Liberated Gardener

Need a Speaker for Your Garden Club?

Check out this short video about my work as a garden speaker, created by my friend Bill Elias.

I'm available for programs on deer-resistant gardens, gardening with containers, edible gardens, native wildflowers, Liberated Gardener Techniques and other topics. 

My rates are negotiable, so feel free to call me at 919-824-2239 or email me. 

I've spoken and showed slides to audiences of from a dozen to over 100 gardeners, in Va., Maine and NC. Have spoken at Duke Gardens, Tryon Palace, JC Raulston Arboretum, UNC-G, and nearly a dozen garden clubs from Charlotte to Treyburn to Chapel Hill. I also regularly lead garden classes at Stone Bros. and Byrd Garden Center and at King's Daughters Inn, both in Durham. 

 

Clothes Line Posts = Garden Sculpture

With the warm, dry weather we've been able to reduce our power company's use of coal and oil (and conserving our money for our Travel Fund) by putting a lot of laundry out on the clothesline to dry instead of using the dryer.

 

If you think these clothesline posts look a little odd, then obviously you've no appreciation for art. 

I installed these posts after Chris heard that I had built sculptural clothesline posts for a client. She asked "When are we going to have a clothesline?" 

I don't like the idea of the cobbler's children having no shoes, so I kicked the idea around awhile and created this sculptural clothesline, which I call "Spanish Dancers." 

I put all the actual clothes lines on the same side of the posts so that I could position the posts at the edge of our property, between a rolled bamboo fence from Bamboo Fencer and our still-under-construction patio. 

The lumber is sustainably harvested Ipe; a rot-resistant wood from South America. To keep it from turning grey in the sun, I've given it a couple of coats of Tung oil. The lines are a black cord I bought at the Army surplus store. The wooden clothespins are from a dealer who bought them in East Germany. I cut the tops, arms and notches of the posts freehand with chainsaw, circular saw, jig saw and chisel. 

I've got a commission for another one that I'm going to build of locally harvested cedar and attach it to the side of a deck. It will be shaped like a conventional clothesline post, meaning a 'T' shape. But with the cords attached to glass insulators from old power lines. So it will look like an old-school power line. Kind of fitting for something that saves energy. 

Below is the original sculptural clothesline post, named Clothesline Christ in homage to all the domestic goddesses who've kept our clothes smelling fresh over the millennia. 

 

Soaker Hose 101

I drove by a yard once where the gardener was opening up a brand new soaker hose and getting themselves all tangled up in it. Looked like a one-person game of Twister.  The coils had them in it's grip and they couldn't lay the thing down without snagging a leg or arm or both. 

I pulled over and offered to help them with a little advice about soaker hoses. If you look at a new soaker hose, you can see that it was tightly rolled up at the factory into a coil. So the easiest way to install it is to anchor one end with a brick or something and then unroll it onto the ground down the driveway or across the yard. Once it's unwound and laying down it looses some of its springiness and relaxes enough to be installed where you want it without it grabbing your leg like a boa constrictor.

In the pic below, you can see my right hand man Howard Dunegan unrolling a coil of new soaker hose along a trellis planted with Carolina jessamine (most people pronounce that as "jasmine", but you know we southerners have to add a few syllables).

 

The picture doesn't show it, but he is also looping the soaker hose once around each plant as he goes. Then the soaker hose and root zone are covered with 2"-3" layer of organic mulch; shredded leaves or shredded bark, etc. Don't put soaker hoses under the soil--the pores will plug up and render it useless.

Here are a few other tips for having success and saving time, water and aggravation with soaker hoses. 

1) Put a timer on the spigot--they usually cost about $14. On your way out to work, open up the spigot all the way and set the timer to an hour or two. It'll cut off on its own. You may still worry that you left the oven on (I can't help you there), but at least you can be assured that the irrigation water will turn off.  And then monitor conditions; if the soil gets soggy, dial back the time, if plants are wilting in the morning, dial the time up. Freezing weather will cause timers to crack, so bring the them in for the winter. And since they're plastic they might only last 2-3 years, but until someone makes them of metal it's the best way to save money on watering and not have to stand around waiting to turn the spigot off. 

2) Some of the soaker hoses come with a blue plastic disc with a tiny hole in it, instead of regular gasket. I throw the blue thing away and put in a regular gasket (they come in sets at a good garden center and every liberated gardener ought to keep a set handy--if you have hoses that leak, it's often an old gasket no longer doing it's job and needing to be replaced. 

3) As you're laying the hose down, use metal landscape staples to pin them in place if they want to wiggle around. The staples should be for sale near the landscape fabric. I hook a bunch of them through a belt loop on my pants at my side. That way they're handy and don't poke me if I bend over or squat down. If the soil is very loose, they hold better if they're pinned into the potting soil. 

4) To water perennials I just run the soaker hose next to the plant--over or just touching the potting soil. Water from a soaker hose is going to go straight down into the ground--it doesn't spread to the sides much at all, so you've got to get close. And since shrubs and trees need much more water, I loop the hose around them once and make sure it is placed over the root ball.

5) I try to avoid running the soaker hose uphill. I normally run the garden hose to the high part of the bed and start the soaker hose there. Since the soaker hose is leaking water as it goes, if it's running uphill too, more of the water will come out at the bottom end of the hose. If, on the other hand, the soaker hose is running downhill, then you will get more even water distribution. 

6) If the house has good water pressure, I've run as many as 6 soaker hoses in a row (or connected with one or more 'Y"s, with no loss of water pressure. If the household water pipes are old and corroded though, you might be better just running one or two hoses end to end. 

7) After about a year, a soaker hose's pores can get clogged, so they still deliver water just not as much. But if you've chosen plants well, you won't need to provide irrigation after that first year as the plants will be established and on their own. 

So good luck and don't play Twister with a soaker hose if you can help it.  :-)

Welcome Urban Farm Readers

If you're checking out my blog because you read about it in Urban Farm magazine--welcome!

My book, tentatively titled, The Liberated Gardener, is in the works, but meanwhile you can learn a lot of my tricks by checking out the categories on the right and reading my Green Thumb column in each issue of Urban Farm. You can also learn more about my background at my website, www.frankhyman.com, (where the 'www' stands for "World's Worst Website" :-)

and if you're looking for a garden speaker for your group, click here.

Feel free to leave comments and questions. Can't promise to respond to each one, but will give it a go. 

And let me know if you have any practices to share that have liberated you in the garden. Because at least 50% of your time in the garden should be spent relaxing alone or with friends.  :-)

Burch Ave. Community Garden Cleans Up Well

Thanks to folks from the Durham Community Land Trust, Cornucopia, Bountiful Backyards, NC School of Science and Math, Compuware and the neighborhood, the community garden got a a coat of stain on the fence, mulch in the paths and beds cleaned up for the fall. 

Here's the beginning of the day,with a big pile of wood chips delivered for mulch. 

As beds were cleaned up, burlap coffee bags were laid in the paths to suppress weeds and then topped off with wood chips for additional organic matter.

The work is done and a few stalwarts clean up. We stained the pickets blue, the stringers green and the gate yellow. Used stain instead of paint because paint would peel and look crappy in a few years. At worst, stain will simply fade a bit over the years. 

Sarah Vroom of Bountiful Backyards organized the planting of some edibles in a bed to the right of the gate. 

Edible Landscaping Nursery

Twenty five years ago, Mike McConkey, in Afton, Va., had potted up a few hardy kiwis given to him as cuttings from an old nurseryman. When the nurseryman was quoted in a garden magazine saying that Mike was the best source for hardy kiwis, he received about $10,000 worth of orders for the plant and knew it was time to get serious about running a nursery.  He called it Edible Landscaping. 

Mike's mission is to find edible varieties that grow well in the south and can be grown organically. 

Our Liberty apple, Stella sweet cherry, Violet of Bourdeaux and a few other plants had come from there via mail order and I had talked about visiting the place for years. But I only made it by there when Chris and I went to one of her cousin's weddings in Altoona, PA .

The Mapquest map brought us through the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley and strangely right through the tiny town of Afton, VA, so I had to stop for a visit in Oct, when I took these pics. 

And brought home a few things. Like this seedless Che tree with scrumptious brain-like fruit. 

I did not buy a kiwi, but include this pic for contrast....

...with this hardy kiwi variety called Issai, which does not need a mate and does not need to be peeled like common kiwis (above). Just pop them in your mouth like a grape.

An epiphytic plant like a night blooming cereus grows in their greenhouse and produces an edible fruit. Here it gets some tender, loving care from a staff member. 

Native persimmons were ripe too. 

 I've had great success with plants from Edible Landscaping--he ships year round in pots, so you get a bigger plant with a strong root system. Costs more than most mail order places, but you definitely get more for your money. 

Cedar Arbor

My last project before taking my summer break from garden-making, included this arbor built from cedar trunks and branches.

The clients asked for something that looked like elves made it. I also drew on my memories of beaver lodges, with branches twisted through each other and loose ends sticking out. 

 The arbor also serves to define a transition from the public space to the private space of their front yard garden.  A transition from the everyday space of the neighborhood into the magical space of the garden. 

 

Locally Grown: Community Gardens

What if there’s a community before there’s a garden?

 There’s an interest in organic vegetable gardening like never before. But many people have yards that are too small or shady to support a vegetable garden. Some of these people will be able to join an existing community garden, but what about those who don’t have that option?

 Twenty years ago in my neighborhood there wasn’t a single community garden anywhere in the city. Our neighborhood was near downtown where lots were small and often had 50-100 year old shade trees blocking the sunlight.  We created a thriving community garden on a vacant lot that lasted several years before the owner decided to build a house on the site. We moved to another vacant lot around the corner and were able to incorporate some lessons from our first effort.  I was a leader in both projects and although I no longer live in that neighborhood I still stay connected by donating materials and teaching free garden classes.

These are a few of the key elements that help a new community garden get off the ground and grow like a weed!

 

a)     Structure. Raised beds built of wood stone brick or whatever is handy are not only visually appealing but provide the boundaries that an informal volunteer effort needs.

b)    Water. At our first site, we ran a long hose from a neighbors house and reimbursed them for the water bill from dues that everyone paid. By the time we moved to our second site the city council had adopted a policy of covering the cost (about $1500) of installing a water meter and hookup at sites being developed as public gardens. Be sure to check with your municipality to see if they offer this. If they don’t—ask them to.

c)     Money. There are always costs, even for a money saving venture like growing your own food. We had dues on a sliding scale for those with less money, and we often found grants to support some of our needs, such as the local university that wanted to support neighborhoods on their boundaries. They gave us $500 to pay for the lumber and topsoil for a dozen 4’x12’ raised beds.

d)    Room to relax. A community gardening non-profit in town provided us with a couple of picnic tables so we had a central spot for eating and socializing after a workday.

e)     Good relations with the neighbors. Nobody wants to go to a community garden where they feel the neighbors aren’t welcoming. And no neighbor will be fond of community gardeners who aren’t open and friendly. Our community garden’s neighbors use the picnic tables and open space for their cookouts and gatherings. They also keep the lawn mowed for us.

f)     Permanance. We were only paying $1 a year to rent our first site before we lost it. We secured a more or less permanent site by working with the local land trust to get a lot that was dedicated to being a community garden with help from an agency giving grants to secure open spaces.

g)    Flexibility. This last item is perhaps the most important one. Just like the seasons, the interests and energy levels of gardeners will change. Most years we’ve had each gardener responsible for their individual bed. Some years it made more sense to operate the garden as a communal venture to reduce duplication of crops and to optimize our time. Dogmatic ideas about gardening and organizing can be the downfall of a community garden. Keep it fun, keep it practical. None of the people who started the first garden are still active—either their interests changed or they moved away. But even with all new blood the community garden witnesses a  new generation of gardeners getting started and changing their lives. 

Figs in a Jam!

 

I love the look on the face of a person who's only known Fig Newtons and is getting their first taste of a tree-ripe, juicy, sweet, luscious fig from our back yard. Figs are one of the best fruiting trees for the south and for partial shade and for growing organically. They are drought hardy, rarely have serious bug or disease problems and are very hardy in our mild winters. 

The first of three harvests we get each summer from our Violette de Bourdeaux (bought from Edible Landscaping Nursery in Afton Va.) is the sweetest and we give away a lot. The spicy/sweet fig jam in the photo above is from our neighbor Sandi, who's a great cook. She was re-creating a fig jam she had tasted before and could no longer buy. ( I've read that great cooking is really about capturing flavors that are anchored in our memories.)

Okay, so now this spicey/sweet fig jam is anchored in my memory too. 

And here's Sandi's recipe in her own words:

Okay, I'm pretty sure what I did was (using a basic, old-fashioned jam recipe technique from Joy of Cooking):

4 to 5 cups of fresh figs, washed, half of them chopped roughly, the other half quartered:  put in a pot and press down on them a little to get some juices oozing.

Add 3 cups of sugar and slowly bring to a boil, then keep simmering, stirring frequently to keep from sticking or burning
(the old recipe calls for 3/4 to 1 c. of sugar to each cup of fruit, and I went on the lighter side, but still very sweet.  However, I think you DO need a high sugar content if you want to avoid using pectin)

Meanwhile, stick a jalepeño with a carving fork, and roast over open flame until blackened all over.  Stick it in a paper bag to steam & cool for ten minutes.
Peel the charred skin off of the pepper, and mince finely.  Depending on how hot you want the jam, throw away some or all of the seeds before adding to figs.  (in the recipe I tried, I threw away about half, but think I should have left them ALL in.  For MY taste, next time, I think I would use two jalepeños.)

Toss jalepeño and seeds into the simmering jam, along with 1 stick of cinnamon, and 4 or 5 cloves.

Continue to cook and stir until quite thickened (a total of about 45 minutes); remove the cinnamon stick (and any of the cloves you might notice), and pack in glass jars.

Should make 6, 7, or 8 half-pint jelly jarfuls.

Liberated Gardeners are free from aching backs, empty wallets, toxic sprays and boring gardens. Using the practices in the various categories (below right) can help you spend more time in the garden relaxing on a shady bench with a cold drink and your sweetheart. Or with a good book. Or your dog. Cat. Ferret. Whatever.

Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Frank Hyman