May: Much to do, Little Time to do it

It is Spring! It is Spring!/On the lea, on the ling!/The frost is dispersed!/Like the buds let us burst! So chortled the poet Ogden Nash. Yes, indeed let us follow his advice for a short time anyway then get down to sterner matters. For gardeners, the month of May might have 31 days but we need every one of them – and then some.

Green thumbs twitch in anticipation of planting out annuals, vegetables and herbs. But as far back as 1676, garden writer John Rea warned: “You must on fairer days acquaint them again with the sun and air by degrees, ” in a process known as ‘hardening off.’ So when is a safe time to install tender plants? Leave annuals and tomatoes until lilacs are in bloom, although peas may be sown earlier, when daffodils begin to flower. Leave setting out pepper plants until oak leaves are fully expanded, along with eggplant, okra and yard-long beans. It is safe to cut back roses when the forsythia is in bloom. Incidentally, unlike in Britain, roses in most of North America grow best in light shade, where they get the morning sun only – the flowers will last longer as they are protected from strong sun seldom experienced the other side of the Atlantic. Keep needle-bearing evergreen shrubs and small trees bushy by lightly shearing them in May or early June, removing about half the new growth made this spring.

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Diversion No. 1

Are you a parsnip or a rhubarb, queries the Daily Mail? A new body shape guide uses different fruit and vegetables to describe our figures. Women are no longer just apples and pears and most men want to be a parsnip, according to a new body-shape guide by Debenhams.

Preparation is everything when it comes to installing annuals, perennials, woody plants along with vegetables and herbs. It is hard to get enough composted manure, which is best dug in during spring. Nowadays urban gardeners usually have to accept whatever can be delivered. In days gone by cattle manure was recommended for light or medium loams, horse manure for clay or heavy loams and that of pigs – presumably for those immune to the odour – for light soils. When actually planting, choosing odd numbers when will create a more natural effect. Annuals are best used around the front door to attract attention there and in containers of every sort so as to bring additional levels of colour to the garden as well as otherwise barren areas such as patios, decks and verandahs. A sponge placed in the bottom of a window box or hanging basket absorbs water while allowing the roots to grow through it and also lessens the weight. What separates the artists from the hoi polloi is their use of colour. “Hot colours” create excitement: reds, oranges, deep yellows whereas pastel colours – white, blues, creams, light yellows – are relaxing and known as “cool colours.” White and cream colours stand out better at dusk and at night. Blues tend to fade into the background but add depth to a landscape. Use purples and mauves in moderation as they are extremely rich colours. Bought a few too many annuals? Following a severe winter a couple of years ago an English gardener, annoyed at the pot holes on his street, filled them with soil and planted flowers.

Diversion No. 2

Spring is occurring earlier: More than 1,300 years of cherry-blossom records for Kyoto, Japan, show a trend toward earlier blossoms in the past 100 years, noted Jonathan Kambouris in Popular Science

Vegetable and herb growing seem an easy way to raise some tasty table fare. However, as with most things in life, even more so in gardening, there are numerous tips to achieve bumper crops. When it comes to everybody’s favourite, tomatoes, a teaspoon of Epsom salts in the bottom of the hole when planting tomatoes produces better fruit. At the same time, add crushed eggshells when planting tomatoes to provide the extra calcium tomatoes must have if they are to avoid blossom end rot later. Do not use fertilizer high in nitrogen or lots of manure around tomatoes – it encourages too much leaf. Both tomatoes and cucumbers grow better, and produce more fruit that is kept clear of slugs, when grown up sturdy stakes. Grow cherry tomatoes in 10” hanging baskets to keep the fruit clear of the ground and to evenly ripen. Add radish seed to the packages of carrot or parsnip seed before sowing – radish germinate very quickly and mark where the rows are as well as breaking the surface soil for the more delicate carrot or parsnip foliage. When it comes to beans plant with the eye down to help then push the seed husk out of the ground. Parsley and chives both make ornamental edging plants for vegetable gardens. The latter, like most herbs require full sun; chervil is unusual in that it requires light shade, but mint, lemon balm and lovage will also grow there. Unfortunately mint can rapidly run rampant. Cage the plant by planting in an eight- or ten-inch plastic pot that has the bottom removed and buried in the ground so that the top inch protrudes. Lacking space? Grow the herbs you use most in six- to ten-inch pots on the patio or deck in full sun, handy to the kitchen when they are required; in fall they can be brought inside. In 1991, the International Herb Association established National Herb Week to be celebrated every year during the week prior to Mother’s Day. The purpose of National Herb Week is to develop and coordinate national attention on herbs, herbal uses, herb businesses, and the IHA. This year, as we noted much earlier this year, their choice of herb is the Artemisia. The 2nd May being specifically National Herb Day, Richters invites southern Ontario residents to a free series of three afternoon seminars on artemisias at their unique greenhouses and store northeast of Toronto. Visit www.richers.com for times and map showing their location. Later, 19-20 July, Toronto hosts the annual International Herb Conference at the city’s Eaton Chelsea Hotel www.herbsforlife2014.com.

Diversion No. 3

Female cockroaches make eggs more quickly if they cuddle with other roaches, but artificial antennae delivering gentle touches can also speed egg growth, reported the Smithsonian

Another invasive Asian pest is shaping up to become a major problem in Ontario. The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, or BMSB, arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1990s. Spreading over more than 30 states since then, it had crossed into Ontario by 2012, when a homeowner found one in Hamilton. Feasting on over 160 vegetables, fruits and ornamentals it has now been detected from Ottawa to Windsor. In the home garden, hand picking might be an effective control if it were not for the odiferous excretions that give the bug its common name. In the United States, traps are commonly resorted. However recent university studies indicate that these may attract more BMSB.

Diversion No. 4

A Bellingham, Washington beekeeper accused of stealing 28 hives from a competitor will have to pay more than $14,000 in restitution, reported the perhaps not inappropriately-named Sacramento Bee

In the United States, National Escargot Day slithers in on 24 May. Why Americans should choose what is essentually French cuisine is a puzzlement. One website simply says that it is an obscure U.S. holiday of mysterious origin. Gardeners might seek such ultimate revenge on Helix aspera but why limit this to a single annual celebration? Believe it or not, snails are raised to become escargot in what is known as ‘heliciculture.’ According to ever-handy Wikipedia, escargot is high in protein, low in fat and estimated to contain 15% protein, 2.4% fat and about 80% water. In France, they knock back 40,000 tonnes of escargot annually – galloping gastropods!