Native viburnum have gone by, but another white-flowered native is in flower. Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is one of those plants one might encounter hiking in conservation land, since it is associated with damp places or wetland. These pictured are at M.V. Land Bank’s Priester’s Pond.
Elderberry is perfectly adaptable to grow as part of home fruit production. Why grow elderberry? Ample fruit has properties that make it good for pastries, preserves, cordials, and syrups, and — high in anthocyanins — as an antiviral and immune enhancer and remedy for flu.
The plants themselves present a weedy appearance, with compound leaves, suckering from rootstocks and making clumps. In an eco-garden, swale planting, or orchard, this is quite manageable. Moderately acidic soil is best. However, in the wild, do not mistake cow parsley for elderberry.
Elderberry thrives in well-drained, sunny sites with good supplies of moisture. State extension services have made selections of a number of superior plants that are named and available from nurseries, such as ‘York.’
Elderberry is not pest- or disease-free, but is at home here on the Vineyard, with much to recommend it for home fruit production. Read more about elderberry at bit.ly/WVU_Elderberry.
Heat, beetles, crabgrass
The subhead refers to less lovely aspects of July gardens that can cause exasperation. I duly dusted the potatoes with wood ash against Colorado potato beetle. It duly rained. Have I used up all the ashes? Are there reserves of diatomaceous earth in the shed?
Will the Oriental lilies bloom first, or will the deer dine on them first? “Spray ’n’ pray.” So it goes.
But the weeds!
(Paraphrasing “But her emails!”) Weeds freak some people out, and are a major phobia. Unquestionably, the situation can become overwhelming and daunting, but with the right tools, and an approach based on building good soil, weeds need not be the reason for not having a food garden.
For starters, tight, heavy, or dry compacted soil is a bitch to work. The more friable and moisture-retentive garden soil becomes, the easier it is to grow good crops and to weed it. This means adding organic matter. The best way to do that is to compost.
My refrain is that the biomass produced by a place should remain on it. Piles, heaps, tumblers, trenches: There are many ways to “let it rot,” as the garden guru Roger Swain put it; and then to get the organic matter back into the soil. (Even the unfortunate, half-grown raccoon now beginning to decompose in the Green Cone, after its misadventure last night with the vegetable garden, is headed back into the soil.)
Hand tools such as claws or Cape Cod weeders are already in most tool buckets. Many small hand tools fulfill specialized tasks, such as hardscape weeding. A Japanese knifelike object called a hori hori can plant, cut, and stab when needed.
Worthwhile larger tools to invest in include a variety of weeding/cultivating hoes: push-pull, stirrup, or collinear hoe. I find a broadfork (sometimes called a grelinette) to be indispensable. Using it, green matter or weeds can be incorporated, tough soil broken apart and aerated, tough roots of quackgrass or brambles brought to the surface, and air brought deeper into the soil structure.
A long-handled surface cultivator whose circular tines roll is an easy way to rough up the soil surface and disturb weed seedlings, once you have things under control. I also use the broadfork as a spacing jig for planting beets, onions, leeks, garlic, and more.
A digging fork is also useful, but more often on the harvesting than the weeding end, such as these garlic (pictured curing). Always dig leeks and garlic when harvesting.
If weeds are too overwhelming, at the end of the day, bring in the lawnmower, but then compost the clippings.
Food for wildlife, work for gardeners
What springs up, most likely bird-sown, in gardens is one way to know what birds and other wildlife like to eat, revealing what some of the favored natural foods are. Poison ivy, greenbriers, English ivy, bittersweet, pokeweed, and more are among the seedlings.
However, these are not usually what we want for our garden designs. Yes, eco-aware gardeners and homeowners are advised to plant bird food, not to buy it. Through eco-planting gardens we supply the foods that support wildlife, without putting it at predator risk through regular visits to feeding stations. It is a paradox!
The consequences: The gardener patrolling the out-of-the way garden areas and the soil beneath roosting spots, which is where these problematic plants take root. Privet hedges, being one of the best nesting spots for birds in built-up areas, are prime locations for woody vines and weeds. (Hah! Even privet itself reseeds.)
Bittersweet especially is becoming a garden menace, Island-wide. The vine is easy to pull when young; but if overlooked, or cut instead of pulled, the root quickly becomes tough and entrenched, and very difficult to remove. Same for Japanese honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, Clematis paniculata, greenbriers, and bramble.
In the garden
Planning ahead for crops that are harvested in fall starts now. Beets, bush beans, carrots, squashes and pumpkins, and the soil prep that goes with that, are the focus for fall. Clear away debris from the spring crops. Make an effort to compost this; even small amounts of compost condition soil.
This is a good time to side-dress peppers, eggplants, summer squash, and tomatoes with low-number, organic soil food (a.k.a. fertilizer), remembering it is the soil micro-life that you fertilize/feed, not the plants themselves; soil micro-life makes plant growth possible.
New practice for me: topping pole beans. Hybrid daylilies throw browned leaves that pull off easily.