Please understand that you are “heeling” in your plants, not “healing” them . If you were “healing” them, you would be making them better as if they were sickly before. Your tips are great…..you just need a proof reader.
Mike,your videos and written text are so beneficial,but for some reason when I propagate hard wood,such as the purple smoke tree,always rot,I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,when you love gardening this is so frustrating. Wish I could meet you personally. I’m going to try the heeling method as well. Keep up your generosity and a big thank you!!! Maybe one day I’ll get it right and have that BIG WOW moment. Thanks much,. Edward from Denton,Tex.
i was wondering if you can take cuttings from a flower. Will they work as well as tree cuttings? Is it any different (than tree cuttings)? Thank you for showing me all this information, I appreciate it!
Mike, you are one of a kind……In my 60 years of gardening, I’ve learned more from you than the shelves full of gardening books I’ve acquired…With 30 acres of woods and fields, I have a LOT of gardens, lily pools etc. As age makes its challenges, it keeps me young in heart.
God bless you for your efforts to help people do their best, learn from their mistakes, and keep healthy with all that exercise, and love of what we are doing………Viva our precious green spaces.
I hope you can help me with a problem I have concerning my Rosebud tree. The bark seem to be coming off of the tree at the base. The base of the tree look dark brown and the bark easily falls off when watering. Do I have insects eating the tree. I need help in saving this lovely tree. Should I use Palmolive soap on the tree and wrap it in white felt? The tree appears to be healthy at the top but I am concerned with the lower trunk. Please advise me on this condition.
Thank you for your courtesy and assistance.
Jan, I’m not sure I can help. One thought is the soil is too wet or not well drained. Could be insects or damage from something, weed whacker or lawn mower. For the insects you can apply a systemic insecticide, maybe something for borers. If the tree is still healthy I wouldn’t be overly concerned, I’m not sure there is anything you can do other than identify the problem. Go to the library and see if they have the Ortho problem solver book.
I really enjoy your gardening tips and videos. I am learning a lot from them
This year I planted Elijah blue fescue grass and a couple of them are turning brown. I water them every other day and it has been VERY hot here. I am wondering if I am watering them too much?
Can you give any help or advice on caring for this plant.
Thanks for the advise. I have been getting more and more into back yard gardening. I am on disablity and working with plants has been good therapy. I have a friend I am trading a few plants with and sure wished I could have seen ths video on heeling in two weeks ago.
Dear Mike
I am hard of hearing and not sure what you were talking about in your heeling video about 3 minutes in. You said dont buy Package plants or trade mark?? Anyone can help would appreciate it.
I really appreciate your information, Mike. I have had a Japanese Maple in a container for a year and a half, and am going to plant it this fall. Question: Do I lop it off at the top first, to make it fuller? Thanks, Mike for your answer….or anyone else that knows the answer!
Mike, just watched your video on heeling in the plants. I have a lot of Foxglove seedlings that have come up voluntarily in my gravel driveway. I will pull them up and heel them in, getting ready for our annual Greenbank Garden Club plant sale in the fall. Thanks so much for this information. Linda Matz, Whidbey Island, Washington.
Hey mike thanks for the info. it really helps. I have a couple apple trees that I need to prune. How should I go about that? I see with some plants you really lop a lot off of it so it fills out and doesn’t get so tall, would that be the same theory on these? I also was wondering about producing more apple trees from the trimmings of the ones I have for myself, from what I understand that is possible isn’t it?
Hey Mike,
I love your informative emails, I’m a gardening junkie, but would love to work in the trade for a living, but it seems so seasonal. In any case you help me to stay inspired.
thank you,
Bob Long
Good stuff Mike, I’ll be using your technique when the cuttings that I’m rooting right now get further along. I’m slowly building my inventory and “donor stock” and hope to have some more things for sale next spring. Thank You for the inspiration.
Thanks Mike! That was helpful. I’m new to gardening and this might be a funny question but I was wondering if you or anyone could tell me – how do you know if a plant is patented or not?? 🙂
I believe the term “heeling in” came from digging the trench, placing all the plants in the trench and covering them with dirt and ‘tamping’ it with your heel, thus “heeling in”. Or, you can ‘kick’ the dirt over them with your heel as you go down the line…no kneeling!
I enjoyed this video very much, I trim and replant or as you say heal in but have always been afraid to cut back too much. I kind of gasped when I seen you trim off the top of that first plant! I have been taking triming from trees with sucessful resuls, and will now try my hand at my different perennial plants. I am 73, but you are never too old to learn! Thanks Mike!
I enjoyed this video very much, I trim and replant or as you say heal in but have always been afraid to cut back too much. I kind of gasped when I seen you trim off the top of that first plant!
I have been watching your videos and would like very much to be able to take advantage of your nusery offer. However we are retired and our fixed income seems to be shrinking as the days pass on, with all the so called changes for the good. Any way, I am 73 my husband is 79, so I do not expect to see good changes for us.. If by chance some thing comes our way I would most certanly try this offer. It seems like something I could do!
So Mike, when you say “healing in”, you mean just putting them someplace until they are ready for a pot? Sounds like temporary planting until they get a little bigger. Makes sense, thanks.
Thanks, Mike! Really good video. What I appreciate about all your videos is that you present it so matter of faculty and clearly, which takes the fear factor out of it for me and encourages me to “just do it”. I am signing off to go into the garden now, and continued good luck with your place!
Hi Mike,
Loved the video. I always left the plants in the container till ready to plant, they would ususally get long and leggy. From now on I’m gonna find a spot too plant them until ready to transplant.
Thank you, Mike,
I have been trying to take cuttings for the two years I have been on my new property. I am now thrilled to know I can heal them rather than having to plant them quickly. I am a retired person & this in a new hobby for me. I am told I have the “best luck” with plants I have put in. I have followed many of your steps in getting things to grow here.
Love this web site wish i could affort some of your information and plants i know they are cheap i respect what you do for nature someday this will be me god bless
If time permits, can you redo the heal in video part to give/show a better angle? The current video of the heal in process was blocked by plants infront of those you were healing.
Just beginning to receive your gardening messages…long story. I grow things. I really don’t know what I’m doing but I feel best when I’m surrounded by growing things. I just read your message on peonies. I have just the place for a couple of plants, but since I’m so near the ocean, about a mile, and we only have a maybe a couple of weeks of frosty mornings each winter and the only hard freeze here was in the early 90s when everyone in northern CAs pipes froze. Do you think they’d have a chance here? Fragrant, beautiful flowers entrance me. Thank you in advance for considering my question.
I work in a nursery/greenhouse, and I watched the owner throw away ten pine trees because they were a little brown. I knew the reason for it – the overhead sprinkler system was spraying certain parts of the trees, and then the sun scorched those wet branches. The owner dug the fork-lift into the root-balls of those beautiful pine trees and hauled them off to a hot, desolate, unwatered area of the grounds to die so he could collect the insurance.
Watching how he handled those little plants tells me he’s all about the money, and nothing about the plants. And god knows you don’t want to lose plants if they can make you money. You’ve taught me a lot about how to treat plants and make them grow, and I’m grateful, and I’ll take the counsel you’ve provided.
I’m moving on. I couldn’t save those pine trees my employer consigned to death, but I can do my part to make sure the plants in my personal care are happy, safe, and productive. (I rescued two artichoke plants my employer was throwing away, and I have two artichokes now. There’ll be more, because these plants don’t feel like I’ll kill them or abandon them if they don’t produce.)
Thank you for all your helpful hints. I have them saved, and they’ll be valuable next year when we get our rototiller fixed and my tiny little garden area ready for some serious planting.
Mike, when I trim my plum tree back this winter, can the trimmings be planted so they produce more trees and how is it done, if it can be done?
By the way I planted my new plum tree that I purchased from Home Depot a little close to a thing I built from a plastic bucket similar to the Topsy Turvy that I saw on TV. When the cucumbers began growing from it, the vines figured out how to grow into my plum tree and they looked like ornamates hanging in my tree.
The plum tree is growing pretty leaves and don’t appear to be damaged but is that a bad thing to allow them to do?
By the way, I like the way you simplify your emails. It makes it easier for me to get FREE advise.
Hi Mike…great video! You have such a green thumb! I’ve always been a little nervous when it comes to heeling in plants…and you heel them in for the whole winter! Amazing.
Please understand that you are “heeling” in your plants, not “healing” them . If you were “healing” them, you would be making them better as if they were sickly before. Your tips are great…..you just need a proof reader.
Yeah, anyone who couldn’t figure out on their own what he meant probably shouldn’t bother trying to grow plants.
Enjoy all the helpful ideas and look forward to a successful year.
Mike,your videos and written text are so beneficial,but for some reason when I propagate hard wood,such as the purple smoke tree,always rot,I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,when you love gardening this is so frustrating. Wish I could meet you personally. I’m going to try the heeling method as well. Keep up your generosity and a big thank you!!! Maybe one day I’ll get it right and have that BIG WOW moment. Thanks much,. Edward from Denton,Tex.
Edward,
Purple smoke bush is challenging, difficult but not impossible to root. Probably won’t work as hardwood cuttings but will work as softwood cuttings in late spring. https://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2015/01/easy-summertime-plant-propagation-techniques-can-home/
i was wondering if you can take cuttings from a flower. Will they work as well as tree cuttings? Is it any different (than tree cuttings)? Thank you for showing me all this information, I appreciate it!
Mike, you are one of a kind……In my 60 years of gardening, I’ve learned more from you than the shelves full of gardening books I’ve acquired…With 30 acres of woods and fields, I have a LOT of gardens, lily pools etc. As age makes its challenges, it keeps me young in heart.
God bless you for your efforts to help people do their best, learn from their mistakes, and keep healthy with all that exercise, and love of what we are doing………Viva our precious green spaces.
camellia with small white balls on the branches ,what is this ??
Button bush maybe.
I hope you can help me with a problem I have concerning my Rosebud tree. The bark seem to be coming off of the tree at the base. The base of the tree look dark brown and the bark easily falls off when watering. Do I have insects eating the tree. I need help in saving this lovely tree. Should I use Palmolive soap on the tree and wrap it in white felt? The tree appears to be healthy at the top but I am concerned with the lower trunk. Please advise me on this condition.
Thank you for your courtesy and assistance.
Jan Hall
Jan, I’m not sure I can help. One thought is the soil is too wet or not well drained. Could be insects or damage from something, weed whacker or lawn mower. For the insects you can apply a systemic insecticide, maybe something for borers. If the tree is still healthy I wouldn’t be overly concerned, I’m not sure there is anything you can do other than identify the problem. Go to the library and see if they have the Ortho problem solver book.
Hi Mike,
I really enjoy your gardening tips and videos. I am learning a lot from them
This year I planted Elijah blue fescue grass and a couple of them are turning brown. I water them every other day and it has been VERY hot here. I am wondering if I am watering them too much?
Can you give any help or advice on caring for this plant.
Thanks
My computer has a slow internet and I can’t watch or hear your videos. Is there someway you could print the matter again like you used to do? thanks
Hi Mike
Thanks for the advise. I have been getting more and more into back yard gardening. I am on disablity and working with plants has been good therapy. I have a friend I am trading a few plants with and sure wished I could have seen ths video on heeling in two weeks ago.
Dear Mike
I am hard of hearing and not sure what you were talking about in your heeling video about 3 minutes in. You said dont buy Package plants or trade mark?? Anyone can help would appreciate it.
Joan,
I said don’t buy patented plants or trademarked plants if you intend to propagate them and sell them. Sorry it was hard to hear.
Ok…ceea ce faci e de apreciat si de urmat … inclusiv aici in Romania… Thanks for all your advice and videos.
I really appreciate your information, Mike. I have had a Japanese Maple in a container for a year and a half, and am going to plant it this fall. Question: Do I lop it off at the top first, to make it fuller? Thanks, Mike for your answer….or anyone else that knows the answer!
Mike- Love your vidoes as well as all the newsletters and gardening info. Thank you for sharing with us, so we might learn as well.
Heal, heel so what — leave him alone! He’s by far more successful than most of us..
Mike, just watched your video on heeling in the plants. I have a lot of Foxglove seedlings that have come up voluntarily in my gravel driveway. I will pull them up and heel them in, getting ready for our annual Greenbank Garden Club plant sale in the fall. Thanks so much for this information. Linda Matz, Whidbey Island, Washington.
Hey mike thanks for the info. it really helps. I have a couple apple trees that I need to prune. How should I go about that? I see with some plants you really lop a lot off of it so it fills out and doesn’t get so tall, would that be the same theory on these? I also was wondering about producing more apple trees from the trimmings of the ones I have for myself, from what I understand that is possible isn’t it?
Hey Mike,
I love your informative emails, I’m a gardening junkie, but would love to work in the trade for a living, but it seems so seasonal. In any case you help me to stay inspired.
thank you,
Bob Long
I have learned so much from you Mike.
Thanks for all your advice.
I have learned some much from you Mike.
Thanks for all your advice.
Good stuff Mike, I’ll be using your technique when the cuttings that I’m rooting right now get further along. I’m slowly building my inventory and “donor stock” and hope to have some more things for sale next spring. Thank You for the inspiration.
mIKE, PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO ROOT HYDRANGEAS AND CAMILIAS.
THANKS
Thanks Mike! That was helpful. I’m new to gardening and this might be a funny question but I was wondering if you or anyone could tell me – how do you know if a plant is patented or not?? 🙂
That would be called “kicking in” would it not??
You rock, Mike!
I believe the term “heeling in” came from digging the trench, placing all the plants in the trench and covering them with dirt and ‘tamping’ it with your heel, thus “heeling in”. Or, you can ‘kick’ the dirt over them with your heel as you go down the line…no kneeling!
I enjoyed this video very much, I trim and replant or as you say heal in but have always been afraid to cut back too much. I kind of gasped when I seen you trim off the top of that first plant! I have been taking triming from trees with sucessful resuls, and will now try my hand at my different perennial plants. I am 73, but you are never too old to learn! Thanks Mike!
I enjoyed this video very much, I trim and replant or as you say heal in but have always been afraid to cut back too much. I kind of gasped when I seen you trim off the top of that first plant!
I have been watching your videos and would like very much to be able to take advantage of your nusery offer. However we are retired and our fixed income seems to be shrinking as the days pass on, with all the so called changes for the good. Any way, I am 73 my husband is 79, so I do not expect to see good changes for us.. If by chance some thing comes our way I would most certanly try this offer. It seems like something I could do!
Thanks Mike very helpful! I’m pretty new to all this and am wondering…how do you know if a plant is patented or not?
So Mike, when you say “healing in”, you mean just putting them someplace until they are ready for a pot? Sounds like temporary planting until they get a little bigger. Makes sense, thanks.
Blair
Thanks, Mike! Really good video. What I appreciate about all your videos is that you present it so matter of faculty and clearly, which takes the fear factor out of it for me and encourages me to “just do it”. I am signing off to go into the garden now, and continued good luck with your place!
Hi Mike,
Loved the video. I always left the plants in the container till ready to plant, they would ususally get long and leggy. From now on I’m gonna find a spot too plant them until ready to transplant.
Thank you.
Diana
Enjoyed your video, Mike!
I’ve always used the term “heeling in,” rather than “healing in,” and that’s the way internet searches will find info for novice gardeners.
Of course, we’re the ones who get healed!! by filling our lives with what you’re so good at teaching us!
Take care!
Thank you, Mike,
I have been trying to take cuttings for the two years I have been on my new property. I am now thrilled to know I can heal them rather than having to plant them quickly. I am a retired person & this in a new hobby for me. I am told I have the “best luck” with plants I have put in. I have followed many of your steps in getting things to grow here.
Thanks for the advice.
very good
It was very informative. I am amazed what we can do to propagate plants. I have rose clippings–now starting to bloom (a tea rose) Thanks
Watering: How much is to little vs to much?????
I thought it was “heeling in”.
Love this web site wish i could affort some of your information and plants i know they are cheap i respect what you do for nature someday this will be me god bless
Mike,
Thanks for this video.
If time permits, can you redo the heal in video part to give/show a better angle? The current video of the heal in process was blocked by plants infront of those you were healing.
Other than this, great video.
Thanks
Just beginning to receive your gardening messages…long story. I grow things. I really don’t know what I’m doing but I feel best when I’m surrounded by growing things. I just read your message on peonies. I have just the place for a couple of plants, but since I’m so near the ocean, about a mile, and we only have a maybe a couple of weeks of frosty mornings each winter and the only hard freeze here was in the early 90s when everyone in northern CAs pipes froze. Do you think they’d have a chance here? Fragrant, beautiful flowers entrance me. Thank you in advance for considering my question.
heel not heal
I work in a nursery/greenhouse, and I watched the owner throw away ten pine trees because they were a little brown. I knew the reason for it – the overhead sprinkler system was spraying certain parts of the trees, and then the sun scorched those wet branches. The owner dug the fork-lift into the root-balls of those beautiful pine trees and hauled them off to a hot, desolate, unwatered area of the grounds to die so he could collect the insurance.
Watching how he handled those little plants tells me he’s all about the money, and nothing about the plants. And god knows you don’t want to lose plants if they can make you money. You’ve taught me a lot about how to treat plants and make them grow, and I’m grateful, and I’ll take the counsel you’ve provided.
I’m moving on. I couldn’t save those pine trees my employer consigned to death, but I can do my part to make sure the plants in my personal care are happy, safe, and productive. (I rescued two artichoke plants my employer was throwing away, and I have two artichokes now. There’ll be more, because these plants don’t feel like I’ll kill them or abandon them if they don’t produce.)
Thank you for all your helpful hints. I have them saved, and they’ll be valuable next year when we get our rototiller fixed and my tiny little garden area ready for some serious planting.
Mike, when I trim my plum tree back this winter, can the trimmings be planted so they produce more trees and how is it done, if it can be done?
By the way I planted my new plum tree that I purchased from Home Depot a little close to a thing I built from a plastic bucket similar to the Topsy Turvy that I saw on TV. When the cucumbers began growing from it, the vines figured out how to grow into my plum tree and they looked like ornamates hanging in my tree.
The plum tree is growing pretty leaves and don’t appear to be damaged but is that a bad thing to allow them to do?
By the way, I like the way you simplify your emails. It makes it easier for me to get FREE advise.
Hi Mike…great video! You have such a green thumb! I’ve always been a little nervous when it comes to heeling in plants…and you heel them in for the whole winter! Amazing.
I always thought of leaving them in the pot until I was ready, but now I will “heal them in”.
Thanks Mike.
I believe it is “heeling in”, not healing. I thought maybe it was something medicinal you were going to share 😉