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Gloves for all gardeners, all seasons
Euonymus scale
Design to correct for ugly fence
Environmentally friendly pest control
Cutting back roses, lavender, others in spring
Newspaper as mulch
Did you arrive at this page from a search of the site? All
of the topics below are included in this issue of What's Coming
Up. Download the issue to learn about:
ash, Fraxinus, emerald ash borer
blue mist spirea, Caryopteris
butterfly bush, Buddleia
cutting back woody sub-shrubs
design corner, strong visual influence in design
design line, texture, color, fencing as line, visual element in
design
Euonymus scale, environmentally friendly control, horticultural
oil, insecticidal soap
fence line, chain link fence, design to cover fence, design to
hide fence
gardener's health, skin, eczema, abrasives, cracking skin,
fungi
gloves, Woman's Work brand, West Country brand, Atlas Nitrile
Touch
groundcovers slow shrub comeback from cutback
hybrid tea roses
lavender
maintenance, perennials compared to annuals
newspaper as mulch, newspaper in addition to mulch
perennials hardened off
raised bed for vegetables, advantages of raised bed,
sage
slugs
Specialty Growers
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this issue
Gloves for gardeners
Over the decades I've been intimate with over 500 pairs of
gloves in more than 20 styles. Currently, these
four are my regulars (left): Early and late in the year
I'm in Woman's Work gloves (the purple ones at
left in this group, which the guys in my crew use, too).
I consider them interchangeable with a very
similar West Country glove (not pictured here). These
are warmest so they're my choice in late
winter.
I switch to the lighter Woman's Work style when it's
cool but no longer icy. (They're the green pair,
second from left). These Woman's Work gloves and the comparable
West Country model have velcro wrist closures, which keep soil from
getting inside the glove. All have padded palms and fingertips,
which go a long way to cushion my hands from the wear that can
trigger my arthritis-, carpal tunnel- and vibration white finger
symptoms. They are my most expensive gloves (about $20) but they
make up for it by out-wearing the others. Even though I use them
hard every day they may last a whole season. I wear out three or
four pairs of lighter weight gloves in that length of time.
By mid-spring I'm wearing the lighter Atlas "Touch" gloves and in
summer the Atlas "Cool Touch." Both have long-wearing elastic at
the cuffs and protect my hands well yet allow amazing dexterity and
feeling.
All four of these gloves are made by national companies and are
available from on-line vendors. Locally, I pick them up as needed
at English Gardens, Telly's, Ray Wiegand's Nursery, Bordine's or my
local hardware store (McNab's; what a great place).
For many years I've made it a condition of employment
that those who work with me wear gloves. No one has
protested. That may be because those who draw gloves
from my collection see regular illustrations of what
they do for us, as shown here (above) in the comparison
of a new and worn pair of my Woman's Work gloves. Check
out those fingertips and palms! The forces that wore away
both padding and substance there could have easily flayed
skin.
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this issue illustrated here.
Oil it takes to control scale...
The white flecks on this variegated Euonymus leaf are
the hardened bodies of adult scales. They're difficult to
kill as hard-shelled adults, simpler to dispatch when they
are just starting out the year as crawlers. That time is
now as the plant's new leaves emerge.
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this issue illustrated here.
Cutting back
(Above) These are the bases of lavender stems I've
just removed in an annual cut-back. I found tiny
gray-green nubs of foliage on the stems just an inch
above ground, so I cut to just above those buds. Look
close and you can see them on the sage cuts, too
(below). They're gray dots, ready to grow.
Above: Younger stems are on the right in these
groups, progressively older to the right. Notice the
oldest stems have become decrepit over years,
with fewer growth buds evident and more spindly or
dead wood. That's because the wood of these
Mediterranean natives does not fare well in hot, humid
summers. Infections develop and grow on the
stems, year by year.
Above: That dark space by my loppers is a dwarf
spirea I cut back this week, early April. Its
not-yet-cut fellows are in the background.
Here (below) is the stubby remnant of that spirea with
all its thinnest stems removed (cut weak wood
hard, leave only the sturdiest to re-sprout) and the
groundcover myrtle pulled away. That myrtle would
have shaded the stubs and slowed development of dormant
bus that would become new canes.
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this issue illustrated here.
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