Monthly Tips
March- Plant of the Month
Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora'
I like to have some boldly cheerful plants in spring to counteract the Seattle gloom. This month's plant, Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora', has little orangey-yellow pompoms that race up and down its green stems. The cheeriness quotient is definitely high for this plant.
Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora' is a deciduous caning shrub that will take over real estate if you let it but not at an overwhelming rate. I've had mine 5 years or so and it covers an area of maybe 5'x7'. I haven't beaten it back in a serious way until this year when I dug up wayward canes. My plant, which receives little to no supplemental water, is about 6' tall. Most sources say it reaches 8'. The stems are a pleasant grass green all year. The flowers on 'Pleniflora' are double and really do look like little pompoms. Starting in early spring bright orangey-yellow flowers burst forth and froth up and down the stems for about a month.
![[Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora']](images/kerria.jpg)
Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora'
Kerria japonica is an easygoing plant. Sun is good, part shade is fine too. Mine has shown itself to be drought tolerant. Once the plant is well established, cut back some older canes to the ground every year. Choose canes that are crowded, dead at the top or flopping over for removal. If you prune before blooming, bring the branches into the house for forcing and get a bucketful of cheer. Dig up any wayward suckers. That's it.
So if the gloom is getting you down, consider a Kerria. It's prancy little pompoms are sure to make you smile.
March - Tip of the Month
Fertilizers I
Fertilizers add nutrients to soils. Before you run out and start adding fertilizer willy-nilly to the yard - assess and consider getting a soil test. Remember, nobody is out spreading fertilizer in the woods and things grow just fine.
![[Fertilizers]](images/fertilizers.jpg)
However, a yard is not the woods. In a natural system, like the woods, the nutrients get taken up by the plants and returned to the soil when the leaves fall or the plant dies. In our yards, we grow things that are far from their natural environment. Furthermore, our management practices (cutting the grass, raking up leaves) remove nutrients from the system. Consequently, in the non-natural system that is your garden, adding some nutrients via fertilizer may be necessary to have happy plants.
The best way to know if your soil is deficient in some nutrient is to get a soil test done. The best place I know to send it is the lab at UMass Amherst www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest/. For $23 + shipping they will analyse all the major nutrients (make sure to get the nitrogen) and make fertilizer suggestions. Go to their website for more info.
If you don't want to get a soil analysis, consider the following:
- For most people, the non-lawn ornamental part of your garden is likely to do fine without fertilizer if you practice some benign neglect (don't remove all the fallen leaves for example) and mulch it with an organic mulch like compost or wood chips.
- Lawns will need some nitrogen, even if you leave the clippings on. Think 3-4 lbs of nitrogen /1000 sq. ft. of lawn and about 1/4 less if you leave on the clippings.
- Vegetable patches need fertilizer because you are removing nutrients when you harvest. Steve Solomon who wrote Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades recommends the following:
- 4 parts seed meal (like cottonseed or canola),
- 1/2 part lime (best half agricultural and half dolomite)
- 1/2 part rock phosphate or bonemeal,
- 1/2 part kelp meal.
- Parts could be anything from a scoop to a 10 lb sack. He says "Use as much complete organic fertilizer as the plants will respond to." Well that's just great. Don't worry he doesn't leave it there. The actual amounts of said organic fertilizer to use varies with plant type, how they are planted, if its the 1st or 2nd fertilization, etc. It's all quite dizzying. For example, for transplants he says, "...scoop out a small hole about 4" deep and 8" in diameter. Put 1/4-1/2 c. of complete organic fertilizer into th bottom of the hole. Blend well into a few inches of soil at the bottom of the hole." It's enough to send one off to the Farmer's Market - or you could just carry his book out into the vegetable patch with you because he gives specific instructions for each kind of vegetable.
Next month will bring answers to burning fertilizer questions like what are those 3 numbers (3-1-2, 20-0-0) on fertilizer bags, and how do you figure out how many pounds of nitrogen are in a bag? Try not to hold your breath.