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Gardening with Galligan: By the book

COURTESY PHOTO These are not daffodils but hyacinthoides, a wonderful spring bulb, cousin to the hyacinth but looser and more graceful, with the same range of colors. They’re also quite indestructible.
COURTESY PHOTO
These are not daffodils but hyacinthoides, a wonderful spring bulb, cousin to the hyacinth but looser and more graceful, with the same range of colors. They’re also quite indestructible.

Let’s begin with the first five most important things you need to garden. The second and third most important things are two shovels, one with a straight edge and one with a pointed edge and you really do need both of them.

The one with the straight edge is used actually for edging and if you edge your beds well, as in at least 2 inches deep, grass will not jump in, your mulch will stay put, and in general everything will look neater. The shovel with the pointed edge is used for digging holes and other sundry chores.

The fourth and fifth most important things are two hand trowels and there is a reason to have two. I promise you that at some point when you are using the first one, you will leave it somewhere and not be able to find it.

My solution to this problem has been to ignore my carelessness and use the second one, knowing that the first one will turn up sooner or later. There was a time when I went to the trouble of painting the handles red and I did find that to be a help, so if you have the patience, and you don’t mind having to get the red paint off your hands, that’s a way to go.

Now for the first most important thing: a garden book, and a case in point for why you must have one. Let me begin by saying you don’t need anything fancy; Mine is actually the Gardener’s Diary from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it was a gift. If any of you reading this know a gardener for whom you buy birthday or holiday presents, this is a lovely one.

But your garden book does not need to be lovely, it needs to be ready at hand. The next time you’re in the IGA, go to the dairy department and then turn around and look directly behind you. See all those nice third-grade-type copy books? One of them would be fine. Buy one now. You must have a garden book.

Now for the case in point I promised. Last fall, I had many wild white asters in my garden. They do show up every year and it always seems like a last gift from Mother Nature. For some reason I have never had blue ones and I really like them. Determined to rectify this, last fall I went where I knew they were growing, collected seed and planted the seed in my perennial bed.

I worried that I wouldn’t remember exactly where they were when spring came and would mistake them for weeds. So I put four sticks in the ground marking the square foot where I planted them. Then I worried that it would snow and knock down the sticks, which is of course exactly what happened. But my garden book came to the rescue. There was a drawing, almost to scale, telling me exactly where to look. So buy one now!

Next week: Five other important things you need.