I’ve been using granulated sugar to feed my garden soil. How often should I use it?
Sugar is not a recommended fertilizer. Perhaps you’ve been confused by reports of “sour” soil that needs to be made “sweet.” Sweet and sour are old-fashioned terms used to describe soil pH. On a pH scale, 7 denotes neutral. A soil pH well below 7 was often called sour, but the correct term is acidic. Most plants that originated in forests like or need acidic soil. A soil pH over 7 was called sweet, but is actually alkaline. Most vegetables, fruits, turfgrass and many ornamental plants need a pH between 6 and 7. Adding lime raises the pH of soil to make it healthy for these plants and was once known as sweetening the soil. Do a soil test to see if your soil pH needs to be raised.
I was given some sweet Bess seeds to plant, and I want to know how to plant them. Years ago when I was growing up in North Carolina, my aunt had a big beautiful sweet Bess bush in her yard, and it had a fantastic aroma.
We think the plant you describe is common sweet shrub, Calycanthus floridus. It goes by several names, including sweet Betsy or Bessie, and propagates easily from seed. Seed germinates after three months of cold stratification at 41 degrees. If the seeds were recently collected from outdoors, they would be fine to plant now. Using regular potting soil, place several seeds in a 6-inch-diameter pot about 1/4 inch deep and cover the pot with clean plastic wrap to maintain uniform moisture. The seeds should germinate in about three weeks.
Plant of the week
Italian arum
Arum italicum ‘Marmoratum’
Here’s an unusual candidate for a winter garden. From fall through winter, Italian arum sports high-gloss, arrow-shaped foliage, heavily veined or speckled with creamy white. In summer, the leaves disappear. A spathe rises up similar to a jack-in-the-pulpit. Arum puts on its second show when the spathe matures into a fat spike of orange-red berries. About 12-18 inches tall, arum clumps slowly increase in width. The bulbs can be divided in summer. Berries readily germinate, so if you want it to stay put, dispose of the collapsed spike. Arum likes organic matter in its soil and moist, light shade, but tolerates summer drought.
—Ellen Nibali
