know it and grow it
- By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistApril 18, 2023Earlier in March I gave you nature indicators when to plant what for your vegetable garden. I was reminded when I saw all the pre-emergent crabgrass preventer in stores that I had not given you that indicator, which is when the lilac buds are ready to open, but not yet open. Crabgrass is an annual weed, and the seed will not germinate until the ground is warm. These preventers are pre-emergent,…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistApril 04, 2023It is Sunday afternoon, and I just went for a walk in my yard. I see the tulips are 2-3 inches tall as are the alliums where the snow has melted. That is exciting, and it also means I need to get out there very soon to clean off the perennials or I’ll be stepping on shoots that I can’t see when I am working. My hesitation is that once I clean off last year’s debris, hungry critters will easily…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMarch 28, 2023To say that I am happy to see our snow cover disappearing is an understatement! Snow is melting in spite of the temp being slightly above freezing, and that is a blessing. I am not seeing much water running, so hopefully what is melting is soaking into the ground to replenish our deficit from last year. Visiting some friends last week, the “guy gardener” asked me about his unhappy-looking…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMarch 21, 2023I, as well as many of you, am getting weary of winter. The lengthening hours of daylight and warmth of the sun on the days we see it are encouraging. A road trip to Sioux Center yesterday (Sunday) to visit a relative showed lots of open ground, a sharp contrast to our white landscape and the snow-piled road ditches. My therapy this week is to go and cut a few branches of pussy willow, apricot and…
By George Bonnema, Luverne horticulturalistMarch 14, 2023In my years of being a gardener, I have had many people ask when the best time is to plant various vegetable crops in the garden. I can’t tell you how often I have been asked if I have my potatoes planted on Good Friday. My simple answer is “No, I plant them when the soil conditions are right,” because the calendar has nothing to do with what day to plant anything … nature does. Considering that…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistJanuary 24, 2023Yes, we have lots of deep snow, and yes, we have cottontail rabbits, and yes, the rabbits get hungry when their food source is buried by the snow, and yes, they will eat most anything palatable they can find, and no, they don’t ask your permission to ruin the plants they choose to eat in your landscape. As a rule, they will not dig down into the snow to find something to eat, but they will eat…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistDecember 13, 2022(First paragraphs are carried over from last week’s column. Amaryllis are the drama plants for winter. They grow from a bulb, and like a tulip, the flower buds form in the bulb prior to its going dormant. Your job as the plant keeper is to persuade that flower to come out of the bulb and bless you with its beauty. In recent years “waxed” bulbs are the easy route because you don’t have to plant…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistDecember 05, 2022We visited our son in Detroit over Thanksgiving weekend, and that trip always includes visiting a couple of the biggest and best greenhouses in the city as well as the Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. For a gardening and plant addict, this makes driving 14 hours each way a bonus on top of the time spent with Grant. I am inspired but not tempted by some of the plants and fresh holiday décor we…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistOctober 18, 2022It is Monday and the wind has been and is making short work of our beautiful fall color. That is not unusual for this part of the plains. That is why I encourage those of us who live here to take a picture or two of how amazing the fall color can be on a sunny day before it is demolished by the weather! And speaking of the weather, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the importance of your…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistSeptember 20, 2022We have reached the fall equinox, which means we have equal day and night hours in a 24-hour period, with the night hours getting progressively longer. Poinsettia plants understand that means it is time to initiate their flower buds. Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 is the magic time frame for that to happen, and nature never fails in the diminished day length. So I am saying that if you have kept your…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistAugust 16, 2022It’s Monday and we are getting blessed with a very gentle rain; I just direct-seeded scallions, lettuce and radishes for a fall crop, and this is the perfect rain to get those seeds growing. After planting, I spread a very light covering of dried grass over the rows. This will shade the soil enough to help keep the soil moist while the seed germinates and the shade will also help mediate the…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistAugust 02, 2022Dwarf reblooming daylilies have finished their first and main flush of flowers for the summer. Some of those stalks have developed seed pods and others have just dried up. We want to encourage those daylilies to rebloom, which they will do, but cutting out the stems with seed pods will encourage them to develop new flowering stems sooner. The flower stalks that have dried up can usually be pulled…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistJuly 26, 2022Well, this has not been my favorite year gardening! It seems like every pattern of weather was messed up, and the consequences were and are enough to make me wonder why I work so hard to “make it work.” Of course, my expectations belong to me, and what you see is what you see, not the picture in my mind of what I carefully envisioned and planned. I’m reminded of that so often when I’m working in…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistJune 28, 2022The battle with the bugs continues. … I am seeing damage on the lower leaves of purple dome asters. The leaves are getting a speckled yellow color, and if you look on the underside of the leaf, you will notice very small gray-colored spots that look like little bits of ash dust. Those are the critters causing the damage. The bug is called a psyllid, and they suck the sap out of the leaf, causing…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMarch 15, 2022We are predicted to have a week of wonderful spring weather, and I am sure some of you really want to plant some seeds to get a head start for your vegetable garden. But I beg you to wait until early April. I don’t have a weather crystal ball, but I do have knowledge about starting seeds too early, resulting in spindly, weak plants you will have to “baby” to survive when you plant them in the…
By George Bonnema, Luverne HorticulturalistMarch 08, 2022My last “Know It and Grow It” column gave you some information about how our indoor plants respond to the photoperiod or lengthening days of early spring. After being nearly dormant for four months, they are eager to start active growth. If you have a plant that is getting too tall, now is when to do a little pruning to get back to where that plant will look balanced and proportioned. Often…
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