The Gardener's Trail, Sunday May 16

Follow the Gardener's Trail and tap into a wealth of horticultural expertise at high-quality, locally-owned nurseries and garden centers within Tompkins County. On Sunday  June 16, 2013, ten different nurseries and garden centers will be offering free talks, demonstrations, tours and samples on a wide range of gardening topics. Free activities will be happening at each business between 10 am and 4 pm so you can visit as many as you like that day to pick up gardening tips, resources, ideas and inspiration!

2013 Gardener's Trail Participants

Baker’s Acres, 1104 Auburn Road (Route 34) North Lansing: Hey Dads! Get a free tomato plant with growing instructions! Take in a self guided tour of the demonstration gardens, which will be in full bloom. Baker's Acres also hosts their famous Cornell chicken barbecue every Father's Day so make this your lunch stop! (There is a cost for the BBQ.)

Cayuga Landscape, 2712 North Triphammer Road, Ithaca:  Miniature evergreen plants planted in containers make an interesting change from annuals and they last a lot longer. Learn about different varieties of evergreens for containers and watch demonstrations on container planting.

  Der Rosenmeister, 190 Seven Mile Drive, Ithaca: The rose display gardens will be in full bloom, so take a tour to see many varieties in flower and also the many creative ways of growing climbing and trailing roses. There will be demonstrations on rose care with a seasonal focus: spring pruning, feeding, weed control and mulching.

  Dryden Agway, 59 West Main Street,  Dryden: Visitor's can try samples of Mrs. Wage’s Salsa on chips, washed down with locally-brewed beer  from Bacchus Brewing Company, and pick up  information on growing their own ‘salsa garden’.

  Earlybird Farms, 806 Elmira Road (Route 13 South), Ithaca:  Tropical annuals for gardens are hot, hot, hot!  Earlybird propagates a huge variety of colorful summer annuals and will have talks and demonstrations on the best ones for NYS gardens.

  Indian Creek Farm, 1408 Trumansburg Road (Route 96) Ithaca:  Nursery staff will give demonstrations on planting and staking young fruit trees,and visitors can hop on a wagon ride tour of the vegetable farm and orchard.

  Ithaca Agway, 213 South Fulton Street, Ithaca: The nursery staff will present talks and demonstrations on how to grow and maintain David Austin roses. David Austin's English Roses combine the forms and fragrances of old roses with the repeat-flowering of modern roses. They are very easy to grow, healthy and reliable.

  Magic Garden, Ithaca Farmers Market, Ithaca: Visit the Magic Gardeners at the Ithaca Farmers Market and  learn how to use unusual tropical annuals in container plantings. See demonstration on potting on into containers and try a free cup of Trinidad bush tea! You can find the Magic Gardeners at booth number 88 from 10 am to 3 pm.

  Michaeleen’s, 2826 North Triphammer Road, Ithaca:  Wouldn't you love to pick your own oranges for breakfast? Staff will give presentations on growing citrus fruit trees indoors with a selection of sizes and varieties of citrus fruit trees available for sale. Visitors can also sample free baked goods made with citrus infusions and wash them down with cold lemonade.

  The Plantsmen, 482 Peruville Road, Groton: Watch a demonstration on how to use coir logs. Coir is a natural fiber extracted from the husk of coconut. Coir logs are an ecological way to stabilize edges of ponds and stream banks.

Click the map below  to view locations of participating nurseries and garden centers.

Come to Ithaca for a Gardener's Weekend - June 15 and 16!

Open Days Garden Tours - Saturday June 15, 10 am to 4 pm

The Tompkins County Open Days Garden Tour is taking place on Saturday June 15 from 10 am to 4 pm (one day before the Gardener's Trail).Three fabulous private gardens will be open for one day only! Make a full gardener's weekend out of it by touring the open gardens on Saturday, then follow the Gardener's Trail on Sunday where you will learn tips and techniques to help make your own garden fabulous! Admission is $5.00 per garden.

Eat the Invaders!

I've been pulling invasive garlic mustard out of my woods and fields the last few weeks. While yanking out the fast-growing, prolifically seeding invaders, the garlicky aroma of the leaves got me thinking that I should be eating it. Usually I throw the pulled up plants in the garbage so they don't spread through my compost pile.

Garlic mustard in flower

You can imagine how excited I was to come across a website called Eat the Invaders! which promotes eating invasive plant and animal species as a way to control them. The website has recipes and cooking tips for invasive thugs like japanese knotweed, curly dock, garlic mustard, and even for invasive animals like nutria (looks similar to a guinea pig) and carp. 

Here's a recipe from the website for

Garlic Mustard Pesto

Wildman Steve Brill has served this pesto on his tours of Central Park in New York. He told us we could post it, with a link to his website.

4 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons garlic mustard taproots
3/4 cups parsley
1 cup garlic mustard leaves
1 cup basil
2 cups walnuts or pine nuts
1/2 cup mellow miso
1 1/4 cup olive oil or as needed

Chop the garlic and garlic mustard roots in a food processor.

Add the parsley, garlic, garlic mustard and basil and chop.

Add the nuts and chop coarsely.

Add the olive oil and miso and process until you’ve created a coarse paste.

Makes 4 cups

Weed 'em and reap!

Growing Fava Beans in Upstate NY, Part 2

When I last blogged about my fava bean experiment at the end of March, the plants in the greenhouse looked happy and healthy, like this:

My dilemma was that the greenhouse was starting to hit pretty high temps on sunny days, and fava flowers won't make bean pods if they are exposed to warm temperatures (above 80 F). I had to get the plants out of the warm greenhouse and take a chance on planting them outside.  Palm Sunday (March 24) was sunny and in the 50's. I planted some of each variety in the garden and put the rest outside on an open porch to harden off. 

The following week the temperature plummeted, and on Good Friday (March 29) it went down to 20 F, even though it was only predicted to go to 25 F. The next day the plants that were in pots on the porch looked like this:

The were severely  wilted but not completely turned to mush, so it seemed that there was hope for them. The plants outside had some protection from the earth's warmth and looked only slightly better. 

I brought the potted plants inside and watered them well,and covered the outside plants with a sheet to protect them from more cold damage.

 By two days later, on Easter Sunday (March 31) the plants were resurrected! This is how they looked - still lax but definitely not frozen. Even the flower buds survived the extreme cold!

 I trimmed off any parts that didn't come back to life, planted the potted plants and staked them all to help them stand up.

 For the next few weeks after being frozen, the plants continued to flower but no pods were forming. I started to worry that either the heat in the greenhouse, or the extreme cold, had rendered the flowers sterile. Then this week, finally the sight I have been waiting for:

 Baby fava beans forming on the plants!

Notice how the pods form upward on the plant instead of down like other species of beans. These pods will get very large, 8 to 12 inches long, and when the beans inside are ready the pods turn in a downward direction and they are twisted off. 

So why am I going to all this trouble? Fava beans have an indescribable flavor that is unlike bush beans or runner beans. It's as distinctive as asparagus......I'm not saying they taste like asparagus but that they have a unique flavor that somehow captures the essence of spring and are a quintessential spring treat.

I learned two important things from this experiment: 

1. Wait until February to sow the beans in a greenhouse so that the flowering is delayed until April when it's safer to plant them outside. I sowed these beans in November and then they started flowering in the greenhouse in March, just when the greenhouse was really heating up during the day. The flowers abort if they are exposed to prolonged heat (over 80F). 

2. The plants can be exposed to very cold temperatures and still survive. I knew that 'Banner' was rated to be hardy to 15F, but all four varieties (+ Dreadnought, Aqua Dulce and Crimson Flowered) survived several nights in the low 20's. This means they would be fine planted outside in April even though there can be many nights below freezing then. Of course, covering them with row cover or sheets would also be a good idea, but for this experiment I was curious to see how they would do with no protection whatsoever.

Now it remains to be seen how many pods we will actually harvest after all this! The plants are only 18" or so tall - quite puny compared to the big healthy plants (3-4') we could grow in the mild winter climate of County Clare, Ireland. Maybe next year with later sowing and transplanting dates..............

What to do in the Garden this Month

Traditionally, the last frost hits at the end of this month.  Woo Hoo!!  Although we don't know what Mother Nature has in store, it's time to gather our seedlings and start hardening them off.

What to do in the garden this month:

• Mow your lawn at least 3 inches high to promote deeper, healthier root growth.
• If you fertilize your lawn, the first application can put down the last week of this month.
• Plant your brassicas now, including: broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and summer cabbage.
• Leeks can be moved to their final growing place in your garden.
• Begin harvesting your salad greens.
• Leave bulb foliage intact until it yellows and wilts.  The foliage is required for strong bulb growth.
• Keep an eye out for white trails on columbine leaves.  This is caused by a leaf miner.  Remove and destroy infested leaves as you see them.
• Plant annuals in bare spots in your garden.
• If you have deer, don't forget to use your deer repellent!
• Turn  your compost pile.
• Weed, weed, weed. 

As the weather warms and the itch to work outside intensifies, remember to take a few minutes each day to smell the new flowers and enjoy each new sprout and shoot.