It's my pleasure to bring you gardening information on a weekly basis in two media each season: newspaper and television. This is what it looked like in 2003. Look forward to coming back in spring, 2004!

TV:

I must say, my cable tv career is ever changing, not really because I want it to be, but let's just say the winds of change blow quite hard through the cable industry from time to time. This past summer, I did 4 minute spots on Rogers Television's provincial current events show, Focus NB. The pics and commentary below are excerpts from that. I'm not sure yet what 2004 will hold for me, but I love making cable gardening shows, and will be back there in some venue!!

This week I tackled pruning a large variegated weigelia, never before pruned. It was attractive, but looked unkempt. I used thinning pruning (the removal of whole branches at their base, one by one, starting with the longest) to shorten it from 7' to 5', shrink it from 7' wide to 5' or so, and round it evenly, tapered in at the base. The resultant shrub still looks natural, but is more in scale with its setting, is less likely to interfere with its neighbours, and looks more 'presentable'. The process took about 5 minutes, and would do for a year, before another pruning was needed. The technique can be used on all shrubs and trees at any time.

Fuzzy photos, above the Weigelia before, below after,smaller, evenly round, tapered in at bottom

Last week I introduced you again to my Japanese Garden, with its typical characteristics of gravel surface, large boulders arranged certain ways, water feature, deer-scare, and Bonsai-style evergreens. Flowers and deciduous trees and shrubs are usually not seen. Then I showed you how to prune regular evergreens to convert them to Bonsai. That involves showing the trunk and main branch structure, clipping the foliage into separate 'pads', and limiting the overall size. Incidentally, this is the lowest maintenance of all garden styles, at least regarding weeding, as there is landscape fabric under the pea gravel, and weeds barely ever get started.

Japanese Garden (above) and a pine Bonsai (below)

NEWSPAPER:

My gardening column appears every Friday in the Saint John Telegraph Journal, from late April to October. The following is my last for 2003. I look forward to starting up again in spring, 2004. I just got a new camera, so I hope that my garden pictures will be even brighter and clearer. Have a great winter!

The photos above and below were from my culumn in September. Above, the tall, light blue is tall ageratum, a great cut flower, 2' tall. Below, the bright pink is the very dependable bloomer, Impatiens. The low, dark blue border is upright lobelia.

That's me in my secret garden. It used to have grass, but the pavers make it much more usable for entertaining. The dark rectangle is the Koi pond, behind me. At 28" deep, racoons can't touch the fish. It's heated for their winter comfort.

Amazingly warm weather is the only way you could describe the balmy first half of October. I was blown away by my luck in choosing this past Saturday to celebrate my upcoming birthday with a garden party. My guests were bathed in the warmth of the hottest Oct. 11th on record, and surrounded by colourful annuals still in full bloom. While you should enjoy these mild days to the utmost, rest assured that cooler ones will soon be the norm. The wise gardener plugs away at his or her fall to-do list while it's still pleasant to be outdoors. Many of those tasks I've already described, so I'll just recap them quickly. (I have to get you set up for the rest of the fall; you see, this is my last column of the year!) By edging and weeding your beds, pruning the shrubs to a reasonable size, and dividing and shrinking the perennials, the beds will look crisp and neat for the next six months. Every day they're not covered with snow (at least half of that time, on average), you'll be thankful you took the time to tidy them up. There's still plenty of time to do the tasks mentioned above. Perennials can be 'shrunk' right up until freeze-up, meaning the advancing new parts pulled out to keep them in bounds. Entire plants can be dug up and shifted or moved to improve spacing also all fall. The main operation to gradually reduce is the division of perennials into small pieces for multiplying. Try to get your dividing done soon, so the transplanted pieces have time to get rooted, and don't make them too small, or they will frost heave during the winter. Pruning can be done all fall too. As I've said many times, use thinning pruning to shrink and shape your shrubs until their size is in scale for their setting. Select the longest branches first, and cut them off at their base, where they fork off the main stem, or even down to the ground. Apply this technique to almost all evergreen and deciduous shrubs. The only exceptions I make are to shear hedges and globe or pyramid cedars, as they are meant to have that groomed look, and potentillas and spireas. These very common shrubs have so many branches, that thinning becomes simply too big a task. I first shear them to a 2' diameter ball, then thin out 10 or 12 of the oldest stems right to the ground. That keeps them compact and healthy. As the shell ice on your pond begins to last through the whole day, its time to do a bit of winterizing, to protect your fish, and the circulating pump. Generally, the regular pump should be removed from the pond, and stored in a bucket of water in a cool spot in the basement. Many people opt to 'take no chances' with their beloved gold fish, and set them up in an aquarium for the winter. I enjoy them as house pets so much myself, that I have two aquariums full of gold fish and koi year round. I use them as 'rearing ponds' especially for the more expensive koi, to grow them from 2" starters to 4 or 5" fish, large enough to fare well in the outdoor pond environment. Use a large tank (20 gal. +) and full size filtration system, and be prepared to rub the algae off the inside glass monthly, and you'll have great success with the fish indoors. But they can quite well spend the winter outdoors, with a few precautions. The pond should be at least 2' deep. You should run a small pump just under the surface and aiming up, to aerate the water, and keep a small hole open in the ice. The main enemy of over-wintering fish is the build-up of gases under the ice from decomposing organic matter. The following reminders should have worked already, but because there hasn't been much freezing, you still have a chance. Get your root crops out of the vegetable garden before they freeze and go mushy. Don't forget the dahlias, glads, and canna lilies, or any other flowers whose tubers or roots should be stored inside for the winter. You've been lucky so far, but don't procrastinate any more! In contrast, don't forget to put in any bulbs you might want to brighten your spring days with, like crocuses, daffs, and tulips. It's still prime time now, with the soil warm enough for the dry bulbs to draw in moisture, and put out a fresh new set of roots from their bases, leaving them poised to burst into bloom early next spring. Plant them in groupings for effect, in spots that will not interfere with other plantings in the spring. I like to dig a hole the size of the cluster, 3" deep for crocuses, 5-6" for daffodils and tulips, and sprinkle some manure and bone meal on the bottom before placing the bulbs in a natural grouping. Water them in well, so the new roots will start growing right away. The last topic I'll get into is the covering of shrubs for the winter, as that's something you'll be considering soon. My general philosophy on that is to plant shrubs in places where they will not be too stressed by extreme cold and drying winds in winter, and not to cover them. The coverings (burlap and plywood in particular) are quite unattractive to look at, and thus defeat the purpose of planting the shrubs in the first place! As for bending and splitting of shrubs under snow and ice, routine pruning is the best long-term protection, keeping them compact and sturdy. The vast majority of shrubs survive the winter just fine without special protection. Take care in placing the more susceptible species (broadleaf evergreens like euonymus and rhododendron for instance), locating them in the shelter of buildings or other plants. Perhaps use a natural protection like evergreen boughs draped over the foliage for the first winter, until the root system gets well established. Seldom will we have a winter as severe as last winter for a combination of sustained cold and drying conditions, that caused so much winter burn on rhododendrons and other evergreens. Oh my, how did this conversation lead from balmy warm to sustained cold! Let me bring us back to the pleasantly warm and summery setting of my secret garden, from which I will bid you farewell for the season. Looking down from the roof of the house, you see how it is set up as an outdoor room, with four walls of stone and shrubbery that set if off from the rest of the garden. Great place for a quiet lunch in the sun. Behind me that dark rectangle is my formal koi pond, with 28" of water, lightly heated and well recessed into those heavy limestone walls. The water stays unfrozen all winter, with three large koi (16") and many smaller koi and goldfish happily grazing on algae all winter. Hard to imagine this warm scene has to eventually turn to white! See you here again next spring. Have a great winter!