The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at [email protected].

May is always so busy in the garden center that it is difficult for me to focus on any one subject. There is just too much happening to get mired down in one area, so I am offering some random thoughts and you can pick and choose what may be appropriate for you.

The big blow: Depending on where you live, May 3rd was a doozy of a wind storm at the nursery. The upper two thirds of the northwest side of my 60-foot-tall European Weeping Birch looks like it has been hit with a blowtorch. In the 21 years I have lived here, I have never seen it blow that hard for that long of a period. While no trees blew over in my garden, many of my plants had their new tender foliage decimated as a result of the wind.

Between the hard December, the warm March, the early April freeze and this wind storm, it has just plain been an ugly spring. So don't feel bad if you have plants that look a little off. Hopefully we will have a good growing season this summer and everything will recover and look fabulous by fall.

Warm season-cool season: Normally we have a distinct time frame to plant our cool-season veggies and another later time to plant the heat lovers. This year has been so up and down that I have yet to plant my cool season crops, much less the warm season ones. There is still time to plant the peas, potatoes, leaf and root crops before we have to find space for the summer squashes, beans, peppers and tomatoes. I think this is going to be one of those weird years when I have peas growing at the same time as beans. The take home message here is that it is not too late to plant your cool-season crops.

Heirloom-schmeirloom: Speaking of warm season crops, there seems to be an over-zealous interest in heirloom tomatoes this year. I have to tell you that, in my opinion, they are way overrated. Many of these "old" varieties are not fusarium or verticillium wilt resistant, nor are they appropriate for our northwest maritime climate. They are prone to cracking or splitting, often won't ripen in our shortened season, and are mushy and mealy.

I grew over ten varieties of tomatoes last year and my all time favorite was a small Roma variety called Juliet. I grazed on them all summer long and not one ever even made it into the house. They are a "two bite" tomato with firm flesh, good taste and enough juice to wash them down your throat. The few heirlooms I did grow were a huge disappointment. But that's just my opinion. Take it or leave.

Speaking of tomatoes: The only way to grow a tomato, as far as I am concerned, is in a cheap 15-gallon black nursery pot. For about 6 bucks plus the cost of a tomato cage, you can grow fabulous tomatoes in these black plastic pots. The sun keeps the soil warm so the plants grow faster and the fruit ripens earlier. They may not be pretty but they sure are functional. Last year I put about 16 of them in a row and attached a 16-foot heavy duty galvanized fence panel to some stakes and threaded the vines through the openings in the panel all summer long. I did the same thing with my cucumbers and had a monster bumper crop. You can purchase these panels at your local Cenex Coop.

Footies: It is time to install your footies on your apples and pears to protect them against apple maggots and codling moths. Footies are nothing more than those nylon socks that shoe stores loan you when you are sockless and want to try on a pair of shoes. It just so happens that if you put these footies over the small developing apples and pears when they are the size of a nickel, you will get almost 100 percent protection from maggot and codling moth damage. Granted, it is a daunting job to install these little socks, but in the process you are forced to thin out the fruit clusters to just one fruit. This kind of thinning results in fewer but larger and better quality fruit.

You can buy footies at most garden centers or go online to the Seattle Fruit Tree Society (www.seattletreefruitsociety.com) and purchase them for the same price. Just make sure you get them on before the end of the month.

June blooming trees: It is easy to find a blooming tree in March, April and May, but as we move into June, the choices fall off drastically. My two top picks for June bloomers are Korean Dogwoods and Japanese Snowbells. Most of us are familiar with the dogwood bloom, which comes in both white or pink versions. The snowbell is a small tree with dainty white bells that hang down from the branches during the month of June. It is a carefree tree to grow and only gets 15-20 feet tall. There is also a weeping form that has good architectural interest.

So those are my random thoughts for this week. Hope some of them are useful. You can reach me at 425-334-2002 or online at [email protected]