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Garden Tips: Refresh container potting mix

I grow all of my annual flowers in big pots on my back patio. At last count, there were 10 and replacing the potting mix each year would bankrupt me. Instead of buying new potting mix each spring, I refresh and reuse the old.

I start by digging out the dead roots and stems from last year, if I didn’t remove them in the fall. Potting mixes tend to compact throughout the course of the growing season, so I use a trowel and garden knife to break apart residual roots and loosen the mix to a depth of at least
8 inches. Along with loosening the mix each spring, I also add some controlled-release fertilizer and work it into those top eight inches.

After refreshing the mix, I add some new potting mix if the level in the pot has declined because of decomposition or from removing the old plant roots. After several years, I may replace the old mix in the top half of the pot with new because it is not draining well due to the break down of organic matter over time. When I remove old mix, I don’t throw it away. Instead, I mix it into my sandy garden soil.

I recommend investing in a quality potting mix when starting a new container. I prefer a mix that consists of peat moss or coconut coir, perlite or pumice, earthworm castings and some compost. I also like the ones that contain controlled-release fertilizer that the label indicates will last for several months.

I mentioned earlier adding fertilizer to potting mix that is being reused. This is necessary because last year’s plants probably used up most of the available nutrients and whatever they did not use was likely lost through leaching with the frequent watering necessitated by hot weather. The addition of fertilizer to reused potting mix is important for the good growth of the annuals, flower or vegetables, planted in containers. Just imagine the fertilizer needs of a vigorous growing sweet potato vine, trailing petunia or tomato vine.

I prefer controlled-release or “time-release” fertilizers. They are more expensive than traditional water soluble granular fertilizers, but I like the convenience of not needing to reapply them frequently. When I select a controlled-release fertilizer, I look for one that is a balanced fertilizer, one that contains nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). The percentage of these by total weight is indicated somewhere on the product label in that order: N, P and K. Because the amount of nutrients vary with types and brands of fertilizer, I follow the recommendation on the label.

Product labels also indicate the length of time that the nutrients should last. However, because hot summer and fall weather in our region dictates frequent watering, it may not last that long. Consider applying the same fertilizer again in midsummer. If not, you can use a water soluble liquid or crystallized fertilizer if the plants are showing signs of nutrient deficiency, such as yellowing leaves or poor growth.

— Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.

Hot Picks: Downtown market, Red Green, women’s handgun class, garden tips

Comedy: Red Green’s “How to Do Everything Tour”

Star of “The Red Green Show” and noted duct-tape aficionado Red Green will come to Anchorage with “all-new jokes and stories and advice and BS.” 7 p.m. Thursday, Atwood Concert Hall. $48.50. (centertix.net) safety

Women-only beginning handgun class

This class is designed to be a safe place focused on questions that women may have. The class covers how to handle a gun safely, the parts of a gun and how it operates, how to choose a gun, how to load and unload safely, proper stance, trigger control and other skills. 6 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Thursday, Birchwood Recreation and Shooting Park, 20269 Birchwood Spur Road. $99. (441-2415, gunstart.com) outdoors

Raised gardens and composting 101

Can’t wait to get your hands dirty in the garden this summer? There are a few classes this week to help you get the most out of Anchorage’s brief, prolific growing season.

Raised beds are a useful tool for gardeners with limited space in their yards, and they can be built at a level to help reduce the aches and pains produced by kneeling or bending. This class will include information on building raised beds, including instruction on soil-warming techniques. Parents must accompany children. 6 p.m. Monday, Selkregg Chalet, Russian Jack Springs Park, 1600 Lidia Selkregg Lane. $5. (343-4217)

Composting 101 — the how, what and why of composting in Alaska. Learn how to enrich your soil using items that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. Vermiculture will also be presented, and attendees will learn how to use red wiggler worms to eat kitchen scraps and enrich garden plots, containers and house plants. Instructor: Donna Mears. 6 p.m. Wednesday, Selkregg Chalet, Russian Jack Springs Park, 1600 Lidia Selkregg Lane. (343-4217) market

Anchorage Market and Festival

Temperatures are rising, leaves are budding and the outdoor market season has begun. The Anchorage Market and Festival will cover seven acres of downtown with fresh produce, clothes, crafts and souvenirs from more than 300 vendors. There’s free entertainment and food and it’s sure to be a lively atmosphere. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Third Avenue and E Street. Free. (272-5634, anchoragemarkets.com) business

Lemonade Day Workshop

Lemonade Day is an annual event that encourages entrepreneurial skills in youth. Bring your child to learn how to sign up for Lemonade Day, manage the finances and even build a stand. 2 p.m. Saturday, Loussac Library Innovation Lab, Level 4, 3600 Denali St. Free. (343-2841, anchoragelibrary.org)

 

Next ‘Conversations LIVE’ to offer gardening tips and tricks

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – April showers bring May flowers, and May flowers bring the start to gardening season.

On the next installment of WPSU-TV’s “Conversations LIVE,” horticulture educators Tom Butzler and John Esslinger will provide expert tips on how to best spring into summer gardening. Butzler and Esslinger will join veteran host Patty Satalia for the discussion.

“Conversations LIVE: Get Your Garden On!” will air at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 15, on WPSU-TV, WPSU-FM, WQLN-TV in Erie and online at wpsu.org. The 60-minute show is interactive, taking viewers’ phone calls, emails and questions via Twitter. Viewers can join the conversation by calling 800-543-8242 during the show, emailing connect@wpsu.org or tweeting @WPSU with #WPSUConversations.

Butzler is a horticulture extension educator in Clinton County with the majority of his responsibilities in vegetable production. He also developed Penn State Extension’s first online beekeeping course, Beekeeping 101.

Esslinger is also a horticulture educator, working with Penn State Extension in northeastern Pennsylvania since 1995. He focuses on the topics of fruit, vegetable and greenhouse production.

Garden Tips For 8th Ward

Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2014 6:00 am

Garden Tips For 8th Ward

Des Plaines Ald. Mike Charewicz (8th) invites residents to attend his Ward Meeting on Thursday, May 15 at St. Zachary School, 567 W. Algonquin Rd., at 7 p.m.

Guest speakers will include:

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on

Thursday, May 8, 2014 6:00 am.

Larry Miller: Garden tips for a more bountiful harvest

One of the first things to ripen are the fruit trees. If birds are a problem try this: find some pieces of a broken mirror and glue a length of heavy string down the back side and an inch or two up the front. Hang your mirrors with one on each side about halfway up in the tree. Birds will still come to check out the trees but will very seldom land and never stay long enough to have a meal at your expense. If you have enough broken pieces, glue two together with the mirror side out and the heavy string in between the pieces. Baling twine works great for this and it can be flattened and still remain strong.

Apparently, the flash from the mirror or the constantly changing scene frightens them or they think what they briefly see is a predator. Whatever the reason, they will leave the fruit alone as long as the mirrors are hung in such a way so they can move in the wind. This also works for berries, strawberries in particular because they are on the ground and much easier to get without dealing with thorns.

Next time you have a problem with bugs, try sprinkling ordinary powdered cooking garlic around your plants. Garlic powder deters aphids and other small insects. We seldom have bug problems and garden 100 percent organic by interplanting with plants the insects don’t like. Garlic and dill are both good insect deterrents. Just sprinkle a few seeds in with your other plantings. You can also keep the bugs at bay by not mono-cropping. Sew various types of plants together that are beneficial to each other. A very good book on which plants are mutually beneficial is “Carrots Love Tomatoes” by Louise Riotte.

If you grow corn and have problems with raccoons, try the following tricks:

When you plant your corn, put a Kentucky Wonder bean seed in each hill of corn. The fuzz on the bottom side of the bean leaf gets on and in the raccoon’s nose, they don’t like it and will leave the corn alone. Cucumbers, squash, pumpkins and anything that has a prickly stem will keep raccoons from eating your corn. This and the next trick also works to keep cats from using your corn patch as their “digs.” Put a lime in a burlap bag and hold the top closed and walk around the perimeter of the garden while shaking the bag, leaving a white trail behind you. This needs to be done just before the corn is ripe and after moderate to heavy rains for raccoons but as soon as the ground is worked for cats.

If you like garlic and corn but have a problem with birds eating the corn seed after you plant, try planting some garlic in the same place that you plan to plant the corn. You have to plant the garlic first and early enough in order for the garlic to sprout before planting the corn. The birds will pull the garlic sprouts out and you’ll have to stick them back in the ground or even replant some. When you plant the corn, the birds think it’s garlic, which they’ve found not to their liking and leave it alone.

Sunflower seeds have a lot of beneficial properties but can be a bear to hull. Try using a grain mill with the spacing between the burrs wider than for grinding grains, you’ll probably have to experiment some. Properly set, this method will break open every hull, leaving most of the kernels intact. A few kernels will be ground into meal but they can be sifted out and used in a green drink or to make seed milk.

After the kernels are broken out of the shell, stir the mixed hulls and kernels around in a bucket of water; skim off the floating hulls, pour off the water and dry the kernels and meal or eat immediately.

If you refer back to my articles from the past six months, you’ll find items that you can grow that have medicinal properties. If you research them you’ll find that most also repel bugs in your garden. Nature planned it that way, at least that’s my opinion. Interplant medicinal plants, keep bugs at bay and have health beneficials as close as your yard.

Larry R. Miller has been a freelance writer, worldwide health and tness information source since 1982.

Helpful Tips for Building Your Own Herb Garden

By Ethan A. Huff, contributing writer to Natural News

Spring is in the air, which means the sweet essences of flowering citrus, leafy greens and other fresh fare are soon to follow. But for some people, joining in on this bountiful chorus with their own vegetable or herb gardens might sound too intimidating, or they’re not exactly sure where to start. If this is you, the following tips will help simplify the learning curve and get you on track to reaping your own delightful harvest right from your own backyard.

Herbs are among the easiest garden plants to grow during the summertime because they typically perform their best with lots of sun exposure. They can also be grown densely in small spaces, which makes them a preferable option for people who live in condominiums or apartments, or who live on small lots. With just a few square feet, the average backyard grower can maintain a full array of herbs with a lot less effort than you might think.

Place Your Herb Garden Near Your Kitchen

If you have even a little bit of outdoor space, constructing an herb garden close to your kitchen will make it easy for you to access in a pinch. Whether it is a slim edge at the back wall of your house, a corner by the kitchen window or even just a few growing pots clustered together by the back door, even the smallest of backyard spaces can work.

Since they’re typically not as finicky as vegetables, flowers and fruits in terms of their required growing conditions, herbs are an excellent choice for the casual grower looking to spice things up in the kitchen. Just make sure to pick a spot that gets at least half a day of full sun, and plant the herbs that you plan to use the most.

Choose Both Annuals and Perennials

Knowing which herbs grow continually year after year and which have to be planted annually is also important. Many of the most popular herbs, including basil, dill, cilantro and cumin, are annual, which means that they only grow during a single growing season. Perennial herbs like lavender, mint, oregano, rosemary, and thyme tend to live for several years.

“Annual plants grow for only one season and so must be planted each spring,” explains the National Gardening Association (NGA).

“Perennials live for several years. Their foliage dies back in the fall, but the roots overwinter and resume growth the following spring. And biennials grow for two years, growing foliage the first season, overwintering, then forming seeds and dying back at the end of the second season.”

More information about types of herbs, their soil requirements and how to care for them can be accessed at the NGA website:
(https://www.garden.org).

Choose a Design That Works For You

Based on these variances, certain herbs will grow better when grouped together with other herbs of their same kind. Annuals, which require optimal soil conditions and regular watering, as well as warmer weather, can be bunched in the same planter or pot. Perennials, on the other hand, can be relegated to edges of flower beds or in other areas, since they tend to require less care.

“Robust herbs such as sage and rosemary stand up to each other, require little watering and a sharply drained soil,” explains EatLocalGrown.com. “Sage grows prodigiously in summer and will swamp smaller herbs planted too close.

“Herbs such as mint and lemon balm are best kept elsewhere, unless you want a constant battle to keep them from spreading through the other plants.”

*Image of “small herb flower garden” via Shutterstock

GARDENING TIPS: Chemical-Free Weed & Dandelion Control

Posted on: 10:43 am, May 6, 2014, by

May garden tips

Spring is officially here! As we move to working in our yards and gardens here are a few May lawn and garden tips from N.C. Cooperative Extension:

Plants in Flower

• Southern Magnolia, Golden Chain Tree, Kousa Dogwood, Hybrid Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel, Satsuki Azalea, Scotch Broom, Deutzia, Beauty Bush, Weigela, Gumpo Azalea, Roses, Clematis, Honeysuckle, Dianthus, Sweet William, Candytuft, Beadered Iris, Peony, Coreopsis, Poppy, Lady Slipper and Summer Annuals

Fertilizing

• Fertilize summer flowering plants like crape myrtle and rose- of-Sharon this month.

• Do not forget to sidedress or fertilize your vegetable six to eight weeks after germination.

Planting

• Plant gladioli bulbs (corms) this month.

• Plant summer annuals like begonia, geranium, marigold, petunia and zinnia this month.

• The following vegetable plants can be set out this month: eggplant, pepper, tomato and sweet potato.

• The following vegetables can be planted this month: beans, lima beans, cantaloupe, corn, cucumbers, okra, southern peas, pumpkin, squash and watermelon.

Pruning

• Prune your hybrid rhododendron after they finish flowering.

• Prune any hedges that have outgrown their desired shape.

• Begin pinching your chrysanthemums and continue through early July.

• Pick off azalea leaf galls as they form.

• Do not cut back spring bulb foliage until it turns yellow and brown.

Spraying

• Spray the following landscape shrubs for the following insect pests: arborvitae-bag worm, azalea-lace bug, boxwood-leaf miner, euonymus-scale, hemlock and juniper-spruce mites, pyracantha-lace bug and hybrid rhododendron borer.

• Spray iris beds for iris borers.

• Spray the following vegetables if insects are observed: cucumber (cucumber beetle), squash (squash borer and aphids, tomato and eggplant (flea beetle), broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower (worms).

• Weekly sprays on red-tip photinia if leaf spot is observed.

• Continue with rose spray program.

• Keep spraying your tree fruits and bunch grapes with a fungicide program.

• Use pesticides sparingly. Spray only when needed.

Lawn Care

• Fertilize zoysia this month after it has greened up. Do NOT fertilize tall fescue now.

• Start warm season lawns like zoysia in May.

• Mowing heights for your lawn are important. Cut tall fescue and bluegrass at three inches, zoysia at one inch.

Propagation

• Take softwood cuttings of plants like azalea, rhododendron, forsythia, clematis, chrysanthemum and geranium in late May if you have a misting system.

Specific Chores

• Purchase locally grown strawberries.

• Move houseplants outside if desired.

• If weather has been dry, give favorite plants a good soaking once a week.

For more garden tips feel free to visit the Vance County Cooperative Extension Center at 305 Young Street in Henderson.

Tips provided by NC Cooperative Extension

Garden Tips: Growing orchids is easy

Several weeks ago, I was in a big box store and noticed that the gorgeous orchids for sale were flying off the shelves while the traditional pretty potted Easter lilies were sitting there. I suspect that many of these orchids were destined to be gifts for someone special.

The owners of gifted orchids are often orchid novices. They are faced with the dilemma of what to do with a beautiful orchid after it stops flowering. Orchids have the reputation of being hot house plants that need to be pampered. In fact, many types of orchids are easy to grow, and novice owners can save their gifts from an untimely demise with just a little knowledge.

While some orchids are fussy about temperature and light, the ones typically sold in big box and grocery stores are Phalaenopsis orchids. Phalaenopsis orchids, also known as moth orchids, are considered low light orchids and can be grown easily in the home. However, “low light” is a relative term. They still need a good amount of light and will do best in an east-facing window. You can also situate them in a southern- or western-facing window, but they will need the protection of a sheer curtain to block them from direct sunlight.

The Phalaenopsis orchids do not need the warm temperatures of a greenhouse. The temperatures that keep us happy indoors will keep them happy too.

When it comes to potting mix and watering, Phalaenopsis orchids, as well as other orchids, are a bit finicky. Orchid growers each have their preferred mixes. Generally, the mixes should drain quickly but also retain some water for good root growth. Orchid potting mix ingredients may include fir bark, tree fern, sphagnum moss, perlite, lava rock and other materials.

Many of the mass market Phalaenopsis orchids come planted in potting mixes that consist mostly of fir bark. It fits the requirements of being fast draining while holding some moisture, but bark-based mixes tend to break down with time. As fir bark gradually decomposes, it becomes a finer and finer texture.

The broken down bark holds more moisture and nutrients, but also does not allow the roots to get as much air as needed. That is when you need to repeat . Local orchid experts tell me that most orchids planted in fir bark will need to be repotted at least every two years. If you don’t, the roots will start to rot and the plant will die.

I have six miniature orchids sitting on the sill of my east-facing kitchen window. Because orchids like some humidity, I have them sitting on a bed of moist pebbles in window-box trays. Occasionally, one of my orchids bloom, providing me with a great reward in return for little effort.

— Marianne C. Ophardt is a horticulturist for Washington State University Benton County Extension.

Tips for tending your garden in May

Tips for tending your garden in May

Remember the old song about April showers bringing May flowers? We had a few showers and now, a few flowers.

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