Gardening as a happy and healthful experience is a balanced combination of planning, timing, physical effort, and mechanical and chemical aids, with the most significant emphasis on the first three.
But, in these technological times, we are easily mesmerized by labor and time-saving gadgets beautifully illustrated in page-splashed ads. Garden aids, both mechanical and chemical, are helpful assistants only if they do the jobs for which they were made.
Growing Southern Wild Plants
A letter from AB Thacher tells of her success with southern wild plants in the Adirondacks, which is due, no doubt, to her excellent growing sense supplemented with great knowledge. But it reminds us that many lovely native plants are little used. Among the trees, the river birch, Belinda nigra, has a unique charm.
The pinkish bark of the bole exfoliates in papery sheets and shreds. Despite its preferred marshy habitat, it does well in various soils and sites, even on a dry hillside if plant food and humus are available.
Among native shrubs, the beaked hazel, Corylus cornuta, is too little known. More slender than the commoner Corylus Americana, it frequents rocky woodlands. Most interesting is the two-inch invaluable or sheath, which covers the nut. Borne in pairs, the tight sheaths appear like miniature, green pantaloons.
The beaked hazel and river birch are native from New England to Georgia and west beyond the Mississippi. Seek them in nurseries that specialize in native materials.
Most fungicides are of little value unless applied to the plants before the fungus spores arrive. Viruses, leaf spots, blights, and rusts can be prevented from invading plant tissue, but they can seldom be burned out inside.
Effective Fungicides
A group of chemicals known as carbamates are is especially effective as preventive fungicides. The more common ones are ferbam, zineb, and ziram. All are cursed with many trade names.
Stop in at a hardware store or garden mart and ask for zineb, and the chances are the clerk won’t know what you are talking about. But if you look around, you may sec Dithane 78 or Parzate or Fungicide A on a shelf. If so, buy it. All three are brands of 65% zinc ethylene bisdithiocarbamate, of which zineb is the nickname.
Anthracnose on sycamore and oak, rust on hawthorn and apple, and leaf spot on annuals and perennials can be prevented by spraying or dusting with carbamates before the disease appears. Still, it cannot be cured by spraying or brushing after the illness is apparent. So have your equipment in good order and carbamates on hand for early application.
Expendable fiber pots, now freely advertised, are excellent for starting hard-to-transplant annuals and perennials. After the seedlings are established in the pots, plant the pots in the desired locations. The roots soon penetrate the banks and invade the soil.
Wild Roses Varieties
The wild roses have such charm, require so little care, and have so many uses they should be more freely planted. The hardiest and probably the best known is Rose rugosa from the Orient, like as much for its red “hips” and fall coloring as for its bloom.
Rose virginiana with pink bloom, Rose Harrison with yellow flowers, and Rose hu, goes with pale yellow blossoms may be used as specimens or on the border of shrubs. Other native species are Rose palustris and the meadow rose, Rose blanda.
Rosa wichuraiana, the memorial rose, is ideal for banks. Another trailer equally effective as a bank holder is the sturdy rugosa hybrid, Max Graf. Both are useful in discouraging youngsters who enjoy sliding down steep slopes but more efficient in catching and holding stray papers and leaves.
Using Vinyl Resin in Gardening
Among the chemicals that are effective aids in gardening is vinyl resin, a milky white liquid composed of microscopic plastic particles which form a transparent protective coating when applied to plants. It is used to reduce moisture loss when transplanting annuals, perennials, and woody plants. It is also a good anti-desiccant when sprayed on foliage in anticipation of a long dry spell in summer.
More recently, its value as a sticker for pesticides has been demonstrated. Except for a slight gloss, it does not change the appearance of plants. However, delicate flowers should not be sprayed with vinyl resin, even in a weak solution.
Gardening, because of its broad appeal, is therapeutically effective in overcoming physical and mental handicaps. Working with the medical profession, trained horticultural therapists have brought about amazing recuperations.
Growing fruits, flowers, vegetables, trees, and shrubs is a tonic for most patients. Bulb culture, plant identification, flower arrangement, plant breeding, and propagation are but a few of the phases of horticulture that have therapeutic value through aesthetics or physical activity. The need is for trained horticultural therapists.
44659 by H. Gleason Mattoon