A Prairie Garden Journal    by Dick Meyer

Reading

your

Plants

“I’m hungry, give me vitamins and minerals!” 

“Hey, buddy, can I get a shot of fertilizer, and maybe a little extra water?  And while your up, could you prune off a few of those lower branches—they’re not getting much sunlight, and I’m kind of shutting them down, anyway.”

A gardener once remarked to me how easy gardening would be if plants could only talk.  Then they could tell you when they needed fertilizer, when they needed water, and whether or not the bug that was eating their leaves was just a friend over for lunch or a marauding invader.  

Well, plants may not be able to talk, but they sure can communicate.   Learn their language, and plants will be talking to you all of the time—nagging you for this or that.  It would be sort of like being married. 

Plants “talk” with their appearance.  What they say with their leaves is the easiest part of their communication to learn, but they also say a lot with their bark and stems, too.   Learning plant talk isn’t as hard as it might seem—certainly not as hard as learning a foreign language—like, say, English.  The reason is that plants don’t need a very big vocabulary to say everything that they need to say.  In fact, all you really need to learn is 5 or 6 plant phrases.
 

“I’m hungry, give me vitamins and minerals!”  Most landscape plants in Wyobraska are saying this most of the time.  Plants say this mostly with yellow leaves during the growing season, but they also say it with leaves that are not as green as they can be.  When they get all of the vitamins and minerals that they want and need, the leaves of most plants are noticeably dark green, and when you feel them, they will have the texture of sandpaper.  Very few trees, shrubs, or perennials growing in Wyobraska landscapes exhibit these optimally fed leaves. 

When plants are saying this, the best way to get the plant the “vitamins and minerals” it needs is to amend the soil that it is growing in with compost and sulfur.  Most compost contains the trace elements that plants need, and sulfur can help your plants get more of the trace elements out of the soil.  Long-term soil development is the best approach to this plant complaint.   For trees, a minor element fertilizer may be a good short-term response to yellow leaves in the summer-time.   But long-term,  an 8-10 foot diameter circle of mulch around the base of the tree is perhaps the best answer.

“I’m thirsty!” 

“Help, I’m drowning!”

Previous Articles

April 27, 2006
Crazy Clematis

May 04, 2006
Ornamental Grasses

May 11, 2006
Perennials

May 18, 2006
Herbs

May 25, 2006
Hummingbird Garden Party

June 1, 2006
Gardening with Kids

June 8, 2006
Wildflower Week

June 15th
Shade Garden

June 29
Thumbs, Feathers, Fruit

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Here’s the phrases you might want to learn:

“I’m thirsty!”  Most gardeners know this easy to understand phrase.  Plants say this when their leaves wilt and the soil around their roots is dry.  Plants say this a lot right after they have been planted or transplanted. 

“Help, I’m drowning!”  Plants say this when their leaves wilt, but the soil around their roots is very wet.  The big difference between the wilting which is caused by being to dry and the wilting which is caused by being too wet is that when the plant is drowning, the wilted leaves don’t turn crispy—they just turn a pale green, but remain supple or soft, at least for a day or two.  On annual or perennial flowers, the entire plant will then just begin to wilt down—remaining pliable until it’s completely dead.  On a tree or shrub, the leaves will turn brown, but hang on to the branch.

“I’m hungry, give me vitamins and minerals!”  Most landscape plants in Wyobraska are saying this most of the time.  Plants say this mostly with yellow leaves during the growing season, but they also say it with leaves that are not as green as they can be.  When they get all of the vitamins and minerals that they want and need, the leaves of most plants are noticeably dark green, and when you feel them, they will have the texture of sandpaper.  Very few trees, shrubs, or perennials growing in Wyobraska landscapes exhibit these optimally fed leaves. 

When plants are saying this, the best way to get the plant the “vitamins and minerals” it needs is to amend the soil that it is growing in with compost and sulfur.  Most compost contains the trace elements that plants need, and sulfur can help your plants get more of the trace elements out of the soil.  Long-term soil development is the best approach to this plant complaint.   For trees, a minor element fertilizer may be a good short-term response to yellow leaves in the summer-time.   But long-term,  an 8-10 foot diameter circle of mulch around the base of the tree is perhaps the best answer.

Fertilizers work quickly to feed hungry plants.  Compost and mulch are long term, slow-release foods.  You can still feed trees and shrubs through July, but then it’s a good idea to hold off on the nitrogen until next growing season. 

“Help, I’m suffocating!”  Trees and shrubs often say this right after they’ve been planted.  They say it when they have been planted too deep and their roots can’t get enough air in the soil to grow.  Roots need a soil environment that has a balance of air and water in order to grow quickly and function optimally.  Trees say “I’m suffocating” by not growing new leaves after they’ve been planted—and in severe cases they say it when their leaves turn brown—just like when they’re saying “I’m drowning”.  Evergreen trees are saying “I’m suffocating” when their bright green needle color slowing fades to dull green, then light green, then brown.   

They can usually be saved if you hear what they are saying when their needle color is still just a dull green.  You save them by digging them up and replanting them.

“I’m injured!”  Because plants can’t run away from animals, people, and storms, they often get injured.  Hail can cause serious injuries, but the most common injuries to trees and shrubs are man-made—from string trimmers and lawn mowers.  Plants say “I’m injured” in several ways, but most commonly by not growing as quickly as they should.  When slow growth is coupled with an obvious physical injury to stems or trunk bark this is what the plant is saying. 

There’s often not a lot you can do to help a plant recover from an injury, EXCEPT, OF COURSE, IF YOU ARE THE ONE DOING THE INJURY, STOP IT!  I am always surprised by the degree of injury from which plants can recover.  I am always equally surprised by the degree to which homeowners can unknowingly injure their plants—especially trees and shrubs.

What you won’t hear plants say, by the way, is “Save me from this insect, fungus, or bacteria!”  That’s because they know that if they are healthy, they can save themselves.  And they also know that if they’re not healthy, nothing you can do can truly save them from the insect, fungus, or bacteria anyway. 

What I like to hear from plants is that big, dark, green “Thanks!”

“Thanks!”