Archive for February, 2010

In “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot wrote:

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs come in several forms (bush, tree, miniature) and colors, usually in shades of pink, white, and purple, although yellow lilacs are available.

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

But if you want to see lilac flowers in April (or more likely, May, here in Southcentral PA), take steps now (in late winter–February) to make sure your lilac bushes are in top shape.

Lilacs are one of the easiest, most trouble-free flowering shrubs you can grow. They like slightly sweet soil (pH 6.0 to 7.0), but will tolerate just about anything except wet feet; these are not plants for marshy areas. They also require full sun; if you plant them too near a wall or shady trees, they’ll tend to lean out in search of light and their flowering will not be as profuse. With their deep, heavy roots, lilacs are extremely drought-tolerant once established. New plants should be watered regularly for the first summer, but once they’re growing well, a couple inches of moisture-conserving mulch will hold them through all but the very driest weather.

Begin your annual late-winter lilac care with a thorough clean up. Remove weeds and vines. Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is a real pest here, and it can smother a lilac in a couple of years. Even a small vine will be competition enough to reduce bloom.

Next, remove dead wood. You’ll very likely find quite a few long, slender, whiplike stems (called watersprouts) coming up from the base of the bush or along the main branches, and a number of these will be dried up and dead. Snap or cut them off; their loss is no big deal. If you see tiny holes in any of the biggest trunks, your lilac has borers. More a nuisance than a disaster, saw out and burn (don’t compost) affected trunks. Lilac borers only attack the oldest wood, and since it’s good practice to remove a few of the oldest stems every couple of years to keep the bush vigorous, these borers aren’t usually much of a problem.

Thin out the bush a bit, removing one or two of the very biggest stems (if you have a tree lilac, don’t touch the main trunks, but do try to remove a couple of the biggest, oldest branches). If your bush has a lot of live, vigorous sprouts (called suckers) coming up around the base, either cut some of these back to ground level or dig them out to replant as new little lilac bushes.

If you did not remove the dead flowers from last year’s bloom, do that now. Removing the spent blooms forces the energy that would have gone into seed (useless for most purposes) back into forming next year’s flowers. Make a habit of removing as many spent lilac blooms as you can every year, after the bush is through flowering. (Another good reason to gather lilacs into bouquets to bring indoors and give as gifts!)

Once you’ve finished pruning, spread wood ashes thinly around the base of the lilac, extending out as far as the drip line (the outermost reach of the branches). Sprinkle on a little ground limestone and as much compost or well-rotted manure as you can spare. Spread mulch: wood chips, ground leaves, and “beauty bark” are fine mulches for lilacs; avoid grass clippings and fresh manures—the excess nitrogen they add to the soil may produce a big flush of leaves and new growth, at the expense of flowers.

Lilacs usually bloom at about the same time as mid-season tulips, and they look fantastic with white, pink, or purple tulips to pick up their colors, and with yellow or red tulips as an accent.

The worst disease of lilacs is powdery mildew, which, when severe, can defoliate a shrub, although it rarely kills. It is unsightly, though, coating the dark green leaves with a floury white.

Treat it by mixing a half-cup of cultured buttermilk milk with a gallon of water and spraying the entire bush. (If you can’t find cultured buttermilk, substitute yogurt instead.) The slight acidity of the milk, as well as the live acidophilus culture in the milk/yogurt, will be enough to knock back the growth of the mildew.

When planting lilacs, site the bush near a porch, patio, deck, window or doorway, so that, on a warm spring evening, you can enjoy the heady fragrance as you watch the sunset.

Happy Groundhog Day!  February 2nd is a date that’s got a lot of folk wisdom and tradition associated with it.  Besides being Groundhog Day here in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, it’s also Candlemas in the Roman Catholic calendar, and Imbolc, or the First Day of Spring, according to the old Celtic calendar.

Groundhogs are native to North America. They can be real pests in the garden, but good fencing will keep them out.

Groundhog Day is an old Pennsylvania German/Dutch custom.  According to legend, if a groundhog sees his shadow at sunrise on this day, we’re in for 6 more weeks of winter weather.  If not, then we’ll see an early spring.  The early settlers to our region brought the custom with them from their European homes, where a badger was the “prognosticator,” since Groundhogs are native only to North America.  Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, is the most well-known of the Grundsow Lodges (Groundhog Lodges) celebrating this holiday.

(In reality, groundhogs usually don’t wake up from their winter hibernation until well into March, when the first green grass is available for them to eat.)

Candlemas was celebrated as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Mother by the Catholic Church. It marks the day that, according to the New Testament, the infant Jesus was taken into the Jewish Temple for the first time, to be accepted as a member of the Jewish faith, and his mother Mary was admitted for a rite of purification, traditionally held for women about 6 weeks after giving birth.  Candlemas occurs 40 days after Christmas.

When I was a child (in the days before Vatican II),  this was a really wonderful celebration in the Polish Roman Catholic Church. The celebration started very late at night and at dawn on the 2nd, boxes of beeswax candles would be brought into the church to be blessed.  These blessed candles were then distributed to the congregation, so that they could be burned in the home for blessings and also–and most importantly–to be on hand in cases where the sacrament of Extreme Unction (Last Anointing) might be needed.

Imbolc, a very ancient Celtic holiday, marks the beginning of the spring season.  Although today we accept the first day of spring to begin at the Spring Equinox on March 20-21, logically, the equinox marks the midpoint of the spring season, just as June 20-21 (traditionally called Midsummer’s Day) marks the middle of summer, not its start. 

For gardeners and nature lovers, you’ll note that trees and shrubs are showing fat and swelling buds, birds are becoming much more active at feeders, and houseplants are starting to perk up.  All this because the days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger…despite those cold temps and the snow!  If you keep chickens (as I do), and you don’t keep them under artificial light during the winter, you’ll notice that your hens begin to lay eggs again around this date.

Sweet Potato Pie

Sweet potato pie is a traditional southern treat.

With a flavor similar to pumpkin pie, but with a buttery sweetness all its own, this traditional Sweet Potato Pie recipe will be a big hit. You can serve it topped with whipped cream and  a cup of strong, dark Cafe du Monde coffee for a real southern treat.

1 pound raw sweet potatoes

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon molasses

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

Wash and peel sweet potatoes. Boil in water until tender, about 30 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, mash sweet potatoes with butter. Using a mixer or byhand, stir in sugar, molasses, milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinammon, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.

Pour filling into an unbaked pie crust.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55–60 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

January and February are great months to prune many of your shrubs and small trees.  Contrary to what you might read, pruning isn’t rocket science.  If you follow a few simple guidelines, you can prune just about anything in your garden.  (Late winter is not the time to prune spring-blooming shrubs like forsythia, rhododendron, or azalea…if you trim them now, you risk cutting off the buds that produce this spring’s flowers.  Wait until late May or June to prune those.)

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