AboutLong Island Gardener Expertise Decisions, decisions... If you can't make up your mind which Annuals to grow, you're not alone. Problem with your new flowering Annuals flats? I`ve been there, done that. Petunias, Sweet Alyssum, Larkspur, Marine Blue Lobelia -- they all grow here at my house on Garden Street on Long Island, N.Y.. Cutting and Cottage Gardens, Sun and Shade Gardens, White Gardens and Night Gardens, I`ve done them all. Annuals are the perfect summer flower, bursting with color June through fall's first frost. I can`t speak on Cactus or tender Tropical Plants -- they don`t grow outside in my Zone 7. I`m no Farmer, so I cannot guide you on Fruits and Vegetables. But whether it`s an Annual you want to start from seed, mail-order or pick up at your local garden center, I can help you grow amazing blooms this Summer. Yes, together, we can turn your neighbors green with envy.
Experience I have a lifetime of gardening behind me here on the North Shore of Long Island. While I have degrees in related fields, there's nothing like hands-on work to build real knowledge. I stay on top of current science -- there's a boom in research, and Kingdom Plantae is filled with surprises. By the way, I really do live on Garden Street.
Publications Gannett newspapers, The New York Times, and hundreds of others - but not on Annuals.
Education/Credentials B.A., botany; graduate credits in European Intellectual History and Political Science; minor coursework in related fields, docent training at our local botanical gardens (required for volunteers). I'm currently working on an advanced biochemistry degree.
Awards and Honors I could tell you, but then you'd know who I am.
Question What happened when one day your impatients are healthy and blooming (4 in a planter) and the next day only one is withered and dying. It happens every year, same pot, same place.
Answer Unfortunately this sounds like standard Fungus assault. If you are in the part of the country where it rained cats and dogs for 20 days and 20 nights (I did), it would be unusual NOT to be faced with Fungus out there when you finally walk through the gardener to see what's cooking.
Fungi are out there waiting for all of us to do something that will make them welcome. We don't do that on purpose, of course. We just do it.
Sometimes we do it because an ad tells us to. Fertilizer, for example, encourages weak growth that is vulnerable to Fungus and Insect attack.
If you grow a plant that is attacked by a Fungus, and this takes place in a pot, and the plant dies, the Soil is still infected. The only way to get a new start is to sterilize the Soil or dump it out and get new Soil.
One of the problems with packaged potting Soil is that it IS quite a sterile growing medium, with all kinds of variables removed to avoid pathogens. However, those Soils do not have any of the GOOD microbes needed to fight BAD microbes like the ones that are killing your plants. This concept is still getting the looks given to people who read Tarot Cards and drink green tea with Echinacea to cure a cold, but the facts are in: Microbes in Soil are almost all beneficial, and they fight crime, including the perennial homicide committed against your plants each year.
Take the guilty soil and dump it in a compost pile. Don't worry about pathogens. There are good microbes in there that will show them who's boss.
Get some clean soil out of the garden -- preferably something that has wiggly things in it, without fertilizer salts and pesticides and I do include Miracle Gro in that list of THINGS TO AVOID. If you have no clean soil, go off to some woods or forest, and dig some up. A field is better than a forest; it has more of the right kinds of microbes for your garden.
I guarantee this will solve your problem.
It's a long answer that could be much, much longer if I had the time and you had the patience. One step at a time. Keep me posted.
