Monthly Tips

April - Plant of the Month

Berberis darwinii

I love Berberis darwinii. Whatever the season it always looks brimful of health and vigor. Its jaunty evergreen leaves are small, glossy, dark green and holly-like. They grow densely on the plant and never seem to droop unhappily or be blighted by well, blights. Most of the year Berberis darwinii provides a pleasant contrast to surrounding plants, but come spring, it sheds its unassuming supporting cast role and struts into the spotlight with vivid clusters of orange flowers.

The flowers impress both at a distance and up close. Seen from afar a B. darwinii in bloom wows you with vibrant flowers set against shiny, dark green leaves. When viewed up close you see the charm of burnished orange buds on red stems that open to small clusters of daffodil-like flowers.

[Berberis darwinii]

Berberis darwinii in bud, early April

Growing this shrub is fairly easy. Give it sun and good drainage; it is drought tolerant once established. Don't shear the poor thing, let it take on its natural arching form. Great Plant Picks says it reaches 6'x 4' but I think it gets wider so I'd plan on 6' x 6'. Be warned, berberis are BARBerrys; they have thorns. Another reason to keep pruning to a minimum.

If you're looking for a cheerful, hard-working easy-going shrub, consider Berberis darwinii, it won't disappoint.






April - Tip of the Month

Fertilizers II

Last month I went on at length about fertilizers - here's take 2. Bags (or boxes or bottles) of fertilizer have 3 numbers on them, separated by hyphens and look like this: 10-20-20. These numbers tell you how much nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) are in the bag. The numbers are called the NPK for their abbreviations from the periodic table.

[Fertilizers]

The numbers tell you the percentage of that nutrient in the bag and vary hugely from one fertilizer to another. They range from the likes of 42-0-0 for sulfur coated urea to 1-0-2 for kelp meal. Clearly you're not supposed to use the same quantity of each of these in your garden. How do you figure out how much to use?

To keep it simple, let's take a 10 lb bag of 10-10-10, 10% or 1 lb would be nitrogen. The P and K aren't quite so straight forward because the P doesn't stand for pure phosophorus but P2O5. So in our bag of 10-10-10, there is 1 lb of P2O5 but only 0.44 lbs of actual phosphorus. Similarly, there is 1 lb of K2O and 0.83 of potassium.

Why does this matter? You're often told to apply nutrients in specific quantities, not just throw them on willy-nilly. The willy-nilly route leads to waste and possible run-off and contamination issues. Last month, I told you that, in general, lawns need 3-4 lbs of nitrogen/1000 sq. ft. per year. Using our bag of 10-10-10 from above, you'd need 3 bags for 3 lbs. You'd also be getting over a pound of phosphorus and about 2.5 of potassium whether you needed them or not. If you only want nitrogen, find a fertilizer that is #-0-0. As you can see, some thought and reading of fertilizer bags is required if you want to add fertilizer properly and responsibly to your garden.

I could go on, but really, that's enough. Next month I'll try to come up with a more entertaining tip, maybe one on the benefits of keeping worms as pets.