Lessons Learned in the Demonstration Garden       2007 & 2008                             BACK

2007

• Overall Garden

• Drought impacts

• Thwarted the growth and establishment of some plants and seeds in butterfly garden, Heritage garden as well as container bed

• Lessened impact of Japanese beetles

• Donated straw turned out to be hay and when used, seeds dropped and sprouted.  Need to assure only straw is used.

• Vegetables

• Beets – Poor germination of heirloom beets because of a cold April meant that the beets were replanted 3 times. Even then germination was spotty and harvest was not as expected.

• Broccoli – The heirloom brand “Di-Ciccio” plants all died within two weeks after transplanting but the heirloom “Calabrese” variety grew strong and gave a good harvest once the row cover was removed.  Soil was not drying out with row cover on meaning damping off probably killed the “Di-Ciccio” transplants.

• Carrots – The heirlooms “Oxheart” and “Kuttiger” are better cooked than eaten raw.  The harvest was bountiful.

• Snow Peas – The heirloom variety “Mammoth Melting Sugar” were the best producing vegetable pound for pound and will be a repeat performer next year.

• Cotton – An early variety selected by VT for Northern VA did well with most cotton balls bursting in Early – Mid October.

•  Squash – Heirloom varieties “Cocezelle”, “Golden Crookneck” and “Early Bush White Scallop” were awesome performers and even though they were not hybrids performed much better than past hybrids grown. Leaves were sprayed with Surround before blooming started so this may have helped with pest and diseases issues early on.

• Cucumbers – Heirloom cucumbers “Early Russian” and “White Wonder” gave excellent harvests once again beating out many hybrids used in the past.  “Early Russian” was the longest producer while the “White Wonder” produced huge fruits literally overnight.

• Tomatoes – Heirlooms “Red Calabash”, “Yellow Giant Belgium” & “Watermelon Beefsteak” were planted.  Disappointing results! Red Calabash was first to go down in August followed by the others.  The hot weather and an overly ambitious irrigation line contributed to the poor results.

• Peppers – Heirloom sweet varieties “Golden Summit” and “Jimmy Nardello’s” did well. Heirloom hot pepper varieties “Long Red Cayenne” and “Fish” also did very well although plants were extremely brittle and extraordinary care had to be taken when harvesting.  Bio-degradable planter’s paper was laid down for mulch and weeds when transplanting and did an excellent job.

• Pole Beans – Heirloom varieties “Cherokee Trail of Tears”, “Kentucky Wonder” & “Blue Coco” were planted and all performed well. The best testing bean was the Blue Coco with a slighter sweeter pronounced green bean flavor.  A runner bean, “Painted Lady” was a great ornamental addition to the garden with the red and white flowers. Pole beans were also sprayed 3 times with Surround during growing season to prevent Japanese beetle and Mexican bean beetle infestations. Appeared to be successful as hungry deer seemed to do the only damage to the plants.

• Notes on other plants in main Vegetable area

• Heirloom “Elephant Head” amaranth was also a great ornamental addition producing a brilliant display in September and October.  Stems are brittle and must be tied up. (Caution most people will pull early on before flowering as it looks like a weed.)

• Heirloom “Bi-color Broom Corn” gets very tall. Beware of planting location.  Also tassels for broom making must be harvested before tassels become too stiff and start to bend over, otherwise excellent fall color.

• The America’s Anniversary Garden of white petunias, blue salvia and red zinnia bloomed well during the first part of August but because of the hot and dry weather (even with irrigation), the white petunias died off early. The red zinnias, because of drought stress too, were attacked hard by powdery mildew and died off early as well.

• Sq. Ft./Container Bed

• Good soil made a difference.  The compost only containers probably performed the best of all.

• Companion planting was an important element.

• The self-watering containers, which didn’t produce well last year, over–exceeded all of our expectations this year.

• The hanging tomato planter, which had received rave reviews by other growers, dried too quickly and required more regular watering. The bag got too hot even with watering thus retarding the performance of the plant and when the deer discovered the “treats” on a hook, it was all over with

• Compost

• Temperature of the compost bin up to 140+ degrees during the month of July which killed the majority of any weed seeds

• Use of shredder vastly improved the decomposition of new green and brown materials added to the bins during the growing season

• Fruit Trees

• Six applications of Surround were sprayed during the growing season with good results for preventing insect damage.  There was some coddling moth damage even with the application of Surround

• The apple and pear trees did not produce as much as the 2006 season, in part due to the warm late winter weather and then a very dry cold spell in late spring.

• Shade Garden

• Three bags of planting medium were scored on one side for drainage, then flipped over and scored with seven x’s and white impatiens were planted.  They thrived in the shade garden as the pine tree roots didn’t steal their moisture but the bags still required a lot of watering

• The ginger lies flat on the ground and does not perform well, while the Lungwort grows extremely slowly and after having been in the garden several years, looks to be the same size as when planted.

• Shade garden required 3 hours of a sprinkler 2-3 times a week during drought.  We are planning to install drip irrigation to ease the man power.

• Grasses

• Easier to identify grasses after they have produced their inflorescence

• No significant impact of drought on growth of grasses.  Pampas looked to be slightly shorter than last year and zebra grass didn’t flop over as in past years so drought may have had a slight impacted growth.

• Herbs

• Fig tree growth shaded majority of medicinal herb bed causing plants to stretch toward sun and thwarted growth of some.  Will have to adjust plants for next year based on growth of figs.

• Cocoa mulch was used in kitchen garden.  The salvia seemed to react poorly to it so next year we’ll try pea gravel.

• Wedding Garden

• Deer repellant spray was also human repellant but worked well.  Spray when no one is gong to be visiting as the smell is repulsive!

• We lost a few lavender plants from either too much gravel mulch at base of plant, sun issues from trees or poor drainage/planting. 

• Native Serviceberry trees bloomed nicely in spring, suffered a bit in drought and contracted lace bugs.  Sprayed with insecticidal soap to deter over wintering of insects.

2008

• Overall Garden
  • 2nd year rambling roses at pergola reached the roof, so next year perhaps we will begin to get shade cover. 
  • Yellow Banks rose proved to be insect and disease resistant, no thorns, but wild in form!  The other one needs to be monitored next year for leaf spot and rose worms.  This thorn less rambler does indeed have thorns, although not particularly nasty, but it's habit is more typical of a rose, with long canes.
  • Wet spring worked wonders on the ornamental beds, as they were more robust than the drought yr 2007.
  • August drought this year brought back the watering hoses
  • Raspberry harvest was down, most likely due to this drought.  We need to water brambles on a more regular basis when rain count is low...same with the kiwi.
  • We will prune back the figs significantly this fall to allow for more light to get to the center (also easier picking), the installation to the new deer fence and gates.  This pruning will also allow more sun into the bed.
• Containers
  • As with any container they dry out very quickly and need constant watering during the dry weeks and months that follow.  Next year maybe we could try something different that wouldn't require as much maintenance or expense.
• Children’s Garden
  • ABC garden letters did not fair well and we will need to redo them
  • Need better signage on perennials – if intending to keep plants each year
  • Plants on east side, in bench area, required daily watering.  Will have to plant more drought tolerant plants next year in that area.
• Heritage Garden
  • The tomato supports were inadequate – need to build something sturdier next year if tomatoes are grown
  • The teepees for the scarlet runner beans were a little too sturdy for the size of the plants.
  • We had problems with deer eating the peas, so we covered the peas with deer netting. Unfortunately, the peas became entangled in the netting and we lost most of the harvest trying to get to them. Also, I couldn’t weed in that area due to the netting. We’ll need to do something different next year.

Plants that grew:

• Arugula – grew well, but we let it go to seed so unfortunately no harvest
• Purple Calabash Tomato – long time to fruit, deer ate most of them
• Red Wethersfield Onion – successful, the onions were a nice size for having been grown from seed
• Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage – cabbage bugs ate them, none harvested
• Italian Parsley – produced all season long, very successful
• Long Red Cayenne Pepper – produced beautiful peppers, even in partial shade
• Marrowfat Pea – deer ate them, but they were productive
• Sage - successful
• Winter Savory - successful
• Stevia – plants grew, but I didn’t know what to do with them
• Scarlet Runner Bean – plants grew, but not as robustly as I thought they would
• Cypress Vine – beautiful red flowers along back fence, very successful
• Nasturtiums – beautiful, especially at the end of the season. They also served as bait for harlequin beetles and the plants survived!
• Larkspur – blue flowers looked beautiful with the orange poppies
• Zinnias – were beautiful in the center of the garden. They really filled the hole left by the larkspur and poppies.

Plants that didn’t grow:

• Sesame – direct sowed, low germination, died
• Elecampagne  - direct sowed, never germinated
• Costmary – direct sowed, low germination, died
• Great Blue Lobelia – germinated, started to grow, then disappeared
• Early Curled Siberian Kale – direct sowed, didn’t do well, no harvest, probably planted too late

Plant that grew too well:

• Lady's Bed Straw – grew really well, but I think it’s invasive and I won’t plant again. The seed heads are like dandelions and spread everywhere.

• Grandma’s Garden
  • Maggie tried some seeds (zinnias and others) that did not germinate. We made some room for them but the rest of Grandma's took over so the sun couldn’t get through to them. Just a little rearrangement next year.
• Vegetables
  • Demonstrated 2 plantings of potatoes (spring/fall) in same bed; fall planting yield was much better.
  • Demonstrated 3 seasonal plantings of vegetables (spring/summer/fall) in majority of raised beds; requires a lot of coordination to make sure vegetable seeds and transplants get into the ground as is appropriate for season. Also, buy seeds being planted in the fall early in the spring.
  • Demonstrated black biodegradable mulch with squash and watermelon; it was noted squash plants without black mulch were much bigger. Watermelon plants were probably smaller due to an irrigation line which seemed to not be providing enough water; plants were water-starved some of the time especially with the kiwi vine and Rugosa rose roots close by.
  • Demonstrated silver mulch with cucumbers and peppers; supplemental watering was necessary even with irrigation lines under the mulch during dry periods in the summer. Also remember to put holes in the mulch to allow rainwater to soak in.  Silver worked well for the peppers. In cucumbers no big difference was noted in production although silver mulch did an excellent job keeping weeds at bay
  • Demonstrated straw mulch with tomatoes in addition to new flat folding cages; cages were 4 ft high and needed to be stacked 2 high and further tying them together with ties. In addition they were staked with rebar early on and the cages held up nicely until a tropical storm came and toppled 4 of them in September. Straw mulch worked very well at holding moisture on plants.
  • Used 4 inches of straw mulch with potato vines to keep potato beetle infestation down and it has worked great 2 years running.
  • Strawberries (Year 3) died out with too little moisture and disease issues; plants pulled. This bed will be put into main veggie bed rotation for 2009 with bed 1B designated as the new strawberry bed in 2009
  • Demonstrated for the 2^nd year the upside down tomato tower; should not be used again as results were the same as year 1. Tower needs to have partial shade conditions for tomatoes to thrive as it simply gets too hot for the roots in the plastic bag during high summer whether regular watering is done or not.
  • Demonstrated a consistent use of Surround on cucumbers, squash, potato vines, pole beans, select tomatoes and watermelon.  Spray started early on young plants and seemed to retard somewhat the maturity of the plant on cucumbers, squash and watermelon.  Do not spray on blossoms!  Delayed the onsite of the typical destructive pest cycles for summer vegetables
  • Row cover demonstrated for broccoli and cabbage to thwart moth infestation.  Row covers much more necessary in fall plantings as few companion plantings remain to attract moths. Cover newly planted seeds in fall to ensure germination.
  • Companion plantings used among vegetable plantings again this year and proved highly effective for attracting destructive insects such as flea beetles, Mexican Bean beetles, squash bugs and Harlequin bugs

• Sq. Ft./Container Bed
  • Demonstrated container irrigation system in vegetable container bed utilizing a rain barrel as the water source; worked well using hose and rainwater to fill (not attached to gutter system); public needs to be careful watering vegetables with rain barrels on gutters because of potential shingle contamination issues.
• Compost
  • The compost area just did what we do best and that is to produce as much high quality and weed free compost. We did obtain a two week reading of 160 degrees on the first bin that we will harvest first in the spring.
  • The 10 HP shredder has been able to do much more shredding of green material and not clog up.
  • Engine of shredder can overheat and cause clippings to catch on fire, therefore, we need to be very careful and watchful
• Fruit Trees
  • Pear: Brown rot, Fabraea leaf spot
  • Apple: Anthracnose, Apple Cedar Rust, Brown Rot, Fall Canker Worm, (not found definitively but will have to watch for leaf rollers and mites.
  • Peach: Shot hole fungus, Brown rot
  • Serviceberry: Apple Cedar Rust, Apple Scab. 
  • Our plan for next year is to follow a preventive spray schedule with appropriate organic products, probably beginning with dormant oil in late winter, prior to bud swell, as per the PMG.
• Shade
  • For the 2^nd year, three bags of planting medium were scored on one side for drainage, then flipped over and scored with seven x’s and white impatiens were planted.  They thrived in the shade garden as the pine tree roots didn’t steal their moisture but the bags still required a lot of watering
  • It is surprising to learn that the plants in the Shade Garden require more water than the other gardens.  That is because of the three big pine trees which give the shade but take up the moisture because of their roots.  Thus, the other plants are thirsty and require water to be kept looking perky.
  • The soaker hoses used are not nearly as efficient a means of watering as the oscillator.  I run the oscillator for three or four hours at a time and the plants get a nice deep drink while the soaker hoses, left on all night soak those plants only within the drip of the hoses.
• Grasses
  • It is nearly impossible to transplant part of a fully mature large grass.  The man power to cut the grass at the base is 2 or 3 fold – even with a saw’s awl. 
  • Not enough shade provided in grass bed for the Hakone to take root.  Will have to move it for next year either closer to a very tall grass or try in shade garden.
  • Grass bed was phenomenal with new plants this year.  It may be attributed to the compost thrown in the holes when planting in the spring.
• Herbs
  • We lost the lovage plant in the kitchen herbs.  It had been failing, but cannot help but wonder if the chocolate mulch was part of the cause.  Will need to replace the plant in the spring and perhaps change the mulch.
  • Fig tree growth shaded majority of medicinal herb bed again this year causing plants to stretch toward sun and thwarted growth of most.  Will adjust plants next year to demonstrate some shade loving vegetables.
• Wedding
  • The shrub roses in the wedding garden, facing gazebo need to be pruned back in the spring and kept lower through-out the season for view and light considerations.  We lost lavender again planted behind them...2nd time.  perhaps we will evaluate the conditions again in the spring for light and drainage and try a final time. 
  • 2^nd year in a row the native Serviceberry trees bloomed nicely in spring, suffered a bit in drought and contracted lace bugs in late summer.  Sprayed with insecticidal soap to deter over wintering of insects.

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