Preparing Your Garden Beds For Fall And Spring Perennials & Annuals

The fall is an excellent time to prepare fall garden beds for planting now or in the spring. The cooler temperatures, weaker sunlight and shorter days of fall mean less energy goes into top growth and more into establishing a strong root system. Planting in this area can usually continue through October.

After choosing the proper plants for your location-taking into account plant hardiness and the amount of available light-the most important thing you can do to insure success is to properly prepare your soil.

After marking off the area, you need to rid it of perennial weeds. Rototilling will only increase your weed crop, so you will need to carefully pull all underground stems and roots. Be sure to also remove any additional roots you find when you turn the soil over.

The soil you’re aiming to create should hold moisture, but also be well drained. If it doesn’t drain well now, it probably has high clay content. The actual soil particles are very small and pack together very closely, suffocating and drowning plant roots. Adding gypsum to clay soil can help break it up.

If your soil drains very quickly and you need to water frequently, it is probably sandy. Soil particles are relatively large and fit together loosely. Plants rarely drown in sandy soil unless the area is low-lying or the water line is high. In this instance it would be best to make a raised bed.

The solution, both for maintaining good drainage, and moisture retention, is generous amounts of organic matter. It separates clay particles, creating air space, and holds water and nutrients in sand. Good sources of organic matter are finished compost, well-decomposed manure, leaf mold and damp peat moss. These should be incorporated into the soil when it is turned over to a depth of 12″ or more. At this time you can also remove any sizable rocks, roots or other debris.

Most perennials grow best in a soil that is slightly acid to almost neutral-a pH of about 5.5-6.5. Most soils in this area are probably very acid and will need to have lime added every 2-3 years.

If you prefer to estimate your fertilizer needs, there are a few things to keep in mind. Phosphorous, and some of the trace elements, even when present in the soil in sufficient quantities, are only available to plants within a fairly narrow pH range. Keeping your soil pH at 5.5-6.5 should be adequate for most plants.

Fertilizers can either be natural, or you can use dry or granular fertilizers that are either quick or slow release. You can use either type if you are going to plant now. If you are going to delay planting until spring, wait and add the fertilizer then unless you are using natural fertilizers which break down slowly and will not leach out readily.

Natural fertilizers should be incorporated into the soil when you turn it over, especially phosphorous (bone meal, rock phosphate), as it doesn’t move readily through the soil. Dry or granular fertilizers can be sprinkled on the surface and raked into the top few inches of soil.

Open Columbus Day Monday October 12th

We will be open normal business hours for Columbus Day, Monday October 12th.

Retail Location in Beacon Hill 10am-6pm.

Charlestown Studio & Garden Design 8am to 5pm *by appointment only

New England Is Losing Its Native Plants. Researchers Say.

Where have all the wild orchids gone?

A recent study finds that about one quarter of native New England wildflower species have been lost in the last 150 years. This means that purple-fringed orchids and pink lady slippers — once abundant in the region — are disappearing from some areas, often replaced by non-native species. Researchers worry that this loss of biodiversity may harm local ecosystems.

"Wildflowers are an important part of biological diversity; they’re an important part of the environment," says Boston University biology professor Richard Primack, who co-authored the study in the journal Rhodora. "They provide us with clean water, clean air, they also support pollinators which also pollinate our crops."

Researchers used botanical records from the 1800s documenting wildflowers at 13 different locations in New England and New York, and compared them to current wildflower observations. They found that native New England wildflower families — like lilies and orchids — are disappearing, while invasive species like purple loosestrife are moving in. (And Massachusetts' state flower, the mayflower? Once abundant around Concord, these pale pink or white flowers are now hard to find, says Primack.)

Invasive species like purple loosestrife have moved in. (Courtesy of Richard Primack)

Biologist Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie, lead author on the study, said the losses didn't follow an obvious pattern.

“It’s not just developed sites that are losing more of their historic floras," says McDonough MacKenzie, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maine. "There are a lot of stressors and threats to our native plants."

Get all the Mass. election information you need sent to your inbox before you cast your ballot. Sign up now.

For example, the area around Worcester has lost 20% of its native flora, according to the study. And the protected Middlesex Fells Reservation lost 28% of native wildflower species.

Primack says several factors affect wildflower populations, including urban development, increasing deer and invasive plants, pollution and climate change.

“Climate change is not something that is happening in the future, it’s something that is happening right now,” Primack says. “[This study is] an indicator of how successfully species will adapt to climate change, which species will be winners and which ones will be losers.”

The losers, according to Primack, may be New England native species that are more accustomed to colder climates. Climate change is causing the region to experience warmer temperatures earlier in the spring; some native species of wildflowers may not have been able to adapt.

Using Historical Records

New England is a unique place for a study of this kind, according to Primack. Enthusiasm for amateur botany in the 19th century, and general interest in outdoor fieldwork at the time, led to a bounty of botanical records that scientists can reference today.

This particular study was partly possible because two Harvard students — Edward Rand and John Redfield — spent the summer of 1894 documenting wildflowers at Mount Desert Island in Maine. McDonough MacKenzie used their records in her current study, but said it was no easy task translating 19th century records into modern terms.

“It’s really hard to compare different historic data sets to each other,” she says. “And you’re kind of just stuck with whatever survived in the archives.

During her research, McDonough MacKenzie found that surviving records were compiled mainly by white men at the time. But she’s found evidence that female botanist Annie Sawyer Downs was doing similar work, and believes there were other women and people of color doing botany work at the time.

“There are lots of people that were recognizing plants around them and keeping stock of them. It’s just not how western science collects data and so they kind of get erased or drowned out from the rest of the conversation,” McDonough MacKenzie says. “When we talk about historical floras we have the data sets from certain people but we recognize there’s a lot of missing data out there as well.”

Why Wildflowers?

Pollinators, animals and people depend on local wildflowers as the foundation of local food webs. The impact of wildflower losses isn’t clear yet, says Michael Piantedosi, a botanist and seed bank coordinator at Native Plant Trust, who was not involved with the current study. But he says these losses will cause a ripple effect in local biodiversity.

“We don’t actually know the impact losing one species has on a whole ecosystem; it’s with that in mind that we try to protect all of them that are known to be declining or rare in the region,” Piantedosi says. “If we don’t maintain the plants of New England, we lose many other things that are reliant on the plants.”

Piantedosi calls people today "plant blind." To have a better conversation about plant conservation, people need to become more aware of the ecology around them, Piantedosi says. In other words, they need to stop and smell the flowers.

A recent biodiversity report from the United Nations detailed massive extinctions happening across the globe. Even though McDonough MacKenzie's study didn't find that wildflowers have gone extinct, she says the changes she found are just as concerning.

“It can be really hard to wrap your head around these really big, abstract concepts of something like a United Nations report. But when we look at it at a local level it drives home how real this is, especially when you can point to these things happening basically in our backyard here, in New England,” she says. “This is not just a study of something that’s happening to polar bears in the Arctic or the Amazon rain forest being chopped down, this is happening right here.”

Full Article Found Here

Schedule Your Fall Clean Up Today!

Our Fall Clean Up Services

Does garden look a little shabby around this time of year? Could your property benefit from a good fall cleaning? Our urban gardens services are designed to provide the care and attention your property needs with none of the hassle. We’re proud of our commitment to our clients. Getting your garden back into shape after the end of the season can be a big job, but we’ll handle it.

What does Fall Cleaning Involve?

• Raking up leaves and composting them

• Updating Seasonal flowers

• Weed Control

• Mulching

• Fertilizer Applications

• Pruning

• Cleaning up branches & lawn debris

• Wrapping Shrubs for winter season

You may not have the time necessary to clean up your property during the Spring and Fall season, but our experienced crews can take care of it for you! Your time is valuable: Let us do the dirty work so you can enjoy a beautiful, pristine Garden Oasis. Our maintenance crews are service experts and can help you get the job done promptly and efficiently.

Flower colors are changing in response to climate change.

As the world’s climate changes, plants and animals have adapted by expanding into new territory and even shifting their breeding seasons. Now, research suggests that over the past 75 years, flowers have also adapted to rising temperatures and declining ozone by altering ultraviolet (UV) pigments in their petals.

Flowers’ UV pigments are invisible to the human eye, but they attract pollinators and serve as a kind of sunscreen for plants, says Matthew Koski, a plant ecologist at Clemson University. Just as UV radiation can be harmful to humans, it can also damage a flower’s pollen. The more UV-absorbing pigment the petals contain, the less harmful radiation reaches sensitive cells.

Previously, Koski and colleagues found that flowers exposed to more UV radiation—usually those growing at higher elevations or closer to the equator—had more UV pigment in their petals. He then wondered whether two factors affected by human activity, damage to the ozone layer and temperature changes, also influenced the UV pigments.

To find out, Koski and colleagues examined plant collections from North America, Europe, and Australia dating back to 1941. In all, they examined 1238 flowers from 42 different species. They photographed flower petals from the same species collected at different times throughout their natural range using a UV-sensitive camera, which captured changes in UV pigment. They then matched these changes to data on the local ozone level and temperature.

On average, pigment in flowers at all locations increased over time—an average of 2% per year from 1941 to 2017, they reported this month in Current Biology. But changes varied depending on flower structure. In saucer-shaped flowers with exposed pollen, like buttercups, UV-absorbing pigment increased when ozone levels went down and decreased in locations where ozone went up. But flowers with pollen concealed within their petals, such as the common bladderwort, decreased their UV pigment as temperatures went up—regardless of whether ozone levels changed.

Though surprising, the finding “makes total sense,” says Charles Davis, a plant biologist at Harvard University who was not involved with the work. Pollen hidden within petals is naturally shielded from UV exposure, but this extra shielding can also act like a greenhouse, trapping heat. When these flowers are exposed to higher temperatures, their pollen is in danger of being cooked, he says. Reducing UV pigments in the petals causes them to absorb less solar radiation, bringing down temperatures.

Although such pigment changes may be indistinguishable to the human eye, they stand out like a beacon to pollinators like hummingbirds and bees. Koski says most pollinators prefer flowers with a “bull’s-eye” pattern: UV-reflecting petal tips and UV-absorbing pigments near the center of the flower. Though scientists don’t fully understand the appeal of this pattern, they think it could help distinguish flowers from the UV-absorbing background of other plants.

As a result, flowers with less pigment may pop even more to pollinators, Koski says. But flowers that dial up their pigment could lose that contrast, ultimately making them less attractive to passing flyers. These pigment changes may help protect pollen, Davis says, but “pollinators might miss the flowers entirely.”

Full Article Here

Fall Harvest in the Herb Garden

It’s that time of year when a frost in upon us, the last harvest should be coming around beginning of October.

Harvesting Perennial Herbs

• Choose a bright sunny morning after the dew has evaporated

• Avoid heavy pruning within 30 days of your frost date as you don’t want to encourage new growth close to the first frost.

• Annuals can be cut within three inches of the soil surface

• Perennial can be cut back by 1/3

• Woody-stemmed plants like lavender need their stalks for wintering. trimming causes herbs to send out new growth, so it makes them more susceptible to winter kill. Do not completely cut back after August.

• Rinse freshly cut herbs

• Dry or Freeze herbs for winter storage

Closed Labor Day, Monday, September 7th

We will be Closed on Labor Day Monday, September 7th, we will be back to normal business hours Tuesday September 8th.

We will be fully restocked for Tuesday September 8th with fresh cut flowers, house plants and decorative containers.

Crested Fringed Orchid Found In Massachusetts

A small population of a state-endangered orchid was recently found in Massachusetts for the first time in nearly two decades. Crested fringed orchid was rediscovered in Bristol County by a botanist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, according to state officials. The diminutive orchid with striking orange blooms had not been seen in the Bay State since 2001 despite repeated survey efforts by botanists. They had previously only been documented in 1905, 1908, 1987. The newly discovered population of eight plants is said to be the northernmost known crested fringed orchid population in the United States and the only population known in New England. The next closest population is located on Long Island, New York. Due to its rarity, state officials say the location of the plants is not being disclosed. “Although I locate many rare species every year, this find took my breath away,” said Dr. Robert Wernerehl, State Botanist for MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. “Given the condition of the site, and the knowledge that many botanists have searched fruitlessly for this rarity for years, I was not at all expecting to find it. But while forcing my way through dense shrubby thickets laden with poison ivy, I kept reminding myself to move slowly and keep looking. Glancing down, a bright orange spot in the tangle of branches caught my eye, and as I bent over the plant, I knew immediately I had found it, but thought, can this really be happening?” The crested fringed orchid begin blooming in August and their orange blooms can reach up to five inches in length. They are usually found growing in the moist acidic soil of bogs, wet meadows, swamps, and depressions in pinelands habitats.

Full Story Here

Spring Bulb Planting Is Around The Corner

Plant bulbs in the fall, starting when nighttime temperatures stay between 40-50°F. But be sure to plant approximately six weeks before the ground freezes to allow sufficient time for rooting. Flower bulbs will root best in cool soil and once rooted undergo natural changes that keep them from freezing. Water your bulbs after planting to help them start the rooting process.

After planting, apply slow release "bulb food" fertilizer on the top of the ground to supply nutrients for the second year's bloom. (Fall bulbs are already fully charged with energy for peak flowering performance in their first spring bloom season.) Do not put the fertilizer in the hole with the bulb's tender roots.

Please note: Modern bone meal often draws rodents and dogs that dig up the bulbs looking for bones!

After the ground cools or freezes, cover your beds with a lightweight mulch (pine needles, buckwheat hulls, straw, or chopped up leaves) 2 — 4 inches thick to help keep down weeds and maintain a consistently cool soil temperature.

Locally Grown Flower Bouquets!

Bring in a bit of sunshine with these farm fresh locally grown bouquets!

We have partnered with local farms to bring you fresh locally grown flower bouquets! We have an assortment of flowers and foliage that has been grown in the surrounding suburbs of Boston by numerous farms to create a collection of Farm Fresh Bouquets.

Stop in the shop or order online today!