Category: Gardening

Categories
Gardening Good Eating

Recipe: Carrot Soup With Herbs and Wild Greens

Recipe: Carrot Soup With Herbs and Wild Greens

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

I like carrots a lot but it gets kind of boring to eat them the same old way all the time. This recipe will liven up a bunch of carrots!

Ingredients:
1 bunch or bag of carrots
Vegetable broth
Colander full of fresh edible weed leaves and herbs from the garden – I used Dandelion, Violet, Asiatic Dayflower, Chives, Lemon Balm
4 garlic cloves
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp savory
1/4 tsp thyme
Cooking oil

Wash herbs and leaves and remove from stems. Discard stems. Heat a large pan or wok and stir fry herbs and leaves in cooking oil until wilted. Put greens in soup pot.

Chop carrots into discs or straws thin enough to cook easily. Add more oil to pan and stir fry carrots and garlic cloves until somewhat browned. You don’t have to cook them all the way, just brown some of the sides for caramelized flavor. Add to soup pot.

Add broth to cooking pan and heat long enough to mix in pan juices. Pour broth over vegetables in soup pot in a quantity enough to cover. Bring to a boil then turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add spices and salt while simmering.

Let soup cool enough to be safe to put in a blender. You may need to blend it in batches and add to a large bowl to mix batches together. Blend to a smooth consistency. Warm if needed and serve.

If you are interested you can read more of my recipes on my Fun With Food page.

Categories
Backyard Wildlife DIY Gardening Sustainability Upcycling Ways With Wood

Make a Pollinator House – Part 2

Make a Pollinator House – Part 2

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

In my previous article Making a Pollinator House – Part 1 I explained why you might want to build a home for native bees and other beneficial insects for your garden. I also provided an example of a quick way to build a shelter out of cinder blocks, wood scraps and dried plant material. I promised to write up plans for a more attractive pollinator house. Here are instructions for building two different designs to enhance your garden’s decor as well as it’s productivity and ecological health.

Tools and Supplies
* indicates items that are available at Schnarr’s
Tracing paper
Pencil
Ruler*
Hot glue gun*
Wood hot glue sticks
1″ x 6″ x 8′ multipurpose board*
2″ x 4″ x 8′ board*
Saw*
Sandpaper*
Dust mask*
Acrylic craft paint
Paint brushes*
Water container*
Heat tool for speeding up drying (optional)
Painters tape or masking tape*
Decorative stencils
Sponges*
Drill*
Tiny drill bit*
Nails*
Window screen*
Hammer*
Wood glue*
Clear matte finish varnish*
Hardware cloth or chicken wire (optional)*

For the additional second design with the pediment, you’ll also need:
Assorted sizes of distressed wood pieces
Decorative brass box corner*
Miter saw*
3/16″ drill bit*
3/16″ dowel rod*
Wooden ball knobs or drawer pulls* with 3/16″ holes to use as feet

Mid-Century Modern style pollinator house

Instructions for Style #1 – “Mid-Century Modern” Pollinator House

1. Download the PDF document “Pollinator House Assembly Diagram”. It is sized to print out on a legal-sized piece of paper. Recreate the diagram in scale on a piece of tracing paper with pencil.

2. From the 1″ x 6″ x 8′ board, cut two 12″ x 5.5″ pieces(although the board is called 1″ x 6″ x 8′ it’s probably closer to 5.5″ so you might only have to cut the board into 12″ lengths).

3. From your 2″ x 4″ x 8′ (probably really 3.5″) board cut two 5″ segments.

4. Put on a dust mask and sand your wood pieces until smooth.

copy diagram onto wood
5. Mark each of your 12″ x 5.5″ pieces with the rectangles shown in the diagram. These will become the inner top and inner bottom of your house.


paint around edges
6. Paint a color of your choice in the border around the inner rectangle on each piece. For this step you don’t have to worry about painting precisely in the lines. Let paint dry.


7. Mark off around the middle rectangle with masking or painter’s tape on both pieces and paint black. When paint is dry, remove tape.

paint middle of boards black


8. Paint what will be the insides of your 5″ high supports black. Paint all other surfaces of your wood pieces assorted colors of your choice.

decorative stenciling
9. Decorate the top of your house and the sides of the supports with decorative stencils. I did not decorate the board edges with stenciling in my sample but you can if you want to. If you are new to stenciling on wood, see this article for tips –
Stencil a Wood Garden Sign.

10. Sand all the edges of your wood pieces so that the bare wood shows through on the corners. This gives the wood a distressed look. If you want to distress any other painted or stenciled surfaces further you can do so by roughing them up with sandpaper.

11. To assemble the house, stage the upright pieces by placing them in their footprints as indicated on the diagram on one of the 12 x 5.5″ pieces. Face the black painted sides inward and the stenciled sides facing out. If you’ve covered up your pencil lines with paint, you can use your diagram to redraw them as needed.

12. Load up your hot glue gun with wood project glue sticks and plug it in to heat up. Apply hot glue to the bottoms of the support pieces and press in place. Let glue harden.

13. Glue the other ends of the supports in place on the other 12 x 5.5″ piece. Let glue harden.

14. Place the tracing paper diagram on top of your house. Mark where the nail holes will go in pencil. Drill small pilot holes then hammer nails in. Repeat for the bottom.

15. Mix some dark brown paint with water to make a thin wash and paint over the whole house. Test first on the bottom to make sure it’s not too heavy or light. Alternately, you could use a wash of off-white paint if you’d rather have a pale wash. The purpose of the wash is to give an aged appearance to the wood – this is particularly effective when the paint clings to the corners that have been bared by sanding. Let paint dry.

16. Paint whole house with clear matte varnish.

17. Cut out a 10 x 5″ piece out of scrap window screen and nail it to the back side. This is to keep whatever materials you fill the house with from falling out the back side.

18. Fill the house from the front with materials that contain holes for pollinating insects such as native bees to live in.

Some suggestions of materials you could use to fill the house:

  • Bamboo or reed segments
  • Rocks
  • Rolled up corrugated cardboard
  • Chunks of scrap wood with holes drilled in it
  • Bundles of twigs or straw
  • Unfired ceramic clay with holes poked in it
  • Natural dried stems and reeds from the garden cut into segments
  • Dried seed pods

If necessary, cut out a piece of hardware cloth or chicken wire and nail it over the front to hold materials in.

19. Read this article for ideas on where to place the house in your garden or yard –
Making a Pollinator House – Part 1.

Depending on where you want to put your house, you may want to attach hanging hardware to it or mount it on a post. The wood pieces we used are thick enough to give you flexibility in attachment options.

Pollinator House with Pediment

Instructions for Style #2 – Pollinator House with Pediment

The prototypes I made for the second design vary somewhat in size and proportions because I used distressed wood that I had lying around. I designed the houses around what wood I had available and embellished some with found objects or hardware. If you want to build similar houses and don’t have access to distressed wood, you can use new wood.

1. Cut out two chunky pieces of wood to use as uprights and two thin pieces to use as the top and bottom.

Different pollinator house designs

2. Cut a right triangle out of wood that is 3/4 to 1″ thick for the pediment piece. A pediment is like a roof gable that is decorative rather than functional. My samples vary slightly in size but the triangles are mostly around 7 1/2″ inches on the long side and 3 3/4″ on the short sides.

3. Choose some thin, narrow wood pieces for the roof overhang. Lattice wood strips are about the right size – if you don’t have any distressed wood in that size range you can purchase some lattice strips to use. Cut these strips into approximately 6″ pieces and miter the corners.

4. Sand all wood pieces.

5. Paint the sides of your wood pieces that will become the interior with black paint.

6. Paint the other sides and parts in assorted colors of your choice.

7. Stencil a bee design or other stencil of your choice on the front of the triangle.

8. If you think any of the other wood surfaces need to be enhanced with stencil designs, decorate those also. Since many of my wood pieces were distressed and had a pronounced wood grain, knots, old nails and other irregularities I let those provide the visual interest in many areas. Antique look, vintage look, grunge or botanical stencils would be especially effective for this design.

9. Sand the edges of your wood pieces to expose the bare wood on the corners and distress any other areas that you think are in need of it.

10. Hot glue the vertical support pieces to the top and bottom of your house then nail in place.

11. To assemble the pediment section, put your two roof pieces in a miter clamp with the mitered ends butted together to make the roof point. Put a little wood glue on the ends as you do this. Position the clamped-together pieces on a block of scrap wood to brace them. Drill small pilot holes in one end and hammer in small nails. Slip a couple of nails in between from the other direction.

Creating roof peak with miter clamp and nails

12. Take your triangle pediment and apply hot glue to the top edge. On your work surface, lay the pediment down, slide the triangle part in and press in place. When the glue has hardened, hammer small nails through the roof pieces into the pediment for extra hold.

Attach roof overhang to pediment

13. Apply hot glue to the bottom of the triangle section. Place in place on top of house and let the glue harden. Drill two pilot holes at each end and drive long thin nails down into the supports below.

14. If you would like to attach wood feet to the bottom of your house, drill 3/16″ holes into the bottom of the house. Cut short pieces of 3/16″ wood dowel rod and put wood glue on both ends. Insert one end of each dowel rod piece into a hole in the house and the other end into the hole in a wooden ball knob or drawer pull.

15. Mix some dark brown paint with water to make a thin wash and paint over the whole house. Test first on the bottom to make sure it’s not too heavy or light. Alternately, you could use a wash of off-white paint if you’d rather have a pale wash. The purpose of the wash is to give an aged appearance to the wood – this is particularly effective when the paint clings to the corners that have been bared by sanding. Let paint dry.

16. Paint whole house with clear matte varnish.

17. Attach a decorative brass box corner to the roof peak.

18. Cut out a piece out of scrap window screen and nail it to the back side.

19. Fill house with nesting materials and place in a suitable location.

Here are some pictures showing how some of the other houses turned out.

Pollinator houses made with distressed wood

Pollinator houses made with distressed wood

Pollinator house made with distressed wood

Categories
Gardening Good Eating

A Couple of Quick and Easy Recipes

A Couple of Quick and Easy Recipes

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

fresh edibles from my garden
As a follow-up to my recent article on foraging for wild edibles, here are a couple more simple and easy ideas for getting interesting nutritious treats into your diet. It’s a lot of fun to go out in the garden and yard and decide “What looks good to eat today?” I also grow some things in my garden that could be fatal if I accidentally eat them so it’s critical to be able to identify what is in your foraging area.

Tuna Sandwiches With Wild Leaves

Ingredients:
Wild edible leaves
Fresh garden herbs
2 cans tuna
Chopped crunchy vegetables
Mayonnaise
Bread

Go out to the garden and pick some large edible leaves. Rinse and dry them. I used wild Violet, Dandelion and Asiatic Dayflower for my test. Set aside.

In addition pick some more conventional herbs if you have them that would taste good in tuna salad such as Sage, Garlic Chives and Lemon Balm. Wash and chop herbs, and put in mixing bowl. Add two cans of tuna and some chopped crunchy vegetables. I used the Healthy 8 mixture from Trader Joe’s. No I’m not on the Trader Joe’s payroll but I buy this mixture a lot because it’s really convenient to add to all kinds of recipes, both raw and cooked.

Mix mayonnaise into your tuna salad and toast your favorite bread. Put tuna mixture on bread and top with your foraged edible leaves in place of lettuce. Yummy!

 

Quick Weed Soup

Ingredients:
Wild edible leaves
Fresh garden herbs or greens
Broth or instant Miso soup packets
Kombu seaweed
Quick cooking vegetables such as edamame, mushrooms or sprouts
Optional – quick cooking proteins such as tofu cubes or small shrimp
Optional – wild Violet, Dandelion, Asiatic Dayflower or other edible flowers for garnish

Collect from your garden wild greens that taste good cooked such as Asiatic Dayflower, Dandelion and wild Violet. Be sure you are certain about identification, if not get help from an expert to avoid making mistakes with toxic plants. If you have other more conventional herbs from the garden that would taste good in an Asian-flavored soup, collect those too.

Wash herbs and leaves. Chop any herbs that need chopping.

Place herbs and leaves in a soup pot on the stove. Add your favorite broth or add water plus packets of instant Miso soup mix until the flavor is to your liking.

Cut sheets of Kombu seaweed into strips with a scissors and add to broth. Add quick cooking veggies and proteins if you are using any. Bring soup to a boil and check if the proteins are cooked through. Simmer for a few minutes more if needed, but if you used pre-cooked shrimp you probably won’t have to. If you have any edible flowers, sprinkle on top for garnish. If using Dandelion flowers, you should pull the petals out and discard the calyx to avoid bitterness. Enjoy!

In my opinion of the three wild leaves I used in my test, the Asiatic Dayflower was the most flavorful – it does taste like green beans as they say. The wild Violet and Dandelion are so nutritious I would not want to omit them but I would use them in smaller proportions for better overall flavor.

If you are interested you can read more of my recipes on my Fun With Food page.

Categories
Backyard Wildlife Gardening Sustainability

What To Do If You Find a Bird That Needs Help

What To Do If You Find a Bird That Needs Help

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

I can tell by the amount of food and feeders that we sell that Schnarr’s customers love their backyard birds! Many of us will encounter at some point a bird that is sick or injured or a baby that appears to be abandoned. Right now some birds are starting their second brood of the summer so baby bird season is not over yet!

Baby birds are very vulnerable if they fall or are pushed out of the nest. If you feel compelled to intervene, I totally understand why – that’s how I came to be living with two European Starlings – it’s a long story! Having been through the situation of finding a baby bird more than once, I’ve done a lot of reading and learning from experience and here is what I recommend.

First determine if the bird is a nestling or a fledgling. A nestling will not be fully feathered and will not be able to run away. It needs to be back in a nest ASAP. Try to put the bird back in the original nest if you can and if you know the parents are alive. It’s a myth that the smell of humans will cause the parent birds to abandon it – most birds can’t smell.

Sometimes it’s not possible to put the bird back in the original nest – you can’t find it, you can’t reach it, or it’s been destroyed. If that’s the case you have the following options.

One plan is to make a makeshift nest and put it in a place where the parents can find it and it is safe from predators. If the bird is a species that nests in a cavity, you can look up nest box plans online specifically for that species and build one. I’ve been successful in getting a Starling family to move to a homemade nest box after the babies fell out of a dryer vent. Observe the nest to see if the parents find the baby and start feeding it. If they don’t, take the bird to a wild bird rehab center. It’s hard to say how long you should wait before giving up on the effort to re-involve the parents. The necessary feeding intervals of baby birds can vary depending on how old they are – if in doubt you could call a wild bird rehab center for advice. It’s easy for baby birds to get dehydrated if they go too long without food because most of them don’t drink liquids but get their moisture from their squishy bug diet. Don’t attempt to give the baby bird water or liquids unless you know the right way – it’s very easy to accidentally kill a baby bird by giving it water without knowledge of the correct procedure.

It’s time-consuming to make and observe a makeshift nest – if you have the time, you might find it worthwhile to put in the effort. You’ll learn a lot while doing it and it’s very rewarding! If you don’t have the time or the interest, just take the bird to the nearest wild bird rehab center right away. If it’s one of the three species not protected by federal laws (Pigeons, House Sparrows or European Starlings) the rehabber might either euthanize it or refuse to accept it. In that case you will have a difficult choice to make and having been in that position, I wouldn’t envy you! I chose to raise the five-day-old Starling I found in 2009 rather than let it be killed but everyone does not have the means or desire to take on the job of raising a baby bird. It can be done with the correct knowledge but it’s a big commitment. Raising a baby bird and releasing it to the wild later sounds like a good idea but is not an option if the bird has been raised alone and if you want the bird to survive – it will not have learned survival skills from the parents. It may not know how to act around other wild birds and could fail to be accepted by a wild flock. A protected species (not one of the three mentioned) is not legal to keep without a permit and you must take it to a licensed rehabber to help it.

Nestlings and Fledglings
The baby birds on the left are nestlings and the other two examples are fledglings.

If the bird is fully feathered and can run away and perch, it’s a fledgling. Most fledglings do not need any help. It’s not uncommon for baby birds to leave the nest before they can fly well. The fledgling will be somewhat vulnerable until it can fully fly but the parents should be feeding it and trying to keep it away from danger. The best way to help it is to put it on a perch off the ground (if you can catch it). If you have cats or dogs keep them indoors for a week or so. It’s not good for the health of pet cats to let them outside in any circumstances, but if you must let yours out try not to do so until the fledglings are flying.

If you find a bird that is sick or injured, it will need care no matter what age it is, so in that case try to get it to a rehabber as soon as possible. If a bird does not look sick but has been caught by a dog or cat, it needs antibiotics within a day or so or it is probably doomed. When birds are to the point of showing signs of illness or injury they are in bad shape – their instinct is to hide their infirmity as long as possible so they are not caught by predators or rejected by their flocks. Speaking of sick birds, it is my understanding is that a thorough hand-washing after handling is sufficient precaution in case the bird does have something a human can catch, like Salmonella. I am not a vet or a scientist so get more information on diseases if you are concerned. Many bird-borne diseases are species-specific and can’t be caught by humans. However, if you have disposable gloves on hand it’s smart to wear them for extra protection.

The best way to transport a bird to a rehabber is to put it in a box with soft nest-like materials and cover the box. Make sure it can breathe if it’s boxed or wrapped. The bird will likely be terrified and if it’s confined it will be less likely to injure itself. Handle it as little as possible and try not to expose it to loud noises.

If the bird is really large, like a hawk, heron, goose or pea fowl (which I once rescued believe it or not!), get advice from the Humane Society or other knowledgeable group before attempting to transport. My handling of the peahen I found went very smoothly but without good instructions and remembering to remain calm I might have had trouble! Some large birds can cause serious injuries with talons or beaks if not handled carefully. The peahen I transported had some mean-looking spurs but fortunately did not attempt to use them on me!

For more advice from the experts, please see these links:
I Found A Baby Bird. What Do I Do?
Songbirds
Ducklings or goslings
Birds of prey, vultures, herons, pelicans or swans

Information on raising House Sparrows and Starlings:
Sparrows and Starlings
www.starlingtalk.com – Everything you need to know about raising Starlings and if you want to, living with them permanently

Categories
Gardening Good Eating Outdoor Fun

You’d Be Happy Too If You Could Eat What Bugs You!

You’d Be Happy Too If You Could Eat What Bugs You!

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

You'd Be Happy Too If You Could Eat What Bugs You!

“You’d be happy too if you could eat what bugs you!” That’s what it says on a coffee cup that I bought for my Dad when I was a little kid. I chose the cup for Dad because the design was in his favorite colors, green and orange. I have to admit I liked that
it had a frog and a bug on it, two of my favorite things then and now!

I’m not yet at the point where I’m willing to experiment with eating bugs, but I’m intrigued by garden weeds that are edible. There is no doubt that gardeners are “bugged” by weeds but your attitude toward some of them might improve if you can harvest and eat them.

For example Dandelions, Wild Violets and Asiatic Dayflowers are common weeds in my garden and also delicious in a salad when young and tender. When I regularly pull the baby leaves, rinse and eat them I’m harvesting and enjoying a fresh and nutritious crop rather than dealing with something annoying. You should be very careful when foraging to make sure you’ve researched the wild plant you want to eat to make sure you have identified it correctly, are not confusing it with a poisonous look-alike and are picking it from an area that is free of toxins such as pesticides, herbicides or auto exhaust.

Unless you are extremely confident in your identification skills, my recommendation is to get some foraging instruction from an expert in person so you can actually see and taste the plants as you learn about them. To improve my skills in identifying edible wild plants, I attended a recent workshop at Litzinger Road Ecology Center given by Jan Phillips, author of Wild Edibles of Missouri. There must be a lot of interest in this topic because there were about 40 people there.

First we watched a slide presentation where we learned about some of the wild edibles available in Missouri. Did you know that you can eat Daylily buds, Plantain, Redbud flowers and Henbit? We learned about these and many more. When I was a kid my neighborhood friends and I used to eat the seed pods of the weed Yellow Wood Sorrel – we called them “pickles” because they have a tart taste. I thought we were just lucky not to be poisoned while experimenting, but it turns out that’s a well-known edible weed though some people can’t eat it because they are allergic to the oxalic acid it contains.

Foraging at Litzinger Road Ecology Center

After the slide show we split into groups and foraged over different areas of the property. My group picked a lot of Redbud flowers, Violets, Dandelions, Spring Beauty, Henbit and Plantain.

Eating the results

After foraging we brought our produce to the kitchen to wash and spin it. We then enjoyed some of it in salad. Chef Ryan Maher provided us with some delicious mushroom dressing to accompany the greens and flowers. Redbud and Dandelion flowers were cooked into pancakes for us to try. We enjoyed an array of other unusual treats that had been prepared ahead of time – teas brewed from things like Spicebush (that was my favorite), candied Peppermint leaves, Reindeer Lichen biscuits with Gooseberry jelly, wild nuts and more. Wild foraging is definitely a way to introduce some interesting new ingredients into your cooking!

Here is a salad recipe of mine that I like to mix with my “weed” greens.

Your favorite fresh greens from the garden
1 bulb fennel
1 cup mung bean sprouts
1 cup chopped kale (optional, if you need to boost the amount of greens)
1 cup broccoli slaw
Your favorite dressing (I mainly use vinegar and oil with a sprinkle of salt – edible weeds can be used to make flavored vinegars and tasty dressings also!)
Sprinkle dried cranberries and roasted pumpkin seeds on top

What chore sounds like more fun? Weeding, or picking some interesting food? Depending on what is growing in your garden, which task is awaiting might just depend on how you look at it!

Resources for more information on edible weeds and wild plants:
Link: Common Edible Weed Plants
Book: “Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants” by Lee Allen Peterson
Book: “Stalking the Wild Asparagus” by Euell Gibbons

Categories
DIY Gardening Home Decor Upcycling

Decorate a Terra Cotta Plant Pot with Acrylic Paint and Stencils

Decorate a Terra Cotta Plant Pot with Acrylic Paint and Stencils

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

Terra cotta pots decorated with paint and stencils

Supplies and Materials
*Indicates items available at Schnarr’s

Terra cotta pot*
Acrylic paint*
Water-based varnish or sealer*
Small containers for mixing paint (can be disposable cleaned food containers)
Rags for cleanup*
Paintbrushes*
Water container*
Sponges*
Decorative stencils
Letter and number stencils*
Palette knife for paint mixing
Palette (could be a proper artists palette or a temporary one made from freezer paper*)
Sandpaper* (optional)
Memory Essentials Get Rollin’ tool
Memory Essentials Bits and Pieces
Optional – heat tool for speeding up drying between steps if you need to
Masking tape*
Optional – disposable plastic gloves* if you want to keep paint off your hands
Drop cloth* for work surface

Painting and stenciling terra-cotta pots is a fun and inexpensive way to enhance your patio or garden decor. Younger and older crafters alike can join in. Small decorated pots can be used as party favors. Medium-sized pots might provide the base for a table centerpiece. A large pot could function as a gift basket that you can fill with items for a loved one who likes gardening. Gardeners can always use extra small items such as gloves* (they tend to wear out with regularity), seeds*, bulbs*, bug repellent*, gardener’s soap, hand lotion*, sunscreen*, lip balm* and plant tags*. You can also throw in a gift card* so they can get exactly what they want!

You can use either a brand-new terra cotta pot or a used one. I kind of like a used one for this project because I’m going for an artificially aged or distressed look and and that’s easier to achieve if the pot already features some stains from being used. A brand new pot will work also.

Directions

1. Clean and dry your pot.

2.Using your acrylic paints, mix a terra cotta color that is lighter than your pot. Good colors to use in the mix are white, brown, orange and maybe red.

3. Put some water-based varnish in a small container and mix in some of the light terra cotta color. Brush some inside your pot to see how translucent it is. I used a stiff brush that was about 1″ wide. You should be adding a light, translucent haze of color in which you can see some brush strokes. Paint the whole inside of the pot and let dry. This step achieves two objectives – it seals the inside of the pot and tests your mixture to make sure it’s right – not too opaque and not too transparent. Normally one of the benefits of a terra cotta plant pot is the porosity, but since we’re applying paint to ours we don’t want water seeping through and wearing off the design over time. Set aside the remainder of the paint/varnish mixture to use later.

4. On your palette, squeeze out some green, yellow and white paint. Use a sponge to blend these colors in random ways and lightly sponge paint onto your pot in random areas. This is to simulate lime scaling and moss or algae that would normally appear on a terra cotta pot over time as it’s in use. After this paint is dry, if you need to tone it down any you can sand it lightly or sponge a litte of your translucent light terra cotta color over it.

5. The next step is to apply a loose vertical texture to the rim of the pot to accentuate it. I used a Memory Essentials Get Rollin’ tool with rubber bands on it from the set Memory Essentials Bits and Pieces. This is one of my favorite textures of all time and I’ve used it in paper crafts, fabric surface design and all kinds of random projects over the years. If you don’t have these tools you can create a similar texture tool by wrapping rubber bands or string around a wood block. Spread some cream-colored paint on your palette and run or press your tool in it then apply to the rim to make the texture. Let dry.

6. Select a stencil or stencils for applying a design to the side of your pot. You might want to use letter or number stencils to create names, initials, words or house numbers. In my examples I used decorative stencils in garden-related designs. Temporarily tape the stencils to the side of the pot with masking tape. Put some cream-colored paint on your palete (do not thin with water) and apply paint through the stencil with a dry sponge. When you’re done, pull off stencil and either wash paint from stencil immediately or put in a container of water to wash later. If your design requires more than one color, use a clean dry sponge for each color – a moist sponge will make your paint run under the stencil and mar the design. While you’re working, if you don’t want to pause and go to the sink to wash paint from your stencils, brushes and sponges at each step, throw them in the container of water until you’re ready to do cleanup at the end. Let stenciled paint dry on pot.

7. Take a look at your pot and see if you like the appearance the way it is or if you want to make it a little more distressed. Randomly hit some areas with sandpaper if you want to “age” it a bit more. Wipe off dust with a slightly damp rag.

8. Paint outside of pot with your translucent light terra cotta / varnish mixture. Let some brush marks show, but smooth them out a bit if you think they are too prominent. Turn pot over and paint the bottom to seal it. Let dry. You’re done!

For more information on stenciling, here are some of my other articles:


Seed packet bouquet
If you want to take the idea of using a decorated pot as table decor or a party favor a little further, here is an idea you might like from my personal blog. Make a bouquet out of seed packets with free templates that I provided for download and display it in one of your decorated pots.
Make a Seed Packet Bouquet

Categories
Gardening

Some Favorite Easy-to-Grow Plants

Some Favorite Easy-to-Grow Plants

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

Every gardener has his or her own criteria for choosing favorite plants. I started my garden in very challenging conditions – in part shade and soil that was more like concrete than soil and with a high clay content. I had to try to find plants that would survive in those conditions. I also enjoy plants that are functional, either for their qualities as a culinary or otherwise useful herb, for their role in attracting beneficial insects to the garden for pest control, or for providing habitat or food for wildlife which I like to watch and study.

This is the season for plant sales – see our calendar for gardening sales and events as well as suggested planting dates. Some plant sales feature extras raised by local gardeners. These plants may do better in your garden than a plant from a large retailer that could have been shipped from a long distance away and is not adapted to local conditions. Another reason you might want to consider buying plants from a local plant sale instead of a large retailer is that some commercial growers treat their plants with systemic pesticides that are a grave danger to bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Some consumers have purchased milkweed plants to help monarchs and ended up killing them instead! Read about it in this article: How to help monarch butterflies (without poisoning them).

If you want to add some new plants to your garden here are suggestions of some of my favorites and reasons why I’m fond of them. I live in Brentwood, MO so these plants are proven to grow in the St. Louis area. Before you go shopping, you could also try using the Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder to select plants that fit your conditions and criteria. For example you might want plants that flower at a certain time, have a certain color, are deer-resistant, grow in a wet area, get to a certain height or other characteristics of your own choosing. With the help of the plant finder you can make a list to bring with you so you don’t end up buying plants that aren’t right for your garden. “The right plant in the right place” is a well-known saying that is by far the most important thing to consider for gardening success!



Creeping Jenny

 

Creeping Jenny
Lysimachia nummularia ‘Goldilocks’

Reasons I like this plant:
My favorite color is lime green. There are few colors that don’t look better next to lime green in my opinion and it’s an especially nice color for brightening up a shady garden. It fills in nicely around other plants and is short in stature so other plants grow well through it. Also looks nice trailing from containers or over barriers or short walls. Unfortunately the beautiful branchlike fungus shown in this picture does not always grow with it!

Possible drawbacks to this plant:
It is not native to Missouri and might need a little maintenance to keep it from spreading into areas where you don’t want it. May become invasive.


Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Creeping Jenny
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Creeping Jenny

 

Horehound

Horehound
Marrubium vulgare

Reasons I like this plant: I’ve made homemade Horehound candy and teas to alleviate coughs from this plant and found it more effective than any over the counter cough remedy I have tried. It does need a fair amount of sugar to taste decent but delicious if sweetened enough. The leaves are pretty durable and they usually look good until well into cold weather. I’ve never seen it bothered by pests. Horehound can be grown from seed – my plants are descended from a plant that I bought for my Mom in memory of her Dad, who loved Horehound candy! We sell Horehound candy at Schnarr’s if you would like to try some without having to make your own. The Horehound is toward the front of the photo and has the wrinkly leaves.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: Not native to this continent. It is reported invasive in some areas but for me it’s not a spreader, possibly because of my part-shade conditions.
Article about this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Horehound

 


Swamp Milkweed

Swamp Milkweed
Asclepias incarnata

Reasons I like this plant: The picture shows the milkweed looking brown and dried up in the fall, but also shows what I like best about it – a monarch chrysalis! Swamp Milkweed provides food for monarch caterpillars and nectar for many other pollinators. The flowers are beautiful and in my opinion worth the plant not looking that great at the end of the season. If like me you like to watch winged wildlife this is one of my best attractors when in bloom. Try planting some tall late-flowering annuals around it to help disguise the dried up stems. It is native to Missouri and can be grown from seed.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: Not very attractive looking in late summer and fall.
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Swamp Milkweed
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Swamp Milkweed

 


Columbine

Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis

Reasons I like this plant: I have a variety of types of Columbines but a Missouri native is the one shown in the picture. Some Columbines can be grown true from seed, and they usually reseed themselves pretty readily. In a recent storm, a hybrid Columbine with larger flowers was partially knocked over but the native with the smaller flowers was not affected. That’s one drawback to oversize flowers that are sometimes bred into plants – they can be too large to be supported by the plant in rough weather. All of my Columbines, species or hybrids, attract lots of beautiful hummingbirds.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: Foliage is very pretty in spring but might be attacked by leaf miners later in the season. The plant won’t be killed but the leaves won’t look very attractive. To fix this, wait until the plant is done blooming and cut all the foliage back after you see a leaf miner infestation. The foliage will regenerate without the leaf miners and probably will not be re-infested since the time of activity for the leaf miners will be over. The MOBOT plant finder says the native species is more resistant to leaf miner than other varieties. My plant is three years old and didn’t bloom until this year. I don’t remember whether the foliage had leaf miners in previous years or not but I will check to see this year if it really is resistant. I know my other Columbines were affected as they always are. Columbines are usually short-lived so save some seeds in case it doesn’t reseed on it’s own – but it probably will!
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Columbine
If you want to read about all the other types of Columbines just do a search for “Aquilegia”.
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Columbine

 

Feverfew

Feverfew
Tanacetum parthenium

Reasons I like this plant: It reseeds itself here and there which in my informal garden looks nice but could be a problem depending on what kind of garden you have. I like how it pops up around the garden because it doesn’t get very big and a bit of white here and there in a garden really helps the appearance in my opinion. It has a reputation for having medicinal properties. Feverfew attracts a lot of the small bees and wasps that are beneficial in the garden. Makes a nice dried flower.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: It is not native to this continent and is now considered naturalized in North America. Foliage sometimes doesn’t look good toward the end of the summer – apparently it gets attacked by some kind of sucking insect that makes it look a bit mottled but the plant does not seem to be harmed. It could get weedy, I sometimes find young plants in the lawn, but once you pull it out it’s gone, it doesn’t leave behind tubers or rhizomes or anything like that. It’s supposed to be short-lived but I’ve never noticed that because it reseeds reliably.
Article about this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Feverfew
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Feverfew

 

Stapelia

Carrion Flower or Starfish Flower
Stapelia gigantea

Reasons I like this plant: It’s very easy to care for – it doesn’t need much more than to be brought indoors during cold weather and left outside to catch rainwater in the warm months. It’s native to the deserts of South Africa and Tanzania so give it good drainage. You might want to put it in a larger pot every few years as it slowly expands. It’s a great houseplant/patio plant if you have a taste for something on the weird side! The inside of the large flowers have an unusual brain-like texture and the plant emits a smell like rotting meat to attract flies to pollinate it. A real conversation starter! When not in bloom, it looks like a nondescript green cactus-like succulent.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: It smells really bad when in bloom and would need to be moved outdoors during that time. The first time mine bloomed we thought there might be rotting chicken around and we checked the fridge and trash can!
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Carrion Flower
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Carrion Flower

 

Iris

Louisiana Iris
Iris giganticaerulea

Reasons I like this plant: This plant is very easy-care. Mine are descendants of irises that were planted in my parents’ yard in the 1980s and went dormant for a couple of decades before reappearing when a tree near them partly died out and some of their sunlight was restored. My parents originally got them from my Dad’s aunt. I moved some to my garden and they have multiplied enough to be growing in three locations now. I’ve always liked them but recently after studying for my bulbs test I decided to research exactly what kind they are and I discovered that the original species plant is native to Louisiana and perhaps Texas also. The species is endangered in its native range. Mine appear to be a hybrid or cultivar and not the species plant but I’m not sure which one it is. Based on pictures I’ve seen online it looks a lot like the cultivar ‘Black Gamecock’.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: Needs to be divided after several years when it gets so crowded it stops blooming. The rhizomes are really large and may not be easy to remove if you ever decide you don’t want them. You also may need to thin them to stop them from spreading too much.
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Louisiana Iris ‘Black Gamecock’

 

Rose of Sharon

Rose of Sharon
Hibiscus syriacus

Reasons I like this plant: The species plant can easily be grown from seed. Mine has both white and lavender colored flowers on it which was a nice surprise – I got the seedling from my Mom and Dad’s yard which had all lavender colored plants in it. If you like winged wildlife in your garden Rose of Sharon flowers will draw seemingly every bee, butterfly and hummingbird in the neighborhood. The seed pods will be relished by birds in the winter. The beautiful goldfinch is one of three species I’ve observed feeding on mine. Once established this plant needs almost no care. I say almost no care because my Dad prunes his. I’ve never pruned mine and it’s doing fine but now that I know a bit about how and why to prune from my Master Gardener class I may remove some branches that are rubbing together. My Dad has accidentally killed some of these plants by pruning them too much but I have never seen one die of natural causes or have a noticeable pest issue, and I grew up with bunches of these as hedges in our yard.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: It is not native to this continent and could be invasive. Produces a lot of seedlings which are not always easy to pull up because they are woody and have a long taproot. I control most of the extra seedlings with lasagna gardening around the base of the plant and pulling the seedlings when small. It’s a little extra effort to control the seedlings – not so much that it’s a problem for me but some people really hate this plant because of that.
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Name of Plant
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Rose of Sharon

 

Solomon's Seal

Solomon’s Seal
Polygonatum biflorum

Reasons I like this plant: It’s native to Missouri and will naturalize in the right conditions. I was given four plants in a swap two years ago and this spring they finally have started to spread a little bit – I counted 17 yesterday! I have room for more so it can spread for awhile without bothering me. You are probably noticing a pattern in the kinds of plants that become my favorites – they tend to spread or naturalize. In a formal garden this may not be a good thing but I like to get extra plants because I have a lot of space to fill in an area where it’s hard to get anything to grow so I’m grateful when I find plants that like my conditions! I also like to have extras for trading stock since most of my really good plants have been acquired by trading, not purchasing. In the front garden where large oak trees shade it for a lot of the day, I need plants that look good in a woodland setting and it pleases me to find a beautiful tall plant to contrast with all the nice groundcovers I have! The large leaves almost look tropical, it doesn’t really look like a “wildflower” though that’s what it is.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: I don’t know of any other than it might spread too much for some situations.
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Solomon’s Seal
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Solomon’s Seal

 

Bee Balm

Bee Balm
Monarda didyma

Reasons I like this plant: This plant ticks off almost all the boxes of what I really want – attracts wildlife, is native, naturalizes, is a useful herb, is fragrant, grows in part shade – and as an extra bonus – it’s RED! Red and blue are my favorite flower colors but there aren’t many plants in those colors that will grow reliably for me. I finally got this species to “take” in my garden after three tries and these days it’s spreading all over the place. A sea of red makes me happy so I am THRILLED. I finally have enough so that they will need to be thinned and I can trade some. Red is also the favorite color of hummingbirds – they will feed off of other colors of flowers if they are suitable but seeing some red helps them find the other flowers. The round seed heads look good dried and provide winter interest if you leave them standing.

Possible drawbacks to this plant: Foliage tends to look bad late in summer and is susceptible to powdery mildew. Some cultivars are supposed to be resistant. Most of my Bee Balms get the powdery mildew at least a little bit but in my case it doesn’t seem to kill the plant or spread to other species. I’m willing to put up with it to get red flowers! Once you get it in conditions it likes, it does spread a lot so in some situations that could cause maintenance issues.
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Bee Balm
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Bee Balm

 

Purple Coneflower

Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea

Reasons I like this plant: Beauty is enough reason to grow it. This is also a useful plant for supporting wildlife – bees and butterflies will enjoy the nectar and it’s famous for feeding goldfinches with the seeds. It’s native and will create new seedlings which can be transplanted if they are not in a convenient place. It took several years (about 8?) before I had enough seedlings to start moving them to other spots in the garden. There are lots of cultivars in really nice colors but they are not as vigorous as the species, so as tempting as those other colors are I’ll stick to the species!

Possible drawbacks to this plant: It’s kind of slow growing so you have to be patient. I leave the dried plants standing in the fall when I can to feed birds in the winter but some people think the dried stems are unattractive. You might have to cut them down if they are in a conspicuous spot if you have fussy neighbors. Someone will want the seeds if the birds don’t get the chance to eat them.
Profile for this plant on the Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder:
Purple Coneflower
Profile for this plant on the Dave’s Garden web site:
Purple Coneflower

 

Categories
Gardening

Start Some of Your Spring Planting Right Now! Part 3

Start Some of Your Spring Planting Right Now! Part 3

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

*Indicates items available at Schnarr’s

Once you have enticed some seeds to sprout indoors, how should you care for them? In our Master Gardener lecture on Propagation we learned to start fertilizing 3-4 weeks after the seeds sprouted with a water soluble fertilizer at 1/2 strength.

Prevention of Damping Off

Keeping your containers* clean and using sterile potting mix*, recommended in our previous article Start Some of Your Spring Planting Right Now! Part 2 are practices intended to prevent damping off – a fungal disease that kills young seedlings by infecting them at the soil line.

If you want to add a further preventative or possibly kill fungus if it appears despite your precautions, you can spray your seedlings with chamomile tea. An article in Mother Earth News recommends putting a chamomile tea bag into 4 cups of boiling water and letting it sit for 24 hours. Then put the tea into a plant mister* and spray the seedlings at each watering. I’m also experimenting with spraying my edible sprouts* with the chamomile tea and am having success!

Other additional preventive practices against fungus on seedlings are maintaining good air circulation around the plants and watering them from the bottom.

Transplanting the Seedlings

You can transplant the seedlings after the first “true” leaves are present. “True” leaves look like the actual plant leaves and not like the Cotyledons, also known as “seed leaves” which are first to appear. If you have planted your seedling in a peat pot* or pellet*, you don’t have to transplant it, just move it to a larger container surrounded by more potting soil.

If you do need to transplant seedlings, the recommended procedure is to create a hole in the medium large enough for the root system. Gently loosen the medium around the root system, and if any medium clings to the roots leave it there. Pick up the seedling by the leaves, not the stem, and place into the hole. Gently fill in any gaps with medium but don’t pack down. Water well (you can water from the top this time so the water settles the soil around the roots) and put it in a growing environment appropriate for the plant. You will get the most healthy seedlings if you can place them in strong light and if you can get the nighttime temperature around 60-65 degrees and 10-15 degrees warmer during the day.

Hardening Off

Your seedlings should be hardened off for a couple of weeks before moving them outside permanently. On mild days you can start leaving them outdoors in a shady area that is sheltered from strong breezes. Wait awhile before moving them into the sun or leaving them out overnight. You can consult our Calendar for suggestions on when to move many popular plants outside!

Categories
Gardening Outdoor Fun Sustainability

Master Gardener Training Program Volunteer Activities

Master Gardener Training Program Volunteer Activities

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

One of the requirements of the St. Louis Master Gardener Training Program is to perform at least 40 hours of volunteer work per year. We have until December to complete the hours but I thought it would be a good idea to get an early start (ok I admit it, I was dying to get my kayak out on the water). My first volunteer effort of the year was to participate in Operation Clean Stream at Simpson Lake in Valley Park on February 27, 2016.

Simpson Lake in Valley Park

Simpson Lake was a bit trashed due to the flooding in December but we made a really good dent in it. I was rewarded with sightings of a Bald Eagle and a beaver!

On St. Patrick’s Day I went on a tour of the Litzinger Road Ecology Center in Ladue with other Master Gardener trainees and made arrangements to volunteer there on a regular basis. The center is a private teaching facility owned by a foundation and managed by Missouri Botanical Garden. It is not open to the public so I thought you might enjoy seeing some photos of our tour if you have never been there.

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

One of the major activities at the center is removing non-native plants so that native plants can flourish. This picture shows native Bluebells emerging among other plants that are slated for removal. When I start my volunteer work I have no doubt that I’ll be learning a lot more about invasive plants!

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

Here is a section of Deer Creek that runs through the center. At the top of the ridge there is an old railroad right-of-way that was formerly the Laclede and Creve Coeur Lake Railroad route. I knew nothing about this interesting historical tidbit until last year when I was riding my bike in the area and noticed the right-of-way and looked it up to see what it might be. As you can see from the photo, erosion is a big problem along the creek. If you own property within the watershed of Deer Creek and you would like to learn how to manage your property to reduce flooding and erosion and to improve the water quality, the Deer Creek Watershed Alliance can help you learn how to do that.

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

In the foreground is a prairie area and on the ridge is an exquisite Mid-Century Modern house that was formerly the home of the benefactors who donated the land for the center. It is now used as an office for the foundation.

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

Fire is one of the tools sometimes used here for prairie management. Here is a clump of Prairie Dropseed coming back after a burn.

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

Our tour guide is pictured here explaining that a Monarch Waystation is planned for the area around the fence. The kids who come here for programs (and adults like me) should really love that when it’s done! I developed an interest in insects at a very young age and still haven’t lost it. Here and there on the grounds are “bug boards” that can be lifted up to see what’s taking shelter underneath. I loved doing that kind of thing when I was young and I still can’t resist it!

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

I’m also crazy about birds so seeing these gorgeous turkeys was a treat!

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

Here is a view of the circa 1964 house that shows some of the cool details.

Litzinger Road Ecology Center

Here is a Spicebush in flower – a beautiful and desirable native plant for the St. Louis area. It’s worth considering if you are planting to help pollinators and birds because it is a host plant for the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly.

I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of the Litzinger Road Ecology Center! It is likely that I’ll mention some of my upcoming work here in future issues of this newsletter.

Categories
Gardening

How to Grow Potatoes

How to Grow Potatoes

by Carolyn Hasenfratz

Now is the right time for planting seed potatoes in the St. Louis area. My boyfriend is starting some in his yard and I’ve decided to try growing potatoes in containers on my deck since I’m not allowed to grow vegetables in the ground where I live. I’ve helped a client to do this before with good results but it’s been awhile so I did a little research to refresh my memory and worked out the following procedures.

First acquire some seed potatoes. These are whole potatoes with buds on them that will grow into new plants. If you are not going to plant right away store your seed potatoes in the refrigerator. Cut them into pieces with 2-3 eye buds on each. Let the pieces dry 2-3 days before planting. Small seed potatoes that are 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter can be planted whole.

Planting in the ground

The planting method I’m going to describe here mostly comes from an article called “Growing Potatoes in Mulch” and it sounds easy and fun. There are other methods you can try if this doesn’t appeal to you.

1. Pick a sunny spot. Some growers say that a 1/2 day of sun is ok. Choose a spot that has not been recently occupied by another member of the Nightshade family (Eggplant, Pepper or Tomato) within the last three years.

2. Scratch rows slightly into the earth with a hoe, 12-15 inches apart.

3. Place seed potato pieces in rows, cut side down, separated by about one foot.

4. Cover entire bed with 6-8 inches of mulch.

5. Add companion plants if using at the appropriate planting times. See the “Pest Prevention” section below for companion plant suggestions.

6. If any potato tubers look like they are going to break the mulch surface and be exposed to sun, pile more mulch around the plants.

7. Next year put the potato patch in a different area to deter pests.

Planting in a container

All the instructions I read online or in books about growing potatoes refer to really big containers, much larger than I have space for. I don’t know if I’ll have success with my smaller containers but I’m going to try it and see what happens.

1. Choose a large container with excellent drainage. Drill extra drainage holes if you need to. A barrel or trash can is not too large.

2. Set container in a sunny spot.

3. Fill container 1/2 full of potting soil.

4. As potato plants grow above the soil, periodically add more soil (or mulch if you want to try the mulch method) so that some of the leaves are left exposed but lower ones are covered. Don’t let any potatoes get exposed to sun. Eventually the soil may reach the top of the container as the plants grow.

Building a Potato Tower

I heard about this technique on a gardening podcast (I’m sorry, I can’t remember which one!) and it also sounds easy and fun!

1. Build a large cylinder in a sunny spot out of chicken wire or some other mesh product. Fasten together with zip ties.

2. Place about 6″ of straw in the bottom of the cylinder. Start to build layers by putting soil and compost in the middle with a layer of straw around the sides with your potato buds near the edge facing outward. They will grow out of the sides like a strawberry planter.

3. Continue to build layers until tower is full, with an extra few bud pieces on top.

4. When potatoes are ready to harvest, cut the zip ties and let the potatoes and soil fall out. A lot easier than digging! Add the used soil and straw to your compost pile.

Watering

If the weather is dry, give your potatoes 1 – 1/2″ of water per week. Increase to 2″ per week if it’s really hot.

Fertilizing

In the ground, when the sprouts are about 4″ high, apply a balanced fertilizer. If the soil under your potatoes is already fertile that is a big help.

In containers, if you use commercial potting mix there may be fertilizer in it already. If not, add compost and organic fertilizer each time you plant. Switch to a liquid fertilizer when roots have begun to fill the container.

I read a myriad of opinions on exactly what kind of fertilizers to use with potatoes or how often to apply. One thing everyone agrees on is that potatoes are heavy feeders.

Conventional Fertilizers

Apply 5-10-10 or 5-10-5 according to directions on the package.

Organic Fertilizers

Organic fertilizer is a little harder to figure out. I’ve been gardening organically for 12 years and feeding the soil is something I do all the time whenever I have organic matter available to add. I’ve mainly been growing herbs and wildflowers, many of which don’t even want fertilizer so until now it hasn’t been a major consideration for me. I rely a lot on “used” water from cleaning my aquariums and trench composting. Potatoes are something you will have to fertilize, however. Compost is valuable but probably will not be sufficient by itself. With organic fertilizers you won’t do harm by adding too much, but you could be wasting money if you add more than you really need. Cost is not a big consideration for the small containers I’m going to be using so I’m just going to make sure I add a quantity of organic fertilizer that is balanced and let the plants below my deck where the containers are take up the excess if they want it. You can always add Nitrogen because it doesn’t stay in the soil long. A soil test will tell you if you need Potassium and Phosphorus or other nutrients. There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing organic fertilizers, for example bulk, cost, transport and availability. It will be a more involved decision than just choosing a bag with the right numbers so I recommend that as a start you consult this article.

Pest Prevention

Colorado Potato Beetles and Flea Beetles are the most common pests on potatoes in Missouri. The former may be repelled by companion plantings of Catmint, Catnip, Cilantro, Horseradish, Marigold, Nasturtium, Onion, Sage and Tansy. The latter may be repelled by Catmint, Catnip, Mint, Southernwood and Tansy. Try planting some of these plants around your potatoes or make a tea out of the plant parts to spray on your plants.

Periodically inspect the underside of the leaves to see if there are any eggs – if you see some, stick some duct tape on the eggs and pull them off. Ground Beetles are predators on Colorado Potato Beetle larvae. They can be encouraged in your garden with shelter in the form of perennial plants, mulch, rocks and logs. Predatory wasps eat beetle larvae so if you can possibly co-exist with them in your garden they can be great helpers for you.

Harvesting

Feel in the dirt to see how big the potatoes are and take them whenever they are big enough for your needs, or wait until the tops have turned yellow. If you know what variety you have, you should be able to look up how long it takes to be ready for harvest. If you’re not sure, in the St. Louis area start checking for size around July 4.

If you want to do further reading here are the web sites and books I consulted for the information in this article:

Web sites:
Growing Potatoes in Mulch
When and How to Plant Potatoes
Beneficial Insects in the Garden – My own page

Books:
Container Gardening by Sunset.
Guide to Growing Your Own Food by Mother Earth News.