Yavapai Gardens March 200 1 Master Gardener Newsletter
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University of Arizona, Yavapai County Cooperative Extension Yavapai Gardens March 200 1 Master Gardener Newsletter Events & Activities The Urge to Purge MG Assciation Meeting, March 20, Cottonwood by Patti Conrad Board of Supervisors Office, see address page for directions and carpool information. A new year brings with it a desire for re- flection, self-examination Yavapai Rose Society - Will meet March 18 and divestiture of needless 2:00 PM at the First Christian Church, 1230 clutter. As it is in all areas Willow Creek Road, Prescott. Guests are of our lives, so it is in the welcome and there is no charge. For more gardening world when information call Bob or Nancy at 771-9300, Spring comes. Since I am or Dave at 778-5507. a pack-rat personality, this is quite a challenge for me The Cottonwood Organic Gardening Club no matter what category meets at the Cottonwood-Verde Valley Fair- of life I am dealing with. I grounds on the second Wednesday of each like antiques. Collecting month at 1:30 p.m. teapots, bird statues and bird houses, and old gar- den tools adds a lot of clutter but these items are not going anywhere—at least not yet. At least these items do not have to be planted, pruned, fed, wa- tered, sprayed, protected from animals, and mulched. Besides their collecting a little dust, (a fine collectible in its own right,) they’ll peacefully stand in my house and garden. All I have to do is Table of Contents enjoy them. As a bonus, spiders love to live around and in the bird houses which thus are doing The Urge to Purge . pg 1 double-duty as bird nurseries and Spider Diners. Jerusalem Artichokes . pg 4 As a plant collector, it is a passion and part Master Gardener Class . pg 5 of my job. I test-drive new plants and old favor- Artichokes . pg 6 ites in new locations and combinations. For most Fruit in a Bottle . pg 8 people this would be frustrating and expensive, March Calendar . pg 8 so I recommend the philosophy of “plant what Thank you . pg 9 works in YOUR garden for YOUR green thumb Spring Plant Sales . pg 9 and LOTS of IT!” Here is where the purging comes Yavapai County Master Gardeners Page 1 in. You can have a lovely garden with a lot less in Prescott on Iron Springs Rd would love to re- work if you objectively assess your plants to see cycle your 1 gallon size and larger pots, as would which types of plants are growing best for you. Prescott Valley Growers in Prescott Valley on Hwy Iris and I do not connect, for example. You may 69. I asked them. Certainly other garden centers do really well with mugo pines and herbs or pen- in the County would want them, too. A couple of stemons and junipers. In each category of plant broken red clay pots would be plenty for shards; there are many types, so you can do a variation- use the rest as paving material for a walkway or on-a-theme motif. You could plant mugo pines, make a mosaic coffee table. Otherwise, have the both clipped and natural, and other pines such as trash pick up a few per week, if necessary. I prefer dwarf Scotch and Austrian along to use small square pieces of with six different types of thyme used window screen over the and a half dozen sages. Voila! A drain holes instead of the shards. garden that looks difficult and in- They are neater and store in a teresting but is really a snap for small space. you to nurture. Remember that the I am also a printed- idea is to get what you want but work junkie, reading anything to “simplify, simplify, simplify.” (I with words on it—road signs, borrowed that from Thoreau, but brochures and old newspapers. if he actually wanted to simplify, So you see, parting with any of why didn’t he use the word just my books is out of the question. once?) Go figure. I love them all. Besides, I may It doesn’t matter how NEED them. They are useful for pretty a plant is, if it keeps dying reference, pressing flowers and on you or isn’t doing well in your leveling tables. To save you from patch of soil, get rid of it and don’t my fate, here is a short list of buy it again. Purge your piece of must-haves for the bookshelf. paradise of those bad-mannered Onward and Upward in wimps that fret and fuss and put the Garden, by Katharine S. White in happy plants instead. Give them is a hybrid between philosophy away or do them in. My mottoes and instruction tomes. What a are “when in doubt, yank it out” gal! She’s a real straight talker. and “if it won’t thrive, it won’t be Judith Phillips’ two book set, alive.” It seems harsh but nature Natural by Design and Plants for is ruthless. We can learn from her. Besides you Natural Gardens are guides for lovers of native are doing the plants a favor by finding them a plants. She teaches you how to effectively use home or saving them from a slow lingering death natives in home landscape as well as discusses by yanking them out and composting them. Help their care and propagation. They are not field them on to plant heaven via composting reincar- identification guides. They are useful for mixing nation. existing native plants with introduced garden spe- Remember, there is a difference between cies in a pleasing and harmonious manner. They thriving and surviving. A thriving plant is easier are two great books that may be purchased singly to care for and looks better in the garden. If mari- or as a set that are worth the price. golds love you, learn to love yellow and orange Of course, if you really want to simplify and stop wishing that they came in blue. Embrace your library, the one book to have is the Sunset reality. Western Garden Guide, an encyclopedia and bible Purge the inanimate from your life also. reference for the gardener. I actually prefer the Toss out those plastic pots or recycle them to gar- 1995 edition with the yellow flowers on the cover den centers or nurseries. Watters Garden Center Yavapai County Master Gardeners Page 2 and 624 pages over the instead of mail order. Not because the plants are 2001 edition with the better but because dirt costs a lot to ship. “Dirt coral-pink roses on the cheap” is wrong. Dirt is heavy and expensive if cover and 768 pages be- you mail it. Big plants are heavy, too. You will get cause they dropped the a plant that is much smaller than you expect. Buy mail order suppliers guide from the in person whenever possible. When I could not resource section and the paper qual- get what I wanted, I have ordered plants, seeds ity seems inferior. Mail order sup- and bulbs from the following companies: plies can change unexpectedly so that could be why they deleted it but Bluestone Perennials—perennials of all types, it gave people a good starting point some shrubs and grasses (800)852-5243 with reputable companies. On the High Country Gardens—Natives, perennials, bright side, you can now buy a used shrubs, grasses (800)925-9387 copy of the 1995 edition for a good Schreiner’s Gardens—Iris of all types price and put those extra dollars into (800)525-2367 x 50 fertilizers instead. Buy both if you Dutch Gardens—Bulbs of all types, high qual- can afford it. ity, some unusual types (800)775-2852 The last book of my recom- Thompson-Morgan Seeds—Seeds (800)274- mendations is the Undaunted Garden 7333 by Lauren Springer. As with Judith Phillips, Lauren Springer is a realist There are thousands of suppliers, so you and a clear thinker. Any gardening could garden on the internet and never get your book by either of these authors would be worth hands dirty. I prefer to narrow my scope and get owning. Undaunted Garden is abut gardening at on with it. Laying out the catalogs on the table for a 5000 foot plus elevation and climate similar to comparison shopping, I find it easier to flip back the mountain areas of Prescott-Flagstaff-Payson. and forth through paper pages with bookmarks On the downside, sometimes Springer’s plant than to click, click, click through an internet cata- choices are not readily available from local nurs- log. Then I have to change sites and click, click, eries or indeed from mail order sources but you click again. I can not compare twelve varieties of can find substitutes in the same plant families that penstemons from four companies at once on the will work just fine. computer but I can do this at my desk with paper Regarding the category of garden catalogs, pages of real catalogs. I have tried both methods I receive lots of individual catalogs from dozens and I prefer not to jump over the inter-"net” and of suppliers each year but there are only a few that get stuck in the “web.” Remember, the idea is to I really order from: some of these I have been us- get what you want but to simplify, simplify, sim- ing for 20 years or more. The other catalogs I re- plify—oops, sorry! Please delete two of those sim- ceive I keep anyway for their reference value.