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Sustainable living tips at the 9th Good Earth Home & Garden Show

EUGENE, Ore. — The country’s first home and garden show dedicated solely to sustainable living returns to the Lane Events Center Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Green living experts from across the Northwest are visiting the 9th annual Good Earth Home, Garden and Living Show to share their collective knowledge on everything from sustainable lawn care to bee-keeping.

A few skilled plant experts will also be in attendance to pass on tips for planting medicinals and growing food in a garden.

The show runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free with a canned food donation going to Food For Lane County.

For more information visit the Good Earth Home, Garden and Living Show website.

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Gardening Column: Tips for pruning

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Snow is falling and the temperature along with it — but homeowners and gardeners everywhere are getting ready for spring. We are poring over seed catalogs and waiting impatiently for nurseries and plant centers to begin stocking their shelves with the paraphernalia that heralds the season.

What gardening tool, plant, or new item is on your wish list in preparation for the 2014 season?

While you wait for spring if you want to begin actual gardening outdoors, snow or no — you can prune some dormant plants. If you do that, use caution. Here are a few examples of things not to do:

•Do not prune spring flowering trees, shrubs and vines until after they bloom. Pruning immediately after bloom gives the shrubs adequate time to initiate new flower buds for next season.

•Do not prune evergreens until late March or mid-April, right before new growth begins. It is best to prune cautiously and request instructions on how to do this properly before going armed with pruning shears and saws, etc.

Here is a huge example of what not to do: A man looked at his junipers and yews, and since they were getting too large for the space allowed, he decided he would cut them down to a couple of feet above ground level so they would grow to a more manageable size. He was shocked that they died! In reality, they were shocked — so much so, they didn’t survive.

It is best to prune judiciously over three seasons and only take off — at the most — a third of the plant each time. (For instructions on how and when to prune anything, contact the Allen County Extension at 481-6826 and ask for Ricky Kemery, horticulture educator — or write me at the email address provided.)

•Do not prune fruit trees in fall or early winter due to possible winter injury. Best time to prune is late February to early April.

•Do not prune grapevines until March or early April. They may bleed heavily, but this is not a problem.

Now, here are a few examples of things to do when the snow melts and we begin having those warmer days when the top few inches of the soil begin to thaw:

•As soon as the topsoil is thawed a bit, turn it if possible. This will turn up pest eggs that are wintering in the upper layer of the soil and allow birds to feed on them; also, if there is another freeze, many of them will be killed.

•As soon as you can see the ground, you can begin cleaning up the garden. You can rake and cut off the dead tops of perennials and add a layer of compost. You can also add spring fertiliz

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A few tips for gardening veggies at home

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Growing vegetables successfully is easier by following a few simple steps:

Extend the harvest

Instead of planting all of a vegetable at the same time, spread out the planting time. For instance, three broccoli plants should yield enough for one person. Plants are typically ready to harvest 60 days after planting, with the harvest continuing for 40 days. This method results in a lot of broccoli in a short period of time.

Example

Set out plants at the beginning of the recommended planting time period, then set a few more plants out in the middle of the planting period and a few more at the end of the planting period. This method of spaced planting results in broccoli harvest season for 85 days, that is, 45 days more than only one planting date.

Selected vegetables

Select vegetables to grow based on your personal and family preferences. Learn the growing requirements for those vegetable plants to be healthy and grow productively. Select an area with suitable sunlight of 6 to 8 hours daily. Know the soil fertility and pH level by testing the soil. Start each crop when the temperature is suitable for planting.

Where to grow vegetables

A vegetable garden may be located at ground level with drainage ditches, ridges, and raised beds — low or up to 30-inch-high structures — or in containers of 1 to 20 gallons. Containers may be located on the ground or placed up on structures for easy access. Use a soilless mix for containers and weeds should not be a problem.

Accessible gardening

If raised beds and containers are 30 inches high, they are convenient for gardeners to stand while tending plants. If the raised beds or containers are lower, gardeners can sit on a stool, kneel on pads or easily bend over to care for the plants.

Soil temperature

Earlier this week in our vegetable garden, the soil at 4 inches deep was 50 degrees at 8 a.m. This temperature permits early planting of asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard, bulb onion, edible pod pea, English pea, radish, spinach and turnip.

• Write to Elmer Krehbiel, c/o Brazos County Office, Texas AM AgriLife Extension Service, 2619 Texas 21 W., Bryan, Texas 77803. Email him at gardening@theeagle.com.

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This week’s gardening tips: spring-flowering bulbs, rose pruning and potato …

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If you purchase pots of spring flowering bulbs in bloom, it is generally best to discard them after they finish flowering. Some exceptions would be amaryllis, paperwhites, daffodils and other narcissi. These can be planted into the garden when the flowers fade. Wait until April to plant amaryllis.

Now is a good time to dig, divide and transplant dormant hardy perennials in your flower gardens. Do not dig and divide any perennials that are in active growth now, such as Louisiana irises, calla lilies, Easter lilies, acanthus and spring flowering bulbs.

Plan to prune your repeat-flowering roses over the next few weeks. This is particularly important for hybrid teas and grandifloras, but it is a good time to prune any roses that need shaping, dead wood removed or size control. This pruning should be done even if your bushes happen to be blooming now. Do not prune once-blooming roses until mid-summer after they finish blooming.

Plant Irish potatoes into the garden now through mid-February. Cut seed potatoes (available at nurseries or feed stores) into pieces about the size of an egg. Make sure each piece includes at least one eye. Allow the cut seed pieces to heal a few days, then plant them into well-prepared beds about 12 inches apart and four inches deep. Harvest generally takes place in May. Red LaSoda (red) and Kennebec (white) are generally the most readily available, and both produce well here.

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Pot Soil Gardening Tips

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SOIL SETTING FOR POT PLANTS

Pot Filling Gardening Tips:

Don’t Use Garden Soil: Even if your garden soil is the best soil, do not use it in your pots. The garden soil is too heavy and dirty with eggs, bacteria, bugs etc which can kill the pot plant. Instead using potting soil which is lightweight, well aerated, sterile, and contains mineral particles like peat, sand. Potting soil doesn’t contain dirt. So, prefer that over garden soil.

Need Not Fill The Pot Completely: If you are using large container pots, you would be amazed to see the big amount of potting soil that will be required. So, it is not necessary to fill the whole container with soil. Most of the plants especially vegetable plants spread roots from 10-12 inches. So, arrange soil levels accordingly.

Drainage: make sure that the pot has proper drainage system. Insert a wick inside the pot or make a small hole so as to allow excess water to drain away from the soil. Too much water can kill the root and the plant will die gradually.

Don’t repeat The Same Soil: Soil depletes and if you think that using the same soil for growing a new plant is a great idea, then perish the thought! Moreover, soil is more prone to attracting bacteria, diseases, weeds, fungal spores etc. you can throw the old potting soil in the garden and use a fresh one for a new sapling.

Flush The Soil: The soil can be coated with salt, dirt and fertilizers. So, once in a month, flush the pot in the sink under smooth flowing water. This clears the top layer of the soil and also washes out accumulated salt, fertilizers and dirt. This helps get healthy and blossoming plants.

Try these tips to fill the pot soil in your indoor garden.

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Gardening with Experts

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By TOM TERRY
Master Gardener

Posted Jan. 22, 2014 @ 9:17 am

SHAWNEE

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Gardening Q & A

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Gardening QA

Butterfly bush will flower up to the first frost, and trimming the faded blooms throughout the summer stimulates new growth and new blooms.

Posted: Monday, January 20, 2014 9:49 am
|

Updated: 4:25 pm, Mon Jan 20, 2014.

Gardening Q A

BY RICHARD NUNNALLY

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Q: I planted a butterfly bush last spring. The plant has done well. Its shape and blooming have been perfect. Now it’s nearly 5 feet tall and I do not know how to take care of it. When and what do I feed it, and when should it be pruned, and how much?

Answer: It sounds like your butterfly bush is doing fine without additional fertilizer. Over the years, I’ve found that if plants are growing well, they will actually wind up growing too fast and we wind up having to cut them way back to maintain the size we want. As long as you’re happy with their growth, I wouldn’t add additional fertilizer. However, if they show signs of stress or poor performance, a complete fertilizer such as 5-10-10 or 5-10-5 would give them the nutrients they need to maintain vegetative growth and produce the blooms that attract butterflies.

Speaking of those blooms, they are key to determining when and how to prune your bush. As soon as the blooms begin to fade, pinch or clip them off. At the base of that old bloom will be new vegetative buds that will produce new leaves and more blooms. By continuing this process all summer, you’ll have a thick canopy and a continuous flow of fresh new blooms right up until fall.

Right now is a good time to look at the structure of the bush since it has lost its leaves for winter. You can thin out branches that are too close together, remove any really spindly branches and head back the end of each remaining branch. This will result in a sturdy frame to support the new growth that will begin once the plant breaks dormancy in the spring.

Q: Can you recommend a fast growing native shrub that keeps its green leaves in winter? Also, when is the best time to plant it?

Answer: I’m a real proponent of planting in the fall. Unfortunately, you’ve missed that window of opportunity for this year. My next favorite time for planting is late February or early March. By then we should be past the worst of winter and have good moisture in the ground. Planting that early in the spring allows plenty of time for your plants to get acclimated to their new site before having to go through a hot dry summer.

As for a good native evergreen, I really like bayberry or wax myrtle. Both make good screens, have little or no insect or disease problems and grow relatively fast. Bayberry is more of a northern species and wax myrtle is more commonly found in the South. Both grow very well in central Virginia and most good garden centers will have them.

Q: I have 10 evergreens in my backyard. This fall one of them died and the one closest to it is showing signs of dying. Any insight you can provide will be helpful.

Answer: I’m afraid your evergreens have been infested by bagworms. In the photo, you’ll see small brown bags hanging from many of the dead branches. Many of these bags contain eggs that will hatch out as tiny larvae or worms in mid to late April. Those larvae will begin to feed and immediately start building a new bag around them for protection. The bags are made from the needles of your evergreen, so they will remain green and be basically invisible until late June. At that time they will be an inch or so long and starting to turn brown. Unfortunately, by the time you see them, they are too mature for most insecticides to control.

My advice is to get rid of the dead evergreen, which will also remove any of the remaining bags that might contain eggs. As time allows this winter, hand remove any of the bags you can see on the adjacent plants. While you may not be able to remove them all, any that you can pick off will reduce the number of eggs left to hatch in the spring. The final step would be to treat them with an insecticide in late May or early June to control the new generation. Again, they will be small and hard to see, but relatively easy to control as immature larvae. Waiting too long will only result in damage to more of these plants. The folks at your favorite garden center will be able to recommend an insecticide that will control the bagworms.

It’s time to…

Sign up for some gardening classes. The horticulture staffs at Maymont and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden will offer a variety of classes during the next few months to help get your creative juices flowing. You can also contact your local office of the Virginia Cooperative Extension for a schedule of the classes they offer.

Richard Nunnally is a freelance writer and adjunct instructor in Horticulture at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. Contact: tdgarden@verizon.net.

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Conservatory class: tops tips for growing plants inside

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“I have been combing through the RHS trials at Wisley,” says Sarah, “and I’ll
be using some of the winners of AGM awards, and growing those for the public
to see. Particularly with common plants, such as basil or courgette, I think
it is important for people to see which varieties stand up well to the
climate, or have disease-resistance built into them.”

For gardeners without the luxury of a heated greenhouse, she says, there are
other good options for winter displays under glass.

“Many succulents are cold-tolerant, as long as they do not get too wet – ideal
for growing in unheated glasshouses. There are plenty, for example, that are
hardy down to five degrees. Some primulas can be good, too, for a really
attractive winter display.

“Veg-wise, there are lots of salads, herbs and small vegetables that are
cold-tolerant: coriander, winter hardy lettuce, corn salad. You just need to
make sure that you have the growing requirements for your variety – easily
found on the internet now – and you’re off.”

Of course, Sarah’s preparations are affected by the weather. “We haven’t had a
cold winter so far, but there has been plenty of rain. In December we had
eight inches, when we usually have four. If there is more rain and it stays
reasonably warm, then I would worry that it could be good for diseases.
Especially if your drainage is poor, root rot and things like that can set
in.”

Another gardener keen on staying indoors at this time of year is Tom Hart
Dyke, who has thousands of plants under cover at Lullingstone Castle, in
Kent. He says that winter is the ideal time to bring in some unusual plants
for display in their pots, rather than just as cut flowers.

^{Cacti and other succulents grow under cover at Lullingstone Castle}

“When nothing’s going on outside, I like to show things off indoors,” says
Hart Dyke “They stay for a couple of days, or up to a few weeks.

“They can dramatically add to a room. It could be succulents, or some of the
cyclamen are superb at the moment, especially alongside some of the really
early-flowering hyacinths. And if you can find plants with great scent, that
livens up an indoor display no end.”

At this time of year, foliage is key, he adds. “Our blue butterfly bush,
Clerodendrum myricoides ‘Ugandense’, from east Africa, is awesome, as is
Plectranthus Mona Lavender. This plant was developed at the Kirstenbosch
Botanical Gardens in South Africa. It has gloriously deep, rich purple-red
tones to the underside of the leaves, and long-lasting flower spikes.

“Meanwhile Helleborus lividus, from Majorca, has amazing mottled foliage. You
have to be careful with temperature. They last much longer if they’re kept
at around 10C. It’s not a problem at my house, which is freezing, but be
careful with the central heating.”

Alongside these, he suggests a few cut sprigs. “Witch hazel has a delicious
scent, with spidery yellow flowers on naked stems. Sweet box (Sarcococca)
has a great scent and lovely glossy lanceolate leaves. Finally there is good
old Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’.”

In terms of caring for plants growing under glass, Hart Dyke says ventilation
is more important than watering. At Lullingstone, Hart Dyke’s World Garden
contains more than 8,000 species from all over the world, with many grown
under cover.

“Even if you just have a couple of cheap fans whirring away, it can help
reduce mould and other diseases. I’m also clearing dropped leaves and
finished flowers, cleaning the cutters, keeping things tidy and hygienic.
They are simple tasks, but easily forgotten. I’m not pruning too hard,
though, because you get mould.”

In short, whether you are looking for an indoor display or simply to keep your
plants going through the winter, there is plenty to be getting on with.

If you have any time left over, perhaps you could pray for the rain to stop.

West Dean Gardens is open from February 1 (01243 811301; West
Dean). Lullingstone Castle the World Garden is open from April
(01322 862114; Lullingstone
Castle).

READ: Britain’s best conservatories to visit

READ: Conservatories: a buyer’s guide

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Woman Missing in Garden Ridge – Police Seek Tips from the Public

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(Garden Ridge, TX) — Garden Ridge Police are trying to find a woman who vanished after leaving a relatives house late last week.

Investigators say Leanne Bearden left her in-law’s house last Friday, saying she was going for a walk.

But the 33-year old woman hasn’t been seen since, and now authorities are hoping the public can give them information on her whereabouts.

Bearden is a white female standing 5-foot 2-inches tall, weighing about 100 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts should call the Comal County Sheriff’s Office at 830-620-3400 or call Crimestoppers anonymously at 830-620-TIPS.

*Photos from websleuths.com

Tips from Toby: Home, lawn & garden essentials

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Toby Tobin has spent the past 30 years fielding questions about the home, lawn and garden. Now he’s put together some tips for each month of the year. Here are some great tips for January. Many you can do while you’re just walking around the house and others just take a matter of minutes but they’ll make a big difference at your home.

Let’s talk about your windows. That’s where so many of the cold drafts come in our homes. Make sure the windows are closed and latched properly. Fix any windows that are misaligned. Also if you have storm windows, close them. Just these three simple steps can make it a lot more comfortable and save you almost 15% on your heating Bill.

Turn down your thermostat just one degree. This easy tip won’t change your comfort level much but will save you another 5 percent on your heating bill. Be sure to change your furnace filter. Check it for a bunch of build up and replace it regularly. A dirty filter makes your furnace run less efficiently and can even shut the whole system down.

Check out my favorite seed catalogue companies online. This is the time to start planning your spring herbs, veggies and more. You can even grow some of your favorites in patio containers. Growing your own food is much more delicious and saves some cash on your grocery bill.

Call our friends at Anthony Plumbing, Heating and Cooling and schedule a water heater flush. This simple step of getting a tune up and draining out sediment build up can extend the life of your water heater by up to two years. Plus if you’re water heater is gas it’s a good time to make sure there are no leaks.

For the outside of the house, pick up those piles of leaves that have blown up close to your foundation. This is a great place for critters to hide and get in your home. Plus they’re a fire hazard. Also if any of your ivy or plants have attached themselves to your home, this is a great time to pull them down now while they are dormant and easier to pull away.

We’re all busy but if you keep up on my easy tips each month you won’t believe how much you can save!

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Sustainable living tips at the 9th Good Earth Home & Garden Show

Gardening Column: Tips for pruning

A few tips for gardening veggies at home

This week’s gardening tips: spring-flowering bulbs, rose pruning and potato …

Pot Soil Gardening Tips

Gardening with Experts

Gardening Q & A

Gardening QA

Conservatory class: tops tips for growing plants inside

Woman Missing in Garden Ridge – Police Seek Tips from the Public

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