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Books tell us how to go native —- with plants, that is

Landscaping with native plants goes back thousands of years in San Diego County. The Luiseno of North County practiced fire management to burn back understory and to encourage growth of desirable plants. The Kumeyaay planted cactus to serve as a barrier around some of their villages.

Both groups intimately understood the balance among soils, plants and the overall environment. That knowledge, finely tuned to specific environmental zones, was handed down generation after generation.

Today most of us rely upon books, journals and our favorite nursery for dependable guidance. In recent years, George Miller’s “Landscaping With Native Plants” and “California Native Plants for the Garden” by Carol Bernstein, David Fross, and Bart O’Brien, have been two mainstays for native plant aficionados.

Two new books are out that you may want to slip next to those: “California Native Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide” by Helen Popper, and “Growing California Native Plants” by Marjorie G. Schmidt and Katherine L. Greenberg. If you grow a garden, appreciate native plants or just want to learn more about them, you need these books.

Popper is an associate professor of economics at Santa Clara University. Her “Month-by-Month Guide” is the first such guide to gardening with native plants. The casual reader may be surprised to find that the first of 13 well-written chapters begins with October, not January.

In recognizing that California’s true seasons start in October, Popper hearkens back to local writer Judy Van Der Veer’s poetic 1940 book, “November Grass.” In San Diego County, as October unfolds, we eagerly await the November rains and the change of seasons from summer. In many ways, our “spring” kicks in somewhere in the weeks that straddle mid-October/late November. The rebirth of our native plants begins then; they know that the cycle is not based on a year divided into 12 months.

Popper takes us through the months with tips and ideas on what to plant, when to fertilize (virtually never, except for natives in pots), when and how to harvest seeds for next year’s crop, and when to prune native plants. The beauty of her approach is that one can flip through the book at leisure and then focus on the month at hand.

Popper sees the relationship between native plants, wildlife, and humans as mutual. She tells us to let some plants go to seed, not only to provide next year’s crop but also to provide sustenance for birds, especially quail. A tip for June is to take cuttings from plants such as red elderberry, toyon, and big-leaf maple for planting in fall.

The tips and guidance are easy to understand, practical and focused on the season, as well as on what type of garden you may be tending. Whether you fancy a native herb garden or a formal garden, Popper has ideas and resources for you. She even explains how a serene Japanese garden can be devoted to native plants such as dogwood, pines and manzanita. As Popper notes in her introduction, gardening with native plants means to grow what belongs here, and to bring to life, or maybe even back to life, a landscape older than human occupation of the area.

When it came out in its first edition, “Growing California Native Plants” served as a guide to native plant gardeners, and in the intervening 30 years, it became a classic. Recently reprinted with more than 200 new color photos, this book is truly a sturdy scion from the original. Authors Schmidt and Greenberg clearly know their plants and how to share that knowledge with us. The late Schmidt was a dedicated gardener for decades and wrote for Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant Society. Greenberg is a designer/gardener who has been president of the Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden and Pacific Horticulture Society. She and her editors have taken a wonderful book and made it timely and expansive.

In contrast to Popper’s month-by-month guide, “Growing California Native Plants” is a compendium of native plants with vivid descriptions, planting tips and vivid photos. The book begins with a description of California habitats, then moves into how to plant a native garden. One useful suggestion is to use organic mulch, such as leaf litter, to retain moisture and to present a more finished look in the garden.

The rest of the book is a thorough, well-presented guide to our native plants. When applicable, the authors provide a notation on cultivars to help you choose plants that best fit your environment. An excellent plant selection guide covers 18 criteria, including plants that are deer-resistant (manzanitas), good for containers (yerba buena), useful as hedges (lemonade berry), and hummingbird attractors (yarrow). When the photos and descriptions of plants are combined, they offer a field guide to the world within, and well beyond, our gardens.

Both books offer valuable ideas on fire-safe landscaping, a topic of particular interest to those of us surrounded by overgrown canyons and dry brush. The concept is to grow a garden that protects you, not endangers you. Tips include reducing fuel by cleaning out dead plants and limbs, and maybe even removing some highly flammable non-natives such as pepper trees, acacia and upright rosemary.

The books include extensive print bibliographies for those who want to read more, with the Popper book also providing Internet sources. Schmidt and Greenberg’s book lists retail sources of native plants and seeds, although it is skewed toward resources well beyond San Diego County. San Diego Botanic Garden (formerly Quail Botanical Gardens) in Encinitas is noted in both books as a place to go.

Both books should be considered essential to home gardeners seeking to “go native,” and would be comfortably at home on a coffee table or soiled potting bench. In fact, a second copy of “Growing California Native Plants” could nestle in your rucksack or day pack for those hikes into the native habitats that thrive nearby.

 

Matthew Benson’s tips for garden photography

Matthew Benson’s photo tips

Get up early and stay out late. Early and late light are magical. Gardens are more vibrant when the sun is not directly overhead.

Back-light. Shoot into the light, putting the plant material between you and the sunlight.

Move around through your garden to get a better angle on your picture.

Have a point of view. Try to tell a story about what you are shooting.

Don’t be afraid to edit. Delete shots that aren’t what you expected. Then try new ways to approach that shot.

Rodale author Matthew Benson shares tips in his book ‘The Photographic Garden’

Gardens awaken our senses — we smell them, see them and even hear them, as plants rustle in the breeze. They paint pictures so beautiful that sometimes we can’t help but reach for a camera, hoping to capture what we see.

We snap a shot, or perhaps more, then check the viewfinder to see what we’ve captured … only to be disappointed. Sadly, the colors are muted and the shots don’t truly reflect the beauty of what we are seeing.

To improve your garden photography, “you have to learn to see like a camera, work like a professional and imagine and create like an artist,” says Matthew Benson, author of a new book, “The Photographic Garden: Mastering the Art of Digital Photography” (Rodale, 182 pp., $12.99).

A professional photographer, as well as contributing editor to Organic Gardening magazine, Benson’s garden photographs have appeared regularly in magazines, books and catalogs. He also travels around the country lecturing on garden and landscape photography.

Next week, he is coming to Emmaus to share some garden photography tips.

Benson, who lives on a small farm in New York’s Hudson River Valley, will kick off his visit with a reception 5:30-8:30 p.m. Friday at FloreAnts Projects Gallery, 215 Main St., where he’ll also sign copies of his new book.

He’ll return to the gallery 10 a.m.-noon Saturday for a lecture followed by a question and answer session and an exhibit of some of his photos. From 5-8:30 p.m., he’ll offer a workshop, Mastering the Art of Digital Garden Photography. It offers a chance to practice what he teaches by taking photos at the Organic Gardening Experimental Farm Homestead on Minesite Road.

Registration for the lecture and workshop is limited, so you must sign up early. And you must attend the lecture to enroll in the workshop.

Benson says his book is not “an introduction to photography, or photography for dummies.” It’s for aspiring photographers who want to learn how to take more artistic and meaningful photos.

And although it helps, you don’t need an expensive camera to do that. You can step up your game with most point-and-shoot cameras, he says. As long as your camera has settings that can be adjusted for certain conditions, such as too much or too little light, you can learn to get better results.

It’s important to first learn how to use those functions to help you add more light, new perspectives and more drama to your photos.

Even an expensive digital SLR camera does not guarantee good pictures. “Technology doesn’t tell you what visual ideas to have,” he says. “You have to decide what story you are trying to tell with your photo.”

For those who aren’t born with it, this means developing a sense of aesthetics. “That’s what this book is really all about — developing the artist in aspiring photographers,” Benson says.

He does this in a number of ways, the first of which is learning to see like a camera.

The camera, says Benson, does not see the entire picture you’re seeing when you look at a garden. It puts a portion of what you are seeing into a square or rectangular frame. Be it an all-encompassing landscape you want to capture or a close-up, your job is to learn how to focus on what is important to you. That means editing out things that aren’t needed in your picture as you are planning what to shoot.

First, you have to understand what visually is important to you. A good way to do this, Benson says, is to go through magazines and find photos that appeal to you. Clip them, then study them to figure out what it is about those photos that capture your eye.

To help you get a better understanding of what makes some photos appealing, he explains the seven principles of design — balance, tone, pattern, repetition, movement, contrast and unity — and how they can improve a photo.

To better utilize these principles, Benson says you must move through your garden to find new and interesting angles.

“Don’t just stand there five or six feet up from the ground and expect the shot to come to you,” he says. If you are shooting a low-growing flower, get down to that flower’s level, he says.

Lighting also is key to better photos. Early morning and evening, when sunlight is softer, are great times to take garden photos, he says. Your results will be more vibrant than when the sun is high overhead.

Container Gardening Tips

You often realize you want a garden but do not have enough space? Ever thought of doing a garden with containers?

This is becoming more popular with limited space.

Did you know you can grow a tomato from an old potato sack or a 5-gallon bucket or plant lettuce in window flower boxes? You even can plant a vined cherry tomato plant in hanging basket.

The key is to have a large enough container for the size of the roots. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants would take at least a 5-gallon bucket. Green beans could be grown in a medium-size flower pot. Radishes and onions can be grown in small pots.

I have seen whole container gardens grown in plastic kiddie pools no longer used for play.

With container gardens you will want to have a clean container free of any chemicals or other issues that are not for a garden. You will want to clean out the container. You will need to cut some holes in the container with a punch or drill. You will want to fill the container with a mixture of regular soil and bagged soil from your lawn and garden center.

Container gardens will need to be watered daily in most cases, but you need to check it. Make sure you buy healthy plants that can set roots quickly. You also can plant from seed, but it will take you a little longer to get the product. When growing the container always check for pests, again check for water. You can get “Vegetable Gardening in Containers,” publication number E-545 3-09 on the Texas AgriLife website or call the Hale County office at 806-291-5267 and we can get you a publication.

Garden Checklist!

Create a checklist for your gardens

•Prune spring flowering shrubs soon after flowering. Avoid excessive cutting except where necessary to control size.

•Roses have high fertilizer requirements. For most soils, use a complete fertilizer for the first application just as new growth starts, then use ammonium sulfate or another high nitrogen source every four to six weeks, usually just as the new growth cycle starts following a flowering cycle.

•Continue to spray rose varieties susceptible to black spot, use a spray recommended for fungus control every seven to 10 days. Many older and new rose varieties have resistance to black spot.

•You already may have planted or transplanted many of your warm-season annual flowers but remember to keep seeded and bedded areas moist and keep them weeded out.

•Bagworms will be on evergreens and junipers. Control measures such as Sevin dust or spray should be applied when the insects and the bags are one-half inch in length.

•Caterpillars on oak trees feed on leaves. Most often the oak trees will grow the leaves back and resume normal healthy activity.

•Check new tender growth on all plants for aphids. A few can be tolerated, but large numbers cannot and should be controlled by the appropriate spray. Always remember to read the label.

•Check your area for varmints/critters; these can be the worst pests eating gardens and flowers. Put up fencing around the garden or put the plants up high, if possible, at night.

•Start weeding early to be able to keep down the competition for water and nutrients.

•Scout for armyworms and cutworms with the large moth influxes in your garden.

Sign up for texts from Extension and visit us on Facebook.

Gary Cross is Texas AgriLife

Extension ag and natural resource agent in Hale County.

gary.cross@ag.tamu.edu

Garden Tips: Get to know which insects, diseases threaten tomatoes

Tomatoes, the most popular vegetable grown in home gardens, can be attacked by a number of diseases and insects.

Blossom end rot causes the bottom of the tomato to turn dark and hard. There is no cure for this, but it can be prevented.

Have your soil tested for the proper pH. Blossom end rot is caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. Tomatoes need a soil pH between 6.0 and 6.5. Also, keep tomatoes moist during hot weather, and don’t apply too much nitrogen fertilizer.

Early blight causes the lower leaves of the plant to turn yellow and die. Tomatoes with early blight will have brown-to-black spots a quarter- to a half-inch in diameter, and dark edges will appear on the leaves.

Early blight can be controlled by chemical or cultural practices. If chemicals are used, check with your local nursery or garden center to see what chemical is recommended.

Cultural controls include making sure tomatoes are not planted in the same spot year after year.

Also, remove plant debris in the fall to keep the disease from spreading.

Make sure there is good air circulation around your plants.

Some of the most common insects found on tomato plants:

— Aphids are small insects with piercing mouths. They may be red, black or green. These insects are called plant lice because they suck plant juices. Aphids work on the stem of the plants and the underside of the leaves.

— Cutworms are dark gray to brown and may be solid or spotted with yellow stripes. Cutworms injure seedlings and young, tender plants by cutting them off near the soil surface.

— Spider mites are small yellow- to dark-green spider-like pests that are very small. They suck the plant juices and cause the plant to turn a faded yellow.

Early detection will help in your effort to control these insects.

E-mail your gardening questions to bleigh1@utk.edu. Include your name and where you live. For more gardening information, call the Tipton County Extension office at (901) 476- 0231 or the Shelby County Extension office at (901)752-1207. Booker T. Leigh is the Tipton County extension director.

Gardening Tips: Compost Happens

My friend Sheryl spent the end of her holiday weekend up to her ankles in lettuce. Unfortunately she was not in her garden…but in her kitchen.

The garbage disposal had clogged up. Sheryl found her trusty plunger, and with the strength built from years of motherhood, attacked the problem. Two strong pushes, and it was out! It, meaning the lettuce and assorted garbage company, and Out, meaning all over the under-the-sink contents and then quickly all over the kitchen floor. Sheryl’s efforts had blown apart the joints in the pipes. What a gal! What a mess.

I could have saved my friend this messy end to a lovely weekend. I could have told her what I have learned, although it sounds completely un-American: do NOT put anything in your disposal.

Now before you think I’ve set us back 30 years, you need to know it’s not my opinion. This is the sage advice of the last five plumbers who have visited my home, who not only unclogged my pipes, but also sold me new garbage disposals. This, which I am sharing with you, is commonly called “highly paid research.”

Gardening Tips: Compost Happens

“Don’t put your potato peels down your disposal, and not your eggshells, coffee grounds or especially (I’m sorry, Sheryl, I would have told you if you’d asked)…LETTUCE.”

“Well, what can I put in the garbage disposal?” I asked, exasperated.
“Nothing,” he said.
“Well, then, why have one?”
“So you can see me twice a year?” I swear he winked, as he handed me back my Visa card.

So what to do with those kitchen scraps?

I have the answer, and it’s EASY! Compost, compost, compost.

Instead of feeding the drain in your kitchen sink, feed your garden! Keep a bowl or a plastic bag on your counter top and scrape all your vegetable trimmings, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea leaves (yes, including the filters and tea bags), anything veggie or fruit that’s gone past its prime, even the gooey ones, rinds, cores, cobs. If you have time, chop up the big pieces.

What Not to Use

Dump the meat and dairy products into the trash. No bones, skin, etc. You may already know why, or you may not want to know why, but the word “maggot” should suffice.

What to Do With It

There’s the easy way, the easier way, and the easiest way. Compost needs a place to do its thing, which is to break down into nutrients that your garden can use. This can mean a very simple pile in the backyard, where you just layer the vegetable scraps with other organic material, such as leaves or grass you’ve piled up and thrown on top. If you need a tidier solution, you can find compost bins at nursery centers, or places such as Costco or Sam’s (where I found mine — a 3-x-3-x-3 foot plastic container with a place that lifts up so you can get to your ‘black gold.”)

Or you can create your own compost pile using chicken wire in a round shape to contain the materials. Your pile will need air to make its magic, and a way for you to get in once a week to mix it all up with a pitchfork.

Or, the very easiest way to use your composting material is to take your scraps outside. Find a place to dig a hole and bury them. Don’t worry that pets or wild animals will dig them up — they are only interested in protein material, and remember that we’ve already ruled that out. What you bury will decompose and add valuable nutrients back to the soil, helping everything grow better.

How to Know When It’s Ready

It will take a couple of months for it to break down into something usable. You’ll recognize it when you see it — nice dark brown “stuff.” It should feel like a damp sponge in your hand. You can just sprinkle it around your flower or vegetable beds, or if you are making a new garden, dig it into the top few inches. It will help retain moisture, a benefit for all gardens.

Kitchen scraps are a good place to start, but once you are saving them you might consider other additions to your compost pile. Have a personal shredder? (This appliance may take over the garbage disposal’s reign!) Shredded paper and newspaper (but not the comics or colored ink papers) are great for the pile. They add the necessary “brown” part of a “brown and green” compost pile. Also, you can add dryer lint, pet hair, and human hair. Some composting friends of mine ask their hair stylists to save the hair — it’s organic and breaks down nicely. Oh, and did I mention that some friends of mine visit their favorite coffee houses at the end of the day to ask for the leftover grounds?

There are folks who spend a lot of time doing this. They use expensive thermometers to test the heat of their pile, and they debate the proper ratio of brown vs. green. They use elaborate methods to turn their kitchen scraps into Black Gold for their gardens.

For me, it’s enough to know I’m recycling, reusing, and trying my best to earn a small part of the title of Mother Earth. I’m returning what I use to where I received it.

And the next time that plumber comes to visit, I plan to serve him a shredded lettuce salad, grown in my garden, and served on my patio. And I’m the one who’ll be winking.

Gardening Tips: Roses – Selection & Care

Roses: the perennial symbol of love. A single bloom worn on the lapel, a cluster on the wrist, waist, or bosom, all lovely displays of affection, esteem, and caring. A dozen long-stemmed red roses, boxed or wrapped, is the ultimate token of undying passion. Growing these flowers is not the foreboding task it seems! While the idea of a formal rose garden conjures up images of stately rows of bushes, one does not need to be a professional gardener with acres of free space to successfully cultivate beautiful blossoms.

Rose types: characteristics and maintenance

Hybrid Tea Rose: This is the rose that you purchase at the florist shop for Valentine’s Day. They bloom from early spring through the first frost. Available in a large variety of hues, from traditional solids to bicolor blossoms, they are readily available commercially. It works best to prune these bushes down to 14-18 inches in the early spring. When pruning (this goes for all rose types) concentrate on the three D’s: dead, diseased, and damaged canes. If you wish to thin the bush further, remove any crossing or weak branches. The flowers themselves are long and conical and grow one per stem. To get the biggest blooms, identify the main bud on each stem and carefully nip off any tiny side buds. Though the most prone to diseases, hybrid teas are the ideal cut roses.

Gardening Tips: Roses – Selection Care

Floribunda: This class of rose also blooms continuously through the growing season. However, unlike the hybrid tea, these roses grow in clusters and are shaped like saucers. In general they are hardier and more resistant to disease than hybrid teas and are useful as a flowering hedge.

Grandiflora: This bush combines the best of the hybrid teas with the best of the floribundas. It is hardy, disease resistant, and produces many flowers. The flowers themselves look much like hybrid tea roses and require the same care.

Old Garden Rose: This catchall category includes any rose that traces its history to before the introduction of the hybrid teas (1860′s). The ones indigenous to the southern US require little care. The northern species should be pruned once in the early spring and once again after the first burst of flowers has run its course.

Climbers: Climbers come in ever blooming and once blooming varieties. Ever blooming plants should be pruned carefully in the early spring, leaving new branches to grow whenever possible. To encourage continued flowering, cut back spent stems to 1/2 inch above the second set of five leaflet leaves. Once bloomers should be pruned after flowering. As the name implies, climbers need a trellis or other support system. Hardy varieties make an excellent ground cover — simply secure the canes to the ground.

General rose care includes feeding a balanced fertilizer or rose food three times a year: early spring, after the first bloom, and mid-August to encourage a fall flowering. Roses require a good soaking once a week and a light watering on the other days. There are many commercially available products to help control diseases and pests. Check the package for specific directions and follow them exactly! Like all chemicals, insecticides, fungicides, and other aides should be stored in locked cabinets.

Your location is very important when deciding which types of roses to purchase. While a good nursery will only carry plants that grow well in your area, a catalog may not specify a growing area. In general, hybrid teas do well in the northern US People living in the Deep South or the Gulf States would do better to buy Old Garden Roses, which are more tolerant of high heat and humidity.

Roses should be purchased for planting in the early spring (and/or fall in the southern US). The best time to buy a plant is when it is available locally. Once you get your bush home, unpack the roots and immerse in a bucket of water for 24 hours. At this time you can cut and remove any damaged canes. Prepare the planting space by digging the hole deep enough to bury the bud union (a knot or bulge in the main stem above which the plant starts branching) and mixing the loose soil with compost or peat moss. When you set the plant in the hole, make sure to spread the roots out. Fill the hole with the soil/compost mixture and tamp it down. Water thoroughly. When the water has soaked in, finish filling the hole.

While rose care may seem involved or difficult, the above instructions are really guidelines. Personally, I once let my hybrid teas go three years without pruning with no ill effects — and boy, do they get tall! And while I do buy commercial insecticides, I don’t use commercial fertilizers. There is really no reason other than laziness and lack of time. Yet, year after year, I get scores of gorgeous peachy-pink roses on my three bushes.

Now, a word for apartment dwellers. If you do not have a plot of land to call your own, it does not mean that you are to be bereft of the beauty of homegrown roses. Miniature rose bushes are available and can be grown in a container as small as a teacup. Purchase the kits from a reputable nursery or home and garden supply outlet, and follow the directions carefully. This is my first year trying minis in the house. I have five hearty seedlings from about 20 seeds planted in a four-inch pot. I hope to transfer the largest to its own container next week. Wish me luck!

Happy gardening!

Gardening Tips: Repairing Your Damaged Lawn

When is your lawn’s trouble time? After the winter? After the hot, dry summer? As with most problems, ignoring your lawn’s needs will not make them go away. There are as many kinds of lawn problems as there are types of grass. I will focus here on a few of the more common lawn woes.

The time of year to repair your lawn varies in the US. In the North, you should repair your lawn in the fall. Spring or early summer is the best time for repairs if you live in the South.

First and foremost, before you start working on your lawn, you need to do some basic clean-up. Remove all trash, rocks, and organic debris such as dead leaves, sticks, twigs, etc. Next mow your lawn. You should cut slightly lower than the usual recommendation for your type of grass (see Caring for Your Healthy Lawn) so you can more easily observe trouble spots.

Gardening Tips: Repairing Your Damaged Lawn

Bare spots

Bare spots are probably the most common lawn dilemma. However, they are relatively easy to fix, too. Start by turning over the top four to six inches of soil. Break up any compacted areas. Work a good quality fertilizer into the newly churned soil. Rake the area smooth and sprinkle with grass seeds. Run a shovel gently over the area to press the seeds into the dirt to prevent them from blowing away. Water lightly. Cover the seeds with mulch, such as hay or a length of burlap, depending on the size of your bare spot. Continue to water lightly until the grass is established. A thorough drenching may cause the seeds to wash away, resulting in unsatisfactory coverage of your bare spot, so frequent light waterings are preferred. Do not mow new growth until it reaches a height of at least two inches!

Thatch

Thatch is not the result of an accumulation of grass clippings. In fact, if you have a relatively weed-free lawn, leaving your clippings on the ground is a great way to add nutrients back to the soil. Thatch is actually a rotting buildup of leaf sheaths, roots, and other organic matter. There is a certain amount of thatch in all lawns, and a small amount serves several beneficial purposes. However, too much thatch provides a breeding ground for insects, prevents water from reaching the roots, and makes it difficult for new grass to grow.

The most efficient way to eliminate thatch is to use a power rake. These can usually be rented from a gardening tool supplier for a minimal fee. The power rake must be set to cut completely through the thatch and a short way into the soil. After a few passes you’ll need to stop and rake up the newly harvested thatch. Save this matter for the compost heap!

Seeding a thin lawn

A power rake is not only the most effective dethatcher, it is a great tool to use when you overseed your lawn. Overseeding is the process of spreading seed over your existing lawn in order to thicken it. Make a pass over your entire lawn with the power rake set low enough to expose the soil. The cuts in the soil will give the seeds a firm hold on your turf.

Purchase a high quality grass seed. The investment in hearty, weed-free seed is worth the additional cost. In the long run, you will save time and money by not having to purchase products to kill weeds and/or remove weeds by hand.

Spread the seed lightly using a spreader for even distribution. Check the seed bag for recommendations for overseeding. If there are none, spread the seed at about half the rate you would for establishing a new lawn. Water lightly, as you would when covering bare spots. Until your new lawn is established you should continue the light waterings. Once the lawn is established, follow the usual recommended watering schedule. This means wetting the soil using a sprinkler system until the soil is wet to a depth of 9-12 inches.

Weed control

Specific methods for destroying the many various lawn weeds are beyond the scope of this article. If you are plagued by a particular weed, your local nursery should have information on its control. If not, a book on basic lawn care should give you good advice. However, for most weeds, a post-emergent weed killer will work. The down side is that you will have to wait until the weeds sprout before taking action. Also, herbicides are not picky. They’ll kill your grass, shrubs, and flowers as well as your targeted weeds, so you need to be careful when applying weed killer. Weed killers come with warning labels. Read the warnings and follow the directions for use exactly!

Pest control

Once again, specific methods for destroying the innumerable insects that can invade your lawn are beyond the scope of this article. The best defense, in this case, is a good offense. Keeping your lawn healthy by properly watering, mowing, and fertilizing will leave you less open to invasion by pests. If the infestation has already occurred, you may need to resort to commercial insecticides. Once again, read the warning label and follow the directions exactly!

While some plants thrive with minimal care, grass is not one of them. Like so many of us, you may have subscribed to the adage, “If it is green and it grows, it is good enough for me.” This does not have to be the case! Maintaining your lawn properly is the best way to combat bugs, weeds, and diseases. A healthy lawn, one you can walk through barefoot in the summer, is a joy to behold. Make it a family project, read all you can, and get started. A lawn that is the envy of the neighborhood is just a short year away!

Happy Gardening!

Gardening Tips: Watering Basics

Remember second grade? Growing tomato plants on the window ledge to prove that plants need three things to survive: water, soil and light. I clearly remember the carton that we did not water never even sprouted (as opposed to the one we kept in the closet to deprive it of light — that one grew like crazy!)

Well, second grade science experiments aside, plants do need three things to survive. And while your plants will most likely grow, if not thrive, once they are in the soil outside, nothing will live long without water. Letting a plant, even a hearty, well-established one, go without water for even a short time can result in severe damage, or even kill it.

Ideally, nature would alleviate our need to water by providing us with 30 minutes of gentle rain six mornings a week. However, since some areas don’t even get 30 minutes of rain all summer, counting on Mother Nature is chancy at best! And, of course, as a responsible gardener, you know that overwatering is unnecessary, unhealthy for the plants, and a waste of a valuable resource. Conserving water should be a goal for all gardeners.

Gardening Tips: Watering Basics

The high heat and low humidity of the summer months causes plants to release much of their water to the air. This process is called transpiring, and I think of it as plants sweating. The more severe the heat and humidity conditions, the more water is lost to the air. It follows that areas that are cooler and moister need fewer supplemental waterings, while areas that are hotter and drier will need more.

The best way to water outside gardens is to use a sprinkler or a trickle irrigation system. Few people have the patience or time to adequately water large swaths of lawn or garden. Your garden’s water requirements may surprise you. While some plants, such as cacti, will grow well in drought conditions, the average plant needs one inch of water per week. When rainfall is sparse, you must supply the extra water yourself.

In general, light sprinklings do more harm then good. The goal is to water deeply, hence the use of a sprinkler. Shallow waterings encourage the roots of plants to grow on the surface in order to maximize the amount of water received by the plant. In hot weather the surface of the soil dries rapidly, quickly denying the plant its water. Deep waterings encourage the plant to send roots down deep into the ground where water is retained more readily. Continued deep waterings will ensure healthy growth.

The following is a partial list of the particulars of watering different types of plants:

Roses: Roses require one inch of water a week. The best method is to use a soaker hose. Lay the hose along a row of bushes and cover with an organic mulch. Turn on the water whenever moisture is needed. If you use a sprinkler, do so in the morning. Water on the leaves will make your plant prone to disease. The sun will cause water on the leaves to evaporate. Do not use a sprinkler at sunset or after dark! The benefits of using a sprinkler include washing off dust and insects and leaving your faucets available.

Bulbs: Bulbs should be watered thoroughly when planted and during dry spells. Try to keep the water off the leaves, instead watering at the base of the plant. Like roses, bulbs should get one inch of water a week.

Shrubs: The water needs of shrubs vary greatly depending on the type of shrub you have. Your best bet is to consult the planting guide that comes with the bush when you purchase it. In general, keep the soil around your shrubs moist.

Annuals: In dry weather, water annuals thoroughly once a week. In very hot weather or climates, or if you have sandy soil, you will need to water more frequently. As with roses, try to water in the morning to minimize the time that water will stand on the foliage.

Trees: New trees should be watered every two weeks for the first two years (every week in dry weather). The amount of water varies, but in general give as much water as the ground will hold. Once the leaves drop in the fall you can stop watering, but give one last thorough watering before the ground freezes.

Vegetables: Vegetables are approximately 90% water. Yes, 90%! Obviously veggie gardens require a LOT of water. If you have an hour to spend holding a hose over your vegetable garden, more power to you! An easier alternative is to use a sprinkler. However, this results in a lot of wasted water. The efficient alternative is to purchase a soaker hose or to install a trickle irrigation system. The initial expense in cash and energy in setting up an irrigation system pays itself back over the course of the season when watering your garden is as easy as turning on the faucet.

There are ways to reduce your watering chore. Weeding is one way. Weeds rob the soil and desirable plants of much needed water. Pull weeds as soon as you notice them, while they are still small. Ten minutes of weeding a day is much more appealing than an hour on Saturday afternoon. If you really don’t have ten minutes a day to pull these nasties from your garden (and let’s be honest, who does?) the chore can be trusted to a child as young as five or six once plants are established and can be easily distinguished from weeds.

Blocking the wind is another way to reduce the need for watering. Wind increases the evaporation of water from the ground surface. Therefore, less water penetrates the soil to get to the roots of your plants. You can create a windbreak with a line of fast-growing evergreen trees, a stone wall, or a stockade-type fence.

Another option is to apply mulch to your garden beds. An organic mulch such as shredded bark, compost, sawdust, pine needles, or grass clippings will act like a sponge, holding water close to the ground surface. And as the matter decays, valuable nutrients will be added back to the soil. Carefully consider before choosing to use grass clippings as mulch. Weed seeds from your lawn can be deposited in your garden beds increasing your weeding chore.

Happy Gardening.

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