Water-Saving Mulch
Mushroom compost is one of the best mulches because it has some fertilizer value, so does not rob the soil of anything but adds, and because it is bulky enough not to blow or wash away. It is also as scare as hen’s teeth, but one source is Organic Fertilizer Co., 16273 Filbert St., Sylmar, (818) 704-1331. They are open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
There you can fill up your pickup bed or bag it yourself. They also sell planter mixes that combine mushroom compost with wood shavings for a very reasonable $17 per cubic yard if you help yourself.
A 2- to 3-inch layer of mushroom compost will help your garden go through summer with less stress and less water.
Grandfather’s Seeds
Want to grow vegetables your grandfather might have grown, those old-fashioned varieties that were supposed to taste so much better? That’s the specialty of a seed company named Heirloom Seeds (P.O. Box 245, West Elizabeth, Pa. 15332. Catalogue: $1). They have such delicacies as the Long Orange Improved carrot, Jefferson Giant tomato, Early Blood turnip beet, Rocky Ford green flesh melon and Kleckey Sweets watermelon, all popular in the 1800s. For those who want a period garden, they offer collections from different periods in American history. All seeds are open-pollinated.
Coiled Hose Keeper
A new device that promises to keep the kinks out of your garden hose is The Hose Keeper. It looks like a large flowerpot in which the hose is coiled after use, while one end of the hose remains attached to the faucet (it exits out a hole in the bottom). Made of polyethylene, it was invented by West Los Angeles gardener Riffy Bercu and is available at Ashbrook’s For the Garden in Santa Monica, the Marina del Rey Garden Center in Marina del Rey and the Glasshouse Nursery in Oxnard. It is priced around $35.
Another Favorite Rose
A relatively new rose, developed in France by Meidiland, is rapidly becoming a favorite of landscape designers. Named ‘Bonica,’ it is a shrubby rose 3-4 feet tall and as wide, and is covered with pure pink flowers much of the year. It is becoming readily available at nurseries in cans, just like it were just another shrub, which is how it grows.
Time-Release Fertilizer
It used to be a minor hassle to fertilize container plants with a time-release fertilizer. Although such fertilizers contained the essential nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, most lacked the secondary or trace elements necessary for optimum plant growth.
These trace elements, or micronutrients, had to be applied separately--usually in the form of a liquid plant food solution. Trace elements are quite important, especially when using a potting soil mix; most such mixes are deficient in trace elements. Such deficiency often shows up as anemic or yellowed foliage.
A new product called Osmocote Plus Minors is now available at most local nurseries and garden centers. This controlled-release fertilizer provides the basic three nutrients, plus such important trace elements as calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc and others.
It is available in several different formulas that provide plants with nutrients from three to nine months.
