If you are looking for a general gardening book, “The Southern Living Garden Book” is the best one. It lists plants alphabetically and cross-references common and botanical names. Some books focus on ornamental plants instead of vegetables; this one covers nearly any plant you might want in any sort of garden. Unlike many gardening books that do not acknowledge the South’s heat, this book will tell you that you live somewhere too hot for a particular plant to grow, It further divides the South into Upper, Middle, Lower, and Tropical South; folks in Maryland can grow lots of plants people in South Carolina cannot. It also includes helpful lists of plants such as deer resistant plants, good shade trees, and plants that like moisture. I think the previous edition of this book was the first gardening book I ever owned; whether you are an experienced gardener or a novice, your book collection is incomplete without it.
Year: 2011
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Growing Apple Trees
Last spring, I planted an apple orchard. My grandparents had an orchard when I was a child, and some of my favorite childhood memories are of the family gathering on a cool fall day to make cider in the hand-cranked mill that made the apples release their juice when two thick boards compressed them. My grandfather proposed to my grandmother under an apple tree, and some descendants of the tree, christened the “Goldie-Fred apple” by my aunt, after them, still stand among decaying buildings and overgrown trees on the farm.
Since no one has maintained the trees in at least twenty years, they are diseased and overgrown. The trees are all standard varieties and are at least twenty feet tall. To prune them, a person would have to climb a ladder while holding loppers or a pruning saw to begin thinning the twisted growth. Diseases and pests like apple scab, coddling moths, cedar apple rust, and sooty blotch plague the trees. Even though growing grocery store-perfect apples is not easy, it is possible to obtain a fruit crop from the home orchard. We had plenty of apples from my grandparent’s orchard, and my family still harvests apples from the orchard as long as a late freeze does not kill the blossoms. They don’t look like the apples sold in grocery stores, but no one sprayed them with chemicals in New Zealand before they arrived in the local store, either.
One way to make maintaining an orchard easier is to buy dwarf or semi-dwarf trees. Dwarf trees grow 8-10 feet tall, and semi-dwarf trees grow 12-15 feet tall, and bear full-size fruit. I planted four bare-root trees: a Granny Smith, a Red Rome, a Braeburn, and a Yellow Transparent. I ordered my trees from Stark Brothers, and other companies and local garden centers have trees.
Before you buy, make sure you buy trees that are compatible with each other for pollination. The trees need to bloom at the same time so insects can pollinate the trees. The Stark’s catalog details this information, as do books. For South Carolina-specific information, call the Clemson Cooperative Extension Service at 1.888.656.9988 from 9 AM-1 PM, or get an apple-growing fact sheet at http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic.
Clemson Extension also has fact sheets on apple diseases and pests. I hope to maintain my orchard organically, or at least as organically as possible. Since I am not selling my fruit, it does not have to be cosmetically perfect, but I do want a harvest and some sound fruit I can save over the winter. I have read that simply slipping a paper bag or a piece of ladies’ hose over immature apples prevents pest damage, and with four small trees, I should be able to accomplish this task. Pruning the apple trees properly is important to make sure sunlight can reach the interior of the tree and to make sure to encourage the growth of the branches that produce fruit.
Preparing Transplants for the Garden
I began the process of hardening off my seedlings, or preparing the plants I started indoors under lights for life outside, last week. The tomato and pepper plants need some time to get used to the wind, variable temperatures, and sunshine before they spend a full day of life in the garden. To harden them off, I put them in an hour or less of morning sun, and watch them carefully to make sure they do not wilt. Each day I expose them to more sun until they sit in the sun most of the day without wilting.
Think of a transplant’s tender leaves as a baby’s skin; a baby sunburns quickly but an adult takes longer to burn because adult skin has had more experience with the sun. The transplants’ leaves need to be tougher, like those of an adult’s, before they will be safe in the garden.
The hardening-off process usually takes about a week. I also leave the transplants outside overnight as long as the temperature does not get below 45 degrees. Make sure to watch the moisture level in the pots; sunlight quickly evaporates the water from the tiny pots.
Buying your transplants at the store is cost-effective if you are only planting a few plants, and is a good way to begin a garden for the first time. I am planting 50 tomato plants, so starting them from seed is the best option for me.
When you buy transplants, look for healthy vegetable transplants that are uniformly green, not yellowed, and not wilted. Compare the plant to its neighbors and choose one of medium size. Plants should not be tall and skinny, but should have many branches and leaves protruding off the stem. Do not buy plants with blossoms or fruit on them; stress causes small plants to produce fruit.
Gradually expose your transplants to direct sun for a few days as described above before setting them out in the garden for a day of full sun. Try to avoid buying transplants whose roots are tightly wrapped in the shape of the container, or “root-bound.” If you have no other choices, gently tear the roots apart when you plant them to encourage the roots to explore the surrounding soil. Water and mulch them well after you plant them.
Garden centers sell transplants of almost all the summer vegetables, but our long growing season enables us to plant seeds of cucumbers, squash, zucchini, beans, okra, and any other summer vegetables besides tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant directly in the ground; this is both cost-effective and will produce the strongest seedlings. Plants would really rather grow in the same place in which they are sown instead of having to move around as they do when we transplant them.
The average date for the last frost in the Midlands of SC is around April 15. However, temperatures below 40 degrees can damage tomato plants, so to be safe, I have not set out mine, although I have begun sowing seeds of corn, beans, and squash. In my garden journal, I noted that we had a frost on April 15, 2008, which damaged the tomato plants I set out too early. We have such a long growing season here that I try to wait until late April to set out the plants. However, if you have set yours out, they will probably be fine, just watch the weather forecast, and cover them if frost is predicted.
Catching chickens
Catching chickens is not fun. I am new to chicken-keeping this spring, and I want to make sure my nine hens have a clean, fresh area to graze. Today I moved the elecronet fencing and their chicken tractor, a portable bottomless pen, from the area above the garden, in the apple orchard, to an area of fresh grass below the garden. During this process, the chickens all left the pen and headed for the compost pile.
Not in possession of much intelligence, the chickens couldn’t seem to find their home. My 5-year-old daughter, Ella, and I tried to catch the chickens, a sight which was humorous for any observers and helped me work off the calories from the Caesar salad I had for lunch with the physical exertion required. Chickens are fast, and they are agile. I am not.
Eventually, we did catch them all, installed them in their relocated home, and gave them some corn as a peace offering for the experience. When I last saw them they were busy looking for seeds and bugs in the grass, and I hope they have forgotten the trauma of the move. Next time I will move them while they are still contained in the chicken tractor after they have gone to bed or before I let them out in the morning.