia or sage yet. I prefer to leave these woody perennials until I see some sign of new growth. They are not really hardy in our area unless we have very good snow cover so when I see new growth then I can judge better where to prune them.

After you’ve enjoyed your spring bulbs cut off the flower stalk but leave the foliage. The plant needs the foliage to produce food for the bulb for next year. You can also sprinkle fertilizer over the bulbs beds to help them. If you forced any bulbs go ahead and plant hyacinths and daffodils outside, they may not bloom next year but I have success with them in subsequent years and you may too. Tulips do not do well after being forced and are better being put in the compost pile.
Look for our plant sale opposite Stewarts on Main Street during the village wide garage sale on Saturday, May 1. We’ll have houseplants, perennials and a variety of garden items for sale.

Also on May 15, the Master Gardeners of Fulton and Montgomery Counties are holding their annual plant sale in the parking lot of the old Johnstown Hotel, where the Cooperative Extension offices are located. They will have annuals, perennials and herbs so be sure to check it out.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, May 6 when Phyllis Minich will teach us how to select containers, prepare the soil and discuss plant combinations we can use for our outdoor containers. Joan Genovese, Janice Winney and Doris Fordyce will be our hostesses.