Calendar of Events

Monday, June 19, 2017

For Me, Pruning Roses is Personal

According to family records, the year  would have been 1958,  just
prior to my 6th birthday. The Rosarians, who were in charge of
the annual Rose Parade in Portland, Oregon, decided to sponsor a contest to
draw attention to the event, which was always a family favorite.
The grand prize for the first rose in Portland to come into full bloom
was a brand new black and white T.V.,  and 2nd prize was $50,
 both of which would have been a boon to our large family.

My father loved his garden, which was full of camelias, rhodies,
grapes, and especially roses (the Queen of the Garden, as they are  some-
times referred to). My dad was excited. He had a rose in full bloom
and invited the Rosarians to come see it. And that they did. According
to them, after much scrutiny I'm sure, they decided the rose was too
small and not showy enough to draw attention in the newspaper
to the parade.  Needless to say, Dad was deflated!

He may not have won the contest that year, but despite a bruised ego he still had a beautiful garden, and unbeknownst to him, he was showing me how to take care of it. My father was responsible for my love affair with gardening, and most especially of growing roses. I guess you could say it is in the genes!

For this short article on pruning roses, I will be referring primarily to Hybrid Tea roses, as they are my rose of choice because of their long stems and slightly larger flower than the Florabunda, although pruning techniques are similar. Because of the cold weather here in Idaho, I wait to prune my roses until early spring after the last frost but while the rose is still dormant. Before actually starting to prune, I like to stand  back and just look the plant over and imagine how I want it to present. They are all so individual. This is easier with a mature plant as opposed to a new one.

I obviously start by removing all the dead and diseased wood, removing canes from the middle, and canes which cross over or rub against other canes. Then I take another quick look. With a bush that is at least 2 to 3 years old, I look down at it from the top and imagine a round vase in the center with several  (8 to 10 canes) surrounding it.


In this manner, it gives the rose plenty of airflow, room for pollinators, and keeps it healthy and vigorous as well as keeping disease to a minimum. An established rose can be pruned to within 8 to 10 inches from the ground.  I prefer to look at pruning roses more as shaping the plant. You can prevent overcrowding and can restrict the size. An open-centered rose, with well-spaced shoots that do not rub against each other is much more pleasing to the eye and less prone to disease. One of the beauties of roses is that by proper pruning, you can keep them blossoming for the entire season.             

All varieties of roses have alternating buds. So when making the cuts to shape your rose, after a flower has faded  look down the cane from the top to the second leaflet of 5 leaves and cut approximately  ¼ inch above the leaf axil at a downward angle away from the leaflet, so that water drips away from the bud. Generally, I look for a 5-leaf leaflet pointing outward, but to maintain the open-centered and rounded shape, you may need to fill in a space, so you could prune at an inward facing leaflet. You design your rose bush.

So, have a little fun and shape by pruning as part of your gardening routine. Roses are somewhat forgiving, they are beautiful, and you could get flowers all season long, a benefit you don't get from many other flowers.

Sources:
            Pruning and training by Christopher Brickell and David Joyce
            Portland Rose Society Rose pruning Guide

            https://catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/ec1624 

Monday, June 12, 2017

Raised Bed Gardening

Raised Bed Gardening

Have you tried gardening but with little success? Don’t give up yet. You need to try raised bed gardening first. Raised bed gardening is easy! 

Raised bed gardening is planting vegetables or fruits in small plots. Typically the plots are rectangular but really the sky is the limit when you consider the shapes you can create.


Gardening in raised beds has many benefits. Some of the benefits include less soil compaction, better soil drainage, higher yields of food crops, expanded growing season, and easy maintenance. And a raised bed can be a really attractive addition to your landscape. 


Building a raised bed is easy. You can build a 3’ x 4’ rectangular box out of any variety of materials. How to videos and instructions are easy to find on the internet. Fill the box with top-soil and organic matter. Plant your seeds, water with a soaker hose, and watch your garden grow! 

Excellent sources for raised bed gardening:


Photo credits: 
Photo 1 - Tractor Supply
Photo 2-  Mark Pinkerton

Photo 3 - DailyMail.com

Monday, June 5, 2017

The City Bee and the Country Bee


Many of us have become concerned with the recent decline of the honey bee, and there are many reasons for the decline.  Ohio State University too was concerned and set out to study bees in a way much unlike many others.  They wanted to see what the bee themselves preferred in lifestyle and pollen and if it affected their livelihood? What they learned can help us as home gardeners to plant better and help them out!  They placed the bees on the line between the city and the farmlands and set to tracking them, it turned out the bees much preferred the country life.  Why you ask? 



Bees like flowers, and lots of them. They don't care if they are all the same, they are fairly mundane in their choices, but they like a lot of bang for their buck.  So weeds ranked number one with them!  In the country they grow in abundance by the roads and between the fields and they could fill their little legs in no time and head home.  Pesticides long seen as a country problem really didn't bother them as much as one would think because they aren't really all that interested in the fields themselves, just the flowers in between.  So how can we as urban gardeners help them out?  We surely don't want a garden of weeds, but we can grow gardens that are a bit more like prairies.  When purchasing your flowers look for the pollinator friendly ones and plant bunches, and in your vegetable gardens throw a few extra flowers in, not only will that increase the bees visiting your garden but it should help its productivity as well too!  Turns out they love Linden trees?  Maybe you have room for one?  So just remember, bees like quantity, so the more the merrier.  Happy planting and if you want to read the study yourself, it’s really interesting!  You can find it at https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/03/14/bees-and-farms/

Friday, June 2, 2017

NEW TO BEEKEEPING – GETTING STARTED

Just wanted to give you a little insight on getting started in the world of beekeeping.  This is the first year for my husband and I, and it has been an exciting process for us. 
My first recommendation for anyone who wants to get started is to attend a local club meeting or a beginner’s class through your local continuing education program.  Fortunately for us here in the treasure valley the Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club meets once a month and they also put on the Beginners class thru Boise’s continuing education program.
If you haven’t been already, you should also be researching different aspects of beekeeping.  Whether is the type of hive you want, the way you want to get your new bees, where would be the best place to set up your hive or hives, etc…  This will always generate questions and there are lots of resources at hand to answer your questions.  
The Xerces Society is a good reference for conservation questions and also for learning about different types of bees.  The USDA has some good information on getting started, from building hives to different survey results over that past years measuring things like colony loss and honey output.  Their resources on getting started and building hives might seem out dated, but in actuality, things really haven’t changed that much.
Once you have decided that beekeeping is your new hobby, you need to get started on gathering the equipment needed and buying or making your hives.  We chose to buy ours, because one of the more reputable distributors has a complete package of everything you need to get started at a decent price.  As we continued to learn and read about beekeeping we were always finding additional things that we thought we needed of course. 
New bees are available in the spring, but you need to order them probably in January or February.  They come in what is called a package or a nuk.  There is a considerably difference between the two and for a beginner it was obvious for us which one we wanted to go with.  A package is just roughly a boot sized box filled with 3lbs of bees and a queen.  You dump those carefully into your hive and place your queen so she can join the group and they start supporting her and the colony becomes a working unit.  A nuk on the other hand is a box about 1/3 the size of a hive with 4 frames pretty much full of comb, brood, bees and a queen.  It’s pretty much a working colony already.  So for us it was an easy decision, start out a little ahead of the game with something that is already established and not from ground zero. 
It has been about 3 weeks now since we’ve had the bees and they are doing wonderfully.  We are about ready to put the second layer on each hive (we have 2 hives).  We check on them about once a week to make sure they have enough food (sugar water) but also have been enjoying just sitting watching them come and go with pollen covered legs and do what they do to maintain their home.  We are looking forward to the honey we can collect next year.  What they are making now will keep them fed throughout the upcoming winter.
If you are in the least bit interested in becoming a beekeeper, please check it out.  Educate yourself on what it takes and the joys and benefits associated.  You won’t be sorry.  J