MAY GARDENING TIPS

MAY GARDENING TIPS

May brings warmer sunnier days, cooler nights and springtime rains, the perfect combo to get your newly planted trees, shrubs and perennials established!

• SOIL CARE: Nourish your soil! Applying nutrients to the soil nourishes it, making it richer with the minerals and essential elements your plants need to grow. Learn to make your own compost out of your biodegradable waste and use that to feed your plants. We have Coast of Maine compost and manure, as well as Fafard products. You can also take this time to test your soil with a soil testing kit to see what your soil needs. We have those in stock as well.

• FERTILIZE: Time to fertilize last years new plantings by top dressing. Sprinkling handfuls of fertilizer around the drip line of the shrubs. Not too close to main stem. The roots grow outward. Organic fertilizers are slower release and contain a lot of secondary and micronutrients. We recommend them! The macronutrients are N,P and K (Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Pottasium) the 3 numbers represented on most fertilizer products. The secondary nutrients are calcium, magnesium and sulfur and there are quite a few micronutrients.

• MULCH: Leaf compost is a great island resource to use in your garden beds! This imitates the annual forest leaf fall and provides established plants with all the nutrients they need. Use leaves from your own yard and and/or leaf compost (shredded leaf mulch) that we carry to return local island nutrients to your gardens. We carry shredded leaf compost (island grown) as well as bagged Coast of Main mulches.

• ANNUALS: Cool weather annuals now ready to plant. Pansies, violas, alyssum, calendulas, bachelor buttons, argyranthemum daisies, osteospermum and lobelia!

• PERENNIALS: It’s time to start planting your perennials!

• DIVIDE PERENNIALS: This is a good time to divide summer and fall blooming perennials when they are just emerging.

• VEGETABLE GARDENS: Vegetable gardens to be prepped and planted. This is the season to plant cool weather veggies, small fruits and fruit trees. All these are now available at the nursery! Mid to late May we will be bringing our basil and tomatoes out from our production facility to the nursery. But don't push these it's still a little cool at night.

• TREES & SHRUBS: Now is a great time to add trees or shrubs to your property. Early May brings sunny day, cool nights and springtime rain which are all great ingredients to get your trees and shrubs established!

• PRUNE: Prune any diseased or dead wood on your trees and deciduous shrubs. Prune plants that bloom on new growth.

• LAWN CARE: Water your lawns less often and deeper to promote deeper roots. Mow your lawns a little higher and they won't brown out in the heat of summer. May is still a good time to fertilize your lawn if you did not do it in April. It is also a good time to lime, if you didn’t do it in the fall. It takes many months for lime to cause a change in the ph of the soil. Lime now to ensure a healthy fall lawn.

Always think ahead when gardening. Timing is everything!

View fullsize

Malus Crabapple photo by keith kurman

View fullsize

Viburnum burkwoodii photo by Keith Kurman

View fullsize

Bleeding Hearts photo by Keith Kurman

garden tips

from Wild Seed Project

grow massachusetts

early may garden tips [video]

APRIL GARDENING TIPS

APRIL GARDENING TIPS

April is the start of the gardening season. Here are some tips to get your yard ready for summer!

*************************************************************

• GARDEN CLEAN UP: Clean up the fall and winter debris of dead leaves and branches in and around your gardens and yard. We have lots of gardening tools at the nursery to help with clean up.

• SOIL CARE: Nourish your soil! Applying nutrients to the soil nourishes it, making it richer with the minerals and essential elements your plants need to grow. We have Coast of Maine compost and manure, as well as Fafard products. You can also take this time to test your soil with a soil testing kit to see what your soil needs. We have those in stock as well.

• SPRING ANNUALS: Plant spring annuals in your container gardens or fill in between perennials in your garden beds. Pansies are now available and Sweet Alyssum will be ready soon! This spring we have a new offering, a selection of Hardy Annuals that Andrew Wiley started from seed last fall. We have an amazing crop of poppy’s, bachelor buttons(centaurea cyanus), Queen Anne’s Lace(Ammi majus Select White) and more! To learn more about Hardy Annuals check out our post about Succession Planting.

• EDIBLES: This is the season to plant cool weather veggies, small fruits and fruit trees. All these are now available at the nursery!

• TREES & SHRUBS: Now is a great time to add trees or shrubs to your property.

• PRUNE: Prune any diseased or dead wood on your trees and deciduous shrubs.

• LAWN EDGING: Lawn edging helps to clearly divide the flower beds from the lawn. Beyond aesthetics, edging also separates the soil, mulch, and rocks. We have ten foot pieces of heavy duty black plastic edging available at the Nursery.

View fullsize

Viburnum burkwoodii photo by keith kurman

Malus (Crabapple) photo by Keith Kurman

********************************************

CLEANING AND SHARPENING YOUR TOOLS

It’s that time of year when we are all itching to get out into our yard and start planting or pruning. Before you jump into your projects, give yourself a minute to tune up your tools. “A good cleaning, oiling, and sharpening now will pay dividends and make your job much easier. Make sure you have a good pair of gloves, a tarp, a bypass pruner, a lopper, disinfectant spray, and/or anti-bacterial wipes at the ready. I have also found a reciprocating saw comes in handy for those thick, sturdy stems.”(Lorraine Ballato) If you don’t have the equipment to sharpen your pruners, loppers, hedge shears and pruning saw’s you can drop them off at the Vineyard Gardens and Jeremiah Brown will sharpen them for you for a fee.

You should also clean and sharpen your spades and shovels, it will make your garden tasks so much easier and safer. Its good practice to keep a 5gal. bucket with sand mixed with old, used motor oil in it around to clean your tools after using them.  This is also a good time to oil the wood stocks of any tools with wooden handles, it will give it a chance to soak in and renew the grain making them stronger and last longer.

Winter and early spring are great times to clean and sharpen tools.

********************************************

LAWN CARE

April is the best month to care for your lawn and fertilize. We have a wide array of Jonathan Green lawn care products available from fertilizers to weed control to grass seed!

• April is the best month to fertilize and reseed your lawn. Grass is a cool weather lover and will grow a lot in the cool spring. Fertilizer should be applied when plants want to grow.

• Grass, like all plants need macronutrients and micronutrients. Our organic fertilizers release nutrients more slowly and are loaded with micronutrients. The inorganic fertilizers have higher doses of the macronutrients which are N-P-K or Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Thus the 3 numbers found on the fertilizer bag. For example 5-10-5. Each number represents each nutrient.

• Inorganic lawn fertilizers are very high in Nitrogen.

• If you did not lime your lawn in the fall, April is a good time to lime it. The lime takes months to cause the lowering of the acidity. It is a chemical process. We recommend liming in the fall so that the pH adjustment has happened by the time the grass starts growing in spring.

• Apply lawn care pre emergent before Forsythia bloom. There is always an organic option. Corn Gluten is an organic weed seed preventer and adds nutrients to your lawn.

• Success with seeding any lawn, including small patches, is to put down some rich soil under the seed. Then it is important to keep the seed moist.

***IMPORTANT FERTILIZATION LAW ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD!!

Fertilizer can not be applied until April 15. This law was passed to protect our bodies of water. The reason for that time frame is by then the lawns are actively growing and will use the nutrients instead of those nutrients leaching into the ground water.

tips & tricks

how to aerate your lawn

Vineyard Gardens Landscaping is available to help with all your gardening needs!

View fullsize

[plant profile]

pieris japonica

perennial plant of the year

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana'

MARCH GARDENING TIPS

MARCH GARDENING TIPS

Vineyard Gardens Landscaping is available to help with your gardening needs!

*******************************************************************

PRUNE

• Its a good idea to sterilize the pruning shears with a 10% bleach solution to avoid passing diseases from cut to cut

• Good time to prune fruit trees, raspberries and grape

• Grapes should be pruned now before the weather warms up as they will “bleed sap” if done during warmer weather

• Fruit trees should be pruned now to maintain healthy branch structure and to reduce the total number of fruits per branch. If a branch has too many fruits they will tend to be small and often fall off. If allowed to reach maturity the branch could break from too much weight.

• It’s easier to see the branch structure before the plant leafs out. Remove damaged or crossing branches, and especially for fruit trees waterspouts which are small branches growing straight up through the tree.

• Prune any trees damaged by winter storms

• Prune PG Hydrangeas but NOT macrophyllas

• Prune Crape myrtles and any late season blooming plants, like hypericum, caryopteris

View fullsize

Winter or early spring is the best time to prune most deciduous trees and shrubs. Removing dead wood and reducing their size. A couple of exceptions being lilacs and Hydrangea macrophyllas.

Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ needs to be cut back before they start to awaken in Spring, now is a good time to do it if you haven’t already.

SPRAY

• One spray to prevent Peach leaf Curl (Sulfur or Copper based fungicides). Peaches should be sprayed with a lime sulfur solution which is organic and highly efficient at stopping peach leaf curl, a very common disease that weakens the tree.

GARDEN CLEANUP

• If you haven’t cleaned up your garden beds definitely do it now

DESIGN

• Plan and design your plantings and garden beds

TOP DRESS

Add a 1-2 inch layer of compost, rich in organic matter, over the top of your garden beds. Plants will come up right through it. The organic matter in compost is already broken down. The nutrients will slowly leach down with the spring rains and be available to be up taken by roots when plants are ready to grow. Do not use mulch as a top dressing as the larger bark chunks rob the soil of nitrogen in the breakdown process. If you are going to mulch on top of the top dressing of organic matter, spread some fertilizer under the mulch to supply nutrients for decomposition. For new beds or vegetable gardens waiting to be planted you can add more than 1-2 inches of organic matter on top, or the organic matter can be rototilled in, mixing it a few inches into the soil.

• Top dressing bulb areas and lightly fertilize bulb areas before they come up any further

• Top dress your veggie garden

• Its still a bit early to fertilize as the plants aren't actively taking up nutrients and with a lot of rain the fertilizer could leach or run off instead of being used by the plants.

SEEDLINGS

• Start cool weather seedlings indoors to be planted out by the end of March or beginning of April

• Later in the month start your warm weather seedlings indoors. These will get planted out in May

• There is still time to order flower and vegetable seeds

• Do not work wet soil in vegetable gardens as that leads to compaction the last thing you want to happen to your soil

View fullsize

Vineyard Garden Greens

Giant Red Mustard

plant of the year 2024

Phlox paniculata 'Jeana'

spring checklist

need help this spring?

WINTER PROJECTS

As we prepare for spring, pouring over seed catalogs and drooling over our friends’ Instagram posts from Colombia to the Mekong Delta, it is a good time to get outside and accomplish some garden tasks that will be put aside once the bulbs begin to break ground. If the prospect of tree climbing and brush hauling is deterring you, remember that Vineyard Gardens’ landscape crew is working year round and available to help. Below are a few of the garden tasks that you could be chipping away at during these mild February days.

*************

PRUNING GRAPE VINES AND FRUIT TREES

Grapes may look a mess this time of year and it may be tempting to simply cut them back, but the process of pruning them is best demonstrated. Like riding a bike, once you’ve done it a few times it gets easier.

Fruit trees are a bit trickier due to variety, special growth patterns and fruiting strategies but the basic rule of thumb is to open up the inside allowing for good air circulation and access to sunlight. Remove dead or diseased wood and a few of the older branches and crosses. Remove about 1/3rd of the older wood but preserve a balanced structure.

Once the pruning is complete and the weather has warmed up, spray with Dormant, aka Horticultural Oil. This is a non-toxic spray that coats the stems and bark with a mild pesticide that helps control most types of pests that can plague fruit trees and plants in the Rose family.

pruning grapes

watch & learn

pruning grapes

illustrated guide

pruning fruit trees in winter

watch & learn

*************

SHAPING AND REMOVING DEAD WOOD FROM CONIFERS AND EVERGREENS

Evergreens often outgrow their allotted space. They tend to keep their foliage on the sunny side of the plant, leaving the back sparse and leggy. They also tend to hold onto old wood that can harbor mold, mildew and fungus. Thinning out the old dense branching and accumulation of discarded foliage can lighten up the overall structure and make for a healthier plant. Some evergreens have a hard time producing new growth on old, hardened off wood. Hollies and Boxwood are a couple that appreciate being cut back hard,  called “hat-racking”.  

View fullsize

Holly

pruning hollies

watch & learn

A "hat-racked" Holly from this year. Stay tuned to see how it looks throughout the growing season.

*************

CUTTING BACK ORNAMENTAL GRASSES

A perfect late-winter project! Ornamental grasses hold up well through most of the winter, providing volume, screening and an attractive feature in the winter landscape.  Make sure to cut them back in early Spring or you’ll end up cutting off  new growth. The grasses do not need to be flush cut, they can be cut at angles or domes, the object is to clear away old canes before  new growth begins to emerge.  A hedge trimmer or hand pruners can be used.

View fullsize

Karl Foerster Grass

*************

HEADING BACK LATE SUMMER FLOWERING SHRUBS

Martha's Vineyard homeowners tend to favor late summer flowering shrubs such as Pee Gee Hydrangeas, Bluebeard Caryopteris, St. John’s Wort, Butterfly Bush and Rose of Sharon. These shrubs  perform best with a hard cut back before new growth begins to emerge. Be careful not to cut back your common blue type of Hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla, because these hold their flowering buds at the tips of last years’ growth. Wait to prune lilacs until after they have flowered.

View fullsize

Winter is the best time to prune most deciduous trees and shrubs. Removing dead wood and reducing their size. A couple of exceptions being lilacs and Hydrangea macroph

These tip buds hold this season's flowers. Be careful not to trim them off

Hydrangea bud

Last year's cuts on a Pee Gee Hydrangea. This year leave a couple of buds beyond for a big, full flowering.

A fall cleanup cut. Notice last year's cuts on these Annabelle Hydrangeas. The Annabelle's are very forgiving, but if you leave this much stem length on them they'll tend to flop more.

*************

ROSES

This can be the time to cut out dead, broken and/or diseased wood from roses as well.

Most roses will benefit from a hard structural pruning at this time. Be sure to keep your pruners clean and sharp. Carry with you alcohol wipes to clean the blades when moving from one plant to the next. This will help prevent spreading virus and fungal spores. Always keep the area under roses clean from debris and refresh top-dressing every year. This is where pests can deposit eggs and where fungus spores collect. These steps may not eliminate black spot, Japanese beetles or aphids but it will make it easier to keep them under control. Later you can spray with Horticultural oil, as with your fruit trees.

*************

REPAIRING SETTLED STONEWORK

Now would be a good time to reset cobble edging and patio pavers that have settled and become uneven.

1. You can get a couple buckets of sand from Keane’s or Goodale’s

2. Pull up a section of pavers

3. Spread out the sand. A trick when doing this is to spread the sand under the edges of the stone leaving it lower or a little hollow in the center to prevent rocking.

4. Reset the stones. The stones can be left slightly higher than grade to allow for settling.

While doing this, observe where you have standing water and erosion problems. These can be corrected by digging a shallow trench towards lower grade and back-filling with pea stone. Plan ahead and fill some pockets at the joints with a sand/compost mix to allow for planting “Stepables” like Thyme or Blue Star Creeper Isotoma fluviatillis when they come available later in the Spring.

*************

CLEANING AND SHARPENING YOUR TOOLS

Be prepared! If you don’t have the equipment to sharpen your pruners, loppers, hedge shears and pruning saw’s you can collect them together and drop them off at the Vineyard Gardens office across from Keane’s to have them sharpened for a modest fee. You should also clean and sharpen your spades and shovels, it will make your garden tasks so much easier and safer. Its good practice to keep a 5gal. bucket with sand mixed with old, used motor oil in it around to clean your tools after using them.  This is also a good time to oil the wood stocks of any tools with wooden handles, it will give it a chance to soak in and renew the grain making them stronger and last longer.

View fullsize

Winter is a great time to clean and sharpen tools.

*************

CLEARING OUT GUTTERS AND LEAVES COLLECTED AROUND THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOUSE

With all the spring rains you’ll want to be sure that the gutters are running clear, even if you cleared them out after the fall leaf drop. It is best practice to check again.  It also gives you a chance to make sure there was no damage during the winter from the weight of ice and snow.

It's generally good to keep debris from accumulating around the foundation of the house as well. This is where rodents and general pests will tend to nest, protected against a nice warm foundation.

During mid-Winter mild spells we are encouraged to get out and accomplish some neglected garden chores.

............................................................................................................................
If all this seems daunting, do what you can and  Vineyard Gardens can take care of the rest. Please call the Vineyard Gardens Landscaping office at (508) 693.8512   

Time waits for no one and spring is just around the corner. The Nursery will open in March, giving you  a month to prepare.

MARCH GARDENING TIPS

March Gardening Tips

Vineyard Gardens Landscaping is available to help with your gardening needs!

*******************************************************************

PRUNE

• Its a good idea to sterilize the pruning shears with a 10% bleach solution to avoid passing diseases from cut to cut

• Good time to prune fruit trees, raspberries and grape

• Grapes should be pruned now before the weather warms up as they will “bleed sap” if done during warmer weather

• Fruit trees should be pruned now to maintain healthy branch structure and to reduce the total number of fruits per branch. If a branch has too many fruits they will tend to be small and often fall off. If allowed to reach maturity the branch could break from too much weight.

• It’s easier to see the branch structure before the plant leafs out. Remove damaged or crossing branches, and especially for fruit trees waterspouts which are small branches growing straight up through the tree.

• Prune any trees damaged by winter storms

• Prune PG Hydrangeas but Not macrophyllas

• Prune Crape myrtles and any late season blooming plants, like hypericum, caryopteris

SPRAY

• One spray to prevent Peach leaf Curl (Sulfur or Copper based fungicides). Peaches should be sprayed with a lime sulfur solution which is organic and highly efficient at stopping peach leaf curl, a very common disease that weakens the tree.

GARDEN CLEANUP

• If you haven’t cleaned up your garden beds definitely do it now

DESIGN

• Plan and design your plantings and garden beds

TOP DRESS

Add a 1-2 inch layer of compost, rich in organic matter, over the top of your garden beds. Plants will come up right through it. The organic matter in compost is already broken down. The nutrients will slowly leach down with the spring rains and be available to be up taken by roots when plants are ready to grow. Do not use mulch as a top dressing as the larger bark chunks rob the soil of nitrogen in the breakdown process. If you are going to mulch on top of the top dressing of organic matter, spread some fertilizer under the mulch to supply nutrients for decomposition. For new beds or vegetable gardens waiting to be planted you can add more than 1-2 inches of organic matter on top, or the organic matter can be rototilled in, mixing it a few inches into the soil.

• Top dressing bulb areas and lightly fertilize bulb areas before they come up any further

• Top dress your veggie garden

• Its still a bit early to fertilize as the plants aren't actively taking up nutrients and with a lot of rain the fertilizer could leach or run off instead of being used by the plants.

SEEDLINGS

• Start cool weather seedlings indoors to be planted out by the end of March or beginning of April

• Later in the month start your warm weather seedlings indoors. These will get planted out in May

• There is still time to order flower and vegetable seeds

• Do not work wet soil in vegetable gardens as that leads to compaction the last thing you want to happen to your soil

PLANT OF THE YEAR 2023

THIS WEEK GARDEN TIPS

SMALL FRUITS & FRUIT TREES

SMALL FRUITS & FRUIT TREES

Spring is the best time to prune your fruit trees, grapes, raspberries and blackberries! It is also the best time to plant small fruits and fruit trees!

************************************

CHECK OUT OUR PAST BLOG: Bare Root Strawberries & Growing Early Spring Edibles

IN STOCK AT VINEYARD GARDENS:

• Bare root strawberries just came in

• Strawberries

• Raspberries & golden raspberries

• Blackberries

• Blueberries

• Fruit trees (many kinds)

************************************

STRAWBERRIES

Spring is the season to plant strawberries. There is a small window of time to plant them, especially bare root ones. Strawberries can be grown in garden beds, containers or hanging baskets. Strawberry flowers attract honeybees and butterflies who pollinate the flowers and ensure fruiting success. This year we are carrying 4 potted varieties, 3 bare root varieties plus the alpine strawberries Fragaria vesca.

• Our bare root strawberries just came in yesterday! The bare root varieties are Sure Crop, Cardinal and Ozark Beauty. Sure Crop and Cardinal are June bearing and Ozark Beauty variety is an Everbearing.

  Planting Bare Root Strawberries

  • Bare root strawberries come in bundles of 15.

  • Gently pull them apart, pulling on the foliage to separate them

  • Then plant them into rich well drained soil and watch them grow

• The 3” potted strawberries we have are the June bearing Honeoye variety and for the everbearing strawberries we have the All Star, Ft. Laramie and Quinalt varieties. Honeoye bears heavy yields of large fruit with a rich color.

  Growing Strawberries

  • Provide well drained soil with medium moisture. Amend beds in spring and fall with quality Coast of Maine Lobster Compost or Fafard Premium Compost (we carry both!).

  • Strawberries are heavy feeders- feed with organic fertilizer from spring to mid summer.

  • Mulch beds to retain moisture, keep down the weeds and to create a nice clean place for the strawberry fruits to lay on.

  • Thin beds every few years, favoring the strongest runners.

View fullsize

View fullsize

************************************

BLUEBERRIES

We have a wonderful selection of early, mid season and late variety Blueberries. Now is the time to get them in the ground!

• This year, for the first time ever, we brought in some bare root blueberries. We have 2 cultivars available bare root, Jersey and Northland.

• For blueberries, we recommend planting an early bearing variety, a mid season variety and a late season variety to extend your blueberry picking season.

  Blueberries must be planted in early spring!!

View fullsize

Blueberries

View fullsize

Blueberries Northland

************************************

GRAPES, PEACHES & FRUIT TREES

• GRAPES: Grapes should be pruned as soon as possible on cool days. If pruned much later they will “bleed” sap, much like a maple tree when its tapped for making maple syrup. Pruning for grapes and most fruit trees involves limiting the number of fruits produced as the tree or vine will try to make many more fruits than the tree has the energy to fully mature. Often excess fruits will fall off and the ones remaining may be smaller than on a tree properly pruned. This is also the best time to plant grapes!

• PEACHES: One of the most important sprays for peaches is a lime sulfur mixture to prevent peach leaf curl, a very common disease of peaches. As the name describes, the leaves turn red, bumpy, curl up and then most of the leaves fall off weakening the tree just when it needs the most energy to produce fruit. This is an organic spray and should be done before the leaves begin to emerge.

• FRUIT TREES: We carry apple, pear, cherry, peach and plum trees .Spring is the great time to plant them!

  • Pruning apple trees: When you are done pruning an apple tree there is usually more on the ground then left on the tree.

View fullsize

Peach trees

View fullsize

Blueberry bushes

garden tips

APRIL

get inspired

our instagram & facebook feeds

MARCH GARDENING TIPS

March Gardening Tips

Vineyard Gardens Landscaping is available to help with your gardening needs!

*******************************************************************

PRUNE

• Its a good idea to sterilize the pruning shears with a 10% bleach solution to avoid passing diseases from cut to cut

• Good time to prune fruit trees, raspberries and grape

• Grapes should be pruned now before the weather warms up as they will “bleed sap” if done during warmer weather

• Fruit trees should be pruned now to maintain healthy branch structure and to reduce the total number of fruits per branch. If a branch has too many fruits they will tend to be small and often fall off. If allowed to reach maturity the branch could break from too much weight.

• It’s easier to see the branch structure before the plant leafs out. Remove damaged or crossing branches, and especially for fruit trees waterspouts which are small branches growing straight up through the tree.

• Prune any trees damaged by winter storms

• Prune PG Hydrangeas but Not macrophyllas

• Prune Crape myrtles and any late season blooming plants, like hypericum, caryopteris

SPRAY

• One spray to prevent Peach leaf Curl (Sulfur or Copper based fungicides). Peaches should be sprayed with a lime sulfur solution which is organic and highly efficient at stopping peach leaf curl, a very common disease that weakens the tree.

GARDEN CLEANUP

• If you haven’t cleaned up your garden beds definitely do it now

DESIGN

• Plan and design your plantings and garden beds

TOP DRESS

Add a 1-2 inch layer of compost, rich in organic matter, over the top of your garden beds. Plants will come up right through it. The organic matter in compost is already broken down. The nutrients will slowly leach down with the spring rains and be available to be up taken by roots when plants are ready to grow. Do not use mulch as a top dressing as the larger bark chunks rob the soil of nitrogen in the breakdown process. If you are going to mulch on top of the top dressing of organic matter, spread some fertilizer under the mulch to supply nutrients for decomposition. For new beds or vegetable gardens waiting to be planted you can add more than 1-2 inches of organic matter on top, or the organic matter can be rototilled in, mixing it a few inches into the soil.

• Top dressing bulb areas and lightly fertilize bulb areas before they come up any further

• Top dress your veggie garden

• Its still a bit early to fertilize as the plants aren't actively taking up nutrients and with a lot of rain the fertilizer could leach or run off instead of being used by the plants.

SEEDLINGS

• Start cool weather seedlings indoors to be planted out by the end of March or beginning of April

• Later in the month start your warm weather seedlings indoors. These will get planted out in May

• There is still time to order flower and vegetable seeds

• Do not work wet soil in vegetable gardens as that leads to compaction the last thing you want to happen to your soil

REGISTER NOW

PPA NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

GET INSPIRED BY OUR

instagram and facebook feeds

WHY TO TEST SOIL & THE IMPORTANCE OF A PH TEST

“It is always a good idea to test the soil for your lawns, flowers, vegetable gardens and almost anything you’re trying to grow!” Chuck Wiley, co-owner of Vineyard Gardens

View fullsize

Soil samples can be sent to the University of Massachusetts. The test will tell you what is in your soil, the amount and then what to add. This can save you money and most importantly protect our environment by not overusing fertilizer.

Fertilizer bags have three numbers showing the percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the bag. A bag labeled 5-10-5 is 5% nitrogen, 10% phosphorus, and 5% potassium.

• Nitrogen is the element usually most needed to be added for plant health, as it is either used up by plants or can be leached out of the soil with rain and irrigation.

• Phosphorous and potassium once added are more stable in the soil and usually only need to be added every two or three years.

These three nutrients are in most of the garden and lawn fertilizers we sell. We sell several lawn fertilizers with a 0 middle number, meaning no phosphorus, because that nutrient can cause problems with our ponds by encouraging algae blooms.

05-10-05

Step 1: Lawn Fertilizer 20-0-3 (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium).

Step 2: Lawn Fertilizer 21-0-3 (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium).

Vegetable Fertilizer 3-4-4 (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium)

Organic fertilizers are slow release and also add some organic matter to the soil. Lawn fertilizers, like Jonathan Green Green-up 20-0-3, often have a higher first number as nitrogen is what causes them to be darker green, faster growing and healthier. Most vegetables like a lower first number Espoma Organic Garden-tone 3-4-4 to encourage fruiting like tomatoes and squash.

** Now is the last chance this season to apply Jonathan Green Green-Up Crabgrass Preventer before moving onto step 2 Jonathan Green Green-Up Weed and Feed!

View fullsize

photo credit: keith kurman

landscape work

schedule us for your next project!

learn about

our bulk material selection

THE IMPORTANCE OF A pH TEST

A pH test tells us how acidic or alkaline our soils are

• Numbers under 7 are acidic

• Numbers over 7 are basic or alkaline

When soils are at or near neutral most nutrients are more easily taken up by plants and at the high range of acid or basic some nutrients are unavailable to plants even if they are in the soil. Our soils tend to be acidic which is good for blueberries, most evergreens , potatoes and Blue Mop head Hydrangeas, which are our traditional August flowering hydrangeas and Nikko Blue and Endless summer being the most popular. The reason for wanting low pH for the hydrangeas is this causes the flowers to be bluer. High pH turns them pinker and neutral pH gives them a color between the two. This is the only plant I know that the flower color is affected by the pH which allows aluminum in the soil to be more readily taken up at lower ph.

View fullsize

If you want bluer flowers add sulfur or aluminum sulfate, ideally mixed into the soil when planting. You can add these materials to existing plants but it will take longer for them to have an effect on the color. If you want pink flowers, add lime to the soil. Most vegetables like a neutral soil, with the exception of potatoes which are more prone to a particular disease at higher pH. I like to keep a special area in the garden for them that I don't lime. Lawns like the pH to be close to neutral so light yearly liming is recommend here.

fertilizing hydrangeas

SATURDAY WORKSHOP : LAWN & TURF MANAGEMENT

LAWN & TURF MANAGEMENT

Saturday, April 20 at 11:00am

Chuck Wiley, owner of Vineyard Gardens and master horticulturist, and Todd Stempien, lead foreman and lawn specialist, will lead this weeks talk on caring for your lawn. They will discuss fertilization, liming, mowing, crab grass control, grub control and the importance of timing. The talk will be held at Vineyard Gardens 484 State Rd in West Tisbury

*Attendees will receive a 20% off coupon that can be used only that day when buying products related to lecture series.

View fullsize

CARING FOR YOUR LAWN WHILE CARING FOR THE ISLAND

by Chuck Wiley

Hopefully caring for your Vineyard lawn is as much about taking care of our local environment as it is about having a nice lawn. With a little knowledge you can do both. Our main concern is protecting our ponds, steams and aquifer by preventing fertilizer from getting into them. This can happen to a pond or stream by run off when the fertilizer washes into them over the ground or leaching when fertilizer is dissolved and rain or excessive irrigation carries the fertilizer past the roots into the ground. One of the best ways to prevent both of these is to have a dense healthy lawn which captures the fertilizer before it can runoff or leach. Using a slow release fertilizer is another way to make sure the nutrients are taken up by the grass and not lost.

Steps to achieve this healthy lawn in the spring:
1. Seed any bare spots starting in mid April using seed that matches the area, ie sun shade or a mix of the two. Keep the seed lightly moist for two weeks in order for it to germinate.
2. Don’t fertilize before Mid April. Use a slow release fertilizer and don’t over apply. I recommend using it below the recommended rate the bag shows and doing a second light application 6-8 weeks later if needed.
3. Make sure the ph of your soil is around 6.5, this improves the grasses ability to take up the fertilizer which reduces the chance of leaching.
4. Mow regularly at a minimum of 2 inches with a sharp blade
5. If you water, do so deeply to encourage the roots to go deep once or twice a week. Never water daily other than when your seeding.
6. Remember grass loves sun so if your area is too shady you may want to try a shade loving ground cover or let nature do its thing. If you have a lot of moss don’t fight it as it’s  green and never needs fertilizer or mowing.

View fullsize

Thank you to our Vineyard Gardens Landscaping and Nursery team!

It’s the season for giving thanks and we are so thankful for our amazing team here at Vineyard Gardens! We could not do this without each and every one of our hardworking staff. These fabulous portraits were documented by the talented Keith Kurman, our resident photographer and landscape designer. Please visit our ABOUT page to meet our team!

View fullsize

TICK PREVENTION AND SAFETY

It's the time of year when you need to be extra vigilant about checking yourself for ticks. The University of Rhode Island TickEncounter Resource Center website is filled with important information for tick prevention, helping identify ticks and other tick questions you may have. If you do find a tick you can submit a photo to tickencounter or you can send the tick to TickReport, a lab at UMass for testing.  Once Tick Report receives your tick it will identify in 2-3days any disease causing microbes the tick may be carrying, including pathogens that cause Lyme disease. These are wonderful services to ensure your prevention and safety from tick bites!

View fullsize

BUILDING A KOI POND

Watch the process of building a large Koi pond from beginning to end. Our hard working landscape architects show off their skills and passion for the land.

PRUNING DAMAGED TREES

We have had three windy and heavy snow storms this March leading to tree damage around the island and potentially in your own backyard. Cracked or broken branches can’t heal themselves like bones so the best practice is to remove them. Trying to retain them with cables or such will almost always fail over time. Damaged and dead branches should be pruned back as soon as possible to prevent disease from entering the plant.  Deadwood can also be removed at any point during the year, as it can harbor and attract insects and fungal diseases. 

Remove the damaged branches by cutting them off back to a healthy branch. Make the cut roughly a half inch past the intersection of the two branches. There should be a slight swelling at this intersection, leave the swelling on the tree, that is where the tree will callous and seal off the wound.

Evergreens that have lost their leader or top most branch will normally regrow. If they form multiple leaders the strongest central one should be chosen and the others cut back. Cut them back at least a foot below the main one and they should not grow past the new central branch.

Most deciduous shrubs, those that loose their leaves, can be pruned very hard in the  early spring and will regrow. They may not flower the first year but will do so in subsequent years. This hard pruning can apply to any overgrown deciduous shrub. Good candidates are forsythia , lilac, viburnum and privet.

Early Spring is a great time to prune most plant material.  Since the plants are dormant, pruning won’t affect their ability to generate energy, like it would if there were leaves present.  It also makes it much easier to see the structure of the plant and remove any unhealthy branches.  Caution must be taken to avoid removing flower buds for the upcoming growing season. 

Tools:  Always use shape pruners, loppers, and saws.  It is recommended that tools be sterilized between pruning jobs to prevent passing fungal disease from one plant to another, or from one location to another property even.

Here is a good link for pruning damaged trees. 

SOLAR POWERING VINEYARD GARDENS PRODUCTION FACILITY

Vineyard Gardens production facility in West Tisbury is in the final stages of installing a parking canopy complete with solar arrays.  As an avid environmentalist the goal to source alternative energy for Vineyard Gardens has been a long held objective for co-owner Chuck Wiley. Now that the technology has become more readily available and the concern for climate change has heightened, Chuck knew it was time to make this happen.

View fullsize

Chuck built Vineyard Gardens from a summer seasonal landscape business service back in the 80’s to one of the largest and most respected Landscape/Garden Centers on Island. He was an early adopter of recycling, composting and natural gardening methods. To achieve his objective of an alternative energy source Chuck teamed up with John Guadagno and Rob Meyers at South Mountain Co. The folks at South Mountain have been involved in environmental design and development here on the Island for decades. Chuck  felt they were the best choice to head this project because of their reputation as well as a desire to stick with a local company, who would be readily available if something should arise. He explains, “As far as the environmental impact, the only arbiter was the town and South Mountain knew what to do, what to say and what to ask for." This project had a lot of people working on it, South Mountain, Brissette Electric, Keene Bros. and various other subs.

This newly installed 25 feet high, 40 feet wide, 75 feet long parking canopy is constructed of steel I-beams with deep concrete footings held together with giant bolts. The roof is 3,000 square feet with six parking spaces below. Chuck explains, “The size and location was dictated by how much sun exposure we are able to get and that covers nearly 100% of my usage. It was a no-brainer. I actually didn't lose any space. I didn’t really lose any planting area under it and the cars used to overheat sitting out there, so it really serves our needs.”

View fullsize

The panels will collect energy from the sun every day and will transmit it to transformers that will produce enough power to offset the usage of Vineyard Gardens two commercial growing facilities. Chuck states, “It will generate a conservative estimate of 52 kilowatts of power a year. And between the nursery (VG 1) and the production site (VG 2)  we use about 55kw so it should cover nearly 100% of our usage” He discusses how they use a lot more energy in the summer than in the winter. The large consumption of energy in the summer comes from the cooling fans in the greenhouses and the water pumps. Furthermore, “During the winter months when we are not consuming that energy the power goes into a meter so we’re feeding energy back into the grid, a net usage of zero. If things are going great, there could be excess generated.”

View fullsize

View fullsize

The cost of the project is $272,000 dollars. Chuck explained, “I applied for a $20 thousand dollar Rural Energy for America Program Grant from the USDA. I spent an incredible amount of time trying to get it.” Holding up a file folder more than an inch thick of paperwork he states “This is my USDA file. They accepted my application but they haven’t given me any money yet. They wanted everything. I had to show that it wasn’t on an anthropological site, didn’t have an Indian Burial Ground. I had to show them all my math and that there were no better, cost effective alternatives. They wanted an environmental review and so on.” He explains how he did not realize what an undertaking it would be to apply for this yet he says, “I could have done this project without all this paperwork, but the reason this project makes sense is that there are government incentives. If I were to have to pay for this without the incentives the payback period would be much longer and would not make as much sense.” He goes on to say that he was able to get a loan from Cape Cod 5 who has done previous loans for solar arrays and that in ten years, in theory, this project should pay for itself.

Overall Chuck says, “This is a good thing for me because it’s paying for itself but just the thought of doing anything that will cut down on our coal, oil or gas usage is huge to me. This has been a very important part of my life.”  As far as maintenance goes, “It's near zero. There are some electrical components that may have to be replaced after twenty plus years, but for the most part its supposedly maintenance free. I’d love to see millions of these across the world. As long as they could pay for themselves, I don’t know why you wouldn’t do it And if we create enough of them maybe we won’t need those  other forms of energy.” Ultimately he is extremely happy with his decision and recommends it 100%!

WINTER AT VINEYARD GARDENS

Vineyard Gardens Nursery is closed for the season but the office is still open Mon through Friday to help  with your winter needs. We offer snowplowing, winter tree work and property caretaking. Please contact our landscaping office at 508-693-8512  if you have any questions or needs.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize