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Following a few ground rules when visiting the garden center can spare
you hours or even years of regret.
Most of us have experienced buyers' remorse. We may own expensive
exercise equipment that gathers dust in the family room corner or a shirt
that hangs resolutely in the back of a bedroom closet. The worst
purchasing mistake, however, is one that sits right out in the front yard.
The giant Colorado blue spruce planted too close to the house, the diseased
aspen, and the aggressive groundcover that invades the lawn can all be
painful reminders of an impulse buy.
Many of these mistakes are made on beautiful spring days when the local nursery attracts potential gardeners like butterflies to fennel. Yet, if you set yourself a few basic rules, it can be easy to enjoy a lovely day at the garden center and never know the pang of buyer's remorse.
First, it is wise to set goals and a budget for your shopping trip. Are you buying plants for a specific area in your yard? If so, at least make sure that you know the dimensions, hours of sunlight, and soil and water conditions of your site. Anticipate how much you're willing to spend, and feel free to bring in materials on plants that interest you. Are you visiting the nursery to plan a garden? Consider taking a camera and a notebook with you and leaving your money at home. Do you want some expert advice? Try to do your shopping on a weekday when the nursery is less hectic, or determine whether your questions might be answered just as well by other gardening information sources like the Colorado Master Gardener program or PlantTalk Colorado. Colorado Master Gardeners can be reached by calling the Larimer County Cooperative Extension office at 498-6000. PlantTalk Colorado is a toll-free automated information phone service and web site www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/ sponsored by Colorado State University Cooperative Extension, the Denver Botanic Gardens, and the Green Industries of Colorado. The phone number is 1-888-666-3063.
When you are at the garden center, aim for comfort. Aching feet, dehydration and sunburn are not conducive to good decision making. Wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen, and a hat. Bring a bottle of water and pleasing shopping companions. Nothing is more miserable than dragging a reluctant toddler, teenager, or spouse through acres of plants.
There are several things to look for when selecting a plant for purchase. Make sure that the plant can thrive in the conditions of your site. It is very difficult to alter your site to suit a plant, and very easy to pick a plant that suits existing conditions. Try to imagine how the plant will look in your landscape in ten or even twenty years. How large will it be?
Also, don't be too seduced by a plant's flowers. Often with perennial plants, the bloom period is rather short. Nothing is more cheerful than blossoming forsythia in April, but do you like the green leaves and open habit of the shrub for the other forty-eight weeks of the year? When selecting a plant to purchase, look for one with the healthiest roots rather than the plant with the most blooms.
For good design, choose plants in groups of three, five, or seven. Very often, a single plant can look lonely or out of place. A whole garden of single specimens can look downright hodgepodge, but centuries ago, artists discovered that the human eye is delighted by odd-numbered groupings. So take a tip from Leonardo, and plant in odd numbered groups.
However, don't bite off more than you can chew. If you haven't already prepared your planting site, be realistic about how much time you have to plant. It takes some sweat and stamina to dig holes and amend soil. You don't want pots of plants sitting on your porch for weeks as you slowly toil away at creating a new bed.
In planting annuals, be extremely cautious of the last frost date. One frost is enough to turn a whole bed of annuals into a dead mass of blackened foliage. For a cheap, rewarding flower fix, buy a packet of seeds. Although it is too late to plant certain things, many colorful flowering annuals like morning glories, cosmos and zinnias can be planted out in beds after the last frost to provide bright summer blooms.
Finally, shop early and shop often at the garden center. By visiting your local nursery in different seasons, you'll see how different plants behave in different months. This means that your own garden is more likely to have bloom and beauty throughout the year.
Q: How can I get rid of the dandelions in my yard?
A: The most important control for broadleaf weeds like dandelion, clover, and spurge is to follow watering, mowing, and fertilizing practices that encourage a dense, healthy lawn. It is possible to dig out small weed populations, but be aware that the taproots of dandelions are very long so you will often wind up digging out a substantial chunk of lawn as you hand weed. Liquid spot treatments, most often containing the herbicide 2-4D, are generally more effective at controlling broadleaf weeds than "weed and feed" applications. Carefully follow the directions on the label of any herbicide that you select.
Q: This past fall, I wrapped the trunks of my young trees to prevent sunscald. When should I remove the wrap?
A: Tree wrap should be removed in April. Leaving the wrap on longer can constrict the growth of the tree and promote insect damage.
Q: I've seen some perennials described as short-lived. What does that mean?
A: While annuals are plants that complete their life cycle in
one year, perennials are plants that can live through several seasons.
However, the life span of perennials can vary dramatically. Some
perennials like peonies are so long-lived that they are known as heirloom
or pass-along plants; the plants can be passed on from grandparents to
grandchildren, from generation to generation. In contrast, some perennials
only live a few years. Often, these short-lived perennials seem to
exhaust themselves by flowering prolifically. Perennials that can
be short-lived include delphinium and whirling butterflies, Gaura lindheimeri.
Q: My lawn looks healthy but is very lumpy. What causes the problem, and how can I flatten it out?
A: The lumps in your lawn are probably caused by earthworms or nightcrawlers. These worms are great for the health of your soil and your turf as they eat thatch, recycle nutrients, and aerate the soil. You might decrease the lumps in your lawn by aerating in the spring and fall and giving the turf a light rolling. Layering the lawn with a light layer of compost or topsoil might also help smooth your lawn out. Still, take comfort in the fact that worms are good for your lawn. Set your mower blades as high as they can be set, and leave the worms alone as they continue to give you a healthy lawn.
Q: My dog urinates on my lawn and produces dead spots. How can I fix this?
A: Dog urine contains high levels of salts. When a dog urinates on the lawn, particularly repeatedly in the same place, it burns the lawn. To stop the problem, train the dog to urinate in a designated area. Suitable areas should have a ground cover of pea gravel or mulch and might even contain something for the dog to mark like a boulder or a lawn ornament. While you are training the dog to use the designated spot, you should also transport the dog's feces to the area prior to clean-up. Consistency is the key for training. In the meantime, if your dog has an accident on the lawn, dilute the urine spot with water from the hose. If the damaged grass can not be revived, reseeding may be necessary. Although there are dietary supplements on the market to prevent the dog spot problem, some of these might be associated with bladder problems in dogs, so be certain to consult your veterinarian before pursuing these methods.
Gradually remove mulch from around perennials and strawberries. New growth and strawberry blossoms are still susceptible to frost damage. When new growth appears it is time to divide daylillies, Shasta daisies, yarrow, chrysanthemums and other late summer/early fall flowering perennials.
Celebrate Arbor Day and Earth Day and attract birds to your yard by planting a tree. Ponderosa pine, cockspur hawthorne, bur oak, hackberry, crabapple and American plum are a few varieties of trees that are hardy along the Front Range and are recommended by the Audubon Society as trees that birds like for food or shelter.
Tulips were probably introduced to Europe in the 1500's by de Busbecq, who was an ambassador to the court of the sultan of Turkey. The name "tulip" is thought to be derived from the Arabic word "dulband" – meaning "turban". Men of that time often tucked tulips into their turbans and de Busbecq apparently mistook the name of the hat for the flower.
Beautiful summer flowers can be grown from bulbs and corms that are planted soon. Caladiums ( which are grown for their unusual foliage), calla and Asiatic lilies, cannas, dahlias, tuberous begonias and gladiolus can all be planted in the spring. Sometimes it is better to start them indoors in pots and then transplant them into the garden after the danger of frost is past. Pick a sight that won't become too shady as trees leaf out, amend the soil with aged compost or sphagnum peat moss and add 2 pounds of 5-10-5 analysis fertilizer per 100 square feet before planting. Most of these flowers are not hardy in Colorado so you will need to dig the bulbs in the fall and store them in a frost –free location for the winter.
One of the best controls of insects on fruit trees and other trees is dormant oil spray. The oil blocks the air holes so the insects die of asphyxiation. Dormant oil can control San Jose scale, European red mite, green peach aphid, plum leafcurl aphid, pine needle scale and European elm scale. Spray oils are very safe for humans and animals. The air temperature has to remain above 40 degrees for 8 hours for the application to be effective.
In April you can apply 1/2 to 1 pound of N (nitrogen) per 1000 square feet of turf if you did not fertilize in the fall last year ( September – November). Otherwise, wait until May to apply fertilizer. You can reduce the amount of fertilizer that you have to apply by 1/4 to 1/2 if the grass clippings are returned to the lawn during mowing. Grass clippings do NOT contribute to thatch accumulations in lawns. Add topsoil to your lawn if it is uneven from frost heaving or rodent tunneling. Adding topsoil will level the yard surface and help reduce thatch.
The authors have received training through Colorado State University Cooperative Extension's Master Gardener program and is a Master Gardener volunteer for Larimer County.
Fact Sheets are available at the Larimer County Extension Office, 1525 Blue Spruce Drive, Fort Collins, Colorado, telephone (970) 498-6000, or contact us by e-mail at larimer@coop.ext.colostate.edu
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