Neither of our cats show much interest in chewing on the houseplants but once in a while in winter, I’ll notice some nibbling on the leaves of a begonia or geranium that is spending the winter inside. I use this behavior as my cue to provide them with some grass to eat.

Among the seed packs that arrive at the garden center every January, you’ll be able to find some cat grass. Often this is a blend of grasses that cats enjoy. Oats, wheat, rye and barley make up the blend. In the past I’ve grown the oats for them and they like it. I decided to give the blend a try to see how that goes over.

It’s well known that cats eat grass. Most often the eating of grass is followed by the cat throwing up. A great many cat lovers have concluded that it is the grass that is making the cat sick. This isn’t an illogical conclusion, but it is nonetheless incorrect. Cats, in their native environment, will kill and eat small rodents like mice. They can’t digest mice hair and bones so they need to vomit to get rid of it. Cats also clean themselves with their tongues and end up swallowing a good bit of their own hair. This hair is also expelled through vomiting. What does all this have to do with them eating grass? By eating grass, cats are helping to induce their own vomiting to get rid of whatever is in their stomach that is causing their distress. In other words, if you see your cat eating grass, don’t stop it. The theory is that the grass induces vomiting since the cats can’t digest it, and it also makes the hair easier to expel. While cleaning up a bundle of grass and fur that your cat puked up isn’t pleasant, it is better than allowing those fur balls to create an intestinal blockage that requires a trip to the vet and, possibly, an expensive operation. 

My cats don’t vomit after they nibble on the fresh shoots. Clearly, they enjoy it and I suspect there are more benefits for them. They wouldn’t crave it if it wasn’t something they need once in a while in winter. 

Starting cat grass is the simplest thing ever. Put some potting soil in a pot, scatter in a bunch of seeds, cover with a half inch of more soil and soak it well. To hasten sprouting, I like to put the pots in a plastic bag (unsealed) until it sprouts. In a warm room, the seed will sprout in about 3 days…fast! I remove them from the bag once they sprout and find a sunny windowsill to help them grow a bit before I let the cats have it. This is the challenging part since the cats love it and can usually find it before it is tall enough to make much of a meal. Bug managed to find the pot growing on an upper windowsill and decided that it was just the right size for a snack. Then he dove right in! Peep was more ladylike when given her share.

The packet contains plenty of seeds so I’ll start a couple of pots a week for several weeks. This ensures a continuous supply for the rest of winter. The grass will re-grow two or three times after the cats nibble it down so don’t toss it after their first “munch in.” If you have indoor cats, you should consider growing grass for them all year round.  

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This is a great time of year to start Amaryllis bulbs so you’ll have flowers to enjoy when winter days are at their shortest and living flowers outside are still months away. Nothing brightens up a winter home like giant Amaryllis flowers.

Amaryllis flowers range in color from pure white to wine red and every variation in between. Banded, striped and bordered have been developed, transforming an already striking plant into an extraordinary specimen indeed! It isn’t uncommon for the flower spike to rise 2 1/2’ above the top of the bulb and produce flowers 7” across…a real show stopper!!

If you’re thinking of purchasing one for someone (or for yourself), be aware that Amaryllis bulbs offered can vary greatly in size….and size does make a difference! The bigger the bulb, the more flowers your get.

When you’re ready to plant your Amaryllis bulb, inspect the bottom and remove any dead roots. Dead roots will be withered and dry. The pot you choose should seem too small for the bulb. It should only be an inch or two wider than the widest part of the bulb. Plant so that 1/2 to 1/3 of the bulb is exposed above the soil and water thoroughly.

Place your potted Amaryllis in a warm spot (on top of the refrigerator works for me). Don’t water it again until you notice the flower stem starting to emerge from the top of the bulb. This will take some time so be patient. When a shoot emerges it’s time to move your Amaryllis to a bright location. Keep the soil lightly moist (not soggy wet). The flower spike will grow very quickly with noticeable growth each day.

When the huge flowers open, you may want to move your Amaryllis to a cooler location (as low as 50 degrees) to prolong the show of flowers.

After the flowers are spent, cut off the flower stem. By now leaves have probably started to emerge from the bulb. To get your Amaryllis to flower again, it’s important to promote this leaf growth. Think of the leaves as solar collectors that convert sunlight into energy that’s stored in the bulb for the next flowering cycle. Bright light (but not direct sun) is the source of next year’s flowers. Keep the soil lightly moist and feed with a soluble plant food at half strength about every two or three weeks. The best way to strengthen your Amaryllis is to sink the pot in a semi-shady flowerbed outside when things warm up in mid-May. Sink the pot into the soil so that the exposed part of the bulb is almost covered. In fall before frost, before frost, bring your Amaryllis inside and allow it to dry out completely. Keep dry and store at 60 to 65 degrees for at least a month. This dry storage period is necessary to stimulate your Amaryllis to begin its next growth cycle. Remember, Amaryllis like to be potbound, so leave it in the same size pot for two or three years. 

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This is a great time to take advantage of end-of-summer sales at the garden center. 

There are great bargains as the garden centers discount shrubs and perennials to move them out before winter. Sometimes the deals are so good that I can’t resist buying plants even though I have no real plan for them…I just want them and the price is right. Some I can plant right away but, if I want to add my bargain plants to a bed that is already filled with annuals that are at their peak of color, I’ll need to wait. Rather than ruin the show the annuals are putting on by digging up the bed, I’ll put my bargains on hold until I can plant them later after frost or even next spring.

I’m not afraid to winter-over perennials in pots or even balled-in-burlap shrubs or trees. It’s all a question of knowing how to bring them through the harsh winter ahead. Here’s this year’s haul of bargains.  From left there is an autumn fern, a raspberry, a clematis, a delphinium and a couple of white flowering hellebore. I may add to the collection with shrubs or even trees but I can put them “on hold” using the same method I’ll use for these.

I need a sheltered location. We know that our prevailing wind comes from the west and north. The east facing wall of a garage, shed or even the house is a great spot. The building will block the cold, dry air from the west and north that can dehydrate our wintering plants. I’ve got a 3’ high retaining wall on the western side of my vegetable garden that works well for this purpose.

Parallel to the wall, I dug a trench deep enough to set my potted and balled bargains into.  Into the trench go my bargains…no need to remove them from the pots.  Then I just fill dirt around the pots or root balls with loose soil.

The last step is to water them heavily to settle the soil in all around the pots to remove any air pockets.  Until winter sends my treasures into complete dormancy, I’ll keep an eye out that they don’t dry out, but with rain such a regular feature this time of year, that’s not of much concern.

As early as I can in spring, I’ll find places in my landscape for my fall bargains and plant them.  So now, even though I take advantage of the fall planting season as much as I possible, I know I can keep any leftovers I can’t get planted right away safe through winter. Happy bargain hunting. 

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The many petal shapes and colors that chrysanthemums (mums to you, “kiku” to the Japanese) exhibit have made them a fall favorite for years…. many, many years. When you decide to grow chrysanthemums, you become involved in a gardening pastime that spans many centuries.

Chrysanthemum culture started in Imperial China over 3,000 years ago.  They were highly prized by the emperors of China who considered them more valuable than gold.  

The Japanese also revere the chrysanthemum.  In fact, the origin of Japanese culture is wrapped in chrysanthemum legend.  It seems that one of the early emperors of China became quite ill.  In his quest for a remedy he learned of the “herb of youth” that would restore his health.  The search for the “herb of youth” was entrusted to twelve male and twelve female virgins.  They sailed out onto the Pacific Ocean with a bamboo basket filled with the Emperor’s beloved “golden daisies” to trade for the “herb of youth”.  They didn’t make it too far before the quest was ended by a typhoon that left them shipwrecked on a rocky archipelago.  With their journey at an end, the survivors planted the revered mums and set about exploring their new home.  Over the years, the survivor’s descendants populated the islands we now know as Japan.  Japanese reverence for chrysanthemums continued, and they were considered the exclusive property of their Emperor.  The Japanese word “kiku” represents both the chrysanthemum and the office of the Emperor.  The royal crest is a traditional sixteen-petal chrysanthemum design.

European interest in Chrysanthemums budded with the arrival of plants brought back from the orient by Dutch traders in the early eighteenth century.  The Dutch are known to have produced several new varieties from the original plants, but it was the horticulturally adept French Huguenots that are credited with real improvements in flower size and color.  The Huguenots developed “Old Purple” which became a favorite all over the continent.

Chrysanthemums came to North America in 1798 in the hands of John Stevens, a nurseryman from Hoboken.  In 1850, the Chrysanthemum Society of America was founded, and they held their first show in 1902.  

Lately, perennial asters have become a popular contender for champion of fall color in the flowerbed.  Compared to the venerable chrysanthemum, asters are a relatively recent upstart.  Their appeal to American gardeners may have been limited since they were a common sight along the roadside every fall.  To early Americans, there was nothing special about this common plant.

English gardeners, visiting their colonial cousins found asters to be quite lovely and brought seeds back to the British Isles with them.  So, even though asters are a native North American plant, they became a popular fall-blooming plant in the gardens of England long before Americans learned to appreciate them.  It’s a classic case of one man’s trash becoming another’s treasure.

Asters are an easy-to-grow alternative to mums.  They’re now available in an amazing assortment of colors and styles.  Asters branch heavily without all the pinching mums need.  They’re quite insect and disease resistant (as are mums).  Like mums, asters should be planted in full sun.  The fine, dark green foliage of asters is quite attractive, making a lovely background for lower, summer-flowering annuals or perennials.  Mums and asters mature quickly and should be divided in early spring every two or three years.   Whichever you choose, you’ll enjoy great fall color for many years to come.  Heck, why choose?  Grow them both!

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The shorter, cooler days of late August and early September make it the ideal time to make permanent improvements to the condition of our lawn.  

The first step is to do a quick pH test on the area to see if the soil is acidic. If it is, apply enough pelletized lime to bring the soil back to neutral. The folks at your local garden center can help you figure this out. 

The next step in starting a lawn from seed is to turn organic matter into the area to be seeded especially if the area is very sandy. The more organic matter that is turned in, the thicker and more drought resistant the lawn will be for years to come. Peat moss is the easiest form of organic matter to use for improving the soil before seeding. 

Once the soil and peat are blended together, the area should be raked smooth. You’ll be looking at the results for many years so take the time now to get it right. 

Once you’re satisfied, lightly rough up the surface of the soil with your metal rake. Finally, it’s time to broadcast the seed. Consult the folks at your local garden center to determine the best grass blend for your particular soil and light conditions. For late-summer seeding, avoid cheap blends that contain annual ryegrass. Broadcast the seed evenly over the area at the recommended rate. If it is a large area, you’ll want to cover it with straw. The reason you cover the seed is to help keep the sun and wind from drying it out while it’s germinating.

After all this is done, you can start watering and watering and watering. This is the trickiest and most important part of the project. No matter how high the quality of the seed used, it won’t germinate unless the area is kept moist CONSTANTLY. It can’t be allowed to dry out, even for an hour. IF THE AREA DRIES COMPLETELY, THE SEED DIES AND CAN’T RESTART. Premium blends of fescue and bluegrass can take two weeks just to sprout so be diligent about watering and be patient. If you use a blend that has perennial ryegrass in addition to bluegrass and fescue, be aware that the ryegrass will sprout a week or more earlier. Even after the ryegrass sprouts, continue watering as if nothing has happened to ensure the germination of the desirable fescue and bluegrass seeds. 

After the young grass is up, apply a slow-release winter or starter type of lawn food to stimulate quick root growth. Look for a starter food with a higher middle number (phosphorus). When the grass finally grows to 4”-5,” mow off an inch to promote even more root growth. In spring, apply another shot of the starter lawn food to ensure that the young grass develops a mature root system before summer heats up. 

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All around town I see that the winter hardy members of the hibiscus are putting on their show. Their flower closely resembles that of the tropical hibiscus that is so popular in the tropics. It is the state flower of Hawaii.

The tall (up to 10’) woody shrub that we see blooming around the area right now is althea also called Rose of Sharon.  It seems that althea is gaining in popularity lately.  I greatly admire the single flowering varieties that I’m starting to see more of.  These single flowering altheas weren’t widely available when I planted my hedge 10 years ago or I would have surely opted for one of those. Rose of Sharon is available in a wide range of colors but tend toward the reds and lavenders. There are even varieties that have a bi-colored flower and there’s a nice white that I’ve seen as well. The flowers are a bit smaller than those of the tropical hibiscus but you can see the resemblance.

While the althea is a woody shrub, there’s another hardy hibiscus, the mallow hibiscus that is perennial in nature (it dies to the ground in winter).  Like althea or Rose of Sharon, the mallow hibiscus is a relative of the tropical hibiscus although the flowers are much larger. The showy mallow hibiscus will grow from the ground to a height of 4’ to 6’ during each growing season. Mallow hibiscus flowers range in color from white to deep purple and encompass every shade of pink in between. As if this weren’t enough, the flowers can be as large as a dinner plate! I know you’ve seen these around town since they are in flower right now. A lot of folks don’t realize that this plant is hardy in our area and will easily survive over winter to return larger and showier each year. Each of the giant flowers that a mallow hibiscus produces will only remain open for one day. Fortunately, they produce plenty of buds so the show goes on for at least a couple of weeks and even longer for a well-established clump.  You can see how large Mallow Hibiscus flowers are by using my face for comparison…this is the largest flower we can grow this far north…the tropics have nothing on us!

If you plant either of these northern members of the hibiscus family, you’ll need to be patient in spring. Neither the woody shrub althea nor the perennial mallow hibiscus will show any sign of life until spring is well under way. I usually see no sign of life from either in my yard until the lilacs are in bloom. That’s when the first leaves appear on my althea and the mallow hibiscus is just poking a shoot up from the soil. They are amazing plants and easily deserve a place in your garden.

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After our herky-jerky spring with early heat and late frost, it was easy to miss just how dry it has been, and our lawns are starting to dry out and struggle.

The first step in helping your lawn survive dry summer weather is to let your lawn get taller…as tall as your lawn mower will adjust… maybe 4” to 5”. If you mow your lawn very short as we have been all spring (which was OK at that time), the sun will heat the soil to temperatures that will permanently kill the roots of your grass. Letting the lawn grow taller allows the blades of grass to shade the soil preventing soil temperatures from getting high enough to cause permanent damage to the roots. You may like the look of a shorter lawn, but if the soil temperature goes above 85° to 90° for three consecutive days, the root system dies. Once that happens, you’re looking at a lot of grass seed and a lot of watering in late summer and early fall as you try to replace a lawn that could’ve been saved had you allowed the grass to get taller during dry summer weather

Traditional wisdom tells us that, for a lawn to remain healthy, it needs an inch of water a week. What you need to know, though, is that the lawn needs that inch of water all at once to get any real benefit from it. This means that you should water your lawn heavily then not at all for a week. With a limited amount of water available to most of us, we have the tendency to try and move the sprinkler around the yard to make sure that we get the whole lawn watered at one time without any regard to whether it is getting enough water for more than temporary relief. I’d like to suggest a different way. If you have watering restrictions that only allow you to water every other day for two hours, let your lawn sprinkler soak one area for the full two hours. When your next watering opportunity arrives, move the lawn sprinkler to the next section and soak it with at least an inch of water. 

Folks with underground sprinkling systems need to follow the same advice. These systems can be programmed to water different zones at different times. Unfortunately, most folks set them up to water each zone for ten or twenty minutes every day. Instead, set them up to soak one zone each day with an inch of water then do a different zone the next day. The reason for all this is to take the best advantage of the limited water we have. By putting an inch of water on the lawn, you’ll be soaking the soil to a depth of 6”. Water at this depth in the soil will not evaporate quickly, and it’s where the roots of the grass are located so it can be absorbed. Quickly spraying the lawn might perk it up briefly but most of that moisture is lost to evaporation and can never penetrate deep into the soil to get to the roots. 

At this point folks will ask me, “How long do I need to leave the sprinkler on to put on an inch of water?” Since we all have different lawn sprinklers and water pressure, I can’t answer that question. This is something we must all determine on our own. You can get a rain gauge and leave it out there until it has an inch of water in it. There’s no need to buy a rain gauge though (but they are handy). You simply need to take a small, empty tuna fish can and place it in the area you’re watering and don’t shut it off until it is full. Make a mental note of how long it took, and you’ll always know how long your setup takes to put out an inch of water. That’s it. Water deeply, then take a break for a week.

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As I stand at the kitchen counter chopping carrots for my “Sunday soup,” I pause and look out the window. The Spring greens are back and are becoming brighter every day. I marvel at them, although since they come around once a year to awaken us from the stark landscape of winter, they are no surprise. I go back to my chopping. While most of the carrot goes in the soup, the peels and the hard nubby ends get dropped into the glass vase I am using as my kitchen compost container. It’s pretty and makes a nice temporary home for the food scraps before I walk them outside to my backyard compost bin to allow my food waste to decompose naturally, to become useful energy, regenerating nutrient deprived dirt into healthy soil.

My fascination with composting began almost a decade ago. Soon after, while in mid-thought, a soft light streamed through the kitchen illuminating the clear container of gathered scraps. It held my gaze and, as a photographer, I was transfixed. LOVE COMPOST was born. I have been composting and photographing the organic matter ever since.

International Compost Awareness Week 2023, (ICAW), is May 7-13. I’m celebrating my current LOVE COMPOST photographic installation at Whole Harvest, 419 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, on Friday, May 12, from 12 – 3 p.m. I will be there to greet you. Artwork will be for sale with a portion donated to Sustainable Saratoga.

I continue to celebrate compost, and it is with gratitude and delight that I am a 2023 recipient of an Artist’s Grant from Saratoga Arts to create LOVE COMPOST: A Saratoga Collaborative, which will involve local businesses and be exhibited at the new Saratoga Senior Center. Installation date to be determined.

For more information about LOVE COMPOST, visit terri-lynnpellegriphotography.com.

Contact these valuable resources to learn about Composting: 

Sustainable Saratoga (sustainablesaratoga.org), Pitney Meadows Community Farm (pitneymeadowscommunityfarm.org), Loving Earth Compost (lovingearthcompost.com),  US Composting Council (compostingcouncil.org).

Saratoga Arts made this program possible through the Community Arts Regrant Program, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

An event I especially look forward to every spring is the blossoming of the early-flowering woody trees and shrubs. Their flowering sequence is a regular as clockwork. The first to show color is the native Vernal Witch Hazel. Its small flowers can range form a pale yellow to a rusty red and are often overlooked since they are small and appear even while the last of the snow is melting.

Another native early flowering tree can’t be overlooked: the Amalanchier which is also known as Serviceberry. Amalanchier trees light up the forests with their clouds of brilliant white flowers long before there are any leaves on any of the trees. They are an important food for any early pollinators looking for a meal. Later, Amalanchier berries will feed the birds that have just arrived from their migration north.

A little later, the interesting Redbud trees flower. Unlike most trees, the Redbud’s clusters of tiny flowers appear all along the woody stems rather than at the tips. Its unique appearance always leads to folks flocking to buy them at the garden center during their bloom time. 

As the days rapidly lengthen and grow warmer, the progression of flowering trees accelerates, and we’ll enjoy all the apple blossoms. There are the fruit-bearing apples with their pink and white flowers. Along with them arrive their ornamental cousins, the flowering crabapples. Flowering crabapples can range in color from pure white to red and are a sight to behold at their peak flowering. 

In mid-spring the dogwoods arrive with their odd four-petaled flowers. The petals are actually bracts, or leaves that simulate flowers. At the center of the bract is the true flower that will eventually form the dogwood fruit which is prized by birds and people who enjoy making dogwood jam form them.

Late in spring we get to enjoy the large flowers of the Magnolias. The largest is the Saucer Magnolia with its large pink flowers. Star magnolias with their smaller form and pure white flowers are impossible to ignore. Lately, yellow magnolias like ‘Butterflies’ have regained popularity. The sight of a well-established 25’ yellow magnolia in full flower is not easily forgotten. Thankfully, they are becoming more readily available than they were ten years ago.

If you are interested in planting early flowering trees, make sure to start prowling the nurseries in March and April, and plant them early in the season to get them off to the best start. If you already have them, remember to do any pruning as soon as they finish their flowering cycle so that the new growth you stimulate will have a whole growing season to produce the buds they need for more flowers the following spring. 

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Finally, spring is on our doorstep. While it is too early to plant our tender annual flowers and vegetables, April is a great month to get started on planting hardy trees and shrubs. Sadly, in my line of work, I get to see a lot of dead shrubs and trees that have died within a few of years after being planted. 

I always like to look them over to see what went wrong. A pattern has become apparent…most were simply planted too deep. You can still see the dirt on the stem way above the crown of the plant. 

If the stem or trunk above ground is covered with soil or mulch, it hinders the plant’s ability to pass moisture and nutrients from the root system up through the bark to the branches and leaves above. It may take a year or three, but it is usually fatal. 

Let me walk you through the process of planting a tree or shrub.

First, dig the planting hole a little bit wider than the plant’s root ball but only as deep as the root ball or the pot that contains the roots. If you’ve dug the hole too deep, fill it in a bit. Add compost or just the original soil to build up the bottom of the planting hole to ensure that the stem isn’t buried too deeply.
This is also a good time to add Bio-Tone to the planting hole. Bio-Tone provides gentle organic nutrients for the tree. Perhaps more important, Bio-Tone also adds beneficial soil microbes and several strains of Mycorrizal fungi. The spot on the tree trunk where the soil is in the pot or ball needs to still be visible after planting.

Next, place the tree or shrub into the hole and check again to make sure you’re at the proper planting depth. The spot where the trunk of the tree meets the soil of its ball or pot should exactly match the level of the soil around your planting hole. The easiest way to check this is to lay a stick (the handle of your shovel works) across the planting hole and make sure that the top of the root ball is level with the ground. This seems trivial, but it can make all the difference to the plant’s health and survival.

Once you’ve made sure that the crown of the plant is at the proper level, fill in the rest of the planting hole. This is the point where inexperienced gardeners make another mistake. 

When you dig a hole, then fill it with a root ball, there’s going to be soil left over. What to do with it? Many will opt to pile it up around the trunk or stem. DON’T DO IT! It will have the same negative effect as planting too deeply. Use the extra soil to build a dish-shaped dike or berm out away from the stem of the plant. The dark soil where the stem met the soil in the pot should still be just visible near the trunk of the tree. You haven’t planted too deeply as long as you can see the original soil that the tree came in. The berm will collect water and direct it down to the root system below. Finally, water heavily after planting to remove any air pockets from the soil.

You should also take care when applying bark and other mulches not to pile them up against the stems and trunks of plants. Remember: roots are roots and stems are stems. Bury the roots but let the stems be free to breathe.

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