October
2007
Community Paper
copyright ©2007 by Community Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
OCTOBER
IN THE GARDEN
by Nick Francisco, Blodgett Gardens
3821 Edgewater Drive, 407-295-2363
FALL GARDENS
Cooler weather is finally here and with it some welcome rain so the landscapes will come back to life. Look for weeds in your turf they are easy to control. For broadleaf weeds apply fertilome Weed-n-Feed. For grassy weeds bring in a sample for best control. Apply Turf pro to your landscape to energize the soil microbes who will energize your landscape just watch the color of your landscape change to a darker green. Remember we offer solutions to your landscape problems just bring in a sample for a diagnosis and remedy.
Holidays are just around the corner, starting the end of the month with Halloween. Fall festivals abound as the best growing season of the year is upon us. Planters filled with beautiful flowers will help the house take on the holiday mood. Fall gardens will produce bountiful harvests with minimal care. Have you said "I don't have room for a garden"? "I'm NOT going to dig up a plot of MY grass for a garden." How about a strip garden? Take a strip in front of a hedge or fence about a foot wide and plant your favorite vegetable there. Swiss Chard, with its colorful stems will make an excellent border planting, as well as a great entree. Try this with broccoli, spinach, collards, mustard or lettuce (some of my favorites). Or fill in a bare spot with a caged tomato, 3'-39 plot of corn, or a cucumber or squash climbing up the fence. We are into hassle-free gardening so eliminate the germination step by leaving that to the professionals. Most all flowers and vegetables are available as plants with 48 to 15 plants per flat (depending upon the size of the plant). This allows us to plant large quantities of our favorite plantings producing bountiful bouquets or full cornucopias.
But you say, "I don't want to do a lot of bed preparation and soil turning, or any of the other heavy work involved for a garden." I use the following steps for container gardens. Fill containers with Fertilome potting soil after placing broken crockery or stones in the bottom of your pot to prevent soil plugs from forming. Plant your plants or seeds (some plants grow readily from seed with very few problems - ask us if in doubt). Set your container in a sunny spot and top it off with Fertilome Start-N-Grow (this will feed your pot for up to three months - talk about no work!) followed by a dose of High Yield Disyston (follow label directions). Water it all in with a gallon of Fertilome Root Stimulator (3 tablespoons of concentrate per gallon of water). We have our garden planted in those old containers we didn't know what to do with; with minimal effort, in a clean, well-draining soil free of pests, fertilized for the life of the crop (most annuals live 90 to 100 days), with insects controlled for 40 to 45 days. How much lazier can I get? Well I do try to get the kids to do the whole process under my guidance of course. Is that being lazy? I like to think I am trying to teach them something.
Blodgett Gardens is now channel 9's local garden expert.
Channel 9 has a forum through their website where individuals may ask specific
questions to their problems and we (the experts) will answer their specific
questions rather than having to come into the store. Of course visual ID is
required for some solutions but many may be answered without seeing a sample.
