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With the end of the year approaching, many of us won’t be doing much in the way of active gardening. The cooler weather makes winter a great time to do big jobs in the yard. Repair or install drip systems, replace old mulch with fresh (this helps eliminate over-wintering insect pests), and build raised beds for your veggies or rock gardens for your ornamental and landscaping vegetation. Replace your water hungry lawn with something that requires little or no water and no mowing! In general, do that those tasks that aren’t so much fun when the temperatures are in the 100°F range. And don’t forget to water your trees and shrubs if we go for several weeks without adequate rain.
We’ll very likely be getting frosts and freezes from now through as late as April or May, so be ready to protect cold sensitive plants, not to mention exposed water pipes, on those nights when the temperatures are forecast to be near or below freezing. There’s a good publication on our web site that explains just how to protect tender plants. It’s entitled Frost Protection and you can find it here: http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1002.pdf.
Toward the end of this month and into the first months of the new year, bare-root roses and bare-root fruit trees will be widely available in nurseries, so if roses or fruit trees are something you’ve got a hankering for, keep your eyes open and your shovel handy. When planting bare-root plants, soak the roots of the plant in water for a few hours (no longer than a day or two) prior to planting. Dig a hole two or three times larger than the root ball, but no deeper. Cut off damaged roots and gingerly untangle and spread out the remaining roots. Place the plant in the hole and refill with the native soil you just removed. Water well to eliminate air pockets and do not compact the soil by tamping with your feet. Don’t amend the soil or add fertilizer for the first year, although it is a good idea to remove stones and rocks. Do not plant a tree or shrub deeper than its roots require. Planting too deeply exposes the bark of the trunk to rot. If the plant is grafted, as most roses and fruit trees are, plant so that the bud graft union is two or three inches above the soil line. Keep the soil moist but don’t over water as water needs are slight while the plant is dormant.
As the Holiday season nears, living Christmas trees will be for sale in nurseries. If you buy one and want to plant it, look for a tree that is adapted to our climate. Pine trees that will do well here include the Aleppo Pine (Pinus halepensis), the Afghan Pine (Pinus elderica), and the Italian Stone Pine (Pinus pinea). Both the Aleppo and Afghan pine are fast growing. The slower growing Italian Stone Pine is the variety from which pine nuts (seeds, really), popular in Italian cooking, are obtained, so this tree does double duty. Be patient, though, it can take ten or more years to yield the pine cones from which the tasty nuts are obtained. When planting a living Christmas tree, just remove the tree from its pot and place it in a hole that is two or three times the diameter of the pot, then refill the hole with unimproved native soil as above for bare root trees. Again, don’t plant too deeply. Maintain the same soil level that the tree had in its pot.
Remember that the 20th annual High Desert Gardening and Landscaping Conference will be held on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 14 and 15, 2013, at the Windemere Hotel and Conference Center here in Sierra Vista. The registration form, scholarship form, Conference program, and other details are now available on our website at: http://ag.arizona.edu/cochise/mg/HighDesertConf/ConfHomePage.html. There will be a wide range of speakers and topics including hydroponics, food preservation (home canning), an in-depth look at conventional, organic, and GM (Genetically Modified) agriculture, useful garden remedies, a three part beginning vegetable gardening series, tree selection and care and garden photography.
Among the Conference speakers are some local “celebrities”, including Vincent Pinto of Ravens-Way in Patagonia. Vincent will talk about ethnobotany and sustainable landscaping for wildlife. Kief Joshua Manning of Kief-Joshua Vineyards near Elgin will address grape growing and wine making. Attendance at the Conference would make a nice Christmas gift or Valentine’s Day surprise (after all, it is on February 14th) for the special gardener(s) in your life. Register soon as seating is limited.
The Cochise County Master Gardener website (http://ag.arizona.edu/cochise/mg/) is a good gardening resource. You can also read our monthly newsletter there or ask a Master Gardener a question via the online link (if you aren’t a fan of the Internet, call 520 458-8278, X 2176). We’re also at the Sierra Vista Farmers Market the first Saturday of each month.
Happy Holidays and happy gardening!
BILL SCHULZ is a Cochise County Master Gardener who can be reached at billwithccmga@gmail.com.
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