Garden Gab

Taking cuttings from your plants or dividing perennials to make a personal, thoughtful gift for friends can seem daunting but it is actually very simple and can be done with just a few basic tools and a few minutes of preparation.

Taking Cuttings

To take cuttings you will need:

• Seeding soil (this is the best mix to give young cuttings for quick growth and to eliminate the risk of disease)
• Sharp garden clippers (dull clippers will crush the plant rather than making a clean cut)
• A warm, moist container such as a terrarium or cloche

If you are new to cuttings, start with either a houseplant that has long thrived under your care or a plant with a semi-woody stem, as these will give you the most success. A plant that is losing its leaves or is long and lanky rather than bushy probably will suffer if you take a cutting or the cutting could be malnourished or diseased. Woody stems are harder to crush and usually snip easily.

Look at the top or newest leaves of your plant. About 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch below the leaf node, or where the leaf seperates from the stem, snip the plant stem. This is your cutting. You can place it in a glass of warm water for a few hours to stimulate it, but don’t leave it longer, as new roots formed in water will experience root shock and collapse when planted. Plant your cutting in loose, very damp soil. Place in a warm sunny place and cover with a cloche (or plant inside a terrarium).

Roots should begin to form within 1-2 weeks, but slow growing plants may not be ready for transplant for a month.

Dividing Perennials

To divide perennials you will need:

• A flower pot filled with soil or a hole in the garden for the new plant to go (do this before everything else, you want to get the plant into soil as quickly as possible
• A cutting or prying tool, such as a hand axe, saw or pitchfork
• A sharp spade or shovel

When a perennial has outgrown a pot or space in your garden, or when it develops a dead space in the center of the plant, it is time to divide it. Not only does this make another plant, it also helps both halves survive longer and be more healthy. The day before you decide to divide the plant, cut back the leaves about halfway (this will make the newly divided plant do less work to maintain itself. This is also why some gardeners prefer fall as a dividing time, because they will be cutting back leaves and tidying up anyway) and really soak the roots.

On the division day, try to start in the morning when the day is still cool, the exposed roots will dry out much slower than in the afternoon (even crisp fall days can turn hot in the afternoon). Starting in a wide circle around the base of the plant, roughly 4 inches out from the base, cut the soil about six inches with a sharp spade or shovel. Once you have completed cutting the circle, gently insert the shovel on an angle and try to lift the plant. If it is somewhat loose, work it out of the ground and lift the plant clean to the top of the soil. If the plant really resists, try digging the circle a little deeper, you want to get as much of the root ball as possible. Don’t shake out the roots, try to keep as much soil as possible around the roots to keep it from drying out.

When the plant is out of the ground it’s time to cut it in half. If the plant has especially woody roots, you may want to chop it with an axe or saw it in half. Plants with softer root balls can be prized apart with your hands or with a pitchfork. You may want to get a partner to hold one side while you pry the other side away. This process may take some time, but be patient, it will come apart. When your plant has been divided into as many pieces as you like, immediately replant or repot both plants and water. If you are doing this in fall, covering with a small layer of mulch can keep the moisture in the root system, if in fall, starting the plant in a shady area and then transplanting to a more sunny location can help the perennial regenerate faster.

If you, like many of us, dread being cooped up in winter and experience seasonal blues, you should consider container gardening through the winter.  Just the act of gardening itself, scientists say, has beneficial effects on brain chemistry.  What you grow can have an even bigger impact.

From the Ground up

If you are thinking of gardening with only potting soil or sterilized mixes you might want to reconsider.  As early as 2006, researches found a cheerful little bug that naturally occurs in soil called Mycobacterium Vaccae.  This tiny bacterium literally infects people with happiness.  Once M. Vaccae gets under your skin it boosts your brain’s seratonin level which is one of the chemicals that elevates mood and helps your body’s healing processes.  In fact, M. Vaccae is so effective that it has been used to help cancer patients bounce back from chemotherapy and treating fibromyalgia.

These bacterium are harmless except for infectious good cheer

  Just the normal activity of planting or repotting can help this little bug enter you It exists in soils around the world and has no harmful effects.  But you won’t find it in sterilized soils and potting mixes.  So go get some soil from your yard or garden to mix in with your potting soil.  Right now.  Before it freezes.  And then come back to see what else can help.

Superplants

Lots of depressed moods can come from imbalances in diet.  While all of these items are available at your grocery store, planting them instead will not only infect you with M. Vaccae, but will mean these fruits and veggies will be on hand for those days your bathrobe looks more comfortable than a trip to the store.  Some of them, such as herbs and citrus also do half their anti-depressant work with their pleasant and stimulating odors.  Growing them yourself will give you the benefit of these odors for many days before they are ready to eat or use.  Growing alfalfa, broccoli, green peppers, tomatoes and black beans can all be done in containers indoors.  Tomatoes can be hung in baskets to leave room for other plants while all of these other veggies can be planted in a long window box or deep tray and thrive.  These veggies have the same chemicals that make people reach for carbohydrate complex starches and desserts.  They will lift your mood without making you adjust your belt, which can be the key to avoiding the infamous holiday calories.  You can also grow dwarf citrus trees in a large pot indoors.  While citrus fruit does not directly affect brain chemistry, it helps your body absorb nutrients that do, such as magnesium, iron or thiamin. 

Your indoor herbs can also help adjust your mood while being useful in the kitchen or as an aromatic.  Lavendar, rosemary and basil are all excellent for reducing stress and elevating seratonin.  In fact, studies have shown that mediterranean diets which rely on tomatoes, rosemary and basil in a lot of dishes can have an enormous effect on mood.  Another aromatic that can help is jasmine.  Most jasmine varieties are large and utilize climbing trellises, however, the sambac variety is  easy to grow and manageable indoors, they are also easy to find at garden supply stores.

These are just a few of the beneficial plants you can grow indoors.  Of course, none of these can substitute a regimen planned by your doctor, but if you or your physician notices something lacking in your diet, consider planting a supplement rather than purchasing it.  Not only will your wallet be fatter, you will get the benefit of m. vaccae and lots and lots of sunshine.

Sunshine come on back another day

The third benefit of maintaining an indoor garden is exposure to sunlight.  Sunlight is one of very few ways our body absorbs vitamin D.  Lack of vitamin D can make us feel a little down or can be serious enough to cause seasonal affective disorder.  In the winter, even enthusiasts aren’t spending as much time outdoors as we do in summer.  So every bit of extra sun can help.  An indoor garden means you will be spending more time in front of sunny windows, inside a bright sunroom or greenhouse.  Take time not only to work on your indoor garden but to relax in it too.  If at all possible make it into a comfortable spot.  Add a chair or sofa, some blankets if it gets chilly, even a small breakfast table.  Make your indoor garden the new leisure center for you and your family so you will get the full benefit of aromatic plants and extra sunshine. 

An indoor garden need not be huge or complex, it can be just a few key plants, but it will help make  a happier, healthier you even in the greyest, coldest days of winter.

“Dear Garden Gabber, What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever grown in a container?” (via email)

Everyone thought we were insane.  And they weren’t quiet about it.  But there is something intoxicating about gardening.  Every spring an overwhelming tide of megalomania hits me and the garden in my head takes on delusional proportions.  In their secret heart, I think every gardener feels the same.  Then, about a week in (or less if you are hand tilling), reality sets in and my grandiose dreams and head shrink to appropriate levels.  But the year my husband and I met, the year we planted our first container garden, no such reality check ever happened.  Eventually, the squirrels had to intervene. 

We had a third floor apartment that year and no permission or space to start a garden.  We did, however have a small stair landing.  Not much larger than a fire exit stairway, but exposed to lots of light and too high for garden pests (or so I thought). 

We started out humbly enough, with a pot of cherry tomatoes, a single green pepper plant and a tray of jalapeno plants.  But we let our early success go to our head.  Growing things is filled with contradiction.  Sometimes you plant and weed and water, rejoicing and feeling omnipotent when you see those green shoots.  Even though I know it’s wrong, deep down I always think, “I did that!”  But then usually there’s a row farther down that you have toiled over, practically sweat blood to coax it to life and you get nothing.  It always reminds me that the growing really isn’t up to me (especially when a plant I pulled up because I thought it was dead is going gangbusters in the compost pile a week later).

But this little apartment garden made us want to grow more.  So we stole a long flowerbox no one was using and bought two of the deepest plastic pots we could (they were about 2 1/2 feet deep).  I told everyone we knew that we were going to grow corn in our potted garden and they thought I was nuts.  It took 5 big bags of potting mix to fill the pots and I was able to plant about 20 seeds all told.  After all, I thought, I don’t want to crowd them (as if the pot was room enough).

Why is it always squirrels?

It took a few weeks but we started to get shoots and then stalks of green corn.  I showed everyone who came to the apartment our fine, strong stalks of corn.  “They’ll peter out.  They’ll never have ears on them,” everyone said.  But lo and behold, a few weeks later we had two or three small ears on every stalk.  And then, I got cocky.  “I can grow anything!” I thought and I would check the ears every day to see if they were ready to eat.  I refused to let my husband buy corn.  Even at the local farmstands.  “Why do you want to buy corn?” I said, “Ours is almost ready and it’s going to be the best corn ever!”  A whole month my poor husband waited after the summer corn was available.

Slowly, the ears grew fatter.  They never got past the size of cow corn.   I came home one day to find the cat yowling at the back door (where the garden was) and I opened it upon a dreadful scene.  I wish I could say it took a squirrel army to dash my dreams of gardening glory and my husbands sweet summer corn hopes.  I wish I could say there were more squirrels per square foot than I had ever seen before.  But to tell the truth, I only saw three.  Three fat little squirrels that didn’t even have the courtesy to drag the corn away before feasting on it.  How they went through all those plants so quickly, I’ll never know.  But they got every single one.  Instead of scampering away when I opened the door they dragged the last few ears slowly over the railing and waddled away.

So, to answer your question, I almost grew corn in a container.  I’ve known other people to grow watermelons, monster pumpkins, even fruit trees.  Container plants may need extra fertilizer and more manual watering sometimes, but really they aren’t much different from “free range” plants.  And they can be much easier to maintain, having fewer weeds, being movable in inclement weather and (if you are wiser than me) easier to protect from pests.  At the Garden Gabber we’ll be trying out new containers and plants and we’ll let you know how it goes.  If you have a container garden, send us pictures and stories of your success (or failures or garden thieves) as well to dk.gould@live.com and we’ll post them here!  Stay tuned for how to make friends with or discourage your own squirrel nemeses.

“For when to the heart of man

Was it ever less than a treason,

To go with the drift of things,

To yield with a grace to reason,

To bow and accept the end

Of a love or a season?” -Reluctance, Robert Frost

If you, like me, live in the chilly north, your garden is probably empty and covered or the last straggling potatoes and onions are waiting to be rescued from the first hard frost.  It’s early to get the winter blues, but we all know they are coming.  In garden speak, we ought to nip it in the bud.  To tide you over and kick that cabin fever, its time to start your indoor growing.  Its surprising what will survive and even thrive during winter months in a small planter or hanging basket.  House plants have served a multitude of purposes over the centuries both in northern climates where outdoor growing seasons are short and for urban dwellers where space is limited.  Supplementing kitchen gardens with potted herb gardens and medicinal plants has been popular since Roman times and potting flowers and decorative grasses hails from ancient Persia.

Today’s houseplants still serve the same purposes, though the plants grown may have changed.  Who doesn’t remember slicing open an aloe leaf from an indoor plant at least once to sooth a kitchen burn or bee sting?  With popular interest rising in both gourmet cooking and in knowing exactly where household food comes from, many homes have started both indoor and outdoor herb and vegetable gardens to supplement what can be found in the grocery store.  Current research shows that caring for houseplants, the aromas especially of flowering herbs and brightly blooming flowers all have a positive effect on seasonal mood disorders, and even clean shockingly large amounts of  harmful toxins from indoor air.

Whether you start with just one miniature tea rose plant in a styrofoam cup (as I did years ago) or surround your house with trays and baskets of green plants, the benefits of growing indoors can truly lift those winter blues.

Here at the Garden Gab, we’ll be doing our own indoor gardening, trying different plants, lights and pots.  We’ll let you know how our garden is growing and we hope you will leave us a note and let us know how yours is coming too.  Or even better, send us a picture of your plants in their interior home to dk.gould@live.com and we’ll proudly post them here at the Garden Gab!