What a Cool, Wet Spring Means for Gardens; Take Safety Precautions While Gardening

This week I have a chance to lightly cover two important topics that have been on my “need to write about” list for several years. Yesterday I had two happenstance experiences that made both critically impotent. But first, this note from your garden.

As forecast, this will turn out to be a cool and wet spring. It’s not the ideal situation for new plants unless they are established. While cool soil does encourage root growth on trees, shrubs and lawns it can be the death knell for transplanted seedlings. The key here is in hardening off these young plants, and it’s true for the ones you’ve started yourself and for the transplants you’ll buy at the garden centers.

The first thing to consider is that the heat-loving plants will not appreciate being planted in cool wet soil. This is true for tropicals such as the Alocasias and Colocasias (elephant ears and the like) as well as tender annuals and vegetables such as the melons, cucurbits, eggplants, peppers and tomatoes. It’s fine to buy these plants now but keep them in a spot where you can control the moisture — even in cell packs or pots. At this time of the year, keeping them above ground will result in the soil they’re in being 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the garden soil.

Frost shouldn’t be an issue but cold can be. Cold frames are great for protection and hardening off these plants. Just be mindful of the temperature as even on a bright but cloudy day an improperly vented cold frame can heat up very fast.

Soil temps are only one aspect of hardening off seasonal plants, though. There also needs to be some wind and sun protection. On days that are dry and sunny, a north wind can cause rapid evaporation of soil moisture and internal plant moisture. Put these young plants in a spot where you have a temporary wind barrier and let them adjust for several days.

These plants also need some sun protection as well. They may have been in a greenhouse that’s shaded or even grown under artificial lighting. Put them right into the garden and they’ll get sunburned just like we do. Protect them for several days using a shade cloth like Reemay or even some wooden lath or a section of snow fence over them. Gradually give them more sun.

Hot caps, widely used with newly planted tomatoes, have a dual function. They protect the young plants from sunburn and from wind desiccation. They may even help with some heat retention in the soil.

Best of all is a cold frame where you have control of light, temperature and moisture. You can buy small ones made from polycarbonate with aluminum frames or you can build your own by going online and finding plans and instructions. Just keep in mind that they must have a way of being vented or they easily overheat. The smaller units can have automatic venting but for larger ones you’ll have to learn when to open them and when to shut them to retain the warmth into the cooler nights.

I am a risk averse person, and in my work consulting for farms, gardens and large estates I always look for opportunities to keep things safe. We use tools that can kill us, mutilate us and injure us. What would you do if you got seriously injured while gardening? An accident with a power tool like a chainsaw, lawn mower or hedge trimmer? Even manual tools like pruners, knives, axes and hammers can do serious damage. We can also inadvertently damage ourselves even without the use of tools.

Last Saturday I nearly took off two fingers while using a very simple, battery-operated hedge trimmer. I was wearing heavy gloves as well as eye protection but somehow two fingers on my left hand got clipped, making typing this week’s column just a wee bit tricky. There was lots of blood but my wife being an EMT was able to stop the bleeding, clean the wounds and bandage me up without the need for stitches. I have no idea how I screwed up but I did, and I had the emergency supplies to deal with it. Do you?

My first piece of advice is to make sure your tetanus protection is up to date. Next is to make sure you have a first aid kit with antiseptic wipes, gauze pads and wrap of several sizes, medical grade adhesive tape and lots of adhesive bandages. You should probably have a small eyewash kit containing an eye cup and a sterile eye rinsing solution. You can get all of this in a simple Farm First Aid Kit from Gemplers for about $55 and a more complete kit for $65. Both include a case (Gemplers.com).

Prior to my most recent close call I’ve had two others. Once was when I was digging out a large hydrangea that needed to be moved and in the process I tore my meniscus on my right knee. No first aid kit could help with that. My other close call was when a twig from a nearby shrub scratched my cornea as I was removing invasive plants. Again, I was very lucky. It was painful, and at the emergency room I was treated and told to see an ophthalmologist the next day. He put some magic drops in the eye and in just a day or two I was fine.

Have a plan. Know what your risks are and have the supplies you might need for any emergency that you can handle at home. Remember also that just a small twig can do harm. As can a mower, hedge clipper or a simple hand pruner. Are you prepared? Don’t forget your sunscreen and tick repellent.

Last for this week are some observations and thoughts about the current pollinator craze. You can’t open a plant catalog, look through a gardening magazine or blog or pass through a garden center without being deluged with articles on saving the pollinators and planting for the pollinators. It’s turned into a commercial bonanza for the nurseries as long as they promote their plants as being pollinator necessary or pollinator helpful. Garden designers are also cashing in. I’ve long felt that there is something very, very wrong here.

What’s really going on is that they are cashing in on making you feel good when you buy plants and install gardens that are allegedly pollinator friendly. The truth, however, is that the vast majority of what’s being promoted neither promotes pollination or feeds the insects that have the potential to provide the nectar that many insects need to survive and thrive.

Here’s a case in point. We once grew only two types of Echinacea, or the purple coneflower, in our gardens. One was the purple species, or E. purpurea, and the other was a white cultivar named White Swan. But if you believe catalogs and plant tags you’d think that every single Echinacea now available, and there are dozens, are pollinator plants that are helping our endangered insects such as our native bees. They are not — and many don’t even produce pollen.

According to Dr. Robert Gegear, a biologist and researcher at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the only widely available Echinacea that is a true pollinator is the species, E. purpurea, and that plant can be very hard to find in garden centers though you can easily grow it from seed. At a recent seminar I attended, Dr. Gegear noted that only this species of this plant works as we’d like it to in a pollinator garden. No, he’s not saying there aren’t others, but he is saying that many of the “others” may make you feel like you’re doing something to support the local ecology, but you’re not.

Interestingly, the other plant that is an East End native and one of the top species for pollinator enhancement is the wild Lupine, or Lupinus perennis. It used to grow wild along Sunrise Highway in Shinnecock Hills, but it’s been years since I’ve seen it due to the state mowing the area so there is no pollination, no seed set, and no more Lupines.

I’m working with Dr. Gegear so I can get you a link to one of his lectures and I hope we have that soon. In the meantime, get online and take a look at his public website where some of his research findings are presented and a very thorough list of insects and plants that do make good pollinator matches, not supposed ones.

Dr. Gegear’s website can be reached at gegearlab.weebly.com. On the home page there are a number of options, and while you should explore them all, pay particular attention to the “Plant list” tab on the top pull down menus. His research is primarily based on work in Massachusetts, and while some of the plants and insects may be Massachusetts-specific, most are appropriate out here.

Dr. Gegear provided this link to one of his recent talks on native pollinators.  I think you’ll find it fascinating so please take a look/listen and let me know what you think.  The link is https://bit.ly/3V9DcPA.

And if you want to grow Lupinus perennis on your property and need more information, please drop me a line. It’s not a garden plant but will thrive and multiply in poor soils with no care once established. Keep growing.