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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 1992-05-13, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1992. Jime & Qarden 1992 J§|^|jE5==SW^ Green side up: plant an “instant” garden They are usually called “bed ding” plants (they go in your gar den beds), although some people think of them as just “plants,” but it isn't the terminology that counts. What counts is that these started plants give you a handsome begin ning on your garden, both in design and success, and gardening could hardly be easier. If displays of bedding plants haven't started showing up at your local chain store outlets, green houses and garden centers, super markets or even hardware stores, they will soon. And after a winter of not having had much to look at in the way of flowers and plants, you may find yourself as irre sistibly drawn to the rows of neat, green flats topped with buds and blooms as a dieter drawn to an ice cream sundae. But wait! Before rushing in and buying plants with the greatest eye appeal, take a moment to become a savvy shop per. Looking for Mr. Goodplant Generally, bedding plants are grown in small “packs” divided into three, four or six sections, each containing one or more growing plants (if you read a garden center ad for a sale on “6-packs,” think plants, not beer). Larger plastic “flats” hold 12 to 24 packs. Packs are often individually priced a little higher than a whole flat, so, if you are so inclined, taking a pocket cal culator with you when shopping can help you figure prices and number of plants quickly. Unless you are buying a plant variety that is supposed to have purple, blue, rose, yellow or gray leaves, avoid those that do. This is an indication that the plants have been stressed in some way. Chances are they will recover, but let someone else worry about that. Look for plants with well-formed leaves of uniformly green colour. Brown and damaged-looking leaves should be avoided, as should any signs of pests such as spider webs or small insects crawling over the plants. Be picky, after all, it is going to be your garden. No doubt your immediate impulse will be to buy the packs or flats that have the most blooms on them. REtaiiers know this and encourage their suppliers to give them “lots of colour”. But you are about to become a savvy shopper and leant why you want to avoid that temptation. For the best success in your gar den (beds or containers) you want to select plants without any blooms and even without buds if possible. Why? Because once the plants are transplanted to a new location, they need a little time to establish them selves. It's something like moving to a new house or rearranging a room of furniture - until you get used to it, you just aren't as produc tive as you were before. And the “energy” a plant spends on produc ing blooms takes away some of the “energy” it could be spending on establishing itself in your garden, and so the process takes a little longer. As a smart shopper, you want plants that will spend their immediate energy on getting estab lished so that later they can get busy producing blooms in your gar den. Should you totally shun those plants in bloom? Of course not - they are your “samples” of what you can expect in your garden. Pick out those you want and carefully read the labels. Then find packs or flats of the same plants without blooms and buy those. And you'll probably have an easier time find ing what you want, because all those other shoppers will be buying the ones in bloom and ignoring those that are mostly green. (You can share this secret with close friends, but wait until after you're done shopping.) Once you've made your purchas es, take the plants home. Place them on the seats or in the trunk (flats and packs are often dirty and wet on the bottom, so you might want to have a blanket or old show er curtain along), taking care not to stack them on top of each other or too loose so that they will tumble around and get damaged. If they are going to remain in the car for some time before you get home, protect them from too much sun. Even on a mild spring day, the sun can heat up a car considerably and possibly wilt or even kill your plants. Leave a window open a lit tle to allow some air circulation, or open the trunk every now and then to let some fresh air in and allow built-up heat to escape. Home Sweet Loam If you can't plant immediately, store your plants in a protected area out of wind and free of danger of a late frost. Water as necessary, keeping them from drying out. If days are warm but nights are cold, you might want to put them outside and move them to a more protected place such as the garage overnight. If you haven't already prepared your garden soil (or “loam”), work it to loosen it, add compost and use a granular fertilizer to make it ready for the plants. When ready to plant, gently “pop” the individual plants out of their packs by pressing on the bot tom of the pack. One easy method is to place one hand over the top of the pack, turn the pack upside down, and with your other hand press on he bottom of the pack to release the plants. Just be ready to catch any plants that may already be loose. Handle them with care, holding them by the ball of soil and roots, or by holding onto the central stem close to where it meets the soil. Following the recommended spacing (on the plant label or from a gardening book), and arrange and rearrange your plants on top of the garden bed until you have them where you want them. Then use a hand trowel to dig a hole for the plant. Put the plant in the hole and fill in around it with garden soil, pressing the soil around the plant firmly but not compacted too hard, continued on page 27 EXTRA STRENGTH ASPARAGUS Our B6200HST now comes with extra strength under the hood. The liquid- cooled, 3-cylinder diesel engine provides 15 horsepower. At the same time, we’ve increased hydraulic capacity to make this hard working Kubota even better. A hydrostatic transmission is also standard equipment for easy shifting from forward to reverse. And you have a choice of 2- or 4-wheel drive. A 3-point hitch plus 2-speed live mid and rear PTO outlets give you the versa tility to handle any kind of implement. . See all the strong points of the Kubota B6200HST soon. C.A. 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