Use local growers’ know-how to find appropriate plants

Is it just me, or do golf courses drive everyone crazy this time of year? Every day on my way to work I pass a golf course. Every day I have this vision of myself leaping out of my truck and running wildly across the green, dropping somewhere in the middle of the expanse of liveliness and letting the grass soak me in. And I simply lie there until that man on the enormous reel mower comes along …

From what readers have written to me, some people are as in love with the first emerging blades of grass as I am; it’s just that they’re not looking forward to a full season of mowing.

One reader from Rockland is looking for ways to reduce the amount of lawn she needs to maintain. Mowing is one concern. Fertility is another. With poor soil, she doesn’t feel good about fertilizing heavily every season. In combination with the poor soil, sloped areas have become a primary concern. Not only does the steep slope in some areas make mowing nearly impossible, the area is so well drained it is not able to hold enough moisture to sustain the grass through dry spells.

Well, thanks to the hundreds of perennials that are hardy in our climate, we’re all in luck when it comes to beautifying problem areas in our landscapes. If you don’t have the time to pick up a book on perennial gardening, perhaps the next best place to learn is at a local nursery. The help you’ll receive from local growers will be much more useful to you than the information on the back of a tag in a mass-market outlet or in a mail-order catalog from halfway across the country. These people have experience with the realities of our climate.

Take Spencer Smith at Windswept Farm Perennials on the Back Winterport Road in Hampden, for example. Smith is a sort of perennial wizard. Give him any combination of environmental conditions (moisture, light and temperature levels) and he will find you a plant to fit the spot. Day lilies and ornamental grasses may be the right choice for sloped areas; coral bells and hostas are great for shady areas. Hundreds of others are flexible enough to fit many different microenvironments.

This May marks the fourth year of commercial production for Smith, but his love for gardening and horticulture has developed over the past 20 years. In fact, according to Smith, he was composting his home and garden wastes long before composting was fashionable. The compost he generates becomes an amendment to the potting soil used for all his perennials and to improve the soil quality of his own garden beds.

One of the reasons Smith is so knowledgeable about perennials may be the long winters in Maine. His winter is spent reading about perennials and plant production. Not all of his knowledge is directed to his business, however. Two years ago Smith was trained as a master gardener by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. In return for that training he helped develop and grow an educational demonstration garden at the university’s research farm in Stillwater.

As his plants begin to emerge in the spring, Smith puts the books away and takes out his trowel. Since the beginning of May, more than 1,000 perennials have been potted into containers and are ready for sale. Although Smith does take special precautions to help overwinter the plants in containers, they are by no means babied. Perennials overwinter on raised beds with only a cover of insulative microfoam and a tarp. When he uncovered the beds this spring, not only was he greeted with emerging plants, but there were a few pansies flowering to boot!

Like many other small horticultural business owners in Maine, Smith prides himself on the good service he gives and quality plants he sells — some things you can’t always find in mass-market outlets. In addition to outstanding service, the perennials you’ll find at Smith’s business (and others in your area) are sure to be hardy enough to thrive in the conditions of our local environment.

Diana George Chapin is the Bangor Daily News garden columnist. Send horticulture questions to Gardening Questions, 1243 State St., #2, Veazie 04401. Selected questions will be answered in future columns. Include name, address and telephone number.