Arts Nursery June 2010 Garden Newsletter

My hat is off to all of the diehard gardeners who toiled rain or shine through May!! You are a constant source of amazement and you most certainly do rock! To those fair-weather gardeners out there…amen brothers and sisters, you are not alone!! Finally to those who diligently began their beach volleyball leagues last month…in the RAIN…are you completely out of your minds?

Alright, here’s the list:

Cheers
Laurelle

There is something very wonderful about holding a sun warmed strawberry in your hand and taking that first bite, sprinkling a handful of fresh chives right from your garden into a grilled cheese sandwich or biting into a crunchy apple picked right from the tree.

There are many ways to grow your own food from the very complex to the very simple. You can start mapping out the heritage apple orchard and underplanting or simply add parsley to your pots instead of the centre Dracaena. Edible gardening, no matter how large or small the yard or even balcony, is an incredibly rewarding and absolutely do-able project!

The most important aspect of the edible garden is the plan. I don’t just mean a map of the extensively planned veggie garden including the multiple heritage bean varieties you just saw in the latest Martha Stewart magazine, I mean a plan of what you like to eat. If you are planning for you and your family or partner, ask them what they like as well. If you happen to have kids and they are like mine, your list will be fairly simple as you cannot grow Kraft dinner.

This way you can avoid planting the huge square footage of multiple kale, bean and tomato varieties, red currants and gooseberries, black currants, purple potatoes and exotic oriental salad greens only to come to the realization after countless months of toil not to mention cost of fancy seeds, sea soil, organic fertilizer, a set of mauve hand tools and a really cool hat that your family really only wanted some carrots, lettuce (so they would have something to pick out of their sandwiches) and a couple of apple trees.

So make sure you know what you want, and taste before you buy. For example, my old neighbor had an apple tree which bore fruit regularly each year but the apples were not picked but fell to the ground. I finally asked her and she said they planted a terrible apple and that no one in the family liked the taste of it. She liked the picture when she picked it out of the nursery. I identified it as a Belle de Boskoop, a lovely slightly russetted cooking apple from the Netherlands originating in the 1850’s. There are many farmers markets and growers out there if you check out the farm fresh guide. It’ll give you a chance to taste and decide if you really do want those tayberries or currants in your garden! I know this sounds funny but plan for harvest time too. If you always go away in late August, don’t get a Gravenstein apple. If you’re away in July, maybe get a fall raspberry.

Once you have your food map you can start to prepare. It is better to spend more time and money on the area prep. You can plant an intensive dedicated fruit and veg garden, or you can mix edibles throughout your existing garden.

Colourful lettuce varieties look great as edging in an annual bed, blueberry plants work nicely in the shrub border if given some nice acidic soil. Apple trees can be espaliered along a wall or fence to cut down on the space needed and there is a fantastic gardener I know who is planting a lovely raspberry border between her and her neighbor for sharing.

Tomatoes work great in pots at the front of a south facing house, just under the overhang. I plant a cherry tomato in a pot at the front steps with a “please try some” sign for the mail person or whoever comes to the door. If you’ve always been a Geranium and Dracaena in pots kind of person, try something new like adding some colourful “Flashing Lights Kale” in the centre surrounded by mixed colour lettuce and “Lemon Gem” Marigold (edible flowers).

Start small, start with the battles you can win a wise man once said.

If you only have a small balcony, get a nice pot you can live with. Believe it or not, the matte black plastic ones may be your best bet as they are not a bear to move, and the black shows off any leaf colour. Get the right kind of soil.

If you compost, that stuff is like gold!! If you don’t compost, now might be a great way to start. There are many different kinds of kitchen and balcony composters. They’ve just got a new one (Bokashi) at Art's that I have my eye on.

If the food that you like to grow requires sunlight, position your garden accordingly. Most berry and pomme crops require about 6 hours of sunlight a day to produce the most flavorful fruits. Most apples require another variety blooming at the same time to make fruits, as do pears, blueberries, and many plums and cherries so plan accordingly.

Bugs!!!! Ackkkk. Yes, you will have bugs you will have to wash off your produce, dirt too. There will also be bees, you hope, to pollinate stuff, slugs that will share some of your lettuce and strawberries, voles, moles and possibly a chunky little dog that will eat all the blueberries off of your plants. You will learn to accept these imperfections with a Zen like sense of calm. You will learn that the odd bit of dirt or sand in your lettuce is just fine; it will remind you of camping.

You will plant a marigold decoy crop for the slugs. You will learn speed and cunning when protecting your next blueberry crop, you will become a dead shot with the supersoaker. You will learn what works for you and what doesn’t. Be forgiving of yourself and learn from your mistakes. Have fun, get dirty and try something new.

Prunus mume also known as Japanese apricot, Korean plum, Chinese Plum and Mei. This small tree flowers in late February-March with one of the most beloved and depicted flowers in China. These lovely, often sweetly fragrant flowers range in colour from white to deep pink and bloom before the leaves arrive. They are followed by a yellow fruit highly prized for making plum wine, juice and pickles in Japan, Korea and China. In China it is called Mei or Meizi, in Korea – Maesil and in Japan – Ume.

Prunus mume trees are sprawling, dense, twiggy trees which depending on the cultivar can grow from 10 to 20 feet with a slightly smaller spread. They require sun to part shade and can be grown from zones 6 to 9. A slightly moist well draining humic soil will keep them generally happy. Prunus mume in the right spot can be a very long lived tree. According to Wikipedia; “Huangmei County in Hubei features a 1600 year old Mei tree from the Jin Dynasty which is still flowering.”

If you are lucky enough to be able to get your hands on one, and once you have fruit, you can make juice by putting the yellow plums in a container with equal parts sugar to plum but no water. From this you get a syrup which you can add to water to make a refreshing summer drink. The liqueur can be made by steeping the green plums in a clear liquor.

Art’s Nursery is proud to announce the arrival of a limited number of Prunus mume 'Nanko'

Building your own patio planters can be a daunting task to those unfamiliar with the tricks of the trade. If you're not sure how to begin, read this short primer and build yourself a gorgeous container your friends and acquaintances will be envious of!

Choose a theme! A theme can be any idea, but here a few to think about:

Each container is made up of three main elements:

Thrillers

Upright, tall, spiky plants that serve as the focal point or central feature of a planter. They are usually planted in the center or off to one side of a planter.

Fillers

Smaller, less dominant accent plants that compliment the thriller. Usually several fillers are used with an emphasis on bushy, heavy flowering plants or plants with interesting foliage colours. They are normally planted around the central thriller. Odd numbers of plants work best, ie 3,5 or 7 depending on the size of the pot.

Spillers

Spillers are low growing, trailing or cascading plants. They are planted around the edge of the container to allow their foliage to spill over the edge of the pot.

Be creative! Pick varieties with different textures shaped and colours. A great starting point is to choose a cool or hot colour palette. Cool colours recede from the eye and create a feeling of calm and serenity. They include pinks, blues, violets and purples. Hot colours are vibrant and catch the eyes attention. They include reds, oranges and yellows. Accent your planters with the neutrals colours as well (white, black).

Sample Planter #1
This simple planter uses Carex 'Cappucino' as its central thriller, heuchera as a filler. It also uses Calibrachoa (million bells) and Wire Vine as spillers.

Sample Planter #2
This low colourful planter uses Mexican Feather grass as a thriller, red annual geraniums and upright lobellia as fillers and bacopa as well as gazania as spillers.

Great Plants For Containers

While the list of plants for containers is endless, some of the more common options are listed below. Come on in and chat with one of our experienced horticulturists for more ideas and inspiration!

Thrillers	Fillers	Spillers
Ornamental Grasses Phormium Canna Lily Ferns* Hebe Yews* Cordyline Lavender Cyperus Gaura Angelonia Salvia Calocasia	Heucheras* Fancy Geraniums Ivy Geraniums Colourful Annuals Osteospermum Impatiens* Coleus* Violas & Pansies Heliotrope Nicotiana Begonia Mimulus	Ivy* Wire Vine StoneCrop / Sedum Bacopa Lysimachia Ipomoea Lobellia Torenia Helichrysum Oxalis Mini-Petunias Calibrachoa Verbena Lamium Scaevola

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(*) An asterisk indicates a shade loving or shade tolerant plant

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June Newsletter Specials
Art's carries an enormous number of plants and gardening accessories. Print out these specials/features and redeem them at Art's Nursery during the month of June 2010. Offers expire June 30th, 2010, or when quantities are exhausted.

	WheelBarrow Planter Colour up your garden with this quaint and heavily planted wooden wheelbarrow planter.. SALE: $49.99 ea Reg $59.98 ea		Greenstone Hand cut Flagstones Mined in the Kootenays and brought here for your garden. Gorgeous unique stone excellent for pathways or garden accents $0.49/ pound
	Pruners, Saws and Shears Give Dad what he wants for Father's Day - Tools! Save on a great selection of pruners, saws and shears for the garden, SALE: 20% OFF Reg Marked Price		Tomato Plants Get your kitchen garden going with a great variety of classic, modern and heirloom tomato plants. Buy 2 Get 1 Free* *Of equal or lesser value.
	Basil, Oregano, Cilantro & Other Herbs Fresh basil, tangy cilantro, flavourful oregano and many more delightful herbs for your garden or pots. Need we say more? Sale! Buy 3 Get 1 Free* *of equal or lesser value		17-17-17 + Iron Lawn Fertilizer Art's custom fertilizer blend ideal for lawns, hedges and other evergreens. Balanced nutrient content + iron for extra greening. Use it and you'll have the greenest lawn on the block! Sale $12.98 Reg $16.98, 9kg bag
	Windmill Palm Trees Nothing adds a tropical look to your garden more than a palm tree. These hardy outdoor evergreens are the only palmtree tough enough to survive our normal winters. Sale! 25% OFF Reg Marked Price		Bokashi Composting Products Interested in composting but haven't found the easy way to start? Check out the Bokashi line of products. Easy to use and small enough for condominiums. Products for pet waste and food scraps. Introductory Offer: $125.00 ea Reg $159.98 ea
	Fruit Trees Add a crunchy apple, a flavourful pear, a cute cherry or even a purple plum to your garden. You've never tasted how good fruit can be until you pull it off your own tree. Sale! 20% OFF Reg Marked Price		Terralite Blocks These unique curved blocks are ideal for small retaining walls, garden edges and tree rings. Ideal for straight and curved patterns. Gray or tan colours. From $2.59 / block
All offers expire June 30, 2010. Some conditions may apply and quantities may be limited. Offer subject to change without prior notice. Items may not be exactly as shown