I don’t remember Stone Barns having a plant sale in previous springs. Here’s email from them:

“Stone Barns Farm Market & Spring Plant Sale!

“Join us every Wednesday, Friday & Sunday for the Stone Barns Farm Market in the Dooryard Garden. Find out about upcoming programs & what’s happening at the farm while you shop for farm-fresh eggs, meat, and vegetables grown here at Stone Barns.

“2008 Market Hours
Wednesdays 3:00PM – 6:00PM (Member Hour – for Seedling level & above, 2:00PM – 3:00PM)

• featuring Red Jacket Orchards (fruit & cider), Bread Alone (artisinal breads & pastries), & Consider Bardwell (cheese) – in addition to Stone Barns veggies & meats

Fridays 1:00PM – 4:00PM
• featuring seasonal tastes from the chefs of Blue Hill at Stone Barns from 1PM-1:30PM

Sundays 1:00PM – 4:00PM
• occasionally featuring live music

Spring Plant Sale!
Sunday 5/25 1:00PM – 4:00PM (in the Farm Market)

Choose from a wide selection of heirloom tomatoes & hanging baskets – get your garden off on the right foot with plants from the farm”

And a link to their Web site.

Here’s a wise note from Brad Gurr, a certified arborist with SavAtree in Ossining, about a growing problem.

“It’s Raining Landscapers!

“The title of this article brings humor to a subject that is truly not funny, and may even prove fatal.

“Arborists are tree care professionals with years of practical experience and extensive education that makes them experts in their fields. Having credentials alone is not enough to allow you to practice legally in most jurisdictions. State and Provincial licences prevent the lay person from pruning or treating tree diseases in most locals. Read more of this entry »

The Humane Society offers more tips on gardening with deer. In case you missed it, my post from last week with other tips.

“The Humane Society of the United States Offers Simple Tips to Eliminate Garden Conflicts with Deer

“One of the most common complaints by suburban homeowners and gardeners is damage to plants and landscaping caused by white-tailed deer, reports The HSUS. Read more of this entry »

It’s certainly not for every garden, but this new yucca with steel-blue leaves might be just the right specimen plant for a dull corner of a perennial border.

(Photo from High Country Gardens)

Like all yuccas, ‘Sapphire Skies’ offers a certain architectural assertiveness and showiness that appeals to many gardeners. The swordlike foliage on the shrubby plant remains in winter, and deer-resistant yuccas require almost no maintenance. Read more of this entry »

Everyone seems to agree that this is the best year yet for the tree peonies in Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pocantico Hills.

Mark Vergari, one of our best photographers, and I paid them a visit yesterday morning for an article for the paper and a TV segment on RNN cable. I took photos, too, but I haven’t even bothered to download them because his are so good. (All of these are by Mark at the park yesterday.)

It had rained early that morning and many of the blooms were still studded with raindrops.

This magnificent collection of more than 350 tree peonies comes into full flower every May and the blooms last for just 10 days or so on each plant.

Read more of this entry »

Looks like the rain will end today — still time this weekend for lots of garden chores. Here’s our weekly Do It Now column from Susan Henry.
Perennials
Plant chrysanthemum cuttings, Japanese anemones and asters for fall bloom.

Flowers
Plant zinnias, cosmos, cleome and nasturtiums. Dahlia tubers, salvia, verbena, geraniums and impatiens can also be planted in beds or containers. Keep picking seed heads from ripening bulbs to ensure better bloom next year. Plant gladiolus corms. Set up trellises for summer flowering vines.

Vegetables and fruits
It is full speed ahead on planting bush beans, pole beans, corn, cucumbers, melons and squash. Continue sowing lettuce, carrots, beets and broccoli directly in the garden. Established rows of carrots, beets parsnips and onions should be thinned so that three fingers fit between individual plants. Keep weeding between the rows and among seedlings.

Continue hardening off seedlings. Transplant on a mild, cloudy day. Place a barrier collar of newspaper or cardboard around tomato and eggplant seedlings to guard against cutworms. If the weather is very cool or very hot, cover new seedlings with a flower pot for a day or so. Seed basil and dill. Remove flowers from newly established strawberry plants and mulch with pine needles or straw.

Trees and shrubs
Control growth of conifers by cutting “candles” of new growth in half. Azaleas are in flower now, but when the petals fade they can be cut back quite hard to reshape them. Continue watering all newly planted material.

Lawns
From now to the end of May is the best time to fertilize the lawn.

Houseplants
Begin acclimatizing houseplants to outdoors. Avoid full sun or windy sites. They may need watering every day. Feed every two weeks with a water-soluble fertilizer at one-half strength. Some plants such as African violets are better off left indoors.

General
Be alert for late frosts. Cover threatened tender vegetables with row covers or individual plants with flower pots.

Susan Henry

Here’s are weekly garden calendar. Note the three good plant sales on Saturday. And on Sunday, Copamong Pond is a wonderful 12-acre woodland garden around a 12-acre pond. I’ve seen it twice.

May 17
Somers: Ninth District of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State Standard Flower Show. Theme: “Welcome Aboard the Hogwarts Express. Free. 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Lasdon Park and Arboretum, Route 35. 646-853-4402.

White Plains: Make Your Own Compost. Buy a compost bin and get free advice on gardening. $20, $40. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saxon Woods Pool, 1800 Mamaroneck Ave. 914-813-5420.

Somers: Friends of Lasdon Annual Plant Sale. 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Lasdon Park and Arboretum, Route 35. 914-864-7268.

Southeast: Master Gardener Plant Sale. Master gardeners will answer questions and conduct soil PH tests. Free. 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tilly Foster Farm and Conservation, 100 Route 312. 845-278-6738.

Upper Nyack: Garden Club of Nyack Annual Plant Sale. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Katzenstein Residence, 507 N. Broadway. 845-358-0534.

May 18
Armonk: Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Self-guided tour of private woodland garden. $5 per garden. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Cobamong Pond, 15 Middle Patent Road. 888-842-2442.

Somers: Ninth District of the Federated Garden Clubs of New York State Standard Flower Show. Theme: “Welcome Aboard the Hogwarts Express. Free. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Lasdon Park and Arboretum, Route 35. 646-853-4402.

May 21
Pawling: Quaker Hill Native Plant Center Tour. A tour of the plant center in Pawling. Lunch at McKeever’s Restaurant. Sponsor: Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College. Registration. $100. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Native Landscapes and Garden Center, 991 Route 22. 914-606-7870.

May 24
Chappaqua: Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Self-guided tour of this private garden featuring extensive collections of rhododendrons, azaleas, tree peonies, and clouds of reseeding forget-me-knots. $5. 2-6 p.m. Rocky Hills, 95 Old Roaring Brook Road. 888-842-2442.

May 31
West Haverstraw: Adapted Gardening. Free. 1 p.m. Helen Hayes Hospital, Route 9W. 845-786-4873.
June 8
Yorktown Heights: Edible Weeds and Wildflowers in Your Backyard. Instructor: Margaret von der Meden, backyard farmer and farm-based educator. Dress appropriately for garden work. Registration. $10. 3-4 p.m. Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, 1275 Hanover St. 914-980-6375.

June 10
White Plains: Greater Westchester Orchid Society Meeting. $25 membership. 7 p.m. Ethical Culture Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Woods Road. 973-420-4966.

From our weekly Ask the Master Gardeners column:

Q: I knew I should have but didn’t prune in March or early April. Now it’s May. What should I do?

A: First, relax and give up the guilt. Gardening should bring you pleasure. Nature is strong and forgiving, especially of neglect.

Imitate nature’s pruning, accomplished through the action of wind, snow and ice, by cutting out dead or diseased branches of trees and shrubs. Otherwise, wait until July when the new leaves are strong enough to provide healing nutrients for large tree limbs that you remove.

Prune any shrubs that have already flowered this spring such as forsythia, flowering quince (Chaenomeles) and witch hazel (Hamamelis). Pull off dead flowers of rhododendron to promote strong flowering next year.

Cut back the remains of last year’s perennials such as lily turf (Lirope), globe thistle (Echinops), day lilies(Hemerocallis sp.) or coneflower (Echinacea). This task will take a little longer than if you’d done it earlier because you’ll need to watch that you aren’t cutting down new growth.

Cut your butterfly bush (Buddleia) down to 18 inches but leave the lavender (Lavandula) and other woody perennials until they have flowered. Next year, give your lavender a shorter hair cut in March.

It’s not too late to prune roses but definitely not so much as you would have done earlier in spring. Be gentle and restrained as the tender new growth may not yet be strong enough to provide the needed nutrients and healing after radical surgery.

Above all, do no rejuvenation (drastic) pruning this time of year. And leave your spring bulbs until their leaves are yellow and withered.

Linda A. Chisholm, South Nyack , master gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County

Yvonne Lynn emailed to let me know about her garden club’s upcoming show:

“The Morsemere Garden Club presents “Let’s Celebrate,” a standard flower show, on Monday, June 2, 2008 from 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm at the Philipse Manor Hall, 29 Warburton Avenue, Yonkers, NY. Open to the public and free of charge.”

And from Christina Dunn:

“SPRING STANDARD FLOWER SHOW

“The Garden Club of New Rochelle will hold its monthly
meeting and “Spring Standard Flower Show” on Wednesday
June 11th, 2008 at the Elks Lodge, 19 the Blvd, New
Rochelle.

“There will be a business meeting at 1 pm followed by
the show at 2-3.30 pm. Refreshments will be served.
Open to the public. Donation accepted.

“For information call 632-5411.”

For some reason I got an invite to a deer-resistant gardening talk and demo at Cambria Nursery in Calif. in November.

No thanks, a bit far. But I thought I’d share the press release because the speaker, Shana McCormick, has some great tips for home gardeners.

There’s a plant list at the end here, but be warned that it may have more West Coast-friendly plants than you’re used to seeing on these lists. I also see a couple of things here that get eaten in my yard.

Here’s a link to the Mohonk Mountain House list of deer-resistant plants. And a link to a Cornell University site with plant lists and tons of good info.

I’ve added a few of my own photos here, too. Read more of this entry »